𝓘 𝓼𝓮𝓮 𝔂𝓸𝓾 -Lσ'αƙ-/OC

𝟚- Talking to the forest boy

Chapter 2
Talking to the forest boy

I awoke to birds singing their morning songs and the waves crashing against the shore. I slowly started to remember all the events that took place yesterday afternoon. A smile appeared onto my face, at thought of talking to the forest boy.

"Räya, get up we have to meet up with the new members of the clan!" Tsireya said whilst shaking me, although I'm 100% certain that she saw that I was awake. "You know I'm awake so stop shaking me!" I answered back she stood up and giggled "I'll meet you there" I said to her. "okay but don't take forever" she said whilst making her way to meet the others. I started getting up with a big stretch and a yawn, time to sort myself out got to look 'perfect' as usual. I didn't do anything too extreme with my appearance I mainly focused on my stubborn hair, braiding the strands that particularly love to cover my eye sight. After doing so I left the pod, walking with my head held high to set a good example.

Once I made my way round the other pods I spotted my sister and the 2 boys from yesterday in the water. Every step I took, nearing closer and closer to them made my voice feel like it was stuck in my throat and my breathing was becoming shallower.I tried to ignore my nerves, however the worry of also not being 'perfect' made it worse. I was now close enough to hear my sister's voice slightly, she was giggling and explaining to them the way of the water with ease. Tsireya makes everything look effortless and it honestly makes me feel like shit. "Räya, glad you could join us" she said a smile plastered on her face. My presence was now suddenly being acknowledged, both of the boys turned around to face me. Whilst under their gaze I expressed a small wave followed by a simple "hello".

I slowly walked into the water with no trouble, I was making my way over to my sister so i could be beside her when I accidentally stepped onto what I presumed to be a sharp seashell causing me to jump slightly into the forest boy. I rapidly turned to face him properly and apologised for my actions. His expressions were hard to read but he simply replied with "it's fine don't worry about it" his voice gave me goosebumps, it was smooth yet it had a slight rasp to it.
"Räya" my sister spoke snapping my out of my really embarrassing daze. I moved next to her and we both began to explain what we were going to do today. Within the conversation we introduced ourselves to each other again due to the circumstance's being less tense. I knew their names already but Tsireya insisted that we do so.

The first exercise we chose to do was having the boys ride an ilu, which me and my sister thought was a fairly easy task to begin with.We both called over two ilu's, one of them was dark blue and green the other a golden orange. Tsireya was taking the lead and began to show both of the boys how to mount onto the ilu, then proceeding to show how to ride one. Returning back to us with a smile on her face she said "see easy,this shouldn't be too hard for you both". I noticed that the two brothers looked at each other before shrugging and mounting their given ilu's.
Coincidentally I was closer to Lo'ak and Tsireya was closer to Neteyam, I saw Tsireya talking to Neteyam about what to do so I decided to do the same. "Do you understand what you have to do?" I asked ."Yeah by the looks of it, it shouldn't be too hard I've got this" Lo'ak replied to me, he radiated confidence however I had a feeling that it wasn't going to go as smoothly as he anticipates.

I was right. They both set off fairly smoothly however once the speed of the ilu picked up they both fell off. I saw Lo'ak's head appear out of the water his expression showing how embarrassed he was. "What the hell do you call that" I heard a voice speak from behind me. It was Aonung and next to him was Rotxo. They both looked at each other and laughed. I knew what they were trying to do so immediately butted in. "Quit it, both of you their still learning" I sneered. "A baby can ride better than they can sis" Rotxo said. I rolled my eyes already done with being in their presence. I swam over to Tsireya and suggested that we show them around the reef. She nodded and agreed that it was a good idea to take a break from the riding.

"Hey boys were gonna give you a tour of the reef" said Tsireya calmly but loud enough so they could both hear.Not finding it interesting enough both of my stupid brothers left the scene. Both Neteyam and Lo'ak nodded in our direction a small smile on both of their faces. "Follow us" I spoke. Me and my sister dived down to the bottom of the reef waiting for them both to catch up. It was odd though it seemed like they were struggling?. I signed to Tsireya, what are they doing?. She shrugged looking just as confused as I was.Lo'ak was practically half way down when he suddenly swam back up to the surface. I turned to Tsireya Up?, she nodded. Resurfacing from the water I immediately asked "why didn't you swim all the way down?" My attention was fixated onto Lo'ak and his answer. "I- I mean we" he said whilst also pointing to his brother "can't breathe underwater". I was puzzled they can't breathe underwater? Never heard that one before. "I think we should do some breathing exercises to help regulate your breathing for when you are under the water" suggested Tsireya. I nodded agreeing with her.

We all left the water and found an area just on the outside of the pods. Sitting in a circle like position Tsireya began to explain the breathing technique. "You need to take big slow breaths, slowing down the heart rate allowing for your body to breathe" she said whilst slowly inhaling and then exhaling with controlled breaths. "Give it a try" she spoke. The boys began to breathe in and out however their breathing was not regulated and seemed to fast paced. I turned to face Lo'ak who was next to me, we made eye contact so I started to speak "you need to take deeper breathes" I said whilst demonstrating, he nodded and began to breathe in slower this time, "you need to breathe here" I said whilst placing my hand onto his lower stomach, noticing that his heart rate was still to fast paced I spoke saying "your heart rate is still too fast breathe more slower" he looked at me momentarily before turning away whilst nodding. I heard a few giggles from behind me but I decided to pay no attention to them. I was too intrigued by this very particular forest boy.

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Word count:1,212

In the next chapter I will be taking a slight detour from the movie storyline, so that I can allow Räya and Lo'ak to have their own moments. <3

I hope you enjoyed this chapter!
Please leave a vote, and a comment would be appreciated, just so I know if I need to make improvements thank you. :)