Fate's Game | Lo'ak Sully

Part 34 - Imagination

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That night, neither Fay'tari nor Neteyam returned to the village until it was dark. He'd managed to convince her that she had to eat, giving her a while to calm herself down before she went back.

Despite that, when she did return, her eyes were still bloodshot and puffy, a clear indication that she'd been crying. They weren't so bad that everyone noticed, however those who payed close attention to her did; Those being Kiri, Jake and Lo'ak.

She sat herself down besides Neteyam, taking her bowl of food and eating it with her head down as to not draw too much attention to herself. It wasn't that she was scared she'd start crying again, it was more that she wasn't used to not having strong defences up at all times. She didn't want to seem susceptible to weakness, nor did she want to look childish.

When Kiri almost said something to the girl, Neteyam stopped her. He knew she meant well, though he thought it best that Fay'tari should be left to her own company for the time being.

Fay'tari was the first to finish her food, politely leaving it to one side before excusing herself, giving Neteyam a look before leaving, supposedly to say goodbye but in reality, it was more of a thank you. She slipped away to her own hut, getting straight onto her hammock and trying to doze off at least, knowing it would take a while to fully fall asleep. Because of that, she couldn't fall asleep before Lo'ak got there too, hearing him get into his own hammock quietly behind her.

No words were spoken, though the air was heavy.

Lo'ak's head was being held captive by the statement she'd made earlier, not daring to tell her he'd heard it. He wasn't confused, he was more worried. On one side of things, she'd directly admitted to having feelings for him, which he deemed the "not-so-bad" side, whereas on the opposite end, she'd said she couldn't have those feelings, which only meant one thing; That she wasn't going to act on them. He understood exactly why that was, as she'd previously told him on the island, although he couldn't make up his mind about what he was going to do about it.

Should he leave her alone or bug her?; He wasn't so sure. He knew she'd never admit the words to his face, making him rather grateful he'd stumbled upon her and Neteyam when when he did.

Nevertheless, the two of them stayed inaudible for the duration of the night; A rather big contrast to the night before then.

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Over the course of the next few days, everything was rather civil. Meaning; Fay'tari would spend most of her time training with either Neteyam, Aonung or both, the remaining time spent eating or sleeping. In Lo'ak's case, he would do something similar. He was spending the majority of his time with Tsireya, who had already made up her mind about what had happened on the island, as Lo'ak's expressions and overall manner gave half of it away.

Each day, she'd try to get more and more information out of him, promising to keep it a secret. She inevitably did end up keeping her promise when he told her some of it, knowing it was wrong to break someones trust like that. Tsireya would constantly give Lo'ak advice, claiming that if her "just talk to her" advice had worked before, then he should definitely trust her judgement. He did to some extent, although most of her plans revolved around actually speaking to Fay'tari and asking suspicious questions, which he made up his mind to be too risky.

What was good about the daily routine of things was that Lo'ak could keep out of Fay'tari's way, which he'd promised himself he'd do. However the bad side was rather obvious. It meant that Lo'ak had to watch Fay'tari train with Aonung all day, whilst Fay'tari had to watch Lo'ak with Tsireya.

To make matters worse, Fay'tari had no idea that Tsireya knew about the game, so in her mind the two of them were getting along far more than usual; When in reality the conversations they would have all day revolved mainly around her and Lo'ak. On the flip side, Lo'ak thought of same of Aonung, though it wasn't correct to say that Aonung knew about the game specifically, he just knew that something was going on between Fay'tari and Lo'ak.