Wise Fish | aonete

6 𓆝 Bête Noire

"What is so interesting to you over there, forest boy?" Ao'nung called. He and Neteyam had been walking together, the forest looming to their right when he suddenly noticed his absence. Peering around, Ao'nung noticed the dark blue lower half of the Omatikaya boy sticking out of a copse of bushes. He groaned loudly and wheeled around fully, walking over to check what he was doing.

Neteyam's tail was flicking behind him. Ao'nung leaned over to get a look at what the big deal was, and to make sure that his front half wasn't stuck in the mouth of some forest beast.

Neteyam was leaning forward, reaching up towards the bright colors of a cluster of tsawksyul growing on the trunk of a tree. His tongue was pinched between his teeth, eyebrows pressing together as he focused.

Ao'nung knew his face looked pained as he stared at Neteyam's funny-looking expression. "I thought you were used to plants. Didn't you live in one?"

Neteyam's tail purposefully smacked against Ao'nung's thigh, but it only made him let out a bark of a laugh. He was used to the much larger size of his people's tails. Neteyam might as well have gently hit him with a vine.

"My people used to live in Hometree," Neteyam said, voice strained as he leaned forward to inspect each flower, searching for the best one, "although, that was before the sky people came. But I used to see these flowers all the time in the ayram alusìng. My dad called them sun lilies. Though I am not surprised they found their way here. Your people get a lot more sun than we do."

Neteyam finally decided and carefully plucked the most perfect of the flowers from the surrounding ones, which pulsed with weak bioluminescence as their sibling was separated from its stem. Neteyam muttered a quick thank you to them before stepping back.

Ao'nung was leaning in so far that the two almost bumped heads as Neteyam turned around. Their noses were nearly touching. Neteyam smiled and held the flower up between them, but they were so close it just ended up getting shoved against Ao'nung's face.

He spluttered and stumbled back, a smear of bright yellow pollen painted onto his nose. Neteyam giggled.

"Tuk's been growing out of her things so fast, I thought I could make her something new to wear. Maybe Kiri too. She loves sun lilies."

The memory of the little flower on Tuk's armband flashed in Ao'nung's mind. Of course Neteyam would be thinking of his siblings when all he could imagine was how well the vibrant yellow of the tsawksyul—sun lily, he said—would bring out Neteyam's eyes.

Ao'nung cleared his throat, turning his back to Neteyam and walking on, naturally expecting him to follow (which he did). He took a deep, quiet breath, trying to refocus on their task.

Currently, fyìpmaut trees were in season, and they had been told to hunt around the edge of the forest bordering the beach and harvest as many of the tree's gummy fruits as they could. It was something that not many people wanted to volunteer for, since these trees were so few and far between—being so close to the water—that it took almost half a day to fill up a basket.

As it was, they were only about three quarters of the way done filling the one basket they'd brought. Neteyam wasn't exactly focused, and he had to use every ounce of his self control to not go diving into the brush at the sight of any familiar flora or fauna. Ao'nung had noticed and Neteyam could tell it amused him.

Ao'nung hiked the basket up his hip, feeling an annoying tickle in his nose. Neteyam was grinning at his stupid flower off to his right, looking like he'd just been given the best gift ever. The flower was living up to its name; its color seemed to bounce right off the petals and onto Neteyam's face, making him look like another sun—though his smile did that already.