Little Miss Perfect | Neteyam¹

Chapter 26: Warnings

Eventually, Tuk got tired of running and sought refuge behind Marali. Lo'ak stalkingly walked toward Marali as he called out to his sister, "Marali can't protect you forever, Tuk,"

"Yes, she can!" Tuk laughed from behind Marali. "No, she can't," Lo'ak retorted as he stuck his tongue out at his little sister.

"Oh, yeah?" Tuk said and Marali snorted. This is the most childish argument she's seen since they left the forest. "Yeah!" Lo'ak said, nodding his head.

Suddenly an idea popped into Tuk's head, "And what if I told Marali who ate her leftovers that she was saving from a couple of days ago?" Tuk said, giving her brother a toothy grin from behind the teen girl she was hiding behind.

This grabbed Marali's attention as she turned her head to glance back at Tuk, "Who ate my leftovers?" Marali asked. Lo'ak looked at his sister with wide eyes.

The younger girl crossed her arms over her chest and gave her brother a look. Lo'ak put his arms up in surrender as he backed away from Marali and Tuk.

"Who ate my leftovers?" Marali repeated.

Tuk innocently smiled at her brother before pointing at him and saying, "Lolo did!"

Marali's head snapped in Lo'ak's direction, and she narrowed her eyes at him. "You ate my food?" She questioned, causing Lo'ak to gulp.

Kiri and Neteyam shot each other a look before they pulled Tuk behind them. They also signaled Ao'nung and Tsireya to come over to their side of the pod as well. Anyone who knew Marali knew to never mess with her food. Especially when she had been saving it for a different day. The last person who ate her food ended up with a bruised eye.

"How many times have I told you not to eat my food?" Marali questioned as she slowly walked towards the boy. "A lot," Lo'ak said as he shot a look to his siblings for help.

'You're on your own' Neteyam mouthed.

"We can do this the easy way or the hard way. I'm leaving the choice up to you." Marali said as she nonchalantly shrugged her shoulders. "What's the easy way, and what's the hard way?" Lo'ak asked.

He wanted to know all of his options before he made a decision.

"Remember Azarketi?" Marali asked, and Lo'ak shuddered as he remembered the bruise that had been on the boy's eye for a week after he touched Marali's food. "Yes," He gulped.

"That's the hard way. Wanna hear the easy way?" She said as she finally stood in front of the boy, who nodded his head in return. "The easy way is I give you a noogie."

"What the hell is a noogie?" Ao'nung said, scrunching his nose.

Marali turned her head to smile at the boy before responding, "I'll give you a demonstration if that's the option Lo'ak chooses." Ao'nung nods his head before looking at Neteyam to see if they should do anything.

Neteyam simply shook his head and turned his attention back to Marali and his little brother.

"Both of those options suck," Lo'ak mumbled.

"Well, if you don't choose, then I will." Marali starts, "And you have three seconds to decide." She finished as she brought three fingers up to demonstrate.

"Three,"

"Two,"

"On-" She was interrupted by Lo'ak yelling.

"Okay!" He shouted. "I'll take the noogie." He grumbled.

The girl smirked at the boy before she brought one arm around his neck, and the other onto the top of his head and roughly moved it back and forth. All the teens and Ronal cringed as they watched the scene before them. "Poor Lo'ak." Tsireya sympathized.