Tcelia slowly forced her eyes open as she was awakened by the sound of waves breaking. She looked at the water, and marveled at how the colors of the waking sky painted the whole landscape in different shades of pink and oranges.
A large body was pressed up behind her, providing her with a surprising amount of warmth and comfort. She reached a hand up to rub at her eye but quickly snatched her hand away as a jab of pain went through her eye and it started to water.
"Shit," she mumbled as she realized that she accidentally had rubbed sand into it.
Wait, sand?
Tcelia sat up startled and in the process, an arm fell away from her waist. She was lying on the beach, a sleeping Neteyam next to her. She looked down at him as he frowned in his sleep and shifted, tugging the arm he had held her with, back, now hugging himself.
Tcelia hissed as another stinging pain jabbed her in the eye, causing it to water even more, and she reached a hand up to cover it. Typical. She thought back to yesterday and recalled how she had laid down in the sand, refusing to break the silence, and hoping that Neteyam would speak his mind.
She must have fallen asleep waiting, because she remembered nothing after that. She cursed herself, and then she cursed Neteyam for not having woken her up so that they could have gone back to the pod.
She stood up, still pressing a hand to her stinging eye, and kicked Neteyam softly over the legs. Her stomach clenched as she remembered the arm that had held her as she slept, and heat traveled throughout her entire body. In her other hand, was the small black pearl. Even in her sleep she hadn't been able to let go of it.
Neteyam didn't open his eyes, but he grumbled rather irritably, his voice low from the early morning, "This is not my preferred way to be woken up."
Tcelia rolled the eye that didn't hurt, giving him another kick for good measure, "Why didn't you wake me last night?" she accused.
He sighed, cracking his eyes open, looking up at her. He grinned at her sleepily, ignoring her previous question. "You look like one of those pirates my dad told us stories about when we were little."
Tcelia felt herself flush, "Well, if you had only woken me, I wouldn't have accidentally rubbed sand into my eye." She hissed at him, kicking him again, this time in the stomach. Obviously not a hard kick, but enough to annoy.
He scrambled up, "Okay, I'm up. Jesus." Tcelia's anger ebbed out of her as he finished his sentence. It was quite cute how Neteyam had adapted his father's way of expressing himself, even if it was a human expression.
"Let me take a look," Tcelia almost flinched as he placed his hands on her cheeks. She was brought back to the comforting pressure she had felt as she had woken up, remembering how his arm had felt around her.
"Tcelia?" She startled out of her thoughts as she realized that he was looking down at her expectantly. She slowly lowered her hand from her eye, managing to crack it open.
Neteyam gasped as she opened it. "Oh this is bad, you probably won't ever see with this eye again," he said dramatically.
She shoved him away, "You skxawng, that is not funny." she exclaimed but couldn't help a smile from breaking across her face.
Laughing, Neteyam moved back towards her, placing his hands on her cheeks again. She looked up at him as he studied her eye thoroughly, his eyes furrowed in concentration.
She allowed herself to study him back. His vibrant, golden eyes were focused on the task at hand, and his bioluminescent freckles made small appearances as the light from the rising sun moved across his blue skin, making him appear a deep violet color. She was strangely aware of how his hands felt against her cheeks, and her breath hitched at their closeness. What was wrong with her? This was Neteyam, she had known him her entire life. Why was she suddenly all nervous around him? She blamed it on the early morning.
He blew gently into her eye, using his thumb to wipe away the tears that were accumulating on her cheek.
"You have no idea what you are doing, do you?" she sighed, her injured eye blinking uncontrollably due to the discomfort.
"Not a clue." He smiled cheekily, "There we go, all better." He dropped his hands from her face, spinning her around and guided her back towards the pod, laughing as Tcelia grumbled that it was most certainly not better, and that it was lucky that Neteyam hadn't been born a girl, because he would have made a terrible Tsahik.
---
"I wish I had been there!" Kiri said excitedly, eyes huge with wonder, "The ocean has blessed you with a gift, brother."
Ao'nung shook his head in disbelief, "The tulkun have not returned yet, and anyway no tulkun is ever alone."
The kids had gathered by some of the pools that were closer to the beach, but on a patch overgrown with plants that, painfully, reminded Tcelia of the forest. Here, Lo'ak had recounted his story to them.
When Ao'nung had left him at three brothers rock yesterday - Tcelia had glared at Ao'nung who had seemed to find a crab that was scuttling by his feet, very interesting, as Lo'ak had begun to explain what had happened - an Akula, a huge, hostile sea creature, had attacked him.
Tcelia had felt faint as Lo'ak had described, in great detail, how he'd had to weave through coral reefs, dodging the large creature's teeth. She had grabbed Lo'ak's hand as he told how he had panicked due to lack of oxygen and was forced to try and swim to the surface. It reminded her of when Ao'nung had held her under the water a few days ago. Had she mentioned how little she liked Ao'nung?
As he had swum towards the surface, the creature had discovered him and Lo'ak had thought he was done for, drawing his knife in a last feeble attempt to stand his ground, but suddenly a tulkun had come to his rescue, saving Lo'ak and killing the creature. They had spent the entire day together and Lo'ak had lost track of time. Tcelia thanked the tulkun silently.
"This one was. He had a - a missing fin. Like a stump on the left side." Lo'ak explained. Tcelia shot Neteyam, who was sitting to her left, a worried look as she saw the Metkayina children widening their eyes at Lo'ak's description of the tulkun.
"Poor Tulkun." Sweet Tuk said, concern evident in her voice, completely oblivious to the fact that the Metkayina were shooting each other nervous glances.
"Payakan," Tsireya said, "it's Payakan."
Kiri and Tcelia shot each other curious glances. "Who is Payakan?" Kiri asked no one in particular.
"A young bull who went rogue, he is outcast, alone. And he has a missing fin." Rotxo looked around at the group. The Metkayina all seemed familiar with the story, and all seemed to agree that Payakan was someone to be feared. Tcelia's stomach sank. She squeezed Lo'ak's hand encouragingly before letting go.
"They say he is a killer," Tsireya uttered, looking at Lo'ak.
"No." Lo'ak murmured to himself disbelievingly, furrowing his eyes.
"He killed Na'vi and other Tulkun," Ao'nung looked around at the group, having their full attention, "not here - but far to the south." He was leaning against a palm but bent down as he spoke, trying to level with Lo'ak.
Tcelia eyed him suspiciously. He had been acting differently since yesterday. Even after his apology to Tcelia some days ago, he had been acting smug, but now... now he seemed sincere and open in a way that Tcelia didn't know what to make of.
"No. He is no killer." Lo'ak shook his head and Tsireya took his hand in an attempt at comforting him.
"Lo'ak, you are lucky to be alive." She urged him to understand.
"I'm telling you guys; he saved my life. He's my friend." Lo'ak looked around at them all, pleading with them to understand. His eyes settled on Tcelia, and she softened, nodding her head slightly to show that she believed him. If Payakan really was the killer that the Metkayina believed him to be, then Lo'ak surely wouldn't have been alive and well, sitting with them now, right? Lo'ak's eyes flickered with relief as he realized Tcelia believed him.
A brief silence settled over the group as they chewed on what Lo'ak had just said, but it was broken by Neteyam who stood up, stepped behind Tcelia, and shook Lo'ak by his shoulders, bending over him to say: "My baby bro, the mighty warrior who faced a killer tulkun and lived to tell about it, huh?"
Tcelia knew that Neteyam did it in jest but she also knew that it had been the wrong way to handle the situation. Sure enough, Lo'ak angrily shrugged Neteyam off and stood up. "You guys aren't listening." He blamed, obviously frustrated, and walked away from the group without as much as a glance back.
"Lo'ak, I'm listening." Tuk cried after him at the same time as Kiri yelled for Lo'ak to come back.
Tcelia looked up at Neteyam, sighing, "You skxawng."
---
The next two weeks or so - it turns out it's quite easy to lose track of time in the turmoil of the ocean - were filled with lessons on swimming and breathing just like it had been the first week. Payakan wasn't mentioned again but Tcelia had a sneaking suspicion that Lo'ak was slipping away to see him when he wasn't spending time at lessons - she barely saw him anymore, except for at the sessions.
She missed him when he wasn't there and every time he slunk off, not telling her where he was going, it felt like a punch to her gut. They used to tell each other everything, partners through and through. But now it seemed as if he was finding a life without her, and even though Tcelia didn't want to admit it, she was jealous that she couldn't be a part of it. That she couldn't provide the understanding that Payakan obviously did.
She worried constantly about whether it had been the whole brother comment that had made him retreat into himself and shy away from sharing his secrets with her. He had never had a problem with it before, so what other reason could there be?
Tcelia kept hoping that he would approach her and tell her about the tulkun so that she could show him that she would listen and support him, but she didn't want to force herself on him if he didn't wish to tell her, no matter how much it hurt that he wouldn't.
On another note, Tcelia was growing to love the ocean more than she had expected to, with it's great depths and mysteries.
Tsireya had taken the time to make her a top out of shells, pearls, and thread - all material Tcelia had helped find - and she wore it as often as she could.
She still held on to the black pearl she had found, unsure of what to do with it, but she found it brought her comfort to know that it was there, hiding under her sleeping mat. She knew it was silly - she didn't even know why it comforted her - but she couldn't really bring herself to find something useful for it to do, nor throw it away.
The teenagers - and Tuk – had formed an unlikely friend group. Even Ao'nung had become bearable and Tcelia's first intentions of hating him forever were becoming harder and harder. He had drawn her aside after Lo'ak had explained about Payakan and made her a new promise. He had told her he had never felt worse about something he had done, and he would change for the better this time.
Tcelia hadn't believed one word of what he had said, but so far it had been two weeks and he had kept his word. He was even downright pleasant to spend time with sometimes. Tcelia shivered – who would have thought?
The teenagers were sitting by the bonfires, gutting fish, and preparing them to be roasted. Lo'ak had disappeared after Tsireya had ended their lesson and Tcelia's right side felt empty even though Kiri was sitting there.
Tcelia listened to Kiri and Tsireya talk as she focused on the fish. She hadn't gotten very far, she had realized, after she looked at the huge pile of fish by everyone's feet. She glared at her own two measly fish, and they seemed to glare straight back at her.
She disliked sinking her knife into their small bellies. She was painfully brought back to the feeling of sinking her knife into the avatar's neck. She almost chuckled dryly at herself. Some hunter that couldn't even gut a fish. Some warrior that couldn't even get over their first kill.
She breathed through her nose as she forced herself to plunge the knife into the third fish, listening intensely to what Kiri was saying, so that the images from the night in the forest wouldn't take over and drag her down into a dark abyss of dry heaving and convulsing right there on the beach. That would be embarrassing.
Tcelia blinked as Neteyam nudged her gently, "Tsireya asked you a question, Tcelia." he said softly. He had been looking at her with concern ever since they had sat down. Tcelia was aware that he was suspicious of her not feeling well, even though Tcelia was trying to play it cool. He had always been annoyingly good at reading her.
"Sorry Tsireya," Tcelia looked at the girl who mirrored Neteyam's worried expression. How she hated being looked at with concern. Tcelia cleared her throat, "What did you say?"
Tsireya smiled at her, "Rotxo and I wanted to show you guys our Spirit Tree. The others have already agreed. Do you want to join us?"
—-
This is sort of how I picture Tcelia's new top, just to show the vision haha :))