I WANNA BE SAVED, neteyam

Ch 3: A New Star

A new star in the night. It could only mean one thing. The Sky people returning.

It only took a couple of hours for them to land, a fiery beast emerging from the intensity of the thrusters. As it began to eat at everything in the forest, Neytiri began to wail.

Why was this happening again?

Were they never supposed to live in peace?

Jake hugged his mourning mate, watching as burning animals tried to escape the jaws of death, only to see them fail. He could hear his people cry as they watched their home burn into cinders and coal once again.

The morning before the new star.

"Ow!" Ayatney grimaced, her face scrunching up in pain. "Ma sa'nok, gently please— Agh!" Her mothers hand rubbed the salve onto her scratched up skin roughly, uncaring if she cowered in pain. Ayatney could feel the irritation from her mother with just how she was treating her.

Apparently the rocks from the river had cut up Ayatneys back after carelessly jumping into it. Obviously, it had been fight or flight, but still, it really hurt. Couldn't her mother at least be happy that she came home in one piece?

Ayatney hadn't made her mother upset at her in a while. The last time was when she had punched Neteyam in the back, which was two months ago. Personally, she would say that she made a new record.

"Why must you always be so foolish." her mother bitterly closed the lid to the salve, reading the labels of the little collection of bottles that sat next to them. Picking each one up individually, she scanned them, finally picking up a hand full of a paste, yalknabar. It stung less and didn't smell that much, which Ayatney was quiet grateful for.

"You were supposed to go hunting with the group and come back with the group—" Her mothers words faltered, full of worry and then suddenly full of anger. "But yet you come back with that boy— the chiefs son in fact— in the middle of the night with injuries which are unexplainable."

Ayatney huffed, clearly her mother was upset with her, always assuming the worst when it came to him. But who knows, it could've just been her pregnancy hormones. At least, that's what Neteyam had told her. Saying that it was the exact same with his mother when she was pregnant with Tuk. Acting all broody for a moment and then becoming elated the next. Strange isn't it?

After receiving treatment from her mother, her father then prohibited Ayatney from leaving Home Tree for the next few days. Which also meant no hunting trips, no riding on her ikran, and definitely no seeing any of the Sully children until her punishment was over.

It put Ayatney in a sour mood. Why was she getting punished when the hunting group had left them behind in the first place? It didn't make any sense, it was unfair.

Ayatney decided to busy herself with completing her task. Making fifty woven baskets, twenty-five large and twenty-five small. Her muscle memory never seemed to fail her as she sat there in silence, hastily weaving over, under, and in between.

Unbeknownst to her, time had flown by and it was already eclipse. Her parents were at dinner with the rest of the clan, and being frankly honest, Ayatney wasn't feeling the best. Getting scolded by her parents and being unable to have any fun killed her appetite.

In another part of the Home Tree stood Neteyam and his parents. They both were saddled in their flying gear, ready to head off for the night.

"As usual, we'll be back before the first rays of light." Neteyam nodded, already knowing the drill whenever his parents left for their date night. That's what his father called it and apparently it was time to get away from him and his siblings.