✧ ೃ༄*ੈ✩ ✧ ೃ༄*ੈ✩ ✧ ೃ༄*ੈ✩ ✧ ೃ༄*ੈ✩
'Anything and everything was for her, all for her and only her'
✧ ೃ༄*ੈ✩ ✧ ೃ༄*ੈ✩ ✧ ೃ༄*ੈ✩ ✧ ೃ༄*ੈ✩
-ˋˏ ༻❁༺ ˎˊ
Love is all around Pandora, and so is mine.
I have love for the land, for the people.
Love for Eywa.
Love for my dear Ney'tiri.
I had love for my first born, Dahliä.
-ˋˏ ༻❁༺ ˎˊ-
I was once born with the sky people, but I chose the right path to life. I was now connected with Eywa, and she had given me a second chance.
A second chance, a new start.
And with all the hardships, I wouldn't have it any other way.
But I'm many things. I'm a survivor, a leader, a warrior, a lover but amongst all of those things, I was about to become a father.
Ney'tiri is my force of life, my will to live and now, she was to bring something greater into my life.
A daughter.
She was my will to do better, to look at my mistakes and keep trying, keep fighting. I sacrificed it all for her, I have no regrets.
Jake was with his family, all of them surrounding Dahliä body on her leaf pod, leading it towards the funeral sight. There was a sense of sorrow and grief surrounding all of them, the atmosphere almost choking him.
Ney'tiri just behind her husband, he lead them to the burial with an ilu, the mother held her head high but her face said it all.
He glanced behind at Dahliä body, it was like she was just asleep, in a deep slumber but her body was lifeless, he couldn't wrap his head around it. Lo'ak just behind him, opposite side to Ney'tiri, clinging onto the leaf, keep his head on track and focusing hard.
Tuk was behind too, holding the last part of the gigantic leaf, Malìk holding her up in his arms as Neteyam was just recovering from his wound. The news left his heartbroken, he didn't get to say goodbye the right way, he thought it was a joke, this whole thing felt like a joke.
She was named Dahliä, after my favorite flower on the dying Mother Earth.
Dahlia's are a symbol of devotion, love, beauty and dignity. All the things she grew into, all the things that she would be remembered as.
Every song cord must have a last bead.
Ney'tiri used Dahliä's song cord as a necklace, holding onto it with her free hand, feeling and touching it trying to get a sort of live presence from her first daughter. Kiri was in a ilu with Spider, the human held tight to her, the pair at the back.
A father protects. That what's gives it meaning.
He gets off the ilu, swimming towards his family as they carefully took Dahliä's body out of the leaf, flowers swimming in the water. He let Malìk hold her, the boy almost didn't want to let her go, he stood still as he held his mate with a frown on his face.
Ney'tiri beginning to break down again as Lo'ak placed a hand on Dahliä's forehead, Neteyam planting a kiss on her forehead as Tuk swam close to her brothers.
They all took deep sighs of breath, ready to swim down, Malìk still holding the girl tight to him as her parents followed along with him.
The people say that all energy is borrowed.
Malìk's heart ache, it called out for her, continuously and longing for her. None of this felt real, he was in complete denial, someone as strong and admiring as her shouldn't be dead.
Not the love of his life, not Dahliä.
They have to give it back.
She was the reason he breathed, the reason he kept going, his exact will to live. Dahliä left this world like it was nothing, like they didn't have so much to look forward to- is this all a memory now? Something he'll look back to and smile? No. Because he probably won't even be able to live that long without her.
He had his role to fill in amongst the Metkayina, but what did that even mean now if Dahliä wasn't by his side?
If she won't be here to comfort him with some silly comment and manage to crack a smile out?
If she won't be here to love and learn how to be a leader by his side?
If she won't be here to protect her famil-?
Eywa holds all of her children in her heart, nothing is ever lost.
No.
That was it, that was his job now.
His eyes glanced to look up towards her siblings, all having their head poking in the water, watching him take Dahliä away.
He embraced her body, a final goodbye to his Tìyawn, and released her. Jake and Ney'tiri held hands as everyone watched Dahliä float down towards the yellow majestical plants, they briefly and slowly began to wrap themselves around her body.
She was to no longer be seen.
-ˋˏ ༻❁༺ ˎˊ-
Jake approached the couple, Tonowari standing up staring at nothing in particular as Ronal sat, calculating how to handle the news she was told by her eldest son. "My family and I, we leave tomorrow after the burial. We'll go, far away from here."
The Tsahìk quickly got up, glancing at her husband in worry as he began to speak. "Your daughter will lie with our ancestors, you are Metkayina now." Jake gulped at the word ' daughter', his body slightly tensing up at the horrible flashbacks of her last dying moments.
"You have been Metkayina," The Tsahìk spoke up, catching Jake's attention. "Ever since she mated with our son. You will not leave, you will stay. Your family is ours now."
Jake stood there, mentally smiling on how Dahliä would've loved to hear those words, and accepted Tonowari's 'welcoming' hand shake.
And there it was, we are sea people now.
This is our home. This is her home.
I see now, I can save my family from running.
This is our home
-ˋˏ ༻❁༺ ˎˊ-
Malìk wrapped his arms around his body, trying to speak up a sense of comfort, imaging that Dahliä was in his arms instead of being taken by the sea.
Lo'ak let out a hand, trying to reach for Dahliä but all he could do was cry, and cry. Tuk and Kiri weren't present during Dahliä final moments, the sisters had no idea that when they celebrated Neteyam's recovery, that they actually lost a sibling in that same moment.
The youngest Sully gripped onto the leaf, Kiri and Spider holding hands just a bit further away from her. Neteyam watched with an emotionless face, his so called 'last moments' with Dahliä weren't his, they were hers.
The last time he saw her, she was crying over his loss, and now he can't even cry for hers. It was hard to officially accept this fate, hard to accept that he was the last one being told the news.
Dahliä was a fighter, she never gave up.
That's what I admired about her, one of the many things I loved- ha, 'loved'.
A fathers love doesn't disappear with time, it only grows and grows with grief. Sprouts into a horrible and dangerous thing.
Burying a child when you remember their birth like it was just yesterday, it doesn't feel right.
Jake squeezed Ney'tiri's hand harder, they took the moment in, his eyes glancing towards the reef boy, his eyes closed.
They began to swim up, and finally met with his children. "You all ok?" His children nodded, but they weren't, nobody was.
Dahliä protected everyone, but who protected her?
Tuk still had her head under the water, Neteyam slightly nudged her, "Tuk, it's ok. Let's go." Her head quickly rose up, turning to her family with a wide smile, "Dahliä's back!"
"Tuk... don't do this, please." Ney'tiri's voice was raspy, almost gone from the amount of crying she's done over the past hour only, Neteyam quickly began to comfort his mother. "No! Look! Look!"
Her family dismissed her, the small Na'vi swam to Malìk, he was admiring a flower, thinking of Dahliä. "Malìk, look! Look!"
He sighed, and patted her head with a small sad smile, "It's ok, Tuk. We'll be o-."
"No! Look!" She grabbed his hand and tugged him to put his head in the water, giving up, he did as she wanted him to.
The boy squinted his eyes, trying to understand what she was talking about, then his eyes widened in confusion. Dahliä's body submerging from the plants, just floating normally, her eyes still closed.
Without thought, he quickly dove, the Sully's now confused and did the same to see what was happening.
Malìk quickly grabbed her body, and took her back up, softly resting her head on the leaf, he removed the strands of her from her face, and looked up towards the family, his eyes meeting Jakes.
Everyone began to look at Jake confused, he didn't know what to say, he didn't know what to do but he went close to his daughters body, and touched her shoulder. A slight warmness to it.
Happiness is simple.
It all ended with the first born.
-ˋˏ ༻❁༺ ˎˊ-
✧ ೃ༄*ੈ✩ ✧ ೃ༄*ੈ✩ ✧ ೃ༄*ੈ✩ ✧ ೃ༄*ੈ✩