Me and the Devil | lo'ak sully

chapter 4: fly straight

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'Are you ready for today?' Lo'ak caught Na'veya off guard. She was staring in front of her, not realizing the boy was standing right behind her.

She flung her head around, meeting eyes with him.

She looks beautiful as always.

He'd been standing there for some time, admiring her. 'So, are you ready?'

Fuck yeah. Na'veya nodded, walking over to him. Lo'ak watched as her hips swayed from side to side while her tail trailed after her.

She climbed on top of his ikran, wrapping her arms around him and holding him tightly. This was Lo'ak's favorite part.

The two of them had been training for this moment for a long time. They'd met each other in the forest on the same spot everyday. Neteyam, Lo'ak's brother, started to question him more and more everyday.

Today was the day, Na'veya will finally bond with her own ikran. Lo'ak had taught her how to mount it step by step.

'Step one: choose your ikran. Well— let it choose you. How will you know if it chooses you? It'll try to kill you... Don't look at me like that, you knew what you were getting yourself into.
Step two: use the mouth binder exactly like how I showed you. It could literally bite your head off if you don't.
Step three: just jump on and make tsaheylu as fast as possible.
And finally step four: fly. The first flight seals the bond so you can't wait.'

Lo'ak explained everything to her very clearly, she knew what she had to do. Na'veya was confident. They'd practiced every single day, she could do this.

As the wind blew through her hair, Na'veya looked around. She'd never been here before. The Hallelujah mountains always looked so interesting from the ground, let alone how breathtaking they were up close.

When they finally reached the nest, they carefully moved behind a large and slippery waterfall. Lo'ak had a lot more trouble with it than Na'veya, she just walked across it so casually like it was dirt on the ground.

It was an interesting sight, seeing all the colorful ikran around her. There were at least about sixty of them.

Na'veya tried to hiss at a few of them— provoke them, but they just flew off. She sighed, meeting eyes with a very confident looking one. It was dark cyan, dark blue spots scattered across its body. It looked incredible. She slowly inched over while Lo'ak grew intrigued. He saw how the ikran reacted and came closer as well. He already knew this was the one.

It stretched its wings as Na'veya tilted her head, hissing at the creature.

The creature hissed back, walking closer to her. She smirked as she ran up to the ikran, using the mouth binder like Lo'ak taught her and jumping on top of the creature. She struggled, almost falling off a couple of times.

'Come on Na'veya, make the bond!' Lo'ak yelled at her, watching her carefully. He didn't want her to fall into the abyss below them.

Na'veya let out a cry before finally forming tsaheylu. Her pupils dilated as she felt the creature breathe beneath her. She could feel his heartbeat, she could feel its strength. She closed her eyes for a second, feeling the mighty creature beneath her.

'Remember what I told you about the first flight?' Lo'ak pushed the ikran to the side of the rock. Before Na'veya could protest, Lo'ak already pushed her off. 'Fly!'

Shit. He told her all about mounting the ikran but he forgot to explain how to actually fly.

Na'veya fell down with the creature, not really knowing what to do.

This was it. She was about to die. And no one would know except Lo'ak up there.

Come on, why don't you just fly straight?

Suddenly, the ikran spread its wings and they both flew straight.

Oh, that was easy.

It felt weird, she was actually flying by herself. It felt like she was free. Like she was able to go everywhere now.

Na'veya heard a cry from beside her. She looked to the side to notice a smiling Lo'ak. She smiled back at him. Her smile got him staring a little too long, he almost hit a large rock because he was too distracted.

It made Na'veya snicker a bit.

Then she saw Lo'ak talk to himself while holding his neck. It looked weird, her eyes studied him while still focusing on flying. He looked a bit worried before calling out to Na'veya.

'Hey, follow me!' He yelled, making Na'veya nod.

But when she saw where he was taking her, it was already too late.

She thought they were going inside of an innocent cave to rest. She couldn't be more wrong. When she saw the flicker of the torches on the sides of the cave as they flew in, she knew this was where their village was located. Na'veya can't be seen in public. Plus she didn't want Lo'ak to know who she was just yet.

Once they landed, Na'veya already bolted to the back of the cave where she hoped nobody would see her. Lo'ak frowned, already making his way over to her before Neteyam stopped him.

'Where were you?' He asked his younger brother.

'The forest. What's wrong?' Lo'ak answered him, still frowning.

Neteyam had a complex expression on his face. 'Why didn't you tell us where you were going?'

'Because I don't have to? Why did you call me in?' Lo'ak asked him, growing impatient. He wanted to look for Na'veya.

His older brother sighed. 'Mom and dad want to talk.'

This can't be good.

'Why?'

'I don't know. Just come with me.' Neteyam grabbed his arm and pulled Lo'ak with him inside of their hut.

Na'veya was lost. She had no idea where she was. She heard a few whispers around her but she thought she had kept her head low enough to be unrecognizable.

Why did Lo'ak take her here? She couldn't be here. Lo'ak's father is the Olo'eyktan. She could get into so much shit.