CHAPTER 10

Neteyam watched as Erìhe walked ahead, towards the group of boys. He saw Ao'nung smiling as he saw her approach - Neteyam had no doubt that he was waiting to make fun of them again.

When Erìhe came to a stop in front of the four boys, she stood confidently as they took in her appearance. She was smiling, as if she did not feel uncomfortable by their eyes raking her body.

"Forest girl," Ao'nung said as he stood up. His friends mimicked his action and laughed as they got to her feet.

"Baby tail," one whispered to the other - he was not being so secretive about it, even if he had used a hushed tone.

Instead of showing offense, Erìhe continued smiling at them. She knew they could be mean, so she had decided to take a different approach.

Many older kids back at home said that she was pretty, and that she could get anything she wanted if she tried hard enough. Erìhe did not believe them - but she decided to put their theories to test. Aok had once taught her how to smile in a way that would make boys feel special. Erìhe found it repulsive - but it did not stop her from trying it.

"Where can I get firewood? Neytiri asked me and Neteyam-" she turned her head and lifted her hand to gesture at the boy who stood rooted where she'd left him, "-to fetch some."

"Neytiri? Not mom? You aren't hers?" Ao'nung asked instead of listening to her request.

Erìhe's smile faltered momentarily, but she had fixed her composure before any one of them could notice it, "Yes," she replied simply, "Now where can I get the-"

"Why did you follow them here?" One of the boys asked her, "Did they even want you to come along?"

"Well-"

"Are you their pet?" Another asked.

Erìhe had forgotten to smile at them, "It's-"

"We asked her to come along," Neteyam cut in, glaring at Ao'nung. None of them had noticed him walking over, and they all looked surprised to see him standing there, a hand on Erìhe's shoulder. "She is not our pet and she is not unwanted."

Erìhe held back from rolling her eyes. She knew he disagreed with his last statement.

Ao'nung held up his hand to silence his friends as he smiled at Erìhe - this time genuinely enough.

"Anyways-" Erìhe matched Ao'nung's smile, "The firewood?"

Ao'nung was now watching Neteyam, who had his narrowed eyes trained on him. It seemed like he finally decided to let them be, as he pointed to a hut a few houses down, "There. Just ask the people in that house."

Erìhe smiled at him once more, and he returned it, "Thank you," she said before taking Neteyam's wrist and leading him away. When they were no longer in earshot of the group of Metkayina, she let go of him, "Why would you say that? I had that all under control."

Neteyam laughed bitterly, "Of course. You were just taking their insults for the fun of it."

"I was keeping it civil," Erìhe corrected him.

"That was civil," Neteyam scoffed as he looked at her from the corner of his eyes. The two of them were now headed toward the hut they had been directed to and Erìhe kept her eyes up ahead.

"Nothing about the way you looked at him seemed civil," Erìhe said.

Neteyam raised his eyebrows, "What do you mean?"

Erìhe waved him off, "Forget it - let's get the wood."

Neteyam chuckled as she walked past him.

When they arrived at the pod, Erìhe was hesitant to enter. However when she looked over to Neteyam, she could tell that he had no plans of going in first, so she sucked it up. She knocked twice on one of the wooden posts of the pod before stepping inside, smiling at everyone within.

This pod was much larger than the others, and it had plenty fireplaces and Metkayina inside. It seemed like they used this place to do cooking as well.

"Hello," Erìhe greeted a group of middle aged women who watched them. "We were looking for firewood."

The women looked her up and down before their eyes drifted to Neteyam, who stood close behind her. A few of the women snickered as they saw how nervous he was, standing behind the girl for safety. Seeing this, Erìhe turned her head to from at Neteyam, giving him a questioning look that asked what he thought he was doing.

Catching her eye, Neteyam hurried to step to the side and stand next to her instead of half concealed behind her. He cleared his throat, "Yeah - um - Ao'nung told us to get firewood from here."

The woman who sat closest to them nodded before pointing to one of the corners of the pod, "Take what you need," she said before turning back to her friends.

Erìhe pressed her lips into a thin line as she looked over at Neteyam. They both shared a look before he stepped forward to get some wood.

₊˚.༄

Ao'nung clicked his tongue to the roof of his mouth several times as Tsireya, Erìhe, Lo'ak, Neteyam and Tuk watched animals approaching them through the waters. Erìhe watched in awe as the creatures circled around them. "These are ilu," Ao'nung explained, "If you want to live here - you have to ride."

Neteyam - who had been carrying Tuk - set her in the water. They all split up shortly to join their teachers.

Since there were many of them who needed to be taught, Tsireya had asked a few of her friends to help them out. Rotxo helped Tuk as Neteyam hurried to stand by Ao'nung's side. The Metkayina boy had been making eyes at Erìhe and Neteyam knew that she was naive enough to talk to him - so he merely got to him first.

That left Erìhe with a girl she had never seen before. With a smile on her face, Erìhe approached the girl who stood by one of the ilu. When she came to a stop in front of her, the girl spoke, "It is nice to finally meet you," she greeted, "I am Níawi, a friend of Tsireya."

"Erìhe," she nodded with a grin, "Nice to meet you."

Níawi smiled before leading the ilu around her so that it was positioned between the two girls, "You can sit on him now. He does not bite."

Erìhe chuckled, "I've ridden animals that do," she told her, assuring her that she was not afraid. When she placed a hand on the back of the animal before pulling herself up, she noticed Níawi watching her keenly. Once she was comfortably sat atop the ilu, she raised a brow in question.

Níawi smiled, "What kinds of animals do you have in the forest?" She asked, "By animals that bite, did you mean the ones you arrived on?"

"We have all kinds of animals back at home-" Erìhe's smile faded when she remembered that she should start thinking of this place as home, "I mean back at the forest. There's all kinds," she nodded, "And yes, we had to tussle with the ikran in order to bond with them."

Níawi looked impressed, "That is awesome," she gushed, "Then you'll have no problem mastering this!"

Erìhe grimaced - had she just accidentally set her standards high?

"Are you a warrior?" Níawi suddenly asked. Erìhe looked around, Lo'ak and Neteyam seemed to be much further along than her - they had already connected their queues. Still, she did not mind the girl's questions. "I recognize your armband - isn't it for warriors? Your father has it. So does that boy," she pointed at Neteyam.

"Jake is not my father," Erìhe chuckled, then she looked back at Neteyam, meeting his gaze.

"Oh.." Níawi nodded in understanding, looking away from Neteyam.

Neteyam had chosen that moment to look over at the two girls, and he hurried to avert his gaze when he saw Erìhe looking back at him. When she looked away again, her eyes fell on the armband she wore. "I was a warrior."

"You are not anymore?" Níawi asked curiously as she pet the ilu's neck.

Erìhe smiled, "I have a lot to learn first, right?"

As if this reminded Níawi that she was supposed to be teaching her, she grinned again and nodded. "Right," she agreed, "You can make the bond."

Erìhe nodded as she reached for her queue over her shoulder. Níawi held up the ilu's queue for her and she connected them. Immediately she could feel the animal at another level, she was much more aware of its breaths and heartbeat.

"I think this will be easy for you, as you tamed an ikran too," Níawi laughed before patting the ilu's back, urging it to go forward.

The ilu lurched forward slightly and Erìhe gripped onto the handle to stay seated. When she looked past her shoulder back at Níawi, she cracked a smile upon seeing the girl's amused laughter.

It took Erìhe a million tries to get it right. She kept falling off her ilu. Níawi seemed to be slightly disappointed - like she'd expected to see a great performance on her first try. Erìhe was embarrassed about her shortcomings, but when she looked around and saw that Neteyam and Lo'ak were nowhere near perfect, she felt better.

Finally, after half an hour of practicing, Erìhe was able to stay seated on the ilu's back. Controlling him was no problem - that was easy - but adjusting your grip and position each time you went underwater was the challenging part.

When she circled Níawi, she could see Neteyam glaring at her. With a frown, she looked away again - wondering what the hell she could have done to piss him off this time.

"You did it!" Níawi cheered as she reached out to hold the ilu steady. Erìhe grinned and held her hand up for a high-five. The Metkayina looked at her hand questioningly before hesitantly doing the same. Her eyes widened when Erìhe hit her hand with her own, but she started laughing shortly, "Okay-," she chuckled, "We should be friends."

Erìhe smiled, "That would be great."

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A/n:
At this point I'll probably have these notes on every chapter.. I'm really so sorry :")

I just wanted to remind everyone that I'll go back to my normal publishing time which is around 5-6pm (EET) and requesting updates wont really work on me - and that was supposed to sound as gentle as possible- I don't want to sound mean, sorry!

I think I'll tell you about my writing process just so everyone can understand a little better why I only publish once a day (if anyone even cares, that is)

But yeah - I write my chapters so that they are ready for publishing (right now I have about thirteen unpublished chapters in the drafts) and then I proofread them right before publishing (hence the many spelling mistakes). I write them so ahead because with school and everything, it all becomes very stressful, so seeing that I have many chapters helps motivate me! But yeah, I update once a day EXCEPT once I have completed this book or feel like I'm moving swiftly through the chapters, I will publish more than once a day!

So technically I could publish more than once a day, but I won't so that I stay motivated and keep writing!

Tips and criticism is always appreciated! And thank you so much for 20k already! I love you guys so much <33

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Also all the drawings I put in this book are made by me, unless I state something different - I just like to draw and I feel like sharing them with you guys, so that's why there's random drawings sometimes <33