Shooting Stars | Lo'ak¹

Chapter 04: Caught in a Web

"I'll tell Mom if you don't let me come," The little girl threatened, and Ja'lia smirked at her blackmailing tactics.

Lo'ak glared at his sister before he ultimately gave in; and told her that she was allowed to join the teenagers on their adventure.

Soon, Spider returned from letting Norm know that the Sully children, Ja'lia, and he would be gone for the day, and the group was off.

They jumped on the floating rocks and started their journey for the day. Lo'ak led the group, while Ja'lia stayed behind everyone to make sure that Tuk didn't fall behind. Sometimes Tuk would stop walking to look at a plant or to observe an animal because she didn't get to enjoy the forest as the older kids did.

Tuk was too young to explore the forest by herself. Unlike the teenagers she was with, sometimes even they weren't allowed to leave the campsite. It was unfair, really. The girl was so young, and she couldn't even roam freely because her parents were afraid that the Sky People would possibly kidnap her.

As Tuk stopped to look at a plant and giggled when it closed at her touch, Lo'ak yelled at her, "Tuk, keep up!"

"Why'd you bring her anyways?" Spider asked.

"She's such a crybaby," Lo'ak said before he started impersonating his little sister, "She's all - I'm telling. You're not supposed to go to the battlefield. I'll tell Mom if you don't let me come," Ja'lia quickened her pace to pull the boy's ear as she gave him a pointed look.

"Don't pick on her," Kiri defended, and Tuk stuck her tongue out at Lo'ak.

Lo'ak rolled his eyes as he turned around and continued to walk on the fallen trees. The group moved higher and higher as they noticed an abandoned Samson in a tree. Lo'ak climbed into the Samson, and Spider soon joined him.

"Are there any dead bodies up there?" Tuk yelled, and Ja'lia slowly walked up behind the youngest child.

"Boo!" She shouted, and Tuk screamed in fright.

"Lia, what'd you do that for?" Tuk whined, and the teen girl proudly smiled at Tuk. "Well, you asked if there were any dead bodies, so I was impersonating the ghost of one," Ja'lia said, and Tuk walked away from Ja'lia.

Ja'lia laughed lowly as she noticed the frown on Tuk's face. "Can I come up there?" Tuk asked.

"It's too dangerous, Tuk. Dad would kill me if you got hurt," Lo'ak responded.

"He'll kill you if he finds out where we're going," Ja'lia murmured.

"Did you say something, Lia?" Lo'ak asked, looking at his friend with furrowed eyebrows.

The girl shook her head as she looked around at the group and noticed that Kiri had disappeared, "Where's Kiri?" Ja'lia asked, and everyone stopped what they were doing to see if they saw her.

"I'll go look for her," Spider said, exiting the Samson.

Once Spider left the group, Lo'ak also got out of the foreign object and climbed back down to stand beside Ja'lia and Tuk. They all waited a couple of minutes before they left to find Kiri themselves.

When they stumbled upon Kiri and Spider, Kiri looked as if she had just been asleep. "Kiri!" Tuk yelled, running over to her older sister.

Tuk looked at all of the teens with a worried expression, "We have to get back," Tuk said, and Ja'lia glanced at her confused, before she realized that it would be eclipse in a couple of hours. Of course, they could probably get away with walking deeper into the forest, but Ja'lia didn't want to take any chances of not making it back in time.