Show Me & Teach Me | Neteyam/Reader

Part II - I Like Your Stars Better

Author's Note:
Kia ora folks! Thank you as always to all your readers for the kudos, comments and support. :)

Here is Chapter 2, a continuation and spice-extension. The rating for this story has gone up to 'Explicit' now for this chapter.
You will notice also that I have changed the POV I have written in from second-person in Chapter 1, to third-person now in Chapter 2. I find it much better stylistically to write in third-person. I enjoyed the challenge of writing in second-person in the previous part, but I prefer third-person so much better.
I apologise if this is jarring for anyone. For those readers who love Neteyam x Reader-Inserts, you are still Seyla! Her perspective is still yours.

***

The tension in the healers' hut was thick enough to slice.

Seyla swore she could feel the heat of the other young woman's glower blistering the skin of her turned back. Any hotter and her waist-length braids would catch fire. The jarring clack of a knife striking unforgiving and hard against a wooden chopping board was just another addition to the already edgy atmosphere. Seyla sighed with a silent roll of her eyes. Would this tantrum never end?

The pronouncement by Mo'at and the clan council that she had been chosen as tsakarem had been met with positive endorsement by most people. There were some who still held reservations for various reasons. Some still doubted her capabilities, which was fair considering how long it had taken her to pass her rites of passage. Others felt she was too timid to lead the clan as tsahìk. However, Seyla knew that for the woman who sat violently obliterating fruit behind her, it was pure, undiluted envy that instigated her opposition.

Vitani was Mo'at's other young apprentice. There had been an unspoken assumption for a long time that it would be Vitani who would be designated as tsakarem. Seyla herself had believed this, never thinking for a moment that she would even be considered for the role. But evidently the tsahìk had more faith in her than she had in herself and she was determined not to disappoint.

Seyla acknowledged that she was quiet, but her silent nature did not mean she was weak. She just needed to learn to be more direct, and what better time to practise this than the present?

"Is everything alright, Vitani?" Seyla called nonchalantly over her shoulder.

The harsh chopping ceased for several moments before it resumed with renewed vehemence. Nevertheless, Vitani answered in a tone that oozed with derision, "Yes, things have never been better."

Stopping her own task of peeling some yalnabark tubers, Seyla turned to face Vitani, meeting her peer's scowl head on, "You had better take care or your fingers may end up severed alongside the fruit, sister."

The knife clattered against the board as it was released carelessly from Vitani's hold, "What? You think that because now you've netted a big fish you can boss me around?"

Seyla fought the urge to shrink under Vitani's piercing gaze, but she refused to back down, "My concern for you was genuine."

"Tell me, sister, how did you lure him in?" Vitani jeered, leaning forward with her elbows perched on each of her crossed knees. She folded her hands and rested her chin on them in a mock display of interest, "Neteyam is quite the handsome catch."

Narrowing her eyes and pinning her ears in irritation at the other woman's blatant objectification of Neteyam, Seyla hissed, "Neteyam is not some prized object. He's a person. And it was not his decision alone to make me tsakarem."

"No, but I'm sure he could have objected if you didn't appeal to him." The cock of Vitani's head was scornful, "So how did you do it? Training you must have been a painstakingly slow ordeal, and I'm sure it isn't your mute nature that charmed him. Unless, perhaps, your muteness was productive and you used your mouth in other ways to win his favour."