Where's My Love? - Lo'ak

Chapter 50: Pain Will Always Win

The difference between love and pain, is that pain will always win. Love can mask the pain for awhile, but in the end, the pain will always come back.

That's atleast how Esmyrie and Lo'ak feel.

She is there, comforting him, holding him, protecting him. She is happy, strong, well. And then next thing she knows, is that she is pulling their braids apart as an overwhelming sense of pain enters her mind.

It's like before, with the villages. It overwhelms her mind and body, where all she can feel is pain.

"Esmyrie?" Lo'ak asks, not understanding the sudden need to pull their queues apart.

It's still midday, his argument with his father only a few hours ago, and so she has no reason or need to have to leave the forest.

The pain comes in waves, at first it is like a small pinch to her brain, one, two times.

And then it goes away.

"Something is wrong." Esmyrie whispers.

"What's wrong?"

"I... it's like back with Payakan, with the villages." Esmyrie tries to explain, clenching her eyes shut from the sharp pain that suddenly enters her brain again.

"We need to get you back home then... dad said to always get you back home if this happens." Lo'ak says, beginning to stand up, grabbing onto her forearms.

The small pinches suddenly turn into one sharp pain, having to grab Lo'aks arm for support as she would fall other wise.

Eywa enters Esmyrie's mind, and the image Esmyrie shows makes her want to cry. It's a Tulkun and it's calf. They are being hunted by skypeople. She hears the wail the Tulkun gives, and how it still tries to protect it's young.

The Tulkun tries to fight the harpoon to the chest, but it ultimately gives up, flopping over and floating out in the sea, the calf nearby, calling out to it's mother who is now dead.

Esmyrie see's in the distance two boats, one, the larger of the two is the same boat she see's when the fight breaks out in the open water, and the other is smaller, having an Avatar on board.

When the Tulkun take's it's last breath, Eywa returns Esmyrie back to reality.

Esmyrie takes an inhale of breath, her hand moving to her head, but she realizes the pain has vanished. As if her pain was the Tulkun's pain, and now with it dead, Esmyrie had nothing to feel.

If anything, Esmyrie feels numb, like there is something missing, like a life has just been lost and she won't accept it.

"My love? Esmyrie?" Lo'ak says, shaking the girl, his teeth clenched tightly from the pain still in his hands that have been left untreated.

"W-what?" The girl asks, her focus returning to the boy, and when their eyes connect she can see his worry.

"You did that weird thing again. Are you still in pain?" Lo'ak asks, his hold never leaving the girl.

"No... no, it's... the pain is gone. But we must warn your father."

"Dad? Why? Esmyrie what happened?" Lo'ak asks, his worry getting heavier.

He doesn't know if he wants to hear what is next. If she saw another vision, or if one of the visions became true, than surely that means all the other ones will become true too.

One vision happening could be coincidence, but two... could very well be a pattern.

If that's the case, that would mean one thing, his brothers fate has been decided, and he would have to watch live as his brother bleeds out. A reality he refuses to accept.