Eywa's Gift || An Avatar: The Way of Water x reader fanfic

3. First encounter

Your grandmother raises her eyebrows in concern as she sees your face morph with dread. Atki follows your gaze which was locked onto the night sky. Nothing was out of the ordinary except for the fact that one of the stars seemed to be coming closer towards you. A frightful growl escapes from Atki as she protectively and instinctively wraps her arms around you.

'Grandmother,' Your voice was small and fearful. Thoughts raced through your mind. Perhaps it was a falling star, but the way your grandmother reacted when she saw it, told you that it was something much more. She was scared, which was something you hardly ever see. So if she was afraid then that falling star was something that wasn't meant to happen.

Atki hurriedly turns towards you, her shoulder-length braids violently shaking as she roughly looks at you and her hands firmly grab the side of your arms forcing your attention from the falling star to turn towards her.

'You need to go warn your mother, and both of you must meet me here, be quick-'

'-what about you?' You whimper out, but Atki just shakes her head. 'I must warn the Omaticaya-'

'-but-'

'Just go!' The firmness in Atki's voice stops you from starting to ramble. Immediately you run in the direction of your home. Atki was right, you needed to warn your mother and with the condition she was in, you had to be there for her. The sound from the falling star was getting louder, and it released loud wailing. This confirmed to you that it wasn't in fact a falling star, but the sky people your grandmother and your mother told you about.

Thunderous whooshing sounds were accompanied by mechanical roaring which made you flinch at the sound, your sensitive hearing reacted negatively as you felt a dull ache while you were manoeuvring your way through the forest, jumping over fallen tree trunks and brushing past various flora. You hissed in fear and frustration as you made your journey home, for some reason it felt as though you'd been running forever.

Nearing your destination, you witnessed different creatures of Pandora running in the opposite direction of where you were heading. Luckily you managed to dodge a nanatang(viperwolf), which almost rand into you head first. An acidic smell burnt your senses. Almost immediately a large cloud of smoke engulfed you, the strength of the unfamiliar smoke caused you to cough violently, but you attempt to hold your breath with effort trying to push yourself through the smoke, although the burning sensation in your eyes caused you to rapidly blink your eyes. With the struggle to hold your breath, you felt your throat constricting as you took breaths from the toxic smoke.

༺ ❖ ༻

After Neteyam successfully hunted a talioang (sturmbeest), he heard the loud discomforting sound of blaring coming from the sky. Unfortunately, he had to leave his hunting rewards once he heard his father's frantic voice followed by his mother calling him on his communication necklace to get back home as soon as possible. Without second-guessing, he called for Zex'Ki and made an escape with the intention to head home.

Once Neteyam climbs onto Zex'Ki, hurriedly flying into the direction of the Omaticaya clan, Zex'Ki roars uncontrollably causing Neteyam to tighten his grip on his Ikran's antennae. Mawey, Zex'Ki(calm, Zex'Ki), Neteyam says through the bond. However, it's as though Zex'Ki takes this as an indication to thrash violently in the air. From a distance, it would seem as though this was Neteyam's first time flying an Ikran.

Not caring about the yells coming from his rider, Zex'Ki, flies into a completely different of which they were headed. Unable to calm his ikran, Neteyam has no choice but to keep his grip steady and unluckily allow Zex'Ki to take him in the direction of where the smoke was coming from.