Shells | Lo'ak Sully

Vol.1: Prologue

                             🍃🪷

Ni'teya never asked for help herself, nor would she get any if she asked. This differs however from how often Ni'teya was asked for help.

The mediator of the family, the forced peace-keeper so to speak. Her job was simple: Hear fight, locate fight, stop fight. These instructions however were strict, under no circumstances was she to report these fights back to her parents, as she discovered early on that they would only respond with "how could you not see this coming?" or nothing at all.

Being the 5th child out of 9 in total came with its ups and downs. Stated prior (the downsides) were heavy compared to the upsides.

The good thing, to her, about a big family was that you can become invisible, and Ni'teya saw this as an advantage.

She'd often leave the clan for days, finding various ways to entertain herself, which wasn't difficult considering her surroundings in the forest, only returning when hungry or when she thought maybe it had "been too long since she was seen".

This was only a concern because, truth be told, her family wasn't unloving. They simply had one too many children to deal with at a time; And if Ni'teya did happen to be out past her self-appointed curfew then at least one of them would begin to worry about her absence. Either that, or there was a fight which hadn't been settled yet.

As time went by, and as she grew older she only continued to explore whenever she could. Due to her time in the forest therefore, she happened to bump into a friendly Na'vi more often than not.

Kiri, whom everyone knew as Jake Sully's adopted daughter, became acquainted with Ni'teya quickly because of their shared interest in the forest. Kiri would spot Ni'teya crafting various items and naturally, would go over to inspect them.

This isn't to suggest that these two were at all the same however. While Kiri was agile, free-willed and beyond spiritual, Ni'teya saw life in a much heavier way. Instead of daisy-chains and flower crowns it was tilted more towards spears made out of bamboo and arrows-heads made from thorns. One personality trait was shared though: boredom.

The two got so close in their time out together that whenever Neytiri would make Kiri something to eat and ask "where kiri was all day everyday" her brothers Neteyam and Lo'ak would simultaneously reply "Eylan."
(eylan meaning: friend)

Ni'teya enjoyed Kiri's company surprisingly, as if she didn't have enough of it in her own family, and gladly invited her along to join her adventures.

But of course, all fun comes to an end eventually.

One night, Ni'teya was tracking home from the thorn-bush field with Kiri, who was absent-mindedly skipping along behind her as she frequently did as Ni'teya was the one with the better sense of direction, when Ni'teya came to a halt.

"Teya? What is it?" Kiri questioned, before realising herself why her friend had stopped.
"We're not supposed to be here, Teya we should head back-" Kiri paused upon examining Ni'teya's expression.

Instead of matching Kiri's troubled, worried face, a small grin crept upon Ni'teya's lips, her dandelion eyes fixated on the run-down over-grown trailer in front of them both.

"Nope. Absolute not Teya, we can't!" She quickly demanded, reaching for Ni'teya's hand to try to pull her away from the wreckage or avert her attention at least. No luck, though. One thing about Ni'teya was that when she got bored, she ran with it.

"Just a quick look, please?" Ni'teya asked, though there was no point calling that a question as she'd already gone ahead towards the wreck as if it were pulling her.