Thanatophobia | Ao'nung

⋆˚✿˖°ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕡𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝟛𝟛 ⋆˚✿˖°

Ni'la watched Neteyam as he signaled her to follow his lead as he rode towards the demon ship at full speed. The girl strained her ears as she listened to the sound of rapid gunfire from above the water, and she could feel how rapidly her heart was slamming against her chest.

That same familiar feeling she had back home had crept its way through her veins, torturing her, telling her that someone was going to die. That someone was going to get hurt. She had that same suffocating feeling anytime her people went on raids back home, and it grew tenfold when she found out her dad or brothers were also going to be involved.

It'd been a fear she developed after the Sky people burned down her home.

She almost forgot what it felt like to fear for the lives of the people she cared about.

The keyword in that sentence is almost.

The truth was that it'd always been coursing through Ni'la's veins, she'd just learned to ignore it because she had other things to focus on. The girl had new training to tend to, she had new friends, and now she was even dating someone. Her life was quite busy for a teenager, and for once in her life, before everything that happened with the Sky people finding her family again, she felt normal.

Since the Sully family arrived at the Metkayina clan, she hadn't had to take care of her siblings as much as she did back home, and it felt nice to live her life as a teenager.

Those few months helped Ni'la to discover who she was, and she was slowly starting to love herself for it. The ache in her heart when she thought of how different she was, no longer hurt as much. When her parents found out about her and Ao'nung, she refused to tell them they were dating, because at the time they weren't.

Ni'la felt they hadn't been friends long enough for her to date him, but one day, something in the back of her mind told her to make it official. She felt that life was too short to beat around the bush, and she didn't want to be scared of letting Ao'nung treat her the way she deserved to be treated.

No, he hadn't been the nicest to her or her family when they first arrived. He'd been an absolute asshole, and Ni'la told him such, but after he took Lo'ak out beyond the reef, it was like a switch flipped.

He started to act kinder to Ni'la and her family. He stopped hanging around with those morons he called friends. Ao'nung took an interest in the Sully children's lives before they came to the Omatikaya clan. Any little bit of information he could get out of the Sully children, he instantly absorbed.

His fascination had confused Ni'la, but when she asked him about it, he said that it was only fair he learned about her home as she'd learned about his. As Ni'la pulled herself away from her thoughts, she noticed they were getting closer to the ship.

Once they were close enough, Neteyam directed his ilu out of the air, and Ni'la closely followed as they both disconnected their queues and grabbed onto the railing.

"Neteyam!" Tuk yelled before she saw her older sister was also with her brother. "Ni'la!"

Both siblings hopped on the other side of the railing as they made their way over to their little siblings and Tsireya. "Hey, baby brother," Neteyam said, cutting off Tsireya's cuffs as Ni'la cut off Tuk's. "Need some help?" The older boy teased, causing Lo'ak to slightly laugh as he rolled his eyes.

"Who's the mighty warrior?" Neteyam asked. "Come on, say it."

"Bro," Lo'ak shook his head as his lips stretched into a smile. "Come on, get me out of these," Lo'ak said, and Ni'la used her knife to cut his cuffs while Neteyam instructed Tsireya to get Tuk away from the danger.