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A few days had passed since the incident, and Ni'teya had not returned home since. She'd found herself a comfortable area to sleep, right beside a small stream which allowed her access to a great source of food to keep her going. She also had her ikran, Me'kari to keep her company and provide her with a small sense of safety.
By now, Kiri had found her and would come to visit her when she could, as things were getting restless back at home for the Sully family.
Kiri told Ni'teya what was happening. First of all, Kiri informed her that Spider hadn't actually escaped that day, and that the Sky-People had taken him with them, and it was clear to Ni'teya that this deeply angered her friend. Second of all, Jake Sully was no longer Toruk Makto, which surprised Ni'teya greatly upon hearing it, and finally, Kiri's parents were planning to leave the clan in search for safety from the Sky-people. Ni'teya didn't react fondly to this either, immediately jumping up and yelling "No!" in response.
Even though there was no chance of stopping Kiri from leaving with her family, that didn't stop Ni'teya from coming up with all sorts of schemes and plans to make sure that Kiri wouldn't leave her and that she wouldn't be alone in the forest.
When Ni'teya wouldn't stop her planning, Kiri proclaimed that she'd do her best to convince her family to let Ni'teya come with them, as Kiri's eylan.
Ni'teya was immediately doubtful.
"I don't think they'd let me come, Kiri. I'm not part of your family and they wouldn't want to take me away from mine." She remarked, though she knew her family would most likely not even realise she'd gone.
Kiri thought for a while, and said "Maybe, but you've proven yourself useful in difficult situations. We won't know unless we try it!"
Ni'teya saw how much faith Kiri had in this idea, and had no choice but to nod in agreement that they should atleast try. She had nothing against going with Kiri and her family, it was just that she wasn't sure of what Jake thought of her after their conversation.
Reluctantly, Ni'teya followed Kiri all the way back to where her and her family resided in order to discuss the matter with them. Kiri said that she should go in alone first, leaving Ni'teya outside, alone, to wait and see what they say.
Though the family were all inside of their tent, this didn't stop noise from escaping it. Ni'teya could hear everything, though she did try to ignore what they were saying.
"Please, please, please, Mom, please!" Kiri begged Neytiri, which only beckoned more "please"'s coming from Tuk who'd decided she wanted to join in on the begging.
"She's not ours, Kiri." Neytiri said, speaking in a calming and gentle manner. "We can't take her!" Were her final words, which Ni'teya assumed were accompanied by some sort of fed-up hand gesture.
Jake spoke next, "Why would she want to leave this place?" he asked. It was a good point, up until now not even Ni'teya had thought about where she would be going, let alone what it would be like away from the forest for so long. Kiri was obviously getting restless, "She'll go wherever I go! And I will go where she goes! Please, dad, I don't want to lose another friend." She says, her desperation clear.
A few sighs were heard from inside the tent, a silence rendered.
"Let me see what she thinks of this, then" Jake sighs, pacing towards the front entrance of the tent, where Ni'teya was stood waiting.
He flung aside the tent's opening, revealing his daughter's stowaway standing patiently and directly in front of him.
"Ah. So I see this was thought up before-hand." He comments, gesturing that Ni'teya should go ahead and enter the tent before him, which she did.
"So, Ni'teya, why is it you wish to leave the forest?" Jake asked, taking a seat and looking at her with inquisitive eyes. Ni'teya didn't see any point in making up a story, so she was truthful.
"I don't want to he alone here, sir." She said, a little too cooly for such a sad statement, perhaps. Jake didn't seem to grasp at what she meant by this, however Lo'ak knew exactly what she meant.
Jake tilted his head slightly, continuing his questionnaire, "But you've got a family of your own, no?" Another good point to make.
"I'd rather be with Kiri, sir." Ni'teya answered, this time averting her eyes from where Jake sat and landing them on Tuk, who was eagerly watching this event take place. Fighting a laugh, Ni'teya continued, "It's not that I want to leave my family, sir, It's just that I'd rather be away from them than away from Kiri."
"I understand. Can you fly?" He asks.
"Yes, sir."
A rather irritated voice chimes in, "You aren't actually considering this, are you?!" the youngest brother exclaims, stepping out from his previous position into the centre of the room. "She was the whole reason Kiri got caught by the Sky-People! She's too much of a-" he's stopped by Kiri's next argument,
"She's also the reason you're not Sky-People food! Don't forget how she saved your life, Lo'ak!"
"I couldn't saved myself!" He yells, causing his older brother, Neteyam to let out a chuckle accidentally.
"We don't need her with us! What's she going to do all day? Run and hide with Kiri and play hide-and-seek?" He tries his best to change his dads mind on the matter. However he got a reaction from the wrong person,
"I want to play hide-and-seek all day!" Tuk jumps up, making Lo'ak seem even more irritated.
Neytiri silences his outburst by calling his name in a harsh tone.
Jake seems to take in what his son was saying, but continued to look towards Ni'teya for another question.
"Can you fly, well?" he stands up from his seated position.
"I believe so, sir." Ni'teya didn't know where this was going.
"Alright, I'll have words with your family tonight. Any objections from anyone else here?" He finally says, looking around the room for disapproving faces.
Lo'ak was silent this time, looking away and crossing his arms in defeat.
Ni'teya wasn't bothered by his disapproval of her, though she did find it strange how he seemed fine with her that day when she told him about the wreckage. 'Why was he suddenly so against me', Ni'teya thought to herself.
Lo'ak didn't say much for the rest of the day, instead he went out to kick stuff and sigh loudly, acting as any teenager would when they didn't get their own way. This was, until he found Kiri and her eylan chatting near the egde of one of the Hallelujah mountains, to which he decided to let his anger get the best of him, and take this opportunity to prove his disliking.
Kiri noticed him coming before he had a chance to say anything, though. "What do you want, Lo'ak." She knew that whatever he did want wasn't anything good and was definitely not something they were going to want to hear.
"I want to know why she feels she can make herself part of this family." He says, taking steps towards Ni'teya as he spoke, making Kiri have to push herself between the two so that Lo'ak wouldn't do anything stupid.
"Huh? What makes her so special?" Lo'ak says a little louder this time, lunging forward threateningly.
Ni'teya wasn't having it, though. Instead of answering him plainly, which she later thought she probably should've done, she pushed Lo'ak back with force, letting Kiri step out of the way before she got hurt.
"And what makes you think I don't deserve it, huh? You don't even know me!" Ni'teya argues, pushing him again making him pace backwards harshly and grunting at her strength.
"You're just annoyed that you were saved by a girl, is that it? Too weak to fight back, yeah?" She continues, pushing the boundaries whilst also pushing Lo'ak.
This time, he falls back on himself, making Kiri begin to chuckle at the sight of him being pushed around by her friend.
This however, only makes Lo'ak angrier. He lets out a low grunt before lunging at Ni'teya, tripping her up from behind causing her to fall, to which she hitches a hand onto his own feet, making him tumble down too.
"I told you, I didn't need saving!" He yells, pining her down onto the floor, keeping her from using her arms to attack him further.
"Sure looked like you did!" She replies, louder, and with a strong push of her arms she manages to release herself from Lo'ak's grip and turn the tables, literally, making him now the one being pined down.
"If you don't like me, fine! I don't like you either! You don't have to be such a dick about it, though!" Ni'teya says, before deciding that speech was much too mediator-like of her, making her add onto it. "It's alright if you're embarrassed about being weaker than me-" She quickly realises she should've stuck with the smaller version. A sharp kick attacks her on her right leg in an attempt to weaken her grip on Lo'ak's arms. This failed, however, and due to the pain of being kicked Ni'teya dug her nails further into Lo'ak's arms making him look visibly in pain.
"Don't want to admit it?" Ni'teya doesn't let up, she continues to dig them deeper and deeper until her opponent finally answers her.
"Fine! Fine! Let me go!" He wails, closing his eyes tightly in pain.
"Admit you're weaker than me." Ni'teya demands, anger clear in her voice.
Kiri can see that this is no longer what she thought was a friendly (ish) spat, she realised Ni'teya was genuinely hurting Lo'ak, which made her both amused and frightened. "Uh, guys? Can you stop now, please?" She decides to step in, walking up to the both of them and asking again.
"Say it!" Ni'teya yells in Lo'ak's face. Lo'ak hesitates for as long as he can, clearly not wanting to admit what she was asking him to admit.
Once he came to his senses, he opened his yellow eyes and looked directly into Ni'teya's before saying, "I am weaker than you." in a low whisper. Ni'teya contemplates wether this satisfied her for a while, not looking over to Kiri since she knew if she saw her worried expression she'd stop what she was doing and give up. She examined his face, checking for genuine remorse and defeat, glancing over his war-painted features and his ears that were lowering by the second. His fangs where visible now, too, as he hissed at either her or the pain, she couldn't tell which.
Ni'teya loosened her grip and removed her nails from Lo'ak's arms finally, getting up off of the ground and shaking herself off, leaving him to rub his arms to soothe the pain she'd caused him. She thought he'd let out a final snarky comment to get the last word in, but he never did.
A crystal-clear rivalry had been formed between the two, and Kiri could see this.
.
It was now the next morning, the morning where the Sully family planned to leave the forest for good, and hopefully find shelter within other clans of Pandora. An answer had already been given on behalf of Ni'teya from her parents, which was more like a "i suppose" rather than an adamant "yes" but Jake took it as such anyway, to Kiri's relief.
Ni'teya had packed everything she needed, which wasn't much considering she'd just been wandering around the forest for the past however-many years using whatever she picked up, and took Me'kari around to where the Sully's had their ikran's waiting.
"You're sure about this?" a voice sounded from behind Ni'teya, the eldest son approaching her with his ikran. "I hope so." She pondered, thinking about his question quite deeply as the whole situation was moving quite quickly.
"I'll be fine." She says as a final response, and as a reassurance as she could tell he wasn't pleased with her previous one. She beams at him, before mounting Me'kari along with the rest of the Sully's.
After what seemed like eternity, Jake gave the all-clear to begin their voyage away from the jungles of Pandora, and with that, the Sully's along with Ni'teya set off.
Unknowing of where they were going and what was going to happen to them.
.
.
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