Me and the Devil | lo'ak sully

chapter 7: earn it

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Today was the day, Lo'ak was going to leave his home and seek refuge in a different clan on the other side of the planet. He was nervous. Not only for him, but for Na'veya too. She wasn't necessarily used to flying on ikran and now she had to fly for probably hours straight.

Lo'ak watched her as she was standing underneath the sparkling waterfall. She looked magnificent, running her hands down her wet hair. She was enjoying every second of it.

She loved bathing in water. There was something about it that made it so alluring to her. For instance, the water looked so soft. The droplets trickled down her body and she took in the feeling.

Na'veya glanced over to Lo'ak, smirking as he quickly turned his head away. 'You can join me if you want, there's enough room for the both of us.' Lo'ak's ears and tail flung up as he looked at her. 'I mean, if you don't mind—'

'No, I don't mind.' Lo'ak quickly spoke as he made his way over to her, gently stepping inside the pond and moving over to the waterfall Na'veya was under.

'You looked so sad there, waiting for me to be done.' Na'veya laughed. 'Might as well kill two syaksyuk with one stone.'

'Right.' Lo'ak responded, his eyes never leaving her face. She continued to clean herself but Lo'ak couldn't focus on anything. He slowly started to wash himself as well.

Na'veya turned around to meet his gaze, looking up at him. She grinned, tilting her head to the side. 'You have a little—' She pointed at a smudge of dirt on his face.

He frowned, trying to rub it off as quickly as he could.

'No, right here. Wait—' Na'veya laughed as he tried to get rid of it. She stepped a bit closer to him, his eyes widening and his eyebrows quirking up as she reached over to his cheek. She placed both her hand on his cheeks, rubbing the dirt off with her thumb. Their eyes lingered on one another for merely a few seconds, but it felt like decades. Na'veya cleared her throat. 'That should do it.' She slowly stepped away from under the waterfall, wringing her hair and loincloth out and jumping over to a large chunk of a log Lo'ak was sitting on earlier.

Her soft touch was all Lo'ak needed right now. He was a little stressed about leaving his home but she made it so much better.

'Oh right—' Lo'ak yelled before Na'veya flung her head around to see what he was doing. He almost forgot. He ran out of the pond and bolted away.

Na'veya jerked her head back as she frowned. That was weird.

When she heard ruffles in the bushes again, she looked at it with narrowed eyes. This could be someone coming to attack her. What if they found her. She was vulnerable here, they could easily kill her now. She jumped behind the log, saying close to the ground as she held her hand on the knife that was trapped to her thigh.

Once it was clear that it was Lo'ak coming sprinting back, she got up again. He had something in his hands, holding them behind his back. 'I have something for you. I made it myself. I thought you'll need it now.'

Na'veya walked closer to him, inspecting his hands as they slowly appeared from behind his back. Her gaze softened as she noticed it was an ionar— a rider's mask. 'Oh, Lo'ak.' She smiled, holding it in her hand. 'It's beautiful, thank you.'

It was black with hints of green just like her neckpiece, her neckpiece being the inspiration. Lo'ak smiled down at her. 'I thought it was useful for our journey today.'

Na'veya looked down, biting her lip as she smiled. 'You're right.'

Lo'ak smirked, stepping forward before putting his finger underneath her chin and tilting her head up. 'No thank you kiss?'

Her eyes met his as she noticed the playful smirk on his face. 'No.' Na'veya laughed as she inched even closer, Lo'ak didn't even know it was possible. Their lips almost touched. 'You need to earn something like that.' She softly spoke as Lo'ak could feel her hot breath on his lips.

There he was, standing there with his nervous eyes looking into hers. He wanted to make her nervous but she turned that around, Lo'ak being the one who's nervous right now.

She smiled as she noticed what kind of an affect she had on him before slowly stepping away again.

What was she doing to him?

'I have one other thing to give to you.' Lo'ak said as he handed her a large and oversized shawl. 'It's mine so it's probably a little too big for you but I can't predict the weather and it'll be a long journey so—'

'It's perfect, Lo'ak. Thank you'

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Na'veya watched from a distance as Lo'ak's family said goodbye to their clan. His father, who's face and name were so familiar to Na'veya yet she couldn't put her finger on it, gave his title away. His mother, the one who she'd remembered from the forest, was crying. Neteyam, Lo'ak's brother, walked right behind them with his head low. Lo'ak after that and his other siblings trailed after them as well. It felt terrible to watch them.

Lo'ak kept an eye out for Na'veya, making sure nobody would see her follow them. Her ikran was hidden on the other side of the cave. Lo'ak gave her a sign, looking her in the eye and slowly nodding so nobody could tell. She nodded back, stealthily running to her ikran and jumping on.

As she heard a cry, it was a sign that they'd left. She waited a few minutes before she rose from the ground. She followed them, keeping a long distance between them as she didn't want to be seen. Na'veya saw how everybody looked back as they left the forest.

Not only did they look back at their home, they looked back at all of the memories they made there.

And that made Na'veya realize something. She wasn't just following them. She actually followed Lo'ak without even thinking rationally. Na'veya hadn't put a single thought into this.

Na'veya was also leaving her history behind in all those trees, branches and leaves.

And for the first time in years, she was scared.