"Man, I really like Norm and Max, but I am never doing them a favor ever again," Lo'ak huffed as he strode down the beach, Tcelia by his side. She rolled her eyes but muttered in agreement.
Earlier that day, Tcelia and Lo'ak had found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time. Both of them had woken up later than the rest of the family then scrambled off towards breakfast, only to arrive just as water was being splashed at the already dying embers in the bonfire.
They had stuck their heads together, grumbling something about not understanding why Lo'ak's family hadn't woken them up, then gone to the storage pod, scavenging for any sort of food. Settling down back in their Marui with two Spartan fruits each, still mad about not having been woken up, they had eaten quickly, eager to find the rest of their friends.
Still licking off the fruit juice from their sticky fingers, they had emerged from the pod and bumped into Ao'nung who had pointed them in the direction of the rest of the group.
Tcelia and Lo'ak had been making their way towards Neteyam, Kiri, Tuk, Rotxo and Tsireya who were out in the water, when they heard Norm shouting their names from the edge of the forest. Raising their hands to greet him, they had jogged over to him.
Norm had asked them for a favor and Tcelia and Lo'ak had been quick to agree. Something they regretted hours later when they were still preoccupied with said favor.
Apparently, the thermometer that the two scientists had developed had started malfunctioning. The device was also very heavy and had been designed to burrow itself in the ground at the bottom of the spring so that it could not be removed from the water or swept away in a current.
To make it even more problematic, the hot springs contained some sort of chemical compound that was toxic to humans, so Max could not dive down and see what had caused the device to malfunction.
Norm explained that he would have done it himself were it not for the fact that someone had to stay back at the base to restart the system from within. Max, being the one who had actually developed the thermometer, was the only one who knew how to fix it, so it had to be Norm who needed to reboot the system.
Tcelia and Lo'ak's job had essentially been to dive down and find the thermometer, with Max standing at a safe distance from the spring, shouting instructions at the teenagers on how to fix it. Then they had to follow those instructions carefully, so that they wouldn't accidentally short circuit the device and fry themselves in the process, resurfacing every minute to receive the next instruction and then dive back down again to perform said instruction.
It had been an excruciatingly slow process and Tcelia and Lo'ak had started to grow irritated at each other when they accidentally got in each other's way or when Lo'ak had accidentally ripped out the wrong wire, causing the system to shut off, and ending with them having to restart an hour's worth of work.
At last, as a small green light had flashed on the small screen, the two teenagers had dragged themselves up on the edge, looking at Max hopefully. He had his finger pressed to his ear, where Norm was communicating with him through an earpiece.
After a few minutes, Max raised his hand, giving Lo'ak and Tcelia a thumbs up, shouting at them that it had worked. Tcelia and Lo'ak had breathed out in relief, hurrying away before they could be called back in case they had done something wrong, or if Max and Norm needed something else from them.
As they had worked, the sky had darkened and taken on a uniform, almost monochromatic appearance, as the clouds seemed to blend into each other. The clouds hung low on the sky, pressing down on them and rain had followed shortly after. Fat, cold raindrops now rolled down Tcelia and Lo'ak's bodies, making it impossible for them to dry off after their many hours in the hot spring.
Tcelia's teeth had started to clatter, and she sped up, desperate to get back to their pod by the small fire that hung in the middle of the Marui.
"I guarantee you; it will not be the last favor you will do for them," Tcelia shook her head, "Every time I have come to visit them the past week, they have had something new for me to do."
Lo'ak snickered, "Yeah but you are basically asking for it. You have been to see them seven times out of the nine days they've been here," Lo'ak teased as they trudged down the beach. "Why have you been spending so much time with them anyway?"
Tcelia hesitated, thinking the question over. "I suppose they remind me a bit of Spider," she admitted, furrowing her eyebrows, "I think I might miss him more than I thought I did..." It wasn't something she had really thought about before, but as she spoke the words aloud, she realized how much she meant them. Spider had essentially been a part of her life for as long as she could remember. It was strange that he wasn't around, not knowing if he was dead or alive. Tcelia couldn't even imagine how Kiri must feel.
Lo'ak was silent for a few seconds before he responded, looking at the water as they walked, "I think it is the opposite for me," he murmured, "When I see them, I am reminded of how we failed him. How we didn't even try to rescue him."
Tcelia was about to respond when an excited voice interrupted her.
"Tcelia! Lo'ak!" Tcelia turned her head and spotted Tuk coming running towards them. Neteyam and Tsireya were behind her, although they were walking at a normal pace.
"Hey Tuk," Tcelia smiled as the girl grabbed her hand.
"Come, I want to show you something!" Tuk said excitedly and started to drag Tcelia away from the village and away from the warm fire that Tcelia had been fantasizing about mere seconds ago.
"Wait, Tuk," Tcelia dug her heels into the sand so that the small girl was forced to stop and look up at her with curious eyes. "Could you show Lo'ak instead? I am so cold and I really want to go back to the pod to warm up."
Tuk nodded enthusiastically, turning to Lo'ak instead and took his hand, "Come on." She urged, pulling at his arm. At the same time, Neteyam and Tsireya reached the three, Tsireya chuckling at Tuk.
"I will join you," She smiled at Lo'ak, "Neteyam has been talking about going back to the pod anyway, so the two of you can go together." She looked at Tcelia with a knowing smile. A couple of days ago Tcelia had told Tsireya why she had been sad. This was something she instantly regretted, cursing Tsireya for what was bound to be an uncomfortable walk back to the village.
Tcelia nodded tightly as Neteyam smiled at her politely, or rather at something just past her shoulder. As the group split up, walking in two different directions, Tcelia almost wished that she had just ignored how cold she was and gone with Tuk and Tsireya.
They walked side by side in silence for a minute, Tcelia bitterly noticing that Neteyam had distanced himself from her so that their arms wouldn't accidentally brush up against each other. That or Tcelia had just started over analyzing everything he did.
She squared her jaw, desperate to try and get a conversation going with him, "What was Tuk so eager to show me?"
Neteyam breathed, "Tsireya showed us a small pool filled with small fish that creates different formations depending on who speaks." He shrugged, "Tuk wanted to see what shape would form as you spoke."
Upon hearing Neteyam explain Tuk's eagerness, something tugged at Tcelia's heartstrings. She didn't know what she had done to deserve the love that the little girl had for her, but she was eternally grateful for it.
"What formation appeared as you spoke?" Tcelia asked as they stepped up on the walkway.
"Nothing important." Neteyam answered coolly and Tcelia had to restrain herself from grabbing him by the shoulders and shake him until he returned to the sweet and considerate Neteyam she had known her entire life, not this indifferent and cold person he had been the past days.
Tcelia and Neteyam both froze as they neared the pod, spotting Tonowari approaching their Marui. Tcelia held her breath as she watched Jake joining the chief. They were standing far off enough that they could not see Tcelia and Neteyam who were standing on the other side of the pod.
"What's wrong?" Tcelia heard Jake ask, concern laced in his voice.
Tonowari, who had been staring at the ocean, turned to look at Jake, "Sky people," he spoke, voice grave, "They are looking for you, Jake Sully."
Tcelia felt her heart stop. She turned to look at Neteyam to see his reaction. His body had gone rigid as he listened, jaw tense.
"South," the Olo'eyktan continued, "They have a human boy who speaks Na'vi."
Spider. Tcelia clenched her hands by her side. At least she now had an answer to her question: he was alive. A small sense of relief washed over her, but the feeling was fleeting as she realized what learning that information had cost them. Quaritch had not given up and he would not give up until Jake was dead by his hands.
"Did they kill anybody?" Jake asked after a moment of silence where all they could hear was the sound of the rain falling.
"Not yet," Tonowari said, phrasing it like it had been a close call, like someone had almost been killed. "They threaten. But the villagers will not tell them where you are," he looked at Neytiri who had just appeared from the pod, "By my order."
Tcelia couldn't hear another word. She turned on her heel, frantically walking away from the pod, not caring where her feet took her. She could barely feel the cold anymore, her teeth had stopped clattering the second Tonowari had spoken.
"Tcelia, wait!" Neteyam called out from behind her. She didn't stop, couldn't stop. She was blinded by the rage she felt, her mind barely registering where her feet were taking her. Something buzzed loudly by her ear and she smacked it away, forcing her to focus on her surroundings. She was in the forest but not too far in – she could still hear the waves breaking on the beach.
"Are you alright?" Neteyam asked, his voice thick with concern.
Tcelia could feel his presence like a slap in the face and she swiveled around, suddenly angry at him too, "Please do not pretend to be my friend right now."
Neteyam looked stricken, "I am not pretending, Tcelia."
"Please," She laughed without humor, "You can barely look at me anymore! You only talk to me when it is absolutely necessary, and you go out of your way to avoid touching me." She made to turn around, "That does not sound like something a friend would do now does it?" she spat, beginning to walk away, her brain in conflict; desperate to be without him, desperately hoping that he would follow her.
Neteyam followed her. He would always follow her. "Hey! You cannot just walk away from me." He yelled, desperately grabbing her arm to stop her. It was Neteyam's hand on her arm that made Tcelia stop in her tracks, but as soon as she turned around to face him, he dropped his hand again, as if she had burned him.
Frustration spiked the anger she was already feeling and suddenly all the thoughts that she had shoved down the past few days, all the frustration and anger she had felt for Neteyam since he had closed himself off to her, welled up in her. "This is exactly what I am talking about," she hissed, sweeping her hands down in an indignant gesture, "I cannot handle this – this wall you have put up around you."
Neteyam's eyes narrowed, "And you think it has been easy for me? Seeing you laugh with Ao'nung and Tsireya, playing with Tuk, knowing that I could not approach you. How much I longed for you to smile at me like you smiled at them?"
"But why? Why did you not think I would want you around?" Tcelia demanded.
"Because I thought you needed space! And I figured the least I could do was give that to you."
"I never wanted space," Tcelia breathed, "I just want everything to go back to normal." Something broke in her as she spoke. Something she wasn't even aware had been there until now, but had been looming in her subconscious ever since the sky people had returned, always threatening to spill. She sat down on the ground, defeated, her fury ebbing out of her body, leaving her an empty shell except for a sense of sorrowful numbness. Neteyam followed her down, placing his hands on her shoulders, concern filling his eyes, but she barely registered it.
Yes she wanted everything to go back to normal between her and Neteyam, but it wasn't just that. It was also the fact that she didn't know why Lo'ak and hers relationship had become so complicated, one day best friends and then another day he would barely talk to her. It was the fact that she had never completed the dream hunt, allowing her to become a warrior. It was because she missed Spider more than she had allowed herself to think she would. And it was because the sky people had returned and were now hunting everyone she loved down.
They had been living in a bubble out here at the reef, and Tcelia realized now just how stupid she had been for thinking that leaving the Omatikaya clan had been enough for Quaritch. How naive she had been to allow herself to develop a false sense of security out here, and how it shattered her heart as she now felt it all come crumbling down around her.
Neteyam reached his hand up to Tcelia's cheek, wiping away the tears that were falling from her eyes. She hadn't even realized that she was crying, but she couldn't bring herself to care. It felt so trivial compared to everything that had happened lately. To everything that was undoubtedly going to happen soon.
"It hurts so much I can barely breathe, Neteyam."
Neteyam enveloped her, "It is alright." He urged, "I will be normal, I promise." He whispered as he gently rocked her back and forth. "Everything will be alright."
She clutched him tightly, wishing she could stay in his warmth forever, wishing she would never have to face the world again. She could feel her hair beginning to grow slightly damp where Neteyam was resting his head, and Tcelia realized with a start that Neteyam was crying as well. She shifted her position, so that it wasn't Neteyam who was holding her together, but so they were equals, consoling each other. He tightened his grip on her.