Brotherhood Chapter 26
Yes, that's right, THERE'S MORE!
dum dum duuummm...
Brotherhood Chapter 26: Winding Roads
After the talioang hunt (and more specifically after the party that followed it) Tsu'tey found himself becoming more and more easy around Jake. It wasn't that he completely trusted the young uniltìranyu hunter, but he was definitely beginning to see the better side of him. Jake was a hard worker, and even when things were difficult for him, he never lost his sense of humour. Both were qualities that Tsu'tey had to admit had they been evident in any other young Na'vi hunter would have been a sign that this was a man who would advance to be one of the great men of a generation. Tsu'tey had to keep reminding himself, though, that Jake wasn't any other young hunter, and friendly as he was, Tsu'tey did not want to completely let his guard down. He was definitely starting to see the advantages, though, in becoming friends.
Besides which, Jake knew things about tawtute tactics which Tsu'tey could never have hoped to learn on his own. He had even visited Jake to chat a time or two since that night, and had taken him for a training session or three. Not that the man needed much training! He really was quite skilled, especially considering his situation. Tsu'tey wondered if perhaps that had something to do with what he had known before becoming uniltìranyu...
His thoughts were interrupted by a light tug on his tail, and he turned to see his little sister Laneya standing there. Of course, he had suspected it would be her. She was just about the only person who could get away with something like that. Anyone else would have gotten a snarl and a sharp word. Well, okay, maybe not the kids...Tsu'tey had an admitted soft spot for children, but then, who didn't?
"I thought today you were studying with Sa'nok?" he knelt down to her level.
"I'm done for today, 'tey," she made a face at him, "it's already almost dinnertime. Didn't you notice?"
Tsu'tey looked up at the sky through the branches of Kelutral and sampled the air. "Do you know, I think you're right," he laughed, "it is almost dinnertime. How did that happen?"
"You were thinking and then the time passed," Laneya giggled, "or maybe a giant nantang came and is eating the sun, making time pass faster."
Tsu'tey gave her a very confused look, which only made her giggle harder. "You don't actually believe such a thing is possible," he asked carefully.
"Of course not!" Laneya laughed harder, "I just wanted to see if you were listening to me. Sa'nok told me to come and remind you it's your day to get your hair done and she said I get to help."
"Thank you, I had forgotten," he smiled, standing up and taking her hand, "why don't we head back to her together."
"You should carry me," Laneya made a cute face at him, "because you still can. Didn't you say before that you'll miss it when I'm not small enough to climb on your shoulders anymore?"
"That is the sort of thing a little girl is supposed to pretend she did not hear her older brother say," Tsu'tey scolded her warmly, "besides, you have two good legs, you should use them to walk on."
"Instead of practicing how to climb the largest looms by climbing on you?" she giggled, "alright, I won't ride you today."
Once they got back to where Tamrrlìn was waiting for them and Tsu'tey had been suitably scolded for forgetting where he was supposed to be, he settled down to have his hair fussed with. It took patience to have such tight and intricate braids, but it was well worth the effort in the end, and besides, it was nice having someone to fuss with his hair. Even if it was his mother fussing with it and not the mate he still did not have yet when others of his age had been mated for some seasons and even had young children.
But there was no sense dwelling on it. After all, everything would come as Eywa willed.
"So, tsmukan, I see you listened to my very good advice and now you're being friends with Jhakesuuly," Laneya grinned once he was all relaxed as they brushed his hair.
He tried to frown, but he wasn't very successful. "I have come to see there are some advantages to being on good terms with the uniltìranyu, but that does not mean we are friends," he corrected her.
"Yes, you are," Laneya shook her head, "I saw the two of you laughing together like friends, and you spend time with him sitting around the fires now. You should just admit you like him."
"I still do not trust him," he shook his head, only to have it lightly swatted by their mother, who was beginning to braid, "how can one be friends without trust?"
"You are friends because I say it is so," Laneya nodded decisively, "and you should listen to me more because I am very wise."
"You are less than half my age," Tsu'tey snorted, "I do not think you can call yourself "wise" just yet."
That made her pout at him. "Well, I may be younger than you, but I am female, which automatically makes me wiser than you. So you should listen to me more."
Tsu'tey laughed helplessly. "When you do not have locks of my hair in your hands I may choose to debate your wisdom or lack thereof," he grinned, "perhaps. But in this I will admit you perhaps did know what you were talking about. It is good to be on better terms with Jake. If nothing else, it shows that I am tolerant of those who are odd or different."
"He is certainly that," Tamrrlìn laughed at her children, "different, and interesting. It is a shame there are so many dangerous sawtute. The ones I have met are all fascinating, each in their own way."
"Fascinating in the same way that palulukan may be fascinating to watch," Ateyo, Tsu'tey and Laneya's father sat down to have his hair fixed next, "and like palulukan best watched from a safe distance."
"Of course, ma yawne," Tamrrlìn leaned over to place a kiss just behind her mate's ear, "It isn't as though I go far from the looms in any case. You have no need to worry over me."
Father and son looked at each other, the love and exasperation they both felt for the females of their small clan clear in their eyes.
"Even without reason, I still worry now and then," Ateyo smiled, "how else would I find to keep myself occupied? Besides, I find I enjoy your attempts to reassure me."
"Not around the children!" she playfully swatted him with her tail, "We will discuss this further, but later, when the moment is better suited."
Tsu'tey snorted but he couldn't help smiling slightly. This was what he had always wanted; what his parents had, this deep connection which showed their love even when they disagreed about something, and the affection that could be seen through every touch - even his mother's occasional swats to the back of his father's head when he'd done something she thought foolish.
Late one night a few nights after the hunt (he couldn't be sure how many, keeping track of days when in his human body was getting more and more difficult) Jake slowly drifted toward consciousness. It had to be the middle of the night, and he couldn't figure out what had woken him, since he usually slept like a log, but he could hear voices talking, and without opening his eyes, he tried to focus on them long enough to figure out what was going on.
It was Grace and Trudy, that much was easy enough to sort out, since he didn't hear Norm's deeper tones, and he had the feeling he'd missed some critical part of the conversation, because what he was hearing really wasn't making very much sense.
"So how come you're so secretive about it?" Grace was asking, "I mean, all the way out here, who's really going to care?"
"You'd be surprised," Trudy answered, and Jake could hear... resignation? ... in her voice. "There's secrets an' then there's secrets, as the saying goes, an' mine's a doozey. There's certain...high-up military types that might not trust somebody with my...background, you know?"
Jake frowned. This was starting to sound bad. Was Trudy some kind of traitor? Had she done something to earn a dishonourable discharge? Why else would the military types not trust her? But...but that just didn't jive. I mean, this was Trudy here! She had to be one of the most rock-solid pilots - fuckit, people - he knew. There was no way she'd ever have done anything bad enough to get kicked out or court-marshaled or something!
"You realize all you're doing is making me want to know more," Grace pointed out, and Jake couldn't agree more with the sentiment. Trudy was like a little sister...well okay technically given their ages a big sister but still, a sister in any case, and brothers defended their sisters to the death, no matter what they might have done!
"You damn scientists and your inquisitive minds," Trudy laughed. "All those questions are gonna get you in trouble one of these days."
"Entirely probable," Grace laughed too, "but it's more likely my foul mouth and hardass attitude is what's going to kick me in the txìm. Seriously, though. You don't honestly think I'd care about anything you might've done or what your background is, do you? It won't make me think less of you and I'm certainly not going to go running around Hell's Gate telling everyone I know. I have enough secrets of my own to keep safe that there's no way I'm going to jeopardize somebody else's."
"Yeah, you got a point there," Trudy admitted, "I guess I could at least give you a hint. It's actually written on the door of my baby, although Norm's the only one that's ever actually picked up on the real meaning. Everyone else just figures it's the name of a childhood friend who died tragically or some bullshit like that. He had an unfair advantage, though."
"That's pretty specific bullshit," Jake could almost hear Grace's raised eyebrow, "how would they have come to such a conclusion?"
"Probly 'cause I spread that particular bit of bullshit myself," Trudy said.
Jake was trying to remember what was on the door of Trudy's Sampson now, and he could tell Grace was doing the same.
"Would this have anything to do with Norm's Masters' thesis?" Grace asked finally, and now Jake knew he was missing some vital part of the conversation.
"It does, actually," Trudy sighed, "Look, let's just say everybody knows my taat - my dad, that is - or at least they've heard of him, and it's pretty likely most of the military types wouldn't trust someone raised in that...environment." From the way she stressed the last word, Jake could tell it was some kind of hint, but he still wasn't getting it. At least, not until Grace whispered a name.
"Montejo...of course. I should've known," she said, "although you must take after your mother more than your father."
"I do," Trudy admitted, "but how..."
"I met him once or twice," Grace said gently, "at botanical conferences where both of us were presenting, usually. He was a good man. I would never betray his daughter."
Their voices were fuzzing out now as Jake began to drift off again, but one thing stuck with him. He remembered the name Montejo and, more importantly, he remembered learning about the campaigns to take his guerrillas out. If Trudy had been around that growing up...well damn, he wasn't sure how she'd ever survived it! She must've been pretty little back then, too. Well, somehow she'd managed to get through that as a kid, and now she was here and he, too, would never betray her. That thought brought a smile to his face as he finally passed out again and knew no more until morning.
The time had finally come for Tom and the rest of the trading group to leave the Anurai, and as he smiled through the formal ceremony and made his goodbyes to various new friends he had made, it began to occur to him that there was one major difference between the human and Na'vi worlds that he hadn't even had a reason to think about before. Distance. Not so much that the distances between people were different, but that in order to speak to someone who lived outside your own kelutral, it was necessary to actually travel to see them, and that travel could take days or quite possibly even weeks. There was no calling someone up and just chatting halfway around the world, at least, not for the Na'vi. Sure, the human settlements had lots of technologies to facilitate communications, from radios for short-distance talks to superluminal communications almost real-time across the light-years back to earth (although that was prohibitively expensive and reserved only for those in charge of things, of course) but all the comms satellites in the world did nothing if the person you wanted to talk to had no way to receive that communication. As far as he knew, there wasn't even any kind of system to send letters...well, he shook his head, of course there wasn't, the Na'vi didn't possess any kind of writing system, so why on earth would there be a mail system? Come on, dumb-ass, stop making such human assumptions!
He laughed lightly as Ninat tweaked his ear. "You are somewhere else in your mind," she scolded him, "and it is almost time for us to be gone. Are there not people you want to bid kìyevame to?"
"Of course there are," he nodded, "I was just thinking. On Earth - where we come from - it would not be such a thing, this taking-of-leave. There, it is nothing to speak to someone halfway around the world without leaving your bedroom. Here if I want to see my friends again I will have to travel for some days."
"Which is why you should take leave of them properly," she shook her head, "tawtute are so strange. If you can speak to a person at any time you wish, how can you know the true value of their place in your life? It is only by being without a friend's wisdom for a little while that you remember how much you value it."
"I suppose there's something to that," he smiled at her and squeezed her hand, "and you're right, I really should go say a proper "goodbye" to the folks I want to remember me."
"Go," she rubbed her thumb over his knuckles, then batted his behind with her tail, "or you will make us all late setting out on our journey, and I am looking forward to setting up camp before night has come completely."
"Oh?" he raised an eyebrow at her.
"I find that I remember how it was in our travel nivi with great pleasure," she gave him an innocent look, "and although of course it would be wrong of me to take advantage of one who has not yet passed through uniltaron and become a man..."
"Right," Tom nodded, blushing, "I'll be back quickly then, and we can get going. I won't be the one causing any delays."
Ninat's beautiful, tinkling laughter followed him as he jogged quickly over to where the Anurai potters were standing. He had spent the largest amount of his time here visiting with them, after all, and he didn't want to forget to pay them proper attention in his farewells. When he reached the group, Me'lina was the first to greet him, taking both his hands in hers.
"We will miss you, ma Tom," she said, "even these strange hands." She tweaked his pinkies, "Do not forget that you have promised to someday visit us again and bring images of the pottery of your own people. We are always happy to have more examples of different styles to borrow ideas from."
"I won't forget," he shook his head, "I definitely won't, believe me. If there's a way to do it, I might even send those pictures ahead. Perhaps I can convince my brother who is an ikran makto to drop them by, although..." He grinned, "his grasp of the Na'vi language is still very small, you might have some trouble understanding what he's saying even if he's just saying "kaltxì" or something else as simple."
"There is no need to hurry," Me'lina shook her head, laughing, and Hufweya, the head potter, spoke up as well.
"Hurrying only makes cracked pots," she patted his shoulder, "I thought you had learned this among us, Tomsuuly. Remember that among the Na'vi, there is never a need to hurry, except when there is."
Tom smiled ironically. "I will remember," he agreed.
"Now you should go make your farewells to the singers," Hufweya reminded him, "I have heard the riti say that there is one among them who wishes to speak to you before you are gone."
"I will do that," Tom nodded, "although I do not know why the riti would suggest such a thing."
"You will see," Hufweya gave him a mysterious look.
By the time Tom had travelled across the roots of the kelutral to where the singers were gathered making their farewells to the Omatikaya group, he was only more puzzled, rather than less. He had heard no rumours about any of the Anurai singers needing to talk to him about anything, and he'd been staying among them! What on earth could...but then again, they were guests here, and there was still that distance which prevented them from becoming a direct part of the rumour mill - at least on the receiving end. He was quite sure that their presence there had started plenty of rumours. That was, after all, how "village" gossip functioned, on Earth or Pandora. In that, at least, it seemed the Na'vi and humans were the same. Strangers got talked about, wondered about and...shall we say extrapolated upon...until they weren't there to be discussed anymore. Well, actually he was quite sure they would be discussed long after they were gone. After all, they weren't just the usual visitors from another clan, at least, he and Cathy weren't. They were the first actual avatars this clan had seen. He just hoped he'd made a good enough impression, and that the discussion he and Cathy had had with the Anurai leaders had managed to impress upon them some of the differences among the humans and some of the things which would have saved the Omatikaya a lot of grief had they known them in the beginning.
His curiosity about who wanted to speak to him was soon assuaged, as the son of the Anurai Nawm Rolyu approached him. "I would speak with you before you leave, Tomsuuly," Zolan said, and Tom was grateful to see that he looked calm and almost apologetic. The last thing he wanted was to get into some kind of challenge right now, not because he thought he would lose - ultimately, he knew he had the major advantage in this particular rivalry - but because it would delay their departure and leave a sour taste behind among the Anurai singers who had been their hosts.
"Of course," Tom nodded carefully, "should we go some distance apart or can what you wish to say be said in company?"
"I have no secrets here," Zolan shook his head, and Tom was surprised to see a faint smile pass across the Anurai singer's countenance. "I have been thinking upon what you said to me."
Tom didn't need to ask which what he had said to Zolan, even though the two had discussed many things on a "professional" level. This could only be about Tom's confrontation over Zolan's treatment of Ninat, so he just inclined his head to show he was listening.
"I have been thinking long about your words, and I see that you are right," Zolan said finally, screwing up his face in distaste. "I do not like to think that I was so blind - I have always counted myself as an intelligent man - but Ninat and I had already spoken on the matter and I should not have seen her arrival here as a reason to hope. I am not usually so foolish, but..." He sighed. "My mother has reminded me that there are many reasons a young woman may join a trading party, and not all of them have to do with seeking out a mate. She came as your teacher, she even introduced you as her student, and yet I ignored that and let my mind mislead me into hoping that there could be more. She is...a woman worthy of every good thing in life," he said, "and I had thought perhaps that with my position among the clan I could be the man to give those things to her, but you were right; it was wrong of me to expect that she would give up her family and everything that she has among her own clan to start again from nothing with mine."
"You were not wrong entirely," Tom shook his head, feeling magnanimous in his position as the unchallenged winner of their rivalry, "it is not too much to ask of a woman who feels about you the way you feel about her, you just..."
"I just saw too much which was not there. I listened to the song of my heart alone instead of trying to hear the song of her heart as well," Zolan laughed ruefully, "do not worry to offend me with the truth, Tomsuuly, I have already spoken it to myself a number of times."
"Then I will not tell it to you again," Tom smiled at him. "Shall we say we are friends?" He held out his hand automatically, even though he was sure Zolan wasn't familiar with the human habit of shaking hands. Still, it was a hand extended in friendship, bearing no weapon, and that much should translate across cultures.
"We shall say it," Zolan nodded, "although if I ever hear of you giving Ninat cause to be sad..." He clasped his hand around Tom's wrist, and Tom returned the grip.
"You won't ever hear of it," he said, "although I can't promise never to make her angry."
"No man can ever promise that of any woman," Zolan laughed. "After all, who can understand the whims of the female mind and heart? It is not even the most sublimely happy of matings which has no argument through all the years."
"Among our people also," Tom laughed, "this is true. I think even among nantang or syaksyuk this is true. Females are simply females, and males are males."
"And that is why we males must agree not to let females come between us," Zolan squeezed his wrist, "so that when they are unreasonable and throwing things at our heads for imagined slights, we can go to each other and drink together and hide until they are calm and sane again."
"Solidarity," Tom agreed, "there must always be solidarity."
"And as a token of that solidarity," Zolan said quietly, "I suggest you should get ready to depart. It looks as though your group is gathering, and a small storm is also gathering around a certain female's ears as she watches us."
Tom glanced over his shoulder and his ears drooped slightly. "You are right, ma tsmukan," he nodded, "it would be best for me to go now, so that I avoid sleeping among the fa'li tonight and waking up covered in dung and bruises."
Zolan blinked at that, and then laughed hard. "I can imagine such a thing would not be a pleasant way to travel," he said. "Go. I will see you again in the passing of the seasons, and I expect you to show me how happy you have made her."
"I will," Tom nodded, agreeing to both statements as he turned and jogged back over to their party.
"You said you would not make us late," Ninat gave him a stern look.
"I haven't," he shook his head, looking up through the leaves and branches of the Anurai's massive Kelutral to catch the position of the sun, "See, we are still on time to depart."
"You are lucky, then," Ninat smiled and shook her head, "that you are ready to go. Come, it is time to mount up."
Their actual departure, once they were mounted up, was a quick thing, 'Anansi saying a quick blessing for Eywa's grace on their journey home, and little Kal'il and a few more of the children running after them for a little while, and then they were away and headed home. And it really had become home to Tom. Even in the short time he'd been staying among another clan, the vestiges of his human expectations and memories were becoming more and more like a dream to him, and he was coming to realize that his future, no matter what else might happen, lay among the Omatikaya and, more specifically, with the beautiful young woman who rode next to him singing softly to lighten their hearts for the journey.
Lousie smiled to herself as she watched her children play while she "grubbed in the dirt" as Taka liked to call it, preparing to transfer one of her best-growing experimental plants into a larger tub, since it had almost completely outgrown its current one. She had always loved growing things ever since she was little and she whined and cried at her own mother until she was allowed a garden of sundews to place on their kitchen windowsill. Mother had only allowed those finally because Louise had touted their fly-eating properties as a benefit. The memory made Louise laugh. She wondered what her mother would think if she knew her daughter was soon going to make her a grandmother to a blue baby with a tail. She would probably throw fifty fits!
She'd been feeling a lot better since Neytiri had suggested the morning visits to their tree of voices, although still not perfectly normal. But then, although nibbling on crackers might take away some of the nausea from pregnant human women suffering from morning sickness, that didn't take away all their symptoms either, so why should this be any different? She tried to imagine what it must be like for Na'vi women and couldn't fathom it. To be hit by random dizzy spells when balance was so vital from the first moment you woke until the last thing before going to sleep? Cathy had described the hammocks the Na'vi slept in and how acrobatic it was to get into and out of them, and the thought of having to do something like that - and balance on sometimes quite narrow tree limbs dozens of meters above the ground to boot - made her dizzy just thinking about it!
The thought of having a little Na'vi baby was still mind-blowing to her, although really she didn't know why she'd been so surprised. After all, as Neytiri had pointed out, she was a mated woman, and there were certain natural consequences to such actions! She always made herself think of the baby as a Na'vi baby, rather than an avatar baby, mostly because she'd had horrible nightmares the first couple of nights after she discovered her pregnancy of giving birth to an empty, soulless little body which would have no human counterpart. Neytiri had told her that she would eventually be able to sense the baby's budding thoughts and emotions, and she couldn't wait for that first mental flutter, mostly because it would help to keep the bad thoughts at bay. For now, instead of focusing on the possible negativity, she visualized her ideal instead.
She closed her eyes briefly and pictured a little, blue, toddling child, just barely able to walk, its little tail swinging madly in an attempt to balance, giggling and trotting after the thanator children, and the mental image brought a twinge of longing to her heart. She'd never thought of herself as the "motherly" type - except perhaps toward plants - but now...well, she had three rather unusual children already, and now to have one of her own, with her own smile and Taka's gorgeous eyes... It was a truly mind-blowing thought every time.
She had finished with her transferring and was about to move on to check the next plant when a wave of dizziness hit and she was forced to sit down in between the planters before she fell over. Ugh. She wasn't sure what would be worse, these stupid random dizzy spells or human pregnancy symptoms. Honestly, both were pretty annoying, when you thought about it. She closed her eyes and rested her head in her hands, struggling to regain her equilibrium, and smiled as she felt three large, warm bodies snuggle in around her. Someone nuzzled her head out of her hands and she opened her eyes to see Sano's sweetly lovable - if slightly terrifying - face peering at her, the confusion and worry obvious in his demeanour.
"It's alright babies, Momma's just feeling a little dizzy," she reassured them, giving Sano a scratch behind the frill where she knew he loved best. She and Taka had discussed how they might explain the new baby to the littles, but they hadn't had a chance yet. Well, it looked like Daddy was just going to have to be left out of this little discussion for now.
«Why Momma sits down? Is Momma sick?» Louise looked over to realize that Tsuki had linked up with her, and smiled, stroking her younger daughter's head.
"No, I'm not sick," she reassured them, "I'm going to be weak for a little while, and you're going to have to help Daddy take care of me, but after a couple of seasons I will be all better again, and then you'll have someone else to keep an eye on instead."
«Why Momma will be sick and then not-sick?» Ama asked. The three children were all linked up together now, and the mental echoes made Louise wonder if this was what it was like to be part of a hive-mind.
"I'm sorry, that wasn't a very clear explanation, was it?" Louise shook her head. She wasn't quite sure how to explain this to the babies, but...well, she had to remind herself that even though they had the mental age of somewhere between three and five human years, they were, after all, much more intimately in tune with the rhythms of nature than any human child that age would be. It would probably be better to just explain in the clearest way she could and deal with any questions as they came up. "I'm feeling a little unwell right now because my body is changing. I have a new baby growing inside me, and my body has to adjust to taking care of two people instead of just me. After some time the new baby will be big enough to come out, and then you three will have a new little sibling."
«When will new-brother come out to play with us?» Sano asked sweetly, and Louise shook her head.
"He or she will come out so you can meet him in about ten months," she said, "but it will be a while before your new little sibling is big and strong enough to play with you," she warned, "you'll have to be very gentle with your new brother or sister."
«Sano-brother is a boy, doesn't know about tiny-baby things,» Ama's mental giggle surprised Louise a bit, «Of course we will be careful of new-tiny-sister when she comes out, and we will protect her so nothing can hurt her until she's big enough to take down game on her own.»
«Will be brother, not sister,» Sano protested, «Two girls already, one boy, I need brother, so will be brother.»
«Will be sister,» Ama countered, and Louise would swear if they were human Ama's tongue would have been sticking out at her brother. «Will be sister because big-tree-momma is girl so likes make girls better.»
"It might be a brother or a sister," Louise laughed, "but there's no way to tell just yet. Until the baby is ready to come out we'll all just have to wait for the surprise."
She got a sense of resignation from all three babies, and then the three of them were running off to play again. There would have to be a lot more talks with them about what they could and couldn't do around the baby when she (or he!) arrived, of course, but there was plenty of time for that. They had months and months to prepare, after all.
The journey back to the territory of the Omatikaya was very different for Tom than the journey out had been. Oh, the days of riding were the same, and the food was pretty much the same, the cargo the fa'li were carrying was different but it didn't weigh much more or less than their previous burden, and even the weather was pretty much the same as it had been on the journey out, but the nights...the nights made all the difference in the world. Where there had been an awkwardness and resignation to their closeness as they settled in to sleep there was now joy and what Tom could only think of as the deepest contentment he'd ever felt. They didn't even do much more than talk, maybe kiss a little, and snuggle, their limbs intertwining, but the sense of togetherness which came from cuddling Ninat's warm body in against his own and talking quietly until she fell asleep was a balm to his soul that he hadn't even known he needed.
He made it a point now never to fall asleep and unlink before he was sure she was fully asleep herself, as the thought of her lying there next to an unresponsive unconscious body disturbed him almost as much as it must have disturbed her those first few nights on the journey out. He linked up as early as he could, too, not wanting her to wake up to a comatose body, and although he didn't regret the lack of rest his human body was getting, he could definitely feel it every night when he unlinked and every morning when he forced himself out of his lonely, uncomfortable bunk and downed a stim-drink or three before crawling into the link pod.
This morning it had taken four stim-drinks, and Sunny, who happened to be the tech who'd drawn the short straw this week, had almost refused to link him up when she saw his massively-dilated pupils. It had taken some quick persuasion to get him in, and he'd had to promise to take a real break as soon as their party arrived home. As he watched Cathy splashing water on her face it occurred to him that he never had managed to have that discussion with her about taking a little time herself to let her body recover. If he was in...the state he was in after only a few days of particularly short sleep (on top of a couple of months of regular linking up) he could only imagine what kind of condition she was in. Although, of course, he didn't know how early she fell asleep or how late she woke. Still, he thought he'd better take the opportunity to ride alongside her at some point today and have a quiet discussion about things. The last thing he wanted was to see her sick, or, worse yet, permanently unable to link due to mental injury!
It was after lunch before he managed to get her alone, and the buzzing of tiny insects in the muggy heat was making everything seem almost dreamlike as they rode side-by-side.
"I wanted to talk to you about something," Tom said, watching Cathy out of the corner of his eye.
"Me too, actually," Cathy smiled, "but you go ahead and go first, since you brought it up."
"Okay," Tom nodded, "well, the thing is...I've been thinking about it on and off since we dropped by Site 12 on our way out, and I'm just going to come right out and say it... You need some serious unlinked time to get some proper rest. You're burning out, Cathy. I could see it in your eyes, not to mention your skin and hair, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who's noticed."
Cathy glared at him. "I know my limits," she said, "I've had my avatar for years longer than you, boyo, I'm pretty sure I'd know if I was that far gone."
"But would you do something about it soon enough?" Tom asked gently. "I'm finding it addicting enough as it is, I can only imagine that being mated means you want to spend as little time away from this body as possible..."
"You can only imagine, hmm?" she asked, and her glare shifted into a sly smile, "and how is it that you are imagining such a thing, I wonder?"
"Well, sociologically, knowing what it's like to make tsaheylu with another species like the pa'li or those palulukan children of Louise and Taka's, and then extrapolating to what it would be like to have such a direct connection to someone you love very much..."
"Ah, sociologically, is it?" she chuckled, "it seems to me you've been doing quite a bit of thinking on the subject. Why might that be?"
"Because it's interesting," Tom tried to look nonchalant, "but we're getting away from the topic at hand."
"No," Cathy grinned ferally at him, "we're simply moving from what you wanted to discuss to what I wanted to discuss."
"Which is...?" He was almost afraid to ask. He could tell where this was going, and he honestly wasn't sure where she stood on the issue.
"Which is Ninat. Or, more specifically, you and Ninat. Together. And don't try and pull out that innocent face on me," she shook her head at him, "even though you two have tried to keep things low-key I can see what's going on."
"Look," Tom started, "I know when she first started teaching me you warned me to be careful not to lead her on or anything like that, and I swear I made every effort I could to keep things professional, I just..."
"You just couldn't keep your heart out of it," Cathy finished for him, "it's okay, I'm not one to judge in these kind of situations, after all. I can tell you're making her happy, Tom, and that she makes you happy too. I just wanted to let you know that I've got your back, whatever the fallout might be in... corporate terms."
"Thanks," Tom smiled at her, "I really appreciate that."
"And I promise, when we get home I'll take a couple of short days and catch up on my sleep if you'll do the same," Cathy gave in, "You're probably right, I could do with the extra rest."
"So could I, definitely," Tom nodded, "and I'll hold you to that. You should know that I have no problem talking to Antsu behind your back and letting him know just what exactly could happen if you don't get that rest."
"Same right back at you, sneaky bastard," she stuck her tongue out at him and crossed her eyes before clucking to her pa'li and riding ahead to catch up with her mate again.
Tom couldn't help but smile as he watched her go. He might have thought they could be lovers at one point in their shared past, but he had to admit, they suited as siblings (in-laws?) far better.
Something was deeply wrong, and in her dreams, Mo'at knew it. She walked along the lake beside Kelutral and although nothing seemed different from any other dream at first, there was a sense in her heart of impending doom, as though a predator was crouching somewhere among the trees, readying itself to strike, or as though somewhere nearby was a mind-sick 'angtsìk bull which would turn on her at any moment and trample her beneath its hooves.
She scented the air and gazed about, trying to figure out what was making her so uneasy, but there was nothing there...
There was...nothing! No sound! That was what was bothering her. Even if there were no other people around, as was sometimes the case when she was dreaming, there should still have been the sounds of riti among the branches, or syaksyuk fighting over prized pieces of fruit nearby, or the screams of ikran flying overhead. Instead, the only sound she could hear was a deeply ominous groaning coming from the tree itself, as though one of the cool-season windstorms was bending its branches, although the sky overhead remained clear and calm.
And then all of a sudden, in that strange way of dreams, darkness began to descend, and the groaning grew louder. Now it almost sounded as though hundreds of voices were moaning along with the tree, and she felt leaves - or were they hands? or...ashes? - falling around her, brushing against her face and clinging with sticky lightning heat to her skin, making her eyes burn and her nose run with the smell of fire and sulfer...
Mo'at woke with a start, the sense of impending doom carrying back into the waking world. With a quiet whimper she curled closer against her mate's side, and she smiled a little as his grip tightened reflexively around her waist and one hand rubbed her hip soothingly as he mumbled something incoherent. She knew he wasn't awake - Eytukan had always been a heavy sleeper - but his familiar sleeping reaction to her movements calmed her more than the most sympathetic of listeners. Mo'at was a strong woman, she had been through many things in her life, including the loss of two children before what should have been their time, and had borne all her trials with grace and poise, but even the strongest woman was always grateful for the solace of her mate's arms every now and then.
It occurred to Mo'at as she drifted back to sleep that toktor Grace had no such comfort to lean upon in her own trials with all her "children", and Mo'at felt immense sorrow and pity for the other woman. It was no wonder that Grace sometimes seemed cold! To be without a mate would be like walking on one leg. Mo'at could not even imagine such torment and difficulty!
It was not as difficult as Neytiri had anticipated, finding a midwife willing to fly out with her to visit the uniltìranyu camp to examine Louise and help teach her what to expect now that Eywa had blessed her with a child. She had thought the older women would be leery of spending time with one of the sky people, even in a familiar-looking body, but the chance to pass on their knowledge to an expectant mother apparently trumped such concerns. Especially when Neytiri explained that for sawtute women the mechanics of carrying a child were different and so Louise knew nothing of what she would be going through and how to keep both herself and her child-to-be healthy. If anything, the clan's midwives seemed to regard her as the same as a girl whose mother had died while she was still young and so had no mother to ask all the important questions of, and they were quite ready to adopt her as one of their own until her little one came.
Eventually it was decided that the youngest of the midwives, Pameyä, should be the one to fly out with Neytiri, and the two of them were bundled down with food, gifts and more good advice than Neytiri suspected Seze would be pleased to carry. She would owe her ikran a large meal when they got back to Kelutral after this trip, for sure!
As they climbed to the ikran roosts, it occurred to Neytiri that she should probably prepare Pameyä for what the uniltìranyu camp would be like. Particularly the presence of Taka and Louise's palulukan children. She impressed upon the midwife the importance of remaining calm, and that the children were very well-behaved - and also that their existence was not a thing known around Kelutral and for now it should remain so.
Luckily Pameyä had a healthy sense of adventure and a strong mothering instinct, and she gladly agreed to reserve judgement until she had met the couple and their "children" for herself.
When they arrived at Site 12, the various introductions actually went quite a bit better than Neytiri had hoped. It seemed that the more Na'vi the children met, the more they were learning how to act non-threatening around them. She was constantly amazed at just how smart they actually were.
Pameyä spoke briefly to all of the uniltìranyu, even including Carlos in the discussion, since he expressed interest and a willingness to do anything he could to help, should any situations come up that he could actually help with in some way.
Soon enough, though, the males had been chased out and Neytiri had excused herself (since she was still unmated, after all, and some things ought to be spoken of only between mated women) and it was just Louise and Pameyä.
"So, um...what can I do and not do is I guess my first question," Louise started a little hesitantly, "I mean, I work with plants a lot, so are there any I should be avoiding or not touching or whatever like that, or is there anything I shouldn't eat or do..."
"For the most part there is little you cannot do," Pameyä reassured her, "although you will need to eat much more than you have been, and more meat and teylu rather than more bread or fruits. Also, it is best to avoid coming into contact with mushrooms, and kali'weya can be very dangerous, a sting could cause you to lose the baby."
"Not that I particularly ever liked the thought of getting stung by one of those," Louise nodded. It all sounded fairly similar to what one might say to a pregnant human woman.
"Most of what I will tell you is quite easy to understand and go along with," Pameyä admitted with a smile, "after all, if the Great Mother had made childbearing too difficult and troublesome, we women would never have more than one."
"Do you have any children?" Louise asked, curious.
"I do," Pameyä nodded, "A woman does not become a midwife fully until she has borne her first child, although we train along with the healers until that time. But how could anyone try to explain or understand the changes which happen to a woman's body if she has not been through those changes herself. I have two little ones, a girl age two and a boy age five. They are very precious to me, but then, every mother says the same of her children."
That made Louise smile. "Except when they're being particularly naughty," she agreed, "and that is only a temporary thing."
"Exactly," Pameyä agreed, "Now, since most of the advice I will give you is easy to understand, I will start with the more unusual things you need to learn first, such as how to bring your body back into better balance. Although, of course, only time will do that completely..."
Bailey MacCool yawned cavernously and rubbed at his eyes as he scanned through the documents his specially-designed mole program was bringing to him. The words were starting to swim together on the computer screen, and he was almost about to give up for the evening and go to bed when he came across something that woke him right up again. It seemed totally innocuous at first, just another analysis of the Omatikaya hometree and the environs around it, but there were notations next to the descriptions that were very concerning. Certain points of interest were marked as "cold", "tepid", or "warm", and a few were indicated to be "hot". It didn't make much sense, until he clued in that the "hot" points were places of particularly strong sacredness to the tribe. Bailey had been a terrorist in his time (although technically only a cyber one, and even then he preferred the term "anarchist" since he had always been against acts that would impact innocent bystanders) and he understood how a tweak of the psychology of one's "enemy" could be more vitally important in an attack than almost anything else.
He flagged the document and quickly backed it up to their "most important" folder, then he went back to read through it again. There was something about it that just didn't sit right with him at all, but he couldn't quite figure out just what it was exactly that had that sick feeling building in the pit of his stomach. He frowned and almost went back to read through it a third time, but he shook his head. As tired as he was, there was no way he was going to make heads or tails of this tonight. Better to sleep on it and let his subconscious play with it a bit, and in the morning he'd show it to Dolan and maybe one or two of the others. Maybe between the lot of them, they could figure out what it all meant.
And there you have it, things are moving along on their expected paths, and in the next chapter we will have the most important step of all for the boys - their uniltaron!
See you all in a day or two (with any luck!)
But before that, you get some...
Vocab:
talioang - sturmbeest - the Na'vi equivalent to bison
uniltìranyu - dreamwalker, avatar
tawtute / sawtute - sky person/people
Sa'nok - Mother
Kelutral - Hometree
nantang - viperwolf
tsmukan - brother
palulukan - thanator (yay!)
yawne - beloved
txìm - bum, behind, ass...whatever other word you want to use here XD
kìyevame - farewell, see you again soon
nivi - hammock
uniltaron - dream hunt, the rite of passage to become a full adult member of the tribe
ikran makto - banshee rider. Yes, I know "makto" should be "maktoyu" in proper Na'vi but according to JC, "makto" is the term he likes, so...
kaltxì - hello
riti - stingbat - little creature about the (comparative) size of a parrot or small bird of prey, tend to hang around in the trees a lot
Nawm Rolyu - great or high singer
syaksyuk - prolemerus - those chittering monkey-like things Jake almost shoots his first trip out in the forest
pa'li / fa'li - direhorse
tsaheylu - the bond (yay!)
'angtsìk - hammerhead titanothere, aka big-ass hammerhead rhino-like thing!
ikran - banshee
toktor - doctor
teylu - edible beetle grubs, a main protein staple of the Na'vi diet
kali'weya - aracnoid - scary-ass looking scorpion-like thing we're going to see a lot more of in the next chapter
dum dum duuummm...
Brotherhood Chapter 26: Winding Roads
After the talioang hunt (and more specifically after the party that followed it) Tsu'tey found himself becoming more and more easy around Jake. It wasn't that he completely trusted the young uniltìranyu hunter, but he was definitely beginning to see the better side of him. Jake was a hard worker, and even when things were difficult for him, he never lost his sense of humour. Both were qualities that Tsu'tey had to admit had they been evident in any other young Na'vi hunter would have been a sign that this was a man who would advance to be one of the great men of a generation. Tsu'tey had to keep reminding himself, though, that Jake wasn't any other young hunter, and friendly as he was, Tsu'tey did not want to completely let his guard down. He was definitely starting to see the advantages, though, in becoming friends.
Besides which, Jake knew things about tawtute tactics which Tsu'tey could never have hoped to learn on his own. He had even visited Jake to chat a time or two since that night, and had taken him for a training session or three. Not that the man needed much training! He really was quite skilled, especially considering his situation. Tsu'tey wondered if perhaps that had something to do with what he had known before becoming uniltìranyu...
His thoughts were interrupted by a light tug on his tail, and he turned to see his little sister Laneya standing there. Of course, he had suspected it would be her. She was just about the only person who could get away with something like that. Anyone else would have gotten a snarl and a sharp word. Well, okay, maybe not the kids...Tsu'tey had an admitted soft spot for children, but then, who didn't?
"I thought today you were studying with Sa'nok?" he knelt down to her level.
"I'm done for today, 'tey," she made a face at him, "it's already almost dinnertime. Didn't you notice?"
Tsu'tey looked up at the sky through the branches of Kelutral and sampled the air. "Do you know, I think you're right," he laughed, "it is almost dinnertime. How did that happen?"
"You were thinking and then the time passed," Laneya giggled, "or maybe a giant nantang came and is eating the sun, making time pass faster."
Tsu'tey gave her a very confused look, which only made her giggle harder. "You don't actually believe such a thing is possible," he asked carefully.
"Of course not!" Laneya laughed harder, "I just wanted to see if you were listening to me. Sa'nok told me to come and remind you it's your day to get your hair done and she said I get to help."
"Thank you, I had forgotten," he smiled, standing up and taking her hand, "why don't we head back to her together."
"You should carry me," Laneya made a cute face at him, "because you still can. Didn't you say before that you'll miss it when I'm not small enough to climb on your shoulders anymore?"
"That is the sort of thing a little girl is supposed to pretend she did not hear her older brother say," Tsu'tey scolded her warmly, "besides, you have two good legs, you should use them to walk on."
"Instead of practicing how to climb the largest looms by climbing on you?" she giggled, "alright, I won't ride you today."
Once they got back to where Tamrrlìn was waiting for them and Tsu'tey had been suitably scolded for forgetting where he was supposed to be, he settled down to have his hair fussed with. It took patience to have such tight and intricate braids, but it was well worth the effort in the end, and besides, it was nice having someone to fuss with his hair. Even if it was his mother fussing with it and not the mate he still did not have yet when others of his age had been mated for some seasons and even had young children.
But there was no sense dwelling on it. After all, everything would come as Eywa willed.
"So, tsmukan, I see you listened to my very good advice and now you're being friends with Jhakesuuly," Laneya grinned once he was all relaxed as they brushed his hair.
He tried to frown, but he wasn't very successful. "I have come to see there are some advantages to being on good terms with the uniltìranyu, but that does not mean we are friends," he corrected her.
"Yes, you are," Laneya shook her head, "I saw the two of you laughing together like friends, and you spend time with him sitting around the fires now. You should just admit you like him."
"I still do not trust him," he shook his head, only to have it lightly swatted by their mother, who was beginning to braid, "how can one be friends without trust?"
"You are friends because I say it is so," Laneya nodded decisively, "and you should listen to me more because I am very wise."
"You are less than half my age," Tsu'tey snorted, "I do not think you can call yourself "wise" just yet."
That made her pout at him. "Well, I may be younger than you, but I am female, which automatically makes me wiser than you. So you should listen to me more."
Tsu'tey laughed helplessly. "When you do not have locks of my hair in your hands I may choose to debate your wisdom or lack thereof," he grinned, "perhaps. But in this I will admit you perhaps did know what you were talking about. It is good to be on better terms with Jake. If nothing else, it shows that I am tolerant of those who are odd or different."
"He is certainly that," Tamrrlìn laughed at her children, "different, and interesting. It is a shame there are so many dangerous sawtute. The ones I have met are all fascinating, each in their own way."
"Fascinating in the same way that palulukan may be fascinating to watch," Ateyo, Tsu'tey and Laneya's father sat down to have his hair fixed next, "and like palulukan best watched from a safe distance."
"Of course, ma yawne," Tamrrlìn leaned over to place a kiss just behind her mate's ear, "It isn't as though I go far from the looms in any case. You have no need to worry over me."
Father and son looked at each other, the love and exasperation they both felt for the females of their small clan clear in their eyes.
"Even without reason, I still worry now and then," Ateyo smiled, "how else would I find to keep myself occupied? Besides, I find I enjoy your attempts to reassure me."
"Not around the children!" she playfully swatted him with her tail, "We will discuss this further, but later, when the moment is better suited."
Tsu'tey snorted but he couldn't help smiling slightly. This was what he had always wanted; what his parents had, this deep connection which showed their love even when they disagreed about something, and the affection that could be seen through every touch - even his mother's occasional swats to the back of his father's head when he'd done something she thought foolish.
Late one night a few nights after the hunt (he couldn't be sure how many, keeping track of days when in his human body was getting more and more difficult) Jake slowly drifted toward consciousness. It had to be the middle of the night, and he couldn't figure out what had woken him, since he usually slept like a log, but he could hear voices talking, and without opening his eyes, he tried to focus on them long enough to figure out what was going on.
It was Grace and Trudy, that much was easy enough to sort out, since he didn't hear Norm's deeper tones, and he had the feeling he'd missed some critical part of the conversation, because what he was hearing really wasn't making very much sense.
"So how come you're so secretive about it?" Grace was asking, "I mean, all the way out here, who's really going to care?"
"You'd be surprised," Trudy answered, and Jake could hear... resignation? ... in her voice. "There's secrets an' then there's secrets, as the saying goes, an' mine's a doozey. There's certain...high-up military types that might not trust somebody with my...background, you know?"
Jake frowned. This was starting to sound bad. Was Trudy some kind of traitor? Had she done something to earn a dishonourable discharge? Why else would the military types not trust her? But...but that just didn't jive. I mean, this was Trudy here! She had to be one of the most rock-solid pilots - fuckit, people - he knew. There was no way she'd ever have done anything bad enough to get kicked out or court-marshaled or something!
"You realize all you're doing is making me want to know more," Grace pointed out, and Jake couldn't agree more with the sentiment. Trudy was like a little sister...well okay technically given their ages a big sister but still, a sister in any case, and brothers defended their sisters to the death, no matter what they might have done!
"You damn scientists and your inquisitive minds," Trudy laughed. "All those questions are gonna get you in trouble one of these days."
"Entirely probable," Grace laughed too, "but it's more likely my foul mouth and hardass attitude is what's going to kick me in the txìm. Seriously, though. You don't honestly think I'd care about anything you might've done or what your background is, do you? It won't make me think less of you and I'm certainly not going to go running around Hell's Gate telling everyone I know. I have enough secrets of my own to keep safe that there's no way I'm going to jeopardize somebody else's."
"Yeah, you got a point there," Trudy admitted, "I guess I could at least give you a hint. It's actually written on the door of my baby, although Norm's the only one that's ever actually picked up on the real meaning. Everyone else just figures it's the name of a childhood friend who died tragically or some bullshit like that. He had an unfair advantage, though."
"That's pretty specific bullshit," Jake could almost hear Grace's raised eyebrow, "how would they have come to such a conclusion?"
"Probly 'cause I spread that particular bit of bullshit myself," Trudy said.
Jake was trying to remember what was on the door of Trudy's Sampson now, and he could tell Grace was doing the same.
"Would this have anything to do with Norm's Masters' thesis?" Grace asked finally, and now Jake knew he was missing some vital part of the conversation.
"It does, actually," Trudy sighed, "Look, let's just say everybody knows my taat - my dad, that is - or at least they've heard of him, and it's pretty likely most of the military types wouldn't trust someone raised in that...environment." From the way she stressed the last word, Jake could tell it was some kind of hint, but he still wasn't getting it. At least, not until Grace whispered a name.
"Montejo...of course. I should've known," she said, "although you must take after your mother more than your father."
"I do," Trudy admitted, "but how..."
"I met him once or twice," Grace said gently, "at botanical conferences where both of us were presenting, usually. He was a good man. I would never betray his daughter."
Their voices were fuzzing out now as Jake began to drift off again, but one thing stuck with him. He remembered the name Montejo and, more importantly, he remembered learning about the campaigns to take his guerrillas out. If Trudy had been around that growing up...well damn, he wasn't sure how she'd ever survived it! She must've been pretty little back then, too. Well, somehow she'd managed to get through that as a kid, and now she was here and he, too, would never betray her. That thought brought a smile to his face as he finally passed out again and knew no more until morning.
The time had finally come for Tom and the rest of the trading group to leave the Anurai, and as he smiled through the formal ceremony and made his goodbyes to various new friends he had made, it began to occur to him that there was one major difference between the human and Na'vi worlds that he hadn't even had a reason to think about before. Distance. Not so much that the distances between people were different, but that in order to speak to someone who lived outside your own kelutral, it was necessary to actually travel to see them, and that travel could take days or quite possibly even weeks. There was no calling someone up and just chatting halfway around the world, at least, not for the Na'vi. Sure, the human settlements had lots of technologies to facilitate communications, from radios for short-distance talks to superluminal communications almost real-time across the light-years back to earth (although that was prohibitively expensive and reserved only for those in charge of things, of course) but all the comms satellites in the world did nothing if the person you wanted to talk to had no way to receive that communication. As far as he knew, there wasn't even any kind of system to send letters...well, he shook his head, of course there wasn't, the Na'vi didn't possess any kind of writing system, so why on earth would there be a mail system? Come on, dumb-ass, stop making such human assumptions!
He laughed lightly as Ninat tweaked his ear. "You are somewhere else in your mind," she scolded him, "and it is almost time for us to be gone. Are there not people you want to bid kìyevame to?"
"Of course there are," he nodded, "I was just thinking. On Earth - where we come from - it would not be such a thing, this taking-of-leave. There, it is nothing to speak to someone halfway around the world without leaving your bedroom. Here if I want to see my friends again I will have to travel for some days."
"Which is why you should take leave of them properly," she shook her head, "tawtute are so strange. If you can speak to a person at any time you wish, how can you know the true value of their place in your life? It is only by being without a friend's wisdom for a little while that you remember how much you value it."
"I suppose there's something to that," he smiled at her and squeezed her hand, "and you're right, I really should go say a proper "goodbye" to the folks I want to remember me."
"Go," she rubbed her thumb over his knuckles, then batted his behind with her tail, "or you will make us all late setting out on our journey, and I am looking forward to setting up camp before night has come completely."
"Oh?" he raised an eyebrow at her.
"I find that I remember how it was in our travel nivi with great pleasure," she gave him an innocent look, "and although of course it would be wrong of me to take advantage of one who has not yet passed through uniltaron and become a man..."
"Right," Tom nodded, blushing, "I'll be back quickly then, and we can get going. I won't be the one causing any delays."
Ninat's beautiful, tinkling laughter followed him as he jogged quickly over to where the Anurai potters were standing. He had spent the largest amount of his time here visiting with them, after all, and he didn't want to forget to pay them proper attention in his farewells. When he reached the group, Me'lina was the first to greet him, taking both his hands in hers.
"We will miss you, ma Tom," she said, "even these strange hands." She tweaked his pinkies, "Do not forget that you have promised to someday visit us again and bring images of the pottery of your own people. We are always happy to have more examples of different styles to borrow ideas from."
"I won't forget," he shook his head, "I definitely won't, believe me. If there's a way to do it, I might even send those pictures ahead. Perhaps I can convince my brother who is an ikran makto to drop them by, although..." He grinned, "his grasp of the Na'vi language is still very small, you might have some trouble understanding what he's saying even if he's just saying "kaltxì" or something else as simple."
"There is no need to hurry," Me'lina shook her head, laughing, and Hufweya, the head potter, spoke up as well.
"Hurrying only makes cracked pots," she patted his shoulder, "I thought you had learned this among us, Tomsuuly. Remember that among the Na'vi, there is never a need to hurry, except when there is."
Tom smiled ironically. "I will remember," he agreed.
"Now you should go make your farewells to the singers," Hufweya reminded him, "I have heard the riti say that there is one among them who wishes to speak to you before you are gone."
"I will do that," Tom nodded, "although I do not know why the riti would suggest such a thing."
"You will see," Hufweya gave him a mysterious look.
By the time Tom had travelled across the roots of the kelutral to where the singers were gathered making their farewells to the Omatikaya group, he was only more puzzled, rather than less. He had heard no rumours about any of the Anurai singers needing to talk to him about anything, and he'd been staying among them! What on earth could...but then again, they were guests here, and there was still that distance which prevented them from becoming a direct part of the rumour mill - at least on the receiving end. He was quite sure that their presence there had started plenty of rumours. That was, after all, how "village" gossip functioned, on Earth or Pandora. In that, at least, it seemed the Na'vi and humans were the same. Strangers got talked about, wondered about and...shall we say extrapolated upon...until they weren't there to be discussed anymore. Well, actually he was quite sure they would be discussed long after they were gone. After all, they weren't just the usual visitors from another clan, at least, he and Cathy weren't. They were the first actual avatars this clan had seen. He just hoped he'd made a good enough impression, and that the discussion he and Cathy had had with the Anurai leaders had managed to impress upon them some of the differences among the humans and some of the things which would have saved the Omatikaya a lot of grief had they known them in the beginning.
His curiosity about who wanted to speak to him was soon assuaged, as the son of the Anurai Nawm Rolyu approached him. "I would speak with you before you leave, Tomsuuly," Zolan said, and Tom was grateful to see that he looked calm and almost apologetic. The last thing he wanted was to get into some kind of challenge right now, not because he thought he would lose - ultimately, he knew he had the major advantage in this particular rivalry - but because it would delay their departure and leave a sour taste behind among the Anurai singers who had been their hosts.
"Of course," Tom nodded carefully, "should we go some distance apart or can what you wish to say be said in company?"
"I have no secrets here," Zolan shook his head, and Tom was surprised to see a faint smile pass across the Anurai singer's countenance. "I have been thinking upon what you said to me."
Tom didn't need to ask which what he had said to Zolan, even though the two had discussed many things on a "professional" level. This could only be about Tom's confrontation over Zolan's treatment of Ninat, so he just inclined his head to show he was listening.
"I have been thinking long about your words, and I see that you are right," Zolan said finally, screwing up his face in distaste. "I do not like to think that I was so blind - I have always counted myself as an intelligent man - but Ninat and I had already spoken on the matter and I should not have seen her arrival here as a reason to hope. I am not usually so foolish, but..." He sighed. "My mother has reminded me that there are many reasons a young woman may join a trading party, and not all of them have to do with seeking out a mate. She came as your teacher, she even introduced you as her student, and yet I ignored that and let my mind mislead me into hoping that there could be more. She is...a woman worthy of every good thing in life," he said, "and I had thought perhaps that with my position among the clan I could be the man to give those things to her, but you were right; it was wrong of me to expect that she would give up her family and everything that she has among her own clan to start again from nothing with mine."
"You were not wrong entirely," Tom shook his head, feeling magnanimous in his position as the unchallenged winner of their rivalry, "it is not too much to ask of a woman who feels about you the way you feel about her, you just..."
"I just saw too much which was not there. I listened to the song of my heart alone instead of trying to hear the song of her heart as well," Zolan laughed ruefully, "do not worry to offend me with the truth, Tomsuuly, I have already spoken it to myself a number of times."
"Then I will not tell it to you again," Tom smiled at him. "Shall we say we are friends?" He held out his hand automatically, even though he was sure Zolan wasn't familiar with the human habit of shaking hands. Still, it was a hand extended in friendship, bearing no weapon, and that much should translate across cultures.
"We shall say it," Zolan nodded, "although if I ever hear of you giving Ninat cause to be sad..." He clasped his hand around Tom's wrist, and Tom returned the grip.
"You won't ever hear of it," he said, "although I can't promise never to make her angry."
"No man can ever promise that of any woman," Zolan laughed. "After all, who can understand the whims of the female mind and heart? It is not even the most sublimely happy of matings which has no argument through all the years."
"Among our people also," Tom laughed, "this is true. I think even among nantang or syaksyuk this is true. Females are simply females, and males are males."
"And that is why we males must agree not to let females come between us," Zolan squeezed his wrist, "so that when they are unreasonable and throwing things at our heads for imagined slights, we can go to each other and drink together and hide until they are calm and sane again."
"Solidarity," Tom agreed, "there must always be solidarity."
"And as a token of that solidarity," Zolan said quietly, "I suggest you should get ready to depart. It looks as though your group is gathering, and a small storm is also gathering around a certain female's ears as she watches us."
Tom glanced over his shoulder and his ears drooped slightly. "You are right, ma tsmukan," he nodded, "it would be best for me to go now, so that I avoid sleeping among the fa'li tonight and waking up covered in dung and bruises."
Zolan blinked at that, and then laughed hard. "I can imagine such a thing would not be a pleasant way to travel," he said. "Go. I will see you again in the passing of the seasons, and I expect you to show me how happy you have made her."
"I will," Tom nodded, agreeing to both statements as he turned and jogged back over to their party.
"You said you would not make us late," Ninat gave him a stern look.
"I haven't," he shook his head, looking up through the leaves and branches of the Anurai's massive Kelutral to catch the position of the sun, "See, we are still on time to depart."
"You are lucky, then," Ninat smiled and shook her head, "that you are ready to go. Come, it is time to mount up."
Their actual departure, once they were mounted up, was a quick thing, 'Anansi saying a quick blessing for Eywa's grace on their journey home, and little Kal'il and a few more of the children running after them for a little while, and then they were away and headed home. And it really had become home to Tom. Even in the short time he'd been staying among another clan, the vestiges of his human expectations and memories were becoming more and more like a dream to him, and he was coming to realize that his future, no matter what else might happen, lay among the Omatikaya and, more specifically, with the beautiful young woman who rode next to him singing softly to lighten their hearts for the journey.
Lousie smiled to herself as she watched her children play while she "grubbed in the dirt" as Taka liked to call it, preparing to transfer one of her best-growing experimental plants into a larger tub, since it had almost completely outgrown its current one. She had always loved growing things ever since she was little and she whined and cried at her own mother until she was allowed a garden of sundews to place on their kitchen windowsill. Mother had only allowed those finally because Louise had touted their fly-eating properties as a benefit. The memory made Louise laugh. She wondered what her mother would think if she knew her daughter was soon going to make her a grandmother to a blue baby with a tail. She would probably throw fifty fits!
She'd been feeling a lot better since Neytiri had suggested the morning visits to their tree of voices, although still not perfectly normal. But then, although nibbling on crackers might take away some of the nausea from pregnant human women suffering from morning sickness, that didn't take away all their symptoms either, so why should this be any different? She tried to imagine what it must be like for Na'vi women and couldn't fathom it. To be hit by random dizzy spells when balance was so vital from the first moment you woke until the last thing before going to sleep? Cathy had described the hammocks the Na'vi slept in and how acrobatic it was to get into and out of them, and the thought of having to do something like that - and balance on sometimes quite narrow tree limbs dozens of meters above the ground to boot - made her dizzy just thinking about it!
The thought of having a little Na'vi baby was still mind-blowing to her, although really she didn't know why she'd been so surprised. After all, as Neytiri had pointed out, she was a mated woman, and there were certain natural consequences to such actions! She always made herself think of the baby as a Na'vi baby, rather than an avatar baby, mostly because she'd had horrible nightmares the first couple of nights after she discovered her pregnancy of giving birth to an empty, soulless little body which would have no human counterpart. Neytiri had told her that she would eventually be able to sense the baby's budding thoughts and emotions, and she couldn't wait for that first mental flutter, mostly because it would help to keep the bad thoughts at bay. For now, instead of focusing on the possible negativity, she visualized her ideal instead.
She closed her eyes briefly and pictured a little, blue, toddling child, just barely able to walk, its little tail swinging madly in an attempt to balance, giggling and trotting after the thanator children, and the mental image brought a twinge of longing to her heart. She'd never thought of herself as the "motherly" type - except perhaps toward plants - but now...well, she had three rather unusual children already, and now to have one of her own, with her own smile and Taka's gorgeous eyes... It was a truly mind-blowing thought every time.
She had finished with her transferring and was about to move on to check the next plant when a wave of dizziness hit and she was forced to sit down in between the planters before she fell over. Ugh. She wasn't sure what would be worse, these stupid random dizzy spells or human pregnancy symptoms. Honestly, both were pretty annoying, when you thought about it. She closed her eyes and rested her head in her hands, struggling to regain her equilibrium, and smiled as she felt three large, warm bodies snuggle in around her. Someone nuzzled her head out of her hands and she opened her eyes to see Sano's sweetly lovable - if slightly terrifying - face peering at her, the confusion and worry obvious in his demeanour.
"It's alright babies, Momma's just feeling a little dizzy," she reassured them, giving Sano a scratch behind the frill where she knew he loved best. She and Taka had discussed how they might explain the new baby to the littles, but they hadn't had a chance yet. Well, it looked like Daddy was just going to have to be left out of this little discussion for now.
«Why Momma sits down? Is Momma sick?» Louise looked over to realize that Tsuki had linked up with her, and smiled, stroking her younger daughter's head.
"No, I'm not sick," she reassured them, "I'm going to be weak for a little while, and you're going to have to help Daddy take care of me, but after a couple of seasons I will be all better again, and then you'll have someone else to keep an eye on instead."
«Why Momma will be sick and then not-sick?» Ama asked. The three children were all linked up together now, and the mental echoes made Louise wonder if this was what it was like to be part of a hive-mind.
"I'm sorry, that wasn't a very clear explanation, was it?" Louise shook her head. She wasn't quite sure how to explain this to the babies, but...well, she had to remind herself that even though they had the mental age of somewhere between three and five human years, they were, after all, much more intimately in tune with the rhythms of nature than any human child that age would be. It would probably be better to just explain in the clearest way she could and deal with any questions as they came up. "I'm feeling a little unwell right now because my body is changing. I have a new baby growing inside me, and my body has to adjust to taking care of two people instead of just me. After some time the new baby will be big enough to come out, and then you three will have a new little sibling."
«When will new-brother come out to play with us?» Sano asked sweetly, and Louise shook her head.
"He or she will come out so you can meet him in about ten months," she said, "but it will be a while before your new little sibling is big and strong enough to play with you," she warned, "you'll have to be very gentle with your new brother or sister."
«Sano-brother is a boy, doesn't know about tiny-baby things,» Ama's mental giggle surprised Louise a bit, «Of course we will be careful of new-tiny-sister when she comes out, and we will protect her so nothing can hurt her until she's big enough to take down game on her own.»
«Will be brother, not sister,» Sano protested, «Two girls already, one boy, I need brother, so will be brother.»
«Will be sister,» Ama countered, and Louise would swear if they were human Ama's tongue would have been sticking out at her brother. «Will be sister because big-tree-momma is girl so likes make girls better.»
"It might be a brother or a sister," Louise laughed, "but there's no way to tell just yet. Until the baby is ready to come out we'll all just have to wait for the surprise."
She got a sense of resignation from all three babies, and then the three of them were running off to play again. There would have to be a lot more talks with them about what they could and couldn't do around the baby when she (or he!) arrived, of course, but there was plenty of time for that. They had months and months to prepare, after all.
The journey back to the territory of the Omatikaya was very different for Tom than the journey out had been. Oh, the days of riding were the same, and the food was pretty much the same, the cargo the fa'li were carrying was different but it didn't weigh much more or less than their previous burden, and even the weather was pretty much the same as it had been on the journey out, but the nights...the nights made all the difference in the world. Where there had been an awkwardness and resignation to their closeness as they settled in to sleep there was now joy and what Tom could only think of as the deepest contentment he'd ever felt. They didn't even do much more than talk, maybe kiss a little, and snuggle, their limbs intertwining, but the sense of togetherness which came from cuddling Ninat's warm body in against his own and talking quietly until she fell asleep was a balm to his soul that he hadn't even known he needed.
He made it a point now never to fall asleep and unlink before he was sure she was fully asleep herself, as the thought of her lying there next to an unresponsive unconscious body disturbed him almost as much as it must have disturbed her those first few nights on the journey out. He linked up as early as he could, too, not wanting her to wake up to a comatose body, and although he didn't regret the lack of rest his human body was getting, he could definitely feel it every night when he unlinked and every morning when he forced himself out of his lonely, uncomfortable bunk and downed a stim-drink or three before crawling into the link pod.
This morning it had taken four stim-drinks, and Sunny, who happened to be the tech who'd drawn the short straw this week, had almost refused to link him up when she saw his massively-dilated pupils. It had taken some quick persuasion to get him in, and he'd had to promise to take a real break as soon as their party arrived home. As he watched Cathy splashing water on her face it occurred to him that he never had managed to have that discussion with her about taking a little time herself to let her body recover. If he was in...the state he was in after only a few days of particularly short sleep (on top of a couple of months of regular linking up) he could only imagine what kind of condition she was in. Although, of course, he didn't know how early she fell asleep or how late she woke. Still, he thought he'd better take the opportunity to ride alongside her at some point today and have a quiet discussion about things. The last thing he wanted was to see her sick, or, worse yet, permanently unable to link due to mental injury!
It was after lunch before he managed to get her alone, and the buzzing of tiny insects in the muggy heat was making everything seem almost dreamlike as they rode side-by-side.
"I wanted to talk to you about something," Tom said, watching Cathy out of the corner of his eye.
"Me too, actually," Cathy smiled, "but you go ahead and go first, since you brought it up."
"Okay," Tom nodded, "well, the thing is...I've been thinking about it on and off since we dropped by Site 12 on our way out, and I'm just going to come right out and say it... You need some serious unlinked time to get some proper rest. You're burning out, Cathy. I could see it in your eyes, not to mention your skin and hair, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who's noticed."
Cathy glared at him. "I know my limits," she said, "I've had my avatar for years longer than you, boyo, I'm pretty sure I'd know if I was that far gone."
"But would you do something about it soon enough?" Tom asked gently. "I'm finding it addicting enough as it is, I can only imagine that being mated means you want to spend as little time away from this body as possible..."
"You can only imagine, hmm?" she asked, and her glare shifted into a sly smile, "and how is it that you are imagining such a thing, I wonder?"
"Well, sociologically, knowing what it's like to make tsaheylu with another species like the pa'li or those palulukan children of Louise and Taka's, and then extrapolating to what it would be like to have such a direct connection to someone you love very much..."
"Ah, sociologically, is it?" she chuckled, "it seems to me you've been doing quite a bit of thinking on the subject. Why might that be?"
"Because it's interesting," Tom tried to look nonchalant, "but we're getting away from the topic at hand."
"No," Cathy grinned ferally at him, "we're simply moving from what you wanted to discuss to what I wanted to discuss."
"Which is...?" He was almost afraid to ask. He could tell where this was going, and he honestly wasn't sure where she stood on the issue.
"Which is Ninat. Or, more specifically, you and Ninat. Together. And don't try and pull out that innocent face on me," she shook her head at him, "even though you two have tried to keep things low-key I can see what's going on."
"Look," Tom started, "I know when she first started teaching me you warned me to be careful not to lead her on or anything like that, and I swear I made every effort I could to keep things professional, I just..."
"You just couldn't keep your heart out of it," Cathy finished for him, "it's okay, I'm not one to judge in these kind of situations, after all. I can tell you're making her happy, Tom, and that she makes you happy too. I just wanted to let you know that I've got your back, whatever the fallout might be in... corporate terms."
"Thanks," Tom smiled at her, "I really appreciate that."
"And I promise, when we get home I'll take a couple of short days and catch up on my sleep if you'll do the same," Cathy gave in, "You're probably right, I could do with the extra rest."
"So could I, definitely," Tom nodded, "and I'll hold you to that. You should know that I have no problem talking to Antsu behind your back and letting him know just what exactly could happen if you don't get that rest."
"Same right back at you, sneaky bastard," she stuck her tongue out at him and crossed her eyes before clucking to her pa'li and riding ahead to catch up with her mate again.
Tom couldn't help but smile as he watched her go. He might have thought they could be lovers at one point in their shared past, but he had to admit, they suited as siblings (in-laws?) far better.
Something was deeply wrong, and in her dreams, Mo'at knew it. She walked along the lake beside Kelutral and although nothing seemed different from any other dream at first, there was a sense in her heart of impending doom, as though a predator was crouching somewhere among the trees, readying itself to strike, or as though somewhere nearby was a mind-sick 'angtsìk bull which would turn on her at any moment and trample her beneath its hooves.
She scented the air and gazed about, trying to figure out what was making her so uneasy, but there was nothing there...
There was...nothing! No sound! That was what was bothering her. Even if there were no other people around, as was sometimes the case when she was dreaming, there should still have been the sounds of riti among the branches, or syaksyuk fighting over prized pieces of fruit nearby, or the screams of ikran flying overhead. Instead, the only sound she could hear was a deeply ominous groaning coming from the tree itself, as though one of the cool-season windstorms was bending its branches, although the sky overhead remained clear and calm.
And then all of a sudden, in that strange way of dreams, darkness began to descend, and the groaning grew louder. Now it almost sounded as though hundreds of voices were moaning along with the tree, and she felt leaves - or were they hands? or...ashes? - falling around her, brushing against her face and clinging with sticky lightning heat to her skin, making her eyes burn and her nose run with the smell of fire and sulfer...
Mo'at woke with a start, the sense of impending doom carrying back into the waking world. With a quiet whimper she curled closer against her mate's side, and she smiled a little as his grip tightened reflexively around her waist and one hand rubbed her hip soothingly as he mumbled something incoherent. She knew he wasn't awake - Eytukan had always been a heavy sleeper - but his familiar sleeping reaction to her movements calmed her more than the most sympathetic of listeners. Mo'at was a strong woman, she had been through many things in her life, including the loss of two children before what should have been their time, and had borne all her trials with grace and poise, but even the strongest woman was always grateful for the solace of her mate's arms every now and then.
It occurred to Mo'at as she drifted back to sleep that toktor Grace had no such comfort to lean upon in her own trials with all her "children", and Mo'at felt immense sorrow and pity for the other woman. It was no wonder that Grace sometimes seemed cold! To be without a mate would be like walking on one leg. Mo'at could not even imagine such torment and difficulty!
It was not as difficult as Neytiri had anticipated, finding a midwife willing to fly out with her to visit the uniltìranyu camp to examine Louise and help teach her what to expect now that Eywa had blessed her with a child. She had thought the older women would be leery of spending time with one of the sky people, even in a familiar-looking body, but the chance to pass on their knowledge to an expectant mother apparently trumped such concerns. Especially when Neytiri explained that for sawtute women the mechanics of carrying a child were different and so Louise knew nothing of what she would be going through and how to keep both herself and her child-to-be healthy. If anything, the clan's midwives seemed to regard her as the same as a girl whose mother had died while she was still young and so had no mother to ask all the important questions of, and they were quite ready to adopt her as one of their own until her little one came.
Eventually it was decided that the youngest of the midwives, Pameyä, should be the one to fly out with Neytiri, and the two of them were bundled down with food, gifts and more good advice than Neytiri suspected Seze would be pleased to carry. She would owe her ikran a large meal when they got back to Kelutral after this trip, for sure!
As they climbed to the ikran roosts, it occurred to Neytiri that she should probably prepare Pameyä for what the uniltìranyu camp would be like. Particularly the presence of Taka and Louise's palulukan children. She impressed upon the midwife the importance of remaining calm, and that the children were very well-behaved - and also that their existence was not a thing known around Kelutral and for now it should remain so.
Luckily Pameyä had a healthy sense of adventure and a strong mothering instinct, and she gladly agreed to reserve judgement until she had met the couple and their "children" for herself.
When they arrived at Site 12, the various introductions actually went quite a bit better than Neytiri had hoped. It seemed that the more Na'vi the children met, the more they were learning how to act non-threatening around them. She was constantly amazed at just how smart they actually were.
Pameyä spoke briefly to all of the uniltìranyu, even including Carlos in the discussion, since he expressed interest and a willingness to do anything he could to help, should any situations come up that he could actually help with in some way.
Soon enough, though, the males had been chased out and Neytiri had excused herself (since she was still unmated, after all, and some things ought to be spoken of only between mated women) and it was just Louise and Pameyä.
"So, um...what can I do and not do is I guess my first question," Louise started a little hesitantly, "I mean, I work with plants a lot, so are there any I should be avoiding or not touching or whatever like that, or is there anything I shouldn't eat or do..."
"For the most part there is little you cannot do," Pameyä reassured her, "although you will need to eat much more than you have been, and more meat and teylu rather than more bread or fruits. Also, it is best to avoid coming into contact with mushrooms, and kali'weya can be very dangerous, a sting could cause you to lose the baby."
"Not that I particularly ever liked the thought of getting stung by one of those," Louise nodded. It all sounded fairly similar to what one might say to a pregnant human woman.
"Most of what I will tell you is quite easy to understand and go along with," Pameyä admitted with a smile, "after all, if the Great Mother had made childbearing too difficult and troublesome, we women would never have more than one."
"Do you have any children?" Louise asked, curious.
"I do," Pameyä nodded, "A woman does not become a midwife fully until she has borne her first child, although we train along with the healers until that time. But how could anyone try to explain or understand the changes which happen to a woman's body if she has not been through those changes herself. I have two little ones, a girl age two and a boy age five. They are very precious to me, but then, every mother says the same of her children."
That made Louise smile. "Except when they're being particularly naughty," she agreed, "and that is only a temporary thing."
"Exactly," Pameyä agreed, "Now, since most of the advice I will give you is easy to understand, I will start with the more unusual things you need to learn first, such as how to bring your body back into better balance. Although, of course, only time will do that completely..."
Bailey MacCool yawned cavernously and rubbed at his eyes as he scanned through the documents his specially-designed mole program was bringing to him. The words were starting to swim together on the computer screen, and he was almost about to give up for the evening and go to bed when he came across something that woke him right up again. It seemed totally innocuous at first, just another analysis of the Omatikaya hometree and the environs around it, but there were notations next to the descriptions that were very concerning. Certain points of interest were marked as "cold", "tepid", or "warm", and a few were indicated to be "hot". It didn't make much sense, until he clued in that the "hot" points were places of particularly strong sacredness to the tribe. Bailey had been a terrorist in his time (although technically only a cyber one, and even then he preferred the term "anarchist" since he had always been against acts that would impact innocent bystanders) and he understood how a tweak of the psychology of one's "enemy" could be more vitally important in an attack than almost anything else.
He flagged the document and quickly backed it up to their "most important" folder, then he went back to read through it again. There was something about it that just didn't sit right with him at all, but he couldn't quite figure out just what it was exactly that had that sick feeling building in the pit of his stomach. He frowned and almost went back to read through it a third time, but he shook his head. As tired as he was, there was no way he was going to make heads or tails of this tonight. Better to sleep on it and let his subconscious play with it a bit, and in the morning he'd show it to Dolan and maybe one or two of the others. Maybe between the lot of them, they could figure out what it all meant.
And there you have it, things are moving along on their expected paths, and in the next chapter we will have the most important step of all for the boys - their uniltaron!
See you all in a day or two (with any luck!)
But before that, you get some...
Vocab:
talioang - sturmbeest - the Na'vi equivalent to bison
uniltìranyu - dreamwalker, avatar
tawtute / sawtute - sky person/people
Sa'nok - Mother
Kelutral - Hometree
nantang - viperwolf
tsmukan - brother
palulukan - thanator (yay!)
yawne - beloved
txìm - bum, behind, ass...whatever other word you want to use here XD
kìyevame - farewell, see you again soon
nivi - hammock
uniltaron - dream hunt, the rite of passage to become a full adult member of the tribe
ikran makto - banshee rider. Yes, I know "makto" should be "maktoyu" in proper Na'vi but according to JC, "makto" is the term he likes, so...
kaltxì - hello
riti - stingbat - little creature about the (comparative) size of a parrot or small bird of prey, tend to hang around in the trees a lot
Nawm Rolyu - great or high singer
syaksyuk - prolemerus - those chittering monkey-like things Jake almost shoots his first trip out in the forest
pa'li / fa'li - direhorse
tsaheylu - the bond (yay!)
'angtsìk - hammerhead titanothere, aka big-ass hammerhead rhino-like thing!
ikran - banshee
toktor - doctor
teylu - edible beetle grubs, a main protein staple of the Na'vi diet
kali'weya - aracnoid - scary-ass looking scorpion-like thing we're going to see a lot more of in the next chapter