A true seer | Neteyam

16. The Sky People ruin everything

He pinched my hip with his finger and groaned, his hand ruffling his hair. "Well, you were bound to know, anyways," he let out a small, breathy laugh, "And I do think we'll go to the forest, age, have kids, have our kids have kids of their own..."

"Wow," I gasped, "For the Great Mother, you're already thinking about children." I hid my face in my hands and covered most of it. "So, how many do you want?"

"Two," Neteyam answered with no hesitation whatsoever.

"Two? Why?"

"One will be lonely and three are too many. Two is perfect."

We let the conversation die down as we were called for dinner. We quickly made our way out of the forest and into the common room. The indistinguishable small talk and the warmth of the many people there felt comforting, like home.

I sat with Tsireya, as always, while Neteyam went and sat next to Lo'ak in his family circle. I was glad to see Kiri there, looking fresh and in her usual mood. Jake stood out most, with a big smile and short waves of laughter that were rare to see. He was, more often than not, worried and tense. Even when we'd spend time together working on my shooting with the Sky People weapons. He hadn't left the past where it belonged, and it hurt him for a while. But now it seemed that he felt truly happy. Jake was holding Neytiri close to him by the waist and she was giving him small pieces of fish in his mouth. They had something I wanted to have with Neteyam.

Tsireya brought me back to reality with a wave of her hand. "Earth to, "she said, followed by my name.

"Oh, yes, absolutely," I answered, not knowing what she had said.

Tsireya looked at me with narrowed eyes. "So you do think you look better with a shaved head and purple skin?"

"What? Kehe!" I quickly denied it, scrunching my nose at the thought.

She didn't waste any time letting out a loud laugh, as Rotxo did. I should have known that she'd do something like that. It was always the nicest ones you'd never expect to make fun of you. I looked at her with a deadpan expression.

"Sorry, sorry. I just saw you weren't listening and I took my chance." She gave me an apologetic smile and her big, turquoise eyes did the same.

I nodded at her words and continued eating my dish in between her stories of how she taught the months-old babies of the clan how to hold their breaths. It had always been a dream of hers to become a teacher, but her blood called for something else. Ronal would only let her be Tsahìk. Tsireya, too, thought of that.

"I love seeing their little faces light up when they can hold their breath or whenever they see the baby ilus. I just... don't want to stop doing it." She said, her gaze locked on the wooden bowl in her hands.

There was nothing I could say. It wasn't easy to go against your mother's will, but it also wasn't pleasurable to do what she says when you don't want to. I simply grasped Tsireya's hand and squeezed it tightly. She smiled at me.

By the time dinner ended, I was already exhausted. I had done enough in the 12 hours I'd been awake for the day. Help Kiri, be with Neteyam, talk some bits to Atswon, be with Neteyam, talk to Lo'ak, be with Neteyam, have dinner with Tsireya and Rotxo... There were only two options to choose from to do for the rest of that night: sleep or spend even more time with the boy of my dreams.

Neteyam had decided for me as he patiently waited at the entrance of the room. He was arms crossed, his head tilted while looking at me, a grin on his face. When I approached him, Neteyam pecked me on the cheek.

"What was that for?" I tried hiding my smile as I asked him for an answer.

He shrugged. "Just because. You look pretty when I do it."

I ignored his words with a roll of my eyes. "What do you have planned?"

"I'd say it's a surprise, but you probably know by now. We'll fly around with Txil. My ikran, remember?"

The only thing I did remember was what we confessed. The way he said it'd only ever be me and no one else. I managed to half-nod at his words, still zoomed out in my thoughts.

Unlike the other night, this time I had the pleasure of seeing him call his ikran. He gave a guttural sound that echoed through the open of the night; it had been mere luck that it didn't wake up everyone in the village. It surprised me that I hadn't heard anything the last time.

Moments later Txil arrived. She licked Neteyam's hand and then pressed her head on my leg. Ikrans rarely showed any affection to anyone that was not its rider, but she did.

We took off in no time and the wafts of wind had the atmosphere just perfect. Neteyam and I spent the rest of the night in between flights and stops in some crags to let Txil rest. There was always something to love, laugh or yell about in each second, minute, and hour that we were together.

I got to see his face filled with awe at Pandora's reef nature. We could see nalutsas jumping for air, the water reacting by showing its bioluminescent dust-like particles, the glow of the fish and corals, the white tentacle plants, and the gill mantles' translucent bodies all colored neon orange. Even the air had the feeling of being magical —although it might as well have been only because I breathed in his scent all the journey. Neteyam smelt like worn leather, freshly cut grass, and dewy wood.

Our cue to return was when the sun began peeking over the horizon and turning the sky lighter. We landed on the shore furthest away from the people and Txil flew away. Neteyam and I giggled a little on the way to our pods, but our happiness and disconnection from the world got lost the moment we tiptoed closer to his mauri.

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Author's Note:

Hello! It's nice to come back after two days with a bunch of romance and a bitter ending. There's something I have to ask, but first, explain. I wrote this chapter so that the next one was Tonowari telling Jake that the Ta'unui village had been destroyed while looking for him, but then I realized it happened after the Tulkun returned to the reef. So, my question is, do you mind if I mess up the timeline a bit? There is really no other way that I can think of and I don't want to have to rewrite this chapter!

I have finally decided on the ending of the story, so just wait for about ten more updates (I think, maybe less or more)!

One more thing, thank you all because we reached 920 votes and 28k reads! You are all so wonderful. Imagine if we hit 1k votes with today's chapter...

Happy Sunday, cheers.

Sincerely, Dina.