Wise Fish | aonete

7 𓆟 Up In Arms

The rough-hewn surface of the middle rock of the Three Brothers jabbed into the bottoms of Neteyam's feet, but his anger burned too bright to care about the pain. The ilu that he had ridden there—Peemu—whistled after him, worried that he might hurt himself, but Neteyam ignored him. He scrambled farther up the shoreline, feeling as if he might explode if he didn't go. Where—it didn't matter, he just needed to go somewhere. Away.

Neteyam tried to vault over a large rock in his path, but didn't take into account how the constant spray of the sea had slicked up its surface. His hand slipped as he was halfway through hoisting himself over, and a cut slashed down the center of his palm. The burning pain threw off his balance, and he hit the rocky ground on the other side hard, sliding and toppling onto his hands and knees.

Neteyam hissed in pain as his open cut touched the jagged ground and small rocks dug into his knees. He collapsed forward onto his forearms, taking the weight off his hands and let out a cracking, guttural scream, just like Ao'nung had taught him.

When he ran out of breath, Neteyam sat up and leaned his weight back on his heels, heaving in breath. He buried his face in his hands, feeling a strong desire to cry, even though that was the exact last thing he wanted to do. He wasn't even sure he'd be able to cry if he tried, a knot of anger rested high in his throat, just as tight despite screaming hard enough to make his ears hurt.

Peemu screeched at him from the water, and guilt dampened some of Neteyam's leftover anger. Of course, Peemu's hearing was more sensitive than even his, and his screaming had probably scared him.

"Sorry," he called sheepishly, letting his hands fall into his lap, looking at Peemu as he swayed with the waves, a safe distance from the rocks. "I won't do it again."

Peemu clicked warningly as if to say "You'd better not . . ." before diving under the surface.

Neteyam let out a sigh through his nose, tilting his head up, closing his eyes to concentrate on the feeling of the sun and the sea spray on his face. He let his anger roll over him, all the negative thoughts and scathing comments he retroactively wished he made towards Kiri washing across his mind like a lazy wave, before letting them go. He took a deep breath, trying to see from her point of view, like his parents had taught him. It was a skill that made a good leader after all.

It made sense why Kiri would be so angry at him. As far as she knew, Neteyam was making nice with a boy who had been nothing but a bully to her. It was a rational reason to feel betrayed. Once they had both calmed down, he would try explaining the change he'd been seeing in Ao'nung, and how he deserved a second chance. Maybe he could even get Lo'ak to talk to her. Ao'nung and his brother had formed a reluctant acquaintanceship, despite him being on the receiving end of Ao'nung's worst ridicule. Maybe he could talk some sense into Kiri.

"Neteyam! Bro, is that you?"

Neteyam's head whipped around so fast that a couple of his braids smacked him in the face. His mouth fell agape as he watched his brother approach him on the back of a giant animal, mist blowing out of somewhere in the middle of its back. It took him a second to realize it was none other than Payakan. Neteyam froze, remembering what Ao'nung and Tsireya had told them about that creature.

Lo'ak hopped off the giant tulkun's back and onto the rocks, strolling over to Neteyam like this was something he had done a million times before. Lo'ak signed "thank you," and Payakan whistled back a reply before diving under the surface. Neteyam blinked, staring at the rippling water where he had just been—he realized that was the very first tulkun he'd ever seen. He looked up to find Lo'ak smirking at him. Neteyam laughed, disbelieving, shaking his head minutely.

"Pretty cool, huh?" Lo'ak asked, following Neteyam's gaze as it traveled back to the water.

Neteyam conceded, hoisting himself to his feet, "Very."