Blood and Water | Neteyam

A Surprising Change in Mood ∼ 24

Tcelia dove, reaching for a white shell that lay at the bottom of the ocean. As she reached it, she looked up, marveling at the corals and the creatures that were swimming around. She had spent almost an entire month at the reef, but it still took her breath away every time she dove under the water and was presented with the wonders of the ocean.

She waved at Ao'nung who was helping her look for shells further along the ocean bed. When she got his attention, she signed that she wanted to swim back to the beach; they had enough shells now.

Ao'nung had approached her earlier today on the beach, shyly asking if Kiri was doing better and asked if there was anything he could do to help. Tcelia had smiled at him slyly. She had planned on making Kiri a necklace to try and cheer her up, that's why she had been at the beach alone, and told Ao'nung that he was more than welcome to join her in looking for pretty shells.

To Ao'nung's credit he had agreed without hesitation and even taken her to a cove where he knew that a lot of the Metkayina usually collected their shells.

They had spent the better part of their morning diving down, collecting a few shells each, then rendezvousing above the water on a small rock, showing each other the shells they had found. Tcelia had been surprised to see that Ao'nung had seemed to enjoy the task, pointing out the best places to find pearls and helping her pick out the prettiest shells they had found.

That process had been repeated until Tcelia had decided that she had enough materials for the necklace. For what must have been the one hundredths time, they swam up to the small rock where they had collected their shells and pearls, gathering them in a small pouch weaved out of seagrass and swam back to the beach.

She had not spent much time alone with Ao'nung before today, but she found that it was surprisingly fun. He could be very nice when he tried to and Tcelia knew that if he hadn't called Kiri a freak or left Lo'ak out by Three Brothers rock, she could probably have found it in herself to forgive him for what he had done to her. But since he had done such horrible things to her friends, it would have to take him a lot more to get her to forgive him than just showing her where to find some nice shells.

She settled down on the beach, twisting strands of seagrass that she had gathered on the swim in, into durable string.

"I will be right back," Ao'nung said, leaving her to her work. Tcelia hummed in response, but she wasn't sure if Ao'nung heard her. She didn't really expect him to come back but that didn't matter much. She was pleased that he had spent his entire morning with her without complaining and she couldn't expect him to want to sit with her and watch her work.

To her astonishment, he returned a few minutes later, swinging a wicker basket back and forth. He placed himself beside her and grabbed the pouch full of shells. Then he proceeded to grab a needle and a small rock from the basket he had brought, opening the pouch, and pulled out a shell. Whistling, he began to punch a small hole through the top of the shell making it possible to string something through it. When he had finished, he dropped the shell into the basket and reached into the pouch again, grabbing another shell.

"What are you looking at?" Ao'nung smirked as he focused on his work. Tcelia, who had been looking at Ao'nung incredulously, shook her head and chuckled.

"Nothing at all," she smiled, getting back to her work.

They sat like that for a while, chatting comfortably. Tcelia had been very curious to learn about the Metkayina tattoos that the adults bore and Ao'nung was eager to tell her about it. Apparently, they received them after having completed the Metkayina version of the iknimaya ritual, when you had tamed a skimwing successfully.

As they spoke, Tcelia laid out the shells that Ao'nung had punched holes in, arranging them in the order she wanted them on the strings.

"So when do the Metkayina complete their iknimaya ritual?" Tcelia asked, perplexed. Back in the forest it was usual for Na'vi to complete it at the age of fifteen, but Ao'nung was eighteen and had not received any tattoos yet.