The Breath of Water | Neteyam

13 • Those Looming Feelings

"Good morning!!" Tuk shouted, hopping up and down, trying to wake up her siblings. Her brothers groaned, annoyed with her loud screaming so early in the morning. Kiri didn't seem to hear her the first time, so Tuk ran over to her sister and plopped on her.

"Ow! Ugh, Tuk!" she complained.

"You gotta gotta gotta wake up!" Tuk said, still shouting.

"What's so important that you have to wake us up like this?" asked Lo'ak.

"Mom and Dad told me to wake up Neteyam because he has to practice for the second phase of the Hunt."

Neteyam immediately shot up, slightly delirious, but also confused at what he just heard. "Wait, what do you mean, second phase?"

"You didn't know? Well, Dad says the second phase is going to be much harder, so you need to get up!" she explained.

"Tuk, if Mom and Dad told you to wake up Neteyam, then why did you shout at all of us to get up?" Kiri questioned, slight irritation in her voice.

"Oh...yeah...my bad!"

"Aww, Tuk!" Lo'ak yelled, getting up to chase her. Tuk screamed and started running out of the pod, her brother running after her.

"...there is a second phase of that...?" Neteyam said to himself, appearing to be in a daze.

"I'm going back to sleep." Kiri said, laying back down.

"...there is a second phase......?"

"Augh, yes! There's a second phase! Now go out and practice!" Kiri yelled, then proceeded to lie back down. Her sudden outburst scared Neteyam, making him jump. He sighed and then got up out of his cot, leaving Kiri to her sleep.

He walked along the sand, rubbing his face to try and wake himself up even more. He then figured that he could use the sea water to help awaken his eyes, so he bent down to face the sea, splashing his face with the slightly cold water.

"I hear they call you taronyu, now?"

Neteyam knew who the voice belonged to, and when he heard it, a happy feeling bubble up in his chest. He didn't know why, but he knew that he liked it. He turned his head towards the source of the voice, seeing Liyanin smiling.

He got up from his knees and walked over to her, a smile on his face as well. "Hey, Liyanin! They really call me that?"

"Yes, I have been hearing it amongst the teens. I guess you really impressed them that day." She laughed.

"I only caught one net...Masanai is the one they should be talking about. She caught three."

"She always manages to catch the most. But they expected you to lose. You proved them otherwise," she said, looking at his arms. "I knew your strength was outstanding that day."

"Haha...so, have you come here with good news?" he asked.

"Yes...I have finished preparing the fish, so...we can begin our lesson."

"Amazing! Could we start with breathing in the water?" Neteyam suggested.

"My sister has not taught you that already?" Liyanin asked, confused.

"Oh...you weren't the only one who skipped out on some lessons..."

"...You skipped lessons?"

"Only a few...I figured that if I learned them all from Tsireya, our song beads would mean nothing, and there would be nothing left for me to learn from...well, you." He explained.

"I guess...you have a point...well, follow me." She started to walk out into the sea, Neteyam following behind her. "Since you want to expand your threshold so bad, we can start with that." she told him, making him laugh. She went into the deep water, then stuck her hand out to help Neteyam. She didn't realize she had done it, but by the time she did, Neteyam had already seen it, so it wasn't like she could pull it away. He laughed as he grabbed onto her, finding the fact that she thought he needed help funny. When his fingers grasped on to hers, the warm feeling that travelled through Liyanin made her smile involuntarily.