oeyä tìyawn ~ neteyam sully

chapter twentyone

"I will see what i can do for you, my love." Beatrice answered with a smile, kissing his palm lovingly. Neteyam kissed Beatrices shoulder softly, gently taking his hand back.

"I have something for you, Ma'Bea. I was going to wait for your birthday, but that is a month away and i do not want to wait any longer." He spoke gently, reaching into his pouch and pulling out something. He held his enclosed fist in front of her, allowing her to open it whenever she was ready. She scrunched her eyebrows up at him, taking his hand gently.

"You can not give me a gift this close to your birthday!" She argued, gently pushing his hand back to him. He chuckled and shook his head, pushing his hand back to her.

"Please mamas, take it. I hope you like it." Neteyam spoke genuinely, his eyes shining. Beatrice huffed at him before pulling his hand closer, slowly opening his palm. She gasped as she looked at the beautiful song cord, taking it swiftly and looking over each bead carefully.

"Nete.." She breathed out softly, in absolute awe. He watched her with a smile, playing with her braids gently. "It is so beautiful. Thank you so much.." She looked up at him, twisting around so she was facing him now. He grinned widely at her, gently taking it and grabbing the bead at the beginning.

"For your birth." A shining white pearl.

"For your arrival here." A soft blue wooden bead with an atokirina carved onto it.

"For your mothers death." Neteyam spoke solemnly with this bead, Beatrices eyes watering as she admired the large black bead, a tree carved onto it.

"For when we first met." A dark red bead, the color somehow matching the fruit she would collect for the RDA exactly.

"For our first harvest." A bead matching his ikrans colors.

"For when you woke up from your coma." A soft white bead that looked suspiciously like it was carved from a medical equipment.

"For when you became Na'vi." A dark blue bead that nearly matched their skin tone.

"For your first kill." A fang shaped piece that felt like bone. A shiver ran down Beatrices spine as she wondered what the bone was from.

"For when we became promised to each other." A pink toned bead, Neteyam leaning in and kissing Beatrices lips before pulling away and moving onto the next bead.

"And for when we arrived here." Neteyam fingered with a soft orange colored seashell, Beatrice looking up at him with tears in her eyes.

"This is amazing.." She whispered, gently taking the song cord and running her fingers over each piece.

"You like it?" Neteyam asked nervously, practically feeling the pain in his fingertips from when he was weaving it together.

"Neteyam i love it. I love you." Beatrice exclaimed, jumping into his arms and wrapping her arms around his neck in a hug. He let out a breath of relief, hugging her back tightly as he left another kiss on her shoulder.

"I love you baby." He whispered into her shoulder, the two laying in each others arms for a while.

After a few hours, the two made their way back to the beach, Beatrices song cord looped through the waistband of her loincloth like Neteyams. Beatrice let go of Neteyams hand as she started to run off to the pod, excitedly yelling to Neteyam that she wanted to show her song cord to Kiri and Neytiri. Neteyam simply laughed while he watched her run off, shaking his head to himself as he continued to walk through the village.

Once Beatrice finished showing off her song cord, she went towards the village in search of Neteyam. As she passed by Metkayinas, she would smile and say hellos, the Metkayinas smiling at her friendliness and greeting her back. As Beatrice turned from someone she was greeting, she looked up and smiled as she saw Neteyam, the smile dropping slowly as she watched a girl take his hand, her feet no longer walking. She waited to see if he would take his hand back from the girl, Beatrices heart racing as it went on longer and longer before watching as the girl wove her hand through his, holding his hand tightly.

Confusion washed over Beatrice like an ice cold wave, a shaky gasp escaping her lips. How could he do all of this with Beatrice, and then allow another girl to hold his hand this way? Was he actually flirting with this girl? Did he even mean anything he told Beatrice?

A hand touching Beatrices arm spooked her out of her thoughts, the girl jumping slightly as her head snapped to the side. She came face to face with Aonung, the frown on her face deepening. She looked back over at Neteyam, watching as he continued to talk to the girl, their hands still intertwined as they laughed loudly.

"Are you alright?" Aonungs thick accent raised her attention back to him, his head tilted slightly as he looked over Beatrices face slowly. She shook her head as she took a step away from Aonung, realizing how close he stood next to her.

"I am fine, thank you Aonung. If you will excuse me, i have somewhere to be." Beatrice spoke quietly, wanting to get as far away as possible. Her eyes moved back up to Neteyam, freezing as he was already looking at her with wide eyes, pulling his hand from the girls finally. Beatrice sniffled as she shook her head at him, turning on her heel and walking in the opposite direction.

"Beatrice, wait! What is going on?" Aonung followed after her, attempting to grab her arm again. She yanked it from his grasp, despite it sounding like he genuinely cared why she was upset.

"Go away Aonung. Please." She spoke more firmly, her steps speeding up slightly.

"Bea? Are you alright?" Lo'aks voice pulled Beatrices head up, the tears slipping from her eyes involuntarily. "What did you do Aonung?"

"He did not do anything Lo'ak, just drop it." Lo'ak scrunched his eyebrows together as Beatrice called him by his actual name instead of the nickname she gave him, grabbing onto Aonungs arm.

"What did you do?!" He yelled in Aonungs face, causing Beatrice to let out a loud groan and grab onto Lo'aks arm, yanking him from Aonung.

"I said he did not do anything! Aonung, i am sorry for his actions. Lets go, Lo'ak." Aonung shook his head at Beatrices apology, not upset by it but admiring how much Lo'ak cared for Beatrice. Lo'ak looked between the two confused as Beatrice yanked him along, his eyes finally looking back to where Beatrice was facing and seeing Neteyam standing nervously next to a girl he had not seen before. He froze in his tracks, the sudden resistance causing Beatrice to stumble and look at Lo'ak confused.

"You have got to be fucking kidding me!" Lo'ak shouted, gently pulling his arm from Beatrices grasp and running over to his older brother, yelling in his face. Beatrice couldnt stop the sob that broke through her lips, turning and continuing to speed walk away from the situation. She rushed back to the sand bank, calling an ilu and jumping on quickly, allowing it to take her wherever.

Beatrice pet the ilu gently, still sniffling as tears slipped from her eyes as she stepped onto the sand, quite far from the village on what seemed to be a secluded section of the island. Beatrice sat in the sand, pulling her legs up to her chest as she silently cried, confusion breaking her heart. She didn't understand anything that was happening. Werent they happy? Didnt he want to be her mate? What was going on?

As eclipse approached, Beatrice felt her eyes grow heavy as she laid down on the sand, preferring to stay alone for the rest of the night.