Tsaheylu

The Twin's Birthday Pt.2

After breakfast, Tonowari took Neteyam, Tsireya, Aonung and I down to the Skimwing bay and talked the twins through choosing and bonding with their Skimwings. Neteyam and I had come far in our training in the past 3 weeks; Neteyam was now able to glide across the water properly, though it had taken him some time. As for myself, I had almost gotten the hang of it all completely.

There were a few things I was still figuring out, like how Na'koin and I worked best as a pair and some of the finer details and techniques I needed to master before it was safe for her and I to progress outside of the village with one another.

Tsireya and Aonung both took a little while before they were able to make it a few metres out of the bay, not expecting the speed at which the Skimwing could move. It was funny to see them so shocked as they fell off the backs of their Skimwing, but it only drove them to try harder and get better with time. Aonung seemed to pick it up a little quicker than Tsireya, it only taking him a few tries before he was able to move further out into the water where Neteyam and I had been watching. For Tsireya it seemed to come a little harder and before long she was becoming frustrated.

"Reya, take a deep breath. It isn't easy, we know. But you're in control of how fast you go." I shout to her, stroking Na'koin's head gently. She furrows her brows in frustration and wraps her hand up a little tighter, her knuckles going white from how tight she was gripping at it. "Hold your stomach muscles, and use your legs to anchor yourself. I find it's easier to stand up a little, it gives me more of a strong stance to keep my balance." I continue, gently standing up to show her how I rode Na'koin. She nods her head and adjusts herself, holding onto the saddle as well as the wrap as she asked her Skimwing to move.

The two of them wobbled as they dove forward, this time a few paces slower than they had the previous times. Reya's face contorts as she focuses on the task at hand, trying not to smile as the pair got out further then they had before. They seem to get an understanding of one another, and with a blink of an eye the wobbling stopped. They were gliding across the water slowly, completely in sync and you could see the pride on their faces.

However, Tsireya gets a little ahead of herself, making them dive down into the water. We all hold our breaths as we watch them, only to see Tsireya fly off the back and re-emerge to the surface a few seconds later. I was prepared to hear her shouts of anger and frustration, but she only laughed wildly. "Did you see that!" She cries out, clutching her stomach as she swam to keep herself above the water.

I laugh despite myself, shaking my head as I tell Na'koin to head towards her. We stop beside the girl and help her onto Na'koin's back, laughing at how amused she was at what she had just done. "Hold on," I tell her, putting my spare arm around her as she held onto me tightly. We move slowly back to the shore line, seeing Tsireya's Skimwing swimming circles around Tonowari in what appeared to be pride too.

We jump off and swim to the shore, Tsireya still giggling at her fail, though I was happier that she wasn't screaming and having a fit about it. Sometimes she forgot that she had been swimming and at one with the reef since she was a baby, so when she encountered something she wasn't used to and wasn't immediately good at it she would get in a right mood about it. Perhaps it was the fact that it was her birthday, or that she genuinely was proud of what she had already accomplished, but her being in a happy mood despite the hour it took her to finally get the brief hang of gliding across the water was a relief.

"I think I am done for today. Let's leave it on a high," She says, shocking us all with her maturity. Before now she would have refused to leave until she got it mastered. But I think her seeing the fact that Neteyam and I still hadn't gotten the hang of things showed her that this wasn't something she could do in a day alone. "I think that's a great idea. Besides, we've got other things to do!" I say, putting my arm around her shoulder as we watched Neteyam and Aonung head in our direction.