Chapter Text
“Tan’vi!
Tsekai’tu- she– Tsi’va is with Ne’y—---- .--.-----....----------------.............................”
It felt like he’d been underwater for hours. Not sitting at the bottom, nor near breaching the water’s surface. Just.. Sitting there. Aimlessly, with no beginning and no end. It felt like an instant and eternity all at once; like a dream you didn’t know you had until you woke up.
He didn’t have time to put a thought together, yet he had too much time for anything else, really. He couldn’t remember when he got here, nor when he had, if he had ever, left. Was there an end? Or a beginning? It almost made him feel at peace. It reminded him of a saying, like a psalm he knew by heart yet his vocal chords didn’t know it yet.
His ears felt muffled, yet so clear at the same time. He knew somebody was there, but he couldn’t place who. His sister? His mother? It didn’t matter. He just wanted to wak–
𓇼⋆.˚𓆉 𓆝𓆡⋆.˚𓆉𓆝𓆡⋆.˚𓆉 𓆝 𓆡⋆.˚𓆉𓆝𓆡⋆.˚𓆉 𓆝 𓆡⋆.˚ 𓆉𓆝 𓆡⋆.˚𓆉 𓆝𓆡⋆.˚𓆉 𓆝 𓆡⋆.˚ 𓇼
Waves splashed, ilus swam around the banks as kids played and squealed. Hands moved in intricate patterns, eyes drifting away with useless focus.
“Tan’vi!”
Ne’yo shouted. Ne’yo, his younger brother, 11 years younger; fourteen, a kid that couldn’t ever understand what he had yet to face in life’s trials.
Tan’vi almost jumped a bit, almost. He grabbed the blade sitting at his side and cut the excess fabric off, letting it drift onto the weaved ground below. He didn’t answer, but in a way that was his answer.
“Tonowari needs you, he says it’s important.” Ne’yo paused, “He says it’s about the.. The humans and the water, the way it doesn’t sit right as it should.”
Tan’vi’s shoulders tensed. He knew they had to address it eventually, but some part of him wanted to ignore it, to keep on as he once did and preserve the peace he’d maintained over the years. Nonetheless, he put the weaving down and stood.
“I know, I know. Go now, I’ll be heading that way.” Tan’vi murmured, his voice stiff. Ne’yo stared with that blank expression of his, but nonetheless slowly turned on his heels and left.
Tan’vi’s heart banged against his chest as if he had let the pressure of the water cloud his lungs. He didn’t think further before making his way to the Olo’eyktan.
He pushed past the flap of the tent, expecting to see just Tonowari, yet he saw the Tsahik, and Tsekai’tu, his sister. Tan’vi didn’t say anything nor move for a moment until he was reminded to sit down.
The entire atmosphere was stiff. Very stiff, like a clouded fog that hit you with humidity as if there was rain falling over you as you waded through.
“You know why I’ve called you two here, yes?”
Tsekai’tu answered hastily.
“To address the humans getting too close. To get rid of them.”
Tonowari’s eyes dimmed a little bit. Yet he gave a nod, then he shook his head directly after. He looked troubled. “No, no..” Ronal put a hand on his shoulder, it didn’t seem to help much. He furrowed his brows, “You know what happened to toruk makto when he fought back? They eradicated his home, the sky people brought down fire and killed tens if not hundreds.” Tsekai’tu pursed her lips and looked down, either in shame or fear of the truth.
“What I’m saying is… We need to find a solution without violence, may it be hiding until they leave, or trying to.. Peacefully-” He didn’t seem sure of himself. “Peacefully conversing with those wretched sky folk. But if we arrive fighting, we’ll lose many. I am no coward, I just want to see my people not have to go through battle and war and death and..” Tonowari’s eyes looked heavy as if he’d been thinking about his words day and night the second he realized they had to be said at some point.
“My plan, no, our plan.. We plan to send one of you to the forests of the Omaticaya, to ask, if not plead, for him, Toruk Makto, to help us. He has not to fight, just to.. It’d be better to know what’s going on, he knows what the sky folk are after better than anybody.
“Jake Suli is thee Toruk Makto, I believe in him. He is our best hope. So, I ask of you, Tan’vi, Tsekai’tu, my finest warriors, to make it to the Omaticaya unharmed and transvey my message.” He looked at Tsekai’tu, then Tan’vi.
“I’ll go.”
Tsekai’tu’s head turned fast, her eyes widening. “Tan’vi–” She didn’t even let Tan’vi interrupt her, she simply stopped talking. Seemingly a loss for words, or just her brain thinking too fast to put it into words. “Tsekai’te needs you, so does the Metkayina.” Tan’vi said with certainty, “I am strong, strong enough to make it unscathed, but not enough to protect our clan without you beside me. You are what holds us together, Tsekai’tu. You can protect the clan without me, but I can not do it without you. You are what the clan needs while I am gone. However, I’m your big brother, and you will forever be my little sister. I can and will do this so you don’t have to. ”
Tsekai’tu let her mouth hang agape for a moment, that hurt look on her face. But eventually her mouth shut and she looked away. She didn’t say anything.
“May Eywa protect you on your journey. I thank you for doing this no matter the danger in hopes of protecting our clan.” The Tsahik, Ronal, voiced. Tan’vi lowered his head in a bow before standing up to leave. Tsekai’tu was already gone. He stood before the flaps of the tent for a second before leaving. “When do I set out?” He implored quietly.
“Tomorrow evening, preferably. However, you may take as long as you need to prepare.”
“Okay, sir.”
“Bro, are you really leaving? When will you–”
“Ne’yo, I’ve said this three times now and counting, yes, I am leaving, I’ll be gone for a while. I do not know how long, nor do I know how long it’ll even take to get there and back.” Tan’vi hummed, his hands wrapping his weaved intricacies onto his bag. A reminder of home when he was nowhere near. He turned to Ne’yo, who sat on a small stool behind him and put his hand on his head. “I won’t miss your 15th birthday, though. Not that long.”
Ne’yo laughed, a brow raising as he moved Tan’vi’s hand. “I’m too old for that now, I am no child.”
“Fourteen is still a child. To me it is, at least. You may feel grown up, but you still look like you were born just at the last eclipse.”
Ne’yo let out a fake scoff of annoyance. “Not my fault you’re old! You’re like a grandpa.”
“Am not!”
The rusting of feet against woven fabric and a familiar voice joined the laughter. Tsekai’te. “You kinda are. Yet, still no children. I am starting to doubt you have the ability to attract a mate.” Ne’yo covered his mouth as he laughed. Tan’vi frowned, suppressing a smile as he looked at her. “As if you have one either.” Tsekai’te looked away with a look that meant something that she herself couldn’t say.
Ne’yo narrowed his eyes and slowly pointed at her, no, behind her. “Who is that?”
“So, uhm..” Tsekai’te looked away bashedly. “We fell in love last year and I just couldn’t say anything. This is Intei. Intei eit Tsi’te Rol’kat.” Her face was beet red. The man beside her looked a bit embarrassed too, but he still offered a sheepish smile. Tan’vi didn’t say anything, nor did Ne’yo. The silence filled only by distant waves was palpable. Tsekai’te put a hand over her stomach, saying the words that she needed to say yet she had yet to.
This time, Tan’vi’s mouth fell agape. Ne’yo was confused for a moment, then copied Tan’vi’s expression after a few seconds.
“Does Momma or-”
Intei was pushed forward onto the ground, leading to Tsekai’te letting out a small shriek. Intei had no time to even turn around as a harsh knee dug into his back and his face shoved into the woven cloth of the canopy below.
“..Dad know..?”
Ne’yo murmured, horror on his face.
Intei was trying to explain himself, to no avail as he got beat, when Tsekai’tu and their mother, Neyati, walked into the chaos. Tsekai’tu listened for a moment before running to Tsekai’te, her face a mix of shock and joy and anger all at once.
Tan’vi let his packed bag fall onto the ground in the chaos, unable to process an emotional response to the chaos. The chaos continued as he stood there, Ne’yo standing bamboozled by his side.
Tsekai’tu suddenly saw him and her face went sour, Tsekai’te following her gaze. Tan’vi hadn’t told anyone but his brother– and Tsekai’tu was there to find out, so he couldn’t hide it from her, either. He watched as she murmured into Tsekai’te’s ear. He watched her face drop as she turned to him.
“You’re leaving?” She said, her voice just loud enough over the chaos for silence to follow. Neyati looked at him, her eyes wide and her expression unreadable. His father, Ran’te, stopped beating Intei to look up. The scene looked out of a drama, that or the awkward silence before opening a present which you already know what’s inside then having to fake shock. Ne’yo slowly turned to him. “So, you didn’t tell them, either..?”
Tan’vi felt like a kid again, caught awake at night when he was supposed to be asleep.
Tsekai’tu left him no mercy, spilling the information in a rage.
“To go to the forests of the Omaticaya. A trip that could take days, weeks even. I was given the choice to go but he gave me no option, nor had he even thought that I’d have a better chance of survival if I had gone instead. He’s trying to get himself killed.”
Tan’vi raced to fill the misconceptions in her words.
“Tonowari and Ronal, our Olo’eyktan and Tsahik, asked us personally for this mission. It is important, it is..”
He walked over to Neyati, his hands slowly going to her shoulders.
“Mother, it is for the fate of our clan, it’s that important. As the clan needs Tsekai’tu, it needs me as well. She is better fit to guard, and without her I cannot do half the work that usually gets done. However if I leave, she can easily do everything without me here for a few weeks or so. It was the most rational decision.”
Neyati looked at him, Ran’te stood up to stand beside Neyati to look at Tan’vi. “Tan’vi,” Ran’te said quietly, “You are brave, and you are strong. But you are still our son, and we do not want you to risk your life like this.”
“So you want the lives of the clan, the very sea around us, risked instead?”
Tan’vi said loudly. His hands left his mother’s shoulders to wave around with his anger and unsuppressed fear. “It is not what I want, it is what the clan needs. Tsekai’tu is my little sister, and I will do whatever I can to keep her safe and– not just her, but my family, the very clan that raised me and surrounds me day by day. I will do whatever I can to ensure their safety, our safety.”
Tan’vi was silent. Everyone was. It had felt like the far waves had stalled if not for the constant crashing of the waves against sand and the incessant smell of saltwater.
“I don’t want you to leave.”
Tsekai’tu said quietly, her voice slowly raising in pitch.
“I know you will return, yet it feels so wrong.” Her eyes filled with tears. “You’ll be so far away, further than you’ve ever been before. What if you get lost? What if you get hurt?” Tsekai’tu clung to Tsekai’te’s arm as she sobbed.
Ran’te’s face scrunched a little bit as his face turned solemn. “Tan’vi.” Tan’vi didn’t answer. That was an answer in its own. “Be safe, okay? I am proud of you. The fact you did this not for yourself, but the very family that surrounds you is brave. Thank you.” Ran’te’s voice was quiet like it’d never been before. Neyati, still standing beside Ran’te, looked at the ground but followed up quietly, “Thank you, Tan’vi. Don’t get hurt–” Tsekai’tu butted in, “Or I will tear your sorry ass apart and feed you to an akula mother.” She hissed. Tan’vi felt his cheeks burn and his nose tickle a little bit. His vision was blurring too.
His mother and father hugged him, Tsekai’te and Tsekai’tu joining in without missing a beat. They stood like this for a moment, all collectively crying like children. Well, until Ne’yo reminded them of his existence.
“...Tsekai’te, what are you gonna name the baby..?”
Intei slowly got off the floor and bolted, holding his bruised cheek. His tail was between his legs as he ran like a coward, might I add. Tsekai’te was already running after her father before Tan’vi could start laughing. Ne’yo looked bashful for ruining the moment.