KAEYLA TE KATHAN SAEYLA'ITE.
PART 27.
AFTERMATH OF THE DREAM HUNT
Four days had already passed since Kaeyla's rather unique Dream Hunt.
However, the aftermath and that how it affected to Kaeyla was something what no one would have imagined.
After Kaeyla's Dream Hunt ended in her waking up from the effects of the venom into panic attack and screaming Neteyam's name, Mo'at and Jake had tried to ask Kaeyla that what did she saw in her visions or if she saw her spirit animal and that what animal it was.
However, Kaeyla, still shaked by the vision of finding Neteyam's dead body lying on the rock in middle of the terrifying apocalyptic background at the sea, refused to go through the details of her Dream Hunt again. And so, she didn't tell them anything, no matter how gently they were trying to persuade her to tell them.
And also, during of the four days since then, Kaeyla had closed herself off from all the people around her in fear of them trying to ask her about her Dream Hunt and thus, without them even knowing, forcing her to go through all of that horror over again. And that extended pretty much to everyone: Both Olo'eyktan and Tsahik, her friends, even from her own family.
Kaeyla went on with her own silent treatment while sitting in the corner of her family's marui, where she sat alone hugging her own legs while resting her head on her knees.
She stayed in that position for hours, refusing to budge from that position or acknowledge her parents or little brother whenever they tried to call her to join them for something or when they tried to get her to talk to them about her current problems.
But she stubbornly kept refusing to talk about them to anyone, even them when she accidentally woke them up in middle of the night after waking up to the panic attack after having gone through the same nightmare over and over again, which was none too different to the same horrific visions she saw during her Dream Hunt.
Heck, Kaeyla even tried to distance herself from all the people and sought for the solitude for herself from the places she thought she cannot be found by anyone - even though there weren't much of those places in the village except the most highest branches above of the most important members of the clan's maruis, and the hiding in the jungle was out of the question because of the predators stalking there.
Not to mention that if her family considered her long absence in the jungle to be her having gone missing, Olo'eyktan would definitely organize search parties, both out of the Omatikaya clan and the Sky People, to find her.
And during of these four days, Kaeyla had once again put a distance between herself and Neteyam, refusing to either see him or speak to him. She even refused to acknowledge him whenever he was in present in the several events or even associate him during of her free time.
It was like back then when she began to avoid Neteyam after the near-incident with her nearly slitting his throat because of Punkun's ambush on her and Kai'ani.
But this was soon going to change.
One the fifth day's night, Kaeyla had found the perfect spot to hide from the rest of the village and be all by herself with her thoughts, which has on the one of the highest branches at the top of one of the trees growing within the village, where she could see the glowing night sky.
However, after being there alone by the few hours, her left ear twitched when she heard somebody, or several somebodies, climbing up the tree where she was on. And judging by how clear she could hear them, they were just a few branches below the one she was on.
But just like before, she refused to acknowledge their presence at all. All she did was to keep looking up in the sky with her thoughts.
The newcomers were revealed to be the none else than Kai'ani and Neteyam, with the former leading the latter up here to Kaeyla - likely having spied of where his big sister had gone much earlier, and likely having gone to tell about ti to Neteyam, who has been trying to look for her anyway.
"Here you are, sister. Been looking for you from everywhere. Or at least Neteyam has." Kai'ani told his sister and he climbed onto the branch Kaeyla was sitting, followed by Neteyam.
However, Kaeyla didn't say anything, let alone looked at them.
Kai'ani appeared to be avoiding of looking down, because they were pretty high above of the village, way more higher than the maruis of the most important members of the clan. Despite having been trained to move along the tall trees' branches high above of the forest floor, Kai'ani sometimes had the issues of being in so high places, which would soon be put into the test for the time when he was about to go to his own Iknimaya wss near.
"Well, I did as you asked, Neteyam. I led you where she is." Kai'ani said, before the boy started to climb back down. "I'll leave you two be with yourselves. And I hope that you manage to somehow turn her head over like you did last time."
"Don't you worry, Kai'ani." Neteyam said as he watched him go. "Since it worked last time, I have no reason to believe that it won't work again."
With Kai'ani gone and them being left alone in their private, Neteyam turned back to Kaeyla and walked up to her, before he sat down to the branch next to her. Kaeyla, however, turned her head away from him and didn't say a word.
"You haven't yet told my dad or grandmother about the results of your Dream Hunt, haven't you?" Neteyam asked gently.
Kaeyla didn't respond, but lightly and almost unnoticeably shook her head, which Neteyam managed to notice, as an answer, which was "no".
But when he got nothing else out of her, Neteyam let out the deep sigh and leaned with his hands to the branch and looked up to the sky, observing the stars and the planets, including the giant Naranawm shining in the night sky, in silence.
"You know, if believing my grandmother, you act pretty much like my dad after he went through his own Dream Hunt long ago." Neteyam finally said, ironically finding similarities in comparison between her father's and Kaeyla's reactions after the two's Dream Hunts.
Kaeyla's ear twitched to his direction, but she still didn't turn towards him.
"After my dad completed his Dream Hunt, he neither did tell my grandmother of what he had seen or what was his spirit animal." Neteyam continued. "Only after the tragedies and war that came soon after."
Neteyam took the small break and waited for a moment for Kaeyla to say something after believing she had taken all of this in already.
But when Kaeyla didn't say anything or even turned to look at him yet, Neteyam decided to continue.
"You see, while my dad doesn't like to linger in those memories, let alone of his visions he saw during of his Dream Hunt that unfortunately came true, my grandmother explained to me at least some of it." he said and began to explain to Kaeyla what Mo'at had told him.
"My grandmother said my dad having told her that in his vision, he found himself standing in middle of where the forest had been blasted, with fires flickering among the trees that were burned black and lifeless in a smoky, ash-littered and greenless landscape. And in more of that, the scorched and lifeless black Hometree was lying there in the distance, cut down and still being feeded on by the fires. And around of it the ash-covered ground was littered with the countless of dead bodies of Na'vi, some of which had the horrible burnt marks in their bodies or were fatally skewered by the black pieces of the wood. That was the vision of the impending Sky People attack on our home which destroyed the Hometree, left the forest burning and had more than half of our clan slaughtered in the onslaught with the "demon fire". That was what had troubled my dad after the Dream Hunt, which he didn't dare tell grandmother, grandfather or the whole clan out of shame that he was both aware of and helping the impending destruction."
Kaeyla cuddled closer to herself as she reluctantly listened to Neteyam's description of his dad's Dream Hunt, which sounded too much like the one she had seen, which noticeably disturbed her as the results.
"But afterwards my dad had told to my grandmother that he had found himself standing in the highest point of Ayram alusìng, where he came face to face with his spirit animal. And I think you already know which I'm speaking of." Neteyam said, looking at Kaeyla knowingly.
"Toruk." Kaeyla said in the low whisper, knowing full well of what animal Neteyam was speaking off, given to their Olo'eyktan's ever-lasting title, Toruk Makto.
"Yes." Neteyam confirmed. "My mother and my grandmother told me that the Great Mother had chosen dad for the reason, and my dad's Dream Hunt revealing his spirit animal being Toruk himself proved that it was his destiny to become Toruk Makto and save the people from the Sky People's oppression. It only took a tragic event, my father's vision of the burnt forest and destroyed Hometree coming true, for my father's inner Toruk Makto to come out."
Neteyam let out another sigh, looking up in the sky dreamingly and with the admiration of his dad. "Call me out on my next words, but maybe it was a good thing that tragedy happened so that my father could become a hero the Great Mother chose him to become."
Kaeyla narrowed her eyes in disapproval at Neteyam's choice of words.
"Before I went through my own Dream Hunt, I had been wondering what kind of visions I was going to have, what kind of destiny I had ahead of me, and what my spirit animal would be." Neteyam told her. "Truth to be told, I wished that my spirit animal was Toruk just like my dad's, and that I might become a great hero to the people when another tragedy and the Great Sorrow would be upon a people, and..."
"YOU'RE SUCH OF SKXAWNG, YOU KNOW THAT?!" Kaeyla suddenly snapped when she finally turned to look at Neteyam with the angry look over her face.
Neteyam flinched, taken aback by her sudden outburst.
"HOW CAN YOU WISH FOR SOME TRAGEDY LIKE THE GREAT SORROW TO FALL UPON OUR PEOPLE JUST SO THAT YOU CAN BECOME THE HERO LIKE YOUR DAD?!" Kaeyla ranted. "HAVEN'T YOU EVEN CONSIDERED THE FACT THAT SUCH TRAGEDIES REQUIRE CASUALTIES AND INFLICTS PAIN AND SORROW UPON ALL THOSE LEFT BEHIND TO MOURN THEIR LOVED ONES?!"
Neteyam didn't say anything, just kept staring at Kaeyla with his eyes wide, until Kaeyla's angry face softened a bit and she calmed down a little.
"You wouldn't feel a pretty much like a hero like your dad if such of tragedy would fall upon yourself." Kaeyla added as she turned her gaze away from Neteyam and hugged her feet again.
Neteyam looked at Kaeyla for a moment in confusion at her choice of words after the silence fell upon between of them once more, although what she just said had definitely piqued his curiosity.
*You wouldn't feel a pretty much like a hero like your dad if such of tragedy would fall upon yourself.*
Neteyam went through Kaeyla's last words in his head over and over again to try and figure out what she meant by that.
But after a moment of thought, Neteyam came to think about how Kaeyla had, towards the end of her Dream Hunt, snapped awake from the effects of the venom in a fit of panic and screaming his name, as if she had seen a vision... that somehow related to him. And if Neteyam suspected correctly, that what Kaeyla spoke of "if such of tragedy would fall upon yourself", meaning him, then something must have had happened to him in that vision that had caused the panic attack in Kaeyla.
"You saw me in your vision, didn't you?" Neteyam inquired. "You saw something bad happening to me, and that was what caused you to go in panic and scream my name, wasn't it so?"
Kaeyla didn't say anything or looked at him, but the deeply troubled look on her face when that was brought up told Neteyam pretty much that he had hit it correct.
"How did it happen?" Neteyam asked. "Can you tell me?"
Kaeyla, however, remained dead silent and shook her head, thus refusing to go through of that horrible vision over again.
Being patient and gentle with her, Neteyam reached out his hand towards her, but held it back for a moment in waiting for Kaeyla's approval to touch her. And when she neither approved or denied him touching her, Neteyam put her hand on her shoulder. She flinched lightly at his touch, but quickly relaxed.
"Kaeyla, I know that you know that I am here trying to help you. Whatever this visions of yours about the tragedy involving me was, you can tell me about it." Neteyam said. "We can keep it our own secret only, just as we entrusted each other with our own secrets once before."
Kaeyla shook her head again. "I can't."
"How long do you think you can go on not telling anyone about it and letting it gnaw inside you until it might, well, just might, eventually happen, and the guilt of never telling anyone about it sooner, which could have possibly prevented it from happening, would destroy you from inside?" Neteyam challenged.
Kaeyla moved her head a little to her right as she took Neteyam's words in.
"C'mon, Kaeyla. This moody behavior ain't good for you." Neteyam told her. "Just tell me what you saw, and I'll see what I can do to help you. I promise that I'll always be there for you whenever you need me the most."
Hesitatingly, Kaeyla turned to look back at Neteyam, moved by his sincere words, his care and comfort for her, his offered warmth and devotion to help her. However, going through of her visions of the terrible tragedy having fallen upon Neteyam was still too much for her to bear that it reduced her into tears.
But perhaps, if she told Neteyam of her vision, then perhaps she would not have to bear it alone, just as she didn't had to bear alone the secret of the incident with that Tsawlyayo that led to the death of poor P'tetra.
Now really desiring for Neteyam's company, warmth and comfort, Kaeyla moved from her spot to sit next to Neteyam, even if she turned her teary gaze away from him. Nonetheless, she slowly rested her head against Neteyam's right shoulder, and the son of Olo'eyktan tenderly wrapped his right arm around of her, pulling her closer.
"After I met the Great Mother, which I think you're familiar too, my vision started with somewhere in the Eastern Sea far, far away from the forests of the mainland." Kaeyla said as she began to tell Neteyam about her vision.
"Eastern Sea?" Neteyam said with the frown, mildly surprised that Kaeyla's vision had taken her to the Eastern Sea instead of the forest.
Kaeyla nodded her head to confirm this. "Yes. I was standing on some rocks facing the water, and next to me was a three gigantic rocks in a rounded formation and close proximity to one another." she continued.
"Like the Three Brothers Rocks." Neteyam clarified, remembering the names of said rock formation from the Earth's Geography book that his mother and father - well, mostly his father - had once brought for them along with few other Sky People books to read - or look at the pictures at least, and under his father's instruction, to learn English along with Lo'ak and Kiri - from Grace's old school.
"Yes, if that's what it's called." Kaeyla said, before she continued, smiling at the memory of the initial details of her visions. "There was a sunset that colored the seascape sky in the shades of brown, red, orange, and yellow. It was the most beautiful sight I had ever seen even if I have never seen the ocean before, and I could even feel a cool blow of the salty sea wind blowing against my face. And then out of the water emerged a huge and majestic sea creature with six flippers, two being part of its tail, orange eyes, strangely full of awareness and sentience, the tswins protruding from the bottom of its snouts, and a large and brightly colored head crests protruding from the front of its snout. It was a magnificent and breathtaking sight as it jumped out of the water against the sunset before crashing back into the water."
Kaeyla had a few flashbacking glimpses of that huge water creature, which particularly showed its face's heavily scarred left side and the stump of the missing left fin, including that spear-like metal thing piercing through its right fin, but she regarded these few details as a minority and not necessary to be revealed even to Neteyam.
Neteyam smiled down at Kaeyla, happy for her that she had such a wonderful vision, at least for now, for it also made him wonder what exactly had happened that had caused her to scream his name after having a panic attack.
Kaeyla was apparently going to that part, for the smile soon dropped from Kaeyla's lips and her face turned into a disturbed frown.
"But then... at the moment the sea creature crashed back into water, there was the lightning bolt that struck to the rocks right in front of me, even though there wasn't even thunderclouds or the thunder. It completely blinded my vision, until I found myself standing in middle of nothing but a pitch-black darkness, a void with no life or light in it." Kaeyla continued.
"I saw nothing, I didn't know where I was, and I didn't even know which one was which direction or where I should go because there was no any sense about the directions. It felt like I had been walking in circles or wandered in the endless darkness for eternity. And I tried to call help from anyone I knew, from you, from Kai'ani, from my mother and father, from Mo'at, from Olo'eyktan, from Neytiri or Tarsem, from anybody, but there wasn't even no one I could ask for help, and even that didn't matter at all, because I couldn't even hear my own voice coming out of my mouth." Kaeyla said, describing what she had felt in that black void no way out or where to go.
"Then there was someone, a strange dark figure lacking face and the appearance, surrounded by the aura of light, coming towards me, laughing... well, laughing with such of manner that made me feel a really uncomfortable, disturbed even, like he found my distress to be somewhat a funny thing. He wasn't very tall like me, more of the size as the adult Sky Person. But his eyes were glowing, and unlike Eywa's eyes, the figure's eyes were glowing red and were filled with the burning malice, hatred and obsessive desire for destruction. And he had a three huge scars in the right side of his head." Kaeyla continued as he remembered that silhouetted figure with no recognizable face but glowing red eyes and scars across his face.
This caught Neteyam's attention and he looked down at Kaeyla with disbelief when he went through Kaeyla's description of this silhouetted figure in her vision: A Sky Person-sized figure with the red eyed filled with malice, hatred and desire for destruction, and especially with a three scars in the right side of his head.
There was only one Sky Person with such of malice, hatred for Na'vi and obsessive desire for destruction of everything Na'vi held dear. Only one Sky Person who could have three scars over the right side of the head. Only one, whose mark left behind after his death was still haunting his mom and dad in their worst memories and nightmares.
"Colonel Quaritch?!" Neteyam gasped. "You had a vision of Colonel Quaritch?!"
"I'm not sure." Kaeyla said with the shrug. "I have only heard about this Sky Person, from you, but I have never seen this Sky Person, and neither have you." she pointed out, holding her finger at Neteyam's chest, with the tone of voice that dared him to prove her wrong.
"You're right. I haven't." Neteyam acknowledged this. "But my parents have, and they have given to me and my siblings a perfect description of what he looked like and what kind of Sky Person he was. And sometimes even I have seen the several nightmares where I have met this demon personally like my parents once did."
Kaeyla flinched and moved away from Neteyam before staring at him worriedly because of his words of facing this Sky Person demon personally, more even so because they were getting into the most worst part of her vision.
"Kaeyla?" Neteyam asked, noticing how restless she had became.
Kaeyla quickly looked away from him and into the distance before them, breathing heavily, trembling from the chill of anxiousness, even sweating, as he mentally and with a lots and lots of difficulty braced herself to reveal the last and the darkest parts of her vision that pierced deep down into her soul, and left an image of them deep in her mind that she'd unlikely will ever get rid of.
"This, Quaritch, then... then he... I know that it was just in the vision but I couldn't believe my own eyes when I saw it... but he... he began all of the sudden to transform." Kaeyla said.
"Transform?" Neteyam inguired.
"Yes." Kaeyla nodded. "The aura of light around him began to turn from bluish-white into dark blue and almost purplish as he began to transform from the shape of the Sky Person into a lot of different shape. He grew bigger, twice of his size, reaching swiftly to the height of a full-grown Na'vi, and the new shape he gained became more... well... more like Na'vi, with the tail, pointed ears, flat nose, the twsin hanging from the back of his head and everything, though still maintaining the five fingers in each hand just like your dad and the Dreamwalkers do."
Neteyam was taken aback by what Kaeyla had told him so far, because all of that - Quaritch's shape transforming into more Na'vi-like - wasn't what he had expected her vision to turn into at all.
"I know, Neteyam. That was beyond of my understanding as well." Kaeyla said, taking a notice of Neteyam's reaction to this, before she continued. "Then he took something out from his waist and held out his hand towards me. For a moment, I didn't know what exactly he was either extending, offering, or aiming at me because it was fully merged into his dark figure, until there was a loud and in the ears ringing sound and the bright flash of light my dad had described to me as "the spit of fire coming out of the Sky People's weapons of metal before the immediate death comes for anyone standing in front of it"."
Neteyam hardened his brows into the angry frown when the meaning of Kaeyla's description dawned to him: In her vision, Quaritch had actually been trying to shoot her!
"I flinched and reflexively/instinctively closed my eyes after he shot at me with one of those Sky People's metal weapons and waited for the immediate death to come to me... but it never did." Kaeyla said, shaking her head. "After I opened my eyes again, I found myself standing on those same rocks again, where I had been looking out at the beautiful seascape, along with this Three Brothers' Rocks, and a majestic sea creature leaping out of the water against the setting sun."
As the image of that vision flashed before her eyes over and over again, Kaeyla's eyes began to well with tears.
"However, the whole seascape had changed into something what it hadn't been the moment ago!" she said with the trembling voice. "The sea air was covered and polluted with the thick smoke, and the strong burning stench. The sea around the rocks was on fire, heavily on fire, and it had turned from its beautiful color of blue into the grotesque color of red... like the blood, from the countless floating dead bodies of both Na'vi - though not exactly like the Na'vi from here - the Sky People, and the two new kinds of sea creatures I have never seen before, which stained the water and all the nearby rocks. Here and there were wrecked and burning Sky People's vehicles. And far in the horizon, amongst the fire and smoke, was Sky People's yet the biggest gigantic metal beast! It appeared to be wounded badly and in fire from many places and it tilted from the right side below the surface of the water as if it were sinking."
Even Neteyam looked shocked by the description of such of apocalyptic sight and the massacre.
"And then..." Kaeyla continued, her sweating, trembling, and heavy breathing only intensifying as the plot of her vision drew to a close. She then turned to look at Neteyam, her widened and teary eyes full of horror. "I saw you."
"Me?" Neteyam blinked his eyes, confused.
"Lying on the rocks near the water's edge, looking blankly up at the smoke-filled sky while staying as still as the rock as if you were dead. And your chest was stained with the fresh blood coming out of the wound in your chest. And when I looked into your blank eyes, they lacked that tiny gleam of life!"
It all dawned to Neteyam now. Kaeyla had seen the vision of him... dead in middle of the apocalyptic seascape, hence why she snapped awake and screamed his name in the fit of the panic attack after she'd finished her Dream Hunt.
"So that's what you saw?" Neteyam asked softly, looking at her with the sympathetic frown.
Kaeyla nodded her head as the tears began to flow down her cheeks, before she turned away from him.
"Over the past four days, I haven't been able to get that image out of my head, no matter how hard I've tried, but it always comes back to me! It always starts from where Quaritch fires that shot at me, to kill me, then you jump in time after time to take the hit for me, and then you die all over again before my very eyes. The worst thing in the whole thing is that the visions Eywa has given every one of us during our own Dream Hunts have never proved to be wrong. Then what if that includes my visions of your death? I couldn't bear it if I have to watch that happening again, and for real this time, because..."
No words came out of Kaeyla's mouth after she got a lump in her throat, before she closed her eyes and lowered his head down, sobbing silently.
Neteyam, while still looking at her with sympathy, was patient with her enough to give her a moment of break to pull herself together.
But that didn't stop him from reaching out his hand and put it on her left shoulder to comfort her now that she needed it most. Kaeyla flinced at his touch a bit but didn't moved away from it nor shove his hand away.
Neteyam then dared to make a bold move and slowly moved his hand from Kaeyla's shoulder to gently cup her left cheek, and once his palm touched her cheek's skin, he used his thump to gently wipe the tears from her left eye.
This made Kaeyla to lift her head up and open her eyes, and leaning into the touch of Neteyam's hand, she turned to look at the son of Olo'eyktan with teary eyes, and put her own left hand over Neteyam's.
"... because you're my friend, Neteyam. And I cannot lose you." she sobbed.
Neteyam nodded his head in understantment of her fears for him because of their friendship - and part of him told him that maybe it was partially because of somethingh else, though he didn't linger to that for long nor questioned Kaeyla about that.
And while sitting there holding her face in his palm, Neteyam thought for a moment of Kaeyla's vision of him giving up his own life for her in the middle of the apocalyptic site.
Sure as the son of Olo'eyktan and the future Olo'eyktan of Omatikaya clan, it was going to be his job, his responsibility to keep the clan safe from the danger, and he wanted to be a good and successful Olo'eyktan to their people and get the job done well so that he could fulfill his dad's pretty high expectations of him.
That meant, that it was also his responsibility to keep Kaeyla safe - though as the Olo'eyktan, not as a brother like he already does with his younger siblings - and he would gladly put himself in the harm's way to keep both them and Kaeyla safe, but with her valuing their friendship so much to the point of fearing of losing him the way she had seen it happen in her vision... Neteyam did not wish to bring to her such of pain, at least not that way.
Then Neteyam moved onto his knees to the branch to face her, never taking his hand from Kaeyla's cheek, while Kaeyla simultaneously and perhaps subconsciously followed the suit and moved onto her knees to the branch to face Neteyam, her own hand never leaving from Neteyam's.
Neteyam then raised his left hand and cupped with it her right cheek, wiping the tears from her eye with his thumb, while Kaeyla put her right hand over Neteyam's hand, and pressed gently both of his hands against his cheeks.
Then the two teenagers looked deep into each other's eyes for a while in silence, and by looking a little deeper into each other's souls, they saw how much they both actually cared for each other: that Kaeyla feared for his safety as much as he worried over her own well-being.
"I see you, Kaeyla the Kathan Saeyla'ite." Neteyam said sincerely.
"I see you, Neteyam te Suli Tsyeyk'itan." Kaeyla said back, comforted by Neteyam's gaze, presence and his gentle touch, while choking back her tears.
They both smiled fondly to each other, before they closed their eyes when Neteyam pressed their foreheads together, and they remained there so for a sime time from now on.
"My grandma says that while many of the visions of the Dream Hunt might come true, there is never a true prediction of how or when or if they will ever come true." Neteyam told her soothingly and in a whisper. "And whether or not your own visions come true, when or how or at all, that doesn't matter, but this one does. Kaeyla, I promise you, with the honor of the future Olo'eyktan, and with the blessing of the Great Mother, you're not ever going to lose me. Ever. And only that matters."
"Promise?" Kaeyla asked softly, wanting so desperately believe in that.
"I have no reason not to promise." Neteyam affirmed to her. "For two reasons: The first is that Quaritch is long dead and he won't torment us or our people ever again, and I don't see any possibility that he'll return to bother us in any form and shape. And second one is that we will never have to leave the forest for the Eastern Sea for any reason. We will live here for the rest of our lives and even longer even after we're gone ourselves. So don't you ever worry about me, Kaeyla. I'll be fine."
Kaeyla smiled gratefully at Neteyam for his promise and leaned further into their forehead contact.
"Never break that promise." she reminded him.
"Never." Neteyam affirmed.
After the promises were made and solidified, they remained up there in their forehead contact and under the light of Naranawm long into the night, enjoying each other's company until it was time for them to return down to the village and go back to their own maruis and families for the rest of the night.
And wait and see what both the tomorrow and the near future brings with them.
To be continued...
NEXT PART: KAI'ANI'S IKNIMAYA.