Where's My Love? - Lo'ak

Chapter 11: The Missing Flower

Their new home is.... different to say the least. It is nice, but it is different, having a hut so near the water, a dock next to their home. No trees or mountains surrounding them. It felt weird, strange, too different from home.

The only thing Esmyrie likes about this place so far, is that it reminds her of the stories her father told her of her mother.

She remembers asking her father why she looks so different, why her blue skin fades to a teal green, or why her arms are wider and stronger than anyone else's in the clan. She has always been self conscious about how she looks, she think she always will be.

"Father, why must I be different?" Little eight year old Esmyrie asks.

She has come home from training with the other kids, tears streaming down her face. When Nilar questioned her about it, she shrugged her shoulders as if it was nothing, but Nilar knows when his baby is upset, any parent knows when their child is hurting.

Hours later, Esmyrie was still in a upset mood, so to cheer her up, Nilar crafted a new bead to put in her hair, this one being two sided, having the symbol of the Omaticaya and Metkayina clan, a symbol from her fathers history and her mothers.

When Nilar was putting it in her hair, she asked the question of why she was different, and Nilar had to stop his movements for a second, shocked by the question.

To Nilar she didn't see anything wrong with her. Or course he didn't, that was his baby, part of him and Illa'oke. A perfect mixture in his opinion.

"What do you mean?" Nilar asks, finishing putting the bead in, and moving so he is eye level with his daughter.

"It's just, I get teased for my white hair... or my different coloration. I even get teased for my arms... I don't know why...." Esmyrie confesses, a tear rolling down her face and Nilar quickly wiping it away, hating seeing his little girl crying.

"Oh, babygirl why didn't you tell me sooner?"

"Because I didn't think it mattered... but it keeps happening, Lo'ak is too busy training with Mr. Sully and Neteyam is always too far away to hear... It's just, people keep teasing me and Lo'ak and Neteyam can't stop it. I've tried stopping it but they just laugh. I don't like looking different." Esmyrie whispers out, scratching at her arm, something she has always done when upset or anxious.

"Yes, you are different Esmyrie, but that doesn't mean it's a bad different... It's good to be different. It's good to look different. If we all looked the same life would be boring, don't you think?" Nilar asks, trying to lighten the mood, but when he sees his daughter stare at him blankly, he knows he has to take a different approach.

"I asked why I'm different."

"Esmy... You know your mom wasn't from here, right?" When he sees Esmyrie nod, he continues. "Back when I was a teen, I went and traveled. I knew I wasn't supposed to, but thats probably the exact reason why I did it. During my travels, I went all over Pandora. One of those places happened to be the sea, and there is a clan, much like ours, called the Metkayina clan. They are reef people, they know the waters, like we know the trees and jungle. That's where I met your mother. She was from the Metkayina clan, and reef people naturally have a teal skin color. They also have stronger arms, it helps them swim better, and they also have a larger tail to help in the water. Overtime, we fell in love, she agreed to learn the ways of the jungle like I did the water, and we moved back home, back here. The reason you are different is because your parents weren't both Omaticaya, your mother was from the sea, and because of that, she looked different than I do. It doesn't make that a bad thing. It doesn't make your looks bad." Nilar explains the story and it seems like Esmyrie understands looking at her skin, that does an ombre effect starting at her thighs, her stomach being blue but her legs being teal.