After the trees, the seas | Neteyam

Introduction

I was eight when my mother and my father died. They were trying to protect us all from the sky people. I hated the sky people ever since. The only thing they were doing, was destroying our lands and our home. They were killing with no pity. Since my parent's death, Jake and Neytiri took care of me. They introduced me to their children, Neteyam, Kiri and Lo'ak. I rapidly formed a strong bond with each of them. Later came the wonderful Tuk, which I love with all my heart. How not to? They are all like siblings to me, except for Neteyam. He's more like a best friend, cause there's always has been a little something between us but neither of us ever admitted it. These people are all I have now, and I would do anything to protect them, at all cost.

***

"Try to catch up loosers!" I screemed laughing as I asked my Ikran to go faster.
"Don't talk too fast Hayla" said Lo'ak catching up slowly with a big smile on his face.
As I was already visualizing my victory, Neteyam came out of nowhere on his blue ikran and took the front place.
"That was tooo easy" he said with a mocking smile. I smiled and rolled my eyes at him which made him giggle.
"Why are you guys so fast?" complained the baby brother. Neteyam and I laughed.
Then Kiri suddenly appeared in front of us. "What are you guys doing?" she asked firmly.
"Kiri? What are you doing here?" I asked in confusion.
"Dad is looking for you all, for the mission, hurry up" she says.
We completly forgot about that. We looked at each other with a "we're dead" look. We flew as fast as we could to get home. Jake was waiting for us with Neytiri at the entry. He didn't look very happy.

"Where were you?" He asked harshly.
Only Neteyam had the courage to answer. "We were flying East the High Mountains".
"I needed you here, I-" He cut himself "we'll talk about that later, now we gotta go"
I kept my head down in shame, I hated deceiving them. I climbed back on my Ikran and followed the family. We were all going except for Kiri and Tuk. We were watching a base that the people from the sky had established. Jake wanted to destroy it. As usual, me, Neteyam and Lo'ak were assigned as spotters, to spot any kestrel gunship arrivals.

"You guys think we're gonna be grounded?" Lo'ak asked. "I wouldn't be surprised" said Neteyam looking around. "We're so stupid.." I said with a small voice. Neteyam turned to look at me, concerned "Don't worry about that, okay?" he said with a recomforting smile. I nodded giving him his smile back. We then started hearing gunshot down there. After few seconds, Jake was talking to us through the collars in our neck. "Kids, leave now, you have been spotted!!!" We all looked at each other, then bullets started to fly towards us. Our ikran tried their best to avoid all the bullets coming straight at us. All of a suden, my Ikran let out a loud scream and we both started going down. I herd Neteyam and Lo'ak screaming my name. My poor baby got shot. I immediatly felt it in my heart. A heavy pain invaded my soul. My eyes filled with tears. We violently hit the ground and my leg got stucked under his body. I tried getting away, but couldn't, I was stuck. I tried to lift the corpse of my Ikran with all my strength but it was too heavy. Then a human from the sky appeared and pointed his gun straight at me, laughing. I hissed at him. I couldn't do anything, my bow had broken in our fall, I had nothing to defend myself. All of a sudden, Jake came out of nowhere and killed the men. Meanwhile, Neytiri came to me and helped me lifting my ikran. When I finally managed to free my leg, Neytiri took me in her arms and quickly inspected me.

Neteyam and Lo'ak both landed their Ikran next to me, worried look on their face. "Take her home, now!" Jake ordered. I wasn't listening. I walked to my Ikran and place my hand on his head as I collapsed down on my knees. Tears rolled down my cheeks. "Please forgive me" I whispered in his ears, but he was already gone, he was now with Eywa. A hand landed on my shoulder. I turned my head just enough to see that it was Neteyam, he looked sorry. "Hayla, please, we gotta go" he said. I stood up on my feet and slowly turned away. He took my arm and rushed us to his Ikran. We could still hear gunshots. He climbed first and he gave me his hand. I climbed on the creature, behind him, holding on to his waist as we flew off. I gave a last glance at my Ikran before burrying my face in Neteyam's back, sobbing. He put his hand on my thigh as he said softly "I'm sorry Hayla".

A/N : hi everyone! Hope you liked this first chapter, if you did, please vote and don't be afraid to leave comments, i'm open to reviews and suggestions on my writting xx