Italicize - someone's thoughts or a story from the past
Bold - sign language
Tuk had woken up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, ready to start her day. Out of everyone in the pod, she was the first to awake to the sun creeping through the curtain, which signified they were allowing visitors at this time. It was particularly unusual for the youngest child to be up before everyone else because she usually had to be dragged out of her bed by her mother.
However, the girl couldn't contain the excitement she held for the events that were yet to come. A couple of days ago, Tsireya told the Omatikaya kids that they would play a game that the Metkayina children often played to test their ability to hold their breath underwater.
Not only would they be playing a game, but Tsireya promised Tuk she would show her how to make a few bracelets out of the shells she had found a while ago. If anyone else in the pod were awake, they would be able to feel the energy bursting off of little Tuk in waves.
She was kind of disappointed that no one else in the Mauri pod was awake, though.
Lo'ak was sprawled out into a starfish position, his mouth wide open, softly snoring every once in a while. Neteyam was on his side, peacefully sleeping, and Marali and Kiri were snuggled up together, limbs intertwined.
Turning her attention to her parents, she saw that her mother's head was on her father's chest. Tuk quietly walked over to her parents and softly whispered to her mom, "Mama, wake up." Neytiri reluctantly opened her eyes and saw her youngest child staring straight into her soul.
The youngest child was so close to her mother's face that she jolted back against her mate in shock. When Tuk saw her mother's reaction, she giggled and went to Neytiri's side. Neytiri was confused as to why her daughter was up so early, and she looked to see the light shining through the curtain and realized that everyone slept later than they anticipated.
She stretched out her arms and let a yawn escape past her lips as she slowly sat up. At the sudden movement next to Jake, he groggily opened his eyes to see Neytiri and Tuk awake. He felt like he could sleep for another day as yesterday's events played in his head.
Both Jake and Neytiri looked over to see the teens still fast asleep. Neither of them wanted to wake them up, as they knew they probably needed the rest, but training was resuming today, and they had already slept in longer than they intended. Jake and Neytiri tiredly smiled at their youngest, who had made her way over to Neteyam to wake him up.
The eldest boy groaned at his sister, annoyed that she was disturbing his sleep. However, this didn't deter Tuk in her motives to make sure that she would wake him first. Instead, she whispered something ineligible into his ear that had him quickly, rubbing the sleep of his eyes and sitting up to let the girl know that she didn't need to follow through on her threat.
Then, she had to decide between waking the girls or Lo'ak next. Usually, she would choose to wake Lo'ak up last because he was more fun to tease, but something told her Marali would be more fun this morning.
So, she made her way over to Lo'ak and roughly shook him awake. This startled the boy as he quickly hopped out of bed and got into a fighting position. Neteyam, Jake, and Neytiri all tried to stifle their laughter as Lo'ak whined to Tuk about how she didn't have to wake him so roughly.
"Yes, I did." She stated as the boy glared at her. Tuk rolled her eyes and stuck her tongue teasingly out at her brother, who was still grumbling about how she so rudely woke him up. The youngest child walked over to Kiri and softly whispered in her ear that it was time to get up. Out of everyone, Kiri was always the easiest to wake up because she was a light sleeper.
Kiri untangled her arms and legs from Marali and looked at her sister confused.
Why was she waking Marali last? Kiri thought to herself. Then she looked to see the evil grin on her sister's lips, and she chuckled to herself. Tuk innocently walked over to Marali and slowly brought her face to the girl in front of her.
"Mara!" She whispered shouted. The girl didn't receive much of a response other than Marali turning her head to face the opposite direction, so Tuk decided to try again. "Marali!" She whispered-shouted again. Marali softly groaned in response and whispered something, but Tuk didn't understand what she was saying.
"Mara, you better get up, or I'm going to jump on you." Tuk threatened. The teen still didn't budge, so Tuk stood up and backed into one of the corners of the pod, preparing for take off. She burst into a sprint, and then she heard Marali's voice, "Tuk Tuk, don't even think about it." Marali says with her eyes still closed. Tuk skidded to a stop but lost her balance and fell on the teen below her.
Marali opened her eyes to glare at the little girl on top of her, who was beaming at the teen with a toothy grin. "I'm going to get you." She whispered, bringing her face closer to Tuk's. Tuk squealed in excitement and quickly jumped away from the girl, planning her escape.
Everyone watched the scene in amusement as Tuk and Marali weaved in between them. Marali yelled out to Tuk that she would tickle her when she caught her. Tuk quickly ran out of the pod and stopped when she ran into someone who caused her to fall. When she looked up, she saw Tsireya, Ao'nung, and Rotxo looking at her, confused.
"Don't think you can hide from me, Tuk Tuk!" Marali shouted, giggling as she continued to chase her friend. She abruptly stopped when she saw the Metkayina teens cheekily smiling at her, even Ao'nung. She glared at the boy but decided not to say anything, instead remembering why she walked out of the pod in the first place.
Marali looked around to see if Tuk had been hiding behind the teens. She was right as she could see Tuk hiding behind Ao'nung as she giggled to herself. "Tuk, you know I can see you, right?" Marali said as she slowly made her way to the girl. Tuk burst into laughter as she jumped out from behind Ao'nung and sprinted back into the Mauri pod right past Marali.
The teen girl stalked back into the pod with the Metkayina teens right behind her. Tuk had found a new hiding place behind Neteyam, believing that he would protect her from the tickle monster.
Neteyam, however, stepped aside and pushed the girl towards Marali. Little Tuk looked at her brother in utter betrayal as he just sent her to her death. Marali smirked and sent a wink to Neteyam before attacking Tuk with her fingers, tickling her until her fingers started to hurt.
~~~~
All of the teens and Tuk made their way to the beach as Tsireya explained the game to them. It was essentially the game they all used to play back home called tag, except for the fact that they would be playing underwater instead of above. Besides them playing underwater, there was only one other difference.
They played in teams.
"Okay, so what are the teams going to be?" Tsireya asked, stopping at the edge of the beach right before the water hit her feet.
"I want to be with Rotxo." Kiri shrugged, and Rotxo shyly nodded, a slight blush growing on his cheeks. Marali thought it was cute that he developed a little crush on the girl, and Kiri seemed to tolerate him enough.
"I, I uh, want to be with Lo'ak," Tsireya said. Marali snorted at Lo'ak's reaction, receiving a glare from the boy in return.
"I- I um," Ao'nung paused nervously before looking at Tsireya, who gave him a nod of encouragement. "I want to be with Tuk." He said. No one said anything for a few minutes, and Marali could tell that the boy's nerves were eating him alive. Tuk looked at him as she latched herself onto Neteyam's arm. The little girl looked around at everyone's reactions to see all of them stiff, and it made her feel bad for the boy.
"Okay! I'll be with Ao'nung." Tuk agreed as she walked towards the boy, who let out a sigh of relief. "Great! So that means that Neteyam and Marali will be a team." Tsireya cheered. Lo'ak and Kiri waited for either of them to protest, but when neither did, Kiri and Lo'ak decided to leave it alone.
Instead, Marali walked over to Ao'nung, who was at eye level with Tuk and stopped in front of him. Ao'nung stood up to look at the girl and gulped when he saw the serious expression on her face. She brought her head to his ear and whispered, "If you so much as hurt a hair on her head, I'll make sure you live with a lifetime of pain. Got it?"
She could feel Ao'nung nod his head, obviously not able to will the words to come out. Marali pulled back with a bright smile on her face. "Good!" She said before skipping over to Neteyam, who had a questioning look on his face.
"I'll tell you later." She assured.
Everyone made their way over to their partners and got into their positions. Neteyam and Marali briefly argued over who should sit in front before Marali begrudgingly got onto the ilu first as Neteyam followed suit. He softly placed his hands around her waist, and Marali was glad he couldn't see the blush that had crept up to her cheeks.
"Is everyone ready?" Tsireya yelled questioningly. When everyone shouts in agreement that they are ready, she tells them that the game will start on the count of three.
"One."
"Two."
"Three!"
At the sound of the last number, everyone was thrust into the water as the game had begun. When the two teens went underwater, no one was around. It was like the other three groups had disappeared into thin air. She looked at Neteyam confused and he gave her the same look, not knowing where everyone had gone.
The girl closed her eyes and let her senses take control, listening for anything that could assist them in the game. Her ear twitched, and she looked to the left to see Lo'ak and Tsireya staring at them with a smirk. Quickly the girl weaved in and out of rocks as she did her best to not get caught.
Neteyam had tightened his grip around her waist to not let go, and the girl tried to dismiss the butterflies that formed in her stomach as she registered his touch. Lo'ak and Tsireya were still chasing after Neteyam and Marali with the biggest smiles on their faces.
Tsireya had told Lo'ak that she felt more comfortable sitting behind him, so that's where she was as she tightly wrapped her arms around him so that she didn't fall off. Lo'ak was smiling like an idiot. Not only because he was chasing his brother but because the girl he had a crush on was sitting behind him.
As Lo'ak got closer and closer to the two teens he had been chasing, he noticed that if he kept going, he would soon have them cornered. Marali and Neteyam noticed this, but it was already too late. The two teens, who had been following them had them cornered, and the only way they could go was up, which meant they would automatically be disqualified.
Out of the corner of Neteyam's eye, he saw movement and realized something was coming closer. He lightly squeezed Marali's waist and nudged her to look to her right. As she slightly tilted her head, she saw Ao'nung had an evil grin on his face, and Tuk had her eyes narrowed in on her target.
Lo'ak and Tsireya had no idea what was coming, but when Marali smiled at them victoriously, they gave each other confused looks before Tsireya's eyes widened, and she ushered the ilu to move. Marali almost felt bad for them. The key word being, almost. Tuk and Ao'nung had rushed after Tsireya and Lo'ak, giving the two teens who had been cornered a way out.
Marali and Neteyam knew they would be distracted for a while, so they decided to find Kiri and Rotxo. Those two still had yet to make their presence known. Marali stopped out in the open and concentrated on trying to find Kiri, using the two's connection to her advantage. She felt a pull of energy urging her to continue straight, so she looked at Neteyam and pointed in the direction she wanted to go in. He nodded, and then they both took off.
The pull that Marali felt towards Kiri grew stronger and stronger, until she finally broke her focus, now having Rotxo and Kiri in her line of sight. Marali turned around and grinned at Neteyam with a twinkle in her eye as he shook his head with a small smile playing on his lips. Quietly, the two teens steadily made their way behind Rotxo and Kiri, who had yet to realize their presence. Rotxo must have heard something as he quickly turned his head, but it was already too late. Marali tagged Rotxo, and Neteyam tagged Kiri.
Kiri looked at them, shocked that they had found them, and Rotxo had a disappointed smile on his face. The two who had been tagged made their way up to the surface to see Lo'ak and Tsireya already there.
"Who got you two?" Rotxo questioned.
"Tuk and Ao'nung," Tsireya said, disappointment evident in her tone. Lo'ak had his eyes narrowed, and his lower lip stuck out in a pout.
"Who got you guys?" Tsireya asks.
"Marali and Neteyam."
"Figures. Wanna bet on who's gonna win?" Lo'ak said. Kiri rolled her eyes as Rotxo agreed to get in on the bet.
Marali and Neteyam were celebrating the fact that they had gotten Rotxo and Kiri out when they spotted their enemy in front of them. Tuk was smiling at them deviously, and Ao'nung had his eyes narrowed at them. Tuk put out her arm in single of charging towards the two teens and rapidly made her way to chase them.
The battle between the two teams left was quite close as they were surprisingly evenly matched. Marali and Neteyam were the most competitive out of everyone. However, their opponents, mostly Tuk, had a determined look in their eyes.
Both teams went back and forth, weaving in and out of rocks, taking turns chasing after the other.
Everyone was surprised at how long it was taking to reveal the winner, as they had been under the water for a while.
Marali's ilu was slightly faster than the ilu her opponents were on, so she was using that to her advantage, but Ao'nung knew his way around the sea better. Mix that with the fact the Neteyam and Marali were running out of air, and you have yourselves a winner.
Neteyam and Marali begrudgingly made their way to the surface in defeat as Ao'nung and Tuk followed shortly after.
Kiri and Lo'ak looked at them with shocked expressions, and Tsireya and Rotxo smiled at the team that won.
"YES!" Tuk shouted. "I beat Neteyam and Marali!" The little girl turned around to give the boy behind her a high-five. The action confused him at first, but he reluctantly hit her hand. "Ao'nung, you are never allowed to have someone else as your partner." Tuk declared as everyone laughed at her.
"I can't believe they beat you." Lo'ak breathed out still in shock. Marali shrugged her shoulders and smiled at Tuk.
"That was so much fun," Kiri said.
"It was, but we should get out of the water and go make those bracelets I promised to teach you how to make," Tsireya said.
"This day just keeps getting better and better." Tuk cheered. Everyone smiled at the joy present on the girl's face.
Unedited. 05/22/23
Edited. 05/21/23
Word Count: 2,740
Quick note-
Thank you all for 400 hundred reads! I appreciate it beyond words!
Also, we saw more of Tuk in this chapter. What did you think?