Petrichor

Sir

Leypa followed his brother at a distance. The boy was clearly seething, and hadn't turned around at all when Leypa knew for a fact that he would've heard him shouting. 

He watched Lo'ak dive into the sea after putting a harness on one of the sea creatures, and saw him make tsaheylu with it. Leypa called for Meyke, hoping that the sound would carry, hoping the girl would come, as he gazed over the water, Lo'ak's figure getting smaller and smaller as he went out of sight. 

Meyke was clearly exhausted, because the girl didn't show up at all. Not that he blamed her. They'd stopped last night to get some sleep, as they'd left later than Leypa would have liked, but it couldn't be helped. His stuff had been heavy on Meyke's back, and she'd not really eaten properly since they'd left. Neither of them had. 

He leaned on the wooden frame and sighed, folding his arms. This part of the structure was obviously a little port for the reef people to harness their creatures and get into the water. There was four beams with equipment strapped over the top of them behind him. 

Eywa, his dad hadn't always been like that. But Jake seemed to be on edge, and Leypa had no idea why. Tonowari seemed like a cool guy. Surely he would know himself if his own son was a little shit. The same way Jake knew that Lo'ak was a little shit. But at least his brother wasn't nasty. He had some moral code about him.

Leypa pushed himself from the frame, eyes narrowed, as he spotted four figures swimming fast towards the opening of the reef, the one that accessed the ocean. 

"Oh, Lo'ak, you stupid boy." He put a hand over his eyes to try to see better, but he couldn't make out if it was his brother or not. His gut told him that it was. 

"Are you alright?" 

"Jee-sus!" Leypa yelped, a hand coming to his chest as he spun around, his heart in his throat. A small girl, maybe Neteyam's age, had her hand to her mouth, trying and failing to cover her smile. Eywa, she was tiny. He felt like he was intimidating her just by standing there. "I am sorry. Forgive me. I believed I was here alone." 

The girl smiled again, a genuine one, and she nodded. His eye caught the small bead in the centre of her hair line, and had to suppress a groan. He recognised it as a training Tsahik's jewel. Neytiri had worn something similar when he was younger.

He just couldn't get away from the Olo'eyktan's children today, could he?

"It is fine. I thought I would check on you ...?" 

"Leypa," he supplied. "I'm Lo'ak and Neteyam's brother."

"Oh! I just took Tuk home! I am Tsireya, I'm helping your family become familiar with the way of my people!" She inclined her head a little bit, and Leypa reciprocated. Then her face became very serious. "I must apologise for my brother's behaviour. The boys that he is friends with are not very nice. Is Kiri alright?" 

Gossip spread faster here than it did even back home. Leypa rubbed his forehead, looking back out to the water. The four figures were gone. 

"I think so."

He heard the girl walk towards him, saw her stand at his side out of the corner of his eye. "What are you looking at?" 

He sighed again. "I thought I saw my brother leave the reef." 

"Neteyam?" Alarm filled her voice, and he glanced at her. Concern was written all over her features. 

"No, Lo'ak."

"Are you sure he left the reef?"

"I couldn't see for certain, but I think it was him." He looked at her then, putting a hand on the handle of his knife, his uncle's knife. "Can you get me a tsurak?"