More Brotherhood - chapter 21~!
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Brotherhood Chapter 21 Minstrel a' Wandering
Back at Hometree, Tom was hard at work preparing for a trip. The morning after the party, when he'd woken and once he'd recovered from the slightly touchy stomach and sensitivity to light, he had suddenly remembered Ninat's statement the night before that he was going to be busy, and had wondered what with. He hadn't had to wonder for long. It was soon explained to him by a surprisingly happy-looking Antsu (of all people) that a trade delegation would be heading to one of the nearby clans, and it was to have four singers, two weavers, and two warriors along.
At first, Tom had assumed that he would be busy because he would have to pick up the slack of those who left, or some such thing, but that was when he got the bombshell dropped on him. The singer contingent of the delegation were to be Antsu, Ninat, Cathy and himself.
"It is usual for a singer, once he has passed his first tests, to travel to other clans and learn of them," Antsu had explained, "and when I mated to my Ka'tsi I was told that she would be sent upon our next trade mission as her test to become fully one of the Omatikaya. Sempul decided it would be best if the two tasks were combined into one. After all, there is no need for you to wait another month or two for the next trading trip, when you have shown yourself ready now."
And so it was that, two days later, he was busily learning how to load packs onto pa'li and how to saddle and care for them, along with perfecting his riding skills. Ninat had taken him riding a few times as they practiced various other things in the last couple of months, and he had luckily managed to figure it out without falling in the mud more than about ten times, but even so, he rode, as she put it, like a young child, half-afraid of his pa'li deciding it was going to wander into a patch of thorns to get the annoyance off its back, so the more practice he got before he was going to have to spend all day in the saddle, the better. They were leaving first thing the next morning, and Tom was equal parts excited and terrified. The trip to the Anurai clan was going to take three to four days through the forest, and that meant sleeping in the forest. He wasn't quite sure how that was going to go, but he presumed that since these trading trips happened, as far as he could tell, every couple of months, then it must mean they were relatively safe. Well, as safe as anything was in the jungles of Pandora. He'd seen a couple of funerals in the two months he'd been here, and only one of them had been due to old age.
Still, he reassured himself, there was strength in numbers, and they would have warriors with them in case something went very wrong. And now he would have a chance to experience a snapshot of life among a different clan! It was an opportunity he had never expected to have, or certainly not for quite some time. Ninat had told him the Anurai were potters in the same way that the Omatikaya were weavers, that it was constructing things out of clay that their clan specialized in, and he was interested to see how similar and yet different their home would be to his. To his adopted home, that was.
When they returned from their trip out to Site 12, Neytiri and Jake both agreed that it would be best not to mention the baby palulukan to anyone. It was simply too unusual, and difficult to explain. Besides, Neytiri wanted to discuss what she'd learned with her mother before bringing Taka's self-instigated connection to Eywa into common discussion. "It is business for the Tsahìk only," she had explained to Jake, and he didn't dispute it.
"That's fine," he nodded, "besides, I don't wanna cause them any trouble, looks like they're busy enough as it is. I'll just make sure to be the one who brings them meat from now on."
Neytiri was inwardly surprised by his quick realization of something she hadn't even thought about yet. But then, that was Jake all over, always surprising her with his intelligence just when she'd finally decided he was nothing more than an utter skxawng.
He said something about wanting to visit with his brother for a midday meal, and she waved him off. "Go visit," she agreed, "I must speak with Sa'nok. I will come to collect you when it is again time for lessons." She smiled as she watched him run down the somewhat precarious path from the ikran branches. She couldn't help but remember the first time she had brought him up here and how nervous he had been at the height. And now look at him, moving quickly and gracefully through those same branches almost like a true Na'vi.
She shook her head. She was becoming distracted from her true purpose. She headed down as well, moving toward the inner rings of Kelutral and her mother's meditation area. Hopefully Mo'at was not out gathering herbs or berries, Neytiri did not relish the idea of having to hunt her down, only to be asked by everyone what could possibly be so important in the middle of the day that the future Tsahìk could not wait until evening to speak to the current one. People were on edge enough lately without unfounded worries to exacerbate the problem.
Luckily, Eywa was with her, and Mo'at was indeed in her meditation area near the base of Kelutral. Neytiri slipped inside through the beaded curtain and settled down across from her mother to wait. It was physically impossible for even the most silent of hunters to pass through those beads without making some amount of sound, so she knew that on at least some level Mo'at knew she was here, but to interrupt a meditation was not only extremely impolite, but also a very bad idea for more esoteric reasons.
After what seemed like an age but was really only a couple of minutes, Mo'at looked up. "What brings you to me in the middle of the day, ma 'ite?" she asked, "I had thought you were busy with our newest young hunter."
"We flew out this morning to take meat to the ayuniltìranyu near the boarder, and there was a most unusual occurrence," Neytiri explained, "of the sort which I think even with my training I am not yet ready to understand without your greater experience and understanding of the mind of the great mother."
"And it has clearly unsettled you to some degree," Mo'at noted, "so share with me what it is that you have seen."
"The uniltìranyu Taka, the one who studies animals, is among the group who have settled in that place," Neytiri began, "and it is mostly him I was surprised by. Ma Sa'nok, he claims to have found an utral aymokriyä, and to have learned to understand at least a small amount of what Eywa intends for him, completely on his own and without training."
"And something makes you believe this claim?" Mo'at gave her an inquisitive look. "You would not be coming to me with this information if there was no proof of any sort."
"He seems to be speaking truth, or at least the truth as he understands it," Neytiri confirmed, "and more than that, he...well, part of the purpose the great mother has given him is to place upon him the burden of raising a litter of young falulukan. They look upon him as their father, and obey him implicitly."
"Falulukan?" Mo'at was clearly as surprised and unsettled as Neytiri had been when she first saw the palulukan being affectionate to Luuisì.
"Yes, Sa'nok, falulukan. I, too, was shocked by their presence, but...Sa'nok, I spoke to one of them today, and it was so very different from tsaheylu with other animals. They are...aware more in the way the Na'vi are than in the way of animals. The baby, whom Taka has named "Tsuki", even told me they call themselves "People of Darkness" rather than palulukan."
"You...made tsaheylu with a palulukan?" Mo'at stared at her, "How can this be?"
"Tsuki was the one who came to me with her tswin extended, wishing to make the bond," Neytiri explained. "It startled me as well, but Taka and Luuisì explained that tsaheylu is how they communicate between one another."
"As fa'li do," Mo'at nodded. "I must meditate on this. Clearly, as you say, the hand of the great mother is at work here, but I do not know yet just how. You have given me much to think about, ma 'ite, and I will speak to you more on this subject when I have thought on how to approach it."
"Thank you, ma Sa'nok," Neytiri nodded, getting to her feet, "I eagerly await your wisdom." She slipped back out through the beaded curtain, feeling not all that much clearer about the whole situation, but grateful, at least, that a wiser head than her own was working on the problem. She might be tsahìk-trained, but she was also still young, and she knew it. She had many years before she would be as wise as her mother.
Once Jake had found his brother, he dragged Tom off to get some food. "So, I've been thinking," he said as they sat down together to eat.
"That's never a good sign," Tom laughed, "what have you been thinking about?"
"Well, I was talking to Taka today when I dropped off their meat shipment, and he told me what ikran actually means...and I think I've finally come up with a name for mine, but I wanted to make sure it doesn't mean something nasty in Na'vi or something, so I figured I'd run it by you first."
Tom just shook his head. "Alright then, what's the name you've come up with?"
"Well, I figure if ikran means "walks the heavens" then what would be better than calling him "Luke"?" Jake grinned widely.
Tom groaned and rolled his eyes. "I don't think "luk" means anything," he said, "luke-, "without" is written the same way, but its "e" isn't silent, so you should be good. That's such a horrible pun, though."
"Maybe," Jake laughed, "but it also kinda suits him, so I figure I'll go with it."
Tom just shook his head again. "Da would've loved it," he said finally, "what with his early movie obsession."
"Yeah," Jake agreed with a sigh, "Da would've loved it here."
The next morning came early. Ninat had told Tom to be up before dawn, and when his alarm went off he felt as though he'd just laid down in his bed and closed his eyes. He groaned and rolled out of bed, not even bothering to change out of his pajamas as he groped through the hallways with his eyes barely cracked open. He knew he probably ought to eat something but he just couldn't be bothered to wake himself up quite that far. He was so close to still asleep, in fact, that he almost tripped over one of the techs heading in the same direction he was. Well, actually he did trip over her, but only after he'd bumped into her and sent her tumbling to the floor. In any case, somehow the two of them ended up tangled in each other on the floor of the hallway leading to the link room.
At least that managed to wake Tom up, some. He hastily apologized, untangled himself and got back to his feet before helping her up as well. "Sorry about that," he shook his head, "clearly it's way too early in the morning."
"Clearly," the girl laughed, tossing her braided red hair back over her shoulder and holding out her hand. "I don't think we've been properly introduced. Moira Cassidy."
"Tom Sully," Tom shook her hand, "thanks for getting up so early to get me into link and all."
She just shrugged, "I'll just beg off for a nice little nap later, no point whinging about it now."
He had to smile. She had a faint accent that was clearer now that she was relaxing a bit, and it reminded him of the time he'd gone to visit their dad's folks back in Oz, only...not quite. "Kiwi?" he asked as they walked together into the link room.
"Good on ya!" she grinned, "Most folks get it wrong, 'specially you American types."
"Who said we were all-American?" Tom pouted at her, "Jake an' me; our Da's from down under, couldn't you tell?" He let the faint accent he and his twin had inherited from their father show through a little more than usual.
"Well then," she blinked, "I guess you're not all bad." She yawned and rubbed her eyes, "even making me wake up this early. Well, hop on in, might as well get to it," she waved in the direction of the link bed.
"Right," Tom laughed, shaking his head, "good thing I don't have to be totally coherent yet." He laid down into the familiar cradling softness of his link bed and pulled the cover down over himself, closing his eyes. His last thought was that he really ought to feel...something for the cute lab tech - physical at the very least - after all, he was male and heterosexual, but the entire time he'd been talking to her, the only thing running through the back of his head had been that Ninat might get annoyed if he was late. He wasn't sure why that seemed so worrying, though, so the fleeting thought was quickly dismissed as he sat up in his nivi and stretched, still feeling awfully sleepy but definitely better rested in this form.
The first few hours traveling through the jungle on horseback were fascinating; Tom found himself almost rubbernecking every time he saw a new vista or plant or anything he hadn't usually seen around Hometree, but somewhere around lunchtime the wonder began to fade a little as the discomfort of spending hours in the saddle began to make itself known. Someone must have noticed his shifting from buttcheek to buttcheek and taken pity on him, because right after lunch they walked the horses over to a river, and one of the warriors, grinning, immediately dived in to take a little swim.
Tom glanced over to Ninat, his surprise probably showing on his face. "Do we have time?" he asked.
"Of course we have time," she grinned at him, "It is not as though we are bearing news that cannot wait a little while longer or shorter."
"Tewti!" Tom grinned and slipped into the river as well, quickly followed by the rest of their party.
Meanwhile, back at Hometree, Jake was keeping quite busy as well. Neytiri had gone off somewhere to talk to her mother about something (Jake wasn't sure if it had anything to do with the Site 12 folks, but he figured if it was anything important he could help with they'd come talk to him later) and had left him in the presumably capable hands of the other hunters. Today they were learning "huntspeak", which, when he'd heard that he had to learn another language had briefly freaked him out, but as it turned out, the "speak" part was a bit of a misnomer. "Huntspeak" was actually the kind of sign language the hunters used between each other when hunting in groups so as not to alert the prey to their presence, and luckily enough even across star systems, when a guy's basic body shape didn't really change, a lot of hand signals, like directions and numbers, pretty much stayed the same.
Even though his language skills were still, he knew, pretty weak, Jake was starting to really find his place among the hunters, and most of them (not all yet, but then, he knew he was still ketuwong, "alien" to a lot of them, he wasn't going to push things) seemed to at least tolerate his presence. It helped that he was actually getting quite good at tracking. He'd been recon before, and that had tracking at the base of it too, it was just about learning a new environment and prey.
After lunch, it was deemed enough time had been spent on huntspeak for the day, and the group was split up into smaller cells of four, each with a well-experienced hunter/teacher as leader, and one of the new hunters, as well as two competent hunters as support. Neytiri still wasn't back yet from talking to Mo'at, so Jake got put with another female hunter/teacher and two males, all probably a couple of years older than himself, or older than his avatar body was anyway. He was glad, in a way, that he didn't get put with Tsu'tey, since that would have meant subtle abuse for every tiny mistake, but at the same time, he hadn't ever really met this "Peyral" girl before, and he had no idea what her English was like - if she even had any.
"So, um, what're we doing?" he asked as their small group slipped silently into the forest, heading east away from Hometree.
"We hunt," Peyral grinned at him. "First smar is you. Run fast and quiet, Jhakesuuly!"
Jake blinked in surprise, but then a slow grin passed across his face. "I'll see you tonight, then," he laughed and took off into the underbrush. He'd played "hiding" games ever since he was a kid, and if he played this one right he might just be able to take out at least one or two of the three hunters. His ultimate objective was to neutralize Peyral, but given that she was the teacher, he knew she must be the best of the three, so he'd focus on the other two first.
Neytiri's meeting with her mother was, of course, about Taka and the babies, but the direction Mo'at had chosen to take was not one her daughter had expected, although, she realized, she really should have anticipated it.
"Are you sure you do not want Sempul to be the one to fly you out with me?" Neytiri asked her mother, "His ikran is more familiar with you than Seze, after all."
"No," Mo'at laughed lightly, "I love your father dearly but this is a matter for the Tsahìk; it would take far too long to explain everything to him and argue down all his worries - it would be days before I got him to agree that we need to see this strange uniltìranyu."
Neytiri shook her head but she had to agree. Her father was a wonderful Olo'eyktan but a leader of people did not always see the world the same way as the Tsahìk did. After all, that was why Eywa had divided the leadership thus, so there would always be a system of checks and balances between them.
They had eaten a quick lunch and packed some treats, at Mo'at's insistence, to take with them to the ayuniltìranyu, and now Neytiri somehow found herself flying into Site 12 for the second day in a row. Seze was no more pleased than before about the scent of the falulukan but Neytiri quickly shushed her as they landed in a nearby field, Seze taking to the treetops again as soon as her passengers had disembarked. They walked calmly into the tawtute camp and were greeted by the cubs, who had sensed their approach and come to investigate.
One held its tswin out to Neytiri, and almost without needing to think about it this time she made tsaheylu. Clearly this wasn't Tsuki, its sense was male rather than female.
«Forest-smell auntie came back to play?» he asked. «Didn't bring Uncle this time.»
«Not this time,» Neytiri smiled at him, «Mother and I came to speak to your father. Is he around?»
«Forest-smell auntie brought Grandmother?» she felt a shiver go through his little body, «Sano will tell Daddy right away! But first Sano and sisters say hello Grandmother proper way like beforeMommy taught.» With that Sano disconnected from his bond with Neytiri and scampered back to his sisters, linking to them briefly before all three came up to Mo'at.
"They wish to greet you, ma Sa'nok," Neytiri explained, "Something about the proper way to greet Grandmother?"
All three babies knelt before Mo'at, bowing their heads politely. Mo'at smiled and touched each one's head in turn. "Tam tam, little ones," she said, "it is good to meet you all." She was initially a little surprised that none of them put its tswin forward to her as the one who had spoken to Neytiri, but then she deduced that this was most likely also a sign of respect. They were waiting for her to take the initiative, and so she did, very briefly linking with each young palulukan in turn before they straightened up and scampered off again. Truly Eywa had mysteries upon mysteries that not even the most enlightened Tsahìk would ever understand completely.
Neytiri and Mo'at waited together at the edge of the camp, and it wasn't long before the babies came back with Taka in tow.
"Greetings," he bowed, "I am honoured by your visit, wise Tsahìk, if a little surprised. What is it that brings you all the way out to our camp?"
"My daughter told me of your children and the task you had been given by Eywa, and I wished to see for myself this uniltìranyu who has managed such insight all on his own," Mo'at said frankly.
Taka nodded. "I suppose I should have expected such scrutiny," he admitted, "Won't you both please come in and sit so we can discuss this in greater depth? I would be glad of any insight you might wish to pass on to me. I have made attempts to understand Eywa but I am the first to admit that I am quite out of my depth most of the time except when a directive is as clear as the message that sent me to find my babies here." He stroked the head of one of the cubs, who were sticking close to him as they walked. "Even among my own people I am no tsahìk, after all. Not even close. I'm just a humble man who happens to love animals and has dedicated his life to better understanding them."
Jake grinned to himself. He'd managed to catch both of the assistant hunters already, sweeping them silently away as the hunting party spread out to look for his tracks. Each of the young men had grinned at him and said they were going back to Hometree, and he hadn't even had to tie them up and take them there or anything. Clearly, he wasn't the first one to take this approach to the game of being "prey". Now there was only one objective left; capture Peyral.
She'd gotten wary. He could tell by the way her tracks, already difficult to follow, had almost disappeared. But even the very best left some sign, and Jake had gotten way better in the last couple months at using his nose for tracking as well. Of course, he was sure she was good at that as well, so he was doing his best to try to stay upwind of her.
For the other two he had simply dropped out of the trees onto them and taken them down in surprise attacks, but he didn't want to do that this time, for a couple of reasons. First of all, well, Peyral might be a hunter and his teacher, but she was also a girl, and he didn't want to accidentally grab the wrong thing and get in trouble, and secondly, he had a sneaking suspicion that she might just be alert to that kind of attack and slip through his clutches. He wasn't going to have two chances at this, he knew, so he had to get it right the first time, and that meant not just ambushing, but actually making some kind of physical trap. He would have done a pit trap or a snare, but both were just a little too tricky to do right without risking actual injury (not to mention pit traps took time he didn't have)
It looked like he was going to have to go with what he had on hand, and what he had on hand were lots of vines... Hmm...maybe this would work after all. He didn't have the skill with a bolo yet to make that sort of thing, and he didn't have the time to make an intricate net, but if he sortof combined the two ideas and made a really loose, weighted net that he could drop over her...
Jake drew his knife and quickly got to work slicing and gathering lengths of vine, always staying alert to how close his prey was coming to his location. He tied knots in the vines about an arm's length apart, not making a perfect, symmetrical net by any means, but then, it didn't have to last long. It didn't even really have to survive being dropped on her, it just had to foul up her limbs long enough for him to get a proper grip on her. He tied big cat's-paw knots in the loose ends of the vines, then laid the whole contraption over a tree limb that had a clear path below it. Now he just had to draw her out into the right spot, since there was no way he could run around in the trees carrying his new net.
"Looks like I'm gonna have to get a little clumsy," he laughed to himself as he silently moved closer to Peyral's position. He dropped back down to the forest floor, leaving a few tracks here and there - not enough to be obvious that he was leading her into a trap, but just enough to make it look like he was getting tired, overconfident or a combination of both. He left a nice big gap before the spot he wanted her to stand, then an obvious print with ambiguous directionality to draw her in and make her stop there to examine it. He continued the trail a little way out of the trap area, then doubled back and curled up into position next to his net, preparing to drop it. Now all he had to do was wait for her to pick up his scent.
Peyral smiled a little to herself as she caught a faint whiff of her quarry's scent. Jhake was turning out to be a much more challenging adversary than she had thought he would be. Even though she hadn't seen it happen, she was sure he'd already "captured" both her flanking guards, but she was not such an easy opponent, and she knew it. He was going to have to really work if he thought he was going to take her down, and from the look of his tracks he was beginning to get tired. Well after all, even with Neytiri's training for the past couple of months, he was still only a child. A child on the verge of manhood, but still a child, without the years of training to harden him so he could run for three days straight if he needed to.
Slowly and cautiously she followed the faint tracks, planning for how she was going to take him down once she caught up to him. At one point she almost thought she'd lost his trail again, but then she found one more track. She knelt to examine it better, just to make sure she knew which direction he'd taken, and that was when it happened. All of a sudden, she felt a weight hit her back. She tried to spin and draw her knife, but it wasn't Jhake on her back, it was a tangled bunch of vines, and they were actually impeding her movement to a great degree.
She heard a soft sound behind her, and was able to turn just enough to see Jhake's grinning face. He'd drawn his knife and held it briefly to her throat, although she didn't feel actively threatened. "I caught you!" he said, "do you yield?"
Peyral debated with herself briefly. She could possibly drop down flat on her back and avoid his knife, but that wouldn't get her out of her entanglement, and in any case this was only her first faceoff against Jhake. Next time she would be better prepared. Clearly his skill level was higher than she had anticipated, and she had walked into his trap. She might as well acknowledge his skill. "I yield," she laughed, "this time. Do not expect to catch me so easily again, young hunter."
Jhake laughed as well and sheathed his knife, generously helping get all the vines off her. "I figured not," he said, "but you'd better not underestimate me either, I've still got a few tricks up my sleeves."
Tawtute and their strange ways of speaking, Peyral sighed to herself. She understood what he meant though. This was definitely an interesting one. Perhaps she would have to request him as a trainee more regularly. "We should eat, drink after such a day," she said, "I will meet you at Kelutral." Knowing he would follow, she took off at an easy lope in the direction of home, letting her body carry her with ease over the terrain. This one was definitely, she decided, worth flirting with a little.
By the time the convoy pulled up to get ready for their first night in the forest, Tom was more than ready to get off his pa'li again. He supposed eventually he'd get used to the constant motion, but at the moment he felt achy and bruised in places he didn't even want to think about and the only thing he wanted was bed...whatever "bed" was out here. He hadn't even thought to ask! It hadn't helped either that he'd been getting random echo-flashes of adrenaline all afternoon. Whatever Jake had been doing it appeared he'd been having fun. Well, at least one of them was. Tom was so exhausted he just wanted to collapse. He didn't even really want to eat dinner, but he knew he'd regret it in the morning when he linked up again to a growling empty stomach, so he ate what was handed to him in something of a daze.
The food did help a bit, and he managed a smile for Ninat when she came over with fresh water.
"We set up the travel aynivi now," she said, "you share with mine."
Tom wanted to protest, but he knew better, so he attempted logic instead. "Are you sure that's alright?" he asked carefully, "I mean, I'm...well, male, is it alright for you to share with me? Shouldn't I have to share with one of the males?"
Ninat just laughed. "It is fine, Tom, none will think it strange, besides, when you sleep you are...not in your body. Someone must make sure that you are kept safe through the night while we are away from Kelutral."
He hadn't even thought about that. "I...suppose you have a point," he nodded, then he yawned, "it isn't as if I'm going to be conscious. Alright, what do I need to do to help with the setting up?"
"Tonight nothing," she shook her head, "you are too tired for one thing, and besides, if you watch tonight, you'll know for tomorrow. Come, we will use this tree to the left of the fa'li enclosure."
Tom trailed after her as she headed for the tree she'd indicated, and he noticed that everyone was unpacking rolls of treated leather. It wasn't until they were unfolded that he realized they were actually something closer to a cross between a hammock and a pup tent, secured between branches to keep the sleepers off the ground but covered with a leather "tent" roof with supple reeds threaded through channels to keep it stiff so it didn't droop on the sleeping inhabitants. It was actually quite an ingenious design, and Tom would have happily spent half an hour or more examining just how it was made, but right now all he cared about was that it stayed up and that it was a place for him to sleep.
As soon as it was deemed that all was secure, it was time for sleep. Well, for everyone except the warrior who had first watch through the night. That wasn't Tom though, so he crawled into the surprisingly comfortable enclosure, trying to leave as much space as possible for Ninat to slip in as well but knowing, at the same time, that he couldn't sneak right over to the edge or the whole thing might tip. Once she was inside as well, and had tied the "door" of the tent portion closed, came the inevitable awkward moments. Tom had never shared a nivi before, and he was surprised just how much negotiation and...well...touching was necessary in order to balance two bodies in one hammock, even a relatively decent-sized one which was clearly intended to hold two.
By the time they were settled, Ninat was clearly much more comfortable than Tom, but that was mostly because Tom had wrapped his arms tightly around himself, since the only other alternative was wrapping them around her, and no matter how many times she told him it didn't matter if that happened, it still seemed wrong to him. Bad enough that his tail had somehow ended up brushing against hers, and the way she curled up into a little ball was just adorable. God, it was so tempting, but...no, he didn't want to let himself pretend that much, it might turn into more than pretending and that wouldn't be fair to either of them.
"Sleep well, Tom," he heard her whisper as he closed his eyes.
Once she was sure he was asleep, Ninat smiled a little to herself. If he was going to insist on going to sleep in such an uncomfortable position she would just have to adjust it for him now that he wasn't awake to complain. Besides which, she thought as she uncurled his arms and shifted in closer, letting them wrap around her shoulders, it would be...comforting to spend the night so close. This kind of touching wasn't totally innocent, but at the same time, Na'vi were far more accustomed to sleeping curled up around and touching their loved ones. She knew it was the right thing to do, for her and, in the morning, for him. Maybe in those moments when sleep began to give way to wakefulness he would let himself relax and enjoy a little closeness before he corrected himself. She knew his heart was capable, when his head wasn't getting in the way, and...well, she could tell sometimes that there was a great loneliness behind his eyes, even when he was surrounded by others. She didn't know how it was for tawtute but loneliness was something that could make one so sick in the heart, and she didn't want that. For either of them.
She sighed a little to herself as she drifted into sleep. If only his sleeping body would react subconsciously to hold her instead of simply being draped around her, everything would be absolutely perfect.
So did you all have fun? I know I did! Now here's a bit more fun for you all...
Vocab:
Sempul - Father
pa'li /fa'li - direhorse
palulukan /falulukan - big scary kitty
Tsahìk - spiritual leader
skxawng - moron
Sa'nok - mother
ikran - big birdie you can ride on
Kelutral - Hometree
'ite - daughter
uniltìranyu /ayuniltìranyu - dreamwalker, avatar
utral aymokriyä - tree of voices
tsaheylu - the bond
tswin - queue, the organ with which one makes the bond
luke- - Like Tom said, this means "without", but it's not a word on its own, it's a prefix, thus the dash following it
nivi /aynivi - hammock
Tewti - "wow!", an interjection of surprise and pleasure, so could also be translated as "awesome!" or "cool!" or whatever other similar interjection you want to put there.
ketuwong - alien
smar - prey, the item which is hunted
Sempul - father
Olo'eyktan - clan leader
tawtute - sky person, human
Brotherhood Chapter 21 Minstrel a' Wandering
Back at Hometree, Tom was hard at work preparing for a trip. The morning after the party, when he'd woken and once he'd recovered from the slightly touchy stomach and sensitivity to light, he had suddenly remembered Ninat's statement the night before that he was going to be busy, and had wondered what with. He hadn't had to wonder for long. It was soon explained to him by a surprisingly happy-looking Antsu (of all people) that a trade delegation would be heading to one of the nearby clans, and it was to have four singers, two weavers, and two warriors along.
At first, Tom had assumed that he would be busy because he would have to pick up the slack of those who left, or some such thing, but that was when he got the bombshell dropped on him. The singer contingent of the delegation were to be Antsu, Ninat, Cathy and himself.
"It is usual for a singer, once he has passed his first tests, to travel to other clans and learn of them," Antsu had explained, "and when I mated to my Ka'tsi I was told that she would be sent upon our next trade mission as her test to become fully one of the Omatikaya. Sempul decided it would be best if the two tasks were combined into one. After all, there is no need for you to wait another month or two for the next trading trip, when you have shown yourself ready now."
And so it was that, two days later, he was busily learning how to load packs onto pa'li and how to saddle and care for them, along with perfecting his riding skills. Ninat had taken him riding a few times as they practiced various other things in the last couple of months, and he had luckily managed to figure it out without falling in the mud more than about ten times, but even so, he rode, as she put it, like a young child, half-afraid of his pa'li deciding it was going to wander into a patch of thorns to get the annoyance off its back, so the more practice he got before he was going to have to spend all day in the saddle, the better. They were leaving first thing the next morning, and Tom was equal parts excited and terrified. The trip to the Anurai clan was going to take three to four days through the forest, and that meant sleeping in the forest. He wasn't quite sure how that was going to go, but he presumed that since these trading trips happened, as far as he could tell, every couple of months, then it must mean they were relatively safe. Well, as safe as anything was in the jungles of Pandora. He'd seen a couple of funerals in the two months he'd been here, and only one of them had been due to old age.
Still, he reassured himself, there was strength in numbers, and they would have warriors with them in case something went very wrong. And now he would have a chance to experience a snapshot of life among a different clan! It was an opportunity he had never expected to have, or certainly not for quite some time. Ninat had told him the Anurai were potters in the same way that the Omatikaya were weavers, that it was constructing things out of clay that their clan specialized in, and he was interested to see how similar and yet different their home would be to his. To his adopted home, that was.
When they returned from their trip out to Site 12, Neytiri and Jake both agreed that it would be best not to mention the baby palulukan to anyone. It was simply too unusual, and difficult to explain. Besides, Neytiri wanted to discuss what she'd learned with her mother before bringing Taka's self-instigated connection to Eywa into common discussion. "It is business for the Tsahìk only," she had explained to Jake, and he didn't dispute it.
"That's fine," he nodded, "besides, I don't wanna cause them any trouble, looks like they're busy enough as it is. I'll just make sure to be the one who brings them meat from now on."
Neytiri was inwardly surprised by his quick realization of something she hadn't even thought about yet. But then, that was Jake all over, always surprising her with his intelligence just when she'd finally decided he was nothing more than an utter skxawng.
He said something about wanting to visit with his brother for a midday meal, and she waved him off. "Go visit," she agreed, "I must speak with Sa'nok. I will come to collect you when it is again time for lessons." She smiled as she watched him run down the somewhat precarious path from the ikran branches. She couldn't help but remember the first time she had brought him up here and how nervous he had been at the height. And now look at him, moving quickly and gracefully through those same branches almost like a true Na'vi.
She shook her head. She was becoming distracted from her true purpose. She headed down as well, moving toward the inner rings of Kelutral and her mother's meditation area. Hopefully Mo'at was not out gathering herbs or berries, Neytiri did not relish the idea of having to hunt her down, only to be asked by everyone what could possibly be so important in the middle of the day that the future Tsahìk could not wait until evening to speak to the current one. People were on edge enough lately without unfounded worries to exacerbate the problem.
Luckily, Eywa was with her, and Mo'at was indeed in her meditation area near the base of Kelutral. Neytiri slipped inside through the beaded curtain and settled down across from her mother to wait. It was physically impossible for even the most silent of hunters to pass through those beads without making some amount of sound, so she knew that on at least some level Mo'at knew she was here, but to interrupt a meditation was not only extremely impolite, but also a very bad idea for more esoteric reasons.
After what seemed like an age but was really only a couple of minutes, Mo'at looked up. "What brings you to me in the middle of the day, ma 'ite?" she asked, "I had thought you were busy with our newest young hunter."
"We flew out this morning to take meat to the ayuniltìranyu near the boarder, and there was a most unusual occurrence," Neytiri explained, "of the sort which I think even with my training I am not yet ready to understand without your greater experience and understanding of the mind of the great mother."
"And it has clearly unsettled you to some degree," Mo'at noted, "so share with me what it is that you have seen."
"The uniltìranyu Taka, the one who studies animals, is among the group who have settled in that place," Neytiri began, "and it is mostly him I was surprised by. Ma Sa'nok, he claims to have found an utral aymokriyä, and to have learned to understand at least a small amount of what Eywa intends for him, completely on his own and without training."
"And something makes you believe this claim?" Mo'at gave her an inquisitive look. "You would not be coming to me with this information if there was no proof of any sort."
"He seems to be speaking truth, or at least the truth as he understands it," Neytiri confirmed, "and more than that, he...well, part of the purpose the great mother has given him is to place upon him the burden of raising a litter of young falulukan. They look upon him as their father, and obey him implicitly."
"Falulukan?" Mo'at was clearly as surprised and unsettled as Neytiri had been when she first saw the palulukan being affectionate to Luuisì.
"Yes, Sa'nok, falulukan. I, too, was shocked by their presence, but...Sa'nok, I spoke to one of them today, and it was so very different from tsaheylu with other animals. They are...aware more in the way the Na'vi are than in the way of animals. The baby, whom Taka has named "Tsuki", even told me they call themselves "People of Darkness" rather than palulukan."
"You...made tsaheylu with a palulukan?" Mo'at stared at her, "How can this be?"
"Tsuki was the one who came to me with her tswin extended, wishing to make the bond," Neytiri explained. "It startled me as well, but Taka and Luuisì explained that tsaheylu is how they communicate between one another."
"As fa'li do," Mo'at nodded. "I must meditate on this. Clearly, as you say, the hand of the great mother is at work here, but I do not know yet just how. You have given me much to think about, ma 'ite, and I will speak to you more on this subject when I have thought on how to approach it."
"Thank you, ma Sa'nok," Neytiri nodded, getting to her feet, "I eagerly await your wisdom." She slipped back out through the beaded curtain, feeling not all that much clearer about the whole situation, but grateful, at least, that a wiser head than her own was working on the problem. She might be tsahìk-trained, but she was also still young, and she knew it. She had many years before she would be as wise as her mother.
Once Jake had found his brother, he dragged Tom off to get some food. "So, I've been thinking," he said as they sat down together to eat.
"That's never a good sign," Tom laughed, "what have you been thinking about?"
"Well, I was talking to Taka today when I dropped off their meat shipment, and he told me what ikran actually means...and I think I've finally come up with a name for mine, but I wanted to make sure it doesn't mean something nasty in Na'vi or something, so I figured I'd run it by you first."
Tom just shook his head. "Alright then, what's the name you've come up with?"
"Well, I figure if ikran means "walks the heavens" then what would be better than calling him "Luke"?" Jake grinned widely.
Tom groaned and rolled his eyes. "I don't think "luk" means anything," he said, "luke-, "without" is written the same way, but its "e" isn't silent, so you should be good. That's such a horrible pun, though."
"Maybe," Jake laughed, "but it also kinda suits him, so I figure I'll go with it."
Tom just shook his head again. "Da would've loved it," he said finally, "what with his early movie obsession."
"Yeah," Jake agreed with a sigh, "Da would've loved it here."
The next morning came early. Ninat had told Tom to be up before dawn, and when his alarm went off he felt as though he'd just laid down in his bed and closed his eyes. He groaned and rolled out of bed, not even bothering to change out of his pajamas as he groped through the hallways with his eyes barely cracked open. He knew he probably ought to eat something but he just couldn't be bothered to wake himself up quite that far. He was so close to still asleep, in fact, that he almost tripped over one of the techs heading in the same direction he was. Well, actually he did trip over her, but only after he'd bumped into her and sent her tumbling to the floor. In any case, somehow the two of them ended up tangled in each other on the floor of the hallway leading to the link room.
At least that managed to wake Tom up, some. He hastily apologized, untangled himself and got back to his feet before helping her up as well. "Sorry about that," he shook his head, "clearly it's way too early in the morning."
"Clearly," the girl laughed, tossing her braided red hair back over her shoulder and holding out her hand. "I don't think we've been properly introduced. Moira Cassidy."
"Tom Sully," Tom shook her hand, "thanks for getting up so early to get me into link and all."
She just shrugged, "I'll just beg off for a nice little nap later, no point whinging about it now."
He had to smile. She had a faint accent that was clearer now that she was relaxing a bit, and it reminded him of the time he'd gone to visit their dad's folks back in Oz, only...not quite. "Kiwi?" he asked as they walked together into the link room.
"Good on ya!" she grinned, "Most folks get it wrong, 'specially you American types."
"Who said we were all-American?" Tom pouted at her, "Jake an' me; our Da's from down under, couldn't you tell?" He let the faint accent he and his twin had inherited from their father show through a little more than usual.
"Well then," she blinked, "I guess you're not all bad." She yawned and rubbed her eyes, "even making me wake up this early. Well, hop on in, might as well get to it," she waved in the direction of the link bed.
"Right," Tom laughed, shaking his head, "good thing I don't have to be totally coherent yet." He laid down into the familiar cradling softness of his link bed and pulled the cover down over himself, closing his eyes. His last thought was that he really ought to feel...something for the cute lab tech - physical at the very least - after all, he was male and heterosexual, but the entire time he'd been talking to her, the only thing running through the back of his head had been that Ninat might get annoyed if he was late. He wasn't sure why that seemed so worrying, though, so the fleeting thought was quickly dismissed as he sat up in his nivi and stretched, still feeling awfully sleepy but definitely better rested in this form.
The first few hours traveling through the jungle on horseback were fascinating; Tom found himself almost rubbernecking every time he saw a new vista or plant or anything he hadn't usually seen around Hometree, but somewhere around lunchtime the wonder began to fade a little as the discomfort of spending hours in the saddle began to make itself known. Someone must have noticed his shifting from buttcheek to buttcheek and taken pity on him, because right after lunch they walked the horses over to a river, and one of the warriors, grinning, immediately dived in to take a little swim.
Tom glanced over to Ninat, his surprise probably showing on his face. "Do we have time?" he asked.
"Of course we have time," she grinned at him, "It is not as though we are bearing news that cannot wait a little while longer or shorter."
"Tewti!" Tom grinned and slipped into the river as well, quickly followed by the rest of their party.
Meanwhile, back at Hometree, Jake was keeping quite busy as well. Neytiri had gone off somewhere to talk to her mother about something (Jake wasn't sure if it had anything to do with the Site 12 folks, but he figured if it was anything important he could help with they'd come talk to him later) and had left him in the presumably capable hands of the other hunters. Today they were learning "huntspeak", which, when he'd heard that he had to learn another language had briefly freaked him out, but as it turned out, the "speak" part was a bit of a misnomer. "Huntspeak" was actually the kind of sign language the hunters used between each other when hunting in groups so as not to alert the prey to their presence, and luckily enough even across star systems, when a guy's basic body shape didn't really change, a lot of hand signals, like directions and numbers, pretty much stayed the same.
Even though his language skills were still, he knew, pretty weak, Jake was starting to really find his place among the hunters, and most of them (not all yet, but then, he knew he was still ketuwong, "alien" to a lot of them, he wasn't going to push things) seemed to at least tolerate his presence. It helped that he was actually getting quite good at tracking. He'd been recon before, and that had tracking at the base of it too, it was just about learning a new environment and prey.
After lunch, it was deemed enough time had been spent on huntspeak for the day, and the group was split up into smaller cells of four, each with a well-experienced hunter/teacher as leader, and one of the new hunters, as well as two competent hunters as support. Neytiri still wasn't back yet from talking to Mo'at, so Jake got put with another female hunter/teacher and two males, all probably a couple of years older than himself, or older than his avatar body was anyway. He was glad, in a way, that he didn't get put with Tsu'tey, since that would have meant subtle abuse for every tiny mistake, but at the same time, he hadn't ever really met this "Peyral" girl before, and he had no idea what her English was like - if she even had any.
"So, um, what're we doing?" he asked as their small group slipped silently into the forest, heading east away from Hometree.
"We hunt," Peyral grinned at him. "First smar is you. Run fast and quiet, Jhakesuuly!"
Jake blinked in surprise, but then a slow grin passed across his face. "I'll see you tonight, then," he laughed and took off into the underbrush. He'd played "hiding" games ever since he was a kid, and if he played this one right he might just be able to take out at least one or two of the three hunters. His ultimate objective was to neutralize Peyral, but given that she was the teacher, he knew she must be the best of the three, so he'd focus on the other two first.
Neytiri's meeting with her mother was, of course, about Taka and the babies, but the direction Mo'at had chosen to take was not one her daughter had expected, although, she realized, she really should have anticipated it.
"Are you sure you do not want Sempul to be the one to fly you out with me?" Neytiri asked her mother, "His ikran is more familiar with you than Seze, after all."
"No," Mo'at laughed lightly, "I love your father dearly but this is a matter for the Tsahìk; it would take far too long to explain everything to him and argue down all his worries - it would be days before I got him to agree that we need to see this strange uniltìranyu."
Neytiri shook her head but she had to agree. Her father was a wonderful Olo'eyktan but a leader of people did not always see the world the same way as the Tsahìk did. After all, that was why Eywa had divided the leadership thus, so there would always be a system of checks and balances between them.
They had eaten a quick lunch and packed some treats, at Mo'at's insistence, to take with them to the ayuniltìranyu, and now Neytiri somehow found herself flying into Site 12 for the second day in a row. Seze was no more pleased than before about the scent of the falulukan but Neytiri quickly shushed her as they landed in a nearby field, Seze taking to the treetops again as soon as her passengers had disembarked. They walked calmly into the tawtute camp and were greeted by the cubs, who had sensed their approach and come to investigate.
One held its tswin out to Neytiri, and almost without needing to think about it this time she made tsaheylu. Clearly this wasn't Tsuki, its sense was male rather than female.
«Forest-smell auntie came back to play?» he asked. «Didn't bring Uncle this time.»
«Not this time,» Neytiri smiled at him, «Mother and I came to speak to your father. Is he around?»
«Forest-smell auntie brought Grandmother?» she felt a shiver go through his little body, «Sano will tell Daddy right away! But first Sano and sisters say hello Grandmother proper way like beforeMommy taught.» With that Sano disconnected from his bond with Neytiri and scampered back to his sisters, linking to them briefly before all three came up to Mo'at.
"They wish to greet you, ma Sa'nok," Neytiri explained, "Something about the proper way to greet Grandmother?"
All three babies knelt before Mo'at, bowing their heads politely. Mo'at smiled and touched each one's head in turn. "Tam tam, little ones," she said, "it is good to meet you all." She was initially a little surprised that none of them put its tswin forward to her as the one who had spoken to Neytiri, but then she deduced that this was most likely also a sign of respect. They were waiting for her to take the initiative, and so she did, very briefly linking with each young palulukan in turn before they straightened up and scampered off again. Truly Eywa had mysteries upon mysteries that not even the most enlightened Tsahìk would ever understand completely.
Neytiri and Mo'at waited together at the edge of the camp, and it wasn't long before the babies came back with Taka in tow.
"Greetings," he bowed, "I am honoured by your visit, wise Tsahìk, if a little surprised. What is it that brings you all the way out to our camp?"
"My daughter told me of your children and the task you had been given by Eywa, and I wished to see for myself this uniltìranyu who has managed such insight all on his own," Mo'at said frankly.
Taka nodded. "I suppose I should have expected such scrutiny," he admitted, "Won't you both please come in and sit so we can discuss this in greater depth? I would be glad of any insight you might wish to pass on to me. I have made attempts to understand Eywa but I am the first to admit that I am quite out of my depth most of the time except when a directive is as clear as the message that sent me to find my babies here." He stroked the head of one of the cubs, who were sticking close to him as they walked. "Even among my own people I am no tsahìk, after all. Not even close. I'm just a humble man who happens to love animals and has dedicated his life to better understanding them."
Jake grinned to himself. He'd managed to catch both of the assistant hunters already, sweeping them silently away as the hunting party spread out to look for his tracks. Each of the young men had grinned at him and said they were going back to Hometree, and he hadn't even had to tie them up and take them there or anything. Clearly, he wasn't the first one to take this approach to the game of being "prey". Now there was only one objective left; capture Peyral.
She'd gotten wary. He could tell by the way her tracks, already difficult to follow, had almost disappeared. But even the very best left some sign, and Jake had gotten way better in the last couple months at using his nose for tracking as well. Of course, he was sure she was good at that as well, so he was doing his best to try to stay upwind of her.
For the other two he had simply dropped out of the trees onto them and taken them down in surprise attacks, but he didn't want to do that this time, for a couple of reasons. First of all, well, Peyral might be a hunter and his teacher, but she was also a girl, and he didn't want to accidentally grab the wrong thing and get in trouble, and secondly, he had a sneaking suspicion that she might just be alert to that kind of attack and slip through his clutches. He wasn't going to have two chances at this, he knew, so he had to get it right the first time, and that meant not just ambushing, but actually making some kind of physical trap. He would have done a pit trap or a snare, but both were just a little too tricky to do right without risking actual injury (not to mention pit traps took time he didn't have)
It looked like he was going to have to go with what he had on hand, and what he had on hand were lots of vines... Hmm...maybe this would work after all. He didn't have the skill with a bolo yet to make that sort of thing, and he didn't have the time to make an intricate net, but if he sortof combined the two ideas and made a really loose, weighted net that he could drop over her...
Jake drew his knife and quickly got to work slicing and gathering lengths of vine, always staying alert to how close his prey was coming to his location. He tied knots in the vines about an arm's length apart, not making a perfect, symmetrical net by any means, but then, it didn't have to last long. It didn't even really have to survive being dropped on her, it just had to foul up her limbs long enough for him to get a proper grip on her. He tied big cat's-paw knots in the loose ends of the vines, then laid the whole contraption over a tree limb that had a clear path below it. Now he just had to draw her out into the right spot, since there was no way he could run around in the trees carrying his new net.
"Looks like I'm gonna have to get a little clumsy," he laughed to himself as he silently moved closer to Peyral's position. He dropped back down to the forest floor, leaving a few tracks here and there - not enough to be obvious that he was leading her into a trap, but just enough to make it look like he was getting tired, overconfident or a combination of both. He left a nice big gap before the spot he wanted her to stand, then an obvious print with ambiguous directionality to draw her in and make her stop there to examine it. He continued the trail a little way out of the trap area, then doubled back and curled up into position next to his net, preparing to drop it. Now all he had to do was wait for her to pick up his scent.
Peyral smiled a little to herself as she caught a faint whiff of her quarry's scent. Jhake was turning out to be a much more challenging adversary than she had thought he would be. Even though she hadn't seen it happen, she was sure he'd already "captured" both her flanking guards, but she was not such an easy opponent, and she knew it. He was going to have to really work if he thought he was going to take her down, and from the look of his tracks he was beginning to get tired. Well after all, even with Neytiri's training for the past couple of months, he was still only a child. A child on the verge of manhood, but still a child, without the years of training to harden him so he could run for three days straight if he needed to.
Slowly and cautiously she followed the faint tracks, planning for how she was going to take him down once she caught up to him. At one point she almost thought she'd lost his trail again, but then she found one more track. She knelt to examine it better, just to make sure she knew which direction he'd taken, and that was when it happened. All of a sudden, she felt a weight hit her back. She tried to spin and draw her knife, but it wasn't Jhake on her back, it was a tangled bunch of vines, and they were actually impeding her movement to a great degree.
She heard a soft sound behind her, and was able to turn just enough to see Jhake's grinning face. He'd drawn his knife and held it briefly to her throat, although she didn't feel actively threatened. "I caught you!" he said, "do you yield?"
Peyral debated with herself briefly. She could possibly drop down flat on her back and avoid his knife, but that wouldn't get her out of her entanglement, and in any case this was only her first faceoff against Jhake. Next time she would be better prepared. Clearly his skill level was higher than she had anticipated, and she had walked into his trap. She might as well acknowledge his skill. "I yield," she laughed, "this time. Do not expect to catch me so easily again, young hunter."
Jhake laughed as well and sheathed his knife, generously helping get all the vines off her. "I figured not," he said, "but you'd better not underestimate me either, I've still got a few tricks up my sleeves."
Tawtute and their strange ways of speaking, Peyral sighed to herself. She understood what he meant though. This was definitely an interesting one. Perhaps she would have to request him as a trainee more regularly. "We should eat, drink after such a day," she said, "I will meet you at Kelutral." Knowing he would follow, she took off at an easy lope in the direction of home, letting her body carry her with ease over the terrain. This one was definitely, she decided, worth flirting with a little.
By the time the convoy pulled up to get ready for their first night in the forest, Tom was more than ready to get off his pa'li again. He supposed eventually he'd get used to the constant motion, but at the moment he felt achy and bruised in places he didn't even want to think about and the only thing he wanted was bed...whatever "bed" was out here. He hadn't even thought to ask! It hadn't helped either that he'd been getting random echo-flashes of adrenaline all afternoon. Whatever Jake had been doing it appeared he'd been having fun. Well, at least one of them was. Tom was so exhausted he just wanted to collapse. He didn't even really want to eat dinner, but he knew he'd regret it in the morning when he linked up again to a growling empty stomach, so he ate what was handed to him in something of a daze.
The food did help a bit, and he managed a smile for Ninat when she came over with fresh water.
"We set up the travel aynivi now," she said, "you share with mine."
Tom wanted to protest, but he knew better, so he attempted logic instead. "Are you sure that's alright?" he asked carefully, "I mean, I'm...well, male, is it alright for you to share with me? Shouldn't I have to share with one of the males?"
Ninat just laughed. "It is fine, Tom, none will think it strange, besides, when you sleep you are...not in your body. Someone must make sure that you are kept safe through the night while we are away from Kelutral."
He hadn't even thought about that. "I...suppose you have a point," he nodded, then he yawned, "it isn't as if I'm going to be conscious. Alright, what do I need to do to help with the setting up?"
"Tonight nothing," she shook her head, "you are too tired for one thing, and besides, if you watch tonight, you'll know for tomorrow. Come, we will use this tree to the left of the fa'li enclosure."
Tom trailed after her as she headed for the tree she'd indicated, and he noticed that everyone was unpacking rolls of treated leather. It wasn't until they were unfolded that he realized they were actually something closer to a cross between a hammock and a pup tent, secured between branches to keep the sleepers off the ground but covered with a leather "tent" roof with supple reeds threaded through channels to keep it stiff so it didn't droop on the sleeping inhabitants. It was actually quite an ingenious design, and Tom would have happily spent half an hour or more examining just how it was made, but right now all he cared about was that it stayed up and that it was a place for him to sleep.
As soon as it was deemed that all was secure, it was time for sleep. Well, for everyone except the warrior who had first watch through the night. That wasn't Tom though, so he crawled into the surprisingly comfortable enclosure, trying to leave as much space as possible for Ninat to slip in as well but knowing, at the same time, that he couldn't sneak right over to the edge or the whole thing might tip. Once she was inside as well, and had tied the "door" of the tent portion closed, came the inevitable awkward moments. Tom had never shared a nivi before, and he was surprised just how much negotiation and...well...touching was necessary in order to balance two bodies in one hammock, even a relatively decent-sized one which was clearly intended to hold two.
By the time they were settled, Ninat was clearly much more comfortable than Tom, but that was mostly because Tom had wrapped his arms tightly around himself, since the only other alternative was wrapping them around her, and no matter how many times she told him it didn't matter if that happened, it still seemed wrong to him. Bad enough that his tail had somehow ended up brushing against hers, and the way she curled up into a little ball was just adorable. God, it was so tempting, but...no, he didn't want to let himself pretend that much, it might turn into more than pretending and that wouldn't be fair to either of them.
"Sleep well, Tom," he heard her whisper as he closed his eyes.
Once she was sure he was asleep, Ninat smiled a little to herself. If he was going to insist on going to sleep in such an uncomfortable position she would just have to adjust it for him now that he wasn't awake to complain. Besides which, she thought as she uncurled his arms and shifted in closer, letting them wrap around her shoulders, it would be...comforting to spend the night so close. This kind of touching wasn't totally innocent, but at the same time, Na'vi were far more accustomed to sleeping curled up around and touching their loved ones. She knew it was the right thing to do, for her and, in the morning, for him. Maybe in those moments when sleep began to give way to wakefulness he would let himself relax and enjoy a little closeness before he corrected himself. She knew his heart was capable, when his head wasn't getting in the way, and...well, she could tell sometimes that there was a great loneliness behind his eyes, even when he was surrounded by others. She didn't know how it was for tawtute but loneliness was something that could make one so sick in the heart, and she didn't want that. For either of them.
She sighed a little to herself as she drifted into sleep. If only his sleeping body would react subconsciously to hold her instead of simply being draped around her, everything would be absolutely perfect.
So did you all have fun? I know I did! Now here's a bit more fun for you all...
Vocab:
Sempul - Father
pa'li /fa'li - direhorse
palulukan /falulukan - big scary kitty
Tsahìk - spiritual leader
skxawng - moron
Sa'nok - mother
ikran - big birdie you can ride on
Kelutral - Hometree
'ite - daughter
uniltìranyu /ayuniltìranyu - dreamwalker, avatar
utral aymokriyä - tree of voices
tsaheylu - the bond
tswin - queue, the organ with which one makes the bond
luke- - Like Tom said, this means "without", but it's not a word on its own, it's a prefix, thus the dash following it
nivi /aynivi - hammock
Tewti - "wow!", an interjection of surprise and pleasure, so could also be translated as "awesome!" or "cool!" or whatever other similar interjection you want to put there.
ketuwong - alien
smar - prey, the item which is hunted
Sempul - father
Olo'eyktan - clan leader
tawtute - sky person, human