Deep Water | Neteyam

21.

Khalo

Khalo looked at Kiri, and Kiri looked at him. They looked at each other. They both knew something bad had just happened. They both felt it. Kiri whispered to Khalo, not wanting Tuk to hear it. "I'm not feeling Eywa. She is not with us. Not right now."

Khalo kept looking at her. Feeling shocked that she could feel Eywa, but scared that apparently she wasn't with them right now.

"She will be with us. She will. Maybe she needs to focus on something else right now." Khalo said, his voice higher than usual.

"We just need to stay together. That's all that matters." Khalo calmly said, even though he felt everything but calm. "We are going to get out of here; we are going to get help."

Kiri now nodded. "Khalo's right. It made no sense what I said. I'm sorry I didn't want to scare you." She mumbled to herself, trying desperatly to calm herself down.

Khalo took a deep breath before he looked around once more.
Quarricht stood not far away from them; they could hear what he was saying.
He seemed to be the center of attention, giving orders around, and everyone was doing what he was saying. Only interrupted by a man rushing directly to him.

The man whispered into Quarritch's ear; Khalo didn't hear what he had said, and he knew the man only whispered so the real Na'vi couldn't hear. For Khalo, it was irrelevant, since he only understood a few single words of what was said, since his English was not very good.

But it still confused him; all of them didn't care for the whole time, if the Na'vi could hear them, but now it was important to whisper? It didn't make any sense to him.

He shot a glance at Kiri, who seemed to think the same, also looking at him briefly, before she turned to Tuk, whispering to her.

That's when Quarricth suddenly spoke louder than before, not in the same way as if he were talking to his squad, more in a way of it just being important.

Khalo couldn't explain it.

"Can you hear me, Corperal?" Khalo tried to get as close to Kiri as the cuffs allowed him too.

"Yeah, yeah, I think you can." Quarritch turned his head towards them. Smirk on his face.

"I got your daughters and another boy." Quarricth turned away again, looking at the sea. He could still see a smile on his face.

Khalo now, for sure, knew who he was talking too. He had guessed it before, but wasn't quite sure.
What made him uneasier than he already was, was the fact that Quarritch seemed to use him, Kiri, and Tuk as a weapon or a threat against Jake.

"Same deal as before." Quarritch smile left his, as Khalo thought, ugly face. "You for them."

Tuk tried to get rid of the cuffs, Kiri trying to help, and Khalo just looked at the guy with this weapon in his hands that was definitely not from here.

'What is he wearing on his face? It looks dumb', he thought to himself, judging the man in front of him who wore, unknown to him, sunglasses.

Then Quarritch went quiet, and Khalo wondered if Jake was saying something. He could only see and hear Quarritch's side of the conversation, and together with his lack of skill in English, it made it very hard to understand what exactly was going on.

Suddenly, Quarricht left, and with him almost all the others.

Khalo was now sure that they were dumb.
Because why else should they all get called to them, then have a short talk with Jake, and then just leave again? That wasn't a smart choice to make at war.