"I said we need to leave!" mom yelled for the thirtieth time, but I wouldn't listen.
"Kehe, we don't! We don't need to leave! I won't leave!" I yelled back, my throat aching and my eyes shutting themselves from all the tears spilling on my face.
"Your father is dying! What part of it do you not understand? We stay, he dies. We leave, he lives."
That was the problem, and its solution was too complicated. She wanted to go and look for help somewhere else, because no one in the clan —not even the Tsahik— had been able to figure out what was wrong. He had rashes all over his body, of some purple-red tones, and his pain was unceasing.
You can imagine my shocked face every time I saw him. A mighty warrior who fought beside Toruk Makto in the war against the Sky People. The younger brother of Tsu'tey, the former Olo'eyktan before Jake Sully. He laid unconscious on a bed in Hell's Gate, with those human machines around. His face tense from the pain.
And there was also my mom: his mate. A fierce hunter and warrior. She killed dozens of humans and destroyed some metal ikrans in the war, like dad. Mom was a nice singer like her sister Ninat. A great mother and cook. I saw her crying every night, kneeled next to dad, praying to Eywa. To our Great Mother.
Then there was me. Young, short, lean. Never really being good at anything other than hunting —as much as I loved animals, I still killed them for food. It was borrowed energy, after all. My skin and hair and eyes were the same as those of the entire clan. I wasn't special.
Back to the discussion, whose loud noises made my head hurt, didn't stop. I was eight, they were in their thirties. Who had more experience? They had. But, who was right about this? Me.
"You don't know that!" I was practically hitting her on the chest with my fists. "You don't know if they're going to help him!"
It was painful to be asked to leave everything behind. To leave the forest for some clan elsewhere that we knew only stories about. The reef clans were distant and faint, and would have remained only a product of my imagination if mom hadn't insisted on it.
"At least I'm being damn hopeful! Or what? You want your dad to die?" She let out a dry, short laugh that felt like poison in my ears. "Is that it? You don't want to see him again, ever?"
As much as she had tried to convince me, even though she didn't have to because at my age a Na'vi is nothing without his parents, I didn't bulge. I didn't let myself surrender. I wasn't giving up home that easily.
"No! Of course I want him alive! But, why do we have to leave? I can't, this is my home, where my friends are."
"I also don't want to go, okay? But these are the types of sacrifices that a family makes to stick together. I hope that you never get to experience what it's like to lose your mate, because when you find out there's almost nothing you can do it will destroy you, okay? It is destroying me."
We both stopped the shouting. She sat on the ground, looking exhausted and out of breath, and pulled me towards her. Tears started pouring.
"I hate it. Why did this have to happen?"
"This is the way things work, sweetie. The forest gives and the forest takes. That is life," she answered.
"Where do we go when we die? Where did Maitrey go?" I suddenly asked, remembering my sister.
"We become one with Eywa. We live with her in the form of our souls, while our body stays behind. Your sister... It was different for her. She's in a deep sleep. She will eventually wake up."
It was the second time in my life that I cried that much, and for an actual reason. Not because some skxawng decided to pull my tail. Not because my sister pulled a prank on me and I was alone for three hours. Not because I didn't eat the food I wanted. None of that. This was real.
There wasn't much to pack. I barely had three different sets of clothing, a couple of necklaces and other ornaments, my knives, bow and arrows, and whatever I could find that resembled home.
Time passed until it was night. Mom and I stayed silent all through dinner. We were packing up the last of our things in leather bags before going to sleep, when someone broke into our tent.
"You're leaving?!" Neteyam asked through his heavy breaths. He had definitely run from his house to here.
"Yes I- I-"
"But- you can't! You're going to leave me, and Lo'ak and Kiri," he said rapidly, holding my arms with both of his hands, shaking my body back and forth. "I'll never see you again! You're my ma-"
"You're my best friend , too," I cut him, stopping him from talking any further in front of my mother. "I- I am going to miss you very much, you have no idea." I hugged Neteyam, my head hiding in his neck.
"Take me with you, rutxe. I can hunt and bring you food. I can help. Just... don't abandon me." His words were filled with sadness and frustration, while his eyes were shiny and looked like broken glass.
We rested our foreheads together. He was taller than me, so he tilted his body downwards until we were face to face.
"You will. You will see me again, I promise. Hayalovay."
Our intimacy didn't last much, as every kid I knew from the clan started coming to my tent. I reluctantly let go of him.
I said goodbyes to my friends and their parents. Lo'ak came in and gave a hug, but he didn't say anything. Kiri, out of her usual dreamy state, encouraged me the best she could. I was leaving my best buddies behind.
Once everyone left amongst tears and wails, Jake Sully and Neytiri came to us.
"I see you, Na'tyr. I see you," and he said my name. My mom greeted him and his mate. "We come to wish you safe travels, and to let you know that, as our closest friends, we will always be available to help you if you need. I know that it'll be hard to take your mate Tsy'tonwa where you wish, specially on an ikran, so we offer to take him to you once you arrive to the reef islands."
Neytiri, standing next to him, nodded, extending each of her hands for us to take. As we did, mom said: "We will gladly accept your offer, Olo'eyktan."
"May the Great Mother smile upon your family so you can get to your new clan safely. Eywa ngahu. We will miss you," said Neytiri. I flashed her a smile for her kindness, which she always showed to us.
"We'll miss you, too. The Metkayina clan has special herbs and oceanic plants that will cure my husband, there is nothing to worry about."
The conversation ended and the leaders left. I could sense Neteyam's eyes from outside our house, wanting to come inside. He didn't.
The next morning, as soon as the sun showed itself, my family left the Omaticaya clan forever.
———-
Author's note:
Hello, everybody. How you doing? I see that it hasn't even been a full day and we already have a few reads in this book. I am ecstatic, to say the least.
I've been working on this chapter for a few hours, and I hope it isn't too short. It was a little over a thousand words, but my goal is to make each chapter last 2,000.
Wait one more chapter and we'll finally reunite with Neteyam!
I want to read your theories, so:
What do you think happened to Maitrey?
Happy Thursday, cheers.
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A true seer | Neteyam
Fanfiction"We once used to be friends, Neteyam and I. We were more than that. If only my family had stayed in the forest, it could have remained that way. It must have been Eywa's will that we reunited ten years later, in my home in the Metkayina clan, and th...
