your eyes • atwow

E L E V E N

"WHATEVER YOU feel comfortable sharing."
aiä tells loak

they had just begun the new ritual for the day

loak got stuck alone with aiä while the rest if his family was separated between her two brothers

aiä told loak that she wanted to know more about how his life was with neteyam, how it was like growing up with him and all things

at first loak felt a bit uncomfortable not wanting to give such personal information out but aiä gave him those reassuring words

"um neteyam was always like a golden child to my parents, of course he was the first born and my dad always went out with him and well neteyam just wanted to be like my dad, a warrior and leader. we would always pay out in the forest with kiri and spider, we considered spider like our other brother. to be honest as we grew up I started to feel weird I guess, I mean he would get to go out on patrol or mission with my dad and well I got stuck staying home, I remember this one day before we left the forest we were both allowed on a mission, we were going to raid the sky people again, and me and neteyams job was to be spotters call out for this plane ships in the sky, and I wanted to go down where the other warriors were raiding, and I did but neteyam didn't want me to, he came down and then there was a laugh that hit the ground making many of us go flying and get injuried. neteyam had it worse than me but not too bad, my dad gave me a lecture and when he was down I felt angry but I knew that it was my fault, it always seemed like everything was my fault, and a part of me knew that it was but still I felt annoyed that my dad would never see that im a person too, not another soldier...sorry I-this was supposed to be about my brother not me."

loak says with a long sighs at the end

" no no no it's ok really, this also helps, um if you don't mind can I ask a question. did you feel like you were always being compared to neteyam?"
aiä asks softly

" kind of not all the time, um there was this one situation when we were with the metkayina, some of the guys there started picking on kiri when she was by herself and were calling her a freak because she had four fingers, I told them to back off and they were calling me a freak to because well I also have four fingers.."
loak says looking down at his hands and picking at them

" they were pushing me around but then neteyam came and told them to back off and they did, they listened to him, I ended up getting in a fight with them and neteyam jumped in, when we got back home, he was trying to take the blame for me but my dad didn't want to hear it and I finally told him what happened, that they were calling kiri a freak but then he, he told me to go apologize to the boys, just because the guy that I hit first was olekytans son!"
his voice getting louder, evident to his frustration

" when I left the tent I heard vaugley my dad making jokes with neteyam about the fight, and when I went to go day sorry something happened and when I got back to the clan I took the blame for the olekytans son, and my dad said that i.. that I had broughts shame to the family. I mean me and him are past that but I will never forget those words that he told me.."

he finishes talking

"..loak.."
aiä says touching his arm to get him to look at her

he finally lifts his head up and sees the soft look on her face, it being very much different from her serious face

" you are not any of those things.. when you and your family first arrived you all got weird look, remember?"
she says

loak nods

" not because of your fingers or your braid but because no one had ever seen any other navi before, most of us were born inside the cave and some havent left or seen the outside ever! seeing you is like seeing a beautiful unkown plant, we want to know what it's called where the plant is from, no one finds you or any of your family like outsiders just new, sure some are a bit snarky but because we don't want any harm to be done."

aiä says her hand movies down from his arm to his hand

this makes his eyes widen

she tightens her hand around his to give a reasurring gesture

there is a comfortable silence between them before aiä speaks up again

".. if you don't mind, could you tell me more about you? about the forest and the sea? or even about the skypeople?"

his eyes widend again with a small smile appearing on his face

" yeah-yeah of course."

aiä smiles and gives a small thanks her eyes having a sparkle in them

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next chapter jakes is not gonna be so likeable.....