Chapter 17, one more to go to catch up!
soon I will stop spamming all you lovely people, I promise
This chapter is interesting, we've now officially passed one of the "milestones" of the plot, and things are about to begin moving in a slightly different direction from the movie. Oh I'm not saying everything that happened in the movie won't happen, but you might find it happening in slightly different ways, which I hope you'll all enjoy.
Hang on folks, you're in for a bumpy ride! With a good amount of fluff mixed in, of course. It wouldn't be me if there wasn't some fluff XD
Brotherhood Chapter 17: Moving Forward
Later that evening, after the new hunters had been excitedly welcomed home but before dinner, Ninat sat Tom down with an expression he didn't recognize. It was very...thoughtful, although he couldn't tell what she was thinking about.
"Your hair is a mess," she said, "I will fix it for you. You do not want to look unkempt for the celebration of the new hunters."
"Thank you," Tom nodded, closing his eyes and trying not to think about how close she was sitting behind him as she began to undo his braids, placing each of the beads and adornments into his open hand as she took them out.
"You are doing very well in your studies," Ninat said as she worked, "Sempul says you are progressing faster than even he thought you would."
"Well, I do have two very good teachers," Tom shrugged, fighting the urge to moan softly as she combed her fingers through his now-loose hair and gently massaged his scalp. The masses of tiny braids the Na'vi habitually wore might be practical, but after a time they did tend to pull, especially as the hair grew, and he hadn't even realized his head was getting a little uncomfortable until now.
"The teacher is only as good as the student allows them to be," she countered as she rubbed her thumbs from the base of his ears down along the edge of his trapezius muscles all the way to his shoulders, then back up the nape of his neck to the base of his queue.
"Mmm...?" he mumbled incoherently, almost melting against her. That felt way too good to be safe, he really should stop her from doing that, the only problem was he was categorically incapable of movement just at that moment...
"It is time, Tom," she said as her fingers moved back out to his ears to massage along his hairline now, meeting at the center and slowly crawling back along the top of his head in a way that made him shiver.
"Time?" he asked, still a little too incoherent to really understand what she meant. "Time for what?"
"Time for you to pass the first of the Singers' tests," she said gently, "For the celebration you will be the one to sing the tale of your brother's first flight."
Tom's eyes went wide and he tried to turn and look at her, but she gently directed him to face forward again.
"Mawey, Tom, do not fear. I know you can do this. I would not have suggested it if I did not know you were ready." Her fingers worked their way down to the base of his queue again, from the top, this time, and very gently caressed there.
This time he couldn't quite contain the sighing groan of contentment. "If you say I am ready then I must be," he finally said, "but I will need your help. I don't even know how a first flight song is usually sung."
"Of course I will help," she shook her head, giving him a brief hug from behind, "I am still your teacher and this is only the first of the Singers' tests, after all." Just before he was about to object that she shouldn't be hugging him, she let him go and shifted so that she was sitting up on her knees. "Now lean your head back for me, I'm going to do something a little different with the front this time," she said, guiding his head back to rest against her so he didn't strain his neck as she worked on his braids.
Late that night, after everyone was asleep, Tsu'tey rolled over and very quietly got up. He had no desire that anyone know where he was going, and it wasn't as though he could sleep anyway; he had far too much on his mind for that, and there was really only one person he could talk to about it.
Silently he moved down to the base of Kelutral and out, blending into the shadows under the leaves, his sanhì making him all but indistinguishable from the forest around him. Just a few more sparks of bioluminescent blue light among millions of others. When he reached the grove which was the home of utral aymokriyä he slowed, moving almost reluctantly now that he was at his destination. Speaking to her was...never easy, but it helped, somehow. Even though he was not really supposed to talk to her so directly like this. He had been warned that if he spent too much time among the voices he could lose himself, and he tried to remember that, but every now and then he needed her, and just now was definitely one of those times.
Today had been...trying. He had fully expected the skxawng to conveniently get rid of himself, but instead he had managed to impress all of them with his bravery, and now Neytiri was hardly even bothering to mask her obviously-growing feelings. And then there was what Neytiri herself had said to him the night before. He still did not understand what she could have meant by it; it had sounded like something straight from the lips of a tsahik, and perhaps another tsahik-trained might be able to interpret for him...and Mo'at was very obviously not the one to ask.
Inside the grove, he settled down beneath one of the larger trees and quieted his mind, trying to focus entirely on her and his memories of their time together. When he felt ready he reached over his shoulder to bring his queue forward, letting its tendrils wrap lovingly around the drooping limbs of the tree and closing his eyes.
"Sylwanin..." he called out softly, his mental voice almost lost within the echoes of his ancestors. He almost thought he would not succeed in calling her soul toward him this time, that it had been too long, but then he felt her. With his eyes closed he could almost imagine she was sitting across from him as she so often had in life, giving him that slightly-impatient look of hers that always meant she knew he'd done something she considered foolish.
"It took you long enough to come to me," she sighed, "What troubles you, ma Tsu'tey?"
"There is a dreamwalker among us again," he said, "even though after...what happened to you their kind were banned from the territory of the Omatikaya. He has been allowed to stay and is even being taught our ways..."
"Jhakesuuly, yes," she said, "Ney mentioned him. She was...put out that she had to train such a one."
"She is no longer quite so upset," Tsu'tey sighed, and even to himself he sounded just a little like a whiny child. He needed to work on that. He was a grown man and would be Olo'eyktan one day, after all. Although that day would not come anytime soon, with Eywa's grace.
"I know," she said, and almost he could feel her pet his hand apologetically. "She has spoken of her confusion to me also, but you know better than to ask for my sister's secrets, Tsu'tey, they are not mine to give."
"You are right," he apologized, "Ah, Sylwanin, how can I manage without you around to keep me in line any longer?"
"Do not let your anger poison you, as my anger poisoned me," she said sadly, "My anger blinded me and made me foolish, I do not wish the same fate for you, yawne."
He bit his lip. Hard. At moments like this he almost found himself wishing he had been with her on that day; that he had been there to shield her with his own body, even if the infernal weapons of the sawtute ayvrrtep would likely have killed them both. It...would have been better that way, he sometimes thought.
"But you did not come for me to simply lecture you," she said, "You had a purpose. I know you too well, Tsu'tey, you do not indulge yourself in speaking to me without good cause."
"I did have a question for you," he admitted finally, "I...needed someone with tsahik training, and you are the only one who I know will give me a complete answer without sparing my feelings in this matter."
"And your question?" she prompted. He could almost hear the impatience in her voice, and it made him smile slightly. Sylwanin had never been the most...patient of girls when they were young, and although she had improved a little with age, she was still impatient, even now that she had - quite literally - all the time in the world.
"Neytiri said something to me last night which confused me, and I thought perhaps you could help me understand," he said, "She was clearly speaking as an apprentice tsahik, and I am not trained to understand the intricacies of Eywa as you and she are."
"You are stalling, ma Tsu'tey," Sylwanin laughed, "Tell me what my little sister said that has you so confused."
"She said that I must be careful that what I pray for is what I truly wish to have. That the great mother hears all prayers, and she may choose to briefly give me that which I think I want, only to show me that it is not that which I need. Do you understand what she could have meant by that?"
"It would help to know what she thought your prayers might be for," Sylwanin pointed out.
"I was...trying to determine how long she wishes that we continue to wait before fulfilling our destiny as required," he admitted. Talking about this to her was a little...awkward. Why had he not thought of that before he came to her with his question?
"You were trying to pressure her," he could hear the disappointment in Sylwanin's voice, "Have I not told you before that all will happen in its due time as Eywa wills it? Ney-ney feels she must do what she is told, but I do not think it would be a betrayal of what we have spoken of together to tell you that she does not feel right about being with you in that way. She still remembers how close you and I were, and sees that as something sacred, not to be impinged upon. As it was, indeed. Our mating would have been blessed by Eywa, I am sure of it, but if you attempted to mate with Ney? Of that I am not so sure. I objected when I learned what Sa'nok had decreed but she did not understand and thought I merely could not let go of that which had been mine in life."
None of what she was saying made Tsu'tey feel any better about how things stood presently, but he could understand what she meant, and it even made what Neytiri had said make more sense. He sighed. Why were things never easy? Before the sawtute had come everything had been planned, everything had worked as it always had for generations, but now...now everything was strange and confusing. Were he and Neytiri to be Tsahik and Olo'eyktan without being mated? Was that even possible?
"If you also do not believe Neytiri and I should be mated then tell me, Sylwanin, what am I to do?" he asked, finally.
"When the time comes, ma Tsu'tey, you will do the right thing," he shivered as he almost felt spectral fingers stroke along his right ear, "as you have always done. When the time comes, you will know what to do."
He felt her presence fade away then, and he did not attempt to call her back to him. He knew these stolen moments were more than he could hope for and that - as one who lived in Eywa - she could only use so much energy to recreate herself so solidly and loudly to speak alone with him. He let his queue fall away from the bough of the tree and very slowly rose to his feet again, feeling ancient somehow, as though the weight of the whole world was pressing down on his shoulders and trying to crush him.
Just outside the grove, Antsu sat, waiting. He knew Tsu'tey had not realized he was being followed, and this, he had decided, would be the best time for them to have the talk he had put off while Ka'tsi and he spent their time of bonding together.
"Did she tell you what you wanted to hear?" he asked as he heard his friend's soft footfalls draw near to his hiding place.
"She said what she needed to say...what I needed to hear," Tsu'tey corrected, "but what business is it of yours? And what are you doing sitting out here in the middle of the night when you ought to be wrapped around that new mate of yours?" The hint of scorn was still audible in Tsu'tey's voice, and it made Antsu frown.
"She will not notice me gone, she sleeps her empty sleep at this time of night," he explained, "and as I said some time back, we need to talk, you and I."
"Perhaps we do," Tsu'tey agreed reluctantly, "but must it be tonight? It has been a long day and I was looking forward to sleep."
"And you expect to sleep at all after speaking to her? I know you too well, Tsu'tey, you will not sleep long before your dreams wake you, and those dreams are never the kind one might wish on his worst foe. We will speak and then I will sing for you, as I used to, so that you may sleep without dreams."
"As you wish," Tsu'tey sighed, sitting down next to him and leaning back against a tree.
Antsu smiled a little. He had known the offer to sing would convince his old friend he meant well. Besides, there was more than one soul which might be soothed tonight by the songs of healing rest.
"So what is it you wished to talk to me about?" Tsu'tey asked when he didn't speak right away.
"You have always expressed dismay at my feelings for Ka'tsi, and I wanted to try to explain them to you, so that you might be able to see her as more than simply a tawtute woman in her uniltìrantokx."
"Feel free to explain," Tsu'tey shrugged, "I still think you are deluding yourself, but ultimately it is you who will pay the price of her eventual betrayal."
"It is statements like that one which make me wonder if your heart has become blind," Antsu frowned, "you did not always feel that way. I remember a time when you understood how love can change a person for the better."
"I was young and naive, yes," Tsu'tey said, "We both were, and I thought you had grown up, after what happened, but then I realized that only I had come to see the world as it truly was."
"You never saw what was between us for what it truly was," Antsu countered. "Ka'tsi holds no loyalty toward those who would have killed her just as easily and with as little care as they killed our people. She explained to me something once which I do not think you have yet realized. The sawtute are not all of the same tribe, although they live in the same place. They have an uneasy alliance, but the aysoktor and the ones who scar the ground are of different clans, and for the most part the tawtute warriors are another clan again, although this Jhakesuuly who lives with us is, due to his brother, loyal more to the aysoktor than the warriors whom he must also answer to."
Tsu'tey's ears had perked in interest, and he gestured for Antsu to continue. "I overheard someone saying something about differences between them but I had not realized it was so complete as to be a separation as that of different clans," he admitted.
"The aysoktor have no love for those who would destroy our land," Antsu explained, "but they are not warriors, they are more like the singers and healers; they have knowledge, but not the strength to defend themselves properly. The warriors, meanwhile, have strength but little understanding of anything beyond the orders given to them. There is...great unbalance among the sawtute. Only the ayuniltìranyu have begun to understand the balance Eywa brings, and even they are slow to understand. The sawtute cannot...they have no ability to make tsaheylu, Tsu'tey. They cannot understand what they do because it is beyond what they are ever capable of imagining. Ka'tsi explained to me that they have brought their own world so far out of balance that they no longer comprehend what balance even is."
"And yet you mated with one of these ones who is unable to balance," Tsu'tey shook his head.
"No," Antsu corrected him, "I mated with one whose understanding of the balance I was privileged to watch unfold before me as she learned our language and our ways. I mated with the woman I fell in love with as she fell in love with our world, our children and our people."
"And you?" Tsu'tey actually chuckled slightly as he added the part Antsu had left out. "I wasn't completely blind to the way her eyes began to follow you during those first months when she was sent to learn with your father and the other singers."
"And me," Antsu felt his sanhì flare slightly, "and I do not regret even one moment we have spent together no matter what some might think of me for it. She is my mate, and if I have to endure her being away from me at times as she sleeps the empty sleep of the uniltìranyu then so be it, it is the trial Eywa has sent me and I meet it gladly. My greatest wish is to see her happy and growing with our child - as Eywa wills, of course - and I had hoped that my best friend might be willing to support us and defend my family as he knows I will always defend him and his."
"I...will try to be of more open mind toward your mate," Tsu'tey said finally, "And even if I do not ever come to call her friend, you know I will always defend you and your family from anyone who would do you harm." He held out his hand to Antsu in a gesture of renewed friendship.
"Your willingness to listen is all I ever wished from you," Antsu smiled and clasped his friend's forearm firmly; "I have missed you, my friend."
Tsu'tey snorted in amusement. "I do not think you have had time to think much of missing me lately," he said, "I am not blind in that either, I see how often you and your new mate slip away from the crowds. I am quite sure your mind is far too occupied with other, more pressing matters to wonder much on what I am doing."
Antsu just laughed at that. "You may be right," he admitted, "but that doesn't mean I haven't thought of you now and then, when I am not...occupied. But it is late, and I promised you a song of rest. We should return so that you can get at least a few hours of useful sleep. She would not want you making yourself sick over her memory again."
In the meantime, the newest "away team" was settling into their new home at Site 12. Mostly they had spent the first few days just making the place habitable again, but now they were finally almost ready to get down to the business of running their experiments.
Which made Taka very happy, since that meant he wouldn't be press-ganged into making any more enclosed garden boxes. Not that he minded working with his hands, but there were definitely better things he could be doing with them!
Being as this was his first "free" day in a week, Taka decided he'd better get the hell out of dodge before someone found something else for him to do. Perhaps he'd start the day off with a nice meditative session at the tree he'd found near their site. He wasn't sure how exactly it was that he always seemed to be the one finding these things, but on one of his first scouting missions to map the wildlife activity around the site he'd managed to find a fully-grown utral aymokriyä. Okay, admittedly he hadn't found it totally on his own, some of those weird little woodsprites had actually led him to it, but all the same...
He smiled when he entered the grove where "his" tree was. It was always so calm here, as though the whole world held this place sacred. Well, he supposed in a way it did. He settled down against the trunk of the tree and linked up to it, closing his eyes and listening to the echoes of voices from long ago. Everything was as it always was when he meditated, at least at first, but then he felt what could only be described as an echo of fear. Fear that seemed to be coming from the minds of...children? And it wasn't like the normal echoes he felt through the tree, this was different: more immediate somehow. He opened his eyes and looked around to see if he could see anyone nearby, but all he could see were more woodsprites...atokirina, he reminded himself. Well, he'd long since learned it was best not to ignore the little things, so he stood and disconnected himself from the tree, quickly striding after them. Damn, they could really move for things that looked like airborne jellyfish.
He hadn't gone far before he began to smell a very distinctive scent on the air, and it wasn't a good one. It smelled of death and something rotting.
"This is definitely bad," he said softly as he peered carefully into the clearing where the atokirina stopped. Across the clearing was the obviously-dead body of a thanator. He'd never had a chance to see one of the feline apex predators so close but, quite frankly, this wasn't the way he'd ever wanted to see one. He very carefully and slowly crept closer, trying to see what could have happened to cause this one to die. It looked as though it had been gored by something...or perhaps run into a tree limb, given the splinters he could see embedded in the wound. A wound which had clearly festered, causing a massive infection that even such a powerful predator couldn't fight off.
It was when he moved around to the other side of the body that he heard the soft whimpers, although he couldn't see at first where they were coming from. His avatar ears were good at pinpointing sound though, and he crouched down, staying very still as his ears swiveled to locate the source of the whimpering. There! Under the roots of the tree the thanator's body was half-covering! He crawled inside and was met by two sets of gleaming eyes. Shit! His mother had always said his curiosity was going to get him into trouble one of these days, and it looked like this was that day. He braced himself for the attack, but it never came. Instead the owners of the eyes and faintly-glowing bioluminescent spots he now noticed as well simply increased their whimpering and nuzzled weakly against him.
"Okay," he whispered to them gently, "okay, it's okay, come on out babies." He slowly backed out, scratching their chins affectionately, and very slowly they followed him.
As they began to move into the light he realized just how emaciated they were, and he hissed softly. Which was a mistake. They didn't like the sound, and hissed back, backing away again.
"Sorry babies, sorry," he held out his fingers again, "I wasn't mad at you I promise."
The babies leaned against each other, their neural whips reaching out to touch each other, and that gave Taka an idea. Very gently and slowly he tilted his head so that his queue slid over his shoulder, and then he took it in his hand, reaching forward toward them. The cub on the left moved forward a little, extending its other neural whip toward him, and as contact was made, Taka gasped in shock. He'd been expecting something like when he had linked to the direhorse the Na'vi had taught him how to ride some years back, but this was...massively different. The cub's brain was, for lack of a better term, childish, but not unintelligent. On the contrary, it - she - seemed quite...sentient, although definitely nonhuman.
«Newdaddy?» she asked, «You came feed us? We very hungry. Momma said eat upon her when she became meat but our tooths too soft and she not taste good.»
"I'm not your daddy, but I'll be your friend," he corrected, "and I'll feed you, although I don't have the food with me. You'll have to come back to where I sleep, I have food there you can eat.
«Are Daddy,» the cub corrected, «Big tree-mommy says so, and Momma said always listen to Big tree-mommy, she always right. Sister and I come to where Newdaddy sleep but we maybe we take too long to get there, become meat like Momma. Are thirstyhungrythirsty, very tired, like Momma just before she became meat.»
Just then there was another whimpering sound from within the roots of the tree, and the two cubs flared their crests.
«Brother not meat? Brother not meat!» the cub said excitedly to Taka, «Newdaddy get brother too? Give fooddrink him too?»
"Of course," Taka said, quickly breaking tsaheylu so he could crawl back in to where the third cub had gone unnoticed. He blessed his Na'vi eyes that could see much better in the dark than his human ones as he managed to make out the faint outline of the male cub curled up in the rear of the den. The little one whimpered again and lifted his head weakly, and Taka carefully moved in close, offering his queue to the male cub, who seemed barely to have the strength to move his neural whip.
«Hello Newdaddy, are Newdaddy? I feel notgood, I be meat soon, Newdaddy not waste energy on soon-meat-me,» the male cub sighed.
"I will help you," Taka shook his head, "You aren't going to die if I have anything to say about it. Come, I will carry you out to the entrance to the den so your sisters and I can see when help comes." He very carefully pulled the cub over his shoulder without breaking tsaheylu and crawled back to where he'd left the girls.
The two female cubs curled up around their brother, linking their neural whips with his, the three of them comforting each other, and Taka looked at them in amazement. Well, apparently he now had a new little family to take care of. Or maybe he should say "pride" rather than family. In any case, they needed food, water and medicine, and he didn't want to leave them here on their own while he went all the way back to camp. He pressed his fingers to the throat mic they were all required to wear whenever they went outside.
"Louise," he called, "I need that hexapede the Na'vi dropped off the other day, as much water as you can carry, and antiseptic and bandages, and I need you to bring it to my coordinates," he said quickly.
"Can it wait five minutes? I'm almost done here," she replied.
"It can't, sorry," he said, "there are young lives at stake here, and one of them is very close to the tipping point, I need it now!"
He could almost hear her surprise in the pause before she answered, but then she was all business. "Understood," she said, "I'll be there with what's left of the hexapede and water and bandages as soon as I can."
"Thank you, koi," he said softly, then let his hand drop to the small knife he always wore when he hiked out. He knew what he had to do, somehow. It seemed a bit extreme, but then, so were the circumstances. Pulling out the knife, he sent reassuring thoughts to the male cub to whom he was still linked, and through him to the two females. They didn't like his "claw" and thought it meant bad things. "I will not hurt you," he said, "I will help you. Come over to me, babies, and drink." He winced as he drew the knife carefully down the back of his arm, opening a shallow cut, then switched hands and opened another shallow cut on the back of his other arm. One more on the top of his calf and he was done. He bit his lip as their slightly-rough tongues touched the cuts, but there seemed to be something in their saliva which numbed the pain, for which he was glad.
«Newdaddy not should be meat for us,» the male scolded, «but we drink a little. Is different from we drink of Momma, but is good, is makes less thirsty a little, is makes warm belly.»
All three cubs began making an odd, thrumming sound somewhere between a feline purr and the sound of a hummingbird's wings, and Taka could feel their contentment through his link.
As she approached Taka's coordinates, Louise slowed from her almost-run. Something smelled nasty and she didn't want to scare the kids Taka had mentioned, considering they were probably already hurt and sick enough, from what he'd said.
When she saw him sitting by the dead body of a large thanator she was immediately concerned, but when she saw the three baby thanators licking cuts on his skin she reached down toward her knife, dropping her bundle of food, water and bandages. She was about to rush in to save him when his eyes met hers and he smiled.
"Aren't they just so kawaii?" he grinned, scratching just behind the jaw of the one she suddenly noticed he was linked to.
"Only you," she sighed, "would go out for a morning walk and end up bonding with the apex predators of the jungle. I thought you said there were children at stake, not baby animals."
"Same thing," he corrected her as he motioned her over, "and really they're more like children. It turns out the Na'vi aren't the only sentient lifeforms down here." He turned back to the thanator cubs, who were making squeaky growling noises. "It's okay," he crooned, "daijoubu, iikotachi, she's a friend, I promise."
Feeling more than a little nervous, Louise drew closer, holding the tarp-wrapped hexapede remains in front of her. The growls changed then as their crests flared, turning into crooning whines, and the little (well, smaller than full-grown, they had to be at least four feet long not including their tails) cubs crawled close to her and nuzzled her hands, clearly pleading for food.
"Okay, okay," she said softly, not wanting to upset the possibly dangerous animals as she set the bag down and pulled it open, taking a leg out for each of them and putting the legs down in front of them. They gnawed at them then whimpered, turning to Taka with a pleading look.
"Okay, we'll do that," he nodded, and then turned to her. "Their teeth aren't strong enough yet to rend flesh," he said quietly, "We're going to need to cut meat off for them in small chunks. I get the impression they were nursing still when their mother died, and she was at the point of supplementing their diet with partially digested food."
"Right," she nodded. "You cut, I'll pour water for them, and then I'd better do something about those cuts." She refrained from yelling "what the hell were you thinking?" like she wanted to, mostly because she really didn't want to upset the baby deadly predators. There would be plenty of time to yell at him after they got home.
Once she'd set the tarp into a small depression in the ground and filled it with water, all three of the cubs gathered around to lap at it, and she busied herself with Taka's cuts, spreading antibiotic ointment on them and wrapping them with bandages. "At least they're clean," she chided.
"And they don't hurt," he added. "There's an analgesic in their saliva apparently."
She just rolled her eyes. "Trust you to keep analyzing even when you're doing ridiculous things like saving baby predators. What ever possessed you in the first place?"
"Just listening to what they called the "big tree-mommy," he laughed. "The woodsprites led me here."
That made Louise blink. "You're kidding, right?"
"Not even a little," he shook his head. "And I wasn't about to refuse the massive entity by whose grace we're here at all."
She nearly jumped right into his lap as she felt something brush against her back, then move alongside her. She turned her head to see one of the cubs very gently brushing against her with the sensory quills which bristled from its crest, and then one of its neural whips moved toward the end of her queue...
And then she could hear the little...female, in her mind.
«Friend of Newdaddy? Mate of Newdaddy?» she asked, then she seemed to correct herself. «No, not mate yet, but mate soon. Will be Newmomma for us?»
"Yes I'll help take care of you," she smiled a little. She suddenly understood Taka's attitude a bit better. They really were sweet babies. She...tried to ignore the implication of what the (she had to fight not to think of her as a "little girl") female cub had called her.
"You see?" Taka smiled at her as he passed small pieces of meat to each of the cubs in turn, "now do you understand why I had to help them?"
"I do understand," Louise sighed, "but that doesn't mean you're entirely out of trouble, mister. We're going to have a nice long chat about your self-preservation instincts when the children aren't listening."
"Yes, dear," he smiled and kissed her cheek.
She blushed at that, suddenly feeling very...domestic. Which was odd considering the two of them were sitting in the middle of the woods by the rotting body of a dead thanator with three thanator cubs curled up around them falling asleep after their first good feed in what had to be days, at the very least. Louise had never thought of herself as the motherly type, or had any ambitions in that direction, but now... Now Taka had wrapped an arm around her waist and leaned his head on her shoulder and looked to be falling asleep too. She sighed. "What am I going to do with you," she whispered, "You're too good for your own good sometimes. I'm just a nosy, bitch girl with antisocial tendencies, what do I know about keeping a guy like you safe from yourself?"
Ignoring the ridiculousness of their situation she gave in finally, leaning her head against his and closing her eyes as well. She supposed a little nap never hurt anyone.
Didn't see that one coming, now did you XD. What can I say, I like the big kitties!
And now it's time for vocab! If you already know it, of course, just ignore the words you're familiar with ^_~
Vocab:
Na'vi:
Sempul - Father
Mawey - Calm/be calm
utral aymokriyä - Tree of voices
tsahik - spiritual leader
Olo'eyktan - clan leader
yawne - beloved
sawtute/tawtute - plural and singular for "sky people", humans
ayvrrtep - demons
uniltìrantokx - dreamwalker body - empty avatar body
aysoktor - doctors, or to be more precise in this case, they're using the word to refer to scientists
ayuniltìranyu/uniltìranyu - plural and singular for "dreamwalker", avatars
tsaheylu - the bond
atokirina - the little emissaries of Eywa, seeds of the sacred tree
Japanese:
koi - love
kawaii - cute
daijoubu - okay/it's okay
iikotachi - good children. Actually "ii" - good, "ko" - child, "tachi" - group of people
This chapter is interesting, we've now officially passed one of the "milestones" of the plot, and things are about to begin moving in a slightly different direction from the movie. Oh I'm not saying everything that happened in the movie won't happen, but you might find it happening in slightly different ways, which I hope you'll all enjoy.
Hang on folks, you're in for a bumpy ride! With a good amount of fluff mixed in, of course. It wouldn't be me if there wasn't some fluff XD
Brotherhood Chapter 17: Moving Forward
Later that evening, after the new hunters had been excitedly welcomed home but before dinner, Ninat sat Tom down with an expression he didn't recognize. It was very...thoughtful, although he couldn't tell what she was thinking about.
"Your hair is a mess," she said, "I will fix it for you. You do not want to look unkempt for the celebration of the new hunters."
"Thank you," Tom nodded, closing his eyes and trying not to think about how close she was sitting behind him as she began to undo his braids, placing each of the beads and adornments into his open hand as she took them out.
"You are doing very well in your studies," Ninat said as she worked, "Sempul says you are progressing faster than even he thought you would."
"Well, I do have two very good teachers," Tom shrugged, fighting the urge to moan softly as she combed her fingers through his now-loose hair and gently massaged his scalp. The masses of tiny braids the Na'vi habitually wore might be practical, but after a time they did tend to pull, especially as the hair grew, and he hadn't even realized his head was getting a little uncomfortable until now.
"The teacher is only as good as the student allows them to be," she countered as she rubbed her thumbs from the base of his ears down along the edge of his trapezius muscles all the way to his shoulders, then back up the nape of his neck to the base of his queue.
"Mmm...?" he mumbled incoherently, almost melting against her. That felt way too good to be safe, he really should stop her from doing that, the only problem was he was categorically incapable of movement just at that moment...
"It is time, Tom," she said as her fingers moved back out to his ears to massage along his hairline now, meeting at the center and slowly crawling back along the top of his head in a way that made him shiver.
"Time?" he asked, still a little too incoherent to really understand what she meant. "Time for what?"
"Time for you to pass the first of the Singers' tests," she said gently, "For the celebration you will be the one to sing the tale of your brother's first flight."
Tom's eyes went wide and he tried to turn and look at her, but she gently directed him to face forward again.
"Mawey, Tom, do not fear. I know you can do this. I would not have suggested it if I did not know you were ready." Her fingers worked their way down to the base of his queue again, from the top, this time, and very gently caressed there.
This time he couldn't quite contain the sighing groan of contentment. "If you say I am ready then I must be," he finally said, "but I will need your help. I don't even know how a first flight song is usually sung."
"Of course I will help," she shook her head, giving him a brief hug from behind, "I am still your teacher and this is only the first of the Singers' tests, after all." Just before he was about to object that she shouldn't be hugging him, she let him go and shifted so that she was sitting up on her knees. "Now lean your head back for me, I'm going to do something a little different with the front this time," she said, guiding his head back to rest against her so he didn't strain his neck as she worked on his braids.
Late that night, after everyone was asleep, Tsu'tey rolled over and very quietly got up. He had no desire that anyone know where he was going, and it wasn't as though he could sleep anyway; he had far too much on his mind for that, and there was really only one person he could talk to about it.
Silently he moved down to the base of Kelutral and out, blending into the shadows under the leaves, his sanhì making him all but indistinguishable from the forest around him. Just a few more sparks of bioluminescent blue light among millions of others. When he reached the grove which was the home of utral aymokriyä he slowed, moving almost reluctantly now that he was at his destination. Speaking to her was...never easy, but it helped, somehow. Even though he was not really supposed to talk to her so directly like this. He had been warned that if he spent too much time among the voices he could lose himself, and he tried to remember that, but every now and then he needed her, and just now was definitely one of those times.
Today had been...trying. He had fully expected the skxawng to conveniently get rid of himself, but instead he had managed to impress all of them with his bravery, and now Neytiri was hardly even bothering to mask her obviously-growing feelings. And then there was what Neytiri herself had said to him the night before. He still did not understand what she could have meant by it; it had sounded like something straight from the lips of a tsahik, and perhaps another tsahik-trained might be able to interpret for him...and Mo'at was very obviously not the one to ask.
Inside the grove, he settled down beneath one of the larger trees and quieted his mind, trying to focus entirely on her and his memories of their time together. When he felt ready he reached over his shoulder to bring his queue forward, letting its tendrils wrap lovingly around the drooping limbs of the tree and closing his eyes.
"Sylwanin..." he called out softly, his mental voice almost lost within the echoes of his ancestors. He almost thought he would not succeed in calling her soul toward him this time, that it had been too long, but then he felt her. With his eyes closed he could almost imagine she was sitting across from him as she so often had in life, giving him that slightly-impatient look of hers that always meant she knew he'd done something she considered foolish.
"It took you long enough to come to me," she sighed, "What troubles you, ma Tsu'tey?"
"There is a dreamwalker among us again," he said, "even though after...what happened to you their kind were banned from the territory of the Omatikaya. He has been allowed to stay and is even being taught our ways..."
"Jhakesuuly, yes," she said, "Ney mentioned him. She was...put out that she had to train such a one."
"She is no longer quite so upset," Tsu'tey sighed, and even to himself he sounded just a little like a whiny child. He needed to work on that. He was a grown man and would be Olo'eyktan one day, after all. Although that day would not come anytime soon, with Eywa's grace.
"I know," she said, and almost he could feel her pet his hand apologetically. "She has spoken of her confusion to me also, but you know better than to ask for my sister's secrets, Tsu'tey, they are not mine to give."
"You are right," he apologized, "Ah, Sylwanin, how can I manage without you around to keep me in line any longer?"
"Do not let your anger poison you, as my anger poisoned me," she said sadly, "My anger blinded me and made me foolish, I do not wish the same fate for you, yawne."
He bit his lip. Hard. At moments like this he almost found himself wishing he had been with her on that day; that he had been there to shield her with his own body, even if the infernal weapons of the sawtute ayvrrtep would likely have killed them both. It...would have been better that way, he sometimes thought.
"But you did not come for me to simply lecture you," she said, "You had a purpose. I know you too well, Tsu'tey, you do not indulge yourself in speaking to me without good cause."
"I did have a question for you," he admitted finally, "I...needed someone with tsahik training, and you are the only one who I know will give me a complete answer without sparing my feelings in this matter."
"And your question?" she prompted. He could almost hear the impatience in her voice, and it made him smile slightly. Sylwanin had never been the most...patient of girls when they were young, and although she had improved a little with age, she was still impatient, even now that she had - quite literally - all the time in the world.
"Neytiri said something to me last night which confused me, and I thought perhaps you could help me understand," he said, "She was clearly speaking as an apprentice tsahik, and I am not trained to understand the intricacies of Eywa as you and she are."
"You are stalling, ma Tsu'tey," Sylwanin laughed, "Tell me what my little sister said that has you so confused."
"She said that I must be careful that what I pray for is what I truly wish to have. That the great mother hears all prayers, and she may choose to briefly give me that which I think I want, only to show me that it is not that which I need. Do you understand what she could have meant by that?"
"It would help to know what she thought your prayers might be for," Sylwanin pointed out.
"I was...trying to determine how long she wishes that we continue to wait before fulfilling our destiny as required," he admitted. Talking about this to her was a little...awkward. Why had he not thought of that before he came to her with his question?
"You were trying to pressure her," he could hear the disappointment in Sylwanin's voice, "Have I not told you before that all will happen in its due time as Eywa wills it? Ney-ney feels she must do what she is told, but I do not think it would be a betrayal of what we have spoken of together to tell you that she does not feel right about being with you in that way. She still remembers how close you and I were, and sees that as something sacred, not to be impinged upon. As it was, indeed. Our mating would have been blessed by Eywa, I am sure of it, but if you attempted to mate with Ney? Of that I am not so sure. I objected when I learned what Sa'nok had decreed but she did not understand and thought I merely could not let go of that which had been mine in life."
None of what she was saying made Tsu'tey feel any better about how things stood presently, but he could understand what she meant, and it even made what Neytiri had said make more sense. He sighed. Why were things never easy? Before the sawtute had come everything had been planned, everything had worked as it always had for generations, but now...now everything was strange and confusing. Were he and Neytiri to be Tsahik and Olo'eyktan without being mated? Was that even possible?
"If you also do not believe Neytiri and I should be mated then tell me, Sylwanin, what am I to do?" he asked, finally.
"When the time comes, ma Tsu'tey, you will do the right thing," he shivered as he almost felt spectral fingers stroke along his right ear, "as you have always done. When the time comes, you will know what to do."
He felt her presence fade away then, and he did not attempt to call her back to him. He knew these stolen moments were more than he could hope for and that - as one who lived in Eywa - she could only use so much energy to recreate herself so solidly and loudly to speak alone with him. He let his queue fall away from the bough of the tree and very slowly rose to his feet again, feeling ancient somehow, as though the weight of the whole world was pressing down on his shoulders and trying to crush him.
Just outside the grove, Antsu sat, waiting. He knew Tsu'tey had not realized he was being followed, and this, he had decided, would be the best time for them to have the talk he had put off while Ka'tsi and he spent their time of bonding together.
"Did she tell you what you wanted to hear?" he asked as he heard his friend's soft footfalls draw near to his hiding place.
"She said what she needed to say...what I needed to hear," Tsu'tey corrected, "but what business is it of yours? And what are you doing sitting out here in the middle of the night when you ought to be wrapped around that new mate of yours?" The hint of scorn was still audible in Tsu'tey's voice, and it made Antsu frown.
"She will not notice me gone, she sleeps her empty sleep at this time of night," he explained, "and as I said some time back, we need to talk, you and I."
"Perhaps we do," Tsu'tey agreed reluctantly, "but must it be tonight? It has been a long day and I was looking forward to sleep."
"And you expect to sleep at all after speaking to her? I know you too well, Tsu'tey, you will not sleep long before your dreams wake you, and those dreams are never the kind one might wish on his worst foe. We will speak and then I will sing for you, as I used to, so that you may sleep without dreams."
"As you wish," Tsu'tey sighed, sitting down next to him and leaning back against a tree.
Antsu smiled a little. He had known the offer to sing would convince his old friend he meant well. Besides, there was more than one soul which might be soothed tonight by the songs of healing rest.
"So what is it you wished to talk to me about?" Tsu'tey asked when he didn't speak right away.
"You have always expressed dismay at my feelings for Ka'tsi, and I wanted to try to explain them to you, so that you might be able to see her as more than simply a tawtute woman in her uniltìrantokx."
"Feel free to explain," Tsu'tey shrugged, "I still think you are deluding yourself, but ultimately it is you who will pay the price of her eventual betrayal."
"It is statements like that one which make me wonder if your heart has become blind," Antsu frowned, "you did not always feel that way. I remember a time when you understood how love can change a person for the better."
"I was young and naive, yes," Tsu'tey said, "We both were, and I thought you had grown up, after what happened, but then I realized that only I had come to see the world as it truly was."
"You never saw what was between us for what it truly was," Antsu countered. "Ka'tsi holds no loyalty toward those who would have killed her just as easily and with as little care as they killed our people. She explained to me something once which I do not think you have yet realized. The sawtute are not all of the same tribe, although they live in the same place. They have an uneasy alliance, but the aysoktor and the ones who scar the ground are of different clans, and for the most part the tawtute warriors are another clan again, although this Jhakesuuly who lives with us is, due to his brother, loyal more to the aysoktor than the warriors whom he must also answer to."
Tsu'tey's ears had perked in interest, and he gestured for Antsu to continue. "I overheard someone saying something about differences between them but I had not realized it was so complete as to be a separation as that of different clans," he admitted.
"The aysoktor have no love for those who would destroy our land," Antsu explained, "but they are not warriors, they are more like the singers and healers; they have knowledge, but not the strength to defend themselves properly. The warriors, meanwhile, have strength but little understanding of anything beyond the orders given to them. There is...great unbalance among the sawtute. Only the ayuniltìranyu have begun to understand the balance Eywa brings, and even they are slow to understand. The sawtute cannot...they have no ability to make tsaheylu, Tsu'tey. They cannot understand what they do because it is beyond what they are ever capable of imagining. Ka'tsi explained to me that they have brought their own world so far out of balance that they no longer comprehend what balance even is."
"And yet you mated with one of these ones who is unable to balance," Tsu'tey shook his head.
"No," Antsu corrected him, "I mated with one whose understanding of the balance I was privileged to watch unfold before me as she learned our language and our ways. I mated with the woman I fell in love with as she fell in love with our world, our children and our people."
"And you?" Tsu'tey actually chuckled slightly as he added the part Antsu had left out. "I wasn't completely blind to the way her eyes began to follow you during those first months when she was sent to learn with your father and the other singers."
"And me," Antsu felt his sanhì flare slightly, "and I do not regret even one moment we have spent together no matter what some might think of me for it. She is my mate, and if I have to endure her being away from me at times as she sleeps the empty sleep of the uniltìranyu then so be it, it is the trial Eywa has sent me and I meet it gladly. My greatest wish is to see her happy and growing with our child - as Eywa wills, of course - and I had hoped that my best friend might be willing to support us and defend my family as he knows I will always defend him and his."
"I...will try to be of more open mind toward your mate," Tsu'tey said finally, "And even if I do not ever come to call her friend, you know I will always defend you and your family from anyone who would do you harm." He held out his hand to Antsu in a gesture of renewed friendship.
"Your willingness to listen is all I ever wished from you," Antsu smiled and clasped his friend's forearm firmly; "I have missed you, my friend."
Tsu'tey snorted in amusement. "I do not think you have had time to think much of missing me lately," he said, "I am not blind in that either, I see how often you and your new mate slip away from the crowds. I am quite sure your mind is far too occupied with other, more pressing matters to wonder much on what I am doing."
Antsu just laughed at that. "You may be right," he admitted, "but that doesn't mean I haven't thought of you now and then, when I am not...occupied. But it is late, and I promised you a song of rest. We should return so that you can get at least a few hours of useful sleep. She would not want you making yourself sick over her memory again."
In the meantime, the newest "away team" was settling into their new home at Site 12. Mostly they had spent the first few days just making the place habitable again, but now they were finally almost ready to get down to the business of running their experiments.
Which made Taka very happy, since that meant he wouldn't be press-ganged into making any more enclosed garden boxes. Not that he minded working with his hands, but there were definitely better things he could be doing with them!
Being as this was his first "free" day in a week, Taka decided he'd better get the hell out of dodge before someone found something else for him to do. Perhaps he'd start the day off with a nice meditative session at the tree he'd found near their site. He wasn't sure how exactly it was that he always seemed to be the one finding these things, but on one of his first scouting missions to map the wildlife activity around the site he'd managed to find a fully-grown utral aymokriyä. Okay, admittedly he hadn't found it totally on his own, some of those weird little woodsprites had actually led him to it, but all the same...
He smiled when he entered the grove where "his" tree was. It was always so calm here, as though the whole world held this place sacred. Well, he supposed in a way it did. He settled down against the trunk of the tree and linked up to it, closing his eyes and listening to the echoes of voices from long ago. Everything was as it always was when he meditated, at least at first, but then he felt what could only be described as an echo of fear. Fear that seemed to be coming from the minds of...children? And it wasn't like the normal echoes he felt through the tree, this was different: more immediate somehow. He opened his eyes and looked around to see if he could see anyone nearby, but all he could see were more woodsprites...atokirina, he reminded himself. Well, he'd long since learned it was best not to ignore the little things, so he stood and disconnected himself from the tree, quickly striding after them. Damn, they could really move for things that looked like airborne jellyfish.
He hadn't gone far before he began to smell a very distinctive scent on the air, and it wasn't a good one. It smelled of death and something rotting.
"This is definitely bad," he said softly as he peered carefully into the clearing where the atokirina stopped. Across the clearing was the obviously-dead body of a thanator. He'd never had a chance to see one of the feline apex predators so close but, quite frankly, this wasn't the way he'd ever wanted to see one. He very carefully and slowly crept closer, trying to see what could have happened to cause this one to die. It looked as though it had been gored by something...or perhaps run into a tree limb, given the splinters he could see embedded in the wound. A wound which had clearly festered, causing a massive infection that even such a powerful predator couldn't fight off.
It was when he moved around to the other side of the body that he heard the soft whimpers, although he couldn't see at first where they were coming from. His avatar ears were good at pinpointing sound though, and he crouched down, staying very still as his ears swiveled to locate the source of the whimpering. There! Under the roots of the tree the thanator's body was half-covering! He crawled inside and was met by two sets of gleaming eyes. Shit! His mother had always said his curiosity was going to get him into trouble one of these days, and it looked like this was that day. He braced himself for the attack, but it never came. Instead the owners of the eyes and faintly-glowing bioluminescent spots he now noticed as well simply increased their whimpering and nuzzled weakly against him.
"Okay," he whispered to them gently, "okay, it's okay, come on out babies." He slowly backed out, scratching their chins affectionately, and very slowly they followed him.
As they began to move into the light he realized just how emaciated they were, and he hissed softly. Which was a mistake. They didn't like the sound, and hissed back, backing away again.
"Sorry babies, sorry," he held out his fingers again, "I wasn't mad at you I promise."
The babies leaned against each other, their neural whips reaching out to touch each other, and that gave Taka an idea. Very gently and slowly he tilted his head so that his queue slid over his shoulder, and then he took it in his hand, reaching forward toward them. The cub on the left moved forward a little, extending its other neural whip toward him, and as contact was made, Taka gasped in shock. He'd been expecting something like when he had linked to the direhorse the Na'vi had taught him how to ride some years back, but this was...massively different. The cub's brain was, for lack of a better term, childish, but not unintelligent. On the contrary, it - she - seemed quite...sentient, although definitely nonhuman.
«Newdaddy?» she asked, «You came feed us? We very hungry. Momma said eat upon her when she became meat but our tooths too soft and she not taste good.»
"I'm not your daddy, but I'll be your friend," he corrected, "and I'll feed you, although I don't have the food with me. You'll have to come back to where I sleep, I have food there you can eat.
«Are Daddy,» the cub corrected, «Big tree-mommy says so, and Momma said always listen to Big tree-mommy, she always right. Sister and I come to where Newdaddy sleep but we maybe we take too long to get there, become meat like Momma. Are thirstyhungrythirsty, very tired, like Momma just before she became meat.»
Just then there was another whimpering sound from within the roots of the tree, and the two cubs flared their crests.
«Brother not meat? Brother not meat!» the cub said excitedly to Taka, «Newdaddy get brother too? Give fooddrink him too?»
"Of course," Taka said, quickly breaking tsaheylu so he could crawl back in to where the third cub had gone unnoticed. He blessed his Na'vi eyes that could see much better in the dark than his human ones as he managed to make out the faint outline of the male cub curled up in the rear of the den. The little one whimpered again and lifted his head weakly, and Taka carefully moved in close, offering his queue to the male cub, who seemed barely to have the strength to move his neural whip.
«Hello Newdaddy, are Newdaddy? I feel notgood, I be meat soon, Newdaddy not waste energy on soon-meat-me,» the male cub sighed.
"I will help you," Taka shook his head, "You aren't going to die if I have anything to say about it. Come, I will carry you out to the entrance to the den so your sisters and I can see when help comes." He very carefully pulled the cub over his shoulder without breaking tsaheylu and crawled back to where he'd left the girls.
The two female cubs curled up around their brother, linking their neural whips with his, the three of them comforting each other, and Taka looked at them in amazement. Well, apparently he now had a new little family to take care of. Or maybe he should say "pride" rather than family. In any case, they needed food, water and medicine, and he didn't want to leave them here on their own while he went all the way back to camp. He pressed his fingers to the throat mic they were all required to wear whenever they went outside.
"Louise," he called, "I need that hexapede the Na'vi dropped off the other day, as much water as you can carry, and antiseptic and bandages, and I need you to bring it to my coordinates," he said quickly.
"Can it wait five minutes? I'm almost done here," she replied.
"It can't, sorry," he said, "there are young lives at stake here, and one of them is very close to the tipping point, I need it now!"
He could almost hear her surprise in the pause before she answered, but then she was all business. "Understood," she said, "I'll be there with what's left of the hexapede and water and bandages as soon as I can."
"Thank you, koi," he said softly, then let his hand drop to the small knife he always wore when he hiked out. He knew what he had to do, somehow. It seemed a bit extreme, but then, so were the circumstances. Pulling out the knife, he sent reassuring thoughts to the male cub to whom he was still linked, and through him to the two females. They didn't like his "claw" and thought it meant bad things. "I will not hurt you," he said, "I will help you. Come over to me, babies, and drink." He winced as he drew the knife carefully down the back of his arm, opening a shallow cut, then switched hands and opened another shallow cut on the back of his other arm. One more on the top of his calf and he was done. He bit his lip as their slightly-rough tongues touched the cuts, but there seemed to be something in their saliva which numbed the pain, for which he was glad.
«Newdaddy not should be meat for us,» the male scolded, «but we drink a little. Is different from we drink of Momma, but is good, is makes less thirsty a little, is makes warm belly.»
All three cubs began making an odd, thrumming sound somewhere between a feline purr and the sound of a hummingbird's wings, and Taka could feel their contentment through his link.
As she approached Taka's coordinates, Louise slowed from her almost-run. Something smelled nasty and she didn't want to scare the kids Taka had mentioned, considering they were probably already hurt and sick enough, from what he'd said.
When she saw him sitting by the dead body of a large thanator she was immediately concerned, but when she saw the three baby thanators licking cuts on his skin she reached down toward her knife, dropping her bundle of food, water and bandages. She was about to rush in to save him when his eyes met hers and he smiled.
"Aren't they just so kawaii?" he grinned, scratching just behind the jaw of the one she suddenly noticed he was linked to.
"Only you," she sighed, "would go out for a morning walk and end up bonding with the apex predators of the jungle. I thought you said there were children at stake, not baby animals."
"Same thing," he corrected her as he motioned her over, "and really they're more like children. It turns out the Na'vi aren't the only sentient lifeforms down here." He turned back to the thanator cubs, who were making squeaky growling noises. "It's okay," he crooned, "daijoubu, iikotachi, she's a friend, I promise."
Feeling more than a little nervous, Louise drew closer, holding the tarp-wrapped hexapede remains in front of her. The growls changed then as their crests flared, turning into crooning whines, and the little (well, smaller than full-grown, they had to be at least four feet long not including their tails) cubs crawled close to her and nuzzled her hands, clearly pleading for food.
"Okay, okay," she said softly, not wanting to upset the possibly dangerous animals as she set the bag down and pulled it open, taking a leg out for each of them and putting the legs down in front of them. They gnawed at them then whimpered, turning to Taka with a pleading look.
"Okay, we'll do that," he nodded, and then turned to her. "Their teeth aren't strong enough yet to rend flesh," he said quietly, "We're going to need to cut meat off for them in small chunks. I get the impression they were nursing still when their mother died, and she was at the point of supplementing their diet with partially digested food."
"Right," she nodded. "You cut, I'll pour water for them, and then I'd better do something about those cuts." She refrained from yelling "what the hell were you thinking?" like she wanted to, mostly because she really didn't want to upset the baby deadly predators. There would be plenty of time to yell at him after they got home.
Once she'd set the tarp into a small depression in the ground and filled it with water, all three of the cubs gathered around to lap at it, and she busied herself with Taka's cuts, spreading antibiotic ointment on them and wrapping them with bandages. "At least they're clean," she chided.
"And they don't hurt," he added. "There's an analgesic in their saliva apparently."
She just rolled her eyes. "Trust you to keep analyzing even when you're doing ridiculous things like saving baby predators. What ever possessed you in the first place?"
"Just listening to what they called the "big tree-mommy," he laughed. "The woodsprites led me here."
That made Louise blink. "You're kidding, right?"
"Not even a little," he shook his head. "And I wasn't about to refuse the massive entity by whose grace we're here at all."
She nearly jumped right into his lap as she felt something brush against her back, then move alongside her. She turned her head to see one of the cubs very gently brushing against her with the sensory quills which bristled from its crest, and then one of its neural whips moved toward the end of her queue...
And then she could hear the little...female, in her mind.
«Friend of Newdaddy? Mate of Newdaddy?» she asked, then she seemed to correct herself. «No, not mate yet, but mate soon. Will be Newmomma for us?»
"Yes I'll help take care of you," she smiled a little. She suddenly understood Taka's attitude a bit better. They really were sweet babies. She...tried to ignore the implication of what the (she had to fight not to think of her as a "little girl") female cub had called her.
"You see?" Taka smiled at her as he passed small pieces of meat to each of the cubs in turn, "now do you understand why I had to help them?"
"I do understand," Louise sighed, "but that doesn't mean you're entirely out of trouble, mister. We're going to have a nice long chat about your self-preservation instincts when the children aren't listening."
"Yes, dear," he smiled and kissed her cheek.
She blushed at that, suddenly feeling very...domestic. Which was odd considering the two of them were sitting in the middle of the woods by the rotting body of a dead thanator with three thanator cubs curled up around them falling asleep after their first good feed in what had to be days, at the very least. Louise had never thought of herself as the motherly type, or had any ambitions in that direction, but now... Now Taka had wrapped an arm around her waist and leaned his head on her shoulder and looked to be falling asleep too. She sighed. "What am I going to do with you," she whispered, "You're too good for your own good sometimes. I'm just a nosy, bitch girl with antisocial tendencies, what do I know about keeping a guy like you safe from yourself?"
Ignoring the ridiculousness of their situation she gave in finally, leaning her head against his and closing her eyes as well. She supposed a little nap never hurt anyone.
Didn't see that one coming, now did you XD. What can I say, I like the big kitties!
And now it's time for vocab! If you already know it, of course, just ignore the words you're familiar with ^_~
Vocab:
Na'vi:
Sempul - Father
Mawey - Calm/be calm
utral aymokriyä - Tree of voices
tsahik - spiritual leader
Olo'eyktan - clan leader
yawne - beloved
sawtute/tawtute - plural and singular for "sky people", humans
ayvrrtep - demons
uniltìrantokx - dreamwalker body - empty avatar body
aysoktor - doctors, or to be more precise in this case, they're using the word to refer to scientists
ayuniltìranyu/uniltìranyu - plural and singular for "dreamwalker", avatars
tsaheylu - the bond
atokirina - the little emissaries of Eywa, seeds of the sacred tree
Japanese:
koi - love
kawaii - cute
daijoubu - okay/it's okay
iikotachi - good children. Actually "ii" - good, "ko" - child, "tachi" - group of people