After the trees, the seas | Neteyam

Chapter 7

I spent the next day with Kiri. We were on the edge of the the water, Kiri was looking at something in the water, maybe seashells. I was sitting next to her, as the water was not deep, my knees brought back to my chest as I was looking at the horizon. I was still thinking about what Lo'ak told me yesterday about me and Neteyam, he really had succeed to mess up my mind. Then I heard multiple people approaching behind us. I turned around to see Aonung and his friends. He had a mocking smile on his face, seemed like he wasn't there to be friendly.

"Is she some kind of freak?" he asked me, talking about Kiri. All of his friends laughed at his stupid remark. I rolled my eyes and got up, putting my hand on Kiri's back to tell her to get up. She got her head off the water and looked at me, and then noticed the other boys. "What?" she asked innocently. "Nothing, come on, let's just leave" I told her as we started to walk away. "He asked if you were a freak" one of Aonung's friend added, addressing to Kiri. "No.." Kiri said as we continued walking away. "Are you sure" Aonung asked her again as his group of stupid friends circled us.

"You are not even a real Na'vi, look at your hand" he said as he was about to grab her hand. I pushed him away and hissed at him. He looked at me with impressed eyes, probably didn't intend me to react that much. "Don't touch her!" I yelled at him. His friend laughed. "Why would you protect a demon?" he asked as his stupid group of friend laughed. "Don't call her that dickhead" He was about to protest when Lo'ak arrived.

"Hey!" Lo'ak shouted. "Back off fish lips!" he said to Anoung as he approached him and pushed him a little. "Another five fingered freak" he said smiling mockingly at him. "Aw, look at that baby tail" an other one of them said as he grabbed Lo'ak's tail. Lo'ak turned and pushed him, but they were all on him. I advanced and pushed Aonung as strong as I could. "Leave us alone!" I shouted. Then Neteyam appeared. He had a harsh look on his face. He shoved Aonung back abruptly and stood in front of me and Lo'ak. "You heard what she said" he said to him in a low but warning tone. "Leave them alone" he continued as he put a single finger at his chest. His friend behind him was about to protest but Aonung quickly cut him out. "Back off, now" Neteyam said firmly, looking at Aonung straight in the eyes.

The boy then raised his two hands in the air and started to back off. "Smart choice. And from now on, I need you to respect my sister" he said addressing to them all. Aonung gave a quick look at Kiri and then his gaze came to settle on me. I gave him what was closest to a middle finger while giving him a mocking smile. He slightly rolled his eyes at me, then Neteyam turned around "Let's go". He came to me and gently slapped my hand down "stop that" he said as he turned me around and led me forward, along with Lo'ak and Kiri.

As we were walking away, we heard them still talking shit about us. "They're all freaks, the whole family" Then they all laughed. "They're assholes" I said to Neteyam. "I know" he simply replied. Then Lo'ak stopped for a moment and turned around. "Lo'ak" Neteyam warned him, but he was already walking towards the group of fish. "I got this bro" he said. I looked at Neteyam, he wasn't convinced that his brother was handling the situation. Me, Kiri and Neteyam turned around and looked at what he was about to do. Aonung turned to him, with a big smile covering his lips. "I know this hand is funny, look" he said to the boy. "I'm a freak, alien" he added. What is he playing at? "But I can do something really cool with it, watch"

Oh, I see where this is going. "First, I ball this up real thigh like this, see? And then.." he didn't finish as he threw his fist directly at Aonung's face, not one, not two, but three times. After Lo'ak's third punch, Aonung fell on the sand. "It's call a punch bitch! Don't ever touch my sister again!" I couldn't help but laugh. I had to admit that he did good on that one.

But of course, Aonung got up, hissed and jumped on Lo'ak, projecting him on the ground. They started to fight, but some of Aonung's friends joined the fight and they were four on him. Neteyam started to scratch his head and sighed. He then looked at me with a small smile and went to help his brother. I rolled my eyes but couldn't hold a smile. He punched one of the Metkayina on the face as he stumbled on the ground. He then shoved his knee into another one's stomach. He then got jumped on by another boy as they both crashed on the ground.

"Stop it, it's stupid" said Kiri. I had to agree with her, they were acting like children. Meanwhile, Lo'ak was being pulled by the tail while he was, himself pulling Aonung's ear. I sighed loudly. "I think I need to stop this" I said as I walked toward them all. I pushed the one that was pulling Lo'ak's tail. "Stop it!" I said but he weren't moving or listening to me. "Stop fighting you bunch of skxawngs!" I tried again but failed as I tried to intervene. My patience has limits. "I SAID ENOUGH" I screamed at them. They all let go of each other as every single pair of eyes went to settle on me. Lo'ak and Neteyam looked even more shocked as I rarely reacted this much. I looked at them with my killer eyes. They all got up and looked at me, they were all bruised. I was actually surprised of how much they respected me. Probably because I had four fingers, like Neteyam. That's so stupid. I was about to talk but adults showed up. We were all in so much trouble.

Neteyam, Lo'ak and I then walked into the hut. Jake was furious. "What was the one thing I asked?" he said as he hissed at his two sons. "The one thing?" he said, raising his voice. "Stay out of trouble.."Lo'ak started. "Stay out of trouble! Right!" Jake continued firmly. Neteyam then took a step forward "It's my fault.." he started but Jake cut him off. "I don't think so, you gotta stop taking the heat for this knucklehead". "Jake, Aonung was making fun of Kiri, he called her a freak" I said to him in a calm voice. He looked at me and looked down. He sighed. "Go apologize to Aonung" Jake asked Lo'ak. We all looked at him, disbelieved of him asking that. "What?" asked Lo'ak. "He's the chief's son, do you understand?" Jake said. "I don't care how you do it, just go make peace. Go!" he said to his younger son. As Lo'ak left, I put my hand on his shoulder, to show him my compassion. When he was gone, I saw that Jake had nothing to add so I left the hut, Neteyam followed me. Before we could leave, Jake stopped us. "Hey" he said. "What did the other guys look like?" he asked. "Worse" Neteyam answered. "That's good" I actually had to look at him to made sure he really did just say that. "A lot worse" Neteyam added as he smiled. "Get outta here" I chuckled as I left, followed close by Neteyam. I turned to him as I continued walking " I can't believe he asked that" I said as he laughed.

We walked to the edge of the net and both sat. I looked at him and frowned. "Wait for me" I said as I stood up and went on the hut. I grabbed a piece of cloth and returned to Neteyam. I dipped the cloth in water and sat back by his side. He looked at me and smiled. He then turned his body to face me "Is it that bad?" he asked. I smiled "no" I replied as I intended to direct the fabric to his lip. "It's gonna sting a little" I said as I carefully pressed the cloth against his bottom lip. He flinched his head back a little from the pain as he let out a small growl. "Sorry" I said smiling as I removed the blood trying to be gentle. Meanwhile, he kept looking at me, which made my cheeks turned red. "Alright, now give me your hand" I asked softly.

I took his right hand in mine, there was much more blood on his hand. Most of the blood weren't his. I removed it gently with the cloth. "You really gave it all" I said to him laughing. "Hate to admit it, but they deserved it" he said to me. "Yeah, they did". "You almost scared me when you screamed for us to stop fighting" he said looking at me, giggling. I bursted out laughing. "I had to, none of you skxawngs were listening to me" I said to him. He laughed even more.