𝐓𝐎𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐃𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐔𝐍 | neteyam

014 | IT CALLS FOR ME

At just 7 years old, Ay'yeiva knew what she wanted to do. Every day she would get up at the crack of dawn and go swimming. She would swim all the way out to the edge of the reef and sit on the rocks and in the water pools for hours on end.

Ronal and Tonowari would send one of the warriors to go get her when they realized she was still inside the reef, saving themselves the stress of searching for their little girl being hurt.

There was almost a voice inside her, besides the one in her head, that told her she should go past the reef; figure out what else is out there. It was like a voice in her heart that screamed out whenever she had to leave the water. Her heart ached too much for a little girl, and that was why her parents said she could never go past the reef until she was an adult. Until she could handle it.

The thing is, she didn't know exactly why that voice wanted her to venture past the reef so bad. She loved her home, and she loved the people she was surrounded by. Maybe she wanted to experience something new. We'll never know.

However, as much as the idea the voice provided gave her a thrill of excitement, she couldn't help but feel like she didn't belong in her village. All the other kids were fine staying in the reef, none of them ever even mentioning it once. Their parents didn't have to send warriors to go find her when she got too close to the edge.

Seeing other kids go about their days without any thoughts of beyond the reef amazed her. No one else shared her dream, or at least had the guts to talk about it so freely.

It was a sunny morning when she finally listened to that voice. After almost a year of watching the waves roll by, she needed to feel them against her skin. She knew she would need more than an Ilu if she were to go out there. She needed a skimwing.

No one in the village thought anything of it when Ay'yeiva swam out to the reef that day, nor would it ever enter their mind that she would chose to disobey her parent's orders.

There was a skimwing calf who Ay'yeiva knew as the one with a yellow nose. This baby had followed her as she journeyed to the reef some days. Today was thankfully one of them.

As soon as Ay'yeiva noticed the calf following her she turned around, making it freeze in its spot. It didn't realize Ay'yeiva knew it was following her. Ay'yeiva held out her arm and slowly the calf swam towards her, rubbing against her arm before swimming around her a few times.

She gently held her cue out towards the skimwing, letting it come to her only if it wanted to.

The calf swam over to her and let her connect as she got on its back. For a calf, the skimwing, who Ay'yeiva learned was also a girl, was quite big. If she hadn't been there for its birth, she would've assumed it was an adult.

Ay'yeiva instructed her to swim over to the reef, slowing down to talk herself through what was going to happen, and if she really wanted to do this in the first place.

"My dad is going to be pissed if he finds out."

Ay'yeiva turned back to look at the village. It looked so tiny from here.

"I have to go, though" She took one last deep breath as she faced the other side of the reef, instructing her skimwing to jump through the different water pools until they were on the other side.

"Holy shit!" Excitement. "Holy shit." and immediate regret, "Why did I do this? They're going to be so mad. I'm never leaving the marui pod. Might as well start making my grave now cau-- What are you doing?" Her spiel was interrupted by the skimwing, who started making noises to stop her.

"Getting you to stop talking."

Ay'yeiva must of been so caught up in her venture over the reef that she forgot she could communicate with the skimwing now that it was hers.