lomtu → neteyam sully [2]

kew

→ 000; prologue

in the dawn of a fresh day, haka'i ka'ato came up to kyati d'āko on his pa'li. her back was to him as she sat, sharpening the point of a spear. he could tell she heard him by the slight tense of her shoulders and the halting of her movement, but she gave no further indication or acknowledgement of his looming presence. her nimble fingers moved again in a continuous back-and-forth motion with the knife gripped tightly; the spear she balanced across her knee sharpened as she did so, and the thin wooden shavings fluttered down to the ground, discarded. 

it had been almost an entire year, and still the two of them had not returned to the friendly state they'd existed in before. haka'i was torn; bitter; disappointed. at whom these feelings were directed, he could not know. but the young tutan had tried. he'd made the effort to come up to her regularly and start a conversation. kyati had answered shortly and closed herself off. when haka'i had told her outright he did not blame her for liking the other boy, she might as well have spat at his feet, or in his face. the look she had worn on her face was like a dark storm. haka'i had ignored her for a week afterwards, and she had made no effort to rectify the consequences of her disrespect towards him. he had even overheard her mother, pe'ire, trying to reason and beg for kyati to apologise.

"even if it is not genuine," pe'ire had told her daughter. "just pretend it is fine. for my sake. for everyone else's sake." kyati had let out something between a hiss and a frustrated growl. haka'i could picture the ferocious look on her pretty face.

"i will not," she'd seethed. "i didn't want this!" but the moment kyati had stormed away, she'd caught sight of him lurking. the two of them had never spoken about that moment since, even when they'd both been frozen, looking at each other with deep-set frowns and fearful eyes.

but it had been a few months since then.

now, haka'i sat tall on his pa'li as he waited for her to respond to him as he cleared his throat. when kyati didn't, he spoke her name; and although he tried to keep any sort of tone absent, it was a plead. another branch offered. 

"i'm busy." she barely tried to conceal her contempt.

"i'm sure your spear-sharpening can wait a few moments," haka'i retorted, rolling his eyes. he caught the small sigh that kyati released before standing to face him. the spear was still in her hand, its head sharp and pointed up. she looked up at him without tilting her chin upwards; her mouth tensing occasionally.

"what?"

haka'i pursed his lips. "we are going to travel to the omatikaya clan again, soon." the effect of his words were instantaneously shown on her face.

"get off your pa'li," she said. "i will not speak to you when you tower above me." haka'i did as she asked, although he was tempted to refuse. he would have had every right to. but once his feet thumped onto the hard earth, and he was looking almost straight ahead, into her eyes, he spoke again.

"it has been a year, almost." haka'i broke tsaheylu with his pa'li. "but i would not like you to spend time with that omatikaya boy." nearly every muscle in her face contorted and twisted, though smally.

"you can't control me, vonvä." her lip curled. each word was a knife. haka'i only cocked his brow nonchalantly.

"maybe not," he said. "but i have spoken with our mothers. they agree with me. i do not want to be so cruel, but i feel i have little choice considering how you act."

"how i act?"

"you behave like a child. throwing tantrums. he is one boy, and you knew it would never work." she hissed at him angrily, revealing—with a white flash—the sharpness of her fangs. "behave yourself, kyati. you know our fate." and with that, haka'i remade tsaheylu and vaulted onto the pa'li with ease; trotting away and already dreading their next conversation.

⏜⏝⏜⏝

kyati had grown up. haka'i hadn't realised it much the past few years, when their clan had remained in the safety of the caves; but now that he rarely allowed his eyes to wander to her at all, she seemed so irrevocably changed that he felt he barely knew her. she was still recognisable as kyati, of course, but her features had sharpened even more, and she'd grown taller. her body was a vessel of corded muscle, honed over the past year of travelling and learning from other na'vi.

but perhaps the most drastic change of all was the way kyati had become so assured in herself. once, she had been the type of girl to please. she had always let her mother braid her hair the way she wanted it; had always tried to be the best, no matter what, so she could live up to the expectations of a future tsahik. she might not have been ecstatic about their predestined fate—eywa knew he wasn't always so content to go along—but she'd been agreeable. reasonable, at worst.

and then the sopyu—their clan—came out of hiding and made their rounds, visiting each na'vi clan for a while. it was supposed to be good; some of them might stay. some other clans' members might join the sopyu. but kyati had gone ahead and spent too long with that omatikaya boy. haka'i wasn't sure what he would've been more bitter about; the fact that this boy was, like himself, the next olo'eyktan, or if it would have been more insulting if he were a normal boy.

if the omatikaya boy had been insignificant in a crowd, perhaps haka'i (and kyati) would have been able to forget him. or he would have been haunted by the fact that the woman promised to him preferred some common na'vi boy over someone with his own social standing. but the boy was future olo'eyktan—of course he was. of course. life just liked to play with haka'i like that. this was like his own ghost. a phantom. a wraith. it haunted him as he lay awake long after eclipse, staring at whatever view the sky offered. if kyati chose to reject their intertwined fate, and be with that boy instead of him, she would lose nothing.

nevertheless. once his clan had departed—early—from the omatikaya clan almost a year prior, haka'i had been under the impression everything would go back to normal after a week or two. maybe a month. but kyati had become irritable. she no longer spoke or looked at her own mother for too long. pe'ire was visibly hurt, but tried to conceal this and her embarrassment. 

the self-assurance and rudeness seemed to come as a package. the more kyati stuck to her own beliefs, the less agreeable and more ill-tempered she became. haka'i could only hope she would take on his last words to her: "behave yourself, kyati. you know our fate."

translations

pa'li = direhorse, horse-like animals ridden by the na'vi

tutan = man

tsaheylu = bond

vonvä = butthole, asshole, dickhead

tsahik = matriarch, high priestess, interpreter

olo'eyktan = clan leader

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author's note

i'm trying to flesh out some of the characters in the sequel cause i realised kyati was just such a dull character. lol.

and her in this chapter might be kinda ooc but anyway—