I SEE YOU | AVATAR

1

ENGLISH IS NOT MY FIRST LANGUAGE

"Tsireya! Watch out the water is shallower over here!" I shout to my sister who laughs on her Ilu.

I am about to join Tsireya when I hear wings beating above me. Then five shadows hover over the turquoise water. I turn my head  and look up at the sky. Five Ikrans flying through the sky before landing at the entrance to our village. Without question, with my heels I kick under the ilu's fins to make it move forward.

"Y/N! What are ikrans doing here?" Tsireya asks when she gets to me.

"I don't know. It's strange. No visitors were expected. Let's go see." I cast a hostile glance towards the beach where the Ikrans are. "Faster." I say to the Ilu.

Listening to my request, the Ilu speeds up and only slows down once we are in front of the beach. I get off his back and dive into the crystal clear water. I move forward slowly to assess the situation. Five Ikrans and a family of forest people. I can't see well from where I am but I recognise their darker blue colour than ours.

The  village's inhabitants surround the strangers as if they were a new attraction. I frown when I see Tsireya as excited as the locals to see the strangers. I grab his wrist firmly.

"Slow down. We don't know what they want." I point with my chin at the people on the beach.

"They're not humans. Chill." She smiles as she continues to look at the people on the beach.

"The humans are back and we know they're after the Omatikayas. Stay away from them or I'll kill you before they do." My ears start moving backwards. "I have a bad feeling about this."

She nods her head up and down and we move to the centre of the circle formed around the newcomers. The hot sand sticks to our feet. We excuse ourselves as we pass through the crowd. I hurry to join my brother who is standing in front of the family with his best friend.

Ao'nung and Roxto are about to approach the strangers but I stop them by placing a hand in front of Ao'nung's chest.

"Back off. Stay away from them." I turn around to finally see the strangers' faces. Surely they must have heard me I can tell because of the direction of their ears. "We don't know what they want." I whisper to him.

But his friend doesn't listen to me. He walks past us to take a closer look at the two boys in the family. A family of six. A man, a woman, two girls and two boys. He looks at them and laughs.

"Look! What's that? Is that supposed to be a tail?"

Ao'nung laughs and so does everyone who has heard the boy's joke. The Omatikaya seemed to take offense as he felt all eyes on his frail tail. Then his gaze turns to something much more interesting to him, Tsireya.

"Hey." He says softly as he raises his hand to her, getting her attention.

And she replies. "Hey." Smiling.

I don't like that. Rotxo speaks up again.

"It's too small. How are they supposed to swim?" They laugh again.

It's true that they are skinny, all of them. Even the father, who has a bigger build. They don't seem to have any weapons on them. They look rather lost.

A dull sound announces the arrival of the chief of the Metkayina clan. The chief approaches the man who greets him and his wife before the chief does the same. Then the chief's wife walks slowly towards the strangers with her head held high to support her domination, the foreign woman keeps her head high as if she was challenging our Tsahìk.