I wake up to the sound of distant horns. I open my eyes and see blue. I look up to see Neteyam asleep. Shit.
"Neteyam wake up, we fell asleep!" I shake him.
He jolts up and looks at me. "Shit"
We both run to the cave entrance and call our ilu's. Neteyam's ilu gets here first so we just both get onto it. Neteyam grabs my thigh before we go under the water. I feel butterflies in my belly. I wrap my arms round his waist and hug his back. We get close to the clan and swim off the ilu. We walk to shore and are met with a worried Tsireya and Lo'ak. They run to us and hold us tight.
"Where have you been!" a voice booms from behind us. Father, followed by Jake.
I look at him and walk away without saying a word. I go to the family hut.
He follows shortly behind and when he reaches the hut he asks again "Where have you been y/n?"
"Nowhere" I reply coldly.
"Well that's clearly a lie isn't it" he responds angrily.
"You want to talk about lying? I've been lied to my whole life by you!" he takes a step back not knowing what to say.
"Sit down" he says pleadingly.
I reluctantly sit crossed legged on the floor.
"Y/n we didn't tell you because we thought it would do more harm than good. We knew we needed to tell you but we were scared we would lose you. You are my daughter, biological or not no matter what."
"Why did they do it? The sky people?" I respond.
"We don't know" is all he can respond.
"Y/n all we can do is promise we will never keep another secret from you again and only hope it is good enough for you to stay" he responds in a defeated tone.
I stay silent. I stand up. I wrap my arms round my father and hug him.
"You did what you thought was best for me" I say. Everyone else enters and joins the hug apologising to me one by one.
* A few days later*
Lessons for the Sully's are finally over and tonight we are celebrating with a beach party. Me, Tsireya and Kiri all get ready in our hut while the boys are in theirs with Aonung. Aonung slowly warmed up to the Sully's over their time here and I think he would even class them as friends now.
I braid Tsireya's hair while kiri defines my curls at the same time. We have all grown so close, like a family, they are truly part of us now. We finally finish getting ready, fashionably late of course, and make our way to the main part of the beach. Everyone is already drinking, dancing, laughing and having a good time. I make my way to the fire pit and watch the flames dance in front of me while the others wonder off to mingle. It's so beautiful.
I feel a tap on my shoulder and turn to see Lo'ak, he hands me a drink and smiles. "How are you y/n? You look beautiful tonight" he asks.
"Thanks! I'm feeling pretty good Lo'ak, how about you?" I respond.
"Much better now you're here! I was feeling lonely" he laughs. I laugh with him.
We sit on the warm sand and talk about random stuff and then I realised.. "Omg Lo'ak I forgot to tell you something!"
"What?" he asks with a puzzled look.
I explain to him everything that happened the day I went to the cave and all about meeting Payakan. He smiles widely and we talk for what seems like forever about Payakan and our experiences. He gets called over to Aonung and excuses himself. I look round at everyone feeling happy to see them all enjoying themselves.
As I look round I notice a figure on the beach. I stand up and dust myself off before walking along the beach to the figure. It gets clearer the closer I get and I see Neteyam sitting in our spot. He notices me and gets up, he runs to me giving me a big cuddle. I ask him if he's okay and he nods with a smile. We both sit down and look out to the water.
"Y/n?" Neteyam starts.
I turn to him in response and he says "I just want to say thank you for teaching me and my siblings the last few months. It means a lot to us all, we couldn't have done all this without you."
I smile and say "It's no problem at all Neteyam"
He gets all shy and says quietly "I've made you something " and pulls a beautiful seashell necklace from beside him. I gasp. It's beautiful.
"Neteyam its beautiful! Thank you" I say as I wrap my arms round his neck. I let go and turn round so he can put it on for me.
I hold my hair to the side and his fingers brush my neck as he clips the necklace on and it sends shivers down my body. I turn back round to face him and he's smiling.
"You sop!" I joke and he nudges me playfully. I nudge him back and we start play fighting. I roll on top of him pinning his arms down and he admits defeat.
"Looks like i'm still the mighty warrior" I tease him. He rolls me over so he's on top of me now. "Take it back" he teases back, we laugh and then our eyes meet, his beautiful amber eyes. He looks from my eyes to my lips, back to my eyes then to my lips again. We both lean forward towards eachother and then....
"Y/n!"
We both look in the direction it came from to see our fathers standing at the bridge. We look at each other. Neteyam climbs off me and helps me up. We walk to our fathers and part ways. Why do I feel sad?