Ma Neteyam

12

Neteyam payed close attention to Tsieryas hands, catching every bend of her fingers and turn of her palm to ensure he's doing it correctly.

" Very good, your catching on quickly." she smiled gently, speaking softly towards all of his siblings.

Lo'ak smirked proudly, as if she hadn't directed the comment to all of them but instead only him. They all shared amused glances as a wave crashed into the rock the group sat upon, and a soft splash of the cool water sprinkled against Neteyams skin.

It's been two days since he last saw her and since their interesting training session. Tonight is their next meeting. Not wanting to take chances at the cove, they're going to the private beach again. He was told that it's illuminated enough that they could train with no problem, but he could never be too careful around Vareya. He's learned plenty that she always has something else in mind.

Everything else has been going smoothly so far. His father has gotten busy again with his own training led by Chief Tonowari, which he's hoping he'd stay focused on so the next few days of Neteyams own sneaking off to training could go smoothly.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Tuk sitting partly behind him, silently struggling on her own with the last signs Tsireya had shown them.

" Tuk," he said lowly, not wanting to embarrass her by calling her name loudly and bringing the attention of the group on her. Gently grabbing her hands, he folded two of her fingers down and showed her the movements, " Small circle, three fingers down, then wave your hand."

Concentrated, she did as he said very slowly. But Neteyam watched as his youngest sister forgot to put her fingers down, making the message not make any sense. " I'm still not doing it right." she told him sadly.

Tuk seemed to be struggling with this the most, and as the youngest of the group, he concluded she was embarrassed to ask for extra help and be the reason everyone is slowed down. While he was catching on to this quickly, a person from the Metkayina clan who grew up with this language would be a much better and faster teacher than he would ever be to her. And he knew exactly who to ask.

Neteyam stood, walking to where Tsireya leaned against a tree where she was talking to Kiri.

" Tsireya," he spoke, " I wanted to ask you something."

With a gentle smile, she bowed her head slightly, urging him to go on. Kiri tilted her head, curious as she also waited for him to speak.

" I ran into a girl the other day, her name is Móna. She offered to help us with lessons if we were to ever need it and I thought it'd be okay to ask her to join us. It would be better and easier to have another teacher around, wouldn't you think?"

Tsierya went to speak but two hands were suddenly placed on Neteyams shoulders, roughly shaking him, and an annoying laugh vibrated in his ear as Lo'ak spoke loudly.

" What's this? Has my brother met a girl already? Is that who've you've been sneaking off to see, Móna." he said her name in a squeaky voice to tease him, and Neteyam easily and effortlessly pushed his brother away from him. Lo'ak stumbled back a few steps but didn't seem to mind since he was too busy laughing and making kissing noises.

" Immature skxawng." he hissed at his brother before turning back to see Tsireya trying to hide her giggle with her hand, and Kiri smirking at him. " You guys are ridiculous, we met once when she dropped a basket of fish. It's a favor for a favor type deal. It just popped into my head randomly and I figured it would be helpful... for all of us."

Neteyam spared a glance back at Tuk, hunched over and turned away from the group. Although none of them could tell, he knew what she was doing. She was trying to learn on her own. Fine. He could take the teasing, better him than his sister.