surrender | lo'ak

➾ four

CHAPTER FOUR

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lo'ak held up his end of his promise as he walked alea back to her home. to be honest, he had no idea where he was going. he was just following the girl to protect her, you know, from predators and such.

"tell me more about your family." alea broke the few minute silence.

lo'ak was surprised by the question. so far today, she seemed pretty closed off and it confused him. he felt they'd been getting along fine, good in fact, then he slips up a tiny bit and she retracted her friendliness. up until this very moment.

so he replied with as much as he could, "well, like you know, i have a brother and two sisters. neteyam, kiri and tuk. neteyam is my fathers perfect little soldier, does whatever he asks. a little annoying, if you ask me.

then kiri, she's not as annoying. she's got this thing with eywa she claims, always doing weird stuff. i don't know, oh, she also wants to become tsahik.

and tuk, she's the youngest. gets whatever she wants and is a big snitch, don't ask her to keep any secrets by the way. once i was grounded for a month because she told my parents i snuck out once, i didn't even know she was awake!"

alea once again admired how he talked about his family. he claimed they were all annoying or had some flaws, but she saw through him. he loved them all. she hoped that he never took them for granted, as they could slip through your fingers at any moment. alea would know.

"we also have a friend named spider whose practically family. he's human but-"

"what?" alea stopped in her tracks, "you are friends with a sky person?"

lo'ak forgot not all na'vi were accepting of humans on their planet, especially after the war. but he grew up with the boy and knew he was no harm.

"is that like a big problem?" he asked nervously. he knew this would be a step backwards if she disapproved of humans.

she scoffed and shook her head, ignoring his question and walking away.

lo'ak caught back up to her. "he's not one of them. like i said, he's practically one of us-"

she interrupted him harshly. "he will never be one of the people. i do not care who he is."

lo'ak felt his ears flatten at her remark. he knew others, including his own mother, disliked spider. but wasn't he just as much an outcast as himself? lo'ak felt he had no right to judge the human boy when he had no choice in the matter on his living arrangements.