Rivals || Lo'ak Sully

Chapter 1 : "Training"💫

- After 13 years -

"I won again!!" Ma'i cheered, holding up her bow and stopping right next to the last target.

"It's not fair." Neteyam ran up to her, trying to catch up his breath. "You were definitely cheating."

"Me? Cheating? " Ma'i laughed. "You're delusional, Neteyam. Just like your fantasies about winning this year's clan prize."

Ma'i has kept her promise and became one of the best-trained and strongest clan members. After a few years of coming fifth or fourth, she then took the crown of being first in the clan tournament and hasn't let it down since then. The whole clan knew that Ma'i was on top, some were envious of her, some admired her and looked up, others were angry... and some had a mix of emotions.

"Okay." Neteyam held up his hands in defense mode. "I may not claim the crown but you know who can always do it instead of you..." He smirked and raised his eyebrows in a way of making sure Ma'i understand what he was talking about.

Ma'i sighed rolling her eyes.

"You know how much better he got!" Neteyam started following Ma'i as she turned to walk away, her tail making circles in the air.

"I definitely won't be losing to your brother, Neteyam." Ma'i wanted to laugh but couldn't, anger and a slight fear coming through her body.

Ma'i didn't want to admit it to herself but she was afraid. There were a few times the girl accidentally walked in on Lo'ak training... and she must admit he's undeniably adroit.

Ma'i and Lo'ak didn't talk nor interact much - they hated each other. At first, everything was doing great between them, they started off well and Ma'i had even thought she formed a tiny little crush on the boy... however, when she understood where she stands and what she has to do - everything went away. Ma'i needed to be first and most importantly better than him.

"And I don't want you to lose to him!" Neteyam brought back Ma'i from her past thoughts. "I just thought I would inform you on how he's doing." The girl's best friend laughed and nudged her shoulder hoping to get some reaction from the friend.

Ma'i bent down to pick up some arrows left by both of them.

"Oh c'mon, Ma'i! Don't be a grumpy cat." Neteyam laughed once again, receiving a hiss and stick of tongue in return.

"I still want to practice more. I'm probably going to the training room." Ma'i put the arrows in a bag and looked at the bey next to her. "Do you want to join or-"

"No, it's fine." Neteyam suspiciously quickly brushed it off, seemingly having a too enthusiastic reaction. He put his hand on Mai's shoulder and smiled. "I should go help dad with some work. See you, little warrior."

Ma'i watched as his figure wandered away in the distance deciding to visit the training room right away for even more practice.

The girl rapidly ran to the entrance, thinking that making this an everyday routine was a terrible idea and she felt the tiredness already come at her body.

Ma'i stopped to breathe for a few minutes before pushing the branchy door.

The girl immediately stopped and rolled her eyes.

Great. Just when I thought I'll have this room for myself.

There stood the one she loathed the most, hovering over the table with fighting tools. His tail flickered in the air as the boy seemingly was choosing what to pick as today's training gadget.

Ma'i sighed and went to the table, stopping next to the boy.

"I thought you didn't train on days off." Lo'ak said not even sparing a look as he already knew who came to his side.

"And I thought you didn't know how to get a sentence right but here we are." Ma'i rolled her eyes.

Lo'ak then straightened up, making Ma'i feel small next to him. The girl was definitely not the smallest one (she was even considered to be one of the taller females) however when Lo'ak stood next to her, she couldn't help but feel tiny - as if he had some strange ability to overtake her whole body.

Ma'i however didn't budge from her place.

"If I hear another word coming from your mouth about that one time, I will slaughter you apart." Lo'ak spin the knife in his hand as Ma'i snickered remembering a time when he was so scared he couldn't mutter a word out. It was too amusing for her eyes.

"Not if I do that first, you skxawng." She sighed getting back into reality and understanding why she was so irritated.

"Is that a threat, Ma'i?" The boy stopped moving the knife.

A shiver ran through the girl's back as her name rolled down his tongue. She hated when he said her name.

Ma'i snickered and turned around to face him.

"First of all, YOU are the one that came here when you absolutely knew I possibly could be here. And don't start with all "I didn't know you trained" nonsense." Ma'i started to move closer to Lo'ak, her anger and frustration levels quickly springing up. She stared straight into the boy's eyes as her ears started to move down due to Ma'i being annoyed. However Lo'ak was less than scared, he had that smug irritating smile that vexed Ma'i greatly. "You purposely wanted to disturb my training." She pointed her knife right at the boy in front. The sharp iron tip slightly being pushed into Lo'ak's chest, nevertheless he still didn't shift in any way. "And I also-"

"What the hell is going on here?" A sudden sound of disturbance reached both Lo'ak's and Ma'i's ears.

The two teenagers turned their heads to the direction the voice came from, not noticing that both of them were as close as to hear each other's breaths.

There stood very much concerned Neteyam, seeing them in such a condition that didn't look really good with Lo'ak holding a knife almost at Ma'i's stomach and Ma'i pointing it at the boy's chest.

"Nothing." Lo'ak was the first to answer as he withdrew the knife, spinning it smoothly in his hand and quickly turned around.

Ma'i did the same, not sparing Neteyam nor Lo'ak a look. She started moving the tools around again to be doing something, even though they were already in perfect places. Ma'i could feel her face burning up badly as she got caught by Neteyam like that.

"Okay..." Neteyam obviously gave a side eye to both of them (probably in a little fear that one day they will definitely kill each other). "Dad is calling you both. Now."