Italicize - someone's thoughts, a story from the past, or a visit to the spirit tree
Bold - sign language
After Tsireya had a talk with Neteyam about how he could confess his feelings to Marali, both of them went back to the hang-out spot to gather the others. She told Neteyam that she and Rotxo were going to take them to the Cove of the Ancestors as Ao'nung had other responsibilities to attend to, and he could not join them.
When both Tsireya and Neteyam arrived at the rest of the group, Ao'nung had already left, and Marali and Tuk were done playing. "Neteyam!" Tuk yells as she runs up to him. "Where did you go?" Tuk asked. Neteyam looked down at his little sister and smiled. "I'll tell you later, okay?" Neteyam said.
Tuk pouted at first, but she eventually decided she would ask her brother again later, and when she did, she wasn't going to give up until he told her. "Okay!" Tuk said as she skipped over to Marali.
"Rotxo and I would like to show you all something," Tsireya said, speaking up. Rotxo was confused at first before he realized what Tsireya was talking about. "Oh yeah." He said. Tuk looked over at the Sun to see that it would set soon. "It's eclipse soon. Are you going to be able to show us before eclipse happens?" Tuk asked, worried.
Marali smiled at how Tuk was always trying to make sure they got back on time so they didn't get in trouble. "Don't worry, Tuk. We already talked to your parents about keeping you past eclipse." Tsireya assured. This seemed to help with the youngest child's worry as she looked at her siblings and friends excitedly.
"What are you showing us?" Marali asked with a soft smile on her face. "We are going to show you the Cove of the Ancestors," Tsireya explained. Kiri seemed to perk up at the thought of getting to see her mom since she could no longer see her videos or Avatar.
"Let's go!" Tuk cheered.
Everyone laughed at the little girl's excitement, and Tsireya then told the others to follow her. Marali was following along with the rest of the group when she stopped in her tracks. She thought that this would be something that Lo'ak should experience. "Are you okay?" Neteyam asked as he put his hand on her lower back to direct her to keep walking.
"I, uh, I just thought that I should go find Lo'ak so that he could experience this too," Marali said. Neteyam looked at her and smiled at how thoughtful she was. "He's probably with Payakan now," Neteyam said.
"You think so?" She asked. Neteyam nodded his head as they both continued to walk behind the rest of the group. "Yeah. Just give him some time, and we can show him later." Neteyam assured. Marali hummed in agreement and after that, they didn't speak much aside from small talk here and there.
~~~~
Marali had been riding her ilu with Tuk as Tuk's ilu was still too young to go this far out into the sea. When they got closer to their destination, Tsireya spoke up. "We are here." The young teen was still disappointed that Lo'ak wouldn't experience this with them, but she knew he would be having a good time with Payakan.
"This is the Cove of the Ancestors. Our most sacred place." Tsireya informed. Marali looked down in awe. The place was gorgeous, and it was nothing compared to what she'd seen before. As she looked down, she saw the floating mountains under water, and she gasped at the beauty.
"Eclipse is the best time of day to be here," Tsireya explained. The Omatikaya kids were speechless, and Tuk was looked down at the scene before her with her mouth opened, no words willing to come out. After a moment, Tuk spoke. "I'm glad Mom let us come here," Tuk whispered, and the girl behind her silently agreed.
The group continued as it grew darker and darker, and Marali had to wait for her eyes to adjust to the darkness. She gaped at the bioluminescence that was in the water below them. The more she explored the Metkayina clan, the more she grew to love it.
"This is it," Tsireya announced as all of them got off their ilus and swam to a specific location. Marali looked down at a giant tree below the water. "This is our spirit tree." She told them as she motioned to the tree below.
Kiri smiled as she looked at the tree below them. She was finally going to be able to see her mom again.
As they continued to swim under the water, she knew that she was going to have to thank Tsireya again for teaching her the breathing technique that she was using. When she reached the spirit tree, she felt a sense of peace wash over her. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Rotxo helping Tuk connect her queue.
She loved her dad and the Sully family, but when she connected to the spirit tree, she felt like she truly belonged. It was one of the reasons she and Kiri got along so well because Kiri felt the same way.
As Marali connected her queue, she closed her eyes, and all she saw was a white light.
Marali smiled as she saw she was back at the home tree Neytiri often told her stories about. Anytime she came to see her dad, this was where she would see him. It was his favorite place in the entire forest.
She walked through the home tree and saw her father making an arrow. Marali recognized it as one of her most prized possessions that she had made into a necklace and never took off.
"Dad?" She called out.
The girl's father looked up at her and ran over to pull her into a hug. "My daughter." He said. Her father pulled back from the hug and looked at her to take in her appearance.
"You've grown." The man said. Marali nodded as she laughed.
As the man looked at his daughter, his smile dropped. "Dad? What's wrong?" Marali asked. He seemed happy to see her at first, but it was like a switch was suddenly flipped. Her father grabbed her hand and pulled her along with him as they went through the home tree.
"Dad! Where are you taking me?" Marali asked again, hoping for an answer. However, the man still decided to ignore her as they made it out of the home tree. When they made it out of the home tree, Marali saw a woman kneeling and looking at the plants.
The mysterious woman looked up at Marali and then over to Marali's father. After Marali saw her father nod, the woman got up and walked over to Marali. The woman brought her hand up to Marali's face and closed her eyes.
"Marali?" She spoke.
"W- Who are you?" Marali stuttered, confused as to why someone she'd never seen before was touching her.
"Do you really not recognize me?" She asked. Marali looked the woman up and down and noticed the birthmark on her left wrist. It was the same as Marali's. "Mom?" Marali questioned.
The woman smiled at her daughter in confirmation. Marali jumped into the woman's arms and started to cry. "I missed you so much. Why have you never come to see me before?" Marali choked out between sobs.
"Shh. That will come in due time, but I need to talk to you, Marali." Her mother soothed. Marali's mom pulled away from the hug and sighed. "Marali." The mother says as she looks at her daughter. "You need to be careful, okay?"
Marali laughed at her mom's warning. "I'm always careful." She said with a grin. Marali's mother shook her head and sat her daughter down. "No, you need to be careful, okay? Something's coming. Protect yourself and everyone you love. You are more powerful than you know." Her mother continued.
"What do you mean, Mom? What's coming? What are you talking about?" Marali asked.
"Trust your instincts, my sweet girl." Her mother said as she held onto Marali's hand.
Suddenly Marali's mother was pulled into the abyss, leaving Marali to yell after her.
"Mom!" Marali yelled.
Tsireya disconnected Marali and Kiri's queues as they started to seize in the water. Neteyam grabbed Kiri while Rotxo grabbed Marali. Rotxo was struggling to bring the girl up because she was shaking consistently, so Tsireya had to help him.
As the group swam up to the surface with the two unconscious girls, the spirit tree lost its light.
"What is wrong? What is it?" Tuk asked as she tried to swim over to the group.
"It was a seizure," Neteyam told them.
"Are they okay?" Tsireya asked.
Neteyam did not reply. Instead, he pinched the bridge of Kiri's nose and leaned down to breathe into her lungs. "Are they breathing?" Rotxo asked. Neteyam continued to give Kiri mouth-to-mouth until she finally started to breathe again. He then moved on to Marali and slightly hesitated before following through on the same motion for the girl he had recently admitted his feelings for.
After a few tries, he pulled back. "Come on, Mari." He pleaded. He did the action one last time, and Marali took in a gasp of air before falling unconscious.
"Get them to the village!" Tsireya said as she patted Neteyam and Rotxo's ilu's, urging them to move forward.
"Let's go!" Neteyam shouted. Rotxo and he were going at the same speed as Tsireya grabbed onto Tuk and followed along.
The ride back to the village was short, and once they got there Neteyam lifted Kiri into his arms. Rotxo wasn't as big or strong as Neteyam, so he was struggling to pick Marali up. Tsireya saw Lo'ak in the distance, so she called out for him. "Lo'ak! Help!" Tsireya yelled.
Lo'ak quickly ran over to see Marali passed out and Rotxo struggling to pick her up. "What happened?" He asked, panicking as he quickly pulled the girl into his arms. "Neteyam said it was a seizure."
Lo'ak quickly followed behind Neteyam and made their way into the pod. Jake and Neytiri were having an amazing child-free night. "Mom! Dad!" Both parents heard their children's panicked voices and looked up. When they saw both girls pass out in both of their sons ' arms, their eyes widened.
"What happened?" Neytiri said as she ran over to both girls concerned. Jake laid out both their mattresses and willed the boys to bring the girls over. "It was a seizure," Neteyam explained.
"Both of the seized? At the same time?" Jake questioned.
"We were at the spirit tree when I saw Kiri convulsing beside me," Neteyam said. "I didn't even know that Marali was seizing as well until Rotxo and Tsireya brought her up." He finished as he put his head in his hands.
Neytiri held both of the girl's hands as tears started to form in her eyes. Marali wasn't her daughter, but she might as well have been. She would help Marali with anything she could when the girl asked her to. She would also do her best to comfort the girl when she was having a hard time. Neytiri knew that Norm was a good parent, but sometimes she regretted not adopting Marali herself.
Jake looked at the girls and felt his ears press against his head. He felt he had failed at the one task Norm had given him. "I uh- I should call Norm, you know, tell him what happened." The distraught father said as he quickly made his way out of the pod.
After Tuk had been permitted to come back into the pod, Neteyam was the one left to console his younger sister as she began to cry in fear. "What's wrong with them?" She cried out. Neteyam wrapped his arms around her and let her cry on his chest. "I don't know, Tuk." He said as he kissed the top of her head.
"Are they going to be okay?" Tuk whimpered.
"Hey, hey. This is Marali and Kiri we are talking about. They are the strongest girls we know, right?" Neteyam said, and Tuk nodded her head against her brother's chest as she continued to cry. Lo'ak took a spot beside his brother and leaned his head on his shoulder as he was silently crying himself.
Neteyam wanted nothing more than to cry himself, but he had to be strong for his siblings. Kiri was his sister, and Marali was one of the most important people in his life. He'd had feelings for her since he was little, and even when he tried to hate her, he still deep down had feelings for her. As he sat there comforting his siblings, he thought about every horrible thing he had ever done to her or said to her.
He was so unnecessarily mean to her when she had never done anything to him. What if she never wakes up? What if I never get to tell her how I feel? Neteyam thought to himself.
All Marali ever tried to do was be there for his siblings, protect his siblings, and love his siblings. Marali used to do the same things for him, but one day, she just stopped. Not that he could blame her.
The oldest teen didn't even realize that he started to cry until Tuk looked up at him and called out for their mother. "Mama?" Tuk softly said. Neytiri looked over at Tuk, who motioned for her mother to move her gaze up. When she saw her first son silently crying, her heart shattered. Neteyam had never cried, at least not in front of any of them.
As the mother made her way over to her son, Lo'ak looked at her, confused until he saw what she was looking at. At the sight of his brother, Lo'ak slowly backed away and allowed his mother to get closer to him. Neytiri always had a way of making her children feel better, no matter what.
"Neteyam?" Neytiri softly said as she pulled her son into a hug. As soon as Neteyam felt his mother's arms wrap around him he completely came undone. Everything that he had been keeping in came out in the form of tears. Neytiri slowly rocked her son back and forth like she had done when he was little and whispered soothing words into his ear.
Lo'ak and Tuk took over their mother's spot and held Marali and Kiri's hands while Neytiri comforted their older brother.
When Jake made his way back into the pod, he looked worse than when he left. He looked over to see two of his kids comforting the unconscious girls, and then he looked over to see Neytiri rocking Neteyam back and forth as he silently cried.
Jake walked over to his son and pulled him into a hug. "Lo'ak, Tuk. Come over here." Jake called out. The two kids came over, and Jake wrapped his other two kids in a hug as they silently played there.
"Everything will be okay. I promise." Jake said.
Unedited. 05/25/23
Edited. 07/21/23
Word Count: 2,533
Hey everyone!
Hopefully you enjoyed - This chapter made me cry towards the end. It had me all up in my feels.
If there is anything you would like to see in upcoming chapters, please comment ideas! I would love to hear from all of you.
If anyone would like to make a cover for the book, please feel free to reach out. The one on the book is generic because I have no artistic skills.
Also, sorry for posting later than I usually do. I started my job today, unfortunately.
Have an amazing day!