𝗂𝗇𝗏𝗂𝗌𝗂𝖻𝗅𝖾 𝗌𝗍𝗋𝗂𝗇𝗀, 𝙉𝙚𝙩𝙚𝙮𝙖𝙢 𝙎𝙪𝙡𝙡𝙮

𝗑𝗑𝗑𝗂𝗂.

𝘛𝘏𝘐𝘙𝘛𝘠－𝘛𝘞𝘖

        IT WAS ALWAYS DIFFICULT TO find a new routine after the loss of a loved one. Everything was different, everyone was different. The only thing Seylu knew was repetition. She didn't want anything to be different after Neteyam's death, so she didn't let it be.

Only a week after Neteyam's death, Seylu was hunting as normal, teaching the young children as normal. Nothing had changed in her routine, except that she didn't go to the evening meal. The Sully family didn't that whole first week either. She brought them fish and fruit, and ate alone in the mauri while her family was with the village.

Seylu knew she couldn't keep living like that. She couldn't deal with the looks her brother and sister gave her, like she was fragile, and about to break. She didn't want to listen to her parents' words, trying to get her into a different routine.

She didn't want to be in her home, with the hope of Neteyam tapping his fist to his sternum to greet her. Seylu needed to be away from all that she was dealing with.

Seylu was alone in the mauri pod with her parents in an awkward silence. She spoke first. "I cannot live here anymore." Seylu said bluntly, chopping an orange fruit.

Ronal looked up from her weaving, looking over at Tonowari, who had placed the net he was fixing down. "Daughter, what do you mean?" Ronal asked, concerned and confused.

Seylu continued to chop her fruit, sitting opposite her parents, the lit fire between them. "I cannot, and I will not live here anymore." she repeated, oblivious to Ao'nung and Tsireya listening outside of the mauri pod, Lo'ak and Rotxo with them.

"Seylu, why? Why now?" Tonowari asked, his shawl off of his cyan shoulders.

"I am grown. I am supposed to live on my own now. Besides, there will be no room for me when the baby is born." Seylu spoke, groaning when she accidentally cut her finger in her angry chopping.

Ronal stood with Tonowari's help, crossing to her daughter, taking her bloody finger in her hand. "There will always be room for you. Why don't you wait until you have calmed down and healed to leave?" the mother suggested, wrapping Seylu's finger in a cloth as she looked at the woven surface beneath her feet.

"You rely on everything being in the same place, ma'ite. A new mauri will be hard for you to navigate." Tonowari said gently, stoking the fire in front of him.

Seylu shook her head, picking up her cleaned knife again. "I will be fine. I do not want to wait. I want to live on my own." Seylu said firmly, Ronal sighing deeply, looking to Tonowari for guidance. Tonowari nodded, and Ronal placed her hand on Seylu's arm.

"Sweet child, we were going to wait to discuss this with you, but since you want to leave, this seems to be proper time." Ronal said, Tsireya, Ao'nung, Lo'ak and Rotxo looking to each other in confusion.

"Discuss what?" Seylu asked, rolling her eyes as Ronal took her knife away from her.

"You are to be Olo'eykte. You must choose a new mate." Tonowari said, Seylu snapping her head up to him with a harsh glare in her scratched eyes.

Lo'ak covered Tsireya's mouth so she could not audibly gasp, like he knew she was going to. Seylu breathed deeply, eyes never leaving her father. "I will not. I will not choose a new mate. Ever."

"Seylu—" Ronal began, but Seylu shrugged her mother's hold on her arm off.

"No. I chose my mate, and he is gone now. I will not choose again. You cannot make me. I will die before I mate again." Seylu said seriously, eyes flashing between the figures of her parents.

Ronal closed her eyes, breathing slowly. "You need an heir, a child who will become Chief after you. You must, I am so sorry." Ronal said, Ao'nung and Rotxo frowning outside of the mauri pod.

Seylu shook her head. "There will always be orphans, children in need of a family. I will not mate, and I will take those children as my own." she decreed, standing from her squatted position.

"Daughter, I know you are hurting—" Tonowari tried, standing.

"It is more than that, Father. I cannot forget what I had with him and move on to somebody else. I will not. I am fine by myself, and I wish to leave." Seylu said, slower this time, her words holding true meaning.

Tonowari and Ronal looked at each other, and then back at their oldest daughter, whose hair remained in a firm bun on top of her head. Everyone who loved her hair down left her. She would never wear it down again.

"We will settle you into your new mauri pod tomorrow." Tonowari said, Ronal standing and hugging her daughter, who thanked her parents for allowing this. Tsireya felt a tear fall down her cheeks at the thought of her sister leaving, and the group of four quickly left so as not to be caught.

Seylu's new mauri pod was not far from her family's or the Sully's, laying equal distance to both. It was on the edge of the village, closest to the ocean. It was quaint, and it was perfect for Seylu. Ao'nung helped her place her completed hammock in the pod, Tonowari set her fire pit in the center of it. Ronal and Tsireya brought over her things and set up her hunting materials.

She spent her time that next night concentrating on remembering where her things rested in the new home. Seylu listened to the sounds of the ocean as she laid on her hammock, Neteyam's cuff on her wrist. It was lonely, and it matched her emotions that no one else could feel.

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