Moonchild | Neteyam

52

CHAPTER 52

After the explosion sounded, the ship sunk in no time at all. The girls left on the rocks had no idea what was going on; just that no one had returned yet. They tried to keep their minds elsewhere but anything they said or did was a futile attempt at ignorance. Nothing worked.

So, given up on trying to ignore the situation, Erìhe turned to the Tsahik and asked: "When do you believe he will wake up?" She questioned, motioning toward Neteyam who lay between them, still as ever.

By now everyone in the group had sat down on the rocks as they figured they could possibly be there for quite a while. Tsireya sat next to her mother, looking down at her own hands sadly while Ronal drew gentle, comforting circles on her shoulder. Riik'o and Níawi were sat beside Erìhe, all three of them huddled close together for comfort while Aluva sat by Ronal's other side.

"If he wakes up," Aluva whispered to herself, blankly staring ahead. Everyone heard her and Erìhe turned to glare at her.

The Tsahik fixed Aluva with a cold look, wordlessly scolding her for saying such unhopeful things and embedding those thoughts into everyone else. "He will wake up," she said sternly, "But I do not know when. He has lost a lot of blood; he could wake up tomorrow or next week," her eyes turned to Erìhe as she spoke.

The girl worried her bottom lip with her teeth as her eyes turned back to Neteyam. He looked as though he were simply sleeping. All the muscles in his face were relaxed - he wasn't grimacing from pain or hyperventilating. By looking at his face it was hard to tell that he'd been shot.

"He'll be fine, Erìhe," Níawi assured her and placed a hand on her shoulder. Erìhe turned her head toward her and gave her a tight lipped smile, nodding her head softly.

Seeing as they were no longer ignoring what was going on around them, Tsireya spoke up next: "Will they be alright? When will Lo'ak get back?" She asked tearfully. Erìhe knew Tsireya to have a big heart and today that really showed, it seemed she was crying for everyone.

Despite everything, Erìhe found herself grinning at Tsireya. "Lo'ak will be just fine, we used to do dangerous things all the time back in the forest and he's always lived."

Tsireya looked up at Erìhe, "Dangerous things like what?" She inquired, sudden,y very curious to hear more.

And Erìhe began telling stories about their time back home. She told nerve wracking war stories, times when they'd gone hunting and others of their dumb adventures. She had to admit, remembering back and repeating all of these stories was making her realise just how hectic and dangerous their life had been back then. She did not miss the constant anxiety and danger at all, and it greatly saddened her to think that their life could now return to what it once was.

"-and he tumbled right off the ledge," Erìhe finished telling the story of Lo'ak's failed iknimaya. She had been there to see the ordeal, so whereas she nonchalantly recounted the incident, the other three girls and Tsahik listened alertly with their eyes blown wide.

"I can't believe his mother didn't intervene already when the ikran bit his leg!" Riik'o said in horror as Tsireya and Aluva nodded in agreement but Níawi seemed highly entertained by the story.

Erìhe waved them off, "The danger is a part of it," she shrugged, "If it weren't dangerous, anyone could become a warrior."

"Did you fail?" Aluva asked curiously, to which Erìhe scoffed and replied lightly: "I passed my first try."

"Of course you did!" Níawi squealed and clapped Erìhe's back in excitement. "And what about Neteyam?" She asked after briefly glancing at the boy.

"He passed on his first try too. And way before me," Erìhe admitted, a small smile ghosting over her lips. At the time she'd been overcome by jealousy but now it was just funny to her how she'd gotten so upset over his achievement. "He was the youngest person in the clan to undergo iknimaya and become a warrior."