Invisible String - Jake Sully

14

"Lo'ak!" Tawn called the boy, who stopped in his tracks and looked guilty for some reason, "where are you going this early in the morning?"

Tawn was walking through the maruis since she had to teach a class soon.

Lo'ak looked at Tawn, "Well, I'm going to go for a swim," he lied.

Tawn raised one of her eyebrows at him, not believing his reason, "where are you going?" she asked, her voice lower and more menacing.

Lo'ak gulped, "I'm going to see a tulkun at the three brothers," he revealed. Lo'ak slapped his hand on his face when he realised what he had done.

Tawn smirked. It worked every time, "What tulkun?"

Lo'ak sighed, might as well told her now, "when Aonung left me behind, I was almost food for an Akula if it wasn't for this tulkun," he said, skirting around the real truth that the tulkun he was seeing was the killer tulkun, payakan.

"Lo'ak... did you bond with the tulkun?" Tawn asked cautiously.

Lo'ak shook his head quickly, "no! but he seems lonely, so I like to hang out with him every now and then," he said. He was actually scared of what Tawn could do to make him divulge a secret.

"Well, don't do anything stupid, okay, and please be safe," Tawn warned the boy, whose face lit up at her worry.

"Don't worry, Tawn, I'm always safe," Lo'ak smirked. Tawn smiled at the boy and pushed him towards the water.

"Okay, now go away," she teased.

"See you later, Tawn!"

Tawn nodded at the boy. She couldn't help but see the resemblance of Jake in Lo'ak. Of course, it was because Lo'ak was Jake's son, but Neteyam and Kiri didn't look like him that much, while Tuk bore a minor resemblance to her father. Tawn noticed that Kiri didn't look like her siblings too.

Tawn erased the thought from her head and continued her way towards her makeshift class near the shore.

Today she'd teach Pxango class the art of fishing. However, since they were all still kids, Tawn didn't want them to hurt themselves with spears, so they'd be observing the warrior do that.

Tawn arranged all that with Tonowari, who was more than happy to offer his service to Tawn and the soon-to-be warriors on how to hunt their primary source of food without damaging the ecosystem.

The perks of having the Olo'eyktan as a brother-in-law.

She noticed some students were already there when she reached her usual teaching place. She greeted them and spent some time with them until everyone was there.

"Tawn'kiri," she looked up to see who called for her, but her stomach dropped when she realised who it was.

She slightly bowed her head and touched her forehead as a greeting, "hi, Zovi."

Pxango was walking a little bit behind him, greeting the other kids.

"How are you?" he asked as if nothing had happened between them.

Since that day, Tawn had been avoiding Zovi like the plague. Thankfully, it was easy since he disappeared for a few days.

"I'm doing well, thank you," she smiled.

"Morning, Tawn! I can't wait for our trip," Pxango grinned, running to his friends.

Tawn smiled back at him.

"I heard that you're going to take the kids to the fishing ground," he said.

Tawn nodded, "that's true," she said curtly. Her eyes secretly counted the number of kids, and celebrated when all ten were accounted for,  "well, I think the kids are all here. I should get going." She smiled.