Washed Away

13.

"Okay, you can stay here with me." she said before Aonung came out of her pod.

"I'll come back later, father must be looking for me." Aonung said as he kissed her forehead and nodded at Lo'ak before walking away.

Txana and Lo'ak soon entered her pod after Aonung left as Lo'ak sat down as he leaned his back on the wooden wall.

"Do you want some yovo juice?" Txana asked as Lo'ak nodded before she started to make some juice out of the yovo that she had in her pod before giving it to Lo'ak.

"Has it always been like this?" she asked as she sat beside him.

"Yeah, mom can't really do anything about it." Lo'ak replied as he stared at the juice.

"He's hard on you, huh?" she said as he nodded.

"You know, if i didn't know any better, i would say he's doing it out of his love for you, which is true, but.. he has a problem with expressing it properly." she said while he scoffed.

"Yeah right.. he picks favorites, and the favorite is most certainly Neteyam." Lo'ak replied as he drank his yovo juice.

"Lo'ak, if Jake is hard on you, he's hard on Neteyam too. The favorites always have to be perfect, and nobody is perfect, that's why none of you siblings are lucky. But, he is still your father, and he cares about you even if it's not obvious or he doesn't often show it." she said as she gave him gentle pats on the head, making him lean on her shoulder tiredly.

"I don't know if i can believe that." he said while she continued to pat his head.

"It's okay, Lo'ak, everything takes time, all you need is a little bit of patience. Try not to compete with your brother too often." she said while he just hummed in response.

After a few minutes of complete silence, Txana heard the boy's soft snores as he slept on her shoulder.

Txana unrolled her mat that was beside her before gently putting Lo'ak on the mat in order to not wake him up before she stood up and grabbed a pillow, raising his head gently as he slid it under his head in order to not make him uncomfortable.

She cleaned her pod up for a few minutes before taking a blanket and putting it on Lo'ak's body so he wouldn't get cold since it was going to be eclipse in one hour.

She tied her braids to a low ponytail before she left her pod to let Lo'ak rest with privacy.

She made her way to the dock before jumping into the water where she was met with her tsurak who approached her as she went up to the surface.

The tsurak seemed to want some attention so she gave it to him, caressing his head as his chin rested on her other palm.

"I haven't named you, have i?" she started talking to him and she heard his low hum meaning that he agreed.

"Skarde. What do you think of that?" she said as he flapped his wings excitedly, making her chuckle.

She got on her tsurak and connected their queues before Skarde started flying around with her.

As they went around the village, Txana noticed that Skarde preferred flying rather than swimming, and she couldn't help but chuckle knowing that she felt the same.

Txana liked flying, it was why her spirit brother was an ikran, she always preferred flying rather than jump through trees, and no one was there to even question it.

They went on to fly for a few minutes before Skarde decided to swim on their way back, so she let him take control.

When she arrived at the beach, she saw Tsireya with Roxto and Kiri, they all seemed to be talking happily so she was gonna go back to her pod to check on Lo'ak but she was stopped by someone smaller than her.