Not So Perfect [Avatar The Way Of Water]

29

Aonung's pov:

A month. That's the amount of time that had passed since the trial, that's the amount of time that had passed since I last saw Miyara. My heart ached everytime I thought about her, for some strange reason I had expected things for us to get better but she shut me out. No, she shut almost everyone out.. except for Tsireya, Teungyi and Kiri.
She never left her pod, she'd take care of her nieces everyday and the girls would sometimes visit her but even they said that Miyara was extremely vague, she sure never mentioned me or Neteyam once so neither of us had a clue if she figured out how she felt about us. Neteyam seemed to worry less about that with each passing day but I.. I was worried about losing her all day and every day.
A lot of things had changed the last month, I was allowed back into the group now that the truth was out and I even became friends with Lo'ak and Neteyam, I expected to hate Neteyam because of our shared intrest in Miyara but I didn't because after all, he made sure she was safe. Teungyi and I returned our friendship to insulting each other like usual, but I had to admit that I started to care for the annoying girl, like she was an extra cousin. Yrritsyo and I made amends and now we were friends as well, so things were looking up for our entire friendgroup. Even Kìeytxar was accepted into the group but Rotxo wasn't too happy about it when he found out that Kìeytxar had a crush on Kiri, who was now finally beginning to like Rotxo back.
Everytime we would meet up I'd look for Miyara, hoping that she'd pop up and join us again and for a month I was disappointed every time but what pissed me off was that I seemed to be the only one bothered that she wasn't around. The others would carry on as usual and I would be turning my head around the entire time to see if she'd come.
Today we had our first Tsurak lessons, and I wondered if Miyara would come to join us since she was the one who managed to get us all in the same group during her month away, having talked things over with her brother who would be our teacher. The group were just Neteyam, Lo'ak, Kiri and me, the others were too young and Yrritsyo already learned to ride a tsurak so there was no need for him to be around. Tsireya, Teungyi, Rotxo and Kìeytxar were all fifteen and originally you were only allowed to learn to ride one when you're seventeen but my father made the exception for Kiri and Lo'ak because they would truely be accepted into the clan when they learned to ride a tsurak.
"Welcome to your first skimwing class," Mo'iki said as he rode in on his own tsurak and smirked, searching for his sister who wasn't among the group, "are you rea- well, it was about time you showed up slowpoke!"
I frowned confused as we all turned our heads and saw Miyara make her way over to the group, my ears perked up, my eyes widened and my heart raced in my chest when I saw her sprint to the group. She was just as beautiful as ever, her long curls bouncing with every step she took and she looked a lot healthier than what she looked like at the trial. I couldn't help but smile as she halted before the group and tried to catch her breath and shot a glare at her older brother.
"I could've been here on time had you not forgotten to drop your kids off at the elders pod!" She grunted annoyed as her brother cheekishly smiled.
"Ah, yes.. forgot about that, but that's why I have you, sister," Mo'iki snorted as he walked up to the group, his tsurak waiting for him in the water, "get in line, Miya."
Miyara sighed before her eyes landed on me and widened, we held eye contact for a few second before she nervously looked back down at her feet and stepped in line next to Kiri, on the other side of where I was. I looked down at Neteyam who stood besides me but he just averted his gaze back to Mo'iki like Miyara's appearance wasn't anything special to him. I sighed and looked back at Miyara who received a hug from Kiri before the girls both turned their attention to Mo'iki. I however couldn't get my eyes off Miyara, of the nervous look she had on her face when she started to play with one of her braids, tugging at the shell that was woven into the braid. Her bright, ocean eyes on the tsurak behind her brother as she admired the big animal. She looked as breathtakingly beautiful as the day I lost her.
"I know I'm not as pretty as my sister, but it's important to be looking at me during this class," Mo'iki's voice echoed, "Aonung."
My eyes widened in shock as Miyara frowned and turned her gaze to me, the others gaped at me as well but I didn't care about them. She shot me a questioning look as I nervously turned my attention to her brother who simply quirked a brow and smirked at me, enjoying the fact that he busted me for staring at his little sister.
"She does however take after me," Mo'iki grinned at me.
"I so do not," Miyara scoffed at her older brother.
"Anyway, back to your first lesson," Mo'iki said as he looked at all of us, "skimwing's are pretty hard to master, they share the same anscestor as the Ikran and therefor it ends up with only one rider.. it doesn't however quite work the same as an Ikran, it takes a lot longer to master and it doesn't chose it's rider.. when you've mastered it you can give the skimwing a name and that takes you one step closer to adulthood."
"Tell them what you named yours," Miyara spoke my eyes averting back to her like I wanted to do since the moment she arrived, I didn't want to be looking at her brother, I wanted to look at her and I would make sure that I would every change I got. A smirk plastered on her face as she waited for her brother to tell us the name of his tsurak.
"I named mine.." Mo'iki hesitated, his ears lowering shamefully, "..Skimmy."
"Skimmy?" I asked flabbergasted, returning my gaze back to Mo'iki.
"If you think that's bad our dad named his Ikran Bob," Kiri snorted followed by a chuckle from Miyara, making my heart flutter as I could finally listen to her voice and laugh again.
"Bro, that's not even the worst," Lo'ak exclaimed and laughed, "he named his Skimwing Larry."
"What even are those names?" I asked Lo'ak confused.
"Sky people names," Neteyam answered casually.
"So, that means that your mother named the lot of you?" Miyara asked the three siblings and quirked a curious brow.
"Yeah, pretty much," Lo'ak snorted, "I already know what I'm gonna name mine."
"Perhaps you should learn to ride before coming up with names," Mo'iki suggested.
"No way, otherwise I'll end up with a spur of the moment name like yours," I scoffed followed by a snort from Miyara, I was surprised to see her laugh at what I said, my ears perking up at the sound of it as I looked back at her with dreamy eyes. I could look at her for an eternity and never grow tired of it.
"Yes, well, don't get as bad as Miyara who already has the names of her seven non-existing children picked out," Mo'iki snorted and Miyara's eyes widened now that her brother put her on the spot like that.
"Can you just teach your class?" Miyara exclaimed annoyed and folded her arms as a bright blush appeared on her cheeks. My heart skipped a beat when he said that, wondering if she already knew what she felt for Neteyam and also wondering if I stood a chance. I wondered if she had picked out the names for the kids she'd want to have with Neteyam or with me. Nobody knew if she had figured out what she wanted.
"Fine," Mo'iki chuckled, "in this class you will watch me and take mental notes on how I ride Skimmy, in the next class we'll get you your skimwing's, I need a few more hands for that of course. I do however want you to do your best, not because you can't do more than that but because I have a bet with the other teachers that I will have the fastest group."
"You're so motivating," Kiri snorted as Miyara rolled her eyes at her older brother.
"I am, because it means that I belie-" Mo'iki was stopped when the horns blew, signaling that something was wrong as the hunters and warriors all got on their skimwing's and left. I frowned confused as I didn't understand what was happening.
"You guys stay here, I'll check what's going on," Mo'iki said as he got on his skimwing and left us. An awkwardness suddenly washing over the group as my eyes landed on Miyara again, she was hugging her own body nervously as her eyes were fixated on where her brother had been.
"So, you're back to the land of the living," Lo'ak told Miyara as he walked over to her to hug her as Neteyam and I shot eachother a confused look before Miyara returned Lo'ak's embrace with a smile on her face.
"Good to have you back, Miya," Lo'ak said as he leaned in closer to her, almost making my heart drop and wonder if she wasn't also attracted to the other Sully brother, "I still need your help with something."
"Oh, right.. I'm so sorry, Lo'ak," Miyara gasped, "when do you want to.. do it?"
"Do what?" Neteyam and I asked in unison and earning ourselves a side eye from Miyara, Kiri and Lo'ak.
"That's not your concern," Miyara simply said looking at the both of us before returning her gaze back to Lo'ak, "when?"
"Tomorrow?" He asked her with a cheekish smile.
"I can do that, I'll just have to work all night but I can do that," Miyara said and Lo'ak smiled and hugged her again before fistbumping Kiri who was just as clueless as us. I wondered if the two had been in contact the last month since they both knew exactly what the other meant.
"How've you been?" Neteyam asked her as I stood there dumbfounded like all words lost meaning to me.
"I've been getting better, I'm sorry that I vanished but I thought that taking some time alone would help me solve whatever dilemma has been going on in me," Miyara said looking from me to Neteyam and signaling to us that she was talking about the dilemma of her feelings towards the two of us.
"That's good," Neteyam said as her eyes lingered on me, "did.. did you.. figure it out?"
"Almost, I think," she said looking back at Neteyam, "I'm getting there."
Neteyam nodded and looked away, I frowned since it almost looked like he didn't care or maybe that was just all in my head. I looked back at Miyara and saw her gaze lingering on Neteyam and my heart broke.. it was him that she wanted, wasn't it?
"So," Kiri started to break the awkward silence, "what do you think has happened?"
"I dunno," Lo'ak shrugged as he sat down in the sand, "maybe they saw Payakan or something and are now freaking out."
"You still see Payakan?" I asked him shocked and he shrugged.
"He stays put," Lo'ak shrugged as Miyara and Kiri sat down on both his sides.
"Lo'ak, he's a killer," I said as I looked at Miyara for her to back me up, she saw my gaze and frowned confused.
"You have to be careful, brother," Kiri advised him, "you could get hurt."
"I've been doing it for months and I've been fine, you're the ones making a fuss out of it," Lo'ak rolled his eyes as Neteyam let his words sink in and looked at his brother shocked.
"Months? You skxawng, you could've been killed," Neteyam said and Lo'ak sighed, Miyara however stayed silent as we all told Lo'ak to stop seeing Payakan.. we knew that he used to do that but we all kind of thought that he stopped that after a while.
"Why aren't you joining them in lecturing me?" Lo'ak asked Miyara who looked at him with widened eyes before looking at us.
"Because I don't agree with them," she said softly and immediatly a smirk appeared on Lo'ak's face now that he knew that Miyara was on his side. Kiri, Neteyam and I stared at her in disbelief.
"Miya-" I began but I realised that she had stripped me of the right to call her Miya, "-ra. You've been brought up with the same stories as me, Payakan's a killer, an outcast."
"If he really was wouldn't Lo'ak be dead already?" Miyara questioned me and her eyes softened, "and you can just say Miya, Aonung."
My face softened when she said that as my heart began to rapidly beat in my chest, my gaze remained upon her as she held eye contact for a little while before returning her gaze to Lo'ak who still held a smug look on his face because she agreed with him.
"Aonung!" Rotxo suddenly shouted as he ran towards us, waving his arms, "you should come!"
"What is it?" I asked him confused as his ears lowered.
"It's your mother's spirit sister and her baby," Rotxo explained, "they've been killed by the sky people."
My heart dropped when he said that, knowing how my people would react to the loss of a Tulkun let alone the spirit sister of their Tsahik. I was worried for my mother, who must be feeling terrible and I was worried for how it would affect my sister, who had a compassionate heart. I wanted to move but I froze for some strange reason, never having experienced this feeling before.
"Come on, Aonung," Miyara suddenly said standing next to me and placing her hand on my shoulderblade, looking up at me with sympathetic eyes, "we should go to your mother."
"We?" I blurted out, feeling stunned.
"I'm with you," she said and offered me a compassionate smile, "I'll help you."
Her words reminded me of the night we became a couple and how she told me that I was with her, I remembered the look on her face when she proudly wanted to parade me around as her boyfriend and how shocked I was that she wanted to so quickly, seeing as I had a bad reputation and had bullied some of her friends. I wondered if she said those words on purpose but as soon as she waved the others to follow along I lost all hope that she still had feelings for me, for some reason I lost faith the moment she left the trial without speaking to me. But even so I would still await for her honest choice and should her choice be Neteyam I will let her go, I will terminate our betrothal so she can be happy with him because despite me loving her with all my heart I want her to be happy.. even if it wouldn't be with me.
Miyara ran ahead of me, sometimes looking over her shoulder to make sure I was still following after them, she softly smiled when she saw my tears pricking in the corners of my eyes. She extended her hand for me to grasp mid running, seeing as we made the back of the group, the others were all running infront of us and usually I was faster than Miyara but it was like something was holding me back. I allowed her to take my hand as she pulled me behind her, giving a soft squeeze in my hand and leaving me unsure of what we were to each other. The closer we got to the village, the more I forced myself to look strong but I was extremely worried for my mother and I just wanted to be there for her.
But as soon as we reached the village I realised what was going on; they were preparing for war.

Honestly I have no idea if the Metkayina name their skimwing's (tsurak's) but if they did I could just see Jake naming his Larry.. Larry the skimwing, it sounds like the start of a bad joke. Anyway this chapter feels more like a filler chapter but the next one will be more special because it will be the final battle.. so what do you think will happen in that battle?