From the Forest | ATWOW

CHAPTER EIGHT

It was starting to get colder outside as the sun was setting, it was highway into the ocean and the once blue sky turned into colorful shades of orange and pink tinted with a little red. Sai'eyla brought the two of them out further and onto a rock,  she claimed that it was the best spot to come see the sunset and Neteyam couldn't agree more. Except he could care less about the sunset before him, all he could think about was her body leaned up against his chest.

"Tell me about yourself," Neteyam whispered into her ear.

"What do you want to know?"

"About your clan? Your people? Your life back in the forest. Anything about you."

"Very curious, hmm?"

"You're just very mysterious. Nobody here knows shit about you." He groaned, causing Sai'eyla to giggle.

"You were asking about me?" She silently noted to herself.

He shrugged. "What can I say? I would like to know more about the woman I'm courting."

Sai'eyla frowned and lifted herself from him to face him, "courting? You're going to court me?"

"Of course."

"Well, you're doing a terrible job." She laughed, leaning back into his embrace. This felt strange to her, she didn't know what to do or what to say. It wasn't the first time Sai'eyla had been courted--but it was the first time she was somewhat interested in who was trying to court her. She never did have the time to actively pursue anybody either, being the cheifs daughter kept her more than busy.

"That's reassuring," Neteyam snorted and peered into the distance. From where they were they could see the scavengers return from their daily adventures from the sea, most likey carrying food for the rest of the village and their families. "What part of the forest were you from?"

"Not forest, but the jungle. We are far from your home with the omatikaya." She offered up the information.

"How do you know I'm from the omatikaya?" Neteyam questioned.

"Your father is Jake Sully, Neteyam." Sai'eyla clarified for him. Every navi knew Jake Sully, it would be ridiculous from them not to, a toruk makto after years of not having one? His fight to defend pandora against the humans was one that went down in history.  Not to mention they introduced themselves when they first arrived at Awataluluih.

"Right," he hummed and allowed her to continue. "So the jungle? I don't know much about jungle tribes."

"Hm, I'm from the Tawkami clan." She dug into her small satchel that was located on the hip of her skirt to pull out her tribe's seal and held it out from him to see.  It was small, purple ink sketched onto the leaf and a design that resembled something of an eye, Neteyam hadn't seen anything like it before. The leaf was on the brink of losing all the green it had, a clear sign of it being old but the ink was dark like it was brand new.

"Tawkami.." Neteyam softly mumbled.

"We are one with Ewya. Not to brag but we are the most knowledgeable of Pandora and its inhabitants and we've watched over the ecosystem for a while to help maintain the balance. Our clan motto is to preserve the ecosystem." Sai'eyla spoke proudly. Her clan was special, they had the deepest connection with Ewya than any other clan, they did things that other clans didn't and they used the plants around them for everything. Pandora was a gift to them, her nutrients and resources a blessing from Ewya.

"We spent most of our days either meditating or collecting plants to use for all sorts of things. Like food, medicine, decoration and even personal clothing. I have some special pieces that if you're lucky enough, I'll show you."