"they got our kids. your daughter. tuk, lo'ak."
vicious hisses came from both tonowari and ronal as jake told us who was on the ship. my lip curled in a murderous snarl, determined to rescue the kids and kill every single being on that metal abomination. a crackle then sounded through the earpiece of the comms i was wearing, and a deeper voice spoke through it. "jake. tell your friends to stand down. you want your kids back? you come out alone." there was a pause in the words then another crackle. "you know better than to test my resolve. i could see there was movement on the front deck of the ship.
i squinted hard and saw the na'vi on board holding a gun up them pointing it to what looked to be one of the kids' heads. either neteyam and lo'ak. i looked to jake and could see he was struggling. he was looking though the eyepiece on his gun, and gave a half hiss, half sigh. then the voice started speaking again. "i took you under my wing, jake. you betrayed me. you killed your own, good men, good women. i will not hesitate to execute your kid." jake was in real distress now. i had murder coursing through my veins, but understood we couldn't rush in there or one of the boys would get shot.
"just wait one." jake forced out, trying to by time. he took a deep sigh and looked around, to tonowari, ronal, back at the sea of metkayina behind us, and lastly at me. a pained look was evident on his face as he told us to "hold here." tonowari stopped him with his spear. "they are killers of tulkun. they must die, here. today." "it's me that they want, that's what all this has been about, all right? the hunting of our tulkun, the taking of our kids." there was a split second of silence then ronal's desperate voice. "you brought this upon us. you!" i watched on as jake looked down in sorrow. "then it's me that has to do this."
i grabbed his hand before he could slip away. "jake.." he looked into my eyes and gave a pained smile. "take care of them for me." i knew he meant his kids, if he died. but i didn't want to believe that he would. even then, i gave him a reassured nod as he floated towards the demon ship. "offers fixing to expire. what's it gonna be?" the voice came through the comms again, and jake was ready. "check your fire. i'm coming out." we all watched as he got closer to death. then, out of nowhere, a tulkun leapt out of the water, making a giant wave, and landing on the ship. payakan. instantly, i was on my tsurak and bellowing a war cry.
everyone followed suit, jake let out a mighty roar, and we took off towards the ship. payakan had managed to cause destruction on the ship, killing multiple humans and one of the fake na'vi. he had caught the attention of all the demons, hence our sudden attack. he slipped into the water before anyone else could shoot at him and left the rest up to us. bullets started raining towards our warriors so we dove under the surface of the water, in an attempt to avoid the fire. there was a few smaller ships in the air, so i leapt out and threw an arrow at them, piercing the human in the heart, before diving back underwater. several smaller boats had gone up in flames, and it was already looking bad for the demons. the fake na'vi had gone atop their ikran and were circling the air, attempting to fight back.
i was flying around the side of the demon ship, shooting my arrows at any human i could see when one of the na'vi came out of nowhere and starting firing bullets at me. i yelped out in surprise and dove under water, only coming up to check if he'd gone. he hadn't, and his fire came raining back down around me. then jake circled the side and fired at the enemy and i was able to get out of there. i dove underwater and made my way to the ship which had been set on fire from another boat being flung into its propellers.
it finally came to a stop after crashing into rocks, but started taking on water, very slowly sinking. the humans would be flushed out by the water and they would die. i spotted the three kids aboard the ship and dove down before speeding up to jump on the ship. my tsurak fell back down to the ocean below and swam off, while i pulled my dagger from behind me to cut off the kids' cuffs. "ayla!" tuk was more than happy to see me. i cut tsireya's cuffs and tuk's before telling them to get off the ship and far away. i moved to lo'ak, then went to leave, but the kid grabbed a gun. "they've got spider, the human kid. i can't leave him. please ayla?"
i knew it was dangerous, but this kid was jake adopted son. i couldn't leave him here. even when i haven't met him. "okay, lead the way. but give me the gun." i held out my hand and he begrudgingly handed it over. we ran into the ship and i followed lo'ak through many twists and turns before we crouched over a group of humans walking. i peered down and spotted the kid, spider, amongst the taller demons. lo'ak looked at me and nodded and we both jumped down and knocked them out, i even shot one. spider was shocked but recovered quickly. "thanks guys." he looked me over in slight confusion but was grateful nonetheless.
lo'ak spotted his expression and introduced me. "this is ayla, dads new mate." i offered my respect by gesturing i see you towards the kid. he returned the favour and spoke, "nice to meet you." i smiled down at him then lo'ak told us we needed to hurry up. we both followed him towards the exit but we're spotted by two of those fake na'vi that were still onboard. they both had guns and both shot at us. i pulled the two boys behind a wall, and blocked them with my body. my only priority was to keep jake's kids safe. lo'ak grabbed for the gun but i kept it away from him, looking back to see his pouty face on.
it made me smile but only for a split second as i returned to aiming at the intrusion. i fired some rounds, managing to hit one of the na'vi, but the other was still actively shooting. "go, go, go!" the boys leap out from behind me, jumping into the pool of water below. i was still stuck shooting at the na'vi, waiting for the best gap to jump in. there was a pause in the fire so i ran forward and jumped down, but there was a sharp pain below my shoulder and i crashed down into the water. the two boys were waiting at the bottom for me and i resurfaced, but struggled to stay afloat. they swam over to me, tsireya showing up just in time. "come on, ayla. hop on!" lo'ak urged me over, but i was barley above the surface of the water.
".. can't. 'm shot."
