The night escapes eventually had to come to an end. Rather it was for wanting to actually sleep or because of what happened on the day before, the thirteenth day since the Sully family arrived at the reef islands.
That day had been long, sharpening all my weapons after the previous day's hunting, taking care of Maitrey, the infirmary, volunteering to cook dinner along with Neytiri, and some other stuff. Neteyam and I hadn't talked much during the day, given that our schedules didn't make space for it, and we had to reserve what we wanted to say until it was night. Atswon was very aware of my routine, so he made sure to bid 'good night' after supper, knowing he wouldn't see me until the next morning.
Each night, the time I spent with Neteyam was longer, going from one or two hours of only training and partially talking, to four hours of mostly talking and a side piece of practicing sign language —which he ended up getting the hang of after a week—, the spear for him and bow and arrow for me.
The times we wanted to be by ourselves, we would sit in the shack, face-to-face or next to each other, with the water from the lake producing enough light for me to see the way he'd wrinkle his nose or how smile lines formed when he grinned, but dark enough that the freckles on both of our faces would glow. Neteyam looked like home.
On two or three nights from all the ones we spent together, we would sometimes go to The Caves. The Caves were underwater grottos, which you could get to from the north part of the island, and were only allowed to be used by teenagers and young adults. Every generation had had its time of going to The Caves for a certain amount of years. Whatever happened inside stayed inside. No parents would ever bother you there.
They were bigger than one would have thought, with all kinds of plants crawling up the walls, a massive bonfire, and some things to have fun with. All of those were inside the main cave, and two other smaller caves were empty, with exception of the natural pools that lay there.
Neteyam and I would sit close to the fire, I'd rest my head on his shoulder and he would sing his songcord to pass the time. It was long, filled with moments of sadness, joy, and an impressive amount of achievements you could only expect from the chief's son.
What happened the night of the thirteenth had nothing to do with that. We had been actually training, but the tiredness from lack of sleep got the better of us. The last thing I remembered was talking to Neteyam, both of us sitting on the floor with our backs to one of the mangroves. It had been about sign language, how to say something I didn't quite recall. My eyelids shut themselves close and I lost all sense of the notion.
When I woke up the day later, the sky still held its shiny stars, but the orange and yellow from the sun were very much visible. The first thing I noticed was a nice warmth spread throughout my body, stronger at my back. Then I felt some weight on my waist: a hand. A dark blue, manly hand. Realization struck me hard enough that I gasped and kept my mouth open.
Neteyam's arm was around my torso, his hand laying close to my belly, his thumb brushing on my skin. He was too close. I tried wiggling my way out of his grasp, doing slow and quiet movements to not wake him up. It only ended up with me touching him even more. When I turned my head to see if Neteyam was still asleep, I became breathless and felt warmth on my cheeks. I was less than an inch away from his face. His eyes closed, expression relaxed, lips parted, his soft breaths crashing with my face. Some of his braids covered his jaw and neck, the beads from them making the scene colorful. It felt wrong of him to not be awake to feel the moment.
I pulled away from Neteyam and stood up. The arm that was previously wrapped around me dropped to the floor. He frowned slightly and his whole body shrunk into a fetal position.
When he woke up, I did not tell him what had happened. He was only too worried about the clear skies and sun shining from above and told me that he should have been with his family by now. In less than five minutes he left to go somewhere.
I dragged my feet to my mauri, straightening when I saw Atswon by the flames with two fish perfectly cooked. He looked at me with a small smile.
"Atswon, what-"
"Kaltxì," he said and gestured to the fish with his eyes, "I made us breakfast. I was waiting for you to return so we could go together, but we missed it."
"Oh, shit, I'm sorry," I side-hugged him, "I fell asleep on the shack."
He brought another small wooden stool for me to sit next to him and started putting the pieces of fish in a bowl.
Atswon shrugged at my words. "It's fine. I shouldn't worry when you have the Sully boy around." He gave me a sly grin and chuckled at my face.
I nudged him and shook my head. "Skxawng."
"I hadn't seen you in days, you know. We haven't talked much," he said. I narrowed my eyes, knowing there was a point he wanted to get to. Atswon passed my food avoiding my gaze.
"Stop, spit it out or I'll make you tell me." I took the bowl and started eating. It was delicious for a pincer fish.
"Tam, tam, no need to get rude, you know." He raised both of his hands in a surrendering pose. "I'll only tell you because I know you'd kill me if you found out by someone who isn't me. I almost died."
"WHAT?" The question left my mouth before I had even finished processing what he had said.
"It's no big deal, really. Last hunting round I got pushed by a Nalutsa into a poisonous coral. Nueiy cured me. I didn't want to worry.you"
He looked at me for an answer, but I froze, flabbergasted. Nueiy, my friend, had not said a word about Atswon, I thought. I came out of my trance, grabbing whatever was next to me, which was a wooden plank to light up the fire, and smacked him with it. Nowhere from his upper half was left untouched by the board.
"How could you not think of telling me? Are you insane? We're friends! For Eywa's sake, I've been living in your mauri for a week, and not once did you mention it? Oh, I'm a terrible friend for not noticing. I'm awful!" I kept on yelling, moving my hands around.
"You are not a bad friend, you hear me? It was my fault. What I said it's true, we haven't talked in days, there was no way you'd know." He grabbed both of my hands and kept them still.
I looked at him, expectant. "Well, then, we can talk now"
Atswon nodded and pulled me down to the floor again. Sometime in between my scolding, I had begun to walk.
"As I said, Nueiy helped me. She was very gentle. And I've been speaking to her more this past month, I think I like her." His words became a whisper.
"I, well, uh- I'm happy for you. It was finally time for you to fancy someone. The whole fake-mating thing was going to make neither of us feel complete."
Atswon had his cheeks somewhat reddish, and he talked with excitement in his voice I had only heard before when he sang his songcord or when he told the story of how he became a hunter. He had this sheepish smile and a mix of emotions transmitted from his eyes. He was truly overjoyed.
"I think she likes me back but is hiding it because you and I are supposed to be together. This reminds me that when my Sempul was making the guest list for the ceremony we heard from Ta'unui that grandma is not doing well with her sickness. It should've cured by now, but it got even worse," he said. Atswon stopped his words for a few seconds and then looked at me. "I don't know what to do," he muttered under his breath, tears threatening to fall from his teal eyes.
"Oh." I hugged him tightly, knowing how it felt to know that someone you loved was close to death. It was awfully painful.
Atswon cried silently. "I don't want her to die," he sniffled.
"She won't." I didn't know if she would, but there were not many things one could say.
"I- uh, I don't want to keep going with this." He cleaned the tears from his face and licked his lips, something he did when he was nervous.
He meant the mating ceremony.
"I don't want to either. We'll tell everyone, just not now. You don't need that pressure right now."
I wasn't even thinking about myself when I finished my sentence. It didn't matter that I had begun to feel things for Neteyam, that I felt the need to tell him a thousand things, and that I wanted to tell everyone that we were something. But I could hold on for a little while until Atswon was alright.
By the end of our breakfast, we did as much talking as we could, getting into every detail of the past few days. When I remembered that by midday we teens were going to visit the Cove of Ancestors, I invited him in. He was yet to become friends with the Sully brothers and sisters. Atswon was a likable and sweet person that only a twat like Aonung could hate.
Tuk would love him because he had always been good with children. She'd probably get on his shoulders and get carried by him. Kiri was very connected to the sea, so it was most likely she'd ignore all of us and just do her thing. Lo'ak would call him 'bro' and they'd get along as friends, but he would be all over Tsireya to talk much to him. The only one left would be Neteyam, who was too nice and a good person to leave Atswon behind. The two of us would only spend some time together, but every glance and word would be like a non-verbal 'I'm here with you'.
As two more hours passed with me going to the infirmary and the kitchen back and forth until Neytiri grabbed my shoulders.
"You go to work and I'll help in the kitchen," she said. Honestly, her calmness and continuous cooking hours could almost make me believe she wasn't one fierce warrior and hunter of forest animals.
"Irayo," I thanked her, giving her a tired smile.
"Kea tìkin."
I ran back to where Nueiy was treating the old hunter Kxaro. He would not normally come to seek healers when he was hurt, he thought that whatever pain he was going through had been a result of his mistakes and that he needed to keep the wound intact to have a scar that'd remind him of the errors he shall never commit again. So it was very much to my surprise when he came into the hut, sweaty and stinky. He was about to die. Nueiy ran to fetch Ronal while Kxaro held onto my arm for dear life. I laid the man on the floor, on top of a comfortable mat. He kept whimpering and began trembling. His teal skin was quickly turning purple.
When Ronal came in, holding her pregnant belly, she called for the names of herbs and vials while she pulled a needle from the pouch she had with her. There were many practices only the Tsahìk knew, so Nueiy and I got out of her way.
I left by midday, Ronal still treating the man. The cases in which something unexplainable happened were increasing. There were no side effects, other than delusions about Eywa and her daughter that lasted less than a day. Ronal was under great pressure, and, from what she had told us, unable to interpret the Great Mother's intentions. It was more than rare.
As I got to the ilu dock, I saw Neteyam already there. He was alone, waiting for the rest of us to come and gather.
"Hey," he said. He was resting his body on one of the pillars where the ilu saddles were. He immediately put on a wide smile.
"Hey," I smiled, "So, what have you been up to today?"
"Besides waking up with you, just that I had to fish for my breakfast. You should have seen it! I used the spear you gave me and it worked wonders. Thank you."
"I'm glad, warrior boy," I smiled.
He smiled, too, and I stood next to him in a nice silence. It was the ability he had to make me feel just as great with silence or talking that made me get lost in my thoughts.
In a second, Neteyam pulled me towards him. He gave me a tight hug, his arms around my waist and his face buried into the crook of my neck. I stayed still, shocked, and then weakly put my arms around his neck. I touched his hair and played with it a little. He remained in the same position for some minutes, both of us melting into each other and embracing with every bit of care we had to give. My body got warm from the contact and the heat of his skin.
Neteyam pulled away slowly. Our eyes locked and I saw something in his that I couldn't decipher, but our connection was as strong as always. Our bond made it easy to isolate us from everything and everyone so we could only focus on the other. The space around me became blurred spots and muffled sounds. I swallowed and detailed his face. His eyebrows were raised, his jaw loose, and his eyes a tad more open than usual. It was not enough for me to know that there was nothing else in Pandora, or anywhere else, that could ever compete with him. He needed to know too.
"You're beautiful," we both happened to say at the same time. I reddened at his words, fully forgetting that I had told him the same.
Neteyam took his hand over to my hair and put some strands behind my ear. He leaned closer.
"Ugh, stop now, you lovebirds. You're going to make me puke," Kiri interrupted, rolling her eyes at the same time.
I was forced to look away from his eyes as I stepped further away from him and gazed at the floor. The rest of the people arrived seconds later. When the group was completed, Atswon included, we called for the ilus and left rather quickly.
The journey to the Cove of Ancestors was fun. Neteyam and I distanced ourselves from the group and raced each other. He was already an expert at ilu riding.
"You can't catch up to me!" I signed.
"We'll see!" He signed back.
I kept the lead all the way to the Cove with Neteyam close behind me. We had good laughs that only changed to smiles when he and the other Sullys saw the outside. The structure of semi-circles looked like they completed the ones from the Tree of Souls back in the forest. There were pieces of land floating, similar to the Hallelujah Mountains. The sun was shining brightly on the light blue sky.
"Come," I said to him, getting off Lìtzy.
As I had expected, the group was divided into two pairs and a trio. Atswon was happily telling things to Kiri that I couldn't hear from the distance I was in.
"It's amazing," he gasped, a smile plastered on his face as he looked up.
I grinned. "It is even better underwater."
We both dived into the water and stopped right in front of one of the big leaves of the Tree of Souls. They had the shape of feathers and were semi-transparent. Eywa was so strong there that you could hear her heartbeats synchronized with yours. The light emanating from the stem of the tree was as bright as the sun itself, with a purple trace.
I grabbed Neteyam's hand as I took the end of my queue. The pale pink tendrils moved erratically, longing to be joined with Eywa. Neteyam did the same and both of us connected our kurus to the Tree.
I closed my eyes.
Faint laughs were the only sound my ears could hear. The chuckling became louder and the voices of two girls echoed.
"Dad! Stop! You're making me laugh," one voice said. The image of three forest Na'vi appeared. I was one of them.
"We don't want to laugh! We're supposed to be upset!" That was the sound of a voice I would never forget.
"Oh, come on! You can't stay mad at me for cutting your hair, it will grow back!" Dad said in a tone that back then I hadn't realized was forced to high-pitch.
"But right now it's too short!" She said. She was very similar to how I remembered her childhood self. Her hair was braided and barely touching her shoulder. Her upper half wasn't covered because there was no need to yet, only some vines, feathers, and leather adorned her chest. She had not a single other accessory, but she was as beautiful as always.
Dad had stayed back and didn't notice that she ran and suddenly tripped. She fell to her knees on the rockiest part of the ground. She let out I wail and the younger me screamed, running to her.
"Maitrey!"
She turned to face me. She had a leaf pressed to her right knee where blood was dripping down. Maitrey closed her eyes and seconds after uncovered the scratch. There was nothing. The blood flow ceased. She did the same thing to her other knee.
By the time dad came to her, she was no longer hurt. I wondered about the meaning of the vision. There was something Eywa wanted me to see. Was it the healing? That I already suspected. Maitrey was different from other Na'vi, and could only ever truly get along with Kiri. And Kiri was different, too.
The vision stopped but, where I thought I'd see the others and come back to reality, it only changed into another background.
It was a beach. I recognized it as part of the island of Ta'unui. This time, I wasn't looking at things as an outsider; I was in the body appearing in the vision. Said body was laying on the floor inside some makeshift weaved, stiff dome that had one opening where the beach viewed and another on the 'roof'. There was no roof, technically, as it was a place for stargazing.
The Sky was dark and the stars glowed from afar. It was a relieving scenery. There was movement next to me and I turned around. I held my breath. Neteyam was laying next to me, all of his body facing me. He had the cheesiest smile on while his only visible ear perked up and twitched.
"Are you okay?" He asked. He had the same looks as the Neteyam that was next to me on the Cove.
"I'm perfect because I'm with you," I said, my mouth moving by itself. I had no control over my body.
He put his right hand on my waist, smiled, and pulled me even closer to join our lips in a small kiss. I was too happy. His lips felt like the softest of the skins, warm and lovely. It only lasted for about three seconds and he put some inches in between us. If I hadn't been laying on the floor I would have fallen.
"Nga yawne lu oer," he whispered and stared right into my eyes, like how he always did. He grabbed my hand and put it in his chest, by his heart. "If there is one thing I'm sure about is that I love you. I always have and always will until the rest of my days. Even after that, I'll make sure Eywa puts a star in the sky that you can look at and remember that I lived for you. To love you."
His words echoed in my head. I realized there were not many things I could say. Only one.
"I love you."
I was stripped from the vision with abruptness. My eyes immediately shifted to Neteyam. He was looking at me, smiling. I was about to say something, anything, but the flickering of light from the Tree stopped me.
Kiri was not far away, shaking uncontrollably. There was light showing in her veins. We both went to her as fast as we could. He held my hand.
'Oh, Kiri, what happened?' I thought.
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Author's note:
Hello everybody! How have you been holding up without my update yesterday? I struggled with this chapter quite more than others, so it took me more time to get it finished. Now it's here and I'm waiting for your comments on it to know if you liked it!
On a side note, I'm one step away from dying of cardiac arrest because have you seen those views? More than 15 thousand! And the votes? 500 is amazing. I want to especially thank @seishuly, @Kath_Potter, @EdelgaRushing, @HeartHope8, @ValentinavioletBlack, @neteyamsmate4life, @Sofie_innit, and @Stanstanly for their constant votes and/or comments, each of you really make my day. I'm expecting the ghost readers to come to flesh and bone so I can thank them as well, it's only one star button away!
Happy twelve day of the year, cheers.
Sincerely, Dina.