Nateya, Lo'ak and Neteyam were in their Marui with a very angry Jake.
"What was the one thing I ask? The one thing?" Jake asked his kids.
"Stay out of trouble," Lo'ak responded.
"Stay out of trouble," Jake repeated.
"It was my fault," Nateya sighed as she watched Neteyam try to take the blame but their father wasn't having it.
"Yeah I don't think so, you've gotta stop taking the heat for this knucklehead."
Jake then turned to Nateya.
"You were future Olo'eykte, I expected you to make wiser decisions." Jake scolded his daughter. She felt guilty for making her father disappointed with her.
"Look Dad, Aonung was picking on Kiri. He called her a freak," Lo'ak explained to his father. Nateya nodded her head.
"Lo'ak was just standing up for her," she continued.
Jake sighed.
"Go apologize to Aonung," Jake ordered.
"What?" Both Lo'ak and Nateya said confused. She thought what her brother did was right, they were picking on Kiri so they deserve to get beaten up.
"He's the Chief's son, do you understand?" Nateya shook her head.
"I understand but what Lo'ak did was right. He was just tryi-" Nateya protested before she was cut off by her father.
"If you understand then you should know that your brother needs to apologise."
"I don't care how you do it just go make peace. Just go!" Jake said while Lo'ak walked out of the Marui. Nateya followed him out.
"Where do you think you're going?" Jake asked her.
The girl turned around.
"To comfort my brother. I believe what he did was right, Chief's son or not. He was just trying to stand up for Kiri and I do not understand why you are reprimanding him for that," Nateya answered. She then turned back around to go after Lo'ak.
She caught up to her brother and started walking next to him.
"Lo'ak," she said.
"What?" Lo'ak stopped to look at her.
Nateya sighed. She slung her arm around Lo'ak's neck and rubbed her knuckles into his head.
"Come on, cheer up baby bro."
Lo'ak grumbled and pushed his sister off him. He continued walking. Nateya had a slight frown, but she was not going to give up. She caught up to Lo'ak again and spoke.
"Look, Dad is just trying to make sure we can stay here. I know he is proud of you for standing up for Kiri, he just does not show it," Nateya tried to comfort her brother.
"If he's so proud of me he wouldn't make me feel like I'm one big disappointment," Lo'ak said while looking to the ground, still walking. She shook her head and walked in front of her brother. He stopped walking when Nateya put her hands on his shoulders making him look up at her.
Her eyes widened at the look on her brother's face. She could see the sadness and guilt in his eyes.
"Aw, come here," she said as she pulled her brother into a hug. He hugged his sister back.
"You are not a disappointment Lo'ak. Ever since the day you were born, you have made this family so much stronger. You did the right thing by standing up for your sister. I know Dad is proud of you," She comforted her brother.
She broke away from the hug and put her hands on his upper arms.
She looked down, directly into her brother's eyes.
"I'm proud of you Lo'ak."
Lo'ak smiled. He put his forehead against his sister's and closed his eyes.
"Thank you Nateya."
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Nateya was flying her Ikran. It had been a while since she went flying with just Nita and no one else. She loved Nita alot and would always talk to her while the Ikran just listened quietly. The girl felt as if the creature understood her.
As if she understood how she truly felt inside.
Nateya hopped from island to island. She climbed through trees and would jump off them for Nita to always be there and catch her.
"Woo!" Nateya cheered out. She started ululating while the wind brushed her face. She felt at home. Unknown to her, below the two of them were a certain group of Metkayina boys with her littlest brother.
"Good girl Nita," Nateya giggled as she rubbed the Ikran's neck. Nita suddenly let out a shriek which started the girl.
"Hey, whats wrong girl?" she asked worriedly to her Ikran. The creature kept letting out cries. Nateya tried to soothe her by patting her and quietly shushing her.
"Take me to what's bothering you," She calmy told her Ikran. Nita suddenly dipped down, landing near the edge of an island. The girl got off the creature and walked towards the edge. She looked all around and spotted a familiar group of Metkayina boys.
"This part is outside of the reef," Nateya said to herself and watched as the group of boys rode away on their Ilus.
"What are they doing?"
She turned around and walked back to her Ikran. She mounted the creature and flew up. She directed Nita to the area where the group of boys were a few seconds ago. When she got there, Netaya circled the area looking for anything out of the ordinary. That's when she saw a dark blue blob moving in the water with a large gray blob following it. The girl looked closer and her eyes widened at what she saw. The gray blob was an Akula. Tsireya had told her about the sea creatures in the ocean when Nateya had asked. The Metakyina girl had said that the Akula was a large marine predator and that their jaws that could split into three contained dangerously sharp teeth.
She then looked closer at the dark blue blob and gasped when she saw what it was. It was Lo'ak. Nateya had to think quick before her brother got hurt. She jumped off Nita, diving into the water and hiding behind a rock, not too far away from the Akula and Lo'ak. The Akula was nearing Lo'ak and had him trapped inside a coral structure. She had to get the creatures attention somehow. The girl tried to make calling sounds and scream but the creature was too busy with Lo'ak to notice her.
"Shit."
Nateya then surfaced and grabbed onto Nita who was hovering above the water waiting for her. She flew Nita up and then canonballed into the water, making a large splash. The creature noticed her this time and turned to face her. It started heading towards Nateya as she swam up. She just barely missed the jaws of the creature as she grabbed onto Nita who came swooping down to get her. She flew the Ikran across the water, close to surface so the Akula would follow them. She made sure to have a good distance between her and the creature so her and Nita wouldn't get hurt.
Nateya lead the creature away from Lo'ak. Once she was far enough she suddenly turned Nita around and flew back to Lo'ak as fast as she could. She launched herself off the Ikran and dove into the water. She saw a barely conscious Lo'ak and grabbed him by the arm pulling him closer to her. She swam up, almost reaching the surface before she felt a presence behind her. Nateya turned around to see the huge jaws of an Akula. Her eyes widened in fear. She didn't want her brother to go out like this.
The Akula almost reached the two siblings. But before the creature could, a flash of green came crashing down from the surface and landed right on the Akula's head.
It was Nita.
"Nita!" Nateya thought in surprise.
Nita started poking at creature's eyes and biting them. The Akula started rapidly jerking around, trying to get the smaller creature off it's head. Nateya took this chance to swim up. She broke out into the surface and started taking breaths of air. She turned to Lo'ak who was unconscious.
"Damn it Lo'ak! Why do you have to be so naive," She whined while trying to keep her brother afloat so she could give him breaths of air. She struggled to keep him up as tears poured out of her eyes. The girl was exhausted mentally and physically, it was hard to keep the both of them out of the water.
"Please Eywa, my brother hasn't even properly experienced life yet," she sobbed while failing at keeping her and her brother afloat. As if Eywa heard her prayer, something suddenly lifted Nateya and brother up. When she realised this she immediately started performing CPR on her brother. Her father had taught her how to do it a few years ago incase her siblings ever went unconscious underwater. She had only done it once in her whole life and that was when Kiri had fallen into a lake and went unconscious.
Soon, she saw her brother cough up water and starting to breathe again.
She cried tears of happiness as she sat Lo'ak up and hugged him tight.
"Oh thank you Eywa," Nateya said while sobbing into her brother's shoulder.
"Sister, I'm going to go pass out again if you hug me this tight," Lo'ak joked.
Nateya immediately let go and gave her brother space.
"I thought I was going to lose you," she said while still sobbing. She looked like a mess.
"I'd never go down that easily," Lo'ak said trying to cheer his sister up.
The girl calmed herself down and laughed. He almost died and yet he's still cracking jokes.
"What are we on anyways?" Lo'ak questioned.
Nateya had completely forgotten about that. Before she could investigate any further she suddenly remembered something.
"Nita!" she exclaimed.
She remembered how her small Ikran went up against a giant marine monster. Nateya knew that the Ikran couldn't swim properly and yet Nita still went in the water to save her.
She frantically looked around and saw a green creature laying down on the same ground she was on. She saw it was her Nita and ran over to her and knelt down next to the creature.
"Hey Nita," she said softly while petting the Ikran.
She noticed her shallow breathing and trailed her eyes down to Nita's wing. She saw it had mutiple holes in them. The girl's eyes widened. She then looked down to the Ikran's leg and saw it had three big gashes in it
"Shit!" Nateya cursed while a lump formed in her thoat.
"What's wrong?" Lo'ak questioned as he ran over to his sister. His eyes also widened at the sight. He knew how much Nita meant to his sister.
"Put pressure on the wounds. I will go get something we can wrap her leg up with," Lo'ak told her and quickly ran off to where they were a minute ago to collect some seaweed he saw.
"My poor Nita..." Nateya said while putting pressure on her leg. She watched the creatures blood engulfed her hands. The girl started sobbing again.
"Thank you.. so much," she cried into the Ikran.
"You did really well against that big bully," Nateya complimented her while being a sobbing mess. The Ikran let out a small screech of gratitude to the girl.
Nateya remembered the first time she met her. Out of all the Ikran's she saw that day, Nita was the only one that stood her ground and challenged the girl.
Nateya softly chuckled at a memory.
She remembered how she kept getting flung off the Ikran and landing on her back.
"Remember when we first met?" Nateya said, talking to the Ikran.
"You were feisty, but you were the most gorgeous Ikran I had ever seen. Your gorgeous shade of green, the blue patterns all over you, your yellow stripes and beautiful golden eyes," she continued.
She started remembering their first flight together. It was after she had performed Tsaheylu that her father was beckoning her to have their first flight.
"First flight seals the bond, you can't wait," was the exact words her father had told her. Nita and the girl's first flight had a rough start, but when Nateya got the hang of it, it was the most beautiful experience ever.
"You can get through this girl," Nateya reassured her Ikran while still applying pressure to her leg. It had started raining, the blood that engulfed the Navi girl's hands were being washed away by the droplets of water.
Nateya started humming her unfinished songcord, trying to soothe her Ikran. Nita lifted her wing and placed it over the girl to cover her from the rain as she added a new line to her songcord.
'No matter how different we may look,
We are family'
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Words: 2123
This chapter just showed the lovely friendship Nita and Nateya have!
Thank you for reading <3