"Hey Sersei?" Neteyam asked quietly as the pair laid on the grass clearing in the forest. The spot became a second home for the young twins to flee to in their spare time.

"Yeah, Nete?" The girl responded, craning her neck to the side to see his face. "What is it?

The boy gulped thickly. "What if we led the clan together? You as Tsahik, me as Olo'eyktan. We could find heirs to the title in the village and train them when we're older. That way we can always be together."

"I don't think I'll be the next Tsahik, brother." Sersei found his words humorous, lips perking up at his foolish idea. "I'm no healer and I have no time for responsibility. Plus, I don't even know if I have the eyes to see the will of Eywa."

"But what if?" Neteyam sat up and leaned his weight on his elbows, a new fearful look in his eyes. "The clan knows I'm the greatest warrior of my age. Father will surely name me Olo'eyktan and I don't know if I can rule without you-"

"Brother, please," Sersei followed his movement and sat beside him, bringing her legs inward and draping her arms around. "We are too young to think of this. Grandmother will find another to replace her role and we will spend eternity in the forest. I am not going to be Tsahik ever, Nete, I can promise you that."

Sometimes, Sersei wishes she was in denial as she was all those years ago. When his foolish idea was merely a theory. Now more than ever, Neteyam was on his way to be named the next Olo'eyktan after Tarsem took over for their father and Sersei was already named the next Tsahik.

She wonders what she could possibly accomplish if she wasn't the heir. If Mo'at hadn't lured her into the healing tent to whisper in her ear the final words to seal her fate.

Sersei was doomed for duty and nobody could stop it.

By the time both twins were the right age and the Sky People would leave, Neteyam and Sersei would return to the forests of the Omaticaya and be crowned the Tsahik and Olo'eyktan of their people. They would guide their people and die amongst the forest.

Born as twins who would command side by side as the pair they were born to be.

It's funny how everything can change in barely a day.

Sersei never believed she would be the one to hold the title of next Tsahik. Her mother was the one meant to inherit the position, not her. Sersei spent years hearing her mother ramble about the healing techniques she learned while the young girl rubbed her sore arms from the hours of the day spent hunting.

Never in her life did Sersei think Mo'at would decide to skip over her own daughter and choose the eldest daughter of Toruk Makto.

Then again, she never expected to leave her home of the forest for the reef.

Referencing the old tales she heard of the reef, she could understand why one would claim it to be so captivating. Clear blue water awaited her presence and even from above, she could see the fish swimming underneath.

Sersei found Tuk walking forward first, curiosity guiding her steps, and jumped off her ikran to whisper-yell at her. "Tuk!" Her gaze snapped to the unknown people before them who seemed to judge her just a little too much.

All confidence was gone. Sersei felt like a lab rat under their watchful eyes and only felt anxiety flood her veins. To counter, she pet Yisi to soothe him and bit her lip.

"Sersei," Neteyam called her name and held out his hand. If anyone were to notice her apprehension first, it would be her own twin.

She came to stand between her two brothers, mildly tolerating the height they had over her. Sersei wasn't glad when her baby brother had just a few inches of height on her, instead balancing his physical advantage with her brain.

By her nervous glancing around and the shuffle in her feet, Neteyam decided to look down at his sister's hands.

She was picking at her own skin, revealing tender, bloody flesh underneath.

The older boy snatched her right hand away from abusing her left and held a soft plea in his eyes when she looked up. Neteyam, since her symptoms of anxiety first showed, was always the one to break her out of the harmful habit.

He gave her hand a comforting squeeze, guaranteeing that she understood his intentions, then let go and looked forward once again.

Before Sersei could say anything else, another presence interrupted her thoughts. Standing before her, a tall and broody boy surveyed her figure with the hint of a smirk on his face. He had a smug and pretentious aura, one that almost made Sersei choke.

Mimicking her brothers, she brought her fingers up to her forehead and brought them down carefully under his soft glare. I see you, it told them wordlessly.

However, the girl wasn't the only one to be stunned.

Ao'nung almost lost his breath when the crowd parted for the son of the Olo'eyktan and he first saw her nervous demeanor. Despite her present fear, her beauty was enrapturing and almost left the boy with his breath stolen in a trance.

With her dark blue skin, she was different from the other girls of his clan. She had braids, thicker than the ones on her presumed family, with different trinkets and items wrapping around each. The boy could visibly see one of the braids that framed her face had a section wrapped with a colorful ribbon.

She had smaller eyes than the average Na'vi that matched her presumed father's and dark eyebrows. On both forearms, arm guards had been wrapped and secured with similar ones along the insides of her calves. Two mismatched bands decorated her upper arms just below her steady shoulders.

As his gaze traveled to more hidden parts, he found a necklace resting above her collarbones at the end of her neck with colored rocks woven in along the front. Her top seemed to be conjured of one long assortment of feathers and leaves secured around her neck and crossed over her chest twice. A knife rested by her waist, attached by hanging onto the thin string of her loincloth.

Residue of cracked and faintly ruined white paint decorated her face and a battle band had been secured just below her chest.

Ao'nung wasn't that stupid to not understand who she was. This was no girl—this was a woman of a higher status than him as the next Tsahik of where she came from.

It crushed all his chances of ever charming her.

Sersei grew shy and opted to stroke her braids for comfort. As the two boys rounded behind them, they began pointing and laughing at them. She craned her head around and found them pointing at their thin, swaying tails. She furrowed her brows and bit her lip, hoping to make her body smaller and her presence shrink until she didn't exist.

Anything was better than humiliation in a moment where she already felt out of place.

She shifted her gaze to her little brother and found him stunned by a Metkayina girl. Sersei glanced at the girl and back to her brother, stifling a smile. Lo'ak ducked his head and attempted to hide the blush on his cheeks, but she still saw.

Sersei looked up at Neteyam and let out a small giggle when she found they both noticed the boy's new interest. She nudged Lo'ak in the ribs softly and offered him a teasing smile, earning a small shove on her arm to pathetically stop her light teasing.

The girl slapped one of the laughing boys and scolded them. "Rotxo! Ao'nung!" The two boys quickly regained their composure, the taller one rolling his eyes and with his gaze finding its way back to the forest girl.

He thought she was too intriguing to ignore.

Sersei wondered if it would be a blessing or a curse.

With the nod of his head, Lo'ak sported a small smirk and nodded his head at the girl. "Hey," he greeted, causing her to look down at the ground with a smitten look on her face.

Sersei only had to look at Neteyam's raised brows for her to barely hold back a snort. She covered her mouth gently as poorly muffled laughs escaped her mouth and racked her body. Her twin brother joined in with her antics, pressing his lips into a thin line to compress his grin.

"What?" Lo'ak tried to ask his older siblings, irritation brewing in his mind.

"Nothing." Sersei whispered back and bit her lip. She wished she could be distracted from reality for just a few more moments before she had to face the bitter truth of social anxiety and the creeping threat of the Sky People.

She whipped her head around when she heard shouts and water splashing from behind them. Her eyes widened at the sight of the animals they were flying on, ducking when they flew overhead, with a gasp stuck in her throat.

The scientists back home would love to get samples here, she thought, before Sersei reminded herself she had no idea if she would return to the Omaticaya anytime soon.

The man in the front unmounted the animal and walked through waist-deep water until he stood on the pale sand of the beach. By his decorated appearance, Sersei knew he was the Olo'eyktan, as her father had once been.

She copied her father and brought her fingers up to her forehead once more, lightly bowing down at the man.

Another figure emerged through the crowd of unknown people—a woman with a long and flowy skirt and fire in her eyes. Now, it became clear to Sersei who they were: Tonowari and Ronal, Olo'eyktan and Tsahik of the Reef. She only knew this from the brief moment of her father briefing her about the pair.

"I see you, Ronal, Tsahik of the Metkayina." Jake greeted respectfully, doing the gesture one more time as Sersei nervously mumbled an "I see you" with the shuffle of her feet and repeating the action.

"Why do you come to us, Jake Sully?" The man asked, sticking his arm out and gesturing to the rest of them.

Jake looked back, eyes landing on Sersei for just a second longer with something in his eyes that she couldn't decipher before holding his arms out to surrender his intentions. "We seek uturu."

"Uturu?" The woman asked in disbelief, almost spitting out the words as she glanced up at her mate in shock.

"Yes, a sanctuary for my family."

The words didn't process in her head—even Sersei could see as Ronal stepped forward before anyone could stop her and circled around the group.

"We are Reef People," Tonowari tried to reason, "you are Forest People. Your skills will mean nothing here."

Sersei felt small under the woman's gaze. It was like she was surveying them, judging them as if they were meat served to her on a platter. Specifically, Ronal slowed her pace in front of the girl and narrowed her gaze, jaw clenched as if she had something to say.

Instead, she walked away to pick up Neytiri's tail briefly. "Their arms are thin." Ronal grabbed Tuk's arm for a moment to watch it flop back down. "Their tails," she yanked on Kiri's tail to inspect, earning a yelp of pain and a glare from the girl, "are weak. You will be slow in the water."

Lo'ak took one step forward before Sersei pulled his arm back and shook her head softly. "Don't," she whispered, though the furrow in his brows and the anger in his eyes was still present.

Observing Kiri's hands, which were now tending to the end of her tail to shelter it from more harassment, Ronal snatched them away and caught sight of her extra finger. "These children," she held up the girl's hands for the rest of the village to see, "are not even true Na'vi!"

A wave of shame hit Sersei as she crossed her arms and tucked her hands away, ears twitching down with embarrassment. To be humiliated and the center of attention was a worse nightmare than it already had been.

Ronal grabbed onto Lo'ak and held one of his hands to the sky, counting his fingers. "They have demon blood!"

Ao'nung found himself with a sharp disdain for the family per his mother's opinion—but a softer version for the girl he couldn't pull his eyes away from. Still, he shook off the falter in his demeanor and stuck with what his mother felt to be true.

The boy ducked his head down as his ears flattened, as if it would help him from alleviating his damaged dignity. Sersei only took his free hand in her own in a meek attempt to comfort him—to take his attention off of the situation at hand.

"And the other one," Ronal turned her attention to the girl, "this is your future Tsahik?" She rhetorically asked, narrowing her eyes as she scanned the girl. Sersei only glanced up to meet her gaze once, scared if she looked any longer if she would find true malice in her eyes. "A mere child who cannot even look me in the eye? How will you protect your people if you flee danger-"

A loud shriek cut through her words when she dared to take a step closer. Multiple heads turned to the noise and found one of the ikran thrashing around like he was bloodthirsty.

The action took Ronal by surprise for only a moment until she shook it off and continued her sharp judgment.

Sersei almost let words slip out of her mouth. She wanted to tell the woman she didn't want any trouble and she just wanted to do whatever it takes to protect the people she loves—her family—and escape the war brought to her doorstep.

A pang through her heart interrupted her thoughts, drawing her gaze up to the sky. The same prickles in her fingers, ones she had gotten used to, returned. Her heart yearned for the sky, like a weight pressing down on her bones until it crushed her.

A current mystery unsolved.

"Look, look!" Jake held his hand up in front of the woman's face, waving it around to make sure she saw his extra finger. "Look, I was born of the Sky People and now I am Na'vi, alright? You can adapt," his spared a glance to his mate. "We will adapt! Okay?"

In the midst of their argument, Sersei looked back at the boy from earlier again. His lips were parted as he took in the sight of the white paint on her face, like he didn't understand what it meant until now.

She was of a high status—like him. But no amount of protection by being the daughter of Toruk Makto could erase her demon blood. It was something Ao'nung just had to accept in order to follow his mother's beliefs.

Neytiri stepped forward from his side and held her head high with pride. "My husband was Toruk Makto," she said, "he led the clans to victory against the Sky People."

"This you call victory?" Ronal was quick to rebuttal. "Hiding among strangers?" She stepped closer. "It seems Eywa has turned her back on you, chosen one."

Neytiri hissed, earning a hiss back from the other woman.

The light touch of soft fingertips grazed Sersei's palm. She peered down and found Lo'ak sliding his hand into hers, head still held down in the opposite manner as their mother. "Lo'ak?" She whispered, confused at his actions.

He didn't meet her gaze.

Wordlessly, he told her everything she needed to know. Sersei only sighed lightly and clasped their hands together. Whatever her little brother needed, she would give.

She only wanted to see her siblings happy.

"Toruk Makto is a great war leader. All Na'vi people know his story." Tonowari put both his arms up. "But we, Metkayina, are not at war." He turned to Jake and changed the tone of his voice. "We cannot let you bring your war here."

"I'm done with war," he was quick to assure, "okay? I just want to keep my family safe." Jake wrapped a hand around Tuk, who sat safely in his arms and craned his head around for a moment to look at his eldest daughter.

He needed to protect her the most for his own good.

"Uturu has been asked." Neytiri added the last piece in.

The mated pair's eyes met. Tonowari and Ronal spoke to each other wordlessly like it was second nature. Both understood each other through simple eye contact.

For a moment, Sersei wished she had the same thing they did. For someone to come along the line and seem to completely understand what she was feeling without her having to display it or explain it with no words in her mind to describe what she was feeling.

Now, Sersei didn't long for love. She wasn't searching every corner for a mate, not when she was too busy with maintaining herself. She had Neteyam and the rest of their family. She didn't need anyone else.

At least, she thought so.

By the nod of Ronal's head, Tonowari turned to the rest of the village people and drew in a deep breath. "Toruk Makto and his family will stay with us." Sersei almost felt the need to sigh in relief from his words. "Treat them as our brothers and sisters. Now, they do not know the sea, so they will be like babies taking their first breath. Teach them our ways so they do not suffer the shame of being useless."

Jake nodded in gratitude and looked down at Tuk. "Okay, what do we say?"

"Thank you," she answered.

With one last squeeze to his hand, Sersei gave a small smile to Lo'ak and freed her hand to fidget with her fingers. "Thank you," she mumbled quietly.

"My son, Ao'nung, and my daughter, Tsireya will show your children what to do."

Ao'nung. That was the name of the boy who thought he was better than the rest of them. Sersei had half the mind to roll her eyes at the fact that he was the Olo'eyktan's son.

"Father, why do-"

"It is decided." Tonowari cut him off with the point of his finger.

And in the few seconds Sersei knew his name, he ruined his first impression of himself. She furrowed her brows and pressed her lips together, believing he wasn't as bad as he displayed himself to be. Sersei couldn't imagine a boy similar to her age to be truly resentful.

"Come. I will show you our village." Tsireya flashed a bright smile to the siblings, countering her brother's broody mood. Sersei only sighed and closed her eyes, imagining she was back in the forest with her family like they were all those years ago.

She prayed for that moment to come back and last forever before she woke up once again to reality.

long overdue update but i have stormborn all planned out and i'll be updating at least once a week but no promises bc i might hit a spot of writer's block.

—rory