❝ʷᵃᵛᵉˢ ⁱⁿ ᵐʸ ʰᵉᵃʳᵗ❞
𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐓𝐈𝐃𝐄, 𝐌𝐎𝐕𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐒𝐎 𝐆𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐋𝐘. Lapped at the shore continuesly, like a starving creatures hunger that could never be quite diminished. It was somewhere around midnight, and even the biolumiscent fauna in the water and near by tree line had already began to die down in brightness as if it too, was going to sleep.
The village was quiet, practically all marui pods were dark, without a sound coming from inside. It was a peaceful night, and no one could imagine anything that could destroy it as they dreamed in what looked like a death like state. Deep sleep having taken ahold of them like a disease.
Of course it wasn't long till the first faint outline of a body broke the waters surface, in the dark it appeared like some ghost, raising up from the seafloor. It's color and shape didn't seem to quite fit the environment, rolling around limp as the tide washed it in ashore and onto the soft sand.
This seemed odd, and in a way scary. Another body breached the surface, bubbles that carried it up now breaking around it like boiling liquid. Then another. Till eventually around a dozen bodies were scattered over the beach. Some still getting battered by waves in the shallows while others already appeared to be dead on the sand. A dark inky substance washing from their bodies and dragging along the sand with the current till it reached the lips of the first tide. Truthfully it was a spooky sight to behold.
Only later when the sun began to peak did the bodies get attention. The fishers who left early in the morning stumbled on to the hard-to-miss sight as they were about to head out. And before the sun had even risen fully. Most of the village were already clustered on the beach, talking in tones and volume that gave way to worry and fear.
"Guys! Come, the fishermen found something!" Tuk said to her still slumbering siblings. Only moments before, Neyteri and Jake had gotten up and left to see what the fuss was about. Not bothering to wake any of their four children as they went.
"Tuk it's to early for this, go back to sleep." Lo'ak grumbled, rolling so he instead had his back to his sister. Yesterdays swim practice had left him tired and in dire need of a good nights sleep. He loved his little sister really, but that was excluding times like now.
Meanwhile the oldest slept like a rock and that left Tuk with only one option.
"Kiri! Kiri! Come on! I want to go see what's happening." Though Kiri only seemed to blink at her through bleary eyes.
"Kiri, please..?" She pulled at her sisters arm, turning to begging as her only chance. The older girl, rather weak to her sisters begging only agreed to get up and go with Tuk.
"Okay fine, let's go." She mumbled, rubbing sleep from her eyes but giving Tuk a small smile. It was hard to say she wasn't just a little bit curious.
"Wait I'm coming too." Lo'ak grumbled, curiosity had finally got the best of him and there was now no room for 'no' as an answer. Grabbing his knife and storing it on his person. His reasoning being that just incase he needed it to kill something if whatever it was, was dangerous.
He gave Neteyam a kick, sending a jolt through him as he was awoken abruptly.
"What the hell.." He groaned, sending the laughing boy a glare.
"Come on bro! somethings happening." Lo'ak finished, before quickly following after Kiri and Tuk as they disappeared out the entrance to their marui pod.
꧁ 𓆉 ꧂
"What are these things?"
A distorted, weirdly accented voice spoke. Disorientated and confused my brain remained puzzled as I felt one of my ears twitch from underneath my closed eyelids.
"There's so many.." a voice, sounding sadder for some odd reason, could be heard only a mere few feet away. Along with all the other voices, I could easily pick up on what seemed to be many people huddled around.
Whats wrong?
Daringly I opened an eye, only to be met with a fuzzy brightness that burnt into my orbs and left me Slamming them back shut again as my face scrunched in discomfort.
"That one just moved!" A lady shouted from a couple metres away in Na'vi tongue. The herd of strange people seem to grow louder, as a panic within me began to rise.
"Mawey! Mawey! My people calm, yelling will not help this Ocean Na'vi." A commanding voice spoke over the others, I fought the drive to open my eyes to try and see again but I decided it was probably best if I didn't.
Instead I began to try and breathe. My gills extending and closing as I sucked in the air particles as best as I could with the quick beats resonating in my chest. By now I had already picked up the fact that I was no longer in water, instead surrounded by air and dirt and plants. Along with the people I now believed were land Na'vi.
You see not only did we learn of Eywa, the ocean, growing up in schools. But also we were taught of more things out of the reach of our environment. Like the other kinds of Na'vi that altogether, along with ourselves, made up the whole Na'vi race.
As the voices noticeably hushed and the sound of movement died down, I found myself propping my body up by my hands, the dry sand having began to make my skin itch.
"Who are you?" The same voice that managed to quiet all the others, and to my best guess I decided he must be the Olo'eyktan, said to me. His presence stepping closer, and just to feed my curiosity I risked my eye sight again. Cracking them open till I could just make out shapes, and to my surprise it barely stung.
"Ima'ra." The words slipped from my tongue before I even realized, with all the traumatizing events that lead up to now my brain seemed to have seized the ability to think straight.
And I think my quick compliance had baffled the Olo'eyktan or at least for just a moment, because on his blurry looking face his look almost mirrored mine. Till what looked like a lady stood up beside him, her shorter, curvier body giving it away as her turquoise skin seemed to reflect light and her curly, dark hair gave way to a waterfall. Clutching what looked to be a spear amoung the haze she moved towards me, stopping a few feet in as she looked to be examining me.
"What happened to your people?"
Her voice surprised me, harsh with the same weird accent they all seemed to have. But under it all there was a hint of care, worry for her home and people. She seemed like the kind of woman that was headstrong, stubborn and maybe a little short tempered. But in truth she held those traits over her shoulders with a good intent to protect her clan and people. To me, this no doubt was the Tsahik.
But eventually my attention was brought to her words, her question. But as I tried to answer it like I had the last I found I couldn't. As if my tongue had been knotted I struggled to form the words. And I was certain if I spoke I'd just blab and coo like a new born baby learning to speak.
What did happen to my people?
Her memory seemed to be fuzzy in some parts. As if someone had gone and deleted parts of her recollection like a video player. Leaving what she remembered with her. And what she did not was thrown to a digital pile of trash in a place she did not know.
Her brain began to hurt just at the thought.
"I.."
"I don't know.." Her voice wavered as her lips began to quiver. Meanwhile Ronal shared a concerned look with her mate. Has she not seen the bodies surrounding her?
To answer their question you had. The moment your eyes opened, you met the dead silver ones of Lunowa, a pretty and young Txampayina. Merely what only felt like yesterday you'd seen her shaking with nerves when floating next to Iyökiti as he called of the clans impending doom. Playing with her fingers like a child as order's were made and the uproar within the crowd rose.
That only lasted a millisecond before your eyes had flashed hot, and you were closing them again.
Despite it all you didn't voice any of it for the strangers, your mind was already damaged. And if you said much you doubted it would do much to help yourself heal. Never the less a ounce of guilt pooled in your stomach, these people probably just wanted to know what happened to yours so they could expect the same if something similar occurs to them. Though you doubt even being prepared could save you from a thick, black, suffocating substance out to kill.
Just then, a certain dark-blue skinned warrior emerged from the belt of onlookers. Behind him a woman with a speck of craze in her eyes approached the Olo'eyktan and tsahik. Still appearing blurry, Ima'ra couldn't her but squint. Her pearly white eyes following the silhouettes along the tide till they came to a stop before the clans leaders.
Curious, she found the sight peculiar, these people didn't fit in with the rest of the clan. So her only assumption was that they must have been another sub-species of Na'vi. But that still left a question running through your head on repeat.
Why were they here?
꧁ 𓆉 ꧂
𝐉𝐀𝐊𝐄 couldn't help but feel concerned once he finally reached one of the many bodies beached on the sand. His original idea had just been to go see what had gained the whole clans attention so early at sunrise. But as soon as his gaze clocked a familiar substance a chill ran up his spine and certain, dark flashbacks began playing like a film behind his eyes.
An expensive liquid used practically everywhere on earth, and funnily enough, dangerous to aquatic life when it got in the ocean. Only one small word fit that description perfectly. In fact, if you could play charades in a way where you described-- but couldn't say the word. Most probably every adult on earth could guess it.
Oil
The word formed at the tip of his tongue, but first he had to make sure.
Stepping over the invisible border line separating the dead from the curious living. He earned stunned and weird looks as he approached what appeared to be the body of a male from what he could judge by the build. Behind him, Neytiri shuffled over the same line, giving him a confused and slightly apprehensive look based on the situation. Still though, having had time to familiarize herself to Jake's antics, she said nothing till he came to crouch at the side of the corpse.
"Ma Jake, what is it?" She stood beside him now, turning slightly so her face was in his point of view.
Carefully he dabbed the pads of his index and middle finger on a patch of black before rubbing it together with his thumb, Testing the consistency of the tar like substance. Daring to take a whiff, he scrunched his nose at the acrid, gasoline like smell that burned his nostrils before wiping it away on the sand.
"Sky people." He whispered the words at a low volume so the clan, standing very close by, wouldn't hear. Turning to his mate as his heart rate began to pick up he was met with hurt and concern in the form of his wife.
"They did this?" She questioned in a low voice, her line of sight dragging over the length of the beach and what laid on it. Seeing his wife's emotions in dissaray he brought her into a short hug as he stood to his full height. At this point he was sure his facial expression couldn't be much different then hers.
Of course they never knew these 'Ocean Na'vi' personally, but it still hurt to see the residue left by the sky people. From what information they had collected, these people lived in one of the deepest parts of pandoras ocean. Either way, by assumption they hadn't been apart of the war. Or atleast till Sky people attacked them, spilt a whole lot of oil, which somehow killed all of them. Leaving their bodies to wash up on shore like some horror film from Hollywood.
That was Jake's theory anway.
Glancing at his wife, her face still giving way to concern as he voiced his next move.
"We should find Tonowari."
To which she only nodded, releasing him from her hold as the pair entered the mob. Dissappearing behind turquoise limbs and thick wavy hair.
Eventually they did find the Olo'eyktan, standing with his wife and what looked to be a few healers surrounding what appeared to be a dead Ocean Na'vi girl. Her clear unscathed skin and smaller size compared to the other woman showed that she could only have been a child. Though, Jake was sure even she would tower over him if she had legs. With a thick tail and lean, muscular body she almost appeared intimidating.
"Olo'eyktan, Tsahik." The voice of his mate knocked him out of his daze, and in his peripheral vision he could clearly see Neyteri making the 'I see you' gesture towards the pair as they turned to give them their attention.
Ronal gave Neytiri a certain look, and Neytiri's nose crinkled a little. Between the two woman, tensions were still rather high from their first meeting on the day the Sully's had arrived.
In the moment Jake was thankful that Neytiri hadn't been anymore aggressive. And with the comfort of not having to worry about his mate ripping heads off, he thought and chose his next words carefully.
"Listen" Jake Muttered as he took a step closer to the clan leaders, he had no reason to let anybody else hear this and cause a mass panic amoung the Metkayina.
"I think the sky people did this.."
Fɪɴᴀʟʟʏ ᴛʜᴇ sᴇᴄᴏɴᴅ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ! ᴛᴏᴏᴋ ᴍᴇ ᴀ ʙɪᴛ ʙᴜᴛ I ɢᴏᴛ ᴛʜᴇʀᴇ ɪɴ ᴛʜᴇ ᴇɴᴅ. :)
𝐋𝐎𝐄𝐀𝐁𝐄𝐄𝐄