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( silence on the beach )
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FOUR DAYS HAD PASSED SINCE NETEYAM AND SU'LEIO HAD EXCHANGED BRUISES ON THE OTHER'S CHEEK. To say the girl was stubborn would be the definition of an understatement. If Neteyam would look in her direction she would either return the eye contact with a sharp glare or not at all and turn her head. If he were to make an attempt at approaching her she would walk in the opposite direction.
She had not mistaken the disappointed expressions or the dejected sighs, but she needed to follow her father's orders. She just wished she had been forbidden from having to see Aonung as well.
"Aonung, if you keep speaking like this, I am going to hit you in the face," Su'leio groaned at the slightly younger boy.
For the moment, Leio had finally asked Aonung what exactly had transpired four days ago while he had been getting ready to go out to the reef with his friends and she followed. She knew she should have asked sooner but the frustration had been fresh on her mind and she had needed time to think about what it was that she wanted at the end of the day.
"You are next to be Olo'eyktan, you cannot be discriminating against other Na'vi because of how they look," she scolded while hitting him on the side of his head.
Aonung became defensive, "they are not even true Na'vi, Leio. They are four-fingered freaks with demon blood!"
She rolled her eyes at his childish antics. "Their father is Toruk Makto, a greatly respected war leader, and you still act this way because they do not look like us?" she scoffed, "you were the cause of the fight."
"Lo'ak was the one who hit me first," he justified.
"But you provoked him." She jabbed a finger at his chest standing in front of him and causing him to stop walking. "Calling someone's family freaks is the key to getting them to go after you. You are not the victim and not owning up to your actions makes you a coward."
Su'leio had only been slightly older than Aonung by one year and their height difference showed it as Leio made sure she had been the one to look down on him by a few inches. She knew he would never listen to his sister or Rotxo if they told him what she had, he had never cared to listen to the two, but Su'leio intimidated him in a way he wouldn't dare admit.
She held herself with her chin held high and eyes daring anyone to utter a word against her. The markings of a warrior graced her skin at her torso and thighs, and soon more would be added. Her stance against most people would deem there a diluted power balance and it just so happened to be present as she stood angered with Aonung.
Aonung had rolled his eyes at her. He had already made his argument and he was sticking to it.
"Just-" she put a dismissive hand up to him, "just go to your friends, Aonung. But if you do anything else to them I am going to your father, I don't care if we're friends. They are learning our ways because they needed to be safe, they are living with us because they needed a new home, they are going to be Metkayina."
Aonung glared at her as she spoke her truths—picking outsiders that had barely been there for a month over a lifelong friendship. Su'leio knew he had probably felt betrayed beneath the harsh exterior he fronted, but she would not allow her friend to harass and humiliate anyone. Outsider or not.
SU'LEIO HAD GROWN TO BE CONFLICTED ON HER APPROACH TO MAKING AMENDS WITH NETEYAM. Some petty part within herself had still been mildly upset with him for being the cause of the purple splotches that stained her cheekbone, but back then she hadn't known the reason for the fight, she had just wanted it to be over with.
She had been sitting in the sand, the view of Three Brothers Rocks set in the distance as she mindlessly covered her legs in the warm sand while the moon began to peek in front of the sun.
Neteyam could see her from his Mauri pod. He knew it was her by the way her hair gracefully cascaded down her back and the poor posture she often had without knowing. He so greatly wanted to approach her—to apologize, to be friends again, to laugh with her once more. Though he hadn't known her for more than a month, he knew there had to be a few complicated genes lying beneath her skin.
Su'leio could feel like she was being watched. It was part of the training of young warriors to be aware of their surroundings at all times, to let themselves feel if a presence wished to deny their attention.
She turned her head to her left and in the corner of her eye, she spotted a deep blue figure. Leio could have only guessed it to be the boy on her mind, and as if her thoughts had manifested into reality, her guess had been right.
Their eye contact was brief, she couldn't hold it while knowing how immaturely she had been acting toward him.
Allowing her attention to fleet Neteyam to lead her senses anywhere but him, she found her ears twitching at the sound of splashing water and laughing. Leio turned her head only to roll her eyes at the sight of Aonung and his friends laughing with each other.
"That freak won't make it to morning," one said.
"He'll be lucky if he makes it to eclipse!" another laughed.
Freak. Su'leio stood from the sand at the name, the memory of Aonung calling Toruk Makto's family freaks only hours earlier had flooded her mind.
As the boy's friends passed Leio while continuing to laugh, Aonung approached her, a solemn expression on his face as he didn't dare look her in the eyes.
"What did you do?" she questioned in a serious and steady tone that could have only made his ears lower in unease. When he didn't respond, this only made the girl grow more agitated with jitters beginning to rise in her chest. "Aonung, what did you do?" Leio repeated only her voice had gotten slightly higher her head lowered, and she braced her hands on his shoulders so she was somewhat in his eye-line.
He opened his mouth hesitantly but eventually, he said, "we... we took Lo'ak outside of the reef." Su'leio's heart had fallen from her chest and to her knees but still, Aonung held back the whole truth. "And we left him," the boy finally said and when his eyes met hers there had only been a look of panic he had never seen within the mauve irises as a gasp fell past her lips.
The girl's head quickly turned in the direction she had seen Neteyam and just as she knew he would, he was still watching her. Yet, upon watching the way her eyes pooled with panic, this had been the kind of eye contact to be dreaded.
