Thanatophobia | Ao'nung

⋆˚✿˖°ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕡𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝟙⋆˚✿˖°

"It truly is a phenomenal sight, I mean-" Ni'la tuned her mother's words out as she looked through her microscope to observe a sample she'd collected.

It had been a leaf she collected the day before, and Norm had instructed her to observe how the leaf shined under the light of her microscope. However, because of the raid her father had arranged for that day, Norm wasn't there to instruct her on whether or not she was doing it properly. Ni'la had done this specific assignment a million times before, but the girl was a perfectionist.

Everything had to be done perfectly, otherwise, she would want to start the process all over again.

She let a frustrated groan escape her lips as her head fell back in annoyance. "Just focus, Ni'la," The girl scolded herself before looking back into her microscope to see the bioluminescence radiate off the leaf.

As she lifted her head to describe what she saw, a voice called out to her, "Ni'la!" Her head whipped in the direction of the voice, and she saw Tuk running towards her. "The war parties coming back!" Tuk informed before dashing out of the lab to see her family, who would be returning.

Ni'la's eyes widened at Tuk's words, and she quickly removed her leaf from the glass slide of the microscope, placed the sample in the box Norm had specifically given to her, unplugged anything that didn't need to use unnecessary electricity, and ran out of the pod.

The girl jumped down the steps before picking up her pace at the cries of the ikran coming home. She hopped over anything in her path or yelled at them to get out of her way, "Move! Move!" Ni'la yelled, and when people saw her coming, their eyes widened before obliging her request. But one person didn't hear her demands, and they stood in her way.

"Look out!" Someone yelled, and the person furrowed their eyebrows in confusion before they widened to the size of saucers when they saw Ni'la.

But it was too late. Ni'la wouldn't have any way to stop, so there were two options. Either she ran into the frail human, or the human dropped to the ground, and the girl was seriously hoping it would be the latter.

Quickly, the human dropped everything in their arms onto the ground before they followed, using their arms to protect their head. Ni'la let out a sigh of relief as she easily leaped over the human and continued to make her way towards her family.

"Thank you!" She yelled.

The human glared at her, causing her to shoot them an apologetic smile as she picked up her pace once she saw her family in the distance. As she drew closer to them, her pace came to a halt as her father's words echoed through the mountains.

"Jesus, I let you two geniuses go on a mission, and you disobey direct orders," Jake gritted, and Ni'la hastily went over in defense of her siblings. When Jake saw his oldest daughter, he sighed at the look on her face. He knew, and he wouldn't be able to scold Lo'ak or Neteyam with her there because she always stick up for her siblings, even if they had done something wrong.

In this case, Lo'ak did go to the ground when he wasn't supposed to, but that's just Lo'ak. He'd always been rebellious and quick to do what he wanted in the moment without a second thought about it. Lo'ak knew it. Jake knew it. The rest of the family knew it. Hell, the entire clan was probably aware of Lo'ak's reckless behavior. His personality came with the rest of him, and people either loved or hated it, but Lo'ak was none the wiser unless it came from his father.

"Kiri, Ni'la, go take care of the wounded with your grandmother. Please, take Tuk with you," Jake pleaded.

"My brother is wounded," Kiri retorted, and Ni'la looked over to see Kiri inspecting cuts on Neteyam's back. However, Jake gave her a pointed look, and Kiri let Neteyam's side before grabbing onto Tuk's hand to walk away.