Sea of Stars | neteyam sully

chapter 7: star girl

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

'Lo'ak, you skxawng. You're supposed to stay on it.' Ikariya watched as Lo'ak flung off his ilu. Tsireya, Aonung and Rotxo had been trying to teach them how to ride an ilu for the past two hours. Tuk picked up rather quickly, Neteyam stayed on most of the time and Lo'ak was a disaster. He fell off every time he'd even try to go forward. After a while, she thought he was doing it on purpose so that Tsireya could help him.

Ikariya was just watching them from a nearby rock, not really wanting to partake in this activity.

'Let's see you try then.' Ikariya turned to where this aggravating noise came from. It was Neteyam, of course, raising his eyebrow as he watched her lounge on the rock.

'I'm enjoying this a lot more than that.' She said, pointing to their situation.

Neteyam hummed. 'You know what? I think you should at least try. Or be useless, I don't really care.' He was so annoyed. Dad specifically told them to learn fast. He and his siblings were trying their best as Ikariya just sat on a rock, doing absolutely nothing.

Ikariya's lip twitched. She wasn't really fond of him calling her words like that. She didn't like to be "useless". She narrowed her eyes while jumping off the rock and swam towards him. 'Bring it on.'

She glared at Neteyam as she jumped on an ilu. She felt a hand on the below of her back. She flung her head around, meeting with Aonung. He was standing behind her. 'Just stay in position like I taught you, alright?' He asked. Ikariya nodded, leaning down a bit as Aonung walked away from her. She took a deep breath in. How hard could it be? It's the same as riding on ikran.

She made the bond, her pupils dilating as she did. She took a deep breath in before diving right down.

She couldn't be more wrong, this was nothing like riding ikran.

Once she was underwater, the current slapped her in the face as she was trying to stay on. She completely understands why Lo'ak flung off the whole time now. She almost slipped off, as she kind of got a hand of it. She was still wobbly and clung onto the animal to prevent her from falling off. Her position was sloppy though.

Ikariya emerged again, swimming over to Neteyam. 'Not so useless now, huh?' She smirked while jumping off the ilu as she swam back to the rock, laying down and putting her arms behind her head.

Neteyam scoffed as he looked at Aonung. He looked at her like she was some kind of goddess. He was in absolute awe of her, swimming up to her. 'Not bad for a forest girl.' He said, sitting down next to her.

'No. Star girl.' She said, not looking up at him.

'What?' Aonung tilted his head.

'I'm not a forest girl, I'm a star girl.' She repeated.

Aonung frowned before just nodding as he still didn't really understand what she meant. 'Either way, you should come to the bonfire tonight.'

Now he got her attention. She sat up, looking at him. 'Bonfire?'

'Yeah, it's chill. Plus we have kava.'

Her ears perked up. She loved kava. Whenever there was a hunting festival back home, she'd find herself sneaking kava into her tent and getting lost in the night. It made her feel funny, she liked that.

'Count me in, fish boy.'

☆彡

'Why not?'

'You heard what my dad said.'

'Come on Lo'ak, we have to go to this bonfire. They have kava!' Ikariya tried to convince him, smiley rather creepy as she was poking him in his side.

'Great.' Lo'ak said in a monotone voice as he nodded while pressing his lips together into a thin line, making Ikariya's eyes already light up. 'I'm not going.' A sarcastic smile formed on his face.

'I think we both know you are.' She raised an eyebrow with a smug look on her face.

'I don't think so.' Ikariya turned around to meet with Neteyam. He had his arms crossed as he was leaning against a wooden pole.

Ikariya sighed as she looked down. 'Of course you're here.'

'Lo'ak's right, you heard what dad said. No getting in trouble.' He said.

'Come on, it's a bonfire. What could go wrong?' Ikariya scoffed, rolling her eyes.

'If there's kava involved, literally everything could.' Neteyam raised an eyebrow.

Okay, maybe he was a little right. But she wasn't going to admit that. And she wanted to go to that stupid bonfire. 'Come on, we'll be fine. We'll be home before midnight. Besides, you're not his dad.' Ikariya snarled.

That kind of hurt him. He wasn't his dad, that's true. But he looked after Lo'ak. He needed to make sure he was safe. If he didn't have Neteyam, he would probably not be alive right now. That little fucker gets into so much trouble without even realizing it. 'Fine,' Neteyam said, making Ikariya's eyes light up. Truth be told, she didn't expect him to say yes. But, there was a catch. 'But I'm coming with you.'

Damnit. 'Why?' Ikariya whined, looking up.

'Because I know you two will get messed up if I don't come with you.' Neteyam hissed at her, making her scoff.

'We're not babies.'

'Well,'

'Can you two stop already? Riya, it's fine if he comes. He'll probably just sit on a log and stare at his feet the whole night. And Teyam, she's right. You're not the boss of me.' Lo'ak crossed his arms like he was a child, trying to prove his point.

'Fine.' Ikariya and Neteyam said in unison, side eyeing each other as they did.

'But does that mean you're coming?' Ikariya's eyes widened and a grin formed on her face.

Lo'ak had a disturbed look on his face. 'You're fucking scary when you do that.' He said, making Ikariya frown. 'But yes, I'll come.'

'Yay!' She jumped up, ran up to him and wrapped her arms around him.

Like I said, she always gets what she wants.