Tsaheylu

The Beginning of the End

The next 6 weeks go like this.

I'm let out of med-bay the next day and am allowed to go home, still on strict instructions to stay on bed rest. It was difficult, so difficult. I became for bored and all my bones and muscles ached from being laid in such uncomfortable positions for hours on end. I slowly managed to get myself sat up, and then a few days later out of bed and shuffling around the Marui Pod. Neteyam wouldn't let me leave the house for another week, listening to Ronal's silent plea in getting me to rest and not push myself. But the second I'm allowed back out it's a huge relief. It only took me another week to get back to my normal physical state, or my new physical state being pregnant.

But then came the worst of the morning sickness. Some days I did stay in bed yet again, feeling too nauseous to go anywhere without being sick. But other days it was a mere bubble in my stomach, reminding me of the little life growing inside of me.

The weeks started to stretch out, and before long a month had passed and the sickness was starting to web away once more. I was back out with the others, enjoying our days out in the sun like before. We celebrated Kiri's birthday with her when the day came, though she begged us to keep it small. She said how she didn't want anything huge like I, or even the twins, had had. So we went out to the reef for the entire day and basked in the small tidal pools. She loved being around all the ocean creatures, like they were her family, and there was nothing more she wanted to do. Even Ria came with us that day, her and Kiri mostly wrapped up in their own conversations throughout the day for us to even spend a second with the somewhat new addition to the group.

And much to my pleasure, Zoria didn't reer her ugly head anywhere near us. Apparently her face was one of both pure shock and fury when she had pieced together that my husband was Neteyam, and though I barely cast a thought to her (besides the millions of curses I muttered beneath my breath during my recovery from the injury she had caused me) it did cheer me up thinking of her stupidity.

We also celebrated Lo'ak's birthday, which was stark in comparison to Kiri's. Neytiri prepared a feast within their Mauri Hut for dinner which we were all invited to, and the whole day was spent lounging about Neteyam and my home. Just the way Lo'ak wanted it. We didn't do any lessons, nor barely got out of bed, but everyone came over and we spent the day playing games and joking around with one another. And god forbid the few times we did leave the hut, Lo'ak made sure everyone knew it was his birthday by saying it to everyone that passed. He got a lot of weird looks from people.

The only other thing of note over the 6 weeks, was my bump. Even though I was only 8 weeks along now, the bump was certainly there if you were paying attention. To those who didn't know about my pregnancy, it just looked like I was constantly bloated or had eaten a lot. But to our small group, it was the little baby that resided in my belly. It wasn't huge by any means, but against my small stature it poked out a little. And with every day that it grew, Neteyam and I were growing more and more reassured that this was going to stick. That this would be our lives for the next 32 weeks. And after that, our sweet bundle of joy would be here to greet the world.

I had made the promise to myself after my injury that I would do anything to keep it safe, to keep it as far away from the grips of harm as I physically could. I was starting to steer away from anything that could harm either of us in the slightest, even down to the silliest of things like not letting Tuk jump into my lap anymore.

But today I woke with a feeling that something bad was going to happen. I couldn't shake the gut feeling that something of a huge scale would hit out of the blue. No amount of times that Neteyam had assured me over and over that everything was fine, the feeling wouldn't go away.

And then it started, with Neytiri and Jake hurriedly asking Neteyam and I to look after Tuk while they went out of the reef with Ronal and Tonowari. From the confused and cautious tones in their voices I could tell something was wrong, but when I tried to press them for more details they softly brushed me off and left before the others could see their worry. They left as quickly as they came, and within maybe a minute we were left with the little 8 year old who was bouncing between us restlessly.