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( becoming them )
AFTER TSIREYA SHOWED you to your new designated marui and left you to situate yourselves within your own corner of the village, your father called for a family meeting, setting the expectations of you and your siblings.
tuk cried, kiri sulked, neteyam and lo'ak sat in agreement, and you just stayed silent, knowing that there was no altering any aspect of your situation.
"sullys stick together," you and your brothers chorused, glancing over at kiri, who quietly fiddled with the end of her queue.
"yeah, that's right, sullys stick together," your father echoed with a smile. "now this time, with some feeling."
a small huff pushed past your lips, repeating the phrase once more with a small grin as neteyam slung an arm around your neck, pulling you into his side. "sullys stick together."
𓆝 𓆛 𓆞
the water bubbled as you watched tsireya, aonung, and rotxo travel through its clear body, leaving you and your siblings to jump in after them and skittishly tail along.
you sucked in a deep breath, closing your eyes and exhaling sharply to prepare for the slap of the sea's surface against your skin.
"come on!" neteyam ushered, hitting lo'ak's shoulder as he rushed forward and sprung off of the netting, hitting the ocean with a splat as your twin landed right next to him.
another harsh exhale left your lips as you shook your head and looked out toward the horizon. "here goes nothing."
bolting across the flooring, you pushed yourself off of the edge, gaining some height over the water before you felt yourself falling, submerging underneath the surface with a soft splash.
opening your eyes, you were met with the scene of tens of hundreds of small fish and other sorts of creatures swimming right past you, the coral and plants surrounding you creating an underwater forest of sorts.
everything was alive, from the little specs of rock settling on the bottom of the ocean floor to the sea vines reaching out and brushing against your limbs as you swam past. a smile found its way over your lips as you spun, observing the life around you carry on from every angle.
noticing your siblings and guides proceed through the water, you tried your best to follow suit, spreading out your arms and legs in an effort to cut through the liquid as quickly as you could.
yet the more you swam on, the greater your need to breathe became, and you eventually sprung up through the surface to sharply release the air you were holding. your brothers soon joined you, followed by tuktirey as she let out a few coughs.
"how are we supposed to do this?" lo'ak breathily questioned, struggling to tread above the water to catch his breath.
"i have... no idea," neteyam answered, just as winded.
inhaling once more, you dunked your head underneath the surface to see where your guides had gone, finding them waiting at the sea floor.
tsireya met your eyes with a smile, motioning some sort of signal with her hands in what you assumed was an effort to communicate with you and your siblings. you furrowed your eyebrows, shrugging confusedly at her signs before she gestured for you to follow along.
taking another deep breath, you and your family dove under, quickly kicking against the water to try and catch up with the siblings and their friend. but yet again, your need for air soon interrupted your lesson, and the four of you swam back up to the surface.
the metkayina teenagers joined you at the top of the water, tsireya's eyebrows furrowed in concern as she looked over at you. "are you all right?"
"you're too fast, wait for us!" tuktirey whined, bringing a hand up to rub at the water pooling underneath her eye.
"just breathe," the girl voiced.
"that's kind of hard to do when there's no air," you mumbled, earning a scoff of a laugh from neteyam.
aonung finally emerged from below, shaking his head as he looked between the four of you. "you are not good divers."
you let out a huff at his criticism, rolling your eyes as he looked toward his friend with a laugh. "maybe good at swinging through trees, but—"
tsireya cut her brother off with a soft slap to the head, telling him to knock it off as your own brother sighed.
"come on, bro," lo'ak pouted.
"we don't speak this finger talk," neteyam voiced, holding up a hand to mimic their underwater language with a shrug. "we don't know what you're saying."
"i will teach you," the female na'vi offered, looking toward rotxo as he spoke up with a question.
"where is kiri?"
"kiri?" you echoed, widening your eyes as you realized that your sister was indeed missing from your group.
"who?"
"kiri, where is kiri?" he repeated as you and your siblings scanned around the top of the sea for the younger girl.
you let out a sigh. "she probably got the hang of it and swam off- she really loves wildlife."
"huh, a tree-hugger," aonung joked, laughing along with his friend as you sent a glare his way.
"better than being a salt-licker," you retorted, earning a snort from neteyam, who disguised his amusement as a cough, and a loud laugh from your twin.
tsireya laughed softly at the quip and held a hand over her lips, catching your attention as you felt the tips of your ears grow warm under her gaze. you quickly averted your eyes, brushing a few braids over your ears in an attempt to shield them from view as they flicked slightly.
the turquoise na'vi scoffed, shaking his head as he turned to dive back underneath the surface. "whatever, let's go."
taking you closer in toward the shore, the siblings called in a cluster of animals, their fins poking through the water as they playfully glided back and forth around you.
"these are ilu," aonung announced, holding his arms out to display the sea creatures to the four of you. "if you want to live here, you have to ride."
"are they like ikran?" tuk questioned from your older brother's arms, earning a quirked eyebrow from the chief's son.
"i do not know what those are, but if they have anything to do with the forest, than no," aonung denied, prompting a frown to make its way over the younger girl's face as he turned toward one of the free reigning ilu.
"the way you lived before has no significance here," he continued on. "you must forget all that you've learned in the forest if you want to succeed as people of the reef."
"wish i knew that before i flew halfway across the ocean," you murmured, letting out a breath as aonung guided an ilu over toward you and your siblings
"so... who is first?"
𓆝 𓆛 𓆞
after witnessing the complete wipeouts of you brother's attempts at riding with hushed laughs and subtle grins, you decided that you were finally ready to try it out.
"i think i'm ready," you called, curtly lifting up a hand as the son of the olo'eyktan smirked and called over one of the creatures.
"let's hope you're better than your brother," he patronizingly taunted, turning to his friends that had crowded near the shoreline to witness the water-fication of the forest people.
"i will help you," tsireya spoke with a small smile, approaching your side as you turned to face her. "is that okay?"
you smiled, nodding as you glanced down at the water below. "uh, yeah, that's cool."
she called your designated ilu over, holding him steady as you gently hoisted yourself up and threw a leg over his back, adjusting yourself to fit comfortably over the saddle.
"okay." you breathed out, grabbing your queue to hover it over the one belonging to your new friend.
"make the bond gently," the light-eyed girl instructed, watching as the pink tendrils slowly reached out from your braid and connected to the ilu.
as your connection was officially established, the animal let out a low shriek, moving ever so slightly as you felt all of his senses slip into your own.
"feel his breath, feel his strength," tsireya explained, watching with a light smile as you closed your eyes and exhaled smoothly. "feel him as a whole. remember that you are one."
taking your hand into her own, she loosened it from the ilu's queue, placing it over the handle that bridged between his two tendrils. you looked over at her as she backed away from you, her smile still beaming as she nodded.
"breathe," she mouthed, earning a nod from you as you took one final inhale before sending your ilu forward through the water.
from analyzing the to-do's and not to-do's of lo'ak's efforts of grasping the venture of ilu-riding, you were able to get a decent start as the animal sailed effortlessly through the water. you kicked your legs out behind you, feeling the water fiercely flow between them as you coasted along.
behind you, the daughter of the village leaders grinned brightly, her hands coming together to clap in encouragement as she let out a small laugh of excitement. her brother scoffed from beside her, your siblings watching in awe as you took off.
everything seemed to be going well, and you were actually enjoying yourself as a grin climbed its way onto your lips. you zipped past a few animals and reefs, even gaining enough courage to reach out and trail a finger along a sea creature as you passed by.
turning to make your way back toward your group, there was one thing that you realized lo'ak's attempts weren't able to offer you as you could see the approaching figures of the metkayinan teenagers grow closer.
you didn't know how to properly come to a stop.
is it just like with an ikran- do i just tell him to stop?! you inwardly panicked, feeling the air slowly escape your lungs as your capacity's limit began to creep up on you. do i just let go?! shit, shit, shit!
you were slowly running out of time to figure out how to cease your ilu's moment as you approached the cluster of na'vi, so with a final strand of hope and a quick prayer to eywa, you gripped the handle as tightly as you could and forced everything in your body to halt.
the sudden pause in speed that you were not expecting to actually occur tossed your body forward, water crawling up your nose and stinging your nostrils as you flipped over a few times before finally coming to a stilling float.
you opened your eyes once you registered that you were no longer moving, glancing around to spot your ilu a little ways away away from where you had landed. quickly kicking your way up to the surface, you released the pent up oxygen you had been holding in and let out a few coughs, catching your breath as you stared down at the water.
"i did it," you mumbled, finally looking up to find your siblings and the reef teens staring at you in a silent shock before you tossed your hands over your head with a scream. "i did it!"
tuk let out an excited shout of your name, rushing over to throw herself into your arms as you let out a laugh, your brothers swimming over to join your celebratory moment as you placed your younger sister over your shoulders and let out yells of delight.
rotxo and the other metkayina boys watched your celebration with astonished smiles and laughs, only prompting an eye roll from aonung as he turned back over to another ilu.
tsireya stood watching with a grin, her dimples on full display as you caught her eye from your spot in the water. you sent her a beam of your own as she giggled softly, giving you a proud nod.
turns out that the reef people stuff wasn't super hard after all.
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