Fate's Game | Lo'ak Sully

Part 24 - Nosy

🪷 ⚔️ 🌊

That very next day, the entirety of the Metkayina clan was buzzing with joy and anticipation. Tsireya had come to greet the Sully's and Fay'tari as they awoke, announcing immediately that "The Tulkun have returned!"

It had been explained before to everyone that members of the clan had "Soul-sisters and brothers", in the form of the tulkun. Tsireya told them that hers would do tricks with her and that they'd have conversations about their lives and such, making Tuk want to experience a similar relationship. Kiri was specifically intrigued too, joining her little sister in her excitement.

In a chaotic rush, everyone ran to hop onto the nearest ilu they could; Some hitching rides with others if their ilu was too slow or too far away. Kiri and Tuk went together of course, as did Jake and Neytiri. The two Sully brothers rode out alone, racing as they did so, following Tsireya as she guided them towards the pod.

As Fay'tari was about to set off after calling for her ilu using the new technique she'd picked up, a bystander showed himself, looking impatient. He quickly spotted the girl, his face brightening as he desperately called out. "Hey! Can I get on?" Aonung asked, waving over to Fay'tari.

He didn't look particularly sly to her she supposed, his face was much too serious to be considered playful. She decided to trust him despite having her reservations, wanting to catch up with everyone else to see the tulkun. So, motioned her hand forward and told him to "Get on!" and to "Hurry!", which he did. He dove underneath the ilu, climbing onto it as he resurfaced on the other side and holding onto the girl's shoulders. Fay'tari began to swim off towards the pod, still being able to see a few of the others ahead of her to her relief.

When they arrived, the sight was astounding. Fay'tari didn't know what to do with herself as she'd never seen such an astonishing creature as well as view. A few of the tulkun were jumping out from the water all over the place, Fay'tari not knowing where to look next.

Her face was obviously a sight to behold in itself, ignoring the much more interesting scenes surrounding it, as Aonung was trying to hold in his laughter as he watched her.

"What do you think?" He spoke, leaning back slightly on the ilu.

"Oh my Eywa! I didn't think they'd be this big!" She exclaimed, only looking at the various Na'vi who were conversing with their Spirit-sisters and brothers. "You can talk to them? For real?" She grew even more intrigued.

"Yeah, well, I haven't yet but Tsireya does." He informed her as if the information was nothing but Fay'tari thought the complete opposite.

She'd just seen yet another tulkun leap out from the water, crashing back into it with intensity and creating large waves that rocked her ilu backwards slightly. What it revealed the other side of it however, was a rather different sight.

Floating around on his ilu just as she was, Lo'ak had a marvellously large smile plastered across it, which wasn't something that was seen too often. Or at least, one that was that genuine. Fay'tari studied him there, focusing on the fact she'd never seen him smile like that before. She found it oddly comforting in a way, able to discard the suspicions she had that he may be incapable of producing one all together.

Aonung noticed that Fay'tari's attention had been averted, getting a little closer to her to check her complexion as he thought maybe she was crying happy tears. She wasn't, of course. Instead, Fay'tari looked relaxed as well as immersed in what she was looking at, her mouth with a slight grin and her ears heightened. Her eyes looked softer, too. As if they'd warmed by a touch.

Wanting to know what had provoked such a stare, Aonung followed her eye-line, then setting his on the same joyous boy who was still smiling. It seemed to click for him in that moment; In the exactly same way his sister had realised something too.

Ohhh, so that's why I keep getting death-stares. Aonung clocked.

"Yeah, I agree. He looks like he's in pain when he does that." The boy joked, making Fay'tari instantly break her stare and face him suddenly. Knowing she was caught, she chose to ignore him and leave her response as a mere odd look.
He chuckled to himself, feeling as if he succeeded in catching her out.

Fay'tari tried to avoid looking at Lo'ak again, in case Aonung were to question her on it. She took that decision seriously, not wanting him to begin to suspect that there was something going on.

She was too late, though. Aonung was already speculating, however his theories centred mainly on a one-sided attraction. He'd seen her look over to him a few times before, bidding them as accidents or something similar, however now as he looked back, he could tell his judgment was wrong. He smiled a little to himself, happy with being made oblivious to the situation as he could tell she didn't want to tell him anything about it.

A tad embarrassed, Fay'tari began circling around the pod, spotting Tsireya, Tuk and Kiri along the way, who were doing back-flips under the water with Tsireya's Spirit-sister.

When Tsireya spotted her, she began to wave and call out to the two of them, as well as Neteyam, Lo'ak and their sisters. When everyone had huddled around her, she proposed an idea with a grin.

"How does everyone feel about a game of clam-ball?"

Even though nobody said anything, they all looked around through a series of side-eyes to check what the reactions were like, everyone feeling a rising competitive emotion bubble up. The atmosphere around them shifted from one of companionship to one of intensity.

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The entire ride back, Neteyam and Fay'tari were ravenously bragging about how they'd been practicing clam-ball for a while and that they'd "without a shadow of a doubt" win - All the while with a suddenly nosy Aonung sat behind the girl, grafting his own plan.

Tsireya said that there'd be three separate teams and since Kiri insisted she didn't want to play with them, she'd be the referee and the teams would be even. How the team picking would work is as follows: Kiri would throw the ball into the air, everyone standing in a circle around her. When she'd step away, whoever was to grab the ball first would be able to pick their team members first. Simple.

So, up the ball went. Everyone scrambled, Tuk being almost trampled in the process due to her size. The winning catch was a close one, as Neteyam's fingertips had just about touched the ball before Aonung had grabbed it completely.

"Ha!" He briefly celebrated, stepping back with the ball in hand and meticulously choosing his teammate. "I pick..." he looked around, pretending to think however he knew who'd pick since the ride over. "Fay." He announced, shooting Neteyam a rather smug look.

Fay'tari shared a sorry glance to her preferred teammate before joining Aonung's side with reluctance.

The rest of the choosing went quickly, the teams ending up being the two brothers and the two girls that were left. Almost as soon as they'd been secured, Kiri used her index finger and her thumb to whistle surprisingly loudly.

"And..." She dramatically paused, being way more into her role than she thought she'd be.

"Go!"

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