admiration | neteyam & lo'ak x oc

? nineteen

as they stood before each other, talia could see the girl's bruising went down. her nose looked fine, but wasn't sure if it was still broken. though she stood alone, talia didn't show fear, "yeah, hey."

she was extremely suspicious, wondering why ixana and her friends hadn't jumped her already. but the next words out of the other girl's mouth surprised her.

"i think we got off on the wrong foot the other night, what do you say we start over?" she tilt her head and asked.

talia's head was spinning, unsure what her intentions were. but deciding to hopefully put the incident behind her, she replied, "sure, sounds good."

ixana smiled, "great! we were just headed to the waterfall, want to come with?"

hesitating, the avatar girl bit her lip. "um, i don't know-"

"-oh cmon, i thought you said we could start over. this is what friends do, we hangout. so, are you in?" she persisted, making the avatar girl sigh.

"let's go."

on the way to the waterfall, talia learned the rest of the names of the girls. there was ixana, of course, then poixla, teylini, and nissa. and the avatar girl noticed the other three listened to whatever ixana said, an interesting dynamic of a friendship.

after some time, the group could finally hear the running water from the waterfall. the girls started sprinting in its direction, excitement flowing through them. even talia felt excited, so she followed closely behind.

one by one, each girl jumped into the water cascade. talia was the last to go, but once she was in, a smile formed on her face. maybe she was wrong about ixana and her friends?

"let's do jumps off the top!" ixana suggested, "talia, you first!"

all the girls turned to her with a smile, which the avatar girl perceived to be friendly. with a shrug and keeping her own smile she agreed, "okay!"

the four girls watched talia climb out of the water and head towards the rocky wall that leads to the top of the waterfall. unbeknownst to the avatar girl, the others were snickering behind her back. this was all going according to their plan of getting her back.

but talia could only focus on the fact that she had possible new friends and they were getting along really well. so because she let her guard down, she climbed up the rocky wall with a flair of confidence.

once she reached the very top, talia raised her hands in the air, "i did it!-" she shouted but when she looked down, she realized no one was there anymore.

ixana and the other girls left her there alone. with a saddened frown, talia realized this was all a ploy to ditch her from the start. there was no 'let's start over and be friends', how gullible was she?

but before she could sulk about it, a low growl was emitted from behind her. a large animal revealed itself from the hidden cave behind the girl, it's presence threatening her. she gulped as she realized this was a fanged mongrel, it's six muscular legs and two hand-sized teeth were just part of its intimidation.

throwing caution to the wind, talia took the few steps to jump off the waterfall. she wasn't sure yet if it had followed her, but she kept swimming until she could reach the ledge and pull herself up onto land. hearing it's growl close by, she didn't turn back, but instead she ran for her life. twisting between trees, ducking under branches and jumping over rocks all to avoid being the animals meal.

feeling her lungs giving out, she dove under a tree into its massive roots for protection. she only had a second to breath before the mongrel came out of nowhere and snapped it's teeth in between roots. it's teeth grazed her, making her hiss. she knew she couldn't stay here, the roots and branches were giving way to the strong animal, but she had no more options.

maybe this was it, this was how she was going to die. but just as the last branch snapped, the mongrel was tackled by another animal onto its back. rubbing her eyes to see clearer, talia could see the other animal was none other than the infamous palulukan.

her eyes stayed on the two predatory animals that circled each other. talia's breath hitched when the mongrel attacked first but was dodged, giving the larger animal time to give a counterattack. the palulukan then fatally injured the smaller animal, snapping its neck as it overpowered it easily.

with a thud, the mongrel was now dead and lifeless on the grass. talia gazed back to the palulukan only to see it staring right back at her. she felt her body get small, shrinking in on itself in hopes it won't attack her next.

instead, much to her surprise, the palulukan laid on the ground as if unbothered. scrunching her brows in confusion, she decided to test the waters and leave the safety of the tree. the sleek animal watched her every move, but made no attempt to attack.

talia now stood several feet in front of it, scared to make a hasty movement. then the palulukan moved, making the girl flinch, and got closer to her. she closed her eyes, waiting for the pain of it biting her or ripping her apart. but it never came.

that's when she felt the slippery, leathery skin of the animal under her hand. she opened her eyes and widened them as she watched the animal rub itself against her leg and hand, a friendly gesture.

a smile overtook her previous nervous frown as she fully reached her hand out to it. her hand slid up and down the back of the animal, hearing its slight purr against her.

"you saved me- thank you," talia whispered to it. the palulukan simply continued its rubbing against the girl, which she didn't mind.

"you're not so scary, are you," she laughed as she watched the animal stretch and yawn, "no, you're a sweet boy."

the palulukan hissed, making her jump but realize her mistake, "sorry, a sweet girl." she laughed it off.

"i wonder what your name is?" she wondered out loud, "can i name you?"

the palulukan lowered its head and wagged its tail once in a playful manner. talia grinned, "what about nihona? i did call you a sweet girl earlier.."

in response, the animal happily rolled over on its back with its tongue out. laughing, she concluded that would be the name of her new friend— nihona the palulukan, the one who saved her life.

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