CHAPTER I:

( boy meets girl )

"LEIO, YOU KNOW YOU ARE MY ONE TRUE FRIEND IN THE ENTIRE WORLD?" Those words had put a squint in Su'leio's eye and a crease in between them. The girl had been tracing the designs of the first tattoo she received on her thigh after her iknimaya coming-of-age rituals while sitting in her bed.

"What did you do?" Leio drawled putting her gaze on her friend who had stood before the entrance.

Tsireya only shone her dimples with her lips pressed together. Su'leio widened her eyes expectantly watching her friend rock on the balls of her feet before she cracked. "Please join me in helping Toruk Makto's children," the girl intertwined her fingers together pleading her friend. "Aonung is going to bring along Rotxo and together they will be such bullies to them if you aren't there with me."

Tsireya put up a credible argument. With the girl who could ensure their future's safety present, and also being aware how little she will put up with when it came to the duo, it was sure that the two would not cause as much of an issue if Su'leio would be there.

      Still, the girl weighed her options. "Is this because you want a witness to see if that boy from earlier is staring at you?" she questioned with a tease in her words.

      The eyes of the chief's daughter widened and her mouth fell slightly agape. "No," she unconvincingly drew out. When her best friend gave a knowing smile and tilt to her head she cracked for a second time, "Okay, fine, yes I do. I don't know how to explain it, but he was just so..." she spoke with her hands falling short of words yet Leio knew exactly what she meant.

The older girl gave a heavy sigh before standing from her bed, Tsireya's dimpled grin making an appearance when she knew she won her friend over. "And now you have to come to dinner," she rushed out. Not even letting her get a word out, Tsireya grasped Su'leio's hand in her own and began to lead her to the children of her greatest inspiration to be a warrior.

TO SAY SU'LEIO FELT ODD WOULD BE AN UNDERSTATEMENT. She sat in between her best friend whom she had known her entire life on her right and then a complete stranger who she hadn't even known the name of, let alone the existence of, the day before on her left.

      The village sat around each other in their respective seating areas with their family members. It was observed by the newer members of the Awa'atlu village that at the center of the spiraling seating arrangements that there had been different placements of tide pools with heat emitting from them to ensure warmth for those sitting around them in the time of eclipse. Seeing as her father had been close friends with the Olo'eyktan, Su'leio had been enjoying her meal with her family, the chief's family, and the Omatikcayan family around the largest tide pool.

      The boy beside her, the one who had been staring earlier, had been leaning slightly over curious at the bioluminescent creatures that inhabited the body of water but Su'leio put a hand on his shoulder pulling him back slightly. When he gave her a confused look with those large eyes of his, she responded, "do not get too close, if you fall in they will think you were disposed of and eat your flesh while you burn alive," with an unfazed look in her eye.

His eyes widened and he scooted himself back a few inches to avoid getting close again and his brother on the other side of Tsireya did the same.

"Leio, don't scare them like that." Tsireya nudged the girl whose blank expression had broken into a grin carrying up to her eyes to create creases in the corners of her eyes. "You won't be eaten alive, if you were to fall in it would take a while for them to do that and by that time you would have already gotten out," she reassured the boy.

      He gave a sigh of relief then matched the smile Su'leio had sprouted on her face as it had been the first time he had seen her do such a thing the entire day.

Tsireya and the brother she had been sitting next to had gone into a minor conversation as the older teens fell silent—the girl staring into the tide pool and the boy staring at the girl.

      "Is there something you are wanting to say?" she asked not faltering her attention from the swirling bioluminescence in the dispensary area.

      His ears inched downward for a moment before returning to an unsure position. "I, uh, my name is Neteyam," he absentmindedly said, not sure of what exactly it was that he was going to say before.

      The girl tore her eyes off the carnivorous creatures to look at him—Neteyam. That removed one question about him. It fit him in her eyes.

      "Neteyam," she repeated wanting to experience what it felt like to say it. She nodded, "you have a nice name, I like it," she simply complimented. "I am Su'leio."

      "Nice to meet you, Su'leio," he did the same as her by repeating her name.

Instead of replying to this, all she had done was nod her head at him in acknowledgment and they had left it at that.