•~Not the only misfit~•

Chapter 9: A Break

It had been a week since I'd last talked to Tonowari. On the rare occasions I'd left my hut, it had been to pet my Ilu or train my Skimwing. I just couldn't stand the thought of facing all of my problems so I chose to deny everything that had happened.

Lucky for me, nobody had come to visit me yet so I was able to enjoy a week of solitude and relaxation. It was odd not having anything to do since I was always on a tight schedule, trying to provide for the village and all.

I was planning on talking to Lekaya about the promise at some point. Hopefully that point was in the very far future.

To my surprise, I was woken up by a knock outside my hut. As I opened my slightly puffed-up eyes, I noticed a familiar face. It was Neteyam's. I really didn't want to talk to anyone so I just turned away from the entrance and pulled the covers over my body. Neteyam obviously understood that I didn't want to talk to him but he ignored it and walked up to me anyway.

"Haven't seen you all week," he began, leaning against the pillar in the middle of the room.

"Same here, that's weird," I grumbled, turning to face Neteyam. It was worthless trying to prolong this inevitable encounter.

He smiled at me.

"Still got that sarcasm."

"Comes with the package."

"Tuk wants to see you."

"Don't they all?"

"Come on, you can't stay cooped up in here forever," said Neteyam, walking up to me. He pulled the covers off of me. "Let's go, we're gonna go for a ride."

"Screw you," I groaned, rubbing my eyes wearily. As much as I hated it, I was kind of glad he was making me do this. As much as I loved denying the shit out of my problems, it was time I faced them head on.

Neteyam just rolled his eyes and reached his hand out to help me sit up. I looked at him in a slightly annoyed way before taking his hand. He pulled me up with ease.

"Do you need me to walk you out the door?" he taunted, still holding my hand.
I rolled my eyes and pulled my hand away. Feeling a slight wave of overwhelmingness, I quickly thought of an excuse.

"I'm actually kind of hungry, how about we stay here and have breakfast?" I offered, gesturing towards my pot.

"Saw this coming," smirked Neteyam, "that's why I already made breakfast."

He handed me a sandwich and waited patiently for me to eat it. I quickly glanced at him before eating the sandwich excruciatingly slowly. I could tell I was pissing off Neteyam but I honestly didn't care. If this guy was a true friend, he'd understand and let me avoid my problems a little longer.

The moment I was done eating, the boy grabbed my wrist and dragged me behind him. Once I exited my hut, I was greeted with an applause. I looked down into the water to see Kiri, Lo'ak, Roxto and Tsireya clapping at my arrival.

"Long time no see," smirked Kiri. I chuckled, happy to see my friends. I couldn't help but notice that Aonung wasn't here.

Thank Eywa, I thought. I don't think I could deal with him right now.

I had slight anger issues. It was never something I couldn't keep under wraps though it would sometimes cause me to have small blow outs. I tried my best to keep my calm by taking deep breaths but those didn't always work. I was rather agressive as I child but as I grew older, I learnt to channel my anger into hunting. It was the only time I was allowed to kill things which in some form of way made me feel less defenceless. It was hard being the only forest Na'vi within a 250 mile radius so I wouldn't exactly say I felt extremely powerful.

Out of nowhere, a felt a gentle shove on my back and I fell straight into the water. I swam to the surface to see Neteyam smirking cheekily. I looked behind him to make him look away and then grabbed his ankle and pulled him into the ocean with me.

"Bro, she did you dirty!" laughed Lo'ak, mocking his brother. Neteyam rolled his eyes with his usual smirk and then called for an Ilu.

"You guys already bonded with your Ilus?" I asked.

"Yeah, they're not the best swimmers though," taunted Tsireya, adding a wink. I laughed and clicked for my Ilu. Grabbing the handle, I dove into the water, following Roxto and Kiri.

We swam through the colourfully populated reef. Tsireya and I were helping Neteyam and Lo'ak while Roxto hung out with Kiri. They seemed to have gotten pretty close over the week.

•~•

I was lying on my Ilu, my stomach pressed against it's neck as I watched everyone mess around under the water. We were still kids so of course we were going to mess around; we could only stay focused for so long. Tsireya dove out of the water and jumped over me on her Ilu. I shook my head with a smile and dove into the water to join the energetic girl.

Look who the cat dragged in, she signed, doing a little spin around me as I dived down.

A girl's gotta breath, I smirked.

Then I spotted Neteyam and swam up to him. He noticed me and smirked before swimming away.

I see how it is, I thought and sped up a bit to try and catch him.

He did a few simple manoeuvres though it was nothing hard enough to outmanoeuvre me. I grabbed his ankle and he looked back at me smiling.

I could tell he was finding it hard to hold his breath.

Go breath, I chuckled.

He looked at me confusedly.

Right, they don't understand our sign language, I thought.

I pointed up and he seemed to understand because he swam right up to the surface. We were shortly joined by Lo'ak and Tsireya.

"It was rather foolish of you to challenge me," I taunted Neteyam. "You were super easy to catch."

"Maybe I wanted you to catch me," he said, smirking.

"Get a room," teased Tsireya.

I laughed and rolled my eyes.

Roxto emerged from the water.

"Kiri told me to tell you guys that she'll see you two at home," he said to Lo'ak and Neteyam and the older brother nodded.

"I want to thank you guys for getting me out of my hut but I just remembered a thing I had to do," I smiled.

"Our pleasure," smiled Tsireya, swimming up to give me a hug. "Hopefully you'll be back tomorrow to help us train these skxawngs," she joked.

"You shall see," I smirked before diving into the water and heading towards the village.

Lekaya, you better be a reasonable skxawng.