CHAPTER 16
My father drops my head from his hands as it hits the stone harshly, I grunt at the sudden impact, more focused on Aonung's reaction. He keeps his hand on my stomach as he burns his blue eyes into the yellow of mine.
"There is no baby without you A'nityra" He said quietly. My heart skips a beat over his words, even in a moment of crisis.
My family had still gone into a state of shock, obviously shown by my head slightly throbbing after hitting the stone beneath me. Ronal finally moves to my shoulder as she pokes and prods the area. I flinch and jolt sideways at the lack of pain medication, my flesh being attacked by my mother in law.
I tried to tug my hand away from Tuk, I didn't want to hurt her small hands by squeezing too hard. She didn't budge, only wrapping her legs around my bicep to keep herself by my side.
Aonung held one palm to my stomach, the other holding my hand as I gripped on tightly. Ronal begin to weave thread between the wound, tightly closing the area. She tightly secured a special type of seaweed along the wound, preventing any chance of blood escaping.
Blood rushed to my head as it began to flow properly once again. I began to feel dizzy, my vision blurring into seeing double then changing back to normal. Ronal must've noticed my eye's moving incorrectly as she clapped her hands above my face. My head shook slightly, reverting my vision back to normal. I tried to sit up but was softly pushed back down by my mate. His arms circled around me as he picked my body off of the ground. He maneuvered my body to not stretch any of the now closed injuries.
My mother came forward and gave me a kiss on my cheek, lightly brushing a hand along the side of my face.
"Get some rest A'nityra, we pray to the great mother that you make a fast recovery" She says, giving me a final peck on the forehead. Aonung takes it as his cue to move, I notice the familiar trek as our marui soon becomes visible.
"How long have you known?" He looked down at me, trying to make eye contact once again.
"About what?" I tiredly mumble.
"The pregnancy"
"I found out today, when you told me to visit your mother" I tell him.
"Wait. So you lied to me about what she said. Why didn't you tell me? you know I want a child with you." He asks, slowly stopping in front of our home and tracing the patterns on my thigh.
"I know, I know. I was worried that it was too soon. We're seventeen Aonung." I sigh as he begins to enter.
"But that is normal here" He contests, placing me down and sitting beside me.
"Well, it's not normal where I come from." I mumble, uncomfortably laying down. He comes to my aid quickly, placing delicate hands along my side and helping me adjust.
"Sleep, you need to heal" He whispers into my ear before I doze off.
Aonung POV:
The soft rise and fall of her chest tells me she's sleeping peacefully. I graze my hand along her stomach and begin to rub circles. There was a baby in there, our child, something we both made together, the result of the day we mated.
A huge smile makes it's way onto my face, in nine months we would have a child in our arms. If the vision Eywa showed her was true we both knew she was pregnant with our eldest son. I knew it was early as I began to riddle my head with possible name suggestions. I feel the need to pump my fist in the air, scream, jump around, anything to let out my excitement, but I prevent myself from doing so.
My wife was injured and asleep, I couldn't celebrate when she was in pain. I looked around, making sure no one was watching as I placed my ear along her stomach. I frowned at the sound of no heart-beat.
"You won't be able to hear the baby for a long while" A voice startles me. I jump forward, covering my mate's body as I draw the dagger she had gifted me for my birthday. I slowly sheath my weapon back into it's place along my hip as I realise it is only Neytiri.
She holds a tray of simple medicines as she walks forward.
"These are for her, your mother said you knew how to apply them" She explains, promptly placing them down and begging to exit.
Before she can leave I hold her wrist and tug her softly back to her daughter.
"Stay, she would want you too" I say, nodding my head at the sleeping body. Neytiri and I had barely ever talked, it was awkward, especially since she was mates mother.
She silently walked to her daughter and placed A'nityra's head in her lap. She naturally snuggled into her mother as Neytiri sighed.
"She used to be so small" She murmured, reminiscing the old times. I begin to smooth on the medicinal pastes on her stomach and side as Neytiri continues to talk about her daughter.
"When it was time for her to bond with an ikran, she was so nervous. She nearly ran back to me before she could perform tsaheylu." She softly smiled, looking down at A'nityra adoringly. We fell back into a silence as I promptly broke it.
"What was it like when you where pregnant with A'nityra? What was Jake like?" I ask, trying to gain any information on what it was going to be like from now on.
"We where both so excited, I found out just before the battle with the sky people and I was so worried that I would get shot in the stomach and it would all be over." She sighed.
"But, when I told Jake he was ecstatic. It was a beautiful night and we where going on a night time fly with our Ikran, when I told him he let go and fell through the air and right into a pile of mud." She chuckled softly at the memory.
"You will find that you'll be more protective over her. It's only natural instinct. Jake wouldn't let me fly for a month after he found out, and he double checked everything I ate to make sure it wasn't poisoned."
"And what will she be like?" I say, nodding my head at my mate.
"Right now not much will happen, she will become protective and aware of anything coming near her stomach. But as her stomach gets larger, she will become slow, and when she gives birth it will be the most painful experience of her life" She says, raking a hand through her daughters hair.
I shuffle closer to Neytiri, applying the medicine to A'nityra's shoulders as she quietly whimpers in pain, she turns into her mother as Neytiri soothes her quickly.
"I must get going. Jake is still in shock and waiting for me" She declares, shifting her body so that I can take her place. She places a comforting hand on my shoulder.
"You will be a good father and mate Aonung, you have no need to worry" She assures, giving my shoulder a few comforting pats.
I see her exit our home as I take my time to stroke the skin on my wife's face.
It isn't long before I hear the small patter of familiar footsteps. I turn my head and see Tuk running into the marui.
"Aonung! Tyra!" She yells out. She covers her mouth ad tip toes towards us once she see's us on the floor. I shift slightly, allowing one of my knees to be open for Tuk to sit on.
Instead she sits on the floor and presses her ear to her sister's stomach.
"Are you sure there's a baby in there? Neteyam had to tell me what being 'pregnant' meant, but I think he might've been lying" She says confused, pressing her ear down once more before rising. I laugh at her actions and pat my knee as she ushers herself to clamber onto it.
"The baby is really small right now, so we can't hear the heartbeat. But one day her stomach is going to be the size of my mothers, then you'll be able to hear the beat"
Her eyes widen at my explanation, they practically sparkle.
"Does that mean she'll get a stomach tattoo like your Mum?" She asks. I nod as she jumps on my leg excitingly.
"And you'll be an aunt" I say, she beams up at me as I hear more footsteps. We turn towards the entrance and see the rest of her sibling's entering.
"Don't forget we'll be uncles bro" Lo'ak shoves Neteyam as he rolls his eyes.
"Well I knew before any of you so that makes me the favourite already" He shrugs his shoulders, walking past his siblings who stood motionless.
"You knew!" Kiri whisper-hissed at her brother as he sat down next to me. My eyes slightly widen at the fact that he knew before me, but A'nityra must've had her reasons.
"Yeah, she told me twenty minutes after she found out" He says, grasping one of her hands in his and resting it in his lap as he sit's cross legged. Kiri sat next to him as she rested a hand over her sister.
"Well I'm her singing partner, so that's got to count for something. So where does that leave you Lo'ak?" She teases. I interrupt their little feud before it can get any further.
"A'nityra sings?" I ask, she hadn't done more than hum in front of me.
"You didn't know? "Lo'ak askes, genuinely surprised. I shake my head side to side.
"She would sing with Kiri and do dances. Like this!" Tuk giggles, jumping up from her position on me and running to the front. She swayed a couple times before she tripped and fell into Neteyam who quickly placed her on his thigh, wary of their sisters hand. We all quietly laugh at her fall. Neteyam sighs once it goes silent, looking at the unwrapped wound on her side.
"I don't even know what attacked her" He mumbles. Lo'ak's ears twitch as his head rises.
"Oh I know!" He exclaims, excited he knew something the rest of us didn't.
"I don't exactly remember what she said but it was something along the lines of an Abyscila? No... an Alybsicull? That's not right either..." Lo'ak says his eyebrows furrowing. My eyes widen in shock.
"An Abysacall?" I ask worriedly. He nods along.
"Yeah that's the one" He says.
"What is it?" Kiri asks, more curious than ever. They all turn to me as my mood darkens.
"They're dangerous na'vi eaters. They latch onto you're skin and drain the blood out of you, then they eat your flesh. Abyssacall's are extremely rare to come by, their species are nearly extinct. Lo'ak and A'nityra are lucky to be alive" I say, my worry spiking at the possibility of her not coming home today. Tuk whines in fear and hides in the crook of Neteyam's shoulder as the rest look down in fear.
"I have to notify my mother about the sighting after Tyra wakes" I whisper, stroking the side of my thumb along her cheek. I hold her closer as Lo'ak holds her other hand in his own.
"It's okay though. Because their both right here with us!" Tuk says trying to lighten the mood. Her child like innocence seems to work as we all adore her attempt to make us less sad.
"How about we tell Aonung a story about our sister" Kiri asks Tuk excitingly. She lights up and runs over to me as Kiri begins to start. She uses various hand motions as she explains, all of our eyes intently watching her.
"When she was five mother dropped us off at our grandmothers, Tuk wasn't born at the time. But A'nityra managed to get her hands on some of our grandmother's ceremonial paint. And she managed to throw it all at our parent's ikran's, the next day the went off to stop human forces with ikran that had bright red lips, and colourful splotches all over them" She laughed.
The rest of the group exploded in a fit of giggles as I looked down at A'nityra, she seemed to be smiling in her sleep as we talked about her all night long.
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