*ੈ✩‧₊˚ gentle breeze •°. *࿐

the end.

You remember both you and Tsireya keeping Neteyam's out of the water, taking him up higher on the rock and propping his back up. Your hand caressed his lifeless face and even though you were admiring a dead body, you had strong feelings for him and you didn't know how to feel now that the initial shock and grief was gone. When your hand dropped, Tsireya finally said something.

"Are you okay?" she asks, with a weak voice, tears still filling up her eyes. Yours were currently dried on your face, stopping just seconds ago.

"I don't think so but I'll be fine for now," you say, looking over at her cowering form. Your arms find their way around her once again, the both of you starting to cry in each other's arms as you wait for the Sully family to come back.

"I'll always be here for you," Tsireya whispered through sobs. You shakidly nodded your head in response, not finding the words to say anything back to her. But you had hoped she knew that you would always be there for her as well.

The wait for deafening, you try to drown out the sound of tears with the waves of the ocean, knowing that grief won't be leaving you anytime soon. The night blanketed the both of you in its comfort, blocking your vision from the body of Neteyam and kissing your skin with the cold. Hoping nothing bad would happen to the Sully family was hard, especially when a ring of flames burst from around the ship. You let out a yelp, hand over your mouth with your eyes open in terror, Tsireya mirroring your actions. Looking at each other, you held on to each other harder, squeezing each other to the point where it was hard to breathe.

The anxiety for the Sully family got worse when the ship started to sink in the water, Tsireya's tears started to run once again while you blankly looked at the sinking ship. It was hard to believe anything was happening. First, getting caught up with the sky demons, getting stuck on the ship and whatever they wanted. Second, Neteyam's death. Lastly, the sink shipping while being beside Neteyam's dead body. Your mind seems to go empty, nothing else from then on was able to process through your mind.

As if no time passed, the Sully family came back to you and Tsireya, relief washed over as you let go of a breath that you didn't know you were holding. Tsireya removed herself from your arms, popping up to hug Lo'ak and cry into his arms. Tuk and Kiri had faces of disbelief as they came up to Neteyam's body, being too tired to properly grieve their lost brother. Eventually, Tuk goes over to you for comfort, you hold her tightly in hopes she would be able to feel your empathy. Jake picked up Neteyam's body bridal style in his arms, letting out a deep sigh as he turned around to face you all.

"Let's go back," he said, melancholy shining through his voice. It took you all a bit to get up and call some more ilus and you all went back to Awa'atlu , Jake on his skimwing, and Neytiri on her ikran. Neytiri being the one who carries Neteyam's body, her ikran having the equipment to carry his body. Kiri had the human with her on her ilu, as you all ride your ilus leisurely on top of the surface, you look at him with a confused look.

"Could you have saved yourself?" you ask Spider, voicing your question if he could've left the ship on his own and without Neteyam's help. A bit of you resented Spider when you realized that Neteyam and Lo'ak didn't leave the ship with you, Tsireya, and Tuk right away to save their friend.

"(Y/n)!" Kiri started, giving you a sharp look.

"(Y/n), you don't have to ask that," Lo'ak said, rolling his eyes.

"No, it's good," Spider said, shaking his head and turning back to you, "I don't think they would've let me leave. They had like, fifty guys on me all the time. It was hard to even find a second out. I almost did though, but they just chased me the whole way."

You nod your head at his words, looking off to the side not wanting to look at the human anymore. You also did so to ignore the looks that Lo'ak and Kiri were giving you for questioning the choice of saving their friend. Despite the explanation that Spider had given you, you still didn't know how you felt about him and on how he affected Neteyam's undeserved death. If only they didn't go to save their friend. Instead, you watched the waves that you and Neteyam had used to ride on together, places where you had thought him to breathe. A heavy sigh left your mouth as you soon approached the beach.

Getting off your ilu and walking on to the sand, your eyes stayed focused on the grains of sand that fell in between your toes. You heard many na'vi walking up to your group, many making a big deal out of Neteyam's dead body in Jake's arms. You made sure to keep your eyes away from those who were directing Jake to the tsahik pod, knowing that you should be following them but stayed in your place. The dead would be able to wait for you, you weren't sure if you could face death again. A pair of feet invade the top of your vision, you look up to see Ao'nung looking at you with a curious and concerned face.

Meeting his teal eyes, yours immediately tear up. You attempt to talk but instead of coherent words, stammers come out. Ao'nung walks closer to you and wraps you in his arms, his hand finding your back, and makes light circles to comfort you. You didn't know when he had learnt to be so soft but you invited it with open arms, quite literally wrapping your own arms around him and sobbing into his shoulder.

"What... happened?"

"Neteyam's dead," you sob out, his arms tighten around your frame. A small sniffle could be heard from above you.

"Oh." There was a small pause, "are you okay?" He asks again, something inside of you was happy that he was focused on how you were doing.

"No," you say honestly. You take a deep breath out before continuing, "but there was something my father said to me once. Sometimes special people come into our lives, stay for a bit and then leave. The joy that he provided us is all that we needed," you recite from your memory.

"C'mon, stop acting all spiritual on me," Ao'nung says with a light chuckle. Though it was hard, a small smile graced your face as you remove yourself from his arms to look at his face.

"How is that spiritual?"

"I don't know, it just sounds like it."

"Were you guys able to leave fine? No one else got hurt?" you ask, a feeling of dread seeping into your skin as you prepare to hear for the worse.

"Rotxo and I got out after Kiri got taken away, the warriors made us leave because of their weapons. I don't think anyone else got hurt, your father is fine but he has minor wounds," he says, listing the events that you had missed out on. You nodded your head, happy that everything was mostly fine but a small sense of concern was there for your father. The urge to run to your pod to make sure that he was completely fine, "he's being treated right now, you need to rest."

"But-"

"I will walk you back to your pod, you need rest," Ao'nung insists, using his arms to guide you toward your own marui pod. Despite all your protests, he ignored it all and didn't leave your side until you were laying down on your mat.

But you didn't sleep until your father came back and sat by your side. You finally let yourself relax and drift off to sleep as your father hummed your mother's songcord to you.

That takes you back to now, shaking your head to brush off the memory of that day before in order to focus on the activity at hand. Sitting beside Ronal, the both of you were preparing bonds and flowers for the funeral. Picking flowers off the stems and taking the leaves off of vines. From where you were sitting, you could peek into the tsahik pod where Jake and Neytiri were cleaning off Neteyam's body.

A frown settled on your face as you watched tears pour down Jake's face as gently poured water over the wounds Neteyam had. From what you could tell Neytiri was staring blankly at her son's body, a cloth on Neteyam while repeating the same motions over and over again. You could feel their grief from where you were, your eyes not leaving their somber forms until Ronal called out to you.

"(Y/n), bring the bounds and I will show them what to do. You get the ceremonial garments and bring them to me," she says softly, slowly getting up. You follow after her, holding the bounds in your arms as your trail after the tall na'vi. Entering the pod, Jake quickly wipes away his tears as he gets up when he sees Ronal and greets her, Neytiri stays seated on the floor but her arms stop moving. Ronal takes the bounds from your arms and nods her head at you, "my garments are on the third shelf. Tsireya will have your clothes."

You walk away from the adults and grab the clothes and accessories for Ronal, bringing them to her side as she wraps Neteyam's limbs together. Placing her clothes beside her, you leave the pod with one more look at Neteyam and walk away to find Tsireya. It didn't take you long to find her and when you did, she had your clothes in her arms. She places them into your hands and gives you a soft squeeze on your arm. You send her a smile and whisper a 'thank you' before going to your own pod to change into the clothing.

Ceremonial garment was more extravagant than what a normal na'vi would usually wear, you look at yourself through the reflection of the water. You had netting around your arms, the skirt was longer than what you were used to, and a headpiece made from seaweed with a shell that hung in the middle of your forehead. It was similar to what Ronal would usually wear and you liked that, but it was unfortunate that the first time you got to wear the clothing would be to the funeral of someone you were close to.

You went back to the tsahik pod and sat off to the side as Ronal, Jake, and Neytiri would prepare for the rest of the funeral that was soon approaching later than evening. No one passed by except for when the rest of the Sully family and Spider came by at the beginning of the night to bring Neteyam to the ancestral burial grounds.

A horn could be heard throughout the village, meaning that it was time for the funeral to begin. The group had rode over to the burial grounds, you and Ronal had gotten there before the Sully family to take your place at the front of the Metkayina clan. Before giving Neteyam back to Eywa, the Sully family were on the rocks, a basket of flowers beside the boat that held Neteyam's body was waiting for others to place the flowers beside him.

Everyone took turns taking a flower and placing it around his body while Neytiri was singing out his songcord. You were able to recognize each part of the song from when you and Neteyam had exchanged what your songcord meant. When it was your turn to place a flower by his body, Ao'nung was behind you, placing a hand on the small of your back as you put your flower down. Going back to your places from before, Ao'nung gave you a small hug with a quick and gentle kiss to your forehead before parting ways.

The Sully family brought Neteyam to the middle of the burial grounds, and started to bring his body into the water and toward the sea anemone. Tears started to prick your eyes, allowing them to flow down your face as you had your arms out, mirroring the actions of Ronal, both of you muttering prayers to Eywa. You could not see what was happening and how Neteyam was being brought to the earth, that was reserved to be an intimate moment for families yet you wished that you were able to see him one more time before it was time for him to go. You felt your heart breaking as the ceremony came to a close as the Sully family came toward Tonowari, being close by you were able to hear what he had said to Jake.

"Your son lay with our ancestors now, you are now Metkayina," Tonowari said, a small smile on his face.

Jake nodded at Tonowari, before turning to Ronal who had something to say. "It is now time for you to see your son, he waits for you at the Spirit Tree."

They nodded their heads and headed out, Ronal dismissing you. Though it was dark out, you didn't go home right away and instead went out to the rocks where you had hung out with Neteyam the most. Letting your legs dangle off the ledge of the rocks, you pull on a thread around the netting around your shoulder. You take out your songcord and use it to extend your songcord and make a knot to signify the event of Neteyam's passing.

You hear shuffling from behind you but you don't turn to Ao'nung as he sits down beside you. The stars shine brightly, one especially shines brighter than the others, as if highlighting the both of you in its light as you hum out your own songcord.

⋅︓︒︑∘∗✧∘︑︒⚬∙︓·⠄✯∘⠄✧⠄

[a/n]: the endings are coming soon !! so sorry writers block is hard to work through </3

did you know: this last one ! did you know cliff curtis who play tonowari is maori ! the first day of filming he did a maori prayer over the cast and on the 2nd day he brought his family to do more prayers and bless the cast - they learnt a lot about the indigenous culture of the maori people from his family i believe ! they also brought the whole cast to hawaii to learn what it would actually be like to swim in that aquatic environment since the filming was all done in a studio in new zealand !

extra: jake's songcord begins with him meeting neytiri <3

big self promo section <3

pls know have 2 other avatar fics in progress you should check out !!

ripples which is a lo'ak x reader

and die for you which is a neteyam x reader

i also have a namor x oc story in the works thats currently only have its preface out but will soon have chapters !

need a cover for your book or cute edits ?? feel free to req from me at my shop !!

( wattpad people i will have a book shop soon )