Shells | Lo'ak Sully

Part 2: Earlybird

                          . • .° • *. •.  .

As Ni'teya and Lo'ak slept separately that night, the girl fell asleep almost instantly. At first, she was apprehensive, but due to her already exhausted state, she quickly drifted asleep without noticing it happen.
Lo'ak fell asleep as he usually did too, shifting around as he slept soundly. To begin with, anyway.

Around a quarter of the way through the night, he awoke after having another nightmare. It involved his brother as it always did, ending the same as usual too. He began to hyperventilate, trying to catch his breath and quieten down as to not wake the sleeping girl that was across the room. He counted to ten in his head, tugged on his thumbs, all of it in an attempt to calm himself down. — Despite having made a promise to her, the boy refused to wake Ni'teya up. Her presence helped him, but because she wasn't close, he struggled more; But that didn't give him enough of a reason to wake her up.

He knew she'd be more than furious if she found out about it, so he did his best to stay quiet as he tried to fall back asleep. But due to reoccurring thoughts of the dream he'd just had, he didn't manage to do so until just before the sun came up the next morning.

People began to wake up around him, eventually hearing his dad calling him to come and get his breakfast, along with Ni'teya who was yawning. — Unlike him, she'd succeeded in sleeping for the entire night's length, feeling extremely fresh and well-rested after days of feeling sluggish.

She hopped up onto her feet, heading over to shake Lo'ak awake, thinking he'd slept the whole night too. The boy groaned, rubbing his eyes as he usually did. Ni'teya however had already left the room, skipping towards Jake and Neytiri's hut to receive her food for the morning. Lo'ak chuckled at the sight of her as he rolled out of bed, deeming the fact he'd broken their promise justified, as it meant Ni'teya was no longer tired.

When she hopped inside the hut, Jake noticed her energetic appearance, smiling a little before handing her her breakfast.

"You're chipper this morning, good night's sleep?" He asks her, his tone cheery.

"Yep! Lo'ak did, too!" She sang, though she wasn't aware she hadn't told him the truth about his son.

Jake nodded, looking over at Neytiri who smiled gently back at him. Ni'teya began to scarf down her food as usual, quickly realising they were missing someone other than Lo'ak.

"Oh, where's Kiri?" She says, still chewing her food.

"She got up early to visit the cove, you know how she is." Jake answered, making her chuckle, knowing Kiri was much more of an early bird than any of them combined. "You should go meet her there." He suggested.

"I think I will, yeah." Ni'teya decided, having already finished her meal, placing her bowl down and leaving the hut. As she did so, Lo'ak had finally emerged, receiving a tap on his head from Ni'teya as she passed, bidding him a 'morning!' joyfully.

The girl raced over to where her ilu, Me'kari was, mounting her promptly and heading off in the direction of the cove Kiri usually visited. The reason she liked it was the fact that it has the perfect balance between light and dark, the rocky walls only allowing a certain amount of sunlight to shine through to the inside.

Upon arriving, Ni'teya was met with her friend's back to her.

"Kiri!" She called out, climbing into the cove and swimming over to where he friend sat dangling her feet in the water. Ni'teya noticed that her posture was droopy, making her grow a little cautious.
"Kiri?" She said again, checking to see what her friend really looked like. When she inspected closer, she discovered tears dripping down from Kiri's watery and glossy eyes.