𝐈 𝐬𝐞𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 | 𝐍𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐲𝐚𝐦

25.

Laya had finished another of her lessons with the younger children of Metkayina, and then returned back to the village. Tsireya and her had thought it was time to show the Sully kids their version of the spirit tree.

By the time that the group had decided to go there, Neteyam woke up. He heard the sounds coming from outside and left his family's cot to see what what was going on.

He stepped outside and saw the group of kids, Laya, Tsireya, Lo'ak, Kiri, and Tuk, all start to get ready to go on Ilus. He called out for them.

"Guys! Wait!" He yelled out. Everybody looked back to him and waited for him before they got on the Ilus.

"What are you guys doing?" He asked. "We're going to visit the Cove of the Ancestors" Tsireya responded. He looked around. "Can I come?" Tsireya nodded and signaled to Laya. "You can ride with her." He nodded and went towards Laya and her Ilu.

"How are you feeling?" She asked him once he got closer. He shrugged. "I can't really feel my jaw, but I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing." She sighed. "I'm sorry Rotxo attacked you like that. He won't do it again- I promise." She grabbed his hand and comforted him. He raised an eyebrow at her. "What'd you do to him?" She smirked. "Nothing important. Anyways, I'm excited to show you our cave of ancestors. It's beautiful!" She smiled.

Tsireya motioned to the rest of the group that they were going to start to go, and Laya nodded.

"Everybody follow Tsireya, I'll stay in the back so nobody gets lost." Laya called out to the group. Everybody nodded and got onto their Ilus. Laya made sure Neteyam was situated behind her and followed Kiri and Tuk, who were in front of them.

Then they dived into the water, taking deep breaths before they went deep. They swam through the corals, the schools of fish, the different groups of each sea animal, and Laya would point to pretty animals. Neteyam smiled at her, noticing how in her element she was.

They swam farther and farther from their village when suddenly they resurfaced. Looking up, everybody had huge smiles on their faces. Big rock structures, almost shaped like rings, went up. Neteyam had a big smile and was amazed. It was so beautiful. They stayed on the surface for a short while before going back down. When they dove back into the water, they noticed that the water had gone much more of a darker blue instead of the normal turquoise. They were swimming darker and saw the older women of the tribe harvesting. Laya noticed her aunt and waved to her, but her aunt simply nodded at her.

Tsireya and Laya gave the Sully kids jelly-like creatures that went onto their backs and helped them with their breath. Laya waved everybody over and led them to their version of the spirit tree.

It was an amazing sight. The white "leaves" of the branches were similar to what the Omatikaya clan had, but they floated upwards. The leaves glowed, so the tree could be seen from farther underwater. The roots were planted in the sand and ran deep through the ocean floors.

Neteyam was blown away, so was Lo'ak. They've obviously seen a tree similar to this before, but the underwater aspect provided a whole new view of it. The tree glowed like they've never seen before.

They swam closer to it and then the group started to break off into smaller groups. Laya and Tsireya went to go connect their braids, and their eyes closed. Reliving past memories with family members that passed, Laya smiled.

Neteyam and Kiri went to a seperate part of the tree and connected their braids.

Once Kiri connected her braid to the tree, she had weird visions of her and her mother. She desperately pleaded for her mother to tell her who her father was when her mother suddenly was sucked backwards.