Ti'Ywan, The Daughter Of Toruk Makto

4 - Lo'ak

"Ywanie, you will follow your mother's lead and shoot down the aircrafts, Lo'ak and Neteyam, you two will be a lookout, you spot incoming back up and call it out... immediately, got that?"

"Yes sir!"

All three children replied to their father in unison. Lo'ak was upset he couldn't fight as well, but he wasn't going to oppose his decision. After he heard their answer, he left to instruct all the others who were going with them. The three children dispersed to get ready. Ti'ywan strapped her arrow holster and bow around her left shoulder. Then she put on her headband, necklace and bracelets that were decorated with teeth. She used black paint around eyes headband and eyebrows. Then she reached for a bright red paint but a brilliant idea popped up in her head. She mixed some of the black paint in to create a blood red colour which she put on her lips, chin and neck to make it look like it's dripping. Then she finished it off with some white details.

When Neteyam and Lo'ak saw it, they thought it was so cool, they wanted to go remake theirs to look that way, but unfortunately there was no time left for it.

"Everyone get moving! We're leaving!"

Loud battle cries were constantly shouted while everyone was getting their weapons and mounts and when they left, there was a deadly silence.

The flying team got there first and circled nearby the moving maglev while ground team was catching up and when they did, they blew up the railway, derailing the train.

Everyone yelled out in success and swarmed the train carts, like ants to candy. They formed a line and looted everything that was on the train.  Ti'Ywan and Neytiri took out all the air support of the enemy before circling the place on standby.

Ti'ywan then noticed her two brothers landing on the ground. She signaled her mother that she was going to land and went after them. Jake shouted for everyone to run. Back up suddenly arrived and launched missiles at one of the carts where Neteyam and Lo'ak where running away from. Worried, she quickly dove down and picked both up with her Ikran's feet but couldn't take off in time so she threw her brother's away and crash landed when she got hit by the explosion. Pukk(Ikran's name) rolled away because of the force and Ti'Ywan got buried under debris and metal parts, while Lo'ak and Neteyam ended up nearby.

Jake quickly ran to his children. He found Lo'ak, who was fortunately fine, first and asked him about his older siblings, he didn't know where they were and so Jake left to find them. After he a bit of distressed searching he found Neteyam, who was bruised and bleeding a bit but okay. Their sister Ti'Ywan was nowhere to be found however. Neytiri saw it all from above and was barely holding back her tears while Jake was unsuccessfully searching for his oldest daughter.

"YWANIE! BABYGIRL! WHERE ARE YOU!"

After two more minutes, Ti'ywan weakly moved her arm around in the rubble, making some of it fall and alert her father. He rushed to her and, with the help of Lo'ak, got her out. Neytiri immediately landed and hugged her while crying. Ti'ywan's head was bleeding and she had a bleeding gash on her back as well as many bruises everywhere.

"Are Neteyam and Lo'ak okay?"

Jake laughed sadly, she was badly hurt yet the first thing she wanted to know is if her brothers were okay. Neteyam and Lo'ak smiled gently and waved at her from behind their father. She smiled back weakly but couldn't wave.

Jake picked her up after Neytiri calmed down and secured her on his Ikran so they could leave. Lo'ak found injured Pukk in the forest close by. He had some deeper scratches and cuts on his neck and head but his wings were fine so Lo'ak just whistled for him to go home on his own. Once everyone got on their Ikran, they left. Jake gently embraced his daughter so she wouldn't fall, while flying slowly to make her as comfortable as he could.

When they came back, Tsahìk was already waiting for them with treatment for Ti'ywan's injuries. Kiri and grandma carefully carried her away, while Neteyam and Lo'ak stayed behind with their parents, knowing they weren't allowed to leave, as they were about to get lectured.

"Why the hell were you on the ground?! You were supposed to be the lookouts, you spot back up and call it out! You could have been killed! Your sister saved you both and almost died!"

"Sir, I'm sorry, I take full responsibility"

Neteyam stuck his neck out for Lo'ak, once again taking the blame for him.

"Yeah you do, you're the older brother! So act like it!"

"MaJake, your son is bleeding"

Neytiri looked over Neteyam, he had some bad cuts and so she took him away from the scolding to get treated after Ti'ywan. Lo'ak who was hiding behind him until now was in full view.

"You, get over here!"

Lo'ak lowered his ears, left his Ikran's safe space and went closer to his father.

"I hope you know if it wasn't for Ti'ywan, you could have been dead, your brother could have been dead!"

"Yes sir, I'm sorry"

"MaJake, that's enough"

Jake tried to relax his deep frown but couldn't, so he ordered Lo'ak to clean up and take all of the Ikrans to their nesting area after unsaddling them.

Ti'ywan slept for the rest of the day, her body exhausted from the incident. Her bow broke in the explosion and so Jake was sitting outside, making her a new one. Neytiri came over to him.

"MaJake, you're too hard on them, they're just trying to live up to you"

"I'm their father, I have to be hard on them"

"They are not soldiers, this is not the army, this is a family"

He finally relaxed his expression and looked at her as he stopped making the bow with a knife. His eyes were watery.

"I thought we had lost them...we almost lost Ywanie..."

Neytiri put her hand on his shoulder in a comforting manner, understanding how he feels.

"I didn't want to even think about not finding her, but with each passing second we couldn't find her, it tore my heart apart"

They both looked inside the house at their oldest daughter, who was sleeping peacefully. It was slightly scary, how peaceful she looked, as if she wasn't meant to ever wake up again.