Lei and Neteyam flew for what seemed like hours to find the village, the ship had carried them lands away.
As Neteyam's ikran approached the hanger multiple Nyala Api Na'vi rushed to the opening, Lei mentally prepared herself to undergo punishment.
Neytiri and Jake branched away from the crowd, they had stark contrast between their emotion. Neytiri seemed thankful for her son's presence, but Jake was obviously distressed.
"What were you thinking?" Jake immediately berated his son.
Lei took a small discrete stumble backwards and away from the 2 parents, she avoided eye contact with either of them.
"Jake stop." Neytiri softly said, beckoning him to notice Lei.
"— Neteyam you did not have permission from us or the chief." Jake continued, he blatantly ignored Neytiri.
"She was by herself. Hantu was not with her before I left." Neteyam finally protested, glancing at the girl he referred to.
"And Hantu found her, did he not?"
Lei hardened her gaze while she forcefully listened to the argument, she wasn't a liability — at least usually not.
Neteyam clenched his jaw and stared at the ground, he was angry because he knew his father would've acted the same.
"They can handle it —"
"Jake stop now." Neytiri demanded with an aggressive tone.
Lei felt extremely embarrassed, she prayed for one of her own to come snatch her away.
Her prayers were answered when Eta'yla shoved her way through the crowd alongside her 2 siblings.
Lei dragged her hand across Neteyam's hip to wish him a goodbye, also dipping her head to Neteyam's parents.
She started to walk towards her 3 family members, she could read Matahari's face from a mile away.
When she reached her family Matahari would not mutter a single word, only giving an expression of disappointment.
"Lei nga pänutìng never do that again." Eta'yla spoke quietly, with her usual tranquil manner.
Lahar stood off to the side, Lei raised her eyebrows to him. "You are a dumbass." Lahar muttered with a grin. Him and Lo'ak had become best friends, and Lahar picked up the curse words Lo'ak often used.
"You are grounded to the hut." Eta'yla said, thwacking Lei on her stomach. "Go, now."
Neteyam's eyes trailed behind Lei as she walked to her hut with only Lahar following her.
"She is a good girl." Neytiri observed with an affectionate expression.
———————————————————————
Lei sat criss-crossed on the floor, she had found the unfinished bracelet she started to make for her mother. Lahar was sat alongside her picking the seeds out of a weaving material.
"Who taught you how to do that?" Lahar questioned while gawping at her hand movements.
Lei looked up to him for a moment. "Kiri did."
Lahar nodded. "She did not teach me." He furrowed his eyebrows enviously.
Lei sneered. "You are at their hut all the time, ask her." She advised.
Lahar nodded once again.
"I'm done." Lei smiled and showed Lahar the bracelet after minutes of still quiet.
Lahar took it from her hands and examined it as if he was going to judge it. "I like it."
Lei replied with a simple smile and stood to her feet, "Mama." She called.
Eta'yla was sat on the floor just as Lei was previously, chopping up a native vegetable. "Hm?" She hummed without turning her head.
"Here." Lei walked around to Eta'yla's front side and gently sat on the floor, holding the bracelet in the palms of her gathered hands.
Eta'yla raised her eyebrows a smidge and examined the bracelet similar to how Lahar did. Lei never failed to notice how pompous Palhar and Matahari presented themselves, and how different Lei and her mother and brother did.
She was careful to keep her dirty hands away from the bracelet until she cleaned them.
"That is beautiful Lei." She simply complimented, she was still a tad annoyed with Lei. "Thank you."
"Mhm." Lei replied.
"Is it to make me less angry?" Eta'yla smirked.
"Thought I should finish it." Lei's smile dissolved while her eyes flickered from Eta'yla's eyes to the ground. She shouldn't of said that.
Eta'yla's face altered as well. "You will be able to make me many more bracelets." Eta'yla understood what Lei meant, Lei was worried her time was burning. That she'd end up like her father for the same reasons.
"Now go rest." Eta'yla breathed out, she returned back to mincing her crop.
Lei stifled a sigh and walked back to her room that Lahar was still occupying. "I can not stay in here for another eclipse." Lei whined as she slumped into her hammock.
"Yeah, I am sick of waiting for you." Lahar said brassily.
"Leave then skxawng." Lei spat with a smile on her face.
———————————————————————
Lei rested in her hammock and stared at the support beams that held her ceiling together, for some reason they had reminded her of her strong father. How hard headed and stubborn he always acted, and how it efficiently rubbed off onto Matahari.
She'd decided she had had enough of being sad over her father's death, she needed to visit him. But not tonight.
She carelessly plotted through her hut and left late into the eclipse, she was of course thinking about Neteyam and how they had bickered.
She swiftly made the walk to his hut and crept inside, his parents and Tuk decided to reside next door after Neteyam and Lo'ak regularly returned so late.
"'Teyam." Lei whispered, craning her neck to see inside. "Blue." She whispered again.
"Lei I am tired." Neteyam rasped as he sat up, Lo'ak tossed on his cot.
"Come." She demanded quietly, still awaiting for him at the door.
She pinned her ears to the sides of her head as she heard him heavily stomp through the hut.
He finally stood before her in the doorway, looking down at her with his bright green eyes. His features seemed restless and he proved to be tired with his aggressive demeanor.
Lei swallowed her pride and muttered out, "I'm sorry."
Neteyam leant against the doorway with his arms crossed. "It's okay. I was just worried." He spoke slow and mindfully, and somehow his tone of sass still remained.
Lei nodded and folded her hands in front of her. "Are you still angry?" She asked timidly, she normally didn't pay any mind to arguments and grudges but it was different with Neteyam.
"I was never angry with you." Neteyam assured her. "You made a mistake."
Lei nodded again. "You can sleep." She turnt away from him. She was forced to a halt when Neteyam reached out to grab her arm.
"I'll come with you." He reluctantly accepted her proposal to amble around the village or the forest. Or wherever she wanted.
Lei returned a toothy smile and started her journey to the ikran hanger.
———————————————————————
Lei had lead Neteyam to an abandoned human pod, an old science lab. Na'vi had raided the facility and so forth. Pandora's nature had also grown completely over the inside and outside of the structure.
"I have only been here once." Lei told Neteyam as she craned her neck to see what was inside.
"It's old." Neteyam observed as he followed after her up the steps.
"Look at this." Lei smiled slightly as she turnt to the right to pick up a human's face mask that was once used to supply oxygen. It had a large hole that seemed like a bullet hole shot through it.
"It's tiny." Neteyam joked as he tried to fit it onto his own face.
"It is." Lei agreed as she watched him goof off.
Whatever it was this night, she couldn't ignore the heaviness that had settled in her chest. Her once obvious greif was now painfully discreet, she was hurting.
"Lei?" Neteyam called as he brushed his hand over her arm.
"Hm?" She hummed as her plain stare trailed back to him.
Neteyam took a breath. "Have you visited him?"
Lei's soft expression cooked into a confused one. "Who?"
Neteyam sat in silence until she spoke again.
Lei figured who he referred to. "No." She answered truthfully, the truth is she was afraid.
Neteyam really didn't know why he would spark such a sad conversation, he didn't know what to say next.
"I do not see why I should." Lei spoke up again to diffuse the tension Neteyam made.
Neteyam leant against the cold metal wall that was patchily overgrown with flora and vines. "Why shouldn't you?"
Lei thought but she didn't pay much mind to his question. "I did not know him."
"He's your dad." Neteyam protested.
Lei ran her tongue along her front teeth and searched for something to say. Ever since the Omatikaya's arrival she noted how family oriented they were.
Lei responded with a small shrug of her shoulder. "He was always away." It sounded like she didn't care but it was like losing a distant family member rather than her father. "Matahari and Lahar knew him more than I did."
"Talk to him, Lei." Neteyam beckoned her to.
Lei sucked in a shallow breath. "Why do you want me to?" She couldn't understand.
Neteyam contemplated to himself as he rested on the wall with his arms crossed. "Because you are his daughter."
Lei was getting kind of annoyed with him. The role "daughter" in the Nyala Api didn't promise her a bond with her father. "Fine." She accepted solemnly.
"Let's go then." Neteyam dipped his head.
"Now?" Lei asked without taking any steps.
"When else are you going to?" Neteyam asked with a serious demeanor. Lei didn't know why he cared so much, especially if he hadn't even lost his own father.
Lei bit the inside of her cheek while Neteyam lead her out of the trailer and to Mazzy.
———————————————————————
Neteyam had successfully gotten Lei to visit her father at the tree of souls, he stood by her side for as long as she let him.
AN
dawg i was going to right that whole Lei visiting her father thing out but now the book is coming to an end i'm getting down to the point 💀
but ty all so much for putting up w me taking eight years to right 1 chapter at a time 😘😘