Thanatophobia | Ao'nung

⋆˚✿˖°ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕡𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝟞⋆˚✿˖°

Ni'la yawned as she felt the sweat dripping down her body. It seemed the further away they got from home, the thicker and hotter the air became. And if the girl were being honest, it made her feel the desperate need to clean herself up, but the warm sun also made her tired.

She felt conflicted because, on the one hand, she wanted to go to sleep, but on the other hand, Ni'la would never lay on her bed as disgusting as she was. She and her family had been flying nonstop for what felt like years, and everyone knew that if they didn't get to their destination soon, someone would probably crash.

That someone would most likely be Ni'la or Neteyam as the two had stayed up later than the rest of the family on their last night at home. However, Neteyam was better at hiding his exhaustion than his sister was, as he glanced over to see her yawn for what had to be the sixth time in five minutes.

His attention then turned to Tuk, who had been whining for the past hour, asking if they were going to be there soon. Tuk was a nightmare to deal with when she didn't sleep much, but surprisingly she had done well on their journey so far, but Neteyam knew it was only a matter of time before she got upset from her lack of sleep.

The sun felt like it was burning their skin as none of them had ever experienced such heat before. Of course, there were warm days in the Omatikaya clan, but they had trees for shade. They rarely ever willingly went off into the sun, unless they were flying on their ikrans.

But before any of them could complain, they were soon flying over rock terraces, and they looked down to see the reef people pointing up at them in curiosity. The entire family followed Jake's lead as they heard a horn being blown to make their presence known to everyone in the clan.

Jake circled around before finding a big enough area on the beach where he and his family could land their ikrans. The father was the first one to land, and soon the rest of the family followed, instantly hopping off of their companions. Ni'la hissed at the feel of the sand against her feet, but once she saw the Metkayina people walking towards her, she morphed her face into a neutral expression.

She walked over to stand by her sister's side and watched as the Metkayina people whispered, stared, and pointed at all of them. The twin girls pressed themselves up beside each other, wrapping their arms over their bodies because they didn't like the way the Metkayina people looked them up and down.

One might think they were used to all the harsh glances or unforgivable words, but they were teenage girls, and they didn't fully comprehend why people couldn't be kind to them.

Kiri and Ni'la were always respectful to everyone, for the most part, but when Ni'la glanced at her sister from the corner of her eye, she knew that Kiri wasn't in the mood to deal with all of these people.

Suddenly, two boys came pushing through the crowd and Ni'la greeted them the way she had been taught to since she was a little girl, but neither of the boys returned her greeting. A small scoff escaped past her lips as she looked both of them up and down. The shorter one had to be younger than her, and the taller one... Well, he looked like a total asshole. She could already tell that she wasn't going to like him.

Especially with that annoying smirk that had made its' way to his face when he saw her staring at him.

However, before Ni'la could snap at him and tell him it was rude to stare, Jake spoke lowly to his children. "Easy," He said. "Just be cool."

The four teens took a deep breath to calm themselves down. They understood they were outsiders, but to not return a greeting was seen as disrespectful, no matter the circumstance. Ni'la glared at the taller boy as he continued to look her up and down, inspecting her. Once his eyes met hers, his slightly widened as he didn't expect her to already be looking at him. But his attention was pulled from the beautiful Omatikaya girl at his friend's words, "Look," The short one said. "What is that?" He pointed at Neteyam's tail, causing the taller boy to smirk.