Ao'nung x Neteyam slow burn

Day 8

Neteyam

Ao'nung was waiting for me in front of our hut. "Are you excited?", he asked and seemed to be really interested in my answer. "Of course I am!", I said smiling. Today, I'd get my own ilu. At least according to our plan.
He let out some weird noises and two ilus swam to him: his own and a free one. He made tsaheylu with his and offered me his hand. "It's best to try it somewhat far away from the huts so we don't disturb anyone." I hesitated for a moment before I grabbed his hand and carefully sat down behind him. "Hold on tight", he said. I placed my arms loosely around his waist. With his right hand, he grabbed my thigh just above my right knee.
Suddenly the ilus started to dive and i grabbed Ao'nung tighter. His hand was warm on my skin. He held me softly, but safely.
As we broke through the surface again I let go of him. The ilu slowly swam to a small rock in the water on which I was supposed to take a stand. Ao'nung finally let go of my leg and my knees were shaking as I got off the ilu. It was probably just because of the adrenalin and the fast swimming, right?

The other ilu was coming towards me and waited patiently until I made the bond, tsaheylu, with him. Afterwards I corrected myself mentally - with her. "Now you can mount her. Grab this with your left hand and hold on tight." He showed me what he meant exactly and I followed his instructions.
"I hope you have strong hands."
The ilu didn't seem to be that eager to speed up like the other ilu earlier. She instead swam softly through the waves. Then I thought dive amd we submerged in the water.
She sped up by herself but hit the breaks as soon as I almost couldn't hold on anymore.
Ao'nung caught up to me and together we swam through the seemingly endless depths of the reef.
We stopped where the reef and the ocean met. What are you waiting for? he signed. You want to go there?, I asked and pointed to the deep blue water. Are you scared? My guts told me to say yes. No. I was an idiot and didn't want to admit to him that the open ocean scared the crap out of me.
I pet my ilu and watched him leaving the reef.
My animal appeared to be noticing my feelings because she swam very cautious until I cleared my head of those thoughts and decided to trust Ao'nung.

We were chasing each other through the clear water and had a lot of fun doing that.
Suddenly his face dropped and he signed hastily Go! Now!
He didn't need to tell me twice. The ilu swam as fast as she could back to the reef. I thought we were closer to it, but apparently we weren't even anywhere close to it. As I turned around to check if Ao'nung was still there, my heart stopped for a good second. I had a huge problem; quite literally.
Only afterwards I learned that that thing had been an akula. But in this moment, I couldn't care less what it was called. It looked at us like we were the most delicious snack in the whole ocean.
'Ilu' - yes, that's the creative name I've chosen for her - sensed the danger we were in and put her whole heart in escaping from that thing. It was the most terrifying race I've ever had.
She took sharp turns and tried to get lost in fields of coral or in algae bushes, but nothing seemed to be irritating the akula. It just kept on following us.
I felt so safe on Ilu, but my hands slipped away more and more. My legs were hurting and I didn't think I could hold on any longer. I told her that she should dump me in a good hiding spot and swim away on her own. That I would only slow her down and that we both would get to safety this way.
She hesitated but agreed after a few moments. As we passed some thick algae I slipped down from her and held on to some thick stems.
Ilu swam away and the akula followed her. I prayed to Eywa that he wouldn't harm her.

Minutes passed.

I started to think that I was safe now and decided to swim up to catch my breath. As soon as I left my hiding spot, someone grabbed me firmly.
I held on to the na'vi as tightly as I could as soon as realized that it was Ao'nung.
We broke through the surface only back in the reef, in safety.
I noticed how he held me: I was between his strong arms; my right shoulder and my head were pressed up against his chest and my legs were on top of his right leg. One of his hands was wrapped around my left arm and was still holding on tight.
Now he slowly let go a bit. "Are you alright? Where's your ilu?" "I sent her here - we'd never escaped that thing together." He noticed me shaking of fear. "Hug?" I simply nodded and he wrapped my legs around his waist and hugged me tightly.
I started crying unwillingly. He caressed me and stroked my back in a calming way. Ao'nung rocked me back and forth softly.

It took me a while, but I finally stopped crying. I didn't think I could let go of him again and he didn't seem to mind. With his ilu we swam over to a small island and he stood up with me still in his arms. He held me safely and sat down on the sand. I sat on his lap, but I couldn't care less currently.

Ao'nung ran his fingers trough my hair and told me again and again that I was safe and that he would do anything to prevent this from ever happening again.
"I am so sorry that I left the reef. I should've never suggested it. And especially not today, so shortly after learning to ride your ilu. It's my fault that that happened.

I rested my forehand on his shoulder and leaned back a bit. Without even looking at him, I said: "It was not your fault. I could've said no. I could've admitted that I was scared. Furthermore, it was probably never your intention for that to happen, or was it?" With that I looked at him blankly. He seemed shocked that I said that. "Of course not! Why are you saying that?"
I was unsure, actually. He hugged me again and we stayed in that same position until Tsireya interrupted us. "Ao'nung?" He carefully pushed me off of him and looked his sister in the eyes. Next to her was - surprise! - Lo'ak.
My little bro grinned knowingly until he noticed that my eyes were red from crying and that I was shaking.
Hw quietly asked what happened as soon as he knelt besides me.
I looked at Ao'nung and began telling the story; loud enough dor Tsireya to be able to hear it, too.