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As Ni'teya and Lo'ak slept separately that night, the girl fell asleep almost instantly. At first, she was apprehensive, but due to her already exhausted state, she quickly drifted asleep without noticing it happen.
Lo'ak fell asleep as he usually did too, shifting around as he slept soundly. To begin with, anyway.
Around a quarter of the way through the night, he awoke after having another nightmare. It involved his brother as it always did, ending the same as usual too. He began to hyperventilate, trying to catch his breath and quieten down as to not wake the sleeping girl that was across the room. He counted to ten in his head, tugged on his thumbs, all of it in an attempt to calm himself down. — Despite having made a promise to her, the boy refused to wake Ni'teya up. Her presence helped him, but because she wasn't close, he struggled more; But that didn't give him enough of a reason to wake her up.
He knew she'd be more than furious if she found out about it, so he did his best to stay quiet as he tried to fall back asleep. But due to reoccurring thoughts of the dream he'd just had, he didn't manage to do so until just before the sun came up the next morning.
People began to wake up around him, eventually hearing his dad calling him to come and get his breakfast, along with Ni'teya who was yawning. — Unlike him, she'd succeeded in sleeping for the entire night's length, feeling extremely fresh and well-rested after days of feeling sluggish.
She hopped up onto her feet, heading over to shake Lo'ak awake, thinking he'd slept the whole night too. The boy groaned, rubbing his eyes as he usually did. Ni'teya however had already left the room, skipping towards Jake and Neytiri's hut to receive her food for the morning. Lo'ak chuckled at the sight of her as he rolled out of bed, deeming the fact he'd broken their promise justified, as it meant Ni'teya was no longer tired.
When she hopped inside the hut, Jake noticed her energetic appearance, smiling a little before handing her her breakfast.
"You're chipper this morning, good night's sleep?" He asks her, his tone cheery.
"Yep! Lo'ak did, too!" She sang, though she wasn't aware she hadn't told him the truth about his son.
Jake nodded, looking over at Neytiri who smiled gently back at him. Ni'teya began to scarf down her food as usual, quickly realising they were missing someone other than Lo'ak.
"Oh, where's Kiri?" She says, still chewing her food.
"She got up early to visit the cove, you know how she is." Jake answered, making her chuckle, knowing Kiri was much more of an early bird than any of them combined. "You should go meet her there." He suggested.
"I think I will, yeah." Ni'teya decided, having already finished her meal, placing her bowl down and leaving the hut. As she did so, Lo'ak had finally emerged, receiving a tap on his head from Ni'teya as she passed, bidding him a 'morning!' joyfully.
The girl raced over to where her ilu, Me'kari was, mounting her promptly and heading off in the direction of the cove Kiri usually visited. The reason she liked it was the fact that it has the perfect balance between light and dark, the rocky walls only allowing a certain amount of sunlight to shine through to the inside.
Upon arriving, Ni'teya was met with her friend's back to her.
"Kiri!" She called out, climbing into the cove and swimming over to where he friend sat dangling her feet in the water. Ni'teya noticed that her posture was droopy, making her grow a little cautious.
"Kiri?" She said again, checking to see what her friend really looked like. When she inspected closer, she discovered tears dripping down from Kiri's watery and glossy eyes.
"Oh, Kiri..." Ni'teya sat beside her friend, immediately wrapping her into a tight embrace, letting her begin to sob as she was held. "What is it? — Will you tell me?" Ni'teya spoke in a quiet whisper, relaxing Kiri by stroking her back slowly.
Kiri wiped one of her eyes with her palm, raising from her friend's hug and looking back down at her submerged feet. "It's nothing, I—" She began to sob once again, a clear indication that it wasn't nothing.
"You can tell me, Kiri... You know that." Ni'teya placed her hand on the back of Kiri's neck, rubbing it gently.
She heard her friend take a deep and shaky breath in before she spoke once again, this time with more confidence. "It's Neteyam."
Ni'teya guessed as much, sighing as she shot a smile at Kiri to let her know she was listening.
"I can't plug into the Spirit Tree anymore, so..." She gasped inwardly, a few more tears escaping her eyes. "...I can never see him again." She stated before letting out another cry.
Ni'teya pulled her friend into another hug, doing all she could to comfort her, knowing she couldn't help her situation. "I know, I know. — I'm so sorry, Kiri..." She whispered, her tone genuine and cracking.
All Kiri did thereafter was cry until she couldn't any more, feeling worn out afterwards. Ni'teya had held in her own tears, only being able to wonder how difficult it must be for Kiri. — She suggested that she go back to the village to rest for a bit, but Kiri insisted that she'd rather stay where she was for the time being.
With that settled, Ni'teya began to leave the cove, about to jump back into the water before Kiri stopped her with a question.
"Teya?" She turned her head to look at her.
"Yeah?"
A pause lasted, indicating that Kiri was unsure of her words. "...What if— What if I forget what he looks like? I mean, if I can't visit him, I'll have to forget eventually, right?"
Though she didn't cry, Ni'teya could tell Kiri wanted to. In truth, Ni'teya didn't know how to answer her friend's question, so, she tried her best to be reassuring instead.
"You won't, Kiri. He's in here, remember?" She says, pointing at her own heart. She did so because Jake had told them all the same thing over and over, giving his kids a sense of hope, or at least trying to.
Having heard it all before, Kiri simply nodded her head once, turning away from Ni'teya and beginning to kick her feet around in the crystal water below the rock she was sat on. Ni'teya sighed, knowing she couldn't be of much help, returning to Me'kari to head back to the village.
As she was swimming back over, she spotted a familiar face walking along one of the riverbanks circling the cove, wondering if she should greet him or not as he looked rather concentrated; Him being Spider, the human boy who had been reunited with the Sully's after Neteyam's death.
Deciding to be friendly, she swam closer to where he was walking. "Spider!" she called out to him, causing him to snap his head up towards her, making a much too startled expression. She stopped her ilu, finding his reaction incredibly odd. But what the boy did next was even odder, as he plainly ignored the girl, turning back ok his way and continuing to walk away with his head down.
Ni'teya normally would've been offended or even gone and asked him why he'd blatantly ignored her, however she didn't feel like she would get much out of him. He'd been acting distant since he arrived, not even participating in training, as everyone else was expected to do. Instead, all he'd do all day was wander aimlessly around, apparently. Ni'teya didn't have a clue where he slept, either; The only time he'd show up in the village was when he'd get hungry, not staying around for conversations afterwards. — It wasn't that nobody but Ni'teya noticed it, everybody did; Jake and Neytiri included. However, knowing everyone had a different way of grieving, they left him be, thinking he'd end his solitary cycle eventually.
Choosing wisely to not ask follow-up questions, Ni'teya made her way back to the village. The only two people around were Jake and Tuk, who were sat inside the hut, weaving a few bowls. She greeted them, almost managing to walk past the hut without being stopped; A rare occurrence most of the time. — "Ni'teya?" Jake merely said, though Ni'teya recognized his unmistakable tone.
She sighed, closing her eyes for a moment in defeat before backing up in her step, moving into view. She smiled fakely, waiting for him to continue.
"How was it? How was Kiri?" He innocently asked, his true intentions disguised.
Ni'teya held her hands behind her back. "Quiet, tired, you know, usual." She tried to lie, not feeling all too comfortable with snitching on her friend's vulnerabilities as she knew Kiri didn't like to cry in front of others. She guessed Jake would see right through her, which he did, however she thought it was worth a shot. — The man simply tilted his head downwards, raising an eyebrow at Ni'teya, making her roll her eyes quickly.
"Fine, okay. She was upset about the Spirit Tree." She admitted.
Because of what she'd said, Tuk look up towards her dad and Ni'teya with her large eyes, clearly worried about her older sister. Jake placed his hand on her small head as he noticed her expression. He began to talk to her quietly, Ni'teya not being able to hear what they were saying, deciding that was her cue to escape being lectured in some way or another, as Jake normally found away to turn anything into a lesson. — She then sped alongside the hut, not hearing Jake call out for her once again, meaning she'd successfully escaped.
Her plan was to weave a few of the shells she'd collected the day before into a new neckpiece she was crafting, only having completed a little of it due to all the distractions she was stumbling into. As she wondered if a blue shell would go nicely with an orange one, yet another distraction presented itself to her.
She first heard heavy breathing, then seeing what was doing it with her own two eyes. Only halfway across the room, she stopped to look at the sight.
Lo'ak was curled up on his hammock, sound asleep.
Ni'teya crossed her arms even though he couldn't see her do it, proving to nobody that she was less than expectant.
"I promise, my ass." She whispered.
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