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chapter nine. gentle touch. ━━━━━━━━━━━━
It was all peaceful.
Maleia sat atop of the rock, Lo'ak being sat right next to her. His proximity being so close, Maleia could feel the slight graze of his knee brushing against her own flesh.
The only noise breaking their silence was the sound of crashing waves and people from the village doing their daily tasks.
"Are you ready to start?" Maleia asked.
Lo'ak nodded his head in response.
Maleia pressed her hand onto his stomach to feel his breathing technique more thoroughly.
"Okay..." She began.
Lo'ak looked down at her small palm resting against the thin flat of his stomach.
He closed his eyes and looked up, relishing the feel of her gentle touch with a small he tried to disguise as concentration.
"Breathe in, do as my sister said, from within here," Maleia told Lo'ak.
He sucked in a breath of air, making sure to take it from his stomach instead of another place, and through his mouth, not nose.
"The way of water has no beginning and no end," Maleia began to tell Lo'ak.
He nodded his head, understanding her words.
"The sea is around you, and in you," She continued before allowing Lo'ak to breathe out.
He did so before sucking another breath in.
"The sea is your home," She opened her eyes to watch his actions, patting his stomach so he would stop breathing in more air.
He held it for a couple of seconds and Maleia spoke, "Before your birth, and after your death."
Then she tapped his stomach again, allowing Lo'ak to breathe the air out gently.
"Our hearts beat in the womb of the world," Maleia closed her eyes and relished in the words, remembering what her parents had taught her throughout her entire life.
Lo'ak opened his eyes.
He looked to his left, finding Maleia with her eyes closed, her hand still attached to his stomach.
"Our breath burns in the shadows of the deep," She told him.
Lo'ak soaked in her words.
Understanding the meaning behind the sea, how connected the Metkayina are to the blue liquid.
"The sea gives, and the sea takes," Maleia opened her eyes and looked to Lo'ak, noticing he wasn't practicing his breathing any longer.
She found him already staring at her.
Maleia let a soft chuckle escaped as their eyes locked, "Water connects all things."
"Life to death," She battered her eyelashes at him as her words come to an end, "Darkness to light."
Maleia smiles at Lo'ak.
His head nodded before her head turned back to the front, staring at the moving ocean.
"I think you are ready," She tells him.
Her hand moved to grab one of many seashells from her woven satchel.
Lo'ak stood before holding his hand out.
Maleia silently thanked him as she reached her hand out to take his, allowing him to pull her up.
They both jumped into the water.
Their hands still attached.
Lo'ak watched as Maleia threw the seashell far out, dropping deep into a section of the sea.
"Breathe in..." She told him, again.
Lo'ak following her every order.
He jumped into the ocean and began to swim down, thinking about nothing but saving the lasting air that he held in his lungs.
His hand reached out to grab the seashell before he swam his way back to the surface.
Maleia waited patiently, her head dipping under the water to figure out what Lo'ak was doing.
But, he was already swimming to the top.
He sucked in a sharp breath as he reached the air again, a smile on his face.
"I did it!" Lo'ak exclaimed, happily, as he held the seashell in his hand to show Maleia.
Her hand immediately lunged forwards to grab his, their hands connecting as the seashell dropped back into the ocean.
Lo'ak flicked his eyes up to meet hers.
She wasn't scared to touch his hand.
The hand that declared him a demon, a freak.
"I knew you could," Maleia told Lo'ak as she swam forwards to him.
He noticed their bodies had began to get close before feeling the kick of her legs against his.
He swallowed deeply.
Maleia allowing a smile to fill her face.
Lo'ak opened his mouth to speak but the shout of his name was heard, "Lo'ak!"
Maleia quickly swam from his body before he turned to find Neteyam waving him closer.
