His Hands. || 𝘼𝙤'𝙣𝙪𝙣𝙜

thirteen

Italics = thoughts or flashbacks
Bold = Metkayina sign language

I was in complete awe of the creature in front of me, he was so beautiful.

"Payakan, I brought my sister with me. I told you she'd understand!" He beamed as he sat on the tulkun's fin.

"You told him about me?" I asked as I sat beside Lo'ak on the tulkun's fin too.

He nodded, "I knew you'd be the one who would actually listen to me."

My heart ached at that, knowing he trusted me to actually listen to him. That was kind of my job as the oldest sister though, making sure my siblings all felt comfortable with trusting me.

As the oldest sister I was there to look after my siblings and comfort them, knowing that Lo'ak found comfort in me made me happy.

I gave him a warm smile in response and then I heard the tulkun make a noise, sort of like communicating I think. I looked at his eye, or eyes since he had multiple, and noticed he they looked at Lo'ak then at me.

I gave him a half smile as Lo'ak laughed awkwardly, "I've still got yet to learn what you just said buddy."

I laughed at Lo'ak, "I love that made you friends with him yet don't know what he's saying." I say sarcastically, which made Payakan do the tulkun equivalent of a laugh.

"Shut up.." Lo'ak mumbled and glared at me as I laughed along with the tulkun.

"Look! I just met him and I can already make him laugh." I grinned.

Lo'ak rolled his eyes, "Okay whatever. Payakan, do you want to swim with us?"

Payakan let out an excited noise which made us laugh happily. For the next few hours we swam with him, doing flips off his tail, riding him, and letting him fling us off his tail. It was so much fun and I've never seen Lo'ak be so happy ever since we left the forest.

I was grateful for Payakan, for him bringing out the real Lo'ak again. I'd do anything to make my siblings happy, anything to see that smile of theirs.

Both me and Lo'ak were currently laying on Payakan's back beside each other as we stared up at the sky. Eclipse was nearing, so the sky looked as beautiful as ever.

Apparently tulkun could sing, because I had jokingly asked Payakan to sing but he didn't realize I was joking. He actually started singing! And it was so beautiful, it made it even more calming for us as we stared up at the beautiful scenery above us.

"Should we go back? If I keep laying here while listening to Payakan I'll fall asleep." Lo'ak said.

I laughed at what he said which earned a giggle from him in return.

"We should, I'm kinda hungry." I respond as I sat up and stretched.

Lo'ak yawned as he say up too and slipped back into the water and sat on Payakan's fin again. He told him that we were leaving and that we'd visit him again tomorrow as I clucked for my ilu.

I decided to name her after Tuk, her name was Tirey. It was the other half of Tuk's full name. Payakan made a sad noise followed by a happy one when Lo'ak said we were going to be back tomorrow.

Lo'ak hopped onto my ilu behind me and I waved goodbye to Payakan before telling my ilu to swim forward, not bothering to dive in as I wanted to talk to Lo'ak about how fun today was.

Me and Lo'ak were lost in conversation about how we should learn the tulkun language in order to communicate with Payakan as we walked to shore from the shallow water.

We continued talking, but about random things now as we walked towards our pod. Eclipse has already taken place but we were already walking along the firm bouncy trail so it didn't really matter.