Through The Valley • Ao'nung

Chapter 26

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That evening, At'anau avoided the majority of her brother's glances as she tried to act as normal as possible, answering the questions when asked what her day had looked like.

Kiri had to have been pulled out of the ocean, as she would sleep in it if possible. The smallest had already fallen into a slumber next to her mother, and Lo'ak would only gossip with his sister about the people he could and couldn't stand. At'anau dropped a mention of the boy that taught her that day and seemed less hostile than they had been anticipating.

The girl wanted to tell Lo'ak about her adventures, ask him to come along with her to seek her Ikran, but was too aware of the boy's recklessness. That, combined with hers and their stubbornness, would only lead to chaos and problems.

It had been a while since the family immigrated to the island, and they had not heard a single word of the Sky People or about them. Their parents succeeded in ignoring the elephant in the room and throwing other responsibilities on their children's shoulders, for them to lose sight of the actual problem. But the eldest girl knew well enough that she and her mother had the same mindset and still wanted to fight for their people.

That night, At'anau slept with Kiri, the sight not going past the twin, who had to sleep next to an empty spot as her sister listened to the stories Kiri rambled in her ear like lullabies.

At'anau enjoyed watching her sister's head in the clouds, as she often, if not always, showed her troubles with the change and loss of a friend.

When the room fell quiet, signalling everyone was asleep, it was as if the ancestors of the forest came to rumble the girl in her rest—troubling her with thoughts pulled from the deepest roots in the woods itself and tying them tightly around her heart, snapping the strings, and suffocating her lungs.

Sweats that would drown her coated her skin, and lights of airdrafts blinded her vision until she opened her eyes and found herself under her brother's hold.

The girl looked around, noticing everyone else deep asleep, but to her brother it felt like his whole body was on the verge of explosion.

Staying awake beside her, the girl gave in to the boy and allowed him to stay with her, as dusk would come sooner that way.

Giving in to the hours of the day, the girl stayed with her brother, allowing him to believe he was supervising her and not up to the troubles she was planning.

The kids, who had been around the shore assigned to look for Kiri—who, once again, had wandered off—looked around separately before the oldest girl recognized her with Lo'ak and a handful of other teenagers not far away, one of the boys being the one she had spent her day with just a couple of hours ago.

At'anau made her way to the group, believing they were befriending each other at last, but halted once her ears picked up the words exchanged. The girl watched one of the boys tug at her brother's tail, exclaiming something as a baby tail, and she fastened her pace, grabbing one of the boy's braids from behind and tugging him back as she went, standing in front of her siblings.

The boy, whose name she didn't need to know, hissed in the girl's face, to which she flashed her canines as she released his queue and memorized the faces before her, holding her gaze once they met the eyes of a dastardly smiling boy.