Responsability | sully oc x metkayina warrior

28) the Tulkun have returned!

Tyan'ore spent the next two days with her family, exploring the small forest in Awat'lu.

They spent the mornings teaching her about some sort of sign language Metkayina use for underwater communication.

But in the night when no one was awake, she would take them to their Ikran and they would all go for a night flight together.

The Ikran were getting lonely away from home, and they all  missed their soul siblings.

Of course, she patrolled the sky first to make sure none was awake, even convinced Neteyam to help her sneak them out while their parents were soundly asleep without making a sound and then back in right before dawn.

No one knew of their nighttime adventures except them... Well, Neytiri probably suspected, whether she knew for sure she didn't comment on it.

It always resulted in the five of them sleeping in, this time however, they awoke to someone yelling.

"Everybody! Our brothers and sisters have returned!"

She sat up, too groggy to process who it was but she guessed the person wasn't talking to her, so she curled up and went b to sleep.

Or at least attempted to, before Tuk decide to VIOLENTLY shake her awake, the way you would if there was a fire.

"TYANE! TYANE! WAKE UP! WAKE UP! WAKE UPPP!" Tuk screamed in her ear.

"Tuk, pleeeaasee let me sleep," She tried to plead but it seems little Tuk wasn't taking no for an answer as she started pulling her sister's arm to try to get her to get up.

"COME ON! YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS!" Tuk pulled with all her strength.

Which, admittedly, left Tyane unmoved but she knew her little sister well enough to know that she has enough willpower to keep nagging her and till she shows her whatever it is she wants.

"okay, okay, I'm coming" Tyane whined but got up and let her sister pull her outside.

"LOOK" Tuk said, her excitement practically pouring out of her.

Tyane Widened and she breathed out "What in Eywa's name are those?"

Mighty beasts, the size of four Ikrans, swam among them Metkayina, spraying water in the air and making twirls in the ocean water.

"They're called Tulkun" Someone said from below her

She looked down and found Kaltuk riding on an Ilu with his hand held out towards her

"Hop on" he said

She took his hand without hesitation and hopped behind him on the Ilu. Too mesmerized by the magnificent beasts in the distance to care.

Tuk had already left with Kiri and a curly haired Metkayina boy, The same one who was with Aonung on their first day here. Guess they're friends now.

"Hold on. Deep breath."

She did.

Kaltuk dived, instinctively she wrapped her hand tighter around his torso to not get thrown off by the waves and he kept a firm grip on her thigh, securing her in place.

They swam and swam till only stopping once they reached a tulkun with a familiar swirling tattoos on his face.

Kaltuk's eyes were brighter that the stars as he signed 'I see you' and rested his forehead against his tulkun.

She could've sworn she saw it's eye crinkle in a smile with a happy sound before it looked at her.

Tyane froze in place, mostly out of not knowing  what to do. So she waved, albeit awkwardly, the tulkun.

The tulkun looked between them then made another sound, which must have been comprehensible just not for her, since Kaltuk's eyes widen and he signed something too quick for her to catch.

He had only just started to teach her sign language, she was not nearly trained enough to read that fast that.

The Tulkun's eye drifted it to her again then looked her up and down as if assessing her

Mostly out of habit, she looked hi. up and down aswell.

The tulkun's eye widened and it made a laughter-like sound before looked from Tyane to Kaltuk pointedly.

The same way you would when trying to show your bestfriend somethung without the something knowing that you're taking about it.

Except in this case Tyane, aka Said something, already figured they were talking about her.

She doesn't usually mind the attention, After all she was trained to become olo'eyktan of the clan here every move were always under a microscope.

Not in this case tho, she wasn't intrested in intruding on a conversation she didn't understand so she poked Kaltuk's shoulder, interrupting his MSL (Metkayina sign language) rap competion, and pointed up.

She then signed her goodbye to his tulkun and swam up.

By the Time Tyane reached the surface she already had no idea of where she should go next.

At first, she wanted to check on Lo'ak but on the way up she saw him with Tsireya, Eywa bless her.

She also Kiri and Tuk with the curly haired boy who she assumed was Rotox

What surprised her the most though was when she saw Neteyam, who immediately looked away when he saw her, on the back of Aonung's ilu.

She made a mental note to interrogate them individually about that later.

Next to her, the water stirred as kaltuk came up next to her

"where did you go? I thought you just needed a breath"

She nodded "I did"

"then come back down" the water stirred again as his tulkun surfaced, before Kaltuk added, nodding to his tulkun "mōrehu prefers the deep"

~~~

30/4/2024

A/N: just discovered that the Metkayina are inspired by the Maōri. So new character, new name, new meaning.