𝗠𝗜𝗥𝗥𝗢𝗥𝗦 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗦𝗢𝗨𝗟𝗦 - 𝗻𝗲𝘁𝗲𝘆𝗮𝗺

𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗣𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗫𝗩 ⸺ 𝗮𝘀𝗵 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗿𝘂𝗶𝗻.

┊ ┊ ┊ ┊
✯ ┊ ┊ ✯
★ ┊ ★
✯ ✯
★

SÄSÌ WAS THRILLED to bring Amraë to their destination, the latter could feel it. The former had been joyfully clicking since they left the village, undulating with more vigor than usual, although she was still withholding any indication as though where they were going. Tsireya herself had insisted on keeping the destination a surprise, only promising that it would be worth the secret. They had been traveling west, past the limits of their village and away from their reef. They had passed near several Metkayina villages, the inhabitants saluting them with cheerful signs of the hand. The organization of these people was familiar to Amraë, one people separated in several villages — although the Tipani villages were far more independent from one another than the Metkayina seemed to be. Tsireya waved in return, appearing to recognize multiple Na'vi.

Although the journey was lovely, Amraë did not find it in herself to admire the landscape. Her mind was plagued, preoccupied by wayward thoughts. She had not spoken to Neteyam in days, not since their last encounter on the beach — one that still burned in her mind like a tattoo. He had warmed up again to the others, but his behavior towards her was even worse than before. Where his eyes had been so deep, so full of unsaid feelings she would have spent hours trying to decipher, he had barely spared her a glance in three days. Understanding what she could have done, for Eywa's sake, for him to act this way, was still foggy and confusing. She had searched for anything she could have done wrong, anything she could have said, to conclude that it was a him problem. Well. If he needed time to figure it out, so be it. She would not suffer from his unsufferable behavior. If he was to be cold, so would she.

And yet, his last words refused to leave her mind. I thought I lost you.

The way everything about this encounter had made her feel was something she did not wish to explore. She preferred to focus on the frustration, the one that made her want to scream until her lungs burned, even though she was currently under water. It did not matter how his words had made her feel, he was still acting like a complete and utter idiot. Amraë shook herself out of those memories and focused in the present. She forbit herself to look back to the object of her thoughts, who was currently swimming somewhere behind her on his ilu. Tsireya and Roxto led them, followed by Kiri and Tuk on the former's ilu. Lo'ak was, as usual, nowhere to be found. This was starting to become a habit, Amraë had noticed; the young Sully had been uncharacteristically distant this past week, spending more time with his tulkun friend, she suspected, than with the other young. Even though Lo'ak had been warned that Payakan was dangerous, that had not seemed to deter him from going off on his own to see him. They had talked about it, the following morning after Lo'ak's return, when he had told them what happened after Ao'nung and his friends had left him outside the reef.

"I wish I'd been there," Kiri had said dreamily after Lo'ak explained how the tulkun came right in time to save his life. "The ocean blessed you with a gift, brother."