Fate's Game | Lo'ak Sully

Part 21 - Inevitable

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Kiri and Tuk had tried to find their two brothers, asking around to see if anyone had seen them that day. When they had no luck there, they decided they should just continue with what they'd originally planned to do that day; Which was to explore the ocean.

On their way, they stumbled upon Fay'tari as she was taking care of her own ilu, asking her if she'd like to join them too. Without hesitation, she agreed.

Both Kiri and Fay'tari mounted their ilus, Tuk joining her sister as she wasn't yet big enough to ride on her own. The three of them set off from the reef, deciding they'd begin at one end of it before ending up at the other eventually.

At first, it was all the same. Nothing particularly new shot into view, the same scenes appearing before them as they explored. However further up the reef, they'd spotted a few trees in the distance, realising that they weren't on land but submerged underwater, with their leaves sprouting out of it on show!

Tuk was naturally desperate to get over there, so Fay'tari and Kiri did as she asked. When they got closer, their eyes collectively lit up, viewing the trees that were hanging over them, rays of light shining down between leaves.

Fay'tari found it beautifully peaceful there, she rode between the plants, looking up at each one of them. She was so lost in her own discovering in fact, that she'd failed to spot the rogue member that had decided to join their party.

When the boy talked, she physically jumped, immediately going into self- defence mode as she realised who it was.

"If you think this is cool, you'll have to follow me." Aonung suggests to the three of them, sounding rather sure in himself.

After checking behind her with Kiri and Tuk, who nodded and shrugged their shoulders as an indication of consent, they all followed the boy, travelling only a few minutes ahead of where they were.

He brought them to an even bigger dome of trees, a practical copy of the smaller one only this one's scale was irrevocable. The trees ascended high above them, the light-rays even more lucid this time, creating amazing images on the water's surface. In a few spots, they were able to spot rainbows that had been made by the water's reflection from the light, making Tuk go absolutely wild.

"Told you, cool right?" Aonung piped up besides Fay'tari, also admiring the scenery.

"It's amazing..." She awed, not averting her eyes from the sky.

He snickered at her lack of concentration, deciding then that he wanted to play with her a little.

"I like to come here to be alone sometimes. You know, alone with my thoughts and feelings." He commented quietly, acting shy and averting his eyes from her as she whipped her head around to behold the boy. She was thinking that maybe he'd lost it, as there was no way those sappy words had just left the rude fish-boy she'd come to know him as.

He played along with his act for a while longer before a smile emerged, finally breaking character. "Did it work? Are you totally interested in me?" He laughed, properly looking at her stunned expression.

"Not... In the slightest?" She edged the words out, still rather flabbergasted. He laughed again, this time causing her to smile a little, knowing he wasn't mocking her this time. He noticed it, tilting his head.

"You're not completely thunder-and-lightning, are you?" He swam closer with his ilu, circling hers. Her smile quickly cleared, noticing what she'd been doing.

"And you're not a complete dick, I suppose." She managed to insult him as well as compliment him, somehow.

Just as he was about to return her sly comment, a group of other Na'vi children called out to him, waving for him to return to them. He noticed them, realising it was time for him to resume his own training. The boy bid Fay'tari goodbye by bowing his head forward slightly, smirking up at her with his mouth as well as his eyes. Fay'tari couldn't understand how he'd done that.

Instantly after Aonung had reached a reasonable distance away from them, Kiri and Tuk snuck up on Fay'tari with a rather awkward plan.

"Ooh~" They cooed in unison, Kiri moving her ilu to block Fay'tari's view of Aonung's gang of friends. Fay'tari shot them a puzzled look, resulting in them questioning her.

"You and fish-boy? Not like we didn't see this coming!" Kiri smiled and laughed, covering her smile with her hand. Tuk joined in, though neither of them were sure she really knew what her sister meant.

"No! Seriously, no." Fay'tari put on a serious look to match her statement.

This was the second time Fay'tari had been asked about that boy, making her feel rather out of place. This is what she'd feared from the beginning. She knew this part was inevitable, though she couldn't yet admit that it was at all true, as technically it wasn't. She'd previously thought she could deal with the fact that everyone would eventually see her interact with Aonung in weird ways, as that was the plan from the moment the game started, but she couldn't get herself to admit it openly.

It was too difficult.

"Yeah, sure! We saw you out on the rocks, too! When we were all learning to breathe!" Kiri continued to pick at it, displaying obvious evidence.

Fay'tari couldn't blame her whatsoever, as what she'd seen that day was what was supposed to happen after all. She did want to appear to be getting closer to Aonung, she just hadn't considered that people would ask her directly about it yet.

She took a deep breath in, digging up every ounce of courage she had within her.

It'll have to happen at some point, she thought.

"You guys weren't supposed to see that..." She acted shy, tucking one of the two braided strands of her hair behind her ears.

Kiri and Tuk began hyperventilating, acting both shocked and surprised as if they weren't the ones who had just called her out. They squealed, making Fay'tari need to check if she was going deaf.

Fay'tari couldn't get herself to feel relief in finally saying it.

She continued to think to herself that she was going to have to get used to it if she wanted a bigger chance at winning against Lo'ak, psyching herself up and accepting it. Despite the fact she was able to utter those words, that didn't shake the fact that she still felt strange about it.

It felt different, like she was lying to their faces. In technicality, she was simply confirming to them what had happened the day at the rocks, but it was more than that. It was her admitting feelings that weren't there. At all.

In her previous game-plan, she hadn't properly considered that once the game was over, (with her as the winner in this scenario) she'd have to stay with Aonung. For some reason, she'd completely disregarded the fact that it was a relationship she was creating, that it was real.

All of a sudden, her heart begun to climb to her throat as she was only able to think about her future. She'd wanted to change her fate so badly that she'd forgotten a vital element.

A relationship took love.

If she went ahead with this game, she'd have to love Aonung. Or at least, pretend to. Which is royally worse.

It tasted sour to her. It felt disturbing, like she was covered in small sharp pricks that were stuck there.

It felt wrong.

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