Losing Game ~ Lo'ak Sully

.+Prologue+.

The Forests of Pandora

hold many dangers.

But the most dangerous thing about Pandora...

is that you may grow to love her too much.

We sing the songcords to remember.

Each bead a story in our life.

A bead for my birth.

No one knows who my real parents are. I was just a baby girl found on the forest floor below the Spirit Tree by none other than Jake Sully. He then gave me to my parents who have been having problems with conceiving a child. They were overjoyed and didn't care about specific traits I had that considered me to be an outcast.

A bead when I made my first best friend, Lo'ak.

My five-year-old self sits making a bracelet for my mother. I loop the strands through each other but I'm still really struggling. As I'm about to give up a boy approaches me and crouches down beside me.
"Do you need some help?" the boy asks.
"Please," I say, "I'm trying to make a bracelet for my mother but I can't figure out how to do it."
"Here," the boy says extending out his hand silently asking for the unfinished bracelet. I see that he has five fingers just like me and am stunned. He sees my shocked expression and slowly withdraws his hand, "I know people think i'm some kind of freak because of it... an outcast." He looks down with sorrow. I hold my hand up to show my five fingers.
"Well then we can be outcasts together," I smile at him and welcome him to come sit with me.
"I'm Lo'ak," says the boy, sitting down with a smile now plastered on his face.
"Leyreya."

A bead for the first communion with Eywa.

The people say we live in Eywa...

and Eywa lives in us.

The Great Mother holds all her children in her heart.

Happiness is simple.

But who would've thought an outcast like me could crack the code.

When I was found there was something abnormal about me. I didn't look quite like a normal Na'vi baby. I was born with ten fingers and ten toes just like a Sky Person would be. When Jake found me he did notice that I reminded him of someone but he couldn't figure out who. To this day my birth is still a complete mystery.

Before I knew it I had a whole lot of friends.

Five-year-old me played with all of my friends by the river with our parents watching us. The only people who wanted to be friends with me were the Sullys. As we were playing in the water, Jake ran up to us and started to splash us all with water. We ran away giggling and screaming.

Goes by too fast.

My dad and I walk by the river with our bows until we find a good spot to start catching fish. As I raise my bow my father helps me get my form right.
"He's gonna come out from behind those big rocks," my dad whispers to me. As we spot the fish he whispers, "There he is." I release my bow and it strikes right into the fish. "There you go. Go get it!" My dad says a little louder now that we don't have to be quiet. "Yeah!" He cheers me on as I grab the fish and hold it up.
"Hey, Leyreya, the mighty fisherman," he cheers me on. "There you go. Good girl!" I smile up at him and he crouches down to my height when I bring the fish to him. "Wow. Wow, that's a big one."
"By the rocks," I say as my dad pulls the fish off of the arrow. "Right where you said."

Like a dream.

As Jake measures Lo'ak's height I ask, "How tall is he?"
"He's that tall," Jake says as he carves the knife into a wood beam.
"Can you measure me?" I ask Jake.
"Yeah," Jake smiles at me. "Stand right against this." He points to the beam. "Stand straight and be very tall." I stand on my tip toes trying to be taller than Lo'ak. "Not that tall" Jake chuckles. I get off my tiptoes, standing regularly again as Jake measures me. Lo'ak beats me by an inch and I pout.

Happiness is simple.

Like hanging out with my best friend.

Lo'ak and I fly out on our ikrans late at night, heading to our secret spot. We found it when we were little and we've gone there every day since. Using our ikrans just made it easier. We're sixteen now so we've been friends for years and we're inseparable. I laugh with joy from flying through the night sky. Flying has always made me feel so free, especially when I'm with Lo'ak. I smile over at him as he smiles back at me.

Time away from the chaos of the clan.

Our ikrans swoop around each other as we continue to fly out in the never-ending glow of the sky. We glide down waterfalls and fly through trees and branches until we finally make our way to our spot. It's a tree that has branches that curve outward leaving a platform in the middle of it for us to hang out. There's a perfect opening in the leaves to view the night sky and look at the stars. When we come here at night we often spend our time star gazing. As we lay there I lay my head on Lo'ak's chest and start to fall asleep.

But the thing about happiness...

But before I can finally fall asleep I feel Lo'ak sit up abruptly causing me to get up sleepily.

It can vanish in a heartbeat.

I look over at him seeing him look up at the sky. My gaze follows his and my eyes widen when I see what he's staring at.

A new star in the night.

It could only mean one thing.

Ships. Decelerating...

And Sky People returning.

Lo'ak quickly gets up, grabbing my hand and taking me along with him. We climb down the tree and make a run for it, booking it through the forest. Lo'ak never lets go of my hand as he continues to run trying to get us out of harms way. I look behind and see the forest blazing with fire and it quickly makes its way toward us. Our secret spot is long gone by now, being engulfed in flames.
"Lo'ak hurry!" I yell to him. We start to run and climb up the steep hill in front of us along with several animals also trying to escape the blazing hot flames. When we make it to the top of the hill we turn back to the forest to see most of it burning and covered in a layer of thick black smoke.
I start to break down and cry as Lo'ak comforts me. He is shocked and is still staring at the forest not able to pry his eyes away from it. As I fall to the ground, he falls with me still wrapping me in an embrace. I stare at our secret spot to see the wood of the tree burning. The trunk eventually cracks and falls to the ground with a thud.
"Reya, we have to go!" Lo'ak says quickly, "C'mon we have to go." He helps me up and we make our way to find the clan.