Coin Flip - Lo'ak

10:

All morning I've been sitting at the rock.

When I woke up, I had this bubbly feeling in my stomach. I couldn't help but squeal whenever I thought about how happy I felt, happy from yesterday.

This happiness made me view everything as more beautiful and more amazing than every other time I had laid my eyes on anything around me.

My marui shines with the perfect amount of morning light seeping through the woven material. The water was so clear that if it were still, you wouldn't even be able to see it. The air was fresh but not even a little bit too cold. As I rode Firik, the corals colours popped even more than usual and the sun created the perfect temperature all around.

It was just a beautiful day.

As I sat on my rock, I talked with the sky. Now I know that sounds stupid and crazy since the sky isn't a living thing that can hear me, or even respond back, but I felt this indescribable connection with it. And like I said, the colours that emitted in the sky were response enough.

It rained when I was sad and it shone brightly - like today - when I was happy. It always seemed to reflect me. Or maybe I was just reading into it wrong and it was nothing but a coincidence.

Either way, I knew if I didn't tell somebody about yesterday's events, I'd explode with my excitement.

I told the sky everything in detail, the good and the bad. How Lo'ak inflicted both physical and emotional pain, how I was starving and then Neteyam gave me some food and mended my bruise. How amazing it was teaching Neteyam and seeing him enjoy the water. I even told the sky about dinner and that darn feeling I had inside since last night. I felt like I had a place of belonging.

Could I seek familial love from strangers? I mean, I barely knew them, and somehow I felt at home - or what I'd imagine home felt like at least.

Either way, the sky now knew all.

I had probably spent a few hours here already and now that I've finished recounting the past events, I had to go out and experience more. I finally had friends I could see.

I had Ao'nung and Tsireya but as we got older, they had more important things to do, you know, being future leaders of this clan and all.

I stood, calling Firik over to me and dove into the water while hoisting myself upon her saddle. We rode back to shore.

———————

As we got closer, I hopped off of Firik wanting to swim the rest of the way.

I saw Kiri laying at the very shallow part of the ocean so I decided that since she was focused so hard on the sand, she wouldn't notice me and I could possibly jump-scare her.

I was still a good way away from shore, it would probably take a few minutes to reach her but I'm sure she'd stay occupied long enough. Plus, it gave me time to enjoy my time in the water instead of riding Firik fast to get somewhere.

As I basked in the ocean and swam leisurely, I noticed Ao'nung and his group of friends - the bullies - walk to Kiri. I prayed they wouldn't cause trouble. If they were acting anything like when they would with me, then I'm sure they too were going to tease Kiri for whatever stupid reason they could think of.

My plan to jump-scare her turned into helping save her from them. I tried swimming faster but soon stopped in my tracks noticing Lo'ak. As much as I dislike him, I know he'd look out for his sister.

Soon after Lo'ak showed up, so did Neteyam. I knew they'd be enough protection for Kiri so I decided to just stay back and emerge out of the water once they all leave.