The Bond of The Forest - Lo'ak X Reader

Chapter 7

The ride on our Ikran's was long, Tuk rode with Neytiri; Neteyam, Jake and Kiri rode solo, and I hopped on with Lo'ak. It was a long and painful goodbye to Meelo, but I promised him I would be back home to see him one day.

I felt myself dozing off during the ride through the stormy sky. I was leaning my head on Lo'ak's surprisingly comfy back. I felt myself slipping when Lo'ak reached back and tapped my thigh to wake me up and gestured for me to hold on tighter.

'It's about to get really stormy so hold on Mai, Dad says we are nearly there though,' Lo'ak reassures me.

The wind was making it hard to hear so I squeeze his waist as a response.

Something I had noticed is Lo'ak and I seem to touch a lot, more than Neteyam and I do, but I still find it difficult to see if Lo'ak means it in a friend way or a more than friend way. He is a closed book and his eye rolls and cold attitude can sometimes make it difficult to see where I stand with him. I wish I knew.

The sun blinds us all as we land our Ikrans in the Metkayina village. Lo'ak grabs my waist and lifts me off helping me down. I smile down at him cutely for his sudden gentlemanly act. I see Neytiri glance over with a small smirk on her face. Blushing, I was embarrassed his mother had seen me give his son the heart eyes.

I watch curiously as the Reef people glide out of their waters gracefully. They began to circle us on the sand to get a better look at us.

They were light blue in colour, almost green. Their colours matched the water surrounding them beautifully. I scan their features noticing their huge tails and big arms that help them swim in the water. I feel so small in comparison to these Water Gods.

I must have physically retreated because Lo'ak looked back at me and grabs my hand giving me a reassuring squeeze. This earned a playful eyebrow raise from Neteyam to which I rolled my eyes back at and tried to focus on what their Ole'eyktan was saying to Jake.

There seemed to be some awkward tension between the Tsahik and Neytiri as I watch them glare and hiss at each other.

Two boys get closer to us, inspecting our bodies, making me extremely insecure, this only made Lo'ak pull me closer.

I feel a pull at my tail and I yelp towards the boys who are laughing and jeering at us.

'look at their tiny tails, how do they swim' I hear from one of the boys whose name I soon learn to be Ao'nung.

I feel my eyes pricking with tears at this unfamiliar environment but I know better than to be weak, I was about to step forward when Lo'ak steps before me letting out a mean hiss towards Ao'nung making him and the other boy recoil.

I look at him impressed, I never hear him hiss, the only time I did was when he was getting basically strangled and that was, well, pathetic. I didn't tell him that though of course.

'Watch it fish lips' Lo'ak sneers toward the boys whilst a beautiful girl slaps the boy behind the head in annoyance and says, 'Tsireya, nice to meet you' I smile at her warm welcome and was about to introduce myself when their Ole'eyktan booms down on us,
'Daughter, show them to their Mauri pod' Tsireya nods obediently and beckons us towards their village.

I wasn't listening to what the parents had been saying but I can only assume we've been given sanctuary.

'Isn't it beautiful' Tsireya gasped at our 'luxury' Mauri pod. Neytiri drops her duffel bag with a huge thud on the ground at what she saw around us. Tsireya mentioned something about seeing us for dinner before running off to her brother and friends to probably talk about us.

'Sully family meeting, now. Take a knee' Jake orders receiving a mumble of yes sirs from around the pod. I hesitate unknowing of what to do. Do I participate in this meeting? Will I be doing the wrong thing by assuming? My over thinking mindset gets the better of me as I watch everyone taking a knee around Jake. Neytiri looks up and me and smiles,

'Come on Mai.' I let out a sigh of relief and scuttle over to the circle taking a knee for the second time before them.

'Best behaviour, and I mean it' Jake glares at Lo'ak. 'You learn quick and you learn fast, you cause no issues and you make friends. You will not embarrass me and you will not be useless to this clan.' Jake orders sternly.

I notice he's glaring at Lo'ak who clearly feels awkward at his Dad aiming these sentences at him. He shuffles on his knee and lowers his head mumbling 'yes sir.'
We all nod in agreement and he dismisses us leaving us children to go and explore the reef. Tuk dives into the water yelling something about a cannonball, followed by Kiri, then myself, followed shortly by Neteyam and Lo'ak.

We swim around for a while our heads above the water paddling enjoying ourselves when the three kids from earlier approach us. Ao'nung, Tsireya and another boy. I could feel Lo'ak sticking close by me when he sees the boys in an almost protective manor.

They swim up to us, the boys with sneers on their faces.
'You'll never learn to swim, these aren't the trees, there's no monkey business round he-' Ao'nung was cut off by another slap from his sister.
'They've been here 5 minutes, they haven't learnt the way of water yet, we will teach you. Don't worry, won't we Roxto?'

The boy i have learned whose name is Roxto nods sheepishly at her whilst Ao'nung rolls his eyes and dives back into the water swimming away. What was his issue?

'Don't mind him' Tsireya grins, 'He is a skxawng, he's probably jealous of your beautiful colour, I love this shade of blue!' She exclaims at us with a beamed smile on her face. We smile sweetly back at her when we hear a horn from the distance.

'Well, that's dinner. I hope you like fish!' Tsireya dives back underwater before leaping out onto the shore and heading in the direction of the horn. We all look at each other and shrug.

I guess I could eat.