Shooting Stars | Lo'ak¹

Chapter 11: Bruised Egos

She turned around to see that his eyes were tightly closed, and Ja'lia was going to say something, but Lo'ak beat her to it, "Hey, fish boy! Stop being a baby, and open your eyes!" He teased, and Ao'nung wanted to refuse; but he didn't want to seem weak.

So, he slowly opened his eyes and gasped when he saw how high above the ground they were.

"This is awesome!" Rotxo said in excitement. Tsireya immediately agreed, and Ao'nung kept quiet as he was too afraid to speak. "What do you think, Ao'nung?" Ja'lia asked as she kept her eyes on the sky in front of her.

"It's uh, it's definitely a sight to see," He gulped as he realized that he had a serious fear of heights.

"I'm glad that you think so because we have something to show you guys," Lo'ak smirked, and Ja'lia furrowed her eyebrows as she looked at him. Lo'ak shot down almost at a ninety-degree angle on his ikran, and Kiri and Neteyam dove after him as Tsireya and Rotxo cheered.

"Woohoo!" The Metkayina teens yelled in laughter.

Ja'lia wanted to do it; but she didn't want to scare Ao'nung.

"Don't even think about it, Lia," He mumbled, and the girl was left with two options.

Either continue to fly at the same level she was or dive after the rest of her friends.

"Live a little, Ao'nung," She said, smiling at the boy behind her.

"What does that- AHHHHH!" Ao'nung screamed as Ja'lia directed Tarya to fly down towards the water.

Ja'lia smiled as she felt the wind hit her skin, and the sun beat down on her face. She was having more fun than she thought she would when she decided to move with the Sully family. As she neared the water, Ja'lia pulled on Tarya's reigns to let her know to pull up so that they didn't go into the water.

Eventually, Tarya leveled out, and Ja'lia told Ao'nung to open his eyes once more.

"You can open your eyes," She said with a laugh.

"I'm going to kill you," Ao'nung grumbled.

"Don't be such a wuss. It was fun," Ja'lia nudged his shoulder.

"If you call almost dying fun, then yes, it was fun," He said sarcastically, causing Ja'lia to roll her eyes. Soon, Ja'lia landed on the beach with the rest of the Sully children, and she didn't even come to a complete stop before Ao'nung hopped off and stormed away.

Everyone watched as he walked away, and Tsireya came up beside Ja'lia, "I guess he didn't enjoy it then, huh?" She asked, and Ja'lia shook her head with a small smile on her face.

"Well, at least we tried," Neteyam said.

"Yeah, maybe if he wants to do it again, we'll try not to dive like maniacs," Kiri said, shooting Lo'ak a look.

"What? I was just trying to give him the full Omatikaya experience," Lo'ak shrugged, and Ja'lia snorted as she walked over to him a slung an arm around his shoulders. "You're a little evil. I hope you know that" Ja'lia informed, and Lo'ak proudly nodded his head.

"We should probably head back. It's almost dinner time," Tsireya said, and Ja'lia and Kiri's eyes widened.

"Shit," They both whispered before bursting into a sprint, leaving the rest of the group confused.

The two teen girls had promised Tuk that they would start working on a new outfit for her today, but they got distracted by giving the Metkayina teens a ride on their ikrans. Tuk had been wanting the both of them to make her a new outfit for weeks, but with all of the training they had to do, they didn't have any time. Which is why when they were granted this break, they told Tuk her outfit would be done by tomorrow night, and they hadn't even started working on it yet.