Mighty Jewel | LO'AK + NETEYAM

chapter fifteen

The night of the crash, Kyalayi had slept on the beach. She didn't had enough courage to return to the hut, to face her father and... her mother. Or anyone really. And when she woke up the next day, her body had been tinted with the black powder from the fire's ashes that had settled down during the night. The cinders itching her scars under her gloves, causing her to run in the water as soon as she opened her eyes. She rinsed her body from the constant reminder of her mother's sudden resurrection. In fifteen years, she had craved for the answers that came burning last night. It was overwhelming how much she had missed someone she had never even met. Someone who was a complete stranger yet seemed and felt so familiar. Kyalayi let her body sank underwater, trying to muffle her thoughts that were becoming a tad too loud for her.

"Do you think she's going to be okay?" Neteyam asked, arms crossed as he watched the girl from the hut's porch.

"After everything she's been through," Lo'ak started to answer his brother as he posed his gaze onto Kyalayi. The Sully brothers' careness toward the Metkayina girl didn't go unoticed. They both tried to deny it, act like those feelings weren't present but Neteyam was aware of the way Lo'ak looked at Kyalayi, and Lo'ak was aware of the way Neteyam acted toward the girl. At one point, it would be undeniable for the both of them. "She's the strongest girl I know." Lo'ak added, his tone laced with hope. Hope that Kyalayi would be just fine like he had told Neteyam.

Neteyam turned his head to inspect his brother's expression. His traits being the softest he had ever seen on his face. His eyes gleaming a golden yellow as his lips gently parted, his breath slow and calm. Neteyam sensed a tiny pinch in his chest as he was reminded of what he had just promised himself. A mental promise that only the eldest son would made for the sole purpose of putting his family first. Always.

"You should go talk to her." Neteyam instructed to his brother as Lo'ak nodded to the idea.

Lo'ak jogged to the beach and as he approached, he slowed his pace to not scare Kyalayi, who was still underwater. The girl spotted the Sully boy when his figure obstructed the sun's rays she deeply needed. She swam to the surface to join him, immediately recognizing who he was. Kyalayi find comfort in the boy, his lightness seemed to always lit up the girl's mood. But in that moment, she felt hopeless like pieces of her heart were gradually breaking and fading away. And she felt like it was her father that was doing it, hurting her in so many ways when he had chosen to not reveal the whole truth about who the girl's mother was. There wasn't a word for it but heartbroken. Kyalayi inhaled a loud and heavy breath as she reached the surface, Lo'ak scrutinizing the girl's ears perking as the fresh breeze hit them. The Sully boy assumed Kya wouldn't opened up so, without words, he invited her for a swim which she hesitantly accepted. The girl wasn't used to this proximity with another, she wasn't used to have a friend to rely on when life got hard. Kyalayi was always alone, dealing on her own. A sense of guilt resurfaced as she thought about Kiri, still unconscious. Maybe Lo'ak didn't knew what it was to loose his mother but Kyalayi and him were going through the same thing. In a way, they both feared for the life of a loved one. The Metkayina girl and the Sully boy dove into the water, at the very bottom of the ocean, as Kyalayi distracted herself with collecting samples of sand, mosses and corals and gently putting them away in her leather pouch. Lo'ak helped her but he didn't want to overstep and then cause the girl to push him away. He truly wanted to be there for her but Kyalayi was hard to read, her face lifeless and rigid. The jewels fading away from her mighty two-colored eyes.

"I'm finished." Kyalayi signed to the boy as she quickly swam to the surface, not waiting for a response from the boy. The girl was tired of waiting for answers. When she made her way to the beach, she could hear Lo'ak trying to follow behind, his feet splashing in the water. Before she could isolate herself once again, the Sully boy grabbed the girl by the wrist, forcing her to stop moving away. He then circled around her to finally examine her face; droplets of water on her lips and nose and cheeks that made her expression even more devastating like she was melting right in front of his eyes.

"You shouldn't be alone." Lo'ak finally spoke up, his eyebrows scrunched together as he took pity on the girl which Kyalayi instantly hated him for it.

"I want to." The girl softly replied, her voice so quiet and hoarse as it was the first time she had spoken out loud since the explosion.

"Your father has been looking for you." Lo'ak said, his thumb caressing the back of the girl's hand which made her dropped her gaze to it. "He needs you, Kya."

Kyalayi stared at his touch, the familiar tingling feeling growing at the bottom of her stomach and if it was any other day, she probably would allow herself to blush. But not today. Today, she saw the Sully boy's fingers. Five of them. She gently lifted his hand in the air, bringing it closer to her face so she could scrutinized it. Lo'ak let the girl do everything she needed to, if that meant she would opened up to him. Kyalayi placed her gloved hand along Lo'ak's, the fingers resting perfectly on top of each other. A void feeling growing as she stared at the space where her fifth finger should have rested.

"He lied to me." Kyalayi stated, her voice shaking as she tried to hold the tears from falling. "Lo'ak. My father lied to me about my identity. About who I am and where I come from."

The boy could hear the hurt in her voice and the betrayal on her face as his own heart dropped to his stomach witnessing Kyalayi's breakdown. Lo'ak grabbed the back of the girl's head as he brought her into the deep of his neck, his arms enveloping her body like he was an armor to protect her.

"I can't apologize for what he did but one thing I know for sure is that your father loves you so much, Kya."

Kyalayi calmed herself in the boy's arms as she listened to his comforting heartbeat and words,  and wondered if that was how one should felt when they weren't as alone as she used to be. She always thought of Lo'ak as childlike and reckless but really, he was way more. The Sully's youngest son was brave, curious and adventurous. Lo'ak was exciting for someone like Kyalayi who had completely forgotten how to live her life. For an instant, the boy had succeeded to distract her into thinking about love. The feeling of love from a mother which she had craved for all of those years and like she had watched the Sully receiving. But also the feeling of love from a mate.

"Kya." A masculine figure approached, causing the two teenagers to break their embrace. "Your mother is awake." Marrek stated to his daughter as he tried to put on a strong face for her.