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( what once was )
THE COMMOTION SURROUNDING the sully family marui quickly dwindled down in size as word of kiri's awakening had been spread throughout the village.
metkayina had resumed their previous daily tasks once they caught sight of toruk makto's now-safe daughter, conscious and well as the seven of you spent the rest of the morning tidying up your cluttered home.
tending to your younger sister in an effort to comfort her after her rough experience, you occupied yourself with redoing the delicate braids in her hair that had grown ruffled from the "excitement" of the morning.
"are you feeling better?" you questioned from your spot on a small bench in your marui, the words uncomfortably leaving your mouth muffled due to kiri's hair band clenched between your teeth.
"when am i ever feeling anything other than irritation?" she quietly retorted, uninterestedly fiddling with the edge of her loincloth as she sat in front of you, your knees on either side of her.
an eye-roll weaved its way across your features at her response, a disgruntled yelp bubbling past the younger girl's lips as you tugged lightly on the braid between your fingers. "do not give me that moody teenager crap, tsumke."
kiri sighed as her eyes molded into a still glare, glancing back over at you before focusing on her lap once more to twist the material in her fingers around her nails. "i am feeling better than i was, that is for sure."
taking the girl's tie from your teeth, you fastened it tightly around the end of the hair strains you had tucked together and placed your hands over her shoulders, leaning past them to meet her distantly weary gaze. "i am happy to hear that."
rolling her eyes at your actions, she softly batted your hands away from her torso, mumbling out what seemed like a thankful sentiment before pushing herself up off of the ground to presumably find a place to rest.
you smiled, watching your sister carry on before you felt someone replace kiri's presence beside you. glancing over at the person who had decided accompany you on your bench, you held back a sigh at the sight of your mother's knowing stare.
the woman gestured toward the outside of your marui as you looked up at her, your eyes wandering to land on the busied figure of your father situated on the outer deck of the tent, occupied with rolling up one of the rugs ronal had used during her ritual. your eyes fell to the ground with a set shake of your head, your elbows coming to rest over your knees.
"mother, no," you refused sharply, avoiding neytiri's urging gaze. "i am not doing it."
"you haven't spoken to him in days," the older na'vi proclaimed, shuffling closer to you as you turned away from her. "this cannot go on for much longer, ma'ite."
"yes, well, conversations can start both ways," you retorted. "plus, i have nothing to say to him."
releasing a breath of irritation at your attitude, your mother's gaze hardened as she looked back out toward your father. "i am not asking you to apologize—"
"i wasn't going to do that, anyways," you muttered, reaching out a finger to brush it across the flooring of your tent.
"i am simply asking you to speak to him," the na'vi frustratedly finished, fed up with your interruptions. "so go, before i make you."
silence overtook the conversation between you and the older woman, your eyes still trained on the ground below you as your eyebrows harshly knitted together.
"go," she urged, resting a hand atop your braids before standing from the stool, taking her leave to presumably finish up with household duties. "before i make you clean the tsurak with your brother."
as she trekked off toward the outside of your family dwelling, your gaze raised to travel back toward the once-olo'eyktan of the omatikaya, the matt that he was once fiddling with discarded to the side as he was now focused on sharpening a hunting spear using a knife that was gripped tightly between his fingers.
with your mother's words cramming their way past your stubborn skull, you casted once last look toward your dad before heaving an irritated sigh, pushing off of your knees to stand and make your way toward the older na'vi. jake paused his stone work as he noticed your approaching figure, glancing over at you as you stood a few paces away, your arms obstinately crossed over your torso.
parting your lips, you cleared your throat awkwardly, shifting to lay your weight against the side of the marui as your father continued on with his carving. "what are you doing?"
halting his actions once again, he looked up to meet your eyes, glancing down toward the ground as if he hadn't expected you to engage in conversation with him. "uh, just sharpening some spears."
you nodded, raising your eyebrows in a faux interest as you gestured toward the empty area beside him with your index finger. "can i help?"
jake's eyes widened slightly at the ask, and you guessed that your offer to be anywhere near him was one of the last things he expected during your current silent-treatment argument.
"yeah, yeah, sure." he nodded, scooting a little to his left to free up some more space as he gestured with his chin toward a small shelf a few feet away. "should be another knife over there."
wordlessly, you moved to fetch the isolated spare item from its previous spot on the empty surface, slowly lowering yourself down to sit beside your father. you avoided his eyes as he handed you one of the dull hunting weapons that had yet to be carved, toothing on your lower lip as you guided the prongs of your knife to swiftly skim over the edge of the spear.
"this is nostalgic."
looking toward your left, you glanced up at your father's taller figure as his words cut through the softly setting silence, the corners of your eyebrows scrunching to meet the center of your forehead. "what is?"
jake looked toward the weapons you gripped in your hands, momentarily pausing his own work to meet your eyes. "this."
you stayed silent, waiting for a deeper elaboration as he resumed his slicing.
"we used to do this when you were younger," the na'vi continued, and you noticed the remnants of a smile tugging at the corner of his lips before he paused his movement once more. "we'd hang our legs off of the branches of the ol' willows and sharpen weapons for the warriors."
you decided to keep quiet as your father reminisced, watching as his eyes traveled out across the water ahead of you while he recalled further moments from your closer childhood with the older man.
"we'd sit there, and you'd talk to me about whatever came to your mind," he proclaimed with a smile. "it was mostly about how much of a skxawng lo'ak was."
a small breath of amusement pushed past your lips at the memory, the vague remembrance of your earlier years as a younger na'vi enveloping the frustration that once plagued your mind.
"and you'd also used to tell me about how you'd be the strongest warrior the omatikaya had ever seen," jake went on, glancing down at you as you shook your head softly at the memory of your words. "about how you'd be even stronger than your brothers- even stronger than me."
sighing slightly, you nodded your head, harshly swiping your knife across the spear in your hands. "i don't know how i planned to protect a village when i can't even protect my brother."
jake's eyebrows pulled downwards at your revelation, his arms moving to place the weapons in his hands down by his side before resting a palm over your shoulder. you glanced down at the contact, gazing up at his eyes as he shook his head.
"i'm sorry."
the words that fell from the older man's mouth sounded as foreign to you as the concept of living with the reef people did just a few weeks ago. out of the many years you had spent within the forest, and the days you had spent in the sea, you had never heard the once- olo'eyktan of your people mutter that phrase.
he noticed your obvious bewilderment, yet didn't act as if he had as he took the hand placed on your shoulder and moved it back down to his lap.
"you're not lo'ak's babysitter," your father continued, his tongue grazing over the edge of his lips. "he's just reckless at times, and when i can't be there, it's worrying."
"understatement of the century," you muttered lowly, prompting a quiet chuckle from the older man beside you.
"i just," he paused, seemingly gulping down a lump that had formed in his throat before carrying on. "i know what it's like to lose a twin."
grasping the meaning behind his expressed worries, the widened expansion of your eyes brought a small breath to push past your nostrils, your lips dropping open slightly as you stared at your father with tightly knitted brows. "dad—"
"and i don't want either of you to have to experience that," the omatikaya proclaimed. "so i pushed that onto you."
your pupils trailed across his face as he stared at you, the muscles of his mandible tensing slightly with every clench of his jaw before he shook his head. "and i'm sorry for it."
a placid silence enveloped the air around you, the distant sloshes of moving water and the ocasional talk of neighboring metkayina punctuating the soundlessness. no words were able to make their way past your throat as you stared at your father, and finally, you decided to move.
slowly resting your head against the older na'vi's bicep, you scooted closer toward him, feeling his slight confusion through your contact.
hesitantly, he slung his arm around your neck, pulling you closer into his side with you now resting over his chest. closing your eyes at the warmth of his embrace that you hadn't felt since you were in the single digits, you smiled slightly.
"i'm sorry, too," you muttered, opening your eyes to let your pupils settle on the water in front of you. "i shouldn't have spoken to you the way that i did."
jake laughed softly, the vibration of his chuckle sounding through your ear. "i'll let it slide... this time."
as you let out a small titter, your parted your lips to reply to his comment before a sudden shriek of the metkayina warning bell sounded all throughout the village. you rose cautiously from your father's chest, making your way onto your feet as did jake, stepping in front of you to scout out the ocean.
"what's going on?" you questioned from behind his taller figure, peering out from beside him to catch your own glance at the sea.
dozens of reef people had begun to swarm the water, some calling for their ilus, while others hopped right in.
the small patter of feet making contact with the ground sounded from behind you, tuk apprehensively gripping on the back string of your loincloth as she made her way to your side. "dad?"
"i'm not sure," your father answered, his eyes still stuck to the sea as more na'vi approached the water. "go inside- get your mother."
disregarding the older man's directions, you stepped closer toward the edge of the doc as you noticed a certain figure mounted on her ilu, gliding through the water as she waved toward the surrounding villagers.
"tsireya?" you confusedly stated, watching as the girl made her way between the clusters of maruis and slowly approached your own. "tsireya, what's going on?"
slowing to a stop in front of you as you crouched down and gripped the edge of the flooring to meet her eyes, the metkayina smiled brightly before eagerly placing a hand over one of yours.
"the tulkun," she answered excitedly, "they have returned."
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a / n :
I AM SO SO SO SO SORRY
FOR THE LONG ASS WAIT,
my hand is now pretty much
healed and i will be updating
regularly :,) thank you all sm
for your patience and support🫶