Blood and Water | Neteyam

A Glimmer In the Dark ∼ 28

"I do not believe you," Tsireya laughed, "There is just no way." She shook her head at Tcelia as she returned her focus to the plants.

Tcelia feigned a look of hurt, putting her hand on her chest, "It wounds me that you do not believe me, Tsireya."

Earlier that day, Ronal had approached the two girls, who had been sitting on the beach, and asked them if they could collect some herbs for her Tsahik practice.

Tcelia and Tsireya had then spent the better part of the day collecting plants, and were now sitting inside the Tsahik's tent, cutting up and preparing the herbs, then gently placing them in different baskets. Well, Tsireya was preparing them. Tsireya had tried to teach Tcelia how to cut the stems exactly right, but Tcelia somehow managed to do it wrong every single time.

At last, Tsireya had given up trying to teach her, sighing that it was incredible that someone so great at fighting with a knife could be so bad at handling plants. Tcelia had grinned apologetically, reminded of all the times Kiri had told her the exact same thing back in the forest.

So Tcelia had been assigned the organization part of the task, something she took very seriously; gently handling the dissected plants that Tsireya gave her, then placing them carefully into their designated basket.

Tsireya snorted, "I am sorry, but you cannot expect me to believe that you fought a Toruk with your bare hands and lived to tell about it."

"Where do you think I got this scar from?" Tcelia grinned, showing off a long scar that ran down her right arm. It had faded into a light blue line now and was only noticeable if you knew it was there.

"You did not get that scar from a Toruk!" Tsireya exclaimed, eyeing her incredulously.

"Okay maybe I got this particular scar from trying to somersault off Niwin," Tcelia admitted, grinning slyly. "But the Toruk story is real!"

"Lo'ak, perfect timing." Tsireya grinned as Lo'ak appeared in the opening of the pod. Tsireya gestured for him to join them, patting the spot on the floor beside her. "Is it true Tcelia fought a Toruk when she was fourteen?"

"No way," Lo'ak scoffed, "Although we did escape one a few years back, but that was only because we shook it off by flying through the forest." He placed himself down beside Tsireya, then leaned back on his hands, smiling playfully. "Not because of Tcelia's great combat skills."

Tcelia stuck her tongue out at Lo'ak as Tsireya laughed. Though it didn't bother her much that she had been busted, she only wanted to poke fun at Tsireya's idea of the forest. Tsireya had been stunned to hear about how dangerous all the Omatikaya's rituals were compared to the Metkayina's and Tcelia only wanted to play it up a little – she had always had a knack for overdramatizing things.

She felt an immense sense of relief as Lo'ak grinned at her. He had been acting weird towards her for the past few days and was now finally starting to become his old self again. When she had talked to him, he barely made eye contact with her, but at other times, she caught him staring at her with eyes that indicated that a battle was going on in his mind, as if he was trying to figure something out. Perhaps he had figured it out now and could be normal around her once again. Tcelia hoped that was the case. She had been moments away from picking a fight with him to tell him to get over himself.

Neteyam hadn't been acting much better either. He had been nice to her when the whole group was together but had then evaded any possibility of spending time with her alone.

Tcelia had also bitterly noticed that he had only talked to her when it was necessary and that he hadn't made physical contact with her ever since the night he had left her standing on the beach. Granted, it was only four days ago, but Tcelia had still felt both brothers' absence like a thorn in her heart.