Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
chapter twenty. i see you.
━━━━━━━━━━━━
"Lo'ak..."
It broke the silence around him.
His mind went into a spiral. After getting a berating from his father, he didn't know what to think anymore.
How could everything he do be so wrong to everybody else almost all of the time? He never did anything right. Everything he did was wrong.
Nothing Lo'ak could do would make him father happy. Even with his extent training at learning to become one with the ocean, that somehow didn't make his father happy.
Maleia reached forwards and placed her hand onto his shoulder.
A gentle touch.
One that startled him out of his trance before turning around and seeing her.
The one person that believed him.
The one person that made him feel like what he does is right. Everything fell correctly with them.
Maleia knew her mother would be upset if she saw them together.
Lo'ak was too distracting for her. Plus, he wasn't even full Na'vi. That is what worried her the most, of course.
But, right now, Maleia didn't care.
Lo'ak didn't say another word, not even another breath, before wrapping his arms around Maleia's waist and pulling her in close for a hug.
Maleia sighed in relief before wrapping her arms around him also.
Even her touch felt so right.
Their moment was silent, only the sound of the ocean brushing against each other could be heard.
She could feel water drip onto her back, which could only be tears.
Maleia pulled back as she watched Lo'ak hide his face from her, trying to hide the fact he was crying.
Maleia only reached her hand forwards and placed it onto his cheek, bringing his face up to reveal the true emotion he had hidden on his face.
"You can cry around me..." She whispered to him.
He knew that.
She would always be thankful for him just being himself.
His lips kissed the palm of her hand before she smiled at him. "How did it go with your father?" Maleia asked.
Lo'ak sighed before bringing her next to him, letting her lean her head onto his shoulder as he placed with a strand of her curls.
"The same as it always does," Lo'ak shrugged his shoulders, "Me always getting that same disappointed talk."
Maleia frowned at the sentence.
"It is not fair..." Maleia replied to him.
She saw how hard Lo'ak tried. How much dedication he put in to protecting his family, trying to make his father proud of him.
But, they didn't see that.
They only saw the bad side of it.
"Lo'ak..." Maleia whispered.
She lifted her head off his shoulder and turned around to face him.
Her hand reached for his before she admired the finger that seemed strange to others but normal to her.
Lo'ak watched as she wrapped her hand around that finger, bringing it to her heart before saying those words.
"I see you..."
She didn't care what her mother would think if she found them.
Or what anybody would think.
Lo'ak's ears moved against his face and his whole gaze softened as he looked down at her innocent face.
He moved his eyes around her face before allowing himself to smile.
"I see you," He responded.
That morning they woke up with the waves crashing against their face and droplets falling from the sky.
The usual sunny weather turned into one of a storm.
Lo'ak had has arm wrapped around her waist but the shouting of her Metkayina's could be heard. Maleia spun her head around to see them all circling around in one area.
"Wake up, come on, come with," Maleia shoved Lo'ak to wake up.
His hand held onto hers as they made their way through the crowd.
"My Spirit Sister, and her baby, have been murdered by the Sky people!" Ronal explained to them all.
Villagers surrounded them exclaimed with anger to her declaration.
Maleia gasped at the sound of it.
"This war has come to us! We knew about this hunting of our Tulkun people. But it was over the horizon, far away. Now, it is here!" Tonowari exclaimed before everyone copied.
Jake shook his head to their reaction.
"You gotta understand how the Sky people think. They don't care about the Great Balance," He explained.
Maleia looked up at Lo'ak and he nodded his head, pulling her closer towards his side.
She couldn't even imagine the pain her mother was going through.
She'd be a mess if she ever lost Taio.
"The Sky people are not gonna stop. This is only the beginning. You gotta tell your Tulkun to leave. You gotta tell them to go far away!" Jake said.
Ronal jumped forwards after hearing his words, "Leave? You live among us, and you learn nothing."
"We will fight to protect our brothers and sisters!"
The whole clan stuck by the words.
Maleia looked up Lo'ak, him seeing how terrified she was just by the expression in her eyes.
"If you attack, if you fight, they will destroy you! They will destroy everything that you love..." Jake explained, wanting to get his words out to the people surrounding them.
Something beeped in the crowd.
Jake stood and held something human in his hands, showing them all.
"You tell the Tulkun that if they're hit by one of these... They're marked for death. And, call for me, I'll silence it. Saving their lives, that's all that matters. Right? Saving your family," Jake said to them all.
The clan was quiet listening to him.
Maleia didn't take another second when finding Taio and telling her about the contraption from the humans. Taio understood, and left.
That was when she heard arguing.
Maleia saw Lo'ak fixing up and ilu when Neteyam decided to join him.
"He's going to Payakan!" Neteyam announced with a slap against Ao'nung's chest.
