Unity

Chapter 12: 1 hour

"Nothing, just a glowing tree sir." Neteyam looked him directly in the eye to try and reduce suspicion.

"Don't lie to me son. Is this a tree of Eywa."

"...the heart." Neytiri said in realisation, "This is the heart of Eywa, where all trees are connected, her greatest power source is here in this cave."

"Yeah and our son is lying in it hiding a girl behind him." Jake grimaced, "Move Neteyam, move out of the way." He knew what was coming, wanting to get the reveal over and done with.

Neteyam held the burning stare of his dad, clenching his jaw before moving to one side, revealing their still connected queues.

Jake scoffed, kissing his teeth and dragging his hands down his face.

"I told you..."

"It had been 2 months! We can't just live in fear and never mate!"

"But right in the middle of war, when the Skypeople are mere kilometres away! Goddammit Neteyam THINK, WHEN DID YOU STOP THINKING?"

"YOU MEAN WHEN DID I STOP OBEYING. This is the life I have chosen for myself, this is the life Kolanan chose for herself, I understand you're scared for me dad, but we learnt last time, running away from our problems, living in fear of what could happen, that is when things are most dangerous. Not being mated was physically hurting us, and if you can't accept that...we can leave, far away so we don't draw any more attention to our clans and to Pandora, we'll hide ourselves away and keep a low profile, we won't bother you or ask anything of you, we'll deal with consequences ourselves, together." Neteyam looked at Kolanan gently smiling as he held the hand that was previously resting on his shoulder in comfort.

Jake's heart broke at his son's words, he just got him back, he can't lose him again.

It broke even more when he looked at his family, even Lo'ak was on the verge of tears, his eyes begging his father not to punish the two lovers anymore.

He was hurting his son, pushing him away, and for what? There was no protecting him if he left, and there was no stopping him if Neteyam wanted to leave.

"No Neteyam just...we'll talk about this later, we came to look for the two of you because a man hunt is going on for Kolanan and the boy she's disappeared with. Her betrothed isn't too happy and wants your head." He pointed at his son.

"Luckily we saw your tracks in the mud before anyone else and covered them up whilst we followed them to this place." Kiri informed them

"How did Matembo find out we were gone anyways?" Kolanan asked, eyebrows furrowed in concern.

"He was looking for you for whatever reason, he asked Tuk where you were and Tuk told him you were at your house like you always were around this time." Neytiri said, "When you didn't reply he broke in looking for you and now he has figured out you and Neteyam might be getting a bit closer than he'd like."

Neteyam scoffed, " A bit? We're mated before Eywa now, not even he can do anything about that."

"I think you'll find that he's gonna try his best." Jake sighed, wincing at the official statement of their mating, "Come on, we need to go, say we found you in the woods and you two can think of an excuse of why you were in the woods this late at night."

The couple nodded, getting up and quickly wading out of the water.

Kolanan was clearly deep in thought, she was stressing big time, Neteyam saw that familiar look and took her into his arms, laying a quick but meaningful kiss on her lips, "We will be ok my love, no matter what happens."