Italicize - someone's thoughts or a story from the past
Bold - sign language
The two Sully boys and Ja'lia quickly followed after Jake and Neytiri as they rushed to the group of huddled Metkayina people. The Tsahik's spirit sister and her baby were unfortunately murdered by the Sky people. Now, the Metkayina people were out for blood.
Ja'lia could hear the battle cries, and her heart ached for the Metkayina people as she felt that it was her and the Sully family's fault that something like this happened to them in the first place.
The Omatikaya people pushed through the Metkayina people as they tried to make it to the center of the group. Anger and hurt could be felt in the atmosphere all around them.
Once they made it to the center, that's when they could finally hear Tonowari's voice.
"The war has come to us!" Tonowari snarled, "We knew about this hunting of our tulkun, but it was over the horizon - far away," He claimed, slamming his spear into the ground. "Now, it is here!"
Tonowari continued to ferociously speak to his people about the tragic devastation their Tsahik had recently faced, therefore meaning they were affected as well. The Omatikaya girl could understand their hurt and pain because if someone were to kill her ikran, she would lose her mind. Certain lines should never be crossed, and killing a tulkun was one of them.
The tulkun were graceful and gentle creatures. There was absolutely no reason to kill one of them without asking for war, and Ja'lia knew that that's what the Sky people wanted.
They wanted a war. They wanted the Sully family, mainly Jake, to pay for their betrayal. It appeared that no one was off limits and that the demons would kill anyone they needed to get what they wanted.
It made Ja'lia sick to her stomach.
Ja'lia glanced to the side and knew Jake was about to say something. He understood how upset the Metkayina people were, as he'd felt all the same emotions a little over a year ago when the Sky people invaded the Omatikaya clan. However, the Metkayina people needed to be smart. If they went straight into it with no strategy, an unnecessary amount of people were going to die.
Of course, any amount of death was unnecessary, but it was the price that came with war, and Ja'lia knew all too well of that horrific price.
"You've gotta understand how the Sky people think." Jake tried to explain. "They don't care about the great balance."
Cries and snarls were heard around the group of Omatikaya people as the Metkayina people refused to listen to Jake's explanation.
Lo'ak gripped Ja'lia's hand, and she turned to see the scared look in his eye. He was petrified of what would happen if his father couldn't convince the Metkayina people not to fight. There was only one way it would end, and it wasn't a pleasant thought to have.
Her attention then turned to Neteyam as he pleaded with the people surrounding him, "Listen! Listen to him!" The boy held out his arms as a way to try and calm them down, but his actions seemed to do nothing as the shouting continued.
"The Sky people are not going to stop. This is only the beginning!" Jake said, warning the Chief and the Tsahik. "You've gotta tell your tulkun to leave," he pleaded, "You've gotta tell them to go far away!"
"Leave?" Ronal scoffed, taking a step down from the pedestal. "You live among us, and you learn nothing!" She yelled, causing Ja'lia to put her head down.
The Sully family and Ja'lia learned everything about the Metkayina clan, and they understood their ways, but the Sky people were something they'd never had experience with. It was ironic how Ronal believed that they hadn't learned anything when in reality, she hadn't learned anything from them either.
Ja'lia knew that Jake and Neytiri had educated Ronal and Tonowari on how the Sky people operated, and yet, they still ignored the warnings that had been told to them since the arrival of the Sully family.
While Pandora was the Na'vi people's home, underestimating the Sky people would be a grave mistake. Their technology alone gave them a huge advantage that the Na'vi would never be able to compete with.
The girl was pulled away from her thoughts at the sound of a warrior's voice, "We will fight to protect our brothers and sisters!" He yelled out, and voices of agreement were heard throughout the crowd.
"No, no, no." Jake said, desperation laced through his voice, "If you attack - if you fight, then they will destroy you." He shouted over everyone, "They will destroy everything you love!" He warned, holding a hand out in Ronal's direction. Ronal took a step back and placed a protective hand over her swollen stomach.
However, the Metkayina people still refused to listen, and Ja'lia could tell Jake was growing frustrated. The man didn't know how to make them understand that the time to fight would come, but it wasn't right now.
And he definitely wasn't going to get any help from Tonowari or Ronal as they agreed with their people. Ja'lia looked around the group to see Tsireya watching the scene with tears in her eyes, and she went to walk over to comfort her, but the girl was stopped by Lo'ak.
"I want to go comfort Tsireya," Ja'lia mumbled, and Lo'ak looked like he was going to fight her on it, but he nodded as he loosened his grip on her hand.
As she walked over, Tsireya noticed and immediately walked up to wrap her arms around Ja'lia. The two girls had grown extremely close over the past few months since the Sully family and her first arrived at the Metkayina clan. Ja'lia considered her to be one of her closest friends, and maybe even her little sister, as she'd grown extremely overprotective of Tsireya.
"Hear my words!" Jake yelled, snapping Ja'lia's attention back to the commotion around her, "Hear my words!"
Ja'lia looked at the crowd to see them getting impatient, "Stay calm!" Neteyam yelled to the villagers, "Stay calm! Listen to my father - he speaks the truth!"
"Dammit," Jake cursed before taking a step back to grab a foreign object that made Ja'lia's eyes widen at the sight. When her eyes landed on the object, she felt bile rise in her throat. The girl didn't know why, but at the sight of that object, her nerves grew tenfold, and she knew that something bad was ultimately going to happen. No matter what decision was made by the Olo'eyktan and the Tsahik.
She watched as Jake sped over to the pedestal and stepped on it holding the device above his head.
"You tell the tulkun - that if they are hit by one of these, they are marked for death," Jake said as he looked at the Metkayina people and his family. "Call for me. I'll silence it," Jake said in a defeated tone.
Ja'lia's grip tightened on Tsireya as she absentmindedly let her anxiety cloud her mind. It took everything in her to not dissociate or go straight into a full-blown panic attack. But when Tsireya called out her name, she pulled herself back, and heard Jake's next words, "Saving their lives, that's all that matters, right?" Jake questioned, looking over too the two leaders, "Saving your family."
The group fell silent as Tonowari mulled Jake's words over before taking a step forward, "Tell the tulkun," He urged his warriors.
"Go!" Ronal added, "Go!" She repeated, and everyone ran off to warn the tulkun.
Warriors rushed to warn the tulkun while Ja'lia felt Tsireya's grip loosen as the young Metkayina girl ran to tell her spirit sister to leave. Ja'lia turned her attention to look where Lo'ak had been standing to see that he and Neteyam were both missing.
This could only mean one thing.
Lo'ak was going to find Payakan, and Neteyam would try and stop Lo'ak.
Ja'lia rushed off, pushing through the heaps of Metkayina people, not even bothering to apologize so that she could talk some sense into Lo'ak. She understood why Lo'ak wanted to warn Payakan because she wanted to warn the animal too, but it wasn't safe, in fact, it would be extremely stupid.
After a couple of seconds, Ja'lia could see Neteyam walking closer to Lo'ak, and she pushed herself to run faster.
Soon, the girl made it to where Lo'ak and Neteyam were, and she didn't even have time to catch her breath because she saw the tension in Lo'ak's body.
"I have to warn Payakan!" Lo'ak yelled, and Neteyam shook his head.
"No way you're running off, little bro. You have to keep your skxawng ass here," Neteyam said, and Ja'lia walked over to the two boys.
"He's outcast. There's no one to warn him but me!" Lo'ak shouted, and Ja'lia placed a hand on his shoulder, causing him to immediately shrug it off.
Neteyam noticed his brother's actions and spoke, "Bro," Neteyam chuckled. "Why do you always have to make things so hard?"
Lo'ak stiffened at his brother's statement, and something inside of him snapped. He wasn't sure if it was his growing jealousy or the fact that it was his older brother who was telling him that he couldn't warn his friend. "You mean, why can't I be the perfect son like you? The perfect little soldier," Lo'ak snapped, causing Neteyam to take a step back.
"Well, I'm not you!" The boy scoffed. "I'm not you, okay?! He's my brother! I'm going!" Lo'ak said, turning around to walk away, and Ja'lia could see the hurt in Neteyam's eyes. Neteyam stomped toward Lo'ak and made him turn around, "He's your brother?" He snarled before pointing to himself, "No, I'm your brother!"
Both boys turned their attention to the girl as she finally spoke up, "Would you two know if off? This isn't the time to argue!" Ja'lia yelled, causing Lo'ak to roll his eyes while rapping his arm out of Neteyam's grasp.
He stormed away, diving into the water as he gripped onto his ilu. Without any hesitation, Ja'lia ran after him, calling an ilu to swim towards her. Once she connected her queue, she dove in and out of the water, not even waiting to see if Neteyam followed after her.
"Lo'ak!" She yelled before diving below the water.
When she resurfaced, she heard Neteyam and Tsireya yelling after Lo'ak. The girl turned her head to see three Metkayina teens and the rest of the Sully children following Lo'ak, causing the girl to growl in frustration.
"Lo'ak!" Ja'lia yelled again, but they had already made it to Three Brother's Rocks.
Up ahead, Ja'lia could see that Payakan was on the surface of the water, and Lo'ak had already made it to his friend and soul brother. "Hey! Payakan!" The boy yelled, hopping off his ilu. Ja'lia dove off her ilu and swam as quickly as she could to get to Lo'ak's side.
The girl was half tempted to try and smack some sense into her best friend, but before she even could, she saw the worried expression on his face. "Lo'ak, what's wrong?" She asked. As she got closer, she saw one of the demon's devices stuck in Payakan's fin.
"Shit!" He muttered.
"Stay calm!" Lo'ak told Payakan. "Stay calm!" He moved over to the device and started to pull. Ja'lia immediately got onto Payakan's fin and used every last bit of strength in her legs to pull the object, but it was no use. The device wouldn't budge. There was no way the two of them would be able to pull that tracker out of Payakan's fin.
But the two teens didn't have to wait that long because the rest of the teens who had been following Lo'ak finally made it, and Lo'ak instantly told them what happened. A small inkling of hope made its way into Ja'lia's mind before her ears twitched, signifying that something was approaching from the right.
Her head snapped toward the direction of the noise, and Ja'lia's eyes widened to the size of saucers. "Guys," She said, moving her hand to see if anyone was beside her. When no one responded, Ja'lia yelled, "Guys! Look!" Ja'lia pointed, and everyone looked to see the demon ship moving toward them at an extremely fast pace.
"Shit!" Lo'ak cursed as they all pulled on the tracker even harder.
Lo'ak, Neteyam, and Ao'nung pulled on the tracker, but it didn't seem to be working, and it caused Neteyam to say something that made Ja'lia's blood run cold, "Call dad!" He said. Lo'ak looked up at his brother with wide eyes, and it seemed that Neteyam already knew what he would say, "Just go! Do it!"
Ja'lia pulled Lo'ak away from the crowd to give him enough space to call Jake on the communicative device around his neck. "Dad!" Lo'ak said. "We - a tulkun is under attack. Killer ship's inbound. It's about two clicks."
"Who's with you?"
"It's all of us!" Lo'ak said, urgency laced through his voice. "Ao'nung and Tsireya are with us too. We're at Three Brother's Rocks!"
"Get to cover and do not engage!" Jake demanded. "Alright? You hear me? Do not engage - we're coming!"
"Yes, sir," Lo'ak replied.
"It's coming!" Tsireya yelled, and Neteyam jumped off Payakan to grab a rope so that it could be wrapped around the device. "Ao'nung!" He called out, throwing one-half of the rope to the boy. Both boys tied the rope, one end on the tracking device and the other on Neteyam's ilu.
Once the rope was secured, Ao'nung yelled, "Go, go, go!"
Neteyam grabbed onto the rope for added strength, "Pull! Now!" He shouted, and the other teens added their strength to the device, soon ripping it out of Payakan's skin.
As soon as the device was out of Payakan's fin, everyone moved in different directions to hide from the Sky people who had come to invade their home.
Tuk went with Kiri.
Ao'nung and Rotxo left together.
And Tsireya, Lo'ak, and Ja'lia left in the same direction.
One thought rang through Ja'lia's mind, and that was a prayer that everyone would be okay and that they would all make it out alive.
Unedited. 07/17/23
Word Count: 2,381
Quick note-
Thank y'all so much for 2.8K reads! We are so close to 2.9K!
After this chapter, I think there are about 5 more.