iv

as i propped myself on the ilu, ao'nung swam to me.

"make the bond gently," he said and i did as told. 
"feel his breath."
he continued, i closed my eyes and felt out connection.

he took my hand and put it on a handle on top of the ilu. he then backed away, i looked a few feet away from me and saw tsireya helping lo'ak. 

as i told my ilu to go forward, i didn't realize lo'ak moving aswell. what happened was next was... chaotic.

SPLASH

me and lo'ak crashed our ilu into eachother, well it seemed like our ilu's did it on their own as they laughed in our face and splashed water onto us.

"lo'ak you asshole! i was doing so good" i yelled at lo'ak.

"me? i didn't bump into you! you did that to me!" he said yelling back.  as we continued to yell at eachother which resulted in the other kids laughing at us.

i pushed lo'ak's head underwater and swam away, getting out the water and onto the dock. seconds later ao'nung came up to me.

"you guys were horrible!" he said laughing with his friends, i only blankly stared at him. my hand raising up slowly while flipping him off.

i laughed seeing his annoyed face and went off to where tsireya and tuk were. tuk was feeding a baby ilu, laughing.

"are you having fun tuk?" i asked her, she smiled brightly at me and petted the ilu.

she nodded, "i love her already!" she said.

later on, tuk and tsireya went on an ilu ride while i walked around the village. i crouched down seeing may shells.

"what are you doing?" a voice called out, i looked behind me and saw ao'nung. i was surprised he wasn't with his little friends.

i stood up, towering over him slightly. then pulled out my hands to show him the shells.

"i was just picking up shells," i said blankly. "what are you doing?" i then asked his question on him.

"i was just about to hang out with rotxo but i saw him with kiri, then i saw you." he said looking everywhere but me.

"cool." i nodded and went to put the shells down, he just stood there looking at me.

"do you want to see something cool?" he asked fiddling with his fingers, which seemed kinda odd to me seeing because he was never the one to come off as shy or nervous.

i shrugged it off, nodding to answer his question.

"follow me," he said grabbing my wrist, pulling me to where out ilu's are.

as he called for his ilu, i couldnt but be mesmerized by his calling sound again.

"hop on." he said when his ilu came. i went behind him and he set off into a direction kinda far from the village.

nonetheless, i didn't question it. until now.

"where are you taking me, ao'nung?" i said smoothly, seeing as the village seemed to be getting smaller into the distance.

"you'll see." he only replied, taking a small turn.

"are you sure you are not planning to kill me?" i said, ready to jump off the ilu any second. he stopped his ilu and looked at me.

"are you insane? no!" he said, laughing slightly.

"i was just asking!" i said, my hands going up to defend myself.

we the continue our ride and after 5 minutes or so, we go to a cave, it was beautiful. as i hopped off ao'nung's ilu, he spoke up.

"it's better at night, the eclipsed' light shines off the plants. we can go after the celebration if you want." he said looking at me.

"yeah, that'd seem awesome!" i said enthusiastically, walking around the cave. looking at all sorts of different corals.

most definitely going to come back here tonight i thought, looking around.

timeskip

"breath in," tsireya said as she breathes in deeply. "and breath out" she continued, rotxo doing a demonstration as well.

me, kiri, neteyam, and lo'ak copying their actions.

"imagine a flickering flame," tsireya said, her voice sounding smooth and soft. "you must slow down your heart beat." she continued, looking around at us.

she then put her hands on lo'ak's chest and stomach, "breath in" she said. lo'ak doing as told.

"breath from down here, breath out slowly." tsireya looking at lo'ak.

"lo'ak, your heartbeat is fast." tsireya said, making lo'ak embarrassed.

"sorry" lo'ak said quickly, averting his gaze from hers.

"try to focus" she said.

i looked around to see if anyone noticed what i saw, seeing as rotxo and neteyam smirked at eachother while kiri only rolled her eyes. mumbling something i didn't bother to hear.

later on we began to ride our ilu's. as i rose up from the water, i shook my head to get the water off my face.

"you are learning to breath." tsireya proudly said. me, lo'ak and neteyam high fives each other of our success.

"well i'm going to head back, now. i'm hungry." i said, having my ilu swim to shore.

i heard a collective of bye's from everyone. i saw patted my ilu head, giving it a treat before leaving.

as i walked along shore, i looked up into the sky seeing as it got a bit darker. i then felt something in my foot. a crab! i thought.

i crouched down picking up the crab, it then pinched me making me fling it.

"ow." i heard someone say, it was ao'nung. wait, ao'nung?

"oops, sorry" i said picking the crab off his face. i then walked to the water to clean off the blood that ran down my finger.

"are you okay?" said ao'nung, worry seeping through his eyes. i nodded, bring my hand up to his face.

"oh yeah i'm fine, just a small pinch" i replied back, "what? are you worried?" i said smugly.

"ew! never! i would never worry over a forest freak!" he said walking away, mumbling things i couldnt hear.

i shrugged, making my way back to my mauri.





not proofread !

hope y'all enjoyed this chapter.

request any other characters from anything that you guys want me to do, i could do a one shot book or sum

anyways bye, i'll do lots of chapters this weekend (i hope)

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