Gladiator

Chapter 6

Zrina's POV:

     I sit on the beach and see Lo'ak run over to Kiri. I run over there and see Lo'ak yelling at Ao'nung and his annoying friends. I ran up to one of Ao'nung's friends and pushed him back so hard that he fell on the ground.
"Do not make fun of my friends," I snarled. The boy stood up and walked closer to me.
"Ah syulang, you're pretty hot for a halfbreed," he told me. I felt disgusted. I scrunched my nose and furrowed my brows. The boys kept making fun of us until Neteyam ran up and pushed Ao'nung back.
"You heard what she said, leave them alone." I don't know why I'm saying this, but his accent is really attractive. I can't like my best friend's brother. What would Lo'ak think?
"Ahh, big brother coming—," the boy that thought I was hot tried to finish what he said but Ao'nung stopped him.
"Back off. Now... smart choice. And from now on, I need you to respect my sister. Let's go," Neteyam nudged me toward Lo'ak. I looked over at him and he smirked.
"Look at them, they're freaks. The entire family." Ao'nung told his friends. I sighed and turned around. I looked at Lo'ak and winked.
"Zrina," Neteyam started.
"I got this Neteyam," I turned to Ao'nung," I know this hand looks funny. Look I'm a freak, alien. But it can do something really cool. Watch. First, I ball it up real tight like this. Okay, then..." I punched Ao'nung three times. When I was done, he was on the floor and I was really angry.
"It's called a punch bitch! Don't ever touch Kiri again." I lunged at Ao'nung and punched him. He punched me but I dodged him. I snarled as he threw me to the ground. He was on top of me as I tried to get free. Lo'ak pushed him off of me as we kept hitting the guys one of them grabbed my tail as I yelped.
"Ow! My tail!" I grab my tail back. I see Neteyam run into the fight and pull guys off of Lo'ak and I. I kept punching different guys until I was pulled off of everyone. I turned around to see Jake standing there. He looked pissed. I looked down as he made us walk back to our Mauri. We walked back in and waited for Jake to scold us.
"What was the one thing I asked? The one thing?" He yelled.
"Stay out of trouble," we murmured.
"Right." Jake said.
"It was my fault," Neteyam tried to say.
"You gotta stop taking the heat for this knucklehead." Jake explained pointing at Lo'ak.
"Actually, it was also my fault. Ao'nung was picking on Kiri. He called her a freak," I told him. Jake's face fell. He sighed loudly. Then, he looked to Lo'ak.
"Go apologize to Ao'nung." Jake pointed to the door.
"What?" Lo'ak asked.
"He's the chiefs son. Do you understand? I don't care how you do it, just go make peace." Lo'ak left the Mauri so it was just me and Neteyam. We went to leave, but Jake stopped us.
"Hey, so what's the other guys look like?" He questioned us.
"Worse," Neteyam told him. I smirked.
"That's good," Jake replied.
"A lot worse," I added on. Jake smiled.
"Get outta here." Jake motioned for us to leave. We started to walked off but Jake pulled me back.
"Not you, kid," he said. I groaned and stood across from him again. Neteyam had already left by the time I looked back in his direction.
"Every time something is going down, I see you in the middle of it," Jake told me. I knew he was talking about last night, what had happened minutes before, and at the old shack.
"I know, other times I was just doing stupid things. But this time, I actually helped someone. And that someone, was your daughter, Kiri. She feels like an outcast. More than what we feel right now. I was just trying to help," I explained. Jake still had this look on his face that I was gonna be in a hell a lot of trouble. But then he laughed a little. I was very confused.
"Every day I see you, you remind me of your mother more and more. But that's what is making me nervous. Most times, she was serious. But other times, she was worse than you and Lo'ak combined. I just don't want you to end up doing something so terrible that you'd regret for the rest of your life." I knew that Jake was being sincere. I smiled at him and nodded my head.
"I understand. May I go?" I asked. He nodded his head so I took off. When I turned the corner of the Mauri, I saw Neteyam. He was waiting for me. I noticed his knuckles were bleeding and his lip was cut.
"Stay here. I'll be right back." I ran back into the tent and grabbed some of my healing salves. I grabbed Neteyam's arm and we sat down by a few trees. I grabbed his knuckles and he winced.
"Ow! You are not good at this." He pulled his hands back. I sighed.
"Sorry. I do this to myself mostly," I reply. I try to go gentle but Neteyam keeps wincing.
"You're a baby. Keep still." I moved from his knuckles, to his lips. They were cut so I chose to use a salve that didn't sting. I moved closer so that so that our knees were touching. I leaned forward and smeared the salve across his bottom lip. He didn't have that many other bruises other than one but the side of his eye.
     "So, what do you remember from what happened last night?" I asked.
     "Just about me getting really drunk," He replied.
     "So, me and you had an argument about my influence on Lo'ak," I explained. Neteyam didn't want to admit it, but he knew exactly what I was talking about. He remembers more than just getting drunk. After his massive hangover, he had started to remember a lot of it, including the part where I had helped him. I applied the salve onto his eye as someone walked over to us. I turned around to see Ao'nung.
"Why are you here? Lo'ak went to apologize to you?" I asked. Ao'nung looks nervous to answer my question. He was hesitant, but he replied.
"I took Lo'ak hunting outside the reef and left him there."