Pearls

C H A P T E R 7

It was dusk and a purple hue had taken over your humble village. You slowly paced the beach as violent waves repeatedly crashed onto shore. You had tried out a new hairstyle today, half of it pulled back with pearls decorating the crown of your head.

Then as if someone was reading your mind, you heard, "Your hair looks nice."

You jumped and whirled around, on high alert. Only to see Lo'ak standing there with an unreadable expression, he almost looked confused.

"Eywa Lo'ak, you and your brother are always scaring me," you laughed, immediately regretting your choice of words as you saw his eyebrows crumble.

"Oh," he said, looking over at the ocean.

You nervously smiled, clasping your hands behind your back and continuing to walk down the beach. You heard footsteps behind you and hoped it was Lo'ak and that he had decided to follow you.

"So..." you began, gaining a hum from him to show he was listening. "Do you like it here?"

"What do you mean?"

"Do you like the reef?"

He paused, "Oh, yeah, it's cool. I miss my home though."

"What's it like there?" You asked, still walking down the beach, with him right beside you now.

From the corner of your eye you saw him softly smile, looking to the ground. "Awesome, I love- well I guess I used to love exploring there. I miss my Ikran too, and doing missions for my dad with Neteyam."

You looked at him sadly, but it seemed talking about it was getting him in a better mood so you decided to continue. "What kind of missions did you do?"

"Usually small ones, he only let us do spotters." He chuckled, "but one time I convinced Neteyam to go down with me and see what was going on or something, and after I thought dad was going to kill us."

You smiled, happy to see how brightly he looked over to you. "You always seem to be getting in trouble, Lo'ak."

He laughed, "Yeah, I guess it's what I do best."

"What do you mean?" You tilted your head. "I'm sure you're good at many things."

"Eh, not really."

You planted yourself facing him, arms crossed with a defiant look on your face. "Alright then, prove it to me."

"Huh?" He asked, a smile still present on his face.

"You cannot possibly not be good at anything."

"Nah, I'm good at some things. Neteyam's just better."

You rolled your eyes, and started to pace the shore again, "Well, you're not Neteyam."

You could feel his stare burning into the back of your head, but decided to ignore it and focus on the beauty of the night.

The purple clouds almost covered the intricately decorated sky. The palm trees swaying in the wind as white foam splashed up onto your feet.

You smiled to yourself, gently rubbing your left arm, perfectly content as you felt the warmth radiating off of Lo'ak because of how close he was to you.