𝐄𝐂𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐒𝐘 | neteyam

five 𝐀𝐏𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐗𝐈𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍

"I WISH I'D BEEN THERE," Kiri said to her younger brother and looked amazed by the story he just told us. Lo'ak is only alive, because a tulkun saved him, his life. "The ocean blessed you with a gift, brother."

"The tulkun have not returned yet, and anyway, no tulkun is ever alone.", Ao'nung explained as he was leaning on one of the palm trees. I was still angry with him for yesterday, but it seemed that he had learned his lesson.

"This one was," Lo'ak answered him and looked at Tsireya, "He had a missing fin, like a stump on the left side."

"Poor tulkun!", Tuk said quietly.

My eyes went to Tsireya, I knew exactly who Lo'ak was talking about.

"Payakan," I said and Tsireya looked at me with eyes full of worry. I turned to Lo'ak, who was not really understanding my sentence, nor Tsireya's reaction to my words.

"Who is Payakan?", Kiri asked and Rotxo, who was sitting next to her answered this question. "A young bull went rogue. He's outcast, alone, and he has a missing fin.", he explained.

"They say he is a killer," Tsireya said to Lo'ak and hold his right arm. The boy shook his head.

"He killed Na'vi, and other tulkun. Not here, but far to the south.", Ao'nung went on but Lo'ak was still shaking his head, not believing their words.

"Lo'ak, you are lucky to be alive.", I said to him, trying to explain to him how dangerous the tulkun is. But Lo'ak still was disagreeing. "I'm telling you guys, he saved my life," he insisted, "he's my friend."

Tsireya looked back at me but I just shrugged my shoulders. We were told the story of Payakan, the lonely tulkun, many years ago. We were told that he is a danger, that's why I couldn't belive that he tried to befriend Lo'ak and seemed to save him.

Now Neteyam got up with a small smile on his lips.

"My baby bro, the mighty warrior, who faced the killer tulkun and now tells about it," he joked but Lo'ak didn't laugh. He got up too.

"You guys aren't listening!", he said and turned his back to us. "No, I'm, I'm listening," Tuk said, not really understanding the situation.

"Lo'ak come back," I said. I knew that he felt misunderstood, but I didn't know what to do to help him.

"Lo'ak!", Tsireya called too, but he left without another word. I sighed and looked at Neteyam. Was this necessary?
I asked him with my eyes.

-

Lo'ak was nowhere to be seen for a while, so me and Neteyam started looking for him. But the younger boy wasn't in his Marui Pod, neither on the beach or in the sea. So I figured he probably went to see Payakan again.

Neteyam and I rode on our ilus outside the reef. The water was very calm today, and the sun was shining brightly on the blue sky.

And after only a few minutes, we saw Lo'ak. I was right, he was with a tulkun, and there was no doubt that this wasn't Payakan. He indeed had a missing fin.
But now seeing him myself he looked nothing like I imagined. He looked at Lo'ak with happy eyes and didn't look dangerous or brutal at all.

Neteyam and I were hiding behind some seaweed, so they wouldn't notice us right away.

Payakan opened his large mouth and Lo'ak started to slowly swim inside of him. This caused Neteyam to move forwards, wanting to stop his little brother, but I touched his arm before he could approach him.

Let him, I signed with my fingers. Neteyam listened to me, but still looked nervous and anxious.

Lo'ak spend around 4 minutes inside the tulkun, and I was curious. Was he bonding with him? Could Payakan be his soul-brother? Payakan was a killer, this wasn't right.