Neteyam

The story of Neteyam and Alice began long before there was silence between them.

As Jake Sully's eldest son, Neteyam lived under the weight of expectations from childhood. For the Omaticaya clan, he was the future chieftain, the heir to Toruk Makto, and a role model for the others. Every step he took was accompanied by responsibility, and the right to be himself was gradually eroding.

Alice became the only person around whom he didn't have to pretend. She saw him not as an heir, but as Neteyam himself. Their meetings took place away from prying eyes—under the glowing trees of Pandora, during warm rains, or in her small hut, scented with sandalwood. Only with her did he feel peace, and her bioluminescent patterns shone brighter, revealing feelings she almost never voiced.

But the stronger their bond grew, the more Alice convinced herself that love would interfere with his destiny. Unwilling to be the reason he had to choose between duty and love, she herself had destroyed what was most precious to her.

Alice withdrew, addressing him only as "young warrior," and stopped waiting for him at her hut. That evening, when she asked Neteyam to take down his hammock and turned off the light she had previously lit only when he was near her, he realized he had lost the place where he could be himself.
After this, Neteyam became exactly the warrior the clan desired: calm, disciplined, and almost flawless. But along with this, a part of him disappeared. Alice, too, found no happiness, hiding her feelings behind cold reserve.
Now only silence unites them. They still notice each other among people, but no longer know how to make the first move. To everyone else, they are just two clan members. Only Kiri understands that there was once something much more between them, and Lo'ak cannot understand why his always calm brother has become so cold. And somewhere deep inside, Neteyam still hopes that one day Alice will again look at him not as a future chieftain, but as the young man she once loved.