Mighty Jewel | LO'AK + NETEYAM

chapter seven

Kyalayi wondered in the forest with her father. Her braided dried seaweed bag laid across her body. Marrek had a similar one which he had made a few years ago for their exploring's purpose. Marrek picked up a few samples from different plants, rocks and flowers on his way to where his daughter was leading them. Kyalayi stared around, searching for the marks she had left last night.

"There it is." Kyalayi yelled at her father who was farther down the forest. She heard footfalls approaching causing brushwood to crunch under her father's weight.

Marrek walked up to where his daughter pointed. He crouched in front of the hole, examining it closer. The man had been in this forest everyday for the past fifteen years and there never was a digged hole. Somebody had come and digged it. It was the only way to have placed the wooden spears at the bottom. Somebody had set this trap to kill whoever stumbled on it. Most likely, Marrek or Kyalayi. The girl observed her father, she didn't like his expression. Dark and silent. She noticed his chest rise and fall, each time more rapid. Marrek never panicked, he controlled his every reaction but imagining of what could be the after effect if Kyalayi had been the one to fall—and no one there to catch her—terrified him.

"Did you see anything before Lo'ak fell? Anything that could had set it off?" He finally turned to face his daughter, hiding his fright the best he could. But Kyalayi stared directly into his soul, reading his eyes like she could see through his gaze.

"No. Nothing. It's like," She paused looking for the right words to describe what she was thinking. "Like it appeared out of nowhere."

Kya's words echoed in her father's ears. A trap of this wingspan must had been carefully planned. Especially if it was outsiders.

"Return to the village. I'll take care of it." Marrek ordered to Kayalayi. At first, the girl didn't move. After what had happened, she was hesitant to leave her father alone in the forest. The girl knew how bright and aware his father was but there could be other traps set that he could stumbled on. "Go." Marrek insisted. He wouldn't risk his only daughter's safety more than it had already was. When the girl finally agreed to leave the forest, the man decided she would never come back in it and Kyalayi knew that. The girl made her way to the beach. She needed warm. Warm sand slipping through her fingers and toes. She zigzagged between villagers before arriving to it. She caressed the back of the few Ilus who were laying on the sand as she sat beside one of them. Kya observed the distant horizon, thinking about the Sully's. She wondered how Tuk felt and before she knew, the girl was knocking on the Sully's hut's wooden frame. Neytiri turned to the sound. The mother frowned at the girl, slowly remembering who she was.

"You're the one who saved my Tuk." She inhaled. "Come."

My father did, she thought. Kya tightened the leather strands around her wrists before entering the hut and following Neytiri to Tuk's side. The youngest Sully was still sound asleep as her mother caressed her cheek with the back of her hand. Kya found herself craving for a motherly touch. Something she never had and never will. Her father never liked to talk about her mother. He barely described her. To Kyalayi, her mother was a blurred face on a Na'vi body. A stranger.

"Is she getting better?" Kyalayi finally spoke up. Neytiri meeting the girl's eye, she smiled and softly nodded. "I'm sorry. I should have known Aonung would do this."

"Aonung? The chief's eldest?" Neytiri frowned, but her traits softened when Tuk woke up. Coughing and slowly opening her eyes. The mother exhaled all the stress that had been closing her throat since yesterday and held her youngest.

Kyalayi stood up and slowly stepped back.

"Don't blame yourself. You've been good to my Tuk," She exclaimed before Kyalayi could exit the hut. "And my boys."

The girl smiled at Neytiri and left. She walked on the path made of rope passing by the rest of the Sully children returning from another lesson. She wondered if Aonung had once again gave them a hard time. Head down, she played with the dangling leather band. She knew it was only a matter of time before she would have to face them but after yesterday, she struggled.

"What are you doing here?" Kiri asked to the girl, intrigued of her intentions in their family's hut. She didn't knew if she could trust the white haired girl, especially after her sister's poisoning.

"Hum." Kyalayi paused to look at the girl. "Tuk's awake." Kiri sprinted toward her new house as Neteyam stepped closer and put a hand on Kya's shoulder. She noticed her necklace around his wrist. It made her smile seeing he had kept it close to him.

"Thank you." Neteyam looked straight into her eyes. The tips of his fingers tingling under her skin like some kind of magnetic shock. Kyalayi sensed the same on her shoulder. She nodded to him as he ran toward the same way Kiri did a few seconds ago. Lo'ak approached the girl causing her to jerk back. He held his hand up in the air, meaning no harm to Kyalayi. She knew what he wanted to discuss but the girl didn't have the answers to his questions.

"My father is undoing the trap." She informed, trying to derive the subject. Lo'ak dropped his arms to his sides, interested. "He doesn't know who's behind it." She added. The Sully boy stared at Kyalayi, stunned. She had answered his question before he could even speak it aloud. Like she had red his mind. He blinked a few times before saying what he truly meant, the words burning on his lips.

"How did you got them?" He asked, referencing to her hidden scars.

"I've always had them." She said, making Lo'ak frowned in despair that someone would do this to a child. Sky people, he thought. "You can't tell anyone."

"Is that why you're always wearing the leather?" He softly grabbed her arm, rotating it to inspect further the fabric. Kyalayi nodded. The girl felt scared but a feeling inside her confirmed she could trust the forest boy. She didn't know what would happened if he told. Before the Sully, she firmly believed that five fingers meant danger, death. Sky People, like her father had told her. That's why she hid her hands. But now, with the newcomers, all of her beliefs turned into lies, misconceptions.

"You can't tell anyone." She repeated to Lo'ak the same way her father did to her when she was just a child. The boy smiled, trying to comfort her. Lo'ak gently put her arm back to her side and started walking to his family hut. "Lo'ak!" She insisted. He turned around, gestured the oel ngati kameie (I see you) and disappeared from the girl's vision. As Lo'ak entered, his lower body was submerged by a weight. He hugged Tuk tight, happy to see her healthy again. He watched from afar his family cook dinner, celebrating Tuk's life.

"What did the girl want?" Neteyam asked as he stood by his brother.

"Bro, I can't tell you."

"How can I protect you if you don't tell me anything. Lo'ak, you've got to—"

"I think she's a hybrid." Lo'ak blurted out, pressing his lips together now that he had revealed Kyalayi's secret. As if he hadn't just promised her the opposite. Neteyam stayed silent, too stunned to speak.