Thanatophobia | Ao'nung

⋆˚✿˖°ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕡𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝟚𝟝⋆˚✿˖°

The next morning, Ni'la did her best to mentally prepare herself before racing off to find Ao'nung. If she was going to tell him how she felt, she needed to do it as quickly as possible because she didn't want to chicken out.

However, the longer she searched for Ao'nung, the more her determination started to dwindle.

It felt like she'd looked everywhere for him, but it was like he was hiding for her. Maybe she should just give up on looking for him. Maybe he was busy. But the weird part was that she hadn't seen Tsireya all morning either. As she continued to walk through the village, she squinted her eyes when she saw two teens pushing through the Metkayina people.

Ao'nung and Tsireya.

"Ao'nung!" Ni'la yelled, and once the two Metkayina teens saw the girl they picked up their pace, sprinting toward her. When Ni'la tried to speak, she was silenced as Ao'nung grabbed her wrist and started pulling her towards the ocean. "Ao'nung, what are you doing?" She asked, and the boy glanced at her as he continued to walk faster and faster until they were jogging.

"Your brother's going to bond with Payakan," The boy informed, causing Ni'la's eyes to widen.

"He's what?" Neteyam questioned as he approached the group. Once he was in front of the teens, he saw how Ao'nung was holding onto Ni'la's wrist, but he decided not to say anything about it.

"I saw Lo'ak sneaking off earlier, and I stopped him," Tsireya started to explain, "And he said that he wanted to find out why Payakan was an outcast. I told him the only way he'd be able to get the full story was if he bonded with Payakan," She finished.

"What's going on?" Rotxo asked, also approaching the group with confusion written all over his features.

"Why the hell would you tell him that?" Ni'la exclaimed, ignoring the Metkayina boy's question.

"I didn't think he would take me seriously. I'm sorry, Ni'la," She whispered, and before they knew it, they were in the water. Without hesitation, Ni'la ripped her wrist out of Ao'nung's grasp, ran into the water, and dove in calling an ilu once she was deep enough in the ocean.

As she urged her ilu to move faster, she saw Ao'nung at her side before going ahead of her to show her where to go. The other teens were right behind Ni'la, and as soon as they got closer to Three Brothers Rocks, Ao'nung swam off his ilus back, and the other teens followed his lead. They all swam through the underwater vines, and once they were close enough, they saw Lo'ak and Payakan swimming together.

After a couple of minutes, Payakan opened his mouth and Lo'ak started to swim inside. Something about this triggered something in Ni'la as she and Neteyam started to swim forward, only to be held back by Ao'nung and Tsireya. "What are you doing? I have to stop him," Ni'la signed, but Ao'nung ignored her.

They all waited, and waited, until finally, Payakan opened his mouth and Lo'ak swam out before they both moved to the surface. That's when Ni'la decided that she would go approach Lo'ak, so she ignored the others who had already started to swim away as she moved towards her little brother.

Once she was close enough, she broke the surface of the water and called out to her brother. "Lo'ak!" She yelled, and her brother looked at her with wide eyes. "Ni'la, what the hell are you doing here?" Lo'ak asked, helping his sister up onto Payakan's fin.

"Tsireya told me that you were going to bond with Payakan," Ni'la said, and Lo'ak looked down at his hands placed in his lap.

Lo'ak sat with his sister in silence before deciding to speak, "It wasn't his fault, you know. He never meant for anyone to get hurt." He whispered. Ni'la looked at her brother as she waited for him to continue speaking, "How much trouble do you think I'm going to be in?" Lo'ak questioned.