Where's My Love? - Lo'ak

Chapter 41: Mangled Past

She feels the medicine entering her body, the slight touch of Neytiri running her hands through her hair. The gentle hold Jake has on her arm, the kisses Lo'ak plants on her hand. She hears Jake's unsteady breathing, he sounds worried, scared even. The sound of her songcord being sung to her, the first time in months, thinking she never was going to hear it again once her dad died. Lo'aks voice, rough, sounding like her has been crying.

She lets the sounds calm her body and stops fighting the medicine that tries to heal her, letting her world become dark so the pain in her head can stop.

During her sleep she can feel Eywa, but instead of it being an urgent pull like it always is, it instead is like a gentle hug.

She is back with Eywa, but this time it's peaceful. There is no blinding light, it takes her straight to the forest, back to the house where Lo'ak is.

She hears him laughing before she sees him.

"Whoosh! The Ikran goes fast, ducking under trees, and look! A Flathead ram is below!" Lo'ak cheers out, and when Esmyrie walks into the tent her heart flutters.

It's Lo'ak, older, but this time in his mid-twenties. He is holding onto a little boy, who appears to be five or so, with a girl clinging onto his back, the same age as the boy, the little boy having his arms out wide as if he is flying.

Esmyrie assumes it's Kaew and Nitzmi when they are younger.

The boys giggles are so loud, causing Lo'ak to laugh out as well, especially when the little girl holds onto his neck and shrieks when Lo'ak crouches as if he is ducking from a mountain overhang.

However, what stops her in her tracks isn't Lo'ak, but the woman that is holding a crying toddler a few feet away from Lo'ak's charades.

She has white hair but it's short, incredibly so, her skin is ombre but lighter, some white peeking through, and a scar lies on her side.

It's her, older, the scar being where the knife entered her during the fight.

She is here... with Lo'ak, holding a toddler who has white skin and hair and the baby is mumbling 'momma' as he sucks his thumb.

It doesn't take a genius to realize. This is her family, and Lo'ak her husband.

But if she was married to him, did that mean she would die? That she would force Lo'ak to deal with the grief of losing a wife? His mate?

Esmyrie tries to shake the thoughts out of her head, instead focusing on the scene before her.

Esmyrie has to put her hand to her face, covering her mouth when a wide smile forms. She doesn't know how to explain this feeling. Seeing her older self, seeing not Lo'ak's children but their children, and knowing she marries the boy she is in love with.

Her older self bounces the little boy on her knee, causing giggles to escape him, his arms though desperately trying to reach out to his father who is playing with his older siblings.

"Again daddy! Again!" Nitzmi cheers, holding onto his hair a little too tight, causing Lo'ak to gentle grab his daughter and put her on his hip, Kaew running over to his mother once he is put down.

"Mommy!" Kaew yells out, jumping up in down in excitement. "Did you see? I was flying an Ikran!" The boy shouts excitingly, going and giving his mom a big kiss on the forehead before running back to Lo'ak.

Lo'ak smiles, patting the boys head who now clings to his leg and begins walking over to his wife Esmyrie, eyes full of love.

When he sees the two year old boy who is trying to escape the mother's grasp he can't help but chuckle, because the baby is doing grabby hands to be picked up by his father.