The next day we're eating in our pod, Spider is here but we couldn't convince him to eat.
That's something else that has been weird and difficult for him, whether at the forest or the ship, he had the chance to eat and live without the mask sometimes but here... he can't.
I honestly don't know where or when he eats.
"They don't really teach me any of that," Spider says.
We're talking about how different they breathe here. Tonowari and Jake
taught Miles about that and Ronal taught me, Neytiri didn't really learn, not because she can't but because that would meant that she left her own tribe behind, the forest people.
Anyways, now we're here.
"It's kind of like diving, but with this lungs it's impressive how long you can hold your breath," Miles says tapping his ribs twice.
We continue eating until Spider talks.
"Do you... have any memories of things like that? From the army?" He asks Miles.
"Well," Miles licks his lips and cleans his fingers. "Yeah, as you know I have an extensive training and yes, at some point we also dived,"
I don't know if I want to ask him more, because while I know that this are skills he now has, I know that they come with terrible things that happened to him. Or maybe not him.
Spider is about to ask him something else when Jake appears at the entrance.
"Can I talk to you for a second?" Jake tells Miles.
I shot Jake a confused look but he just looks serious not like aggressive or anything. Just like he really wants to talk.
"Yeah," Miles answers and stands up.
Spider and I turn to look at each other.
"Have you met any of the other kids?" I ask.
He looks to the floor.
"Yeah,"
"Have you gone out with them or something?"
"They all have their stupid Ilus and no one wants me around," he says.
Poor Spider.
I talk with him for a little while and tell him that maybe he can hang out with Kiri and my other cousins, his response is that Neteyam still has to keep things slow and Neytiri is always keeping an eye on him, Lo'ak has his own bussiness, Kiri is kind of off some days and Tuk doesn't really care about him.
I'm running out of words so I tell him that I'll go look for Miles. I know, I know. It's a coward thing to do but... I'm not used to him, I don't know what to say. I don't think anything will make a difference really.
I notice him and Jake talking somewhere far from the living are, near the rocks in the shore.
They both have their arms crossed, feet hip width distance apart and they're looking at each other.
No screams, no pointing, they're focused.
I don't want to interrupt any of that either so I just go wander around, I've been dying to add something to my songcord and for it I'll need some of the rope that I've seen made from seaweed.
I go around and enjoy my time finding and then weaving my rope, I'm doing a pattern to add a new shell to my songcord when Miles finds me.
"Hey,"
"Hi," I answer.
"What are you doing there?" He asks going to sit next to me.
"I'm adding this to my songcord," I say showing him my half done job of adding the stone with the rope.
"Your songcord... and what does that represent?"
"This is a piece of coral that I found on the beach the third day that we got here,"
"It's pretty," He says.
"Yes it is," I smile.
"I want one for our son too, but I'll add it once it is born," I say.
Miles nods and pays attention to my fingers, his eyes follow every movement.
"You can have your own too," I say.
"What?"
"Your songcord," he looks surprised.
"Yeah, really. When we go back to the forest and we make a ceremony for you to finally join our people, you could start your own," I say.
He doesn't say anything, his hands go to the dogtags that are always around his neck.
"I guess this were kind of my songcord before, the army... me being a soldier, I gave everything to be good," he says.
"Well you're different now, we live in a different world, when you join our clan you can have a different songcord," I say.
His mouth curves up in a soft smile.
"That could be nice," he says and I nod.
He stays there looking at me as I continue with my work and then take my songcord to add it all.
When I finish I tie it again to my loincloth, my eyes look up and Miles is looking at me.
"What?" I ask in a shy tone.
"Nothing, you're just pretty," He says. "Very pretty,"
"Thanks," I say and give him a kiss.
"Hey um, what did Jake wanted to talk about?"
Miles looks around, there's not too many people around here, everyone is still at their pods or out fishing.
"Do you want to fly somewhere else?" He proposes. I guess we won't go that far but... it could be nice.
"Okay, let's go," I respond.
He takes my hand and we go find his Ikran.
We take a short trip just somewhere behind the village we are now, with a small beach and mountains.
"So...?" I ask once we're settled here.
"Well, we discussed many things. We talked about General Ardmore and some of her plans, we also discussed Spider... he will talk to Norm and his friends and they're change the mask. We will probably have to fly away and leave it somewhere, hoping that it will buy us some time," He lets it all out.
I don't know on what to focus first.
"And where will you go?"
"We can't move the mask like out of nowhere and we can't go that far. We still have to discuss with Tonowari where the best place to leave it would be,"
I nod slowly taking it all in.
"So he wasn't mean to you?" I ask standing next to him.
Miles laughs.
"Nah, even now me being younger, Sully still remembers what ranking lower than someone is," I don't really get what he is talking about.
"He respects me, even uf just a little, that little respect is enough for us to make a good job for all of you," he says.
"I'm glad,"
"I guess I can say the same," he murmurs.
"We can... take advantage that we're here now... explore a little and then go back at night," I propose after a while.
Miles squints at me but when he notices my smile he smiles too.
"Sure, let's explore," he says taking my hand and we both walk away.
We do explore, but only until we find somewhere where we can lay down and have some fun.
It had been a while since we were able to enjoy this together. Now that he wears less clothes the process is even easier than before.
I moan his name when he kisses my neck and he drags his hands up and down my tighs, I could whimper from pleasure.
Later on we're back on the village, there are big grins in our faces that seem to be imposible to disappear.
Miles tells me that he'll have a quick chat with Tonowari and later meet me in our pod.
I decide to go see my family then.
"Hi," I say from the entrance, Neytiri, Jake, Tuk and Neteyam are here.
I am greeted by them and come in.
"How's that going cousin?" I ask Neteyam.
"Today I was able to walk more, I still can't swim that we'll though but... it's better than before," he says and Tuk wraps her arms around him.
"And you'll keep getting strong so you get back to how you were, even better," Neytiri tells him.
"That's right mom," he says.
"How are you Tuk?" The moment I ask my little cousin starts talking and talking about many things she did today.
To be honest sometimes Tuk can be a little too much, but right now she seems adorable to me.
"Hey baby girl, why don't you let your cousin rest a little and you have your snack?" Jake says once she finishes another story and offers her something wrapped on seaweed.
"Okay dad," Tuk says taking the snack and sitting.
"Tuk would've kept going," he whispers to me later, Neytiri smiles.
"It's fine, I'm happy she talks to me," I say.
"Don't worry, ask her again and she'll keep talking," Neytiri says this time and we all laugh a little.
"How are you feeling?" Neytiri asks nodding to my belly, I rest my hand there and smile.
"I'm good, very good. I still don't like how some of the fish smells but, I feel fine," I say
"That's good, very important," Neytiri says.
"I wish we could go home when it is born, I want all our clan to see him, I want my mother to meet him," I say.
"We will, have trust," Neytiri says.
Jake doesn't speak.
"You're working on a plan, right? With Miles," I tell him.
"Yeah, Tonowari too. Let's hope we can all fight this," Jake says his tone not as happy as ours. Neytiri rubs his arm.
"When do you think you'll have it?" Neteyam asks me.
"The baby? Well, I think it's just weeks now," I say.
"Cool, have you thought of any names? Neteyam could be good for a guy," he says and we all laugh.
"Well yeah but that's your name, let's have some diversity in the family," I say.
"Why don't you call it Natom?" Tuk asks. Natom? We all turn to look at each other, we have no idea where she got it from.
"I don't think that sounds very nice," I say Kindle to Tuk.
"Well that was just my first idea," she shrugs and leans back a little.
I spend a little more time with my family and then I go back to our pod.
Spider's still not here.
"I was about to go and search for you," Miles greets me.
"Well, no need. I'm here now," I say, I give him a kiss and then sit down.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, yeah, I just went to say hi to my family," I say.
"Very well, How's the kid?" The kid is Neteyam, I don't know why Miles always calls him the kid and not his name.
"Better, he says he walked more today,"
Miles nods in agreement.
"He'll be fine, maybe in two or three months he can get back to his Ilu," he says.
I comment to him that we talked about the name of the baby and he gets scared.
"Oh no, do you think it's coming? Are you feeling something right now? We should call Ronal," he says alarmed.
"Miles, miles! I'm okay, we were just talking about it but it must be important for us to talk about it too," I say.
After he calms down a little we start debating names.
***QUICK NOTE: Hi, sorry for the delay I had to write on my phone so lol it's harder than with the computer but okay, hope you like it. Also, what should they name their baby? I'll read your suggestions. Thanks for reading💙***