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ILYANA OBSERVED as her brothers followed their father closely behind and cleaned the sand from their body.
"What was the one thing I asked? The one thing?" Jake interrogates his sons.
They chant, "Stay out of trouble."
"Right."
"It was my fault." Ilyana gives him a deadly gaze as Neteyam admits his mistake. Everyone was aware it wasn't the case; he did it to divert attention from Lo'ak.
"I don't think so. You gotta stop takin' the heat for this knucklehead."
"Look, Dad. Aonung was picking on Kiri. He called her a freak." Lo'ak spoke up
"He what!?" Ilyana raised her voice as her tail moved in annoyance. Jake sighs before looking back at his youngest son.
"Go apologise to Aonung."
"What?" Lo'ak tries to negotiate
"He's the chief's son. Do you understand? I don't care how you do it. Just go and make peace." Jake watches as Lo'ak leaves the marui and Neteyam starts to follow until Jake calls for his attention.
"Hey." The boy turns around.
"So what's the other guys look like?"
"Worse." Neteyam states
"That's good."
"A lot worse." Neteyam confirms causing Ilyana to snicker from across the room.
"Get outta here."
Not long after the boys left, Ilyana had sat outside the marui, sharpening her knife. Jake had soon joined her sitting opposite her watching how she was sharpening it.
"Yana, you need to sharpen it inwards not outwards." He corrects her followed by a laugh of realisation.
"I'm sorry. Haven't done this in a while." She excused herself.
"You know, I was the same." Jake admits causing her to snort.
"Why am I not surprised." She jokes caused her father to ruffle her braids.
Neytiri and Kiri remained in the mauri wrapping up dinner. Kiri's face remained plain and Neytiri began to notice it.
"What is wrong?" Neytiri asks her. Jake and Ilyana raise their heads up at this.
"Nothing. I'm fine. Why should I not be fine."
The father-daughter duo hear something slam onto the floor; it was the food Kiri was wrapping up.
"Why can't I just be like everyone else?" Kiri asks her mother.
"Oh, Kiri." Neytiri coos. Ilyana watches from after recalling when she asked the girl a similar question when they first arrived.
"She's been off since we arrived." Ilyana speaks up.
"I noticed." Jake replies.
"Do reckon it's because she can't see Grace?" Jake flinches at the name which Ilyana notices but ignores.
"Possibly." Jake mumbles.
"I'm going to find Neteyam. I'll see you later." Ilyana places her knife down in the mauri and waves to her father goodbye as she makes her way to shore. Their relationship has began to heal.
Neteyam was cruising the shore when Ilyana noticed him.
The inquiry was: "Ilyana, have you seen Lo'ak?" She was asked by Neteyam.
"Whatever happened to saying hello?" Ilyana murmurs, furrowing her brows.
"Ilyana. Seriously, have you seen him?" he berates.
"No, dad and I were just at Mauri." She fesses up, "Why?"
"Aonung and his friends have come back, but not him." He shares with her.
"Shit." She murmurs.
After hours of searching for their younger brother, the twins eventually gave up. They immediately approached Aonung and inquired as to where Lo'ak was.
"At the reef, we left him." Ilyana glares at him deathly before speaking.
"What is wrong with you?" He receives a query from her. Neteyam grabs his queue, taking him to the Sully Mauri to inform their father. When they arrive, Jake is sitting beside Kiri, having a small conversation with her. Ilyana didn't want to ruin the moment; she really didn't, but their father must know.
"Tell him what you told us!"Aonung follows the orders by Neteyam. Ilyana turns to her father, whose face is expressionless as Aonung acknowledges his error, before turning to Kiri, whose brows are furrowed at the current circumstance.
"I'll send out a search party." Jake murmurs, trying his best to keep his emotions straight.
"The boy has returned!" A villager announces
Jake walks up to him, checking him for injuries.
"Hey, hey." He says getting his attention "Let's have a look at you. Okay."
"He's fine. He's fine, yeah. Just a few scratches." Jake tells Tonowari.
"Lo'ak." Neytiri shouts, running towards the boy and grabbing his shoulders. "I pray for strength that I will not pluck the eyeballs out of my youngest son!" She snarls.
"No." Tonowari negotiates, "My son knows better than to take him outside the reef. The blame is his." Aonung is then forced to kneel down by his father.
"Okay, let's go." Jake says to his family.
"No. This is not Aonung's fault. This was my idea. Aonung tried to talk me out of it."
"Lo'ak."
"Come on." Jake urges his son.
"I got this." He whispers to Tonowari.
"He's lying; I know it." Kiri observes followed by Ilyana humming in agreement.
"Dad, you told me to make friends with these kids. That's all I was trying to do."
"I don't want to hear it. You brought shame to this family." Jake says bluntly.
"Dad, what?" Ilyana speaks up.
"Ilyana." He scolds and then sighs.
"Can I go now?" He pleads.
"Anymore trouble, I jerk a knot in your tail. You read me?"
"Yes, sir. Lima Charlie." Lo'ak replies using the military language their father taught him when he was younger.
"Go on." He whispers.
Neytiri turns to face her eldest son and daughter.
"Where were you."
"We were looking for him." Ilyana replies referring to Lo'ak.
"Yeah. What happened to 'keep an eye on your brother'?" Jake says towards Neteyam
"Sorry, sir."
Ilyana stormed off making her way towards the Sully mauri. Just when she though her dad had changed he hadn't.
The next morning the kids all sat in a circle listening to what Lo'ak had to say about his new Tulkun friend.
"I wish I'd been there. The ocean has blessed you with a gift, brother." Kiri tells Lo'ak.
"The tulkun have not returned yet. And anyway no tulkun is ever alone."
"Well, this one was. He had a missing fin. Like a stump. On the left side." Lo'ak says looking at Tsireya.
"Poor tulkun." Tuk mumbles from Ilyana's right.
"Payakan."
"What?" Roxto looks up.
"It's Payakan."
"Who's Payakan." Kiri queries the Metkayina girl.
"A young bull who went rogue." Roxto informs the newcomers. "He's outcast. Alone."
Ilyana's eyes immediately dart over to Lo'ak at the concern.
"And he has a missing fin."
"They say he is a killer." Tsireya warns the boy.
"No, no."
"He killed Na'vi, and other tulkun. Not here, but far to the south." Aonung also warns the boy.
"No, he's no killer."
"Lo'ak, you are lucky to be alive." Tsireya reassures.
"I'm telling you guys. He saved my life. He's my friend."
"My baby bro! The Mighty Warrior who faced the killer tulkun, and lived to tell about it, huh." Neteyam rises placing his palm on Lo'ak's neck teasing him as he hisses. Ilyana snorts in amusement but realises her wrong and mumbles a soft "sorry."
"You guys aren't listening."
"Lo'ak, I'm listening!" Tuk calls for her brother while leaning against Ilyana.
"Lo'ak, come back." Kiri complains but he simply ignores her walking off.
"Teyam, let's go." Tsireya breaks up their silent talk as Ilyana summons her brother.
"I want to take you all somewhere." She announces, and Ilyana nods and calls her Ilu in unison with everyone else.
They plunge into the water as Ilyana and Neteyam amuse themselves with brief races, being careful not to get too close to Tsireya. They quickly surface from the water as they observe Tsireya's face being framed by her locks.
"We are here." They hear from her. "This is the Cove of the Ancestors. Our most sacred place."
"It's so majestic." Ilyana watches in wonder. While beaming at her, Tsireya.
"Eclipse is the best time of day to be here." She advises the group before leading them deeper into the cove. Ilyana grins at her twin very clearly excited.
"This is the Spirit Tree." She tells the Sully kids as they all look down admiring the beauty before them. Ilyana dives in without any hesitation positioning herself beside Neteyam before grabbing her queue and connecting it to the tree and closing her eyes.
She's watching herself from above run across a demon ship alone, panting heavily. She watches as she sees herself continuously looking back as if she was on the hunt for something. She observed her features and noticed her braids had been taken out and she had few scratches across her shoulders and one on her cheek.
What the hell was going on.
Ilyana watches as she panics almost tripping over multiple dead bodies
The girl couldn't help but wonder where the rest of her family were. All she could remember was that some of her siblings were tied up on the ship along with her but she escaped from the clutches as quick as she could.
Eclipse was nearing and Ilyana looked into the distance to see her father and Lo'ak kneeling beside a body. With no hesitation, Ilyana calls her Ilu and makes her way towards the commotion. As she got closer the only body part she saw was a foot with an anklet she had given to Neteyam at a young age. Then she realised. Shit.
Neteyam pulls her braid from the spirit tree at first she's confused by his action but then soon realises when they notice Kiri continuously shaking. Suddenly all the light surrounding the spirit tree turns off as Tsireya grabs her queue handing her to Neteyam and Ilyana who swim up to the surface.
"Come on!" Neteyam shouts.
"Kiri!" Tuk screams looking at her sisters unmoving body. "What is wrong? What is it?" Tuk asks.
"Tuk, please save your questions for later." Ilyana begs her in panic. She didn't mean it in a rude way she just wanted to make sure her sister was okay. Her and Neteyam lifted her onto the Ilu.
"It was a seizure." Neteyam tells the group.
"I'm well aware what it was, Netey-" Ilyana takes a deep breathe cutting herself off.
"Sorry." She mumbles as Neteyam gives Kiri CPR.
"Is she breathing?" Roxto asks concerned but Neteyam ignores him. Neteyam gives her mouth one last time and she coughs and gasps.
"Get her to dad!" Ilyana says to her brother as her hands begin to shake. Something she only did when she was nervous; her mother told her to distract herself whenever it She distracts herself by swimming over to Tuk asking if she was okay. Tuk nods hesitantly looking to her older sister who's pupils are dilating. The girl holds out her hand pulling her younger sister onto the Ilu following the trails that Neteyam's Ilu left behind.
The eldest and youngest Sully's finally made it to shore watching as Kiri is carried through the crowds by her father. Ilyana's eyes drift over to her mother's who's already staring at the girl. Ilyana grabs Tuk's hand running over it their mother who wraps her girls into a strangling hug. Neytiri notices her eldest daughters shaking a rubs her shoulder.
"Mama, what happened?" Tuk asked innocently staring at her mother.
"Come. You'll find out." She tells her with a sad look on her face grabbing her daughters' forearms.
HARLS speaks !
just done a little edit of what ewya showed ilyana at the spirit tree!