Eywa's Will (Tsu'tey x OC)

Chapter 21 - Rally

Awa'iti's POV

We stared at eachother as the flaming orange hues of the fire danced across our faces. "Are you sure storming the RDA base is the only way?" I asked Tsu'tey hesitantly.

He stared down with a dangerous expression on his face. "It is one strategy, I cannot say it is the best. I do not know if attacking them on their base is better than ambushing them at the sight of the well of souls, there would be the element of surprise; but their defenses would be doubled."

"And in contrast, if we ambushed them then their attack power would be better. Plus we would kind of lose the element of surprise."

"This is too hard!" I shouted. "We are holding peoples lives in our hands! How can we possibly make this decision.."

"I don't know..." Esnä whispered, the stand-offish look in his eyes almost made me think he'd been through this before. "I think I should go though, we don't have time. I'll rally the tribes, as far as I know I can reach 15 tribes and get back here in the span of a week. So, I need to know the plan."

"It is dangerous trying to take the harmonic unobtanium from the skywalkers so close to the opening, but it might be more convenient." I said.

"Perhaps.." Tsu'tey murmured.

I tugged on his shoulder and forced him to look at me, he had gotten bigger over the past few weeks. His shoulders were strong and heavy with burden. "Go with your gut." I said. "We believe in you."

Tsu'tey looked around as we all nodded in unison, it was never talked about but we all looked to him as our leader. Not to mention Jake had renounced being Chieftain, though none of us were Omaticaya he still radiated that power. He turned to Esnä. "We will ambush them at the site" He decided. "Do you know where it is?"

Esnä smirked, "Do you have to ask?" he got up walking towards the nearest tree and placed his hand on it. "It's in the Ta'antasi Region, North of the Kaoliä Tei, it's surrounded by rings of stone, the malmok."

Tsu'tey smiled. "So that's why no one's ever found it."

"Why?" I asked.

He looked towards me and then pointed into the sky. "Do you see that large blue round thing floating there?" He asked.

"The eye?" I said.

"That is the-eye, it pulls at the lands of the Ta'antasi Region. The ground pushes it up, like the thunder mountains, so it is unstable. No one goes there."

"I see, so not underwater." I sighed a breath of relief.

"Maybe, I have not seen the well; but from what I know, those are made of water."

"So that's the plan then? Well no time to lose, I'll be going now." Esnä said.

"But it is nighttime." I argued.

"I have good vision."

"I am coming too." Nawkey said surprisingly, that thought made my stomach jump. Being alone with Tsu'tey always gave me a weird feeling.

"Okay.." I murmured. "have fun you guys, but not too much fun."

Esnä smirked at me and mounted Sa'nok with Nawkey, but not before they raided our food supplies.

They disappeared into the night sky with a gust of wind.

My eyes slowly crept towards Tsu'tey, he was staring at me intensely. I think my stomach did a thousand flips, he looked great. The light of the fire enhanced the tones of his muscles. The sound of the atlas beetles rubbing their wings and the wind blowing softly was all too much. I wanted to run away and hide under a rock, but at the same time I wished the moment would last forever.

"Tsu'tey," I said breaking the silence. "could you imagine spending a life with me?"

His eye glinted with surprise, but his face soon melted into a warm expression. "Nga yawne lu oer, you are beloved to me. I would spend a thousand lifetimes with you."

It was not often that Tsu'tey acted serious, a lot of the time he joked around; but in that moment he was dead serious.

"If we survive this battle..Then I will be yours, and you will be mine."

Tsu'tey got up and sat next to me, holding my hand, his body warmed my soul. And for the first time since I came into existence, I truly and finally felt like I belonged somewhere.
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Jake's POV

"The Metkayina Clan..." I murmured as we flew cross country.

"Did you say something?" Yewla asked, it was pretty obvious he didn't like flying. His arms were holding onto my rib age so tight I thought they might break, he might've been small but he was unnaturally strong.

"No, we're almost there. You can see the ocean." I said pointing to the shiny blue surface in the horizon.

"Yes I know, I crossed it." He said nonchalantly.

"That's impressive."

Yewla turned away. "I had help."

I didn't ask what he meant by that and I was pretty sure I didn't want to know.

"Dive." I told Bob, we flew down and hit ground a few hundred feet away from the settlement. "From what I know they're peaceful, but I wouldn't go up into their camp and challenge their Chief." I side eyed Yewla who pretended not to hear. "Doesn't really matter though, I plan on retiring and giving it back to Tsu'tey."

"Oh really." He said uninterested.

"He's the rightful chieftain, I wasn't much of a leader."

"I can tell" He pulled out his crystal knife and snuck towards the perimeter.

"Put that away." I took the knife away and stashed it in my bag. "We're just peaceful travelers."

"Really?" A voice chimed from above, I whipped my head around to see a Metkayina warrior. She had green skin and huge legs. She jumped down from the tree and raised a wooden bident at us. Its two points were sanded to perfection with long intricate carvings grooved into the shaft that told stories of mighty battles with sea monsters. The markings on her face and thighs looked more like ocean waves than tiger prints and her eyes were a shade of light green.

"Wow, you look different than what Awa'iti described."

She cocked her head sharply. "The odd cave girl?"

"Yeah, she's a friend. Granted she's terrible as describing things with her small vocabulary and tendency to mix colors." I said shrugging my shoulders.

The girl smiled in delight and put her spear down. "That sounds about right, she only came for a small time. But her eyes were full of half wonder and half confusion."

I laughed uncomfortably still staring at the pitchfork to my left.

"Do not worry, it is for catching fish, not men."

"Ah, well that makes me feel loads better." I joked.

"Come, you are here for Toruk Makto are you not?" She asked.

"Wait what?"

Suddenly a load roar echoed throughout the forest coming from the clearing, I ran to it without hesitation. In the middle of the village sat a giant Toruk with red and purple wings that seemed to glow in the sun. On its back sat a familiar man with a wild grin on his face.