Blood and Water | Neteyam

Out of Rage and Sorrow ∼ 17

Tsireya stood above her, smiling down at her, water dripping off her. Tcelia hesitated a second, then looked at Tsireya's hair. Her hair was braided at her roots, sweeping it away from her face but was unbraided further down, causing her free hair to cascade down her back. There was no denying that the girl was talented if she had done it herself.

Tcelia stood up slowly, "I'd love your help," She returned the girl's smile.

Tsireya beamed at her and took her hand, "Come, let us sit over here," the girl led Tcelia back to where she had placed the large shell with her precious beads in. Tsireya placed herself behind Tcelia and forced her to sit down. Tcelia laughed at how eager Tsireya seemed to be.

"How would you like it?" Tsireya asked, "Full braids like you had earlier, or would you like to try something different?"

Tcelia mulled over this for a second, "You can do anything you want as long as you promise to use all the beads in the shell," She gestured at the shell beside them.

"Oh, they are lovely!" Tsireya said as she peered into the shell, "Where did you get them?"

"They are all presents from the Sully family and from my friends back in the forest," she admitted shyly, "They are the most precious things I own."

Tsireya laughed, "I know what you mean," she showed Tcelia a white shell that hung from a small braid she had hidden underneath her free-flowing hair. Tcelia had to crane her neck to see it, "This is a shell I got from my mother."

They gushed a little about each other's beads and shells. Tsireya wore a beautiful white pearl that hung on her forehead, dangling from seaweed that she had braided into her hair. Tcelia listened in wonder at the many different Metkayina techniques of braiding there were as Tsireya was cleaning her hair.

"Sooo," Tcelia could hear the sly smile that was on Tsireya's face as she spoke, "Which ones are from Neteyam?" she asked as she started sectioning Tcelia's hair.

Tcelia paused briefly, before pointing them out to the girl. Tcelia held them carefully, not wanting to drop them in the ocean accidentally. The larger orange bead he had given her on her ninth birthday lay nestled in between the three other beads he had given her. A yellow stone with red veins, another slightly lighter orange bead, and a black stone he had found once when they had gone swimming together.

It was very common for young Na'vi to gift each other beads since they didn't have much of anything else they could give, and usually you wouldn't receive beads from anyone over the age of eleven. But Neteyam had given Tcelia the black stone when he had been sixteen and they had been swimming through a stream together.

It had just been the two of them, the day before his Dream Hunt. 'Just in case', he had said, and 'something to remember me by'. Tcelia knew that he had been teasing her for worrying so much, but it had still stuck with her, and she had kept the stone.

There lay another handful beads left in the shell that she had received from the rest of the Sully family, 'Ukxo and some of her other friends from the forest, but the ones from Neteyam were the ones she held most dearly.

That was, except for the small, white stone she usually wore underneath the rest of her braids. The white stone had belonged to her mother. Neytiri had taken it from her mother's hair after she had died and braided into Tcelia's hair.

Tsireya must have mistaken her silence for longing for suddenly she asked, "So when are you and Neteyam getting together?"

Tcelia coughed in surprise, almost dropping the beads in her hands. She had not expected the question at all, "We are not – Neteyam and I are just friends," she insisted, heat rising to her cheeks. She was glad that Tsireya couldn't see her flush face right at that moment.