sixteen: as it was

Ninat'ia

"Please, take care of Miles."

I watched as a human girl, much smaller than Spider, had told me repeatedly to protect Miles Quaritch. I sat across from her and stared down at her small frame.

"I cannot do what you ask of me, child. He is not the hero your people paint him out to be," I wanted to call him a demon, a monster of humanities creation - but her eyes were pleading. It was like she knew that what she was asking of me was impossible.

Or she knew how my body felt around him. How calming it was to know that he would keep me safe from the demons around us, or how he began to trust me.

"He was supposed to be a hero. He promised me that," she expressed, sitting down on the cold white floor. I had barely even noticed that she was wearing what Jake called a hospital gown.

"It has been a long time, and you would only be with me in this dream if you have been passed on," I pointed out, feeling a sense of comfort as she looked up at me.

"I had cancer. I tried to fight it for him, but I was weak and died," it was as if she was blaming herself for dying. Tears reflected in her eyes, and she tried to keep them from falling but eventually she started to weep.

I grabbed her face, my hand almost holding her entire head, "even our strongest are not protected against vicious illnesses, child. You fought, but you have passed on now."

"I felt so cold, and I could hear Miles. . .but then I felt like I was being held, like by my mom. She calls herself Eywa," she explained and my hand fell from her face as my eyes widened.

In all of my years, I had never heard of a human soul being accepted by Eywa. Perhaps with Grace, but she was not like the demons she had worked with.

This human did not even die here.

And yet Eywa took her into her arms.

"I know Miles has done a lot of bad things-"

"He killed my father," I cut in, trying to forget the fire. I spent so long mourning my father, trying to remember to keep going so that mother could be proud to call me her daughter. 

And yet it felt like my own heart was betraying me.

"That was not the Miles I loved," she stated, "but this one is," and she grabbed my finger. Her small human hand only managed to grab the pinky finger as she stared up at me.

"He has a good heart."

"Child, you do not-"

"Oel ngati kameie," she spoke fluently.

"He sees you, and you see him."

"How do you know that. . .?"

She smiled, "because his heart can't lie. You can see it in his eyes, especially when he looks at you."

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IM BAAACK. I missed writing this but I'm finally free to write so expect more!