Little Miss Perfect | Neteyam¹

Chapter 30: Battle Ground pt. 2

Italicize - someone's thoughts or a story from the past

Bold - sign language

Neteyam immediately sprang into action as he quickly swam towards Marali and wrapped her arm around his shoulders, ignoring his pain.

"Shit!" Lo'ak yells as he swims to help his brother.

"Give me a hand!" Neteyam says, looking at Spider.

Marali could feel the burn in her chest as it moved throughout her body. As Neteyam slightly lets go of Marali to grab onto his ilu, Marali goes underwater. "Keep her up!" Lo'ak shouts, and Spider grabs onto Marali to pick up Neteyam's slack.

"I got her," Spider said.

Lo'ak and Spider help bring Marali towards Neteyam's ilu as they gently force her onto the animal. Lo'ak gets behind Marali and gently holds onto her waist while Neteyam ensures that he has a hold of her from the front. He can feel her weak body slouching against his.

Marali looks over to the side to see Tsireya and Spider holding onto the side of the ilu as Lo'ak wills the animal to move forward. "This is one way to say welcome home, huh, Spider?" Marali joked, slightly chuckling, only to groan in pain.

"You shouldn't be joking right now." Neteyam scolds.

The girl is losing strength by the second, and it's getting harder and harder to hold herself up. "It's okay, sis, I got you," Lo'ak said, trying to assure the teen girl, who was in pain.

"They have Tuk and Kiri," Tsireya warned, and Marali felt a surge of strength and panic coarse through her veins. "We have to go back," She demands, and Neteyam scoffs. "Isn't one gunshot enough?" He snaps as they move further and further away from the ship.

"If anything happens to them, I swear ill-" Marali was interrupted by the boy, "You'll what? Huh? You'll jump off this ilu and risk your life again?" He shouts, and Marali flinches before another whimper of pain escape her lips.

All of them wanted to go back for Kiri and Tuk, but it wasn't sensible right now. Marali was seriously hurt. They were all frightened that this would be the last time they ever got to see her or talk to her again. Neteyam had to make the tough decision to continue moving forward, hoping his parents would go and rescue his sisters.

Neteyam urged the ilu to move as fast as it could, but it was hard with all of the extra weight on the animal. There was one ilu and five teenagers. The boy felt horrible for what he was doing to the animal, but he didn't have a choice. He had to protect his family, and he had to protect Marali.

When he saw some rocks up ahead, he pushed the ilu harder and faster. Once they approached the rocks, he quickly hopped off the ilu, and everyone else followed his actions.

His only focus was Marali. His Marali.

"Dad! Help! It's Marali!" Lo'ak yells, and Neteyam turns his head to see that his father is running toward them.

Now that his Dad was here, he knew everything would be okay. At least he had hoped that everything would be okay.

"Hurry!" Tsireya yells.

"Here. Take her," Lo'ak says, handing the girl to Neteyam, Spider, and Tsireya.

"No," Jake said, crouching down towards the kids.

Jake gently grabs Marali's body and pulls her out of the water before he lays her down on the rocks. Marali coughs weakly as she keeps a hand over her chest. The pain from the gunshot continued to grow and it made it hard for the girl to breathe. It felt like with each breath she took she had to take another two to feel like she was getting enough oxygen.