Shells | Lo'ak Sully

Part 8 - Family

"You go back in, Tuk, I'll come in soon." Ni'teya suggests to her. Tuk follows the instructions and runs back into the hut, only instead of waiting she finds Lo'ak's arm and begins pulling him nonstop.

"What is it Tuk, what?!" He whines, not wanting to get up from his comfortable position, wanting just two minutes alone to himself.

"Teya's sad, come on!" She tells him, quiet enough so that nobody else can hear her over the sound of their own conversations.

Upon hearing this, Lo'ak loathingly allowed Tuk to pull him along behind her, leading him out to the place that Ni'teya was only moments ago.

"I don't see her, Lo'ak!" Tuk whines again, pouting as she looks around for Ni'teya.

"Are you daydreaming again Tuk?" He jokes, nudging her back inside the hut, however not following her back in.

He looks around outside the hut, knowing that Tuk probably wasn't daydreaming as he'd suggested, and she had just caught Ni'teya in a vulnerable state.

He didn't know wether going out further to look would be wise, considering if she wouldn't want Tuk seeing her then she'd certainly be opposed to his presence and knowledge of her upset.

.

Ni'teya mounted her ilu, guiding it out from the beneath the platforms and out onto the reef's waters. She didn't cry much but when she did, her face would redden and her eyes would continue to water even after she had stopped officially crying. So, she avoided anyone's company who might seek her's and swam to the reef's edge before sitting on a smooth, surprisingly comfortable rock.

Almost as soon as she did, the thing that she so much wanted to avoid appeared in front of her. Aonung, again, was riding towards her on the back of his own ilu, not waving nor smiling this time.

Ni'teya knew what he wanted, and she did not want to hear a word of it. She turns herself away from him, making it clear that he wasn't welcomed.

"Teya, Why-" that name sounded strange leaving his mouth.

"It's Ni'teya, to you." she said, matter-of-factly.

He didn't speak for a while after that, probably scratching his head and thinking of a way to word his next sentence without the chance of Ni'teya interrupting him or using his words against him. Unfortunately for him though, Ni'teya was particularly bored with his presence.

"I just want to say thank you for-" he attempted finally, sighing as Ni'teya once again cut across him.

"I don't want you to thank me, Aonung. I just want you to quit bothering us." was what she said, thinking he'd leave if she sounded angry enough.

When he didn't reply like she'd hoped, she swiveled her head in his direction to check if he really had gone back. Alas, there he still was. He was now looking at her with the most confused face ever, again trying to come up with something to say. As he opened his mouth for the third time, Ni'teya stepped in. "Seriously. Just go! I don't want to hear anything you have to say." And with that, he obeyed her.

He swam away rather quickly, in fear of being ambushed suddenly from behind, heading back to resume whatever he was doing beforehand.

Ni'teya watched the the horizon in front of her, the only thought in her head revolving around how many creatures must be out there at this moment, which freaked her out a little.