Te'rani's eyes widened and she looked up. Far ahead of her was a group of Metkayina boys all on the ground, fighting around with two bluer boys.
Te'rani immediately ran there and saw Kiri watching, trying to tell them to stop.
"What the hell is going on here?!" Te'rani asked.
Kiri turned to her, not expecting to see her now.
"They're just....fighting" kiri tried to explain.
Te'rani was furious. She saw Ao'nung land a punch on Lo'ak.
"Hey!" She screamed.
Everyone stopped and turned to her.
Ao'nung flinched, letting go of Lo'ak's tail.
Te'rani rarely got angry. But when she did, you really did not want to mess with her.
Te'rani marched up to Ao'nung and dragged him away Lo'ak by holding his neck sharply.
"ow ow ow" he cringed at her strong grip.
Te'rani saw Neytiri's oldest son scramble away from one of Ao'nung's friends that he was beating up. Te'rani chose to ignore that.
"What do you think you're doing?!" She shouted at all of his friends who were also fighting.
Ao'nung had blood running down his nose. Te'rani hissed in frustration when she saw it.
Even Kiri had her eyes wide while she watched Te'rani blow.
"Oh Eywa are you both okay?" She turned to Neytiri's sons, who were still lying on the floor.
They both had busted lips and bloody noses. They looked like deers in headlights.
_________________________________________
Te'rani had taken Ao'nung to their mauri and explained to Ronal what happened.
This event reminded her a little too much of something that happened when she was a kid, slightly younger than them.
A thirteen year old Te'rani was more dangerous than a fifteen year old one. She didn't know why, but while entering that adolescent age, she gained one hell of an attitude. And temper. Now that Te'rani looked back, it was perhaps just a teenage thing.
She was spending time with her friend, Kat'nu in the beach, helping her collect shells when a real stick in the mud appeared. Aa'pau. His constant teasing towards Kat'nu made Te'rani so angry that she had landed a punch on the guy's face. And what's the best thing about all this? All three of them have become inseparable over the years, best friends.
The memory made te'rani laugh and wheeze uncontrollably whenever someone brought it up, but not under these circumstances.
Te'rani felt horrible for Neytiri's sons. They didn't at all seem like the type to start a fight for no reason.
It angered her that it was definatlly Ao'nung who prompted them into a dispute.
Te'rani walked to Neytiri's mauri to apologize on Ao'nung's behalf and check on the boys, but she stopped when they came into view.
Neytiri stood infront of them, Lo'ak looked like he was trying to explain himself.
It was hard to hear what he was saying over the sounds of water splashing and other people talking but she heard bits of it.
"....Called Kiri a freak" he said.
Te'rani's tail swished from side to side in anger.
"...make peace.." Neytiri spoke after placing a hand on her forehead.
Te'rani felt bad for the boys. They had to apologize just because Ao'nung was the Olo'eyktan's son.
It was not fair at all.
Te'rani just stood there for a while, thinking, till the boys walked out of the Mauri.
Lo'ak walked away quickly before his brother could catch up to him.
The older boy, Te'rani tried to recall his name.
There's lo'ak, Kiri...Tuk and....Neye....Neteyam! She thought.
Neteyam was walking To the beach and Te'rani decided she would try to help him get fixed up. That bruised lip didn't look too good.
He walked ahead of her while she tried to catch up to his pace.
"Hey! Neteyam, right?"
He turned at the sound of his name and recognized Te'rani from earlier.
Neteyam nodded and motioned 'I see you' to her.
Te'rani looked at him with pity.
"I'm sorry for my nephew's behaiviour....he can be a real pain in the ass sometimes" she said.
Neteyam pursed his lips slightly.
"The Tsahik is busy probably beating the shit out of her son right now-"
Neteyam snorted and laughed, but stopped and winced in pain a little due to his lip. He brought a hand to wipe away the blood on his face.
Te'rani smiled at hearing him laugh but cringed when he winced.
"if you want I can help you with your..." Te'rani pointed towards his slightly bruised face.
Neteyam nodded. "Thank you"
Te'rani was, from what he heard from Kiri, just like Tsireya. She and her niece were the most welcoming people in the clan by far.
"Come with me" Te'rani smiled.
He walked beside her.
"Aren't you supposed to be on Ao'nung's side for this?" Neteyam asked, half joking and half serious.
"No, I know what he said to Kiri. He deserved a punch of two for that" Te'rani spoke.
"I'm really sorry, it kinda sucks to be living here right now"
Neteyam turned to look at Te'rani, who was looking ahead, finding her way back to the mauries before turning to him too with sad eyes.
Te'rani's face broke into a smile shortly after.
"But I have to say, you and your brother really know how to put up a fight huh?"
Neteyam smirked slightly.
"There were like five of his friends and just the two of you. And let me tell you, they look worse. A lot worse" Te'rani told him, laughing.
Neteyam chuckled.
"Lo'ak was the one to start actually fighting, when he got in I couldn't just watch him loose a fight" He said.
They reached an empty marui, Te'rani's one. It was similar to the others Neteyam had seen, it wasn't smaller, but it felt smaller. That was probably due to the number of things on display everywhere. The walls were circular, like a cocoon. Instead of blue designs on the walls, her marui had purple, making it light up in a pretty way.
Collected shells, beads, sea crystals and much more just layed around, scattered in a visibly appealing way.
Te'rani asked Neteyam to sit and began rummaging through a shelf to look for a bowl of preserved ointment.
"I've noticed how protective you are of your family, I admire that" Te'rani said while walking back to where he sat.
He looked up at her.
"I guess its my job" he shrugged.
Te'rani now sat infront of him and began applying something below his lip.
It was light green in color, something that Metkayina people would use to cover bruises easily and let it heal.
But for Neteyam, the color only stood out.
He tilted his head and hissed a little at the burning sensation on his face.
"Sorry, just stay still, I promise the pain only lasts for a few seconds" she said and focused back on helping him.
As an adopted sister of the future tsahik, she got to learn a thing or two about healing. Just the very basics though.
Neteyam sighed and kept his eyes focused behind her, on the wall where spears and fishing rods were hung.
"Are you a warrior?" He asked when she was done.
"Oh, no" Te'rani denied.
She got up and turned to the wall behind her.
"These I use for my fishing. When I was younger I trained for quite some time, but I chose to stick with my real parent's professions. Hunting" Te'rani explained as she looked at her old spear, the one that was gifted to her by Tonowari when they were younger.
Neteyam tilted his head in confusion. He didn't want to say anything, but if he wasn't wrong, Te'rani's parents were supposed to be the previous Olo'eyktan and Tsahik.
Te'rani smiled sadly and turned to him.
"My real parents died when I was your age"
Neteyam's eyes widened.
"Ronal was my best friend and her parents were practically mine so they took me in"
"Oh" he looked down.
"I'm really sorry" He said.
Te'rani thinned her lips and nodded. A long silence followed. She only shared this to let him know that she too knew what it was like to loose a parent.
"It still hurts to think about them sometimes" She admitted.
Neteyam could understand how she felt. He had lost his dad at a very young age. He felt...bad. First, he couldn't believe someone as nice as her had lost both her parents at such a young age. He felt the pang of tragedy sink in.
Neteyam would often wonder what his dad would say in situations he was in. He missed him dearly.
Ever since Jake's death, no one wanted to talk about it.
In his own family, his siblings and him wouldn't talk to their mother about it because she would only get sadder.
Loosing a parent was something no one could ever recover from.
At some point it just gets easier to forget.
Te'rani sighed shakily. She shook her head and forced a smile.
"You should go home....your mother would be worried"
Neteyam nodded.
"Thank you" he said to her.
"Oh it was nothing!" she brushed off. Neteyam simply motioned "I see you" to her, knowing damn well he was going to go home and talk about what happened.
"You know if you or your family ever need anything, I'm just a few marui away" Te'rani smiled in an appealing way.
Neteyam's ears perked up in a pleasantly surprised way and he smiled. "Thank you" His eyes turned to crescents.
"You know how to get home from here?" Te'rani asked.
Neteyam nodded. "Yup"
"Alright, well, It was good talking with you Neteyam" Te'rani smiled brightly.
Her accent reminded him of his dad's. It wasn't like his mom's, Te'rani spoke more like a human than a na'vi.
She seemed to have this comforting aura around her, she was layed back and funny too. Neteyam decided that she and Tsireya were the nicest people of the clan.
He smiled.
"Bye" Neteyam said and turned.
"Bye"
Te'rani watched him slowly disappear into the crowd.