Making Waves | lo'ak sully

chapter 7: 'he saved our lives!'

'You are a Tulkun. You saved my life, thank you.' Lo'ak put his hand next to its eye as he continued to make noises out of excitement. 'Buddy, I have no idea what you just said.' Lo'ak laughed.

As he turned his head around, a female Na'vi was gently placed beside him. He hadn't noticed her before, he was too in shock about the fact that he was laying on a living, breathing animal. She looked so fragile in that position, draped over the back of the Tulkun. She was laying on her side. She looked so small. What annoyed Lo'ak the most is that he exactly knew who it was. Just by the back of her body, he knew immediately. Ngalu was laying next right next to him, unconscious. Was she even breathing? Wait, she's not breathing! He swiftly crawled up to her to put her on her back.

Was he really about to save her life? He hated her but was he going to let her die in his lap? Fuck. He prepared himself to give her mouth-to-mouth. He leaned in, kind of debating if he should really do it like this and not another way. As Lo'ak's lips almost touched Ngalu's, her eyes opened. She saw what he was about to do and swiftly turned them around. Lo'ak couldn't react and was now laying on the bottom with Ngalu on top, pinning his arms down.

'What the hell do you think you are doing?' She asked him. She didn't seem mad, she seemed completely and utterly confused.

He had to process what had happened first. When he realized what was going on, he tried to squirm out of her grip. But she was too strong. 'I thought you died!'

'So you tried to kiss me?' She exclaimed, letting go of his arms. 'Really, Lo'ak?'

'What the hell are you talking about? I wanted to give you CPR, idiot! It looked like you weren't breathing.' He yelled back, throwing his hands up in his defense.

Her eyes grew wide. She'd assumed that he wanted to kiss her. He only tried to save her. She could feel her cheeks heating up. 'Oh, well, you could have just said so in the first place!'

'Alright, alright. Will you get off me now?'

Ngalu looked down and realized that she was still practically sitting on him. She jumped off immediately.

'What the hell are you doing here in the first place?' He asked her.

She sighed, thinking about what happened before she blacked out. It all came back to her. She was trying to save him! 'I was out at sea and saw that you were with my brother. Aonung is always up to no good so I kept an eye on you. When he left and that Akula tried to kill you, I was about to step in but a Tulkun already did. And then I tried to save you from said Tulkun only to be hit in the head by his tail and black out. But it worked out either way, we gladly shook him off.' Ngalu looked pleased with herself, thinking that she sort of saved him. She was so going to tell the whole village of her heroic action.

He, on the other hand, had a worried look on his face.

'Anyways, I will call our Ilus so we can get back. I do not know how long we have been gone.' She called their Ilus while Lo'ak tried to tell her something.

'Why is it taking them so long?'

'Eh- Ngalu?'

'Seriously, they should have been here by now.' She rambled on, looking around hoping to find only a glimpse of one of the sea creatures.

'Ngalu!'

'What do you want, Lo'ak?'

He finally got her attention. 'We didn't really shake the Tulkun off.' He gently said while slowly pointing down.

Ngalu's head followed his finger and she finally noticed the huge Tulkun under her. She had been standing on Payakan this whole time. How could she be so dumb, why didn't she question what they were standing on? 'Couldn't you tell me sooner?' Now she was panicking. They were standing on a killer Tulkun and he could kill them any second.

'I was trying to! You wouldn't let me speak.' He told her while raising his arms.

'You could have just yelled!' Ngalu whisper-yelled as she was standing very still in a stable position while keeping her arms in front of her.

'You would have definitely slapped me if I did.' He told her while narrowing his eyes.

Ngalu was silent for a second. Then she gave in and shrugged. 'Yeah, I probably would have.'

But then she thought about the fact that they were still standing on Payakan with no way to get away because the Ilu refuse to get close to him. 'We need to get out of here!'

Lo'ak looked at her with a puzzled look on his face. He didn't understand what she was freaking out about. 'Why?'

She pulled him closer by his arm to talk to him privately and so that Payakan couldn't hear them. 'This is Payakan, he is a killer. He killed Na'vi and Tulkun. He is outcast now. We have to leave before he kills us!' She whisper yelled again.

'What are you talking about? He saved our lives.' He got more confused by the second. Payakan seemed gentle and friendly. He isn't a murderer, Lo'ak just knew it.

'He is! The other Tulkun did not agree with killing others so therefore he is outcast. It is the Tulkun way. Now, we have to leave before we turn into Tulkun food.' She yanked him by the arm but he stood still, he wasn't going anywhere.

'Don't you realize that he saved us. He could've killed us many times already but he didn't.' Lo'ak looked into Payakan's eyes. 'He doesn't seem that bad.'

Okay, he might've had a point. He could've killed them before, but he didn't. Here they are, alive and well. Ngalu was so confused. Why would a killer rescue them? Was it all a lie? Was Payakan not a killer?

Then, Payakan started talking. 'You know I can hear you, right?' Ngalu slightly turned around to face him with her eyes wide like she'd just been caught. Right, sorry. She signed to the Tulkun. They were able to communicate through their signing.

'I promise you, I am not a killer. The Sky People are killers they are to blame!' Payakan spoke to her.

Why? What happened? She signed back to him.

'It is too painful.' He spoke back.

Lo'ak was watching this whole thing unfold. Was he going crazy? Was she actually speaking to an animal? 'What are you doing?' He blankly stared at her.

'Oh,' She turned around. She completely forgot he was there. His presence wasn't that important either way. 'I forgot to tell you about the Tulkun. We are able to communicate with them through our signing and they talk back. I will teach you when we get back. We all have spirit brothers and sisters who we have a connection with. I have not seen my spirit sister in ages, I wonder how she is doing.' She rambled on again.

Lo'ak wasn't like the others, who would stop listening to her after she'd been talking for a while. He actually listened to every word she said.

Do you think you can take us back?