Shooting Stars | Lo'ak¹

Chapter 04: Caught in a Web

Spider held out his hand and helped to pull Kiri onto her feet. The group started heading back to the campsite as they jumped over fallen tree branches or walked on them until suddenly Lo'ak stopped and bent down. Spider jumped off of the branch that he had been kneeling on to lean beside Lo'ak.

"What is it?" Kiri asked, and Ja'lia tried to peek over their shoulders to see what had caused them to stop. Kiri stepped to the side as she went to stand beside Spider, and Ja'lia stood beside Lo'ak.

"We're always supposed to be back before eclipse," Tuk warned, and Ja'lia looked back at her.

"Don't worry, Tuk. We'll be back before eclipse," Ja'lia assured, and this seemed to ease the girl's worry slightly. The teen girl then turned her attention back to the footprint that Lo'ak had spotted. "That's way too big to be human," Lo'ak said, looking around.

"Avatars?" Spider suggested.

"Maybe," Lo'ak paused, "But they're for sure not ours," He said, standing up to follow the tracks.

"Lo'ak! What the hell are you doing?" Ja'lia hissed, and the boy waved his hand at her dismissively. She gaped at him as the group continued to follow the boy who was going to get all of them into some serious trouble.

As they continued to walk, Ja'lia knew exactly where they were heading. She had been here only one other time, and that's when her father brought her there to tell her stories of the first battle.

Her father's words echoed through her head, "Don't ever come here without me, got it?"

Then her response followed, "Yes, Daddy. I promise."

However, this time Ja'lia only had one of two options. Either stay with Lo'ak and risk getting killed or abandon Lo'ak and risk him never speaking to her again. To Ja'lia, it was honestly a no-brainer. Of course, she would follow Lo'ak. The second option wasn't much of one, to begin with.

Ja'lia would always choose Lo'ak.

"We are never supposed to come here," Kiri warned. Ja'lia looked at Lo'ak and wondered what exactly was going on in that thick head of his. In the distance, she could see approximately six Avatars, and they smelled like trouble.

Still, Lo'ak and Spider continued to close their distance from the Avatars, and Kiri, Ja'lia, and Tuk hesitantly followed to two boys. Once they got close enough, Lo'ak stopped walking and peered through the tree branches to get a closer look.

"Dad is going to ground you," Kiri said.

"And I'm going to kill you," Ja'lia mumbled.

Lo'ak shushed the two girls before looking at his sister, then Ja'lia, "Can you two stop?" He asked.

"For life," Kiri finished.

"Bro, we have got to check this out," Lo'ak said, nudging his head in the direction of the Avatars. Lo'ak and Spider continued to inch closer to the enemy as Ja'lia shot daggers into her friend's back. Jake was going to kill Lo'ak, and then Ja'lia was going to bring him back to life just to kill him again for the mess he was going to place them in.

"Bro," Spider said, speaking to Lo'ak, "That's where your dad-," He pointed to Lo'ak, "and my Dad," Spider paused so that Lo'ak's full attention could be on him, "Fought," He finished.

"That's your Dad's actual suit," Lo'ak said as he pointed to the massive hunk of metal that was rusted and covered in plants.

"Holy shit," Spider chuckled.

Ja'lia walked over and gave Kiri a look before she leaned against Lo'ak, "Call it in," She demanded, and Lo'ak looked at her in hesitation.

"Call it in, Lo'ak, or so help me-" Ja'lia started, but Lo'ak interrupted her, "Okay, okay." He sighed.