Fate's Game | Lo'ak Sully

Part 2 - Jerk-face

                             🌿🍃

Fay'tari was now seven years old. She'd been with the Omaticaya clan for almost a year, meaning she'd settled in nicely and was used to her new way of life. Her days were becoming easier for her, as she no longer felt like she wanted to go home thanks to many aspects of the forest. The main one, though, was because of her new friend, Neteyam.

The two of them would constantly train together, Neteyam taking Fay'tari under his wing and guiding her through whatever she needed help with, which wasn't much considering she's normally get things right the first time. It began to appear that Neteyam simply wanted to help the girl because he didn't want it to seem like she was better than him, not out of jealousy but out of his slight competitive nature which he never showed outright.

Another member was added to the Sully family too, her name is Tuktirey, or Tuk for short, and she was a handful. Because of her presence, it meant that Neytiri and Jake often had to skip training days to take care of her, letting his kids and Fay'tari get on with it themselves as he somehow trusted them to do so. Correction, he trusted Neteyam to do so.

He'd be put in charge every time, though it seemed Lo'ak valued that title the least out of everyone. Kiri would listen to her older brother, Fay'tari would listen to him too, Lo'ak would listen to himself.

It also became clear quickly that that wasn't the only thing Lo'ak didn't value. Whenever his older brother and Fay'tari would go off on their own together to train, his mood would worsen. It would get even worse again when he'd hear them laughing in the distance.

When he'd have no other option but to follow them because Neteyam had told him to, he'd see the two of them chatting away as they walked, always eager and cheerful. Fay'tari would skip beside him, commenting on the things she saw as she travelled or what she was looking forward to that day. It had gotten to the point where Lo'ak wouldn't speak to either of them whenever they were training, making Fay'tari feel rather on-edge whenever she'd get close to him.

The fact that he wouldn't talk to her bothered her for an extremely unfortunate reason.

Over the last year, Fay'tari had developed a small-ish "crush" on Lo'ak.

The main reason for this was because she found him interesting; She'd spot him wandering around the forest aimlessly from time to time, curiosity obvious in his form. Additionally, he was actually quite funny every now and then; Fay'tari had listened to a few of his and Kiri's conversations, waiting for Lo'ak to make some ridiculous remark somewhere along the lines.

But due to Lo'ak's lack of attention towards her and Neteyam, this liking began to lessen. Before, if she'd spotted him walking around alone, she'd contemplate going over to speak to him. Even though she never once did, now it was a different story. If she'd see him, she'd do her best to leave as soon as possible as she dreaded him seeing her there.

Inevitably, whatever she'd felt for Lo'ak before completely disappeared on one random day in the forest when he decided to be a complete asshole.

.

Neteyam and Fay'tari were practicing their shooting down by a small stream on the forest floor, trying to catch a few fish to impress Jake. Fay'tari had missed her shot a few times, making Neteyam laugh at her repeatedly every time she would, his volume increasing each time she'd miss.

"The fish won't stop moving! It's not my fault!" The girl whined, attempting to shoot again and missing for the seventh time. Of course, Neteyam only laughed at her comment and began to bend over as he held his stomach due to the pain of it.

Lo'ak and Kiri were stood elsewhere, tying together their bows so that they could go and hunt in a different location as that one was occupied. Kiri had realised quickly that Lo'ak was in one of his "moods", watching as he scowled over at the two of them for long lengths of time. When he'd see either of them laugh, his figure would twitch and his face would become even more angry, making it impossible for him to concentrate on what he was doing to his bow.

He'd reached his breaking point. He turned his body to leave but Kiri stopped him, holding his arm and telling him that he shouldn't do what he was about to, but he ignored her completely. He shoved her arm off of him, continuing to head straight for his brother and his new friend.

As he did, he found that the two of them were still laughing, provoking him to ask his first question rather loudly.

"Having fun?" He says, making Kiri roll her eyes and choose to not interfere as she thought him to be incredibly stupid in that moment.

Fay'tari stops laughing almost instantly upon hearing him, however Neteyam took a while to stop too.

"Uh- I guess so?" He tells his brother in a confused tone, looking towards Fay'tari for help.

"You can join us if you want to!" She aides him, trying to sound as pleased with his presence as she could. She shot Lo'ak a small smile, making his ears twitch and his posture to straighten.

"No. I wouldn't want to ruin all of your fun, would I?" He spites them, glaring at his brother.

Having had enough of Lo'ak's behaviour, Neteyam stepped towards his brother and started asking him the questions this time.

"What's wrong with you today? Why are you so annoyed with us?"

When Lo'ak didn't answer him but instead looked away, still scowling, Neteyam stepped closer and asked again, slightly more irritated this time.

"Huh? Why, Lo'ak? What-"

"Because you're always with her! You don't talk to me at all and you've replaced me with some girl." He snaps, pointing over at Fay'tari who looked rather stunned to be blamed for whatever he was so angry about.

"Are you serious? You're the one who refuses to join us when we ask!" Neteyam raises his voice even more, stepping in front of Fay'tari as to block Lo'ak from pointing at her.

"As if you'd want me there anyway!" Lo'ak yells, stepping forward as he tried to look intimidating.

"We would've been fine with you, but now I think I'll have to rethink that-"

"Skxawng!" Lo'ak shoved his brother backwards because of his words, resulting in Neteyam stumbling back slightly but not returning the shove.

Fay'tari quickly decides that she disapproves of Lo'ak's actions, stomping towards him and pushing him back in Neteyam's favour. "You're the skxawng here, skxawng!" She yells, pushing him once more for good measure.

Rather shocked at the girl, Lo'ak freezes for only a moment before getting angrier. "Stay out of this, idi-"

Before he could insult her further, Fay'tari answers back. "You've made me part of this, stop playing the victim!"

"Why are you standing up for him? Hm? Do you lov-"

With a violent look in her eyes, she shoves the boy onto the ground with one strong push, not letting him finish his sentence.

"Jerk-face!" She insults him, watching as he clutched his back where he'd fallen,
getting up thereafter and glaring even more menacingly at her this time. As he began to hastily step towards her, supposedly looking to return the shove, Kiri decides to finally step in and do something.

"Hey!" She calls over, making Lo'ak stop in his tracks and look at her. "You're like a baby, Lo'ak."

He seems to understand that she also wasn't on his side, realising that he was outnumbered indefinitely. Because of this, he turns back to Fay'tari and Neteyam, who was standing directly beside her by that point and shoots them another annoyed glare before letting out a low grunt and stomping away, defeated.

Neteyam sighed as he watched his brother's sorry state, scratching his nape and apologising on his brother's behalf to Fay'tari. "Sorry about him, he's not very smart in these types of situations."

"Don't say sorry for him!" She snaps at him, looking at Neteyam with two uneasy eyes before continuing.

"He's a total jerk-face."

.
.
.