EXPECTATIONS | Neteyam

EMBARRASSMENT

Te'fiti sat in the canopy of her friend's, Zu'lik, pod. Zu'lik lived on the outskirts on the east side of the village, which was where the teenagers stayed in a gaggle for the majority of their days if they were not assisting the village.
There were ten girls of the village there, lounging on the thatch floor sewing shells into their hair.
With the arrival of the Sullys, the village had gotten distracted from the Eclipse Metkayina Dance.
The girls gushed to eachother about the dresses, the hair, the tattoos, the boys.

"My mother traded some coral dye off of the seashell seller on the west side of the island. It cost her three pincer fish!" Akona exclaimed. Two girls swested with her hair above her, braiding her hair into fine braids with shells clipped into the curves.
"I was hoping that Roxto would take me to the dance." Another girl named Teha said, toying with her bralette. The girls rushed to ask her questions.

"Why?"
"Who is taking him?"
"What is happening?"
Teha glanced up at Te'fiti, who raised a brow. The girl sighed. "Well, i think he might take Kiri." She said with spite. The others laughed.
"Oh! Te'fiti!"

"What's up?" The girl asked, her own fingers tangled in another girls hair forming thick braids.
"Well..." Zu'lik fiddled with her fingers.
"What is it?" Another girl said, throwing a berry off of the girl's head who chuckled, shook her head and began to talk.
"Well its about Aonung."
"So?" Te'fiti raised a brow.

"Well, he was talking to his boys," Zu'lik glanced across the canopy. In the distance, the crowd of boys and girls in their groups by the bioluminescence of the forest hummed in chatter and lounged lazily on the beach and in the water. "And he said you guys are going to the dance."
A pang of guilt hit her in the chest. She had forgotten that Aonung had asked her, as a friend, to the Dance before the Sullys during the drought. "That's right."
She urged the girl to continue, tying down the final braid on the girl beneath her's shoulder.

"And he also said that one of Toruk Makto's sons had asked you to the dance and you had brutally rejected him. Netiya, Netoyan.."
"Neteyam." Her gaze hardened. Why would he say that?
"And he also said.. he think he's going to pull you."

She could see red. Tefiti could barely hear Zu'lik as she marched out of the village. She knew exactly where to find him.

There he was, with his friends, sitting on the same rocks they became best friends on, where they pretended to be hunters or talked for hours on end, he sat, laughing in that laugh where you knew he was proud of himself. His friends sat around near him laughing with him. One of them looked up and nudged Aonung, who's face went from proud to shocked in a split second. Shame spread across his face like it was inked on his forehead as he watched Tefiti walk towards him, the girls behind him, and a crowd they both were unaware of following them.

"Aonung!" Tefiti yelled to him. He stood up, not knowing what to expect from her. She pushed him square in the chest, winding him as he crashed into the rock his friends sat on.
"Tefiti!" Yells were and gasps and chatter filled her ears, fuelling her rage.

"You think this is funny? Is this funny to you?" She was inches away from his face now as he stood up, looking at her blankly. He attempted to smile, to turn it into a sheepish joke. His fingers closed around her wrists.
"What the fuck are you talking about?"

"Oh what am i talking about. I'm talking about your burning hatred for the Sullys. What is with you and the eldest? Making up lies about me and Neteyam to your little friends?"
The crowd hummed in apprehension and the boys jeered at her.

"I was defending you." His grip tightened.
"Defending me by telling everyone you were going to pull me? Yeah, so normal of you!"

The girl screeched in pain as his grip got tighter and tighter on her. She wrestled put of his iron clutch, shouting obscenities at the boy as the crowd began to yell and cause chaos around them. She could hear her name being yelled, and soon enough she couldn't hear her own voice yelling out.

Neteyam broke through the crowd, and pushed Aonung square in the chest. "You need to calm down." He said, deadpanning the boy.
"i need to calm down? Look at who you're defending. The girl who rejected you."
"I didn't reject anyone, you fucking-"
Te'fiti raised her hand to slap him, but a tall figure loomed over the group.

Tonowari stood in-front of both boys, separating them from each other. Tefiti's heart sank.
"Enough!" Tonowari yelled. Silence erupted in the mess of people, Tefiti stopped struggling against who she now realised was Neteyam and his father Toruk Makto.
"What is this? Everyone who was not involved, go home!" Tonowari looked at his people. "Now!"

The people quickly scattered, Tonowari holding Aonung tightly by his nape, Tefiti by her mother. Her father, Neteyam, and Aonung's friends followed behind.
The ten were marched into the Olo'eytkan's pod, and the teenagers were bent to the floor.
Te'fiti deadpanned Tonowari.

"What. Is. This." Tonowari boomed around the pod. He looked to his son, pointing at him.
"I raised you better than this! So much better than this! You are the future Olo'eytukan! And you!" He pointed at Tefiti, who avoided eye contact, chewing her lip. Tonowari's eyes softened.
"You are future Tsahik. You do not act like this!" the chief breathed in a breath of air. "This is not like you both. Not one bit. I am so incredibly disappointed in you. And Neteyam. Son of Toruk Makto! You fail me."

Tefiti made eye contact with Aonung, who she looked away from immediately. Tonowari watched them both.
"You are all very lucky that only maybe, twenty others saw the fight? This looks very bad on you all. On me. We will never speak of this again, do you hear me? Now get out, all of you."

Tefiti exhaled shakily, letting out a small sniffle accidentally as she left the pod which she tried to hide. That means the dance would still happen tomorrow. As she walked out she saw Aonung watching her from the enterance. She pushed him out the way with her shoulder, which Neteyam let out a snicker to. Aonung hissed at him, which Jake sully hit Neteyam on the back of the head for. The Sully house happened to be in the opposite direction of Tefiti's own. As they began to walk in the opposite direction, she shook off her father's grip.

He nodded to her as they were both pulled back infront of their parents, which were berating her brutally. At this point she just learnt to block them out.