✘ : 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐬 | 𝐥. 𝐬𝐮𝐥𝐥𝐲 : ➞

08

𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙞𝙣 𝙢𝙮 𝙙𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙢𝙨,
𝙞 𝙨𝙚𝙚𝙢 𝙩𝙤 𝙗𝙚 𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙝𝙤𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙩.

—

"WAIT, SLOW DOWN!" I pant, finally giving up and stopping. I crouched over, resting my hands on my knees as I fought to catch my breath.

"What, you're giving up already?!" He calls, laughing as he does. Eventually, he slows down, and comes back toward me.

Kiri and Spider are not far behind, talking about something I can't hear.

"You good, human girl?" He snorts, seeing me hugging for air. I straighten, scoffing.

"You're like, a gazillion times taller than me, alright?Not to mention, I never really had time to get some exercise living in a lab, remember?" I frown, cocking my head to the side.

He makes a tch sound. "Sounds like excuses to me."

"Yeah, yeah, just don't get too cocky, blueberry." I scoff, pushing past him and knocking shoulders with him—well, my shoulder, his arm.

He follows me as I begin walking. "Where did blueberry come from?" He narrows his eyes, letting his hands find the back of his head where he interlocks them.

I blink. "Well, for starters, you're blue."

"Really? I didn't know that. Thanks for letting me know." He says in a sarcastic tone that I don't pick up on.

I stop, turning to him. "Wait, did you really not know?" I slant my head.

He blinks. "I'm being sarcastic."

"Oh." I say, "right."

I guess I don't have very much conversation skills.

We continue forward in silence. I don't mind it. I am used to silence, after all, and at least this silence is filled with the sounds of the forest and the ground crunching underneath my feet instead of my own thoughts.

Animals chirp in the distance, an insect flying past me so quickly I almost don't hear the buzz of its wings.

"Have you really never been outside before?" Lo'ak asks me. His hand pushed away a leaf, letting it slap back toward me with a snicker. My lips form a tight line, but I choose to ignore it, pushing past the leaf as well.

"No. Not ever." I shake my head, inhaling a deep breath of air. Even if through a filtered mask, this air was fresher than any air I'd ever breathed, and I appreciated it.

"Sheesh," he says, "I could never imagine that. My whole life is out here—I think I'd go insane if I was cooped up in a place like that all the time."

"I think I might have, once." I admit. He gives me a short look, before looking ahead again. "I mean, being so alone with my own thoughts drove me crazy, sometimes. I tried to fill it with hobbies, but now I learned everything I can and have nothing else to learn."

"Hm," he says, "I beg to differ. There's plenty you don't know. Especially in the forest. You know jack shit out here."

I scoff. "Not true," I mutter, "I've studied this planet my whole life. I know most things about your culture and your people."

"Psh. You don't know anything, human girl. I bet you wouldn't be able to answer any question I asked." His eyes never leave mine as he says this. I realize he is not paying attention to his surroundings, especially the tree about three feet in front of him.

I grin. "Try me." I say, "go on, ask me something."

He opens his mouth to speak, but before he can, he rams into the tree and falls within an instant.

"Ow!" He exclaims, touching his head which he knocked on the bark of the tree. He groaned as he realized he had fallen in mud, now smeared along his back.

I laughed, placing my hands on my hips. "You really are an idiot, aren't you?" I snicker.

"Are you okay?" Kiri says, crouching down next to him and placing a hand on his shoulder. He shrugs it off, hissing.

"I'm fine." He nearly growls, standing. He flicked his wrist, trying to get some of the mud off of his arm. Spider snorted behind him.

I turn my attention back to the forest, narrowing my eyes as I noticed something.

I gasp once I realize what they are.

"Ikran." I breathe in utter disbelief. They looked even more breathtaking in person.

Their skin held vibrant colours, unique patterns flowing along the body all the way from their head to the end of their tail.

Kiri begins walking toward them, and panic flushes through me. I grab her wrist, stopping her, and she looks to me in confusion.

"Are you trying to get yourself killed?" I whisper-scream, my eyes widening.

She gives a small chuckle, "they are our Ikran." She explains, gently taking her hand out of my grasp. "There is no need to worry."

"You have your own Ikran?" I gape. "That's awesome!"

"Yeah. Pretty sick, huh?" Lo'ak says as he walks past me, toward what I presume to be his Ikran.

His Ikran is a pale shade of blue, brown splotches of colour along its neck and its wings having tones of green and purple alongside the brown.

His Ikran matches him, I think. Same with Kiri's. Not only their looks, but their personalities.

As Kiri approaches hers, the Ikran leans its head down and allows her to brush her head. The Ikran closes it's eyes, nuzzling it's head into her hand.

As Lo'ak approaches his, the Ikran doesn't seem to really do anything and just stands there, shuffling it's wings. His head is held high, just like Lo'ak's always is.

I wonder how my Ikran would be—if I ever were to get one, which I obviously won't—would it be kind, and gentle like Kiri's? Or would it be poised, and confident like Lo'ak's?

Lo'ak lifts his leg over the Ikran, situating on the saddle beneath him. Then, he gestures with his fingers for me to move toward him. I look to my left and right, before realizing he was gesturing to me.

He gives me a blank stare that says "of course I was looking at you, idiot."

Hesitantly, I move forward, my heart racing as I approach the beast in-front of me. As I get closer, the  Ikran huffs out of its nostrils, eyeing me over like it's next meal.

Lo'ak brushes a hand along his neck, muttering— "mawey," under his breath. I'm not sure what it means, but I want to know. Maybe it is his Ikran's name?

I'll ask him later.

I let out a sharp exhale as I step beside the banshee. It's large—larger than what I initially presumed it to be.

Lo'ak lends out a hand to me,

"Wanna go for a ride?"

.
.
.

translations
— mawey : calm

a/n

hey hey! scotia here. recently, i've noticed that posting every other / every single day has been draining me and causing me some anxiety. the reason i stopped writing for a while was because i didn't want this stress on myself, and lately i've noticed that this system of overworking myself is starting back up.

to fix this, i am changing my schedule. i will only be posting once or twice a week on sunday or wednesday.

i hope you understand that this is merely for my own health, and i hope you are able to have some patience with me :)

love you lots, scotia x