𝐁𝐞𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐝 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐞𝐟 || ʟᴏ'ᴀᴋ

032

Se'aeylwa

The sound of waves lightly crashing against one another is what wakes me more than anything. The other being the warm tracing of Lo'ak's hand over my back tattoo, carving out the intricate lines before laying a flat palm over the now healed scar tissue of the bullet wound. 

I keep my eyes closed, mainly curious of what Lo'ak would say when he thought I was asleep. 

"I can't believe I found you" He breathes out quietly, so quiet I almost can't hear. He mumbles a few words I can't seem to find the energy to listen to as I wait for him to stop. And when he eventually does I slightly shift, warning him that I was about to wake as he carefully played with the ends of my hair. 

I groaned a few times, not liking the feeling of actually opening my eyes as I force them too, overlooking the pool of water a few meters away. I try to close my eyes again and sleep, snuggling into Lo'ak as he chuckles, lightly pinching my sides as I scowl. I slap his hands away, hissing annoyedly, as I look upwards. 

He displays his fangs, playfully hissing back with a smile as I roll my eyes. Our children like tiff comes to an end as we silently intertwine our bodies with one another, breathing long and deep breaths to calm for the day ahead.

"My parent's must be worried sick, I have to go back to the clan" He softly says, rubbing a reassuring hand along my bicep, where the new band was firmly stationed. I felt his extra finger brush up against my flesh, fiddling with the clothing accessory as he looks at me, ready to gauge my reaction. I nod in understanding, just because my familial relationships where awful didn't mean his where.

"I know you may not want to go back yet, but I'm sure a certain younger sister of mine misses you" He mumbles trying to entice me as I bark out a laugh. 

"Okay forest boy, we can go" I say, smiling up at him for what seems like the first time this morning as he looks down at me, something swimming in the depths of his eyes as his face softens. 

"Then lets go" He says, nodding his head to the pool of water that was near us. He slowly slips out from underneath me as he stretches, lengthening his upper half as a bone in his back stretches, ending with a satisfying crack. I do the same, lifting both arms above my head, but this time to yawn instead of to stretch. I grip the wall, slowly rising as my entire body tenses. Lo'ak notices as he strides towards me, kneeling down to hold one of my legs as he stretches it out for me.

"You don't have to do that, I'll be fine"

"I want to do it, it mean's you'll heal faster" He rebuts quickly. Moving to my other leg before settling them both down. He rises and continues to hover next to me, ready to catch my falling body if need be. 

I slowly start to put more pressure onto my legs, rather than my hands against the rocky wall as my hips begin to ache from too much movement from an already stiff part of my body, Lo'ak's stretching could only do so much. 

I gently lower myself from the wall and onto the floor as I guide myself down to the water, where I was shortly met with Lo'ak. My aching joints where relieved as the cool water soothed them, making it easier to swim. 

Calming my racing heart was harder with Lo'ak around me, if anything he made it beat faster. I closed my eyes trying not to think about the hand that was slithering around my waist as I let out a deep breath before replacing it with another. 

I glanced at Lo'ak, making sure he was ready as I ducked under the water, twirling at certain intersections as I used pieces of rocks that where abnormally sticking out of the underwater cave walls to propel myself further and faster. 

The boy had followed me quickly, his cheeks slightly puffed out as if he thought it held more air. I stopped for a moment, reaching two hands and cupping his cheeks, only to force the air out of his mouth with one swift movement. 

His face contorts into an expression I can only explain as a child getting his toy taken away from him as he reaches forward. I swerve his hand as he raises a brow challengingly. I laugh at him before I continue swimming, the boy hot on my tail as I see the entrance of the cave. I use one final swish of my body as I swim upwards, meeting the open air as I look around the clearing. Waiting for the boy as his head bursts out and he heaves in large amounts of air.  

I giggle at him as he finds the energy to laugh along at his dishevelled appearance. I observe the area around us as I find the same animal as before where I left it, I swim with my head above water as my hand greets him. 

He turns my way immediately as he chirps. Lo'ak wearily treads water behind me as I reach for his hand, pulling him in close as my palm meets the back of his hand. I force his hand to meet the animals as he looks at me with worry.

"Bud, this is Lo'ak, Lo'ak, this is Bud" I smile. It's contagious as Lo'ak has a clever grin on his face, he curiously begins to pat the animal as it makes a few higher pitched noises. 

"He likes you" I whispered to Lo'ak, his grin widens as he stays mesmerised by the nearly white engravings along his skin. 

"You guys have matching markings" Lo'ak observes. My face scrunches, I don't have a lighting like scar, nor tattoo on my back. I ignore the comment, he probably mistook some of the design for something else. 

Bud glides his fin towards us as I clamber on, holding Lo'ak's hand as I pull him along with me. Once I'm on the creatures back I sit and shuffle to his queues that where much larger than an ilu's. In the corner of my eye Lo'ak stands, amazed as he see's me reach out and connect my queue with the large animals. He sits beside behind me, wrapping two arms around my stomach as his head rests over the top of mine. He sighs contently, watching as the scenery around us turns into blurs of colour as we remain in our own little world. 

A shiver randomly envelops my body as I see the clan of Awa'atlu in the distance, it becomes closer and closer as we move towards the now clear Island. Bud was still surface level, allowing us to be on his back without swimming under the surface. 

The closer we get to the shore, the more I see people spilling out of the sea and their marui's. They group on the sand as they share hushed whispers. Just as we had reached the shallows of the shore I slipped of, disconnecting our queues easily with one hand as Lo'ak aided me in walking through the water, holding a steady hand on my hip, lifting at least half of my weight as I wrapped an arm around his waist. 

We reached the shore quite quickly, and remained confused as people started to reach forward and touch my flesh before tilting their heads to the ground. Lo'ak and I share a confused glance, communicating with one another through looks as we try to leave the crowd to go to his family marui. 

A hand stops us as the Tsahìk rushes out of a marui, her family in tow as she looks between Bud and myself. I notice Tsireya looking directly at the sand, refusing to make eye contact with anyone as Ronal still stares. 

"Atanzaw Makto..." She mumbles, a few shrieks sound through the crowd as the Tsahìk grabs me by the arm, leading me to her marui as Lo'ak helplessly stays by my side.