Mighty Jewel | LO'AK + NETEYAM

chapter twenty four

The sky was no more grey, it had quickly darkened as rain started to heavily pour all around the Metkayina islands. The wind picking up the waves, causing them to elevate them higher than usually as Kyalayi had difficulty staying afloat. The girl wasn't lost, she knew the ocean like the back of her hand but Ao'nung and his friends had left her outside of the reef, during a storm. The teenage girl growled to herself as she struggled to keep swimming, her arms, legs and tail being exhausted from her constant battle against the fast current. How she wished she could go back in time and tell her past self to not trust Ao'nung. The girl swam for what felt like hours but when she noticed she wasn't nearly close to the village, Kyalayi slapped the water with her hands, frustrated. Maybe I could take a break, she thought. There was no point in exhausting herself, she could wait for the storm to pass. The girl inhaled a huge breath before her body was submerged by the water, letting it slowly sank toward the bottom of the ocean. Kyalayi watched the fishes and sea creatures dancing with its flora, the ocean seemed so much calmer from underneath the surface. It soothed the young girl's nerves too, decelerating her heartbeat as she focused on the breath she had to hold. Suddenly, her body swung back, pulling her right back into the heart of the storm. The cold wind and rain whipped the girl's cheeks, snapping her out of her daze and serenity as she finally got a good look of who her perpetrator was.

"Lo'ak." Kyalayi exclaimed, surprised to see the forest boy who had dared to venture outside of the reef in this climate. Lo'ak mounted on his Ilu as he still had a gentle grip around the girl's wrist which helped when he pulled her out of the water. The youngest son grinned at the white haired girl, who was now sitting behind him while he saw the several questionings changing her softened traits into harder ones. "How did you know?" Kyalayi finally asked, curious of how a forest boy who was unfamiliar with the reef could have known this spot.

"Ao'nung did the same thing to me a few weeks ago."

Kyalayi's heart dropped when she heard Lo'ak's answer. The boy had never talked about it, how could she have not noticed his disappearance and then her mind flickered to every moment Lo'ak wasn't there. How she didn't even bothered to look for him, her attention directed to someone else which made her feel nauseous. I see you was what she had said to the Sully boy and yet those words felt like a complete lie now. She felt like a fraud. Before Kyalayi gathered her courage to form some sort of comforting reply, Jake and Tonowari brutally landed into the water, the waves quickly pulling them toward the teenagers.

"We have to leave before the storm gets worse." Tonowari shouted as he wanted to be louder than the rain drops slapping the ocean's water. Jake scrutinized the Metkayina girl searching for wounds but Kyalayi interrupted his inspection with a nod, telling him that she was safe. Jake shifted his gaze to his youngest son who was already looking at him in deep need of his approval.

"You good to ride back to the village?" Jake asked to Lo'ak who instantly answered positively to his question, there was no doubt in the boy's mind that he wanted to be the one to bring Kyalayi back to safety. Both fathers returned in the sky while Lo'ak slightly tapped the Ilu with his foot, indicating it to dive into the water as the boy figured the ocean would shield them from the storm.

"MyJake." Neytiri exclaimed, a relieved sigh escaping her lips when she jumped from the wooden deck to embrace her mate. The woman gently turned and placed her hand onto her youngest son's cheek, proud of him as Lo'ak's heart filled with recognition. Neytiri's gaze shifted to the missing girl as she examined her the same way Jake had previously done but Kyalayi's eyes kept flickering behind the woman, looking for someone in the crowd. The Metkayina girl felt tiny arms interlacing around her waist, causing her to drop her stare to the Sully's youngest kid. Kyalayi lifted Tuk in her arms, a habit she had picked up and grew found of it, thinking it would comfort the little girl. The Sully's smiled at the view before them. What was once a stranger had became so familiar, indispensable for each one of them.

"I was the first on the beach." Tuk excitedly exclaimed in hope of getting complimented by her friend.

"You were? Did you see the eclipse fade? It's beautiful, right?" Kyalayi said, returning the same excitement as the young girl which only made Tuk's smile grew wider, happier while nodding to the ocean girl's questions. Kyalayi raised her eyes and took the time to scrutinize the ones who had helped looking for her, grateful for having them all in her life.

"Thank you." She repetitively nodded, a slight smile creeping on her lips but quickly faded when she gazed at Tonowari and Tsireya. "I don't want Ao'nung to be in trouble."

"What he did was reckless and dangerous. He knows better." The Metkayina leader firmly stated before looking behind him at his eldest son and mate. "And he will be punished as so."

"Good." Lo'ak abruptly blurted out, the rage taking over his body and fully knowing that his interception would erase all the good he had did today, getting him a vile look from his father and silent hiss from his mother. Kyalayi shook her head to the forest boy as she saw he was about to speak his mind once again. "What? He can't-"

"Let me deal with this one." Jake grabbed his youngest son by the arm and pulled him away from the crowd and toward their family's hut. Kyalayi put Tuk down as the little girl grabbed her oldest sister's hand, both following behind their father. Neytiri gently placed her hand on the white haired girl's cheek before joining her family. Neteyam scratched his scalp, his head down but his eyes fixated on the ocean girl. For the past days, the eldest Sully had stayed in the background, not wanting to engage with the girl. But he soon figured that it pained him more to not be in her life than having to push his feelings for her aside. Kyalayi waited for the boy to speak but he never did. Well, he didn't with words but his eyes... his eyes said everything. The dynamic between Neteyam and Kyalayi was the complete opposite of the one between the girl and Lo'ak. There was some inexplicable tension between the two of them where there could be no words spoken and they would still feel closer. Neteyam's promise prohibiting them to give in the urge of touching one another. As with Lo'ak, they had an easiness with words. They could talk about anything without filtering or beautifying their thoughts. Their conversations were raw and real. They cared about each other and they often showed it by touching the other with comforting gestures. Kyalayi watched Neteyam follow his family as the crowd that the girl's sudden reappearance had provoked had finally been dispersed, her eyes finding the one who had been waiting for her. The teenage girl hesitantly walked toward Marrek who stood confidently by the end of the deck, his chin lifted and his chest pumped making him look like a statue. When Neytiri had told Marrek, it took everything in him to stop himself and Evelyn from chasing their daughter. The healer wasn't worried for her, he knew how resilient and resourceful Kyalayi could be, after all he was the one who had raised her as such. He knew that eventually, the girl would find her way back home so when he heard the clan's horn blowing, the man only needed to make sure she was truly safe. No one close to the girl understood why Marrek was icing out his own daughter, rejecting her when she had ultimately forgave him for what he had done. But Marrek cried himself to sleep since that day where his heart had burst into several pieces, the man was scared of repeating his mistakes, of hurting once again his daughter because war was coming. In fact, it was nearly here, the Sky People creeping their way from village to village in search of the Sully's and Evelyn.

"They're coming." Marrek only stated to his daughter as he walked away one last time from her because after that war, the man would take Evelyn and Kyalayi away in a place where their family would be accepted and only then, he would let himself be happy. As her father's figure became more distant, Kyalayi still felt his words trembling into her body. With his frightening tone and rigid body that made her shiver, Kya understood who they were. But what she didn't knew was that Marrek had aided for this war to happen, in a way that she could never imagined even in her worst nightmares.