Two ghosts - Lo'ak

Chapter 10

Pandora Reef
Metkayina Clan

Li'teya found Ao'nung sitting on the shoreline, his feet barely touching the water. She slowly made her way towards him with her hands behind her back. She saw a dark purple bruise forming around his eye, similar to hers. She felt a small amount of pride, knowing she had caused it.

"Never thought I'd see the day when Ao'nung isn't surrounded by his stupid friends", she mused.

Ao'nung looked up at the sound of her voice, and a slight panic set in. "You come to punch me again?"

"Not unless you give me a good reason", she teased. "Can I sit?"

Ao'nung just nodded, patting the sand next to him. Li'teya sat down on the sand, bringing her knees to her chest. "I'm sorry for punching you, kicking you, slapping you ..."

"Are you getting to the apology yet?" he asked, a genuine smile on his face.

"Right; I am sorry that you are an asshole and hate my entire family."

"Im going to guess you are being forced to apologise?" Ao'nung asked, nudging her arm.

"Yep", she said, popping the p. "The only reason I'm here is that I can't give my dad and Mr Sully another reason to be disappointed in me", she sniffled, placing her chin on her knees.

"Well, I'm happy you're here," Ao'nung murmured.

Li'teya let a little laugh, a light blush dusting across her cheeks, not expecting him to say that. "Oh, yea?"

"When you aren't being a ruthless warrior, you're alright to be around," Ao'nung remarked, his eyes never leaving her.

"I am pretty amazing."

"I wouldn't go that far" The two broke into laughter as old friends would. Maybe Ao'nung wasn't so bad.

The pair sat and talked about anything and everything for hours.

"no, no, no, you don't understand. It's not stupid and extremely impressive," Li'teya boasted.

"Shooting a bow and arrow with your feet is not impressive", Ao'nung argued, trying to hold back his laughter.

"As you could do it, I bet you can't even use a bow", she returned, staring down the boy.

"I can't", he admitted. "We have no use for arrows here, only spears for fishing".

"Holy shit, wait here."

Li'teya sprinted across the beach to her tent, she ran inside to grab her bow and arrow, but she stopped in her tracks when she saw her father bent over the fireplace sharpening his knife.

"Sir", she greeted, standing tall with her hands behind her back.

"Why are you out of breath?"

"I am just picking up my bow and arrow for training, sir."

"At ease," he said, allowing her to grab her bow.

"What happened to your face?" Li'teya could hear the genuine worry in his voice.

Li'teya knew telling the truth would result in another lecture, but if she lied, he would eventually find out and lecture her. "I got into a fight with some of those Metkayina boys for picking on Kiri."

Freddie's expression was unreadable, "What did the other guys look like?" Not the response she was expecting

"Worse, most of them have black eyes and a lot of bruises."

"That's good", he praised with a smirk

"A lot worse", she continued.

Freddie smiled at his daughter. "You're dismissed. Get out of here, kid."