Losing Game ~ Lo'ak Sully

"Why are you outcast?" Lo'ak asks Payakan with his hand around my waist. "What happened?" 'It's too painful' Payakan clicks.
"We trust you," I tell him. "You can trust us. We can all be outcasts together." I show him my extra finger. Payakan floats down underneath the water, taking us with him as we grab onto his fin. I smile over at Lo'ak as Payakan takes us around the waters. Lo'ak does several tricks on his fin while I just watch him with a smile.
    Payakan goes towards the surface and flips over on his back so we're upside down. Lo'ak and I run our hands through the surface of the water letting it glaze over our fingers. Eventually Payakan surfaces on top of the water again and Lo'ak and I jump into his back. He spins me around and into him and places his hands on my waist, mine around his neck. I give him a small peck before running across Payakan. As we run across his back he blows water on us and we stop laughing.
"Bro, that's disgusting!" Lo'ak laughs. When go back to hold onto his fin again and he goes back under the water. Lo'ak signs to him 'go faster' to which Payakan obeys and starts to pick up the pace. He's goes so fast we fly off and swim yo to the surface. We laugh and Payakan swims next to us laughing at us as well. We climb onto his back again and Lo'ak walks over to his tail.
"Watch this!" He exclaims as he goes to step on his tail. Payakan flips his tail up sending Lo'ak hurdling into the air and doing a flip before landing into the water. I smile at the sight. "You try!" I go over to Payakan's tail and I do a flip as he flips me up. I land into the water and Lo'ak helps me back up.
Lo'ak lead my over to one of his back fins and we hold on before Payakan goes to the deepest part of the waters before heading straight up. He shoots out of the water and Lo'ak and I do backflips off of his fin and Payakan lands on his back.

~

Later on during the day the whole group gets onto ilus since Tsireya said she wanted to take us somewhere. When we surface we are in the most beautiful place.
"We are here," Tsireya informs us. "This is the Cove of the Ancestors. Our most sacred place." I felt proud to be here. This means that they have fully accepted us into their clan. "Eclipse is the best time of day to be here." We ride our ilus over to a point and stop above something glowing in the water.
"This is it. This is the Spirit Tree," Tsireya tells us. We all swim down the tree as it glows brightly in the nighttime. I reach for my braid and connect it to one of the flowing branches. Instead of hearing voices like I normally would I'm quickly pulled into a trance.
I appear to be in some kind of Sky People base. There's different helicopters and other machines that the Sky People use. But they look much less advanced than the ones they use now. As I look around I hear a noise and begin to walk down a hallway. I hear the noise again and turn a corner. I see a doorway at the end of the hallway that appears to be covered by a veil.
But, there appears to be a silhouette of some sort behind it. The silhouette of a woman.
"Daughter," I hear the voice behind the veil say.
"Mama," I whisper realizing who the woman is. She is the one I've been searching for all of my life. The one I've been hoping to find. Well one of them. I start to walk towards the veil before it's turns into a full on sprint. I get closer and closer but once I get to it a come to a complete stop, waiting for the perfect moment to open it.
I place my hand on the veil, but just as I'm about to pull it back I get shot back, pulled away from my mother.

~

Lo'ak's Pov:

    While I'm connected to the tree I see movement in the corner of my eye. I look over to see both Kiri and Leyreya shaking like they were having seizures. The dots on their bodies flashing and I quickly rushed to Reya as Neteyam went to Kiri. I detached he braid and urgently began to swim up the surface. I call my ilu and place her on before I hop on myself, making the bond. I start giving her mouth to mouth so she will take a breath and she does.
    But I still need to get her back. We set off towards the shore, not even waiting on the others.
    "You stay with me Leyreya!" I tell her not knowing if she could hear me. "You're not leaving me." Once I get to the docks other Metkayinas notice and help me get her off of the ilu. One if the guys takes her in his arms while I hop onto the dock. I take her back into my arms  and quickly run to put mauri where my mother and father were. They see her and Neteyam comes in following with Kiri. They quickly rush over to us.
    "What happened?" Dad asks his eyes widening and scanning over the two unconscious girls.
    "Oh great mother," Mother pleads. Tsireya rushes into the mauri with her parents. They see they state of Kiri and Leyreya before rushing out to gather their things.
    "They both had seizures when connecting to the Spirit Tree," Neteyam tells our parents. I just nod along and hold Reya's hand, squeezing it tight.
    "I'll call Norm," Dad says. "He'll know what to do."

~

    The next day Reya and Kiri still haven't woken up. I haven't left their sides. Haven't even slept. I hear the whirring of the helicopter blades and I know that Norm and Max must be here. They hurry into the mauri and start to hook up all of their equipment.
    "Huh? That's strange," Max says.
    "What is it?" I ask him worriedly.
    "There's no bleed. There's no fracture," he responds.
"No effects of hypoxia. The brain looks good.
    "We still have interictal activity right here in the prefrontal," Norm says and I notice Ronal standing in the door way with Tsireya behind her.
    "I think we can rule out toxins," Max says.
    "So what is it?" Jake asks them.
    "I see that I am not needed here," Ronal hisses. But she has to stay. The Tsahik's way is more important than any other. She turns around to leave before mother grabs her arm.
    "You are Tsahik," Mother reminds her.
    "Remove these things," Ronal demands the scientists.
    "Out!" Mother hisses. "You have done nothing!"
    "Come on, Come one. Let's just take a break," Jake says.
    "Okay, hold on," Norm says. "I gotta take her IV off." Ronal comes over and starts to do all of her ceromonial ways of getting the two girls to wake up. Throughout this all I don't leave their sides and I hold onto Leyreya's hand, praying that she wakes. She roles them both on their sides before blowing into them and then releasing the breaths upward, like she was releasing anything bad within them. She then roles them back on their back before doing the same thing.
    As she does this Kiri wakes up and starts to cry before she moves over to Leyreya. Mother pulls Kiri into a hug.
   "Kiri," Tuk cries. "You're awake!" As Ronal works on Leyreya she too wakes up. She looks at me and begins to sob uncontrollably. I pull her into my lap and she cries into my chest as I stroke her hair.
    "It's okay, Reya," I reassure her. "I've got you."

~

Leyreya's Pov:

    After a while of just sitting in Lo'ak's lap and cry my heart out I start to calm down. He keeps reassuring me everything is going to be okay and doesn't try to question me, knowing that I'll talk when I'm ready. I look up at him once my tears have subsided and pull him into a hug. We both lay down on my mat and start to drift off. Lo'ak needs much needed sleep and I'm mentally drained even though I was just unconscious for a whole day.

~

    The next day I wake up still coddled in Lo'ak's arms and I smile to myself. I feel him stir around and his eyes open, meeting mine. He smiles at me.
    "Morning Reya," he says groggily in he morning voice, yawning after.
    "Morning Lo," I respond to him as he pulls me closer. I snuggle back into him putting my head in my chest.
    "Get up you two," Jake tells us, lightly kicking Lo'ak's back. Lo'ak groans.
    "Ma Jake," Neytiri warns. "Let them be."
    "We probably should get up," I tell Lo'ak.
    "Just five more minutes," he mumbles, his hand rubbing up and down my waist.
    "Okay, five more minutes," I agree. And of course five more minutes turned into thirty more minutes. But, eventually we get up and off of my mat. We see everyone having breakfast and Lo'ak pushes me towards them to join while he rolls up the mat and puts it away. I sit down with them and Lo'ak joins me. They whole family gives us looks and stare at us silently.
"What?" Lo'ak asks.
"Nothing, nothing," Neytiri mumbles and smiles to herself. As we sat we the the conch blow and Tuk gasps. We all exit the mauri.
"What's going on?" I ask. I see Tsireya riding her ilu around the outskirts of the village yelling at the people.
"The tulkun have returned!" she yells to everyone. "Everybody, our brothers and sisters have returned." I look over to Lo'ak and smile. I look towards the ocean to see a whole pod of tulkun swarming in from the open ocean.

In their endless cycle of migration,

the tulkun had come home.

Lo'ak and I jump into the water, swimming towards the tulkun. We observe them and their beauty, watching them interact with the Metkayina and I smile.

It was a time for stories.

Of their season apart.

Of deaths and births.

Of old friends

and new loves.

I look over to Lo'ak and see the sullen expression on his face. When he looks over to me and meet my eyes, I can see that we both have the same thought. Payakan.