Family

Joey

I ride my ilu beside Neteyam and Kiri. Tsireya is taking us to their spirit tree. I'm honestly very excited. I know theirs won't have the same memories as ours, but I miss connecting with Eywa. It's a feeling like no other. 

"We are here."

We have to duck below a rock, but once we do, it opens up into a beautiful view, with floating mountains and rings just like ours. 

"This is the cove of the ancestors." Tsireya tells us as we all look around. "Our most sacred place. Eclipse iis the best time of day to be here."

As if on cue, our sun dips away, and the darkness quickly engulfs us. Routinely, the plants begin to glow below, including an enormous anemone. 

"This is it. This is the spirit tree."

We swim over it in awe, admiring the beautiful purple-blue glow. 

All together we swim down, doing as Tsireya gestures. I find a spot and Neteyam swims up next to me. We both connect, and immediately, I am swarmed with memories of children being born, laughing, beautiful reefs, and seafood dinners. I focus in on one. A child, swimming with the Tulkun. I can feel the child's wonder, his complete lack of fear at the enormous creatures. I see all the others swimming around, greeting their Tulkun and telling them storiies of what happened while they were gone. Another memory, the birth of a son, to one of the Metkayina women. I can feel her joy at the sight of her baby boy. A new member of the family and the tribe. 

I glance over at Neteyam, who is smiling next to me, still connected. I can't wait to feel the joy of our own son someday. It's something we've both dreamt of. I want to upload my memory of it to the tree too, so that it may live on forever, to be seen by others who choose to connect, many years in the future, in the hopes that it will bring them the same joy it brought me. 

I look at everyone else, and suddenly see Kiri start shaking violently. I shove Neteyam to get his attention then swim over to her. Everyone is noticing now, and swimming over to help. We pull her up quickly and call the ilu. I am panicked. She lost control and definitely inhaled water. 

Neteyam pulls her up onto an ilu as Tuk cries out for her desperately. "What is wrong, what is it?"

"It was a seizure." Neteyam says, before immediately starting to try and bring back her breath. 

"is she breathing?" Roxto seems genuinely concerned as he stays by our side. 

After a few attempts, we hear her take a gasping breath, much to our relief. 

"Go!" I tell Neteyam. "Get her to the village. Hurry! Let's go, let's move!" I grab my own ilu. "Tuk!" I make sure Tuk is secured safely with me. She had ridden with Kiri and I don't want her forgotten. Everyone else can handle themselves, so I quickly ride off too. I feel complete and total fear. Kiri has never done that before. And she inhaled a lot of water. There's a chance there was damage to her brain from lack of oxygen. I can't imagine not having our normal Kiri. She's so spirited and joyful, and incredibly intelligent. She and I share a deep love for the life on our planet. She has to be okay.