chapter fourteen
It's been a month since he's woken up but it's all been far different than expected. He has nightmares every time he sleeps, he keeps talking about how someone is coming to get him. every once in a while he forgets that he's ever come to our village, he forgets me.
"No, no!" Here we go. Jake and I laid him down an hour ago and it was my turn to take watch outside the Mauri. I'm always here but I get to sleep when someone takes over watch.
He came back to life so if he really knows that someone is coming for him than we can't let our guard down. He was nearly taken by the Sky people, they wanted to take him for something so he is kinda right but he says it's not just sky people. It's one of us.
Jake had Neteyam's hands held down when I got there. "Hey, hey it's okay, your okay!" I grabbed a bowl of water, trying to calm him down.
"No, no she's almost here. She's so close!" Jake and I made eye contact, she? Almost? We both knew if it wasn't on a loop and it progressed then it was real. "Okay, okay tell me what she looks like, yeah?" Jake unlatched Neteyam's hands and I helped him sit up. My hand on his chest to sooth him.
"Her skin isn't like yours or ours," he looked to me then Jake. "Her skin is a dark, dark blue. And her eyes, their eyes are red, a bl-bloody red." I sat behind him, soothing his shoulders but he still looked panicked.
"Son, look at me." Jake grabbed Neteyam's hands and made him look into his eyes. "Whatever it is we will make it through. We have made it through worse than whatever and whoever this is." Neteyam nodded slowly before continuing explaining what he knows.
"There on ships with the sky people and——he's with them." Jake went to Neteyam's side, encouraging him to continue. "Quaritch. He's with them, and he has a mission. I don't know what it is but he—I think he's out to get me." My heart nearly dropped. First they kill him and now they wanna do it again?
"We won't let him." I moved from behind to in-front of him and grabbed his hands, my free hand caressing his cheek. "He won't get an inch near you." I wrapped him into my arms and with one look Jake and I knew we had to take all the precautions there were.
•••
We left Kiri and Tuk with a startled Neteyam so we could figure out a plan.
"Who is she!" Neytiri hissed, pacing back and forth with her anger rising.
Jake reached for Neytiri "Mawey oeyä yawntu." Trying to get her to breathe and calm down.
"I cannot be calm! Our son died in our arms and now we have him back by some miracle. Quaritch is alive, somehow and he's coming for our son that we just got back!" Jake stood and hugged Neytiri, rubbing her back slowly. She put her hand to her forehead and let the tears fall.
"Six people will be armed and guarding Neteyams Mauri. If he wants to leave his Mauri then at least three people have to be by his side. We also much make sure that there are people guarding every edge of this island at every time of the day." I looked to Nikü and sunwì and motioned for them to gather some people for the island watch.
"I want you all to leave. My people will be endangered and I will not allow that." Mother was scared, when the Sully's arrived it all went down hill after a few months. She lost her spirit sister and Tsireya wasn't the same afterwards. Never has been. Some villages were destroyed and many Tulkun died. She doesn't wanna go back to that and neither do I but Neteyam isn't even stable enough to leave him Mauri.
"You think I wanna stay here!" The silence my mothers words left were filled soon after. "I miss my people, my mother, my home but my son is not even capable of getting two hours of sleep, nor to leave the Mauri. I assure you," she walked closer to mother, bearing her teeth. "If I could I would leave, but, I can't." Mother felt insulted by her words but she understood.
"Then we must take many more precautions. They'll strike us all." With that we got to work on preparing for what seemed to be a war on its way.
