Surface| Neteyam

13.

Almost four hours had gone by, it was pitch black out and the whole clan seemed to be in a scurry to find the boy. It was strange to see how the same group of people who once made fun of the newcomers took so much pride in trying to rescue them.

I suggested to Neteyam we take our Ilu's out and search for him by water.
I could tell he was exhausted, first his sister now his brother.

"We can just take Feui if you want" He nodded helplessly.

I dodged my dads and his friends for the past few hours, I knew I should have gone back to him a while ago but I couldn't just leave Neteyam like this, not after I was so close to repairing everything.

Riuwe had spotted us together but I could tell she wasn't looking to pick another fight, for now all I could hope for was for her to keep her mouth shut.

We splashed into the water as I made clicking sounds to alert my Ilu. She arrived momentarily,

"Hold tight" I shouted while connecting the tsaheylu, we dove swiftly under the water; Neteyam's arms were wrapped tightly around me, normally this would send a shower of butterflies through my stomach but right now I was focused on saving his idiot brother. I was actually worried.

There were about a dozen other search parties out in the water but we separated ourself from the crowd, hoping to cover more ground.
By now we were miles away from the clan and were creeping closer to the reef.

I halted Feui so as to not go any further,I guess we both didn't like the idea of getting that far out after what happened last time. Neteyam slipped his hands off my waist, now resting them on my hips.
I tried to act as normal as possible,

"We- we should look there" I choked on my words in embarrassment. I had rarely felt this way around any boys let alone a forest baby, I looked back at him with longing eyes as he peered down at me.

It felt like minutes had gone by as he held eye contact with me, (twilight type of shit)

"We should probably-" he looked forward as I let out a deep breath, was this really happening?

"Yea, yeah" he patted my thigh lightly before leaping onto the nearby sand; he reached out a hand to help me up.

"Where are we?" He asked adjusting his waistband,

"Just some small islands, we might have a better view from up there" I pointed over at some small cliffs. I never climbed, I hardly needed to but I didn't need Neteyam going through more stress, it was the least I could do.

He swiftly climbed higher and higher while I was left scrambling on the first ledge. By the time he made himself comfortable I had only gotten a quarter up.
He laughed jokingly at the sight of me clambering on rocks that Tuk could simply skip over.

"Perhaps I should give you climbing lessons, baby"

My face turned red as he used my insult against me, I huffed, eventually resorting to a smaller cliff.

He swung down with ease, his quick appearance made me jump a little.
We both laughed quietly before silence quickly returned and it just turned into staring.

"Thank you" His voice was gentle and meaningful this time,

"For..?" I questioned, still smiling hard.

"For helping me, I know you don't really like us but you're different then I thought you'd be."

"I'm just being nice till we get your skxawng ass back into the forest" I teased,

"Awh, you'd miss me"

I studied the ocean for any unusual patterns, it had been almost an hour since we landed but there was still no Lo'ak in sight.