Forgive me: An Aonung story

Ilu

I woke up before Tuk managed to scare me awake again. "Morning babygirl" my dad says to me as I get out of my hammock, "morning dad" I say as I sit by his side leaning into his embrace. "I was very proud of you yesterday, I've never seen you fight so well" he says giving my arms a squeeze, "I wanted to impress Tonowari.. I didn't want anyone to think I was weak" I say as I play with my song chord, one bead in particular.

"You miss him?" My father asks, "I don't know..I finally accepted him just before we left. Well suppose I'm just confused" I say as I rest my head on his shoulder. My mother overheard our conversation as she sits by my side, "it's okay to be confused Làni. I was confused when I met your father" she says jokingly, "I know you tried to kill him" I say with a chuckle. "Exactly so not everything always starts out perfectly" she says, I nodded my head at her words.

Our parents left our pod, leaving me in my thoughts. Was I supposed to be missing Ikàlu? But was it wrong if I wasn't, I have no idea how I'm supposed to feel. It's all too confusing, my whole life was planned for me and now it feels like I have all this freedom. I can do what I want..speak to who I want without anyone looking over my shoulder. This whole situation is just confusing.

"Hey, come on smile" Lo'ak says as he drags me up off the floor, "I don't wanna be seeing my twin sad" I looked at him confused, "I'm not sad?" I questioned him. "Well tell your face that then" he chuckles, "Làni. I know you're confused. You're my twin I know you well. But just let go and have fun okay" he says as he pulls me in for a hug, "okay" I whisper. Fun I should just have fun.

"Good morning!" Tsireya says happily as she greets us all outside of our pod, "I thought today we could show you our Ilu they're beautiful you'll love them!" She says full of excitement, walking off heading towards the beach.

We walk into the shallows of the water, Aonung starts making some whooping and clicking sounds. Not long after his call a few creatures appeared swirling around by his side, "these are Ilu, if you want to live here, you have to ride." Aonung spoke, "I think it'll be easier if we split into pairs" Tsireya spoke as she made her way to Lo'ak's side, well it's obvious who she's chosen. Kiri and Tuk started to make their way to Rotxo, leaving me with Aonung, i internally rolled my eyes. Great.

"Looks like you're with me" he says with a smug smirk, "mhm. Not by choice" I say back wiping his smugness away. An Ilu swims up by my side brushing up against my waist, I let out a small laugh as it tickled. "He likes you" Aonung said "so will he decide to kill me..?" I ask him, his face instantly turned confused as he let out a chuckle. "No. Why would they? Ilu are friendly animals not violent." I nodded my head at his words feeling kind of stupid, "our ikran..when they choose you they decide to kill you" I say. "Right okay. Well that's not what's gonna happen" he says with another chuckle.

I gently start to pet the Ilu in front of me as it nuzzles into my hand, I go round to the side of the Ilu about to get on when I suddenly felt a pair of hands on my waist. Aonung had come by my side and lifted me onto it, I couldn't help the small blush creeping on my face so I quickly looked the other way hoping he wouldn't see.

Aonung holds up the ilu's queue to me "make the bond gently" he says, I take my braid carefully latching it onto the Ilu. The Ilu let out a groans beneath me as he gets used to the new bond, "feel her breath, feel her strength" he says as I close my eyes trying to calm myself down. As I open my eyes again I see that Aonung's friends have decided to come and watch, "hold here" he says as he point to the handle on the Ilu. "Look at her" one of his friends joke about me as I hold onto the handle, I lost my focus.

The Ilu quickly dived into the water swimming away with much speed I struggled to hang on, I only lasted a couple of seconds before I fell off. I come back up to the surface taking in a gasp of air, the Ilu was quick to come by my side. As I turn around I saw him and all his friends laughing, "you alright forest girl!" One of his friends shout. I slowly swim back over to them as my Ilu swims behind me.