Blood and Water | Neteyam

A Disregard of Feelings ∼ 26

"Are you sure it is safe?" Ao'nung asked nervously, eyeing Tcelia's ikran anxiously. Tcelia almost laughed at his expression, it was not often you saw him so out of his comfort zone. He usually acted like the ruler of the ocean, smugness coming off him in waves. But the idea of flying seemed to scare him to death.

"No, Ao'nung, it is not safe at all," Tcelia grinned at him, "That is what makes it so fun," she connected her queue to Niwin's, jumping on her and extended a hand down towards Ao'nung, who stared at it uneasily too, as if taking it meant signing his own death warrant.

Tcelia sighed exasperatedly, shaking her hand up and down impatiently, "Why were you so insistent on this yesterday if you are so scared now?"

They heard Tsireya giggle and Tcelia looked over as Lo'ak's ikran whined gratefully as Tsireya fed it a fish. "He likes you," Tcelia could hear Lo'ak saying to Tsireya before he jumped atop the ikran, then helped Tsireya up as well. The girl took his hand and climbed up carefully but unafraid, excitement radiating from her. Tcelia turned her attention back to Ao'nung,

"Listen, if you do not want to do this, just say so," A mischievous smirk played on her lips, "There is no shame in being scared." Ao'nung's nostrils flared, and he squared his jaw, grabbing Tcelia's hand and forcing himself to get up behind her.

At first he barely touched her, but as Niwin lifted her front claws and raised her wings, preparing to fly, Ao'nung jerked his arms around her waist, crushing her to the point of pain, as he let out an uneasy gasp.

"Ao'nung, bro, you are hurting me," Tcelia huffed and Ao'nung's strain on her eased slightly. Not a lot, but enough to allow Tcelia to breathe normally.

She looked over at Lo'ak who seemed a lot more comfortable with Tsireya's arms wrapped around him. Tcelia shot him a smirk and he narrowed his eyes at her, then he looked at Ao'nung who was clinging on to her for dear life and raised an eyebrow in amusement.

Tcelia raised her shoulders in a shrug and rolled her eyes slightly to communicate: What can you do? Lo'ak chuckled then asked if Tsireya was ready, to which the girl nodded eagerly. They shot into the sky, Tsireya letting out a shriek of delight.

"You ready?" Tcelia glanced back at Ao'nung, who seemed to be regretting every single life choice he had made that had gotten him into this situation.

He gritted his teeth, "Just do it."

Tcelia briefly wondered what other things she could get him to do all because he refused to lose face in front of anyone, then urged Niwin to fly.

Yesterday, by the water terraces, Lo'ak had mentioned briefly how different a bond with an ikran was compared to a tulkun, and Tsireya's eyes had widened in excitement, begging for Lo'ak to take her flying. He had accepted, somewhat reluctantly. Tcelia understood why; if anything was to happen to Tsireya, the Olo'eyktan's daughter, on the flight, Tonowari would murder Lo'ak, then Jake would somehow find a way to resurrect him only so that he could kill him too.

Ao'nung had looked at Tcelia with a smirk, claiming that if his sister got to try flying, there was no way he was going to let her have all the fun. Tcelia had offered to take him out of kindness, but in reality she would rather have avoided it. She could think of a lot of other stuff she'd rather be doing. Like finishing the necklace she was making for Kiri, perhaps with Neteyam by her side.

But maybe it had been a good thing that Ao'nung had been so persistent about it so that Tcelia could put some distance between her and Neteyam. At least until she'd sorted her feelings out; her mind was a confused mess at the moment. Ao'nung had seemed pleased that Tcelia had offered to take him but his smugness from the night before had disappeared the second he had laid eyes on the ikrans.