Italicize - someone's thoughts or a story from the past
Bold - sign language
Both Lo'ak and Neteyam immediately went over to where their father was because they knew what was about to happen. They knew that their Dad was not even remotely happy with them.
Ja'lia also went towards Jake as she stood beside Lo'ak to help offer him some comfort for when he got scolded by his Dad.
"You're supposed to be spotters!" Jake seethed as he glanced at Lo'ak, who looked down at the ground. "You spot bogies, and you call them in. From a distance! Does any of this sound familiar?" He scolded as he continued to look at Lo'ak accusingly.
Ja'lia glanced at Lo'ak, confused, as she wasn't sure why Jake kept looking at him the way he was.
Of course, it wasn't hard for Lo'ak to make Jake mad, however, the teen boy had promised Ja'lia that he wouldn't do anything stupid. She had hoped that he would keep his promise.
"Jesus, I let you two geniuses go on a mission, and you disobey direct orders," Jake spit, ignoring the fact that he was talking to his two sons in such a manner. Ja'lia moved her hand to hold Lo'ak's as she gave his hand a tight squeeze.
Tuk continued to look over her older brother, while Kiri did the same for Neteyam as she examined his back.
"Kiri, go help your grandmother with the wounded. Ja'lia, you too. Please, take Tuk with you," Jake pleaded as he didn't want the three girls to listen to the scolding his boys were about to receive.
"My brother is wounded," Kiri retorted, and Jake gave her a look that meant not to argue with him, so Kiri grabbed her little sisters' hand, and headed towards the Tsahik's tent. Jake was about to speak again before he noticed that Ja'lia had still been there. "Ja'lia, I told you to go help Mo'at with the wounded," Jake said.
"Tsahik will be fine if I'm not there for a few minutes," Ja'lia informed, and Jake hissed at her disobedience. "Ja'lia," Jake warned, and the teen girl still didn't move.
"Ja'lia, go," Lo'ak insisted, and she saw the expression on his face. He didn't want her to see him get yelled at.
Reluctantly, the girl released Lo'ak's hand as she went to go help the Tsahik with the wounded. Ja'lia had originally planned to go help Kiri and Mo'at, but she didn't want Lo'ak to be alone after Jake was done with him, so she hid behind a nearby tent. She had to strain her neck to be able to listen to what was being said.
"Sir, I take full responsibility," Neteyam said, and Ja'lia released a soft sigh as Neteyam once again tried to take the blame for everything.
"Yeah! You do! Because you're the older brother. You gotta act like it," Jake scolded. Whatever happened out there most likely wasn't Neteyam's fault. Lo'ak probably had an idea to do something stupid, and Neteyam followed him wherever he went because Neteyam would always protect his younger siblings.
However, that didn't mean Lo'ak deserved whatever Jake was about to give him.
"Ma Jake, your son is actually bleeding," Neytiri said, interjecting into the conversation before it went too far. Neytiri was always protective of all of her children, but she often never heard the way Jake spoke to Lo'ak because she had three other kids to worry about.
Lo'ak almost always fell through the cracks, which is why Ja'lia needed to be there to catch him when he fell. "It's fine," Neteyam said, and Ja'lia peeked around the tent to see him waving his mother's words off.
He always did hate being the center of attention, which was ironic considering that he was going to be the next Olo'eyktan.
"Go, get patched up. Go on, go." Jake said, allowing his oldest son to get his wound looked at. As Neteyam and Neytiri passed the tent that Ja'lia had been hiding behind, Neytiri glanced over at her as if she knew she had been there this entire time.
Neytiri gave her a look that told her that she needed to stay to listen to what Jake was going to say.
Ja'lia gave her a nod, and Neteyam and Neytiri continued to walk to Mo'at's tent before the teen girl redirected her attention back to her friend, and the man who had taken over the role of her father when she needed him too.
"You do realize you almost got your brother killed?" Jake asked, and Ja'lia scoffed at the father's words.
Leave it to Jake to blame Lo'ak for Neteyam getting injured.
"Yes, sir," Lo'ak nodded.
"You're grounded. No flying for a month, and certainly no late-night adventures with Ja'lia either." Jake informed, and Ja'lia's jaw dropped.
She didn't do anything, so why was she being punished? Sure, she had disobeyed him when he first told her to leave with Kiri and Tuk, but Jake knew that sometimes Ja'lia needed to get away, and he had always encouraged it. Why was he taking it away that away from her?
"But Dad-" Lo'ak interjected, only to be shut down by Jake. "No buts, Lo'ak. Now go see to the ikran, all of them, and get that crap off your face." Jake demanded, and Lo'ak let out a low 'Yes, sir' before Ja'lia heard two pounding footsteps, telling her that he was headed towards her direction.
She quickly ran to the other side of the tent to take cover, and let out a sigh of relief when Jake passed by without even glancing at the spot where she had been moments prior.
The girl quickly came out of her hiding spot, and she headed toward the direction where she saw Lo'ak walking. As she continued to walk, she saw Lo'ak's back, and she knew that he was going to be wiping the paint off of his face. When he squatted down in front of the bowl full of water, Ja'lia took it as her opportunity to rush over.
"Here, let me help you," Ja'lia said as she pulled the wash rag out of his hand and turned his face towards her.
Lo'ak was upset, "Why am I never good enough?" He whispered, and Ja'lia slowly wiped the paint off of his forehead.
"Lo'ak, tell me what happened," Ja'lia said softly, and Lo'ak saw the concentration on her face as she continued to clean his face. "They had just blown the train up, and I wanted to go see it up close, so I did, and Neteyam followed after me like he always does," Lo'ak started.
"Everything was going fine, until enemy aircraft came and shot a missile at us," Lo'ak said, and Ja'lia slightly tensed. "Both of us went flying into the air. I didn't mean for Neteyam to get hurt. I just went down to the ground without thinking it through." He whispered, and Ja'lia started to clean the paint off his upper lip.
"It's not your fault," She murmured in concentration.
"Dad thinks it is," Lo'ak grumbled.
"Your Dad has a funny way of showing that he cares for you," Ja'lia retorted, and Lo'ak scoffed at her words.
"He doesn't care for me," He said, and Ja'lia stopped cleaning his face to look him in the eye, "Jake does care for you. He doesn't want to see you get hurt, and he doesn't know how to express his love for you in the right way," She reasoned.
"He sure knows how to show Kiri, Tuk, and Neteyam his love," He sighed.
Ja'lia saw the hurt look on his face, and she understood. Lo'ak just wanted to be loved unconditionally by his parents, but after the Sky People came back, Jake barely showed any love to his kids, and Jake wasn't affectionate with Lo'ak in the first place.
"Have you ever told him how you felt?" Ja'lia asked, and Lo'ak instantly shook his head no. "He wouldn't listen to me," Lo'ak insisted.
"I would be right by your side," She tried to persuade him.
"No, I'll be okay. Are you done getting the paint off of my face? Because I have to go make sure the ikran are okay," Lo'ak said as he stood up.
"I can go with you," Ja'lia said.
"No, I don't want you to get in trouble with my Dad," Lo'ak responded as he started to walk over to the group of ikran not too far from where the two teens currently were, "Besides, I'm sure Kiri and my grandmother wouldn't mind having you help out," He said.
As she watched him walk toward the ikran, she felt torn on what she should do. One part of her wanted to help Lo'ak with the ikran, and the other part of her wanted her to listen to his words.
It was obvious that Lo'ak needed some time to himself, and Ja'lia knew that she owed him that silence so that he could process everything that just happened.
Begrudgingly, she started to head toward the Tsahik's tent. Ja'lia couldn't see the tent because it was crowded with wounded Na'vi men and women. There wouldn't have been so many injuries if they would have been able to initiate a counter-attack in time, however, things happen, and it can't always go in the Na'vi's favor.
The Great Mother didn't work that way. She protected the balance, and sometimes that meant allowing the Sky People to have a win every once in a while.
Ja'lia pushed through the heaps of people as she finally stumbled into the Tsahik's tent. "Lia, thank Eywa! Someone else can come in!" Kiri yelled, and within a second a Na'vi man walked into Mo'at's tent and over to Ja'lia.
This is going to be a long day. She thought to herself.
Person after person, paste after paste, the mounds of people outside of Mo'at's tent started to dwindle, and now each healer was on the last person before Mo'at could finally start working on Neteyam's wounds.
The girl was applying paste to a Na'vi whose name was Tarsem. Tarsem and Ja'lia could be considered friends; in the sense that he behaved like her protective older brother, and she was the annoying little sister.
Tarsem's older brother had been the Olo'eyktan before Jake, and Ja'lia thought he might have held ill feelings towards Jake, but he never did. In fact, he was extremely loyal to Jake and had become Jake's right-hand man.
As Ja'lia applied the paste to Tarsem's wounds, he hissed in pain, causing her to smile. "Does my pain bring you joy?" He grumbled.
"Obviously," She snorted, and he rolled his eyes in annoyance.
Once Ja'lia was done applying the medicine, she brushed her arm on his shoulder, and he flinched. "Did I miss a cut?" Ja'lia asked concerned.
"No, I'm pretty sure it's just bruised. Damn, that hurt," Tarsem said.
"Mo'at, do you have any medicine for the pain?" Ja'lia asked, and Mo'at looked up from the woman she had been healing. The Tsahik looked over and grabbed something before giving the girl a look to have her come over.
She immediately recognized what it was, and gave Tarsem instructions, "Take this once a day after you've eaten." Ja'lia said, and Tarsem nodded his head in understanding.
"I mean it, Tarsem. If you take this without eating, it will make your stomach hurt," The girl warned.
"I heard you the first time," Tarsem laughed.
"Good, because I don't want to hear you bitching that you're in even more pain," She shrugged, and the Tsahik hissed at her cursing. "Sorry, Tsahik," The girl apologized.
Tarsem shook his head at the teen girl as he walked out of the tent with a smile on his face. Ja'lia finally let out a sigh as the only person left who needed medicine applied was Neteyam. The boy quickly sat in front of his grandmother as Kiri made some more paste.
They were going to have to go to the forest to collect some more supplies after this.
"Hey, guys!" A voice greeted, and Ja'lia looked up to see Spider walking into the tent with Lo'ak right behind him.
"Hey, Spider. Hey Lo'ak." Ja'lia returned the greeting as she assisted Kiri in getting Mo'at everything she needed. "Hand me that," Kiri said, and Ja'lia quickly gave Kiri what she asked for.
"We should be using yanglabark," Kiri said, causing the girl beside her to snort in amusement. Kiri handed Ja'lia the paste, and the girl urgently moved over to Mo'at and handed her the medicine.
"Here, Tsahik," Ja'lia said before she moved over to Lo'ak's side.
As soon as Mo'at started to apply the paste to Neteyam's wounds, he yelled out in pain. "Ow!" He shouted.
"I would use yanglabark," Kiri informed as she grabbed one last thing before she started walking toward her grandmother. "Ow, ow!" Neteyam yelled again, and Ja'lia rolled her eyes.
"Aww, poor baby," Spider cooed, and Ja'lia snorted, receiving a glare from Neteyam in response.
"Oh? You would?" Mo'at questioned, "And who is Tsahik?"
"You are grand- move," Kiri said, pushing Lo'ak out of the way and into Ja'lia. "You are grandmother, but yanglabark is better." The girl stated, and Lo'ak glared at his older sister.
"Ow!" Neteyam said.
"It stings less," Kiri finished,
"Teyam's being a big baby. It can't hurt that bad," Ja'lia teased, and Neteyam grabbed the closest thing to him and launched it at the girl. Lo'ak quickly stood in front of her and swatted the object away.
"Why don't you come over here, and I can give us matching wounds," Neteyam threatened, and Ja'lia feigned hurt. "Are you threatening me? What do you think Jake would say?" She asked, and Neteyam's eyes widened.
"Lia, what are you doing?" He asked, and the girl had a mischievous smile on her face while Lo'ak shook his head at her antics.
"I'm going to go tell Jake what you said," She shrugged innocently, but right before she was about to walk out of the tent, Lo'ak grabbed her arm to hold her in place. "Why do you always try to stress him out?" The boy asked in amusement.
"Because it's fun," She smiled.
"Besides, Teyam knows that I'm just messing around," Ja'lia said as she saw Neteyam shooting daggers at her.
"Sleep with one eye open tonight, Lia," Neteyam warned, and her grin only widened at his words.
Neteyam and Ja'lia were extremely close, almost as close as she and Lo'ak were. The only difference was that Lo'ak always had time for the girl, whereas Neteyam rarely ever did with all of his training.
They both considered the other their sibling. Neteyam took responsibility for her as he did with all of his other siblings, and it drove Ja'lia insane. But, eventually, she grew to appreciate everything he did for her.
Even though he always had other obligations, he would always make time to talk to her when something was bothering her. And here lately, the only thing that had been bothering her was her annoying crush on Lo'ak.
She doesn't know when it happened, and she doesn't know how it happened, but she wants it to go away.
Lo'ak was her best friend, and she refused to ruin their relationship over some stupid little crush that she had developed.
"All right, all better," Mo'at said, standing up, "I'm going to go to bed. I will see all of you tomorrow," She informed, and everyone said goodbye to the Tsahik.
After a few more minutes, Jake and Neytiri eventually came back into the tent and told all of the children it was time for bed. So, Spider went back to where the other humans were, and Ja'lia went to her tent that was right next to the Sully family's tent.
She rolled out her mattress and did her best to find a comfortable position as she felt her arms start to ache from not only applying medicine on multiple Na'vi but also from playing ikrans with Tuk earlier that day.
Ja'lia closed her eyes and tried to go to sleep, however, sleep had never come easy to her, even though she loved it. At one point, Jake even asked her if she wanted to visit Norm because he could give her some medication to help with her insomnia, but Ja'lia refused. She hated having any of their help with medical issues.
It felt like hours had passed, before Ja'lia finally had enough of the tossing and turning, and decided to go get Lo'ak so that they could go to their spot.
As she carefully snuck out of her tent into the Sully family's tent, she took a moment to allow her eyes to adjust to the darkness before moving toward where Lo'ak would be asleep at. Once her eyes finally adjusted, she stealthily walked over to Lo'ak and shook him awake.
"Lo'ak," She murmured, and the boy stirred in his sleep as he lazily opened his eyes to see an unidentifiable creature hovering over him. "Lo'ak, it's me," Ja'lia said, and Lo'ak immediately relaxed under her touch once he realized who it was.
"Lia, what the hell are you doing?" He whisper-shouted.
"I can't sleep. Can we go to our spot?" She asked, and Lo'ak stared at her in silence.
Jake had told him that he wasn't allowed to sneak out with her until he wasn't grounded anymore, but he was sure that if they could stay awake and not fall asleep, then he would be able to leave without his father noticing.
"Yeah," He said groggily as he slowly stood up, and snuck out of his family's tent.
Once they were in the clear, Lo'ak and Ja'lia carefully ran over to the ledge and called for their ikrans. "Hey, Tarya," Ja'lia greeted her ikran.
Both teens hopped onto their ikrans and took off as quickly as possible to their spot. As soon as they made it to their spot, they both jumped off of their companions and laid down on the hammock they had set up together a while ago.
They both sat in silence as Ja'lia watched the stars in amazement. She loved looking at the night sky, it was one of her favorite things to do. It helped her to feel calm and relaxed.
Lo'ak watched Ja'lia watch the stars. He never knew why she always wanted to come out at night, however, he knew that it made her happy so he was willing to do it, even if it would get him into even more trouble later.
"Are you okay?" Lo'ak softly said.
"Yeah," She responded as she continued to look at the sky.
The boy hummed as he looked up at the stars too. They truly were a sight to see, and with how high up they were, they got an even better view.
Eventually, Lo'ak felt his eyelids start to grow heavier, and he knew that they should head back, but he when he felt Ja'lia cuddle up against him, he knew that it was pointless, so he accepted his unquestionable fate that he would have to face in the morning, and fell asleep.
~~~~
Ja'lia awoke to the birds chirping, and the sun shining on her face. When she felt an arm wrapped around her waist, she figured that they must have fallen asleep before her eyes widened.
They fell asleep.
Lo'ak was going to be in so much trouble.
"Lo'ak!" She shouted, startling the boy who was peacefully sleeping.
"What?" He asked, annoyed.
"We fell asleep, we have to get back and pray that your dad isn't awake yet," Ja'lia said as she pulled at both of Lo'ak's arms.
Lo'ak used her arms as leverage as he pulled himself off of the ground, and they both hastily moved toward their ikrans. Lo'ak was the first one to direct his ikran off of the tree branch, and Ja'lia followed suit within seconds.
Both teens continued to order their companions to go as fast as they could, as they saw the mountains in sight. Neither of their ikrans had even fully landed on the ground before they were launching themselves off, and sprinting towards Lo'ak's family's tent.
Once they made it back, they both let out a sigh of relief as everyone still seemed to be sleeping, but Ja'lia took a closer look.
"Where's your Dad?" She questioned, and Lo'ak felt himself start to panic.
"Where the hell were you two?"
Unedited. 06/17/23
Word Count: 3,401
Hey everyone!
Hopefully you enjoyed - I kinda like this chapter, tbh.
I would just like all of you to know that I will be going on vacation next week. I am working ahead on chapters, so I'm going to do my best to still give all of you an update everyday. However, if I do fail to update a couple of days next week, please know that I'm not abandoning the book, I'm just going to be enjoying the beach.
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.
Have an amazing day!