MΛ'ƬIЯI | ΛVΛƬΛЯ

Ta'la

So that the sky people could never harm them.

Te'rani spent some nights holding onto Neytiri as if she'd leave the second she let go. And Neytiri would just lay with her, praying that she never did.

This wasn't easy for either of them.

Tonowari had talked to the Village Elders himself one day, in hopes that they had changed their decision about the banishment of the omatikayan family.

But their decision never wavered.

"Think about your daughter"

"Do you want her to grow up in a village that's not safe? In an ocean where the sky people roam?" They would say.

A week turned into two, and then three, till Ta'la was a month old.

Neytiri and her family would have to leave.

"I will go with her." Te'rani stated.

Ronal just stared at her, while Ta'la was safely placed around her chest, playing with her bead necklace.

She was not going to have this fight with her. Not again. Truth be told, Ronal was confused herself. She didn't know what to do. Correction- she did know what had to happen, she just didn't want it to.

"Then Eywa says you have to go with her..." she spoke slowly.

Te'rani didn't move a muscle. She stayed as she was, at the entrance of the marui, staring at her sister.

Ronal was quiet. But she was never quiet.

Te'rani waited patiently. Perhaps there was some angry insult boiling beneath her. Some frustration that Ronal had to get out. Something. Anything.

But she just sat there, leaving her knife on the ground and ignoring the half-cut fish below her.

She closed her eyes.

Te'rani grew upset. Her lips formed a frown and her sight was blurred by tears.

"Don't you understand? I love these people" her voice cracked as a tear escaped from her eye.

"I love her"

"I want to fight for her. I want to fight for her family. But mine-" she stopped to rub away her tears.

Her breath was uneven, hitching at every inhale. She hated what was happening. She hated the conflict.

"But my family won't let me?" She used both hands to wipe the tears on her face.

Ronal let a tear escape from her eyes when she closed them. Ta'la cooed while curling her fingers around her mother's chest.

"Ronal, I don't want to do this" Te'rani's lip quivered.

"I love you, so much" she stated, trying to calm herself. "I don't know what to do" she spoke whatever thought came to her.

Ronal didn't say anything. She just stared at Ta'la's head, pursing her lips and listening as tears flowed down her face.

"I won't go if you don't want me to" Te'rani muffled. It was a choice she couldn't make herself. Te'rani didn't know what to do. And at times like this, she'd look to her sister -who also was like a mother to her - for help.