CHAPTER 23

       Neteyam lay on his mattress eyes wide open - he could not sleep. It was late at night and his entire family was fast asleep but his mind kept replaying that afternoon with the tulkun.

He had held her. Neteyam had his arms wrapped around Erìhe's waist as they swam to greet the tulkun. She was warm and soft and he knew that it was just his crush that told him this but - he felt as though it was perfect. He wished he could hold her like that all the time. It had almost been like a hug.

But also he knew that Erìhe did not feel the same. She had not felt the butterflies he had when he sat behind her on that ilu with his arms wrapped around her. And this thought drove him mad - to the point that he had barely gotten any sleep in the past two days. He was seriously considering just asking his father for advice.

But he was too proud - and way too embarrassed to do so.

With a dramatic sigh, Neteyam turned on his side, determined to get some sleep. It was dark in the pod but his eyes had adjusted to the dark. They were adjusted enough to see Erìhe sat on her mattress instead of sleeping like he had initially thought.

Without warning and without thinking it through, Neteyam sat up.

Erìhe gasped when she saw his sudden movement - obviously startled. The two of them were on opposite sides of the pod and she had not noticed him being awake.

Neteyam watched as she placed a hand over her heart and closed her eyes, trying to steady her pulse. "You scared me!" She hissed at him once she'd opened her eyes to glare at him.

"I'm sorry-" Neteyam said, holding a hand out toward her in a sign of peace.

Erìhe narrowed her eyes at him. He rarely ever apologized - not sincerely, at least. "What's up with you?" She demanded in a hushed voice. The family around them was still fast asleep and they were keen on keeping it that way. Tuk got cranky if something messed with her sleep schedule.

Neteyam got to his feet, nodding his toward the exit before sneaking past his parents sleeping figures. He knew that she was following him as he stepped outside into the cool night. Sure enough, he soon felt the warm touch of her palm against his shoulder as she let him know of her presence.

He turned his body to face her and smiled at the sight of her looking up at him. They were close. Really close. That fact was enough to make him feel giddy - yet so nervous. He felt like if he looked at her for too long she would gain the ability read his thoughts.

So Neteyam cleared his throat and averted his gaze, walking forward to sit on the edge of the path. He allowed his feet to touch the cool water as he moved them, splashing the water gently.

Erìhe settled down beside him and set down her knife and the wooden figure she had been working on back in the pod. Neteyam glanced down at the toy before reaching his hand for it and holding it up to inspect it.

The amount of detail that Erìhe had put into the pa'li was amazing. It had eyes and a tail and just about everything that the real animal had. "Does he have a name?" Neteyam asked jokingly.

Erìhe chuckled as she took the figure from him to look at it herself, "It's a she," she joked and grinned when she noticed the smile stretched across Neteyam's face. "But I thought I should let Tuk name her."

Neteyam nodded in understanding. "That's nice - but a mistake, I think."

Erìhe laughed, "Why do you say that?"

"I mean, she'll probably name it something like Riri or Yamyam," Neteyam said in a joking tone, though he was serious. Tuk had already named his ikran Reyrey. She was obsessed with coming up with 'names' derived from her families titles.

"But it's cute!" Erìhe nudged him gently as she smiled down at the figure.

"You're right," Neteyam admitted.

There was a moment of silence in which the two of them looked out at the horizon. Then Erìhe spoke again. "Today was fun, right?"

Uncontrollably, Neteyam's mind jumped to when his hands were wrapped around her waist.

"Meeting the tulkun was fun," Erìhe continued. "Who would have known that Ao'nung was capable of being sweet?"

Neteyam rolled his eyes as she looked ahead. But it was true - Ao'nung had gone out of his way to introduce her to his spirit brother, and Neteyam had not been the least bit happy about it. He had been thinking of excuses to beat him up again as he'd watched Ao'nung holding Erìhe's hand to guide her to his spirit brother.

Despite his feelings, Neteyam forced a smile again, "Yeah, who would have known?"

Without warning, Erìhe's eyes snapped to him as her face turned to face him. Neteyam felt slightly starstruck as he looked into her eyes. He could see the stars above reflected in them.

"What is up with you?" She asked.

Neteyam looked around awkwardly. Had she caught onto his feelings? He had not even been aware of them up until a few days ago - had he already made it so obvious? "What is up with me - what? What do you mean?"

"You've been.. nice," Erìhe spoke as if it was the most unheard of thing.

"Well I figured I should put in an effort to be kinder," Neteyam shrugged casually. He hoped he seemed as nonchalant as he aimed to be - he prayed that she could not sense how flustered he was in that moment. "Since we're not in the forest anymore, you know?"

"What does that mean?"

"There's no need to be competitive," Neteyam elaborated.

Erìhe scoffed, "There's more reason now that ever, if you ask me," she looked back at the sky.

Neteyam's eyes lingered on her face. "What do you mean?"

"We're both learning again," Erìhe explained, "Don't you wish to become a warrior once more?"

"Of course I do," Neteyam frowned.

"Well, so do I," Erìhe chuckled.

"Whatever," Neteyam waved it off, "Do you want us to go back to the way we were?"

Erìhe looked back up at him as she thought. She was quiet for a while. Neteyam grew nervous under her gaze but he still caught his eyes drifting toward her lips. As if she'd been drawing him in, he subconsciously leaned in half an inch before stopping himself from kissing her there and then.

She seemed to not have noticed as she spoke again, "No."

"No?" Neteyam raised his brows.

"Let's not go back to how we were like before," she agreed.

A smile split on his face, "deal."

Erìhe's smile was twinning with his as she fell back to lay down on the path. As she looked up at the dark sky splattered with stars, she wished that she could see this from inside the pod as well. "Which star did your dad come from?" She asked as she motioned up at the sky.

Neteyam grinned as he leaned back. His back made contact with the path as his arm brushed against Erìhe's. "That one," he said after a while of studying the stars. Of course he was not one hundred percent sure that it was the solar system from which his father had come from, but he believed it was around that area.

Erìhe squinted her eyes, "That one?" She confirmed, pointing at a random star that glowed brighter than many of the rest.

Neteyam looked back at the side of her face again, smiling softly. Then he looked up at the star she was referring to and he lifted his hand to curl his fingers around her wrist, moving her hand slightly to the side. He also shuffled closer to her - so that their heads were pressed against each other. Neteyam closed one eye as his squinted with the other, trying to locate the star he had meant. "That one," he finally said after finding it.

Erìhe had found herself looking over at his face instead of the sky. His sudden closeness had taken her by surprise and caused her attention to drift away from the stars. When he heard no response, Neteyam glanced back at her - meeting her eyes.

Erìhe coughed awkwardly before looking skyward again, squinting as she looked beyond the tip of her finger at the star she was pointing at. She was painfully aware of his hand still holding onto hers, and she cursed herself for the blush that crept up on her cheeks. "It's pretty," she finally said.

Neteyam did not let go of her hand even as she lowered it. He continued smiling at her while she did her best to avoid eye contact. "Suppose so."

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A/n:
Y'all 102k reads on this book and 291k on skipping stones :") I love you all SO MUCH <33

Also sorry for the late update - psychology is taking up all my time and I didn't have time to edit the chapter earlier plus I'm in a damn cottage with like ten other teenagers which is taking up all my energy