The Breath of Water | Neteyam

• HALLOWEEN SPECIAL FINAL PART •

Happy Halloween!! 🎃👻👻
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"Where have you two been?" Tuk asked as she hugged her brother.

"We were looking for the rest of Liya's costume." He picked up his sister while saying this, making her giggle. "Where's her headpiece, you?"

"Heehee..."

"Tuuuk." He said, elongating the sound.

"I have a headpiece?" Liyanin asked, looking over Neteyam's shoulder.

"Yes, and Tuk was in charge of taking care of it. So where is it, Tuk?" he spoke in a voice a parent would to their child when doing something wrong, but he had a smile on his face. She returned the smile, then ran over to the hammock to get it. She held it up for them to see, Liyanin's mouth falling agape.

"Thank you, Tuk. Now go with the others." Neteyam told her. She nodded, then scurried off. Neteyam turned to his lover, looking over the headpiece to make sure he placed it on her hair correctly. Liyanin watched him as he did this, curious as to when and how they made it.

"I made this one," he said as he reached over her head, securing the headwear. She looked downwards so he could do it without any problems, her eyes lingering on his chest. "I worked on it for about three weeks."

"Three??" she exclaimed. "Just for this?"

"I had to get it to stay up correctly." He now finished, leaving his hands to fall at his sides. "I had to experiment with many different materials."

"Hm...I wonder what I look like with all of this on..." She mumbled, playing with the long pieces of her top. Neteyam looked over her figure, then his ears sprung suddenly out of realization.

"You are a genius, Yawne!" he started shuffling through a basket that held lots of things they brought over from the forest. There were tools and other gadgets, but Neteyam stood up once he found what he was looking for. It was some sort of box that had a circular reflective surface on one of its sides. Liyanin tilted her head, trying to figure out what it was.

"This is a camera. It takes pictures of things and people." He elaborated.

"...takes pictures?"

"Yes. Like this." He held it up to his face, snapping a photo. A flash went off, making Liyanin jump.

"What was that?!"

He laughed before he could answer, her reaction to said flash making him die with amusement. "...ha, man. It was just a light to help see you more in the photo. See?" he said as he took the paper carefully from the camera. He held it up to her as she looked at it, eyes wide with wonder. The picture was slowly fading in, for it was a polaroid.

"This is sorcery." She concluded.

"Sky People tech, actually." He corrected. The picture was now fully there, so he told her to look. She did and instantly snatched it from his hand. He then began to laugh again.

"Why does my face look like that?" she cried, hiding the photo from him. "Have I always looked this way? And you said nothing?"

"Liya, you are beautiful. You were just...caught off guard in that photo." He then walked over to his parents' hammock, reached under it for something. He pulled out a long, black stick, but it was three bars connected together. He put it down, moving the three bars away from each other to make it stand up. He then took the camera and set it up there.

"Let's take another." He said, grabbing her hand to lead her more towards the center. Liyanin smiled softly, letting the test photo fall onto the floor. Neteyam fiddled with the settings to make it have a timer, and then walked back to her. "Okay I set a ten second—"

Before he finished talking, Liyanin had grabbed his face and kissed him on the lips. He reciprocated, but then laughed. "Honey, I set a timer..." he said between kisses. She continued anyway, but then at the last few seconds she backed up but turned his face to look at the camera as she looked at it too.

Snap!

"That should be a good photo." She smiled.

"Ha, yes. It is."

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"Hey bro. Look!" Lo'ak shouted to Neteyam. Neteyam was holding Liyanin's hand as they walked over to the platform and Lo'ak was holding a basket full of sweets and other delicacies. "Trick or treat, mateys?" he said in a pirate voice. Neteyam shook his head as Liyanin blinked in confusion at his sudden voice change.

"They are supposed to say that, skxawng." Kiri said as she walked over. She handed them handmade baskets that were decorated to look like the creature they dressed up as. They let go of each other's hands, taking the baskets.

"You are a pirate now, Lo'ak?" Neteyam asked. "Thought you were a nantang (viperwolf)."

"Dad's been teaching me how to talk like a pirate, so I wanted to try it out." He replied. He then held up the basket, wanting them to get some sweets. "Here. Part of the tradition."

"Sweets and tarts are part of the tradition?" Liyanin asked as she grabbed some one by one.

"Well, it should be candy, but we don't really have any of that."

"Candy?"

"Sky people delicacy." Lo'ak added. He then walked over to the rest of the people. Tsireya, Kiri, Tuk, Aonung, Rotxo, and Masanai were all there.

"Sister!" Tsireya exclaimed as she rushed over to her, arms out. Liyanin embraced her, giggling on the impact. "You look amazing."

"You do as well. I see you chose the atanyoang." She mentioned. "Fits you, you are a ray of light."

"Heehee, thank you."

Neteyam smiled upon the interaction, then was began to get pulled by his youngest sister over to the bonfire. "I wanna show you what I made!" she shouted.

"Haha, alright, alright." He replied.

Aonung got up to talk to his siblings, and Kiri was asking questions to Masanai about her costume; she got dressed up as a tsurak and Kiri was curious as to why.

Time passed by, and everyone was eventually dancing and laughing. Neteyam had a few dances with Tuk and Kiri, then started to play the drums while Liyanin sang. Tsireya was dancing with Lo'ak, and Aonung, Rotxo, and Masanai formed a dancing group, doing various group numbers.

Tuk was standing on her sister's feet as they danced around the fire, a beaming smile on both of their faces. The sweets she ate earlier had kicked in, and so she was kind of hyper.

Liyanin continued to sing and Neteyam focused on his drumming when suddenly Aonung and Tsireya offered to take their places. They both agreed, the relief allowing them some time to dance together.

After a bit of that, they all gathered around the fire to listen to scary stories. Aonung surprisingly had a few in the chamber and Masanai surprisingly was scared of every single story being told. Neteyam was spacing out after the fifth or sixth story when he felt a hand grab his. He looked to see who it was, and his face saw a spooked Liyanin. He realized she grabbed him unintentionally, which made him laugh. She masked her fear well, he thought.

He returned the grip, making her realize what she did. She turned to look at him, seeing his eyes gazing softly at her.

She smiled, then scooted over to rest her head on his shoulder.

I love you. More than anything else in this world and the next. Nothing will keep us apart, so as long as your heart beats for me as well.

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