Shells | Lo'ak Sully

Part 7 - Coward

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(POV: Narrator)

It made sense to Ni'teya now. She thought back to what she had heard on the beach...

"He probably doesn't even know we've left him yet, what a-"

Freak. That's what they'd said, Ni'teya was sure of it.

Both Lo'ak and Ni'teya were back safely to shore, however Ni'teya decided that she'd take her ilu to a more secluded area, away from the other Reef People and Lo'ak's family. She told Lo'ak to stay put for the time being, threatening him simultaneously, telling him that she'd "feed him to his own Tulkun brother" if he so much as moved a muscle. Without much of a choice in the matter, he agreed.

Ni'teya had to walk past the huts in order to get to where she needed to go, so she tried her best to be as stealthy as she could, not allowing anyone to see her. Everyone was still in a search for Lo'ak, meaning there weren't many Na'vi around for her to bump into anyway.

All except one particularly curious one, wondering why she was back before the search was concluded, and why she looked so furious.

Because of this, Neteyam followed her down to the spot where Roxto and Aonung were still sat, laughing seemingly harder now than when Ni'teya had seen them before, pointing to some of the Na'vi coming and going on their ilu.

As if he could sense her presence, Aonung sprung up onto his feet, turning to face Ni'teya and watch as she approached him hastily and threateningly. "Hey, hey, hey woah, slow down-" He tried to stop her, even though she had already calculated her first attack.

She shoved him backwards, yelling "You assholes!" making both of their faces sink. As expected, they attempted to play it off at first. "What're you calling us?" Roxto spoke, though Ni'teya's eyes were glued to Aonung who wisely chose not to say anything this time.

"Ni'teya, what are you doing?" Neteyam unexpectedly pipes up behind her, which did startle her but not enough to get her to release her grip or avert her stare.

Ni'teya stepped back once, not breaking the glare she was holding strongly at Aonung's face, visibly making him sweat. "I heard them. I heard them calling him a freak, just like they did before. I know they're to blame." She explains to Neteyam, who didn't doubt her seen as 'freak' was the common insult thrown towards Lo'ak.

"You hurt my brother?" Neteyam joins in on the interrogation, pointing his finger at Aonung and pushing it into him.

When he didn't respond, Ni'teya only became more vexed. "What, are you deaf all of a sudden? Tell me! Tell me why you did it!" she yelled, resuming her pushing and shoving and to her somewhat dismay, he didn't return either.

His friend tapped him on his arm, suggesting that "We should just say sorry, Aon-" just before Ni'teya planned her next move. She didn't want it to come to this however Aonung's blank stare and lack of admittance only inflamed her anger. Ni'teya's arm reached into her satchel, revealing her weapon of choice. The thorn-tipped blade, sharpened earlier that day so that she could use it to cut her fillet o' fish.

"Hey-" Neteyam tried, or maybe more accurately, failed. The knife was at Aonung's chest, pressing deeper and deeper for every second he stayed silent.

"Do you want me to cut?" She whispered, her eyes burning into his.

The seemingly decent friendship the two had formed had long gone. Aonung was back to being the same bully she'd previously thought he was, the same fish-fingered, flipper-footed bully.

"Why did you do it, Aunung. Tell me!" Ni'teya's knife was pressing further inwards, causing Aonung to finally show a sign of pain, wincing and biting his tongue.