𝐖𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐬 || 𝗔𝗼'𝗻𝘂𝗻𝗴

14

Me and Ao'nung lay on the flat centre of the tree in silence. It's dark out now, all the plants are glowing and lighting up the forest.

"We need to go back now." Ao'nung gets up and starts to climb down the tree, I follow him.

When we reach the ground we stand there for a minute looking around. "One second, Ao'nung. I'm gonna go and grab a plant from over there. Stay here."

I wander not to far off towards a bunch of medium sized plants. None of them glowed but they had a unique colour.

I kneel down and look at all the different ones. I grab my pouch and open it up. I pick two of the plants and put them in.

As I stand up in the corner of my eye I see a bush move. A lot of bushes move here, but this one was suspicious.

I pull out my knife and slowly approach the bush. When I get close enough I hear quiet breaths.

I raise my knife but as I'm about to stab whatever's in the bush, it reaches me first.

I'm standing face to face with Quaritch. Both his hands are next to my ears, "Wont be able to hear my breathing now, kid."

The last thing I hear is two gunshots. I fall to the ground and see Quaritch run off. My vision blurs and when I lay my head on the ground my eyes immediately close.

-

I wake up by being shook. I see Jake and Neytiri looking over me. Jake starts to speak, but I can't hear him.

Why can't I hear him? My eyes widen and I look over at Neytiri. She mouths my name but once again, I don't hear anything.

"Why can't I hear anything..?" When I speak Jake and Neytiri both look at each other. A tear runs down my face.

"Jake.. why can't I hear anything!?" I can't even hear myself talk, are any words coming out my mouth? I start to scream, I don't know if it's loud. By the look on Jakes face, it probably is.

I stop screaming and I cup my ears. I stare down at the floor wide-eyed. I feel myself shaking, I feel Jake and Neytiris eyes staring at me.

Out of nowhere a hand gently touches my shoulder, which makes me flinch. I look up and it's Ao'nung. He's speaking, but too fast. I can't read his lips.

Jake catches his attention and starts to talk to him. By the look on Ao'nungs face I can tell Jake told him that.. I can't hear him.

Ao'nung stares at me, a tear rolls down his cheek. I've never seen Ao'nung cry before. I lean towards him and hug him.

After a few seconds of hugging, we welcome Jake and Neytiri into our embrace. More tears start to roll down my face but they get quickly wiped away by Ao'nung.

We all release each other and move back a bit. Jake turns to Ao'nung and starts to speak. Since I can only see the side of his face I can't read his lips.

Ao'nungs face lights up and he nods at Jake. He holds up his hands and starts to sign, "Do you want to go outside?"

I smile at the smart idea and then nod. As I get up I rub my ears, hoping this isn't permanent. When we walk out the Marui I see everyone outside waiting for me.

I watch Jake as he steps forward and says something to everyone. All their faces drop. Kiri falls to the ground and starts to cry, Tuk runs up to me and hugs me.

Tsireya starts to cry as well and Lo'ak comforts her. I stroke Tuks hair and look down at the floor. Suddenly a pair of arms wrap around me. I can't see who it is since they're covering my face.

Once they pull away I look up at them and it's the person I'd most least expect to do that. It's Tonowari.

He lifts his hands to my view and makes sure I'm looking before he starts to sign, "We are all very sorry, please tell us how it happened."

I nod at him and then clear my throat. I'm nervous to speak, it's weird not being able to hear my own voice.

I tap Jakes shoulder and quietly speak to him, "Does my voice sound okay?" He gives me a thumbs up and then does a gesture which says 'It's a bit higher.'

When he does that I sigh. I turn to everyone and clear my throat once again. "Quaritch."

I only say one word but it affected everyone. All their eyes widened and Jake turns me to look at him, "How? I killed him!" Jakes eyes full with terror, I've never seen him look so scared.

"So he just came out of nowhere? How did he make you go deaf Rua?" Jakes ears lower and he kneels down to look at me eye to eye.

"He put two guns next.. to my e..ears and he shot straight past them." I hate the fact that the last thing I heard was gunshots.

"So he did it purposefully?" A look of anger floods Jakes eyes and I nod in response.

After a while most of the Metkayina people go back home, but the people who are closest to me stay.