Chapter 20...yes I'm updating a bunch again!
Somehow I managed to forget to update here for like a month! I've actually gotten a few chapters out, but today I'm just posting this and my first side story...
Hey look, it's me! Yes, another chapter for all of you. Hopefully you'll enjoy this little bit of fun, I know I did
Brotherhood Chapter 20: Friends and Relations
Jake looked around as the party part of the evening began, and grinned when he saw a small, pink figure dragging an avatar toward him.
"Hey!" he jumped down to meet Trudy and Norm, "you made it after all! I wasn't sure."
"You think I was gonna miss this?" Trudy grinned at him, "Yeah right!"
"I'm just amazed you managed to get through the whole thing without making an ass of yourself," Grace laughed as she headed over to Jake. "I saw the faces, even if Neytiri didn't notice at first."
"Hey, that was just me being a supportive brother," Jake assumed an innocent air.
"Whatever you say," Grace rolled her eyes, "but speaking of brothers, why don't we go find yours before he manages to get himself completely overwhelmed by his new fans." She waved a hand in the direction of the singers' stage, which seemed to be crowded by a number of Na'vi, most of whom were female.
"Ah, fangirls," Jake laughed, "don't worry, he's used to dealing with those."
Tsu'tey watched the uniltìranyu group and the tawtute female interact with a fair amount of wariness and just the tiniest bit of curiosity. He knew the female was a guest Mo'at had approved, and he had heard the reasoning behind it as well, but...somehow this fragile-looking being didn't equate in his mind with the necessary strength to be a flier.
Then again, tawtute were small in general, so perhaps it was not all that strange. He started to move toward the group, more in an effort to hear what they were talking about than out of any desire to actually speak to any of them, but his passage was interrupted by a flying tackle from the direction of the dancers.
"Did you see me? Did you see! I danced really really well and I got to be the weaver for the children's dance and then I got to be an ikran and it was so much fun!"
He patiently stood still while his "attacker" hauled herself fully up onto his shoulders. "Yes, Laney-tsyìp, I saw you. You danced very well," he said calmly, "Although I do not understand why you find it necessary to leap at me from hiding in order to tell me that."
"Because leaping at you from hiding is fun, of course," she laughed and tugged at his braids. "Brother, you know Jhakesuuly, right?" she asked, suddenly less hyper and more thoughtful.
"You know I take all the young hunters up for their iknimaya, so of course you know that I do know him," Tsu'tey said a little warily, "but what would you want with him? He's just a foolish skxawng who's trying to be a hunter."
"His story was so sad," she said with a sigh, resting her chin on her hands and her elbows on his head, "and his prayer to Eywa was so different from the other hunters. I think he needs a friend."
"He is old enough to be able to make friends just fine on his own," Tsu'tey said warily, "He does not need your help in that, I am quite sure."
"You shouldn't be so grumpy, 'tey," Laneya pinched his ear. "Go take me over, I want to meet them!"
Tsu'tey sighed but he did as he was ordered. He knew better than to refuse his baby sister's requests when she had easy access to sensitive areas like his ears and hair to tug and pinch at to make her demands known.
Just as they were coming up behind Jake, Tsu'tey heard a light peal of laughter behind him.
"You are too soft with your sister, ma 'itan," his mother laughed, "She rides you like a docile pa'li mare."
"It does not bother me," he smiled faintly, stroking his sister's tail where it wrapped around his neck, "Soon enough she will no longer be small enough, and then I will be so busy fighting off the males from around her that I will look back on days like this and wish she had never grown."
"You will not scare off all the males," Laneya frowned and pulled a lock of his hair, "Just the ones I tell you to scare off!"
"I will scare off every one I deem unworthy of you," Tsu'tey grumbled.
"This is an argument for a later time," their mother shook her head, "I wanted to speak some more with the most interesting tawtute female."
Tsu'tey frowned. "I wasn't aware you had met her, Sa'nok,"
"Indeed," she nodded, "She and her yawnetu stopped by to visit with the weavers earlier today, and I wish to deepen the acquaintance."
Laneya, apparently having decided that they were taking too long talking, reached over and tugged at one of Jake's braids. "Hello!" she said cheerfully when he turned to see who was playing with his hair, "I'm Laneya, I'm Tsu'tey's sister. Tsmukan says you're a skxawng, but I liked your story." She snuggled her face against Tsu'tey's hair. "I think you and Tsmukan should be friends."
"Laneya!" her mother scolded her, "Manners! I didn't raise a prolemuris. How many hands do you have, is it two or four?"
"I See you, Laneya, Tsu'tey's sister," Jake grinned, unable to hide his amusement at the image presented before him. The stoic and staid (or at least that was how he was trying to look) Tsu'tey standing there clearly trying to ignore the fact that he had a little girl riding around on his shoulders and clinging to his head. "You maybe I want to be friends, but brother does not like."
That caused Tsu'tey to snort in amusement "You see, Laney-tsyìp? He is an utter skxawng who doesn't even know how to speak."
"Hey now," Jake made a face, "I think I'm doing pretty darned well for only two months of study."
"Oh! Ìnglisi!," Laneya giggled, "I know little, from Tsmukan says things I not supposed listen to."
Tsu'tey's ears pinned back fully at that. He was going to have to really start watching what he said around his little sister from now on; apparently using Ìnglisi wasn't keeping things as private as he'd hoped.
"Your accent's atrocious, Jake," Trudy spoke up then, "and if even I can tell, then it really must be bad."
"I'd like to see you do better," he objected.
Trudy smirked. "Oh, I know I can't beat you with understanding stuff," she said, "but I'll bet you my accent's better."
"What makes you think you would be any better at speaking than the skxawng here?" Tsu'tey was genuinely curious. This little tawtute female was definitely odd.
"Oh, I have a tiny advantage," Trudy shrugged, "I grew up with a lot of similar sounds. Not all us sky people speak the same language, you know."
"You same age like me?" Laneya scurried down from Tsu'tey's shoulders and over to Trudy before her brother or mother could catch her.
"Hmm...nope," Trudy shook her head, "I'm all grown up."
"Tawtute are very small," Tsu'tey grinned.
"But still strong," his mother frowned at him, "Do not judge them purely on size."
"Oh, hello again, Tamrrlìn täftxuyu," Trudy waved, grinning. She'd practiced that word a LOT since she met the weaving mistress earlier this evening, and she was pretty sure she'd got it right.
"Hello again, Trru'di," Tamrrlìn crouched down to put herself more on the other woman's level, "You will come sit with us for eating? Or do you sit with Jhakesuuly?"
Trudy glanced up at Norm, unsure what the polite thing to do was in this case. "Um...we should probably eat with Jake and Tom," she said, hoping that was right, "since they invited us, but maybe after Norm and I can come visit with you more?"
"Of course," the weaving mistress nodded, a smile spreading across her face, "in some ways tawtute and Na'vi are not so different, I see."
"Well, I don't have a tail," Trudy pointed out with a grin, "and my ears aren't quite as pointy and mobile, but yeah, we're pretty much alike other than that."
Tamrrlìn chuckled. "I look forward to more speaking with you," she nodded, getting to her feet again and retrieving Laneya, who had scampered up Norm's back and was playing with his cap with interest. "Laneya, return his head garment to him," she frowned at her daughter.
"Sorry," she hung her head, "Here." She held out the cap to Norm, who just laughed and put it on her head.
"You keep it for me, for now," he smiled, "You can give it back to me the next time we meet, how does that sound?"
"Yay! Thank you!" Laneya leaned in and kissed his cheek exuberantly before her mother pulled her away again.
"Uh-oh," Trudy laughed, "should I be jealous, do you think?"
"Oh, I wouldn't worry too much," Grace grinned, "it's clearly nothing more than a childhood crush."
"Come on," Norm tried to change the topic, "it looks like the crowd around Tom is clearing, we should grab him and find a place to sit, since it looks like they're about to start passing out food."
Peyral leaned back among her fellow hunters, watching the scene with interest. She knew it was likely that she would be among those teaching the new hunters how to work cooperatively, and it would probably be a good idea to get some idea what each of them was like before the point when they were out in the forest depending on each other alone.
She was sure the younger two would do well; after all, she had already had plenty of chances to observe them before, although perhaps not quite as close as she soon would. The other, though, the uniltìranyu... he was different. Until tonight, she had frankly written him off completely. She'd experienced uniltìranyu before and been very much less than impressed, but this one...well, if his song could be believed, he was definitely going to be a force to be reckoned with. He might even be worth flirting with a little. After all, there was little enough in the way of possible mates among the clan, as far as she was concerned. Not that there was anything wrong with her clan's males, of course, she loved them all like brothers, but... well... a woman does not mate with her brother, after all.
And speaking of brothers, the brother - the new singer - he was very interesting as well. Although it looked as though he had enough prospective admirers, at least for now. She chuckled at the way his ears were pinned almost completely back against his head. He looked a little...overwhelmed, but she was sure he could handle it. After all, he was male, and any male was more than willing to be fawned over. Ah, males were indeed entertaining!
She heard a displeased hiss behind her and turned to see Apxey frowning.
"Why do they make such a fuss over that disgusting alien?" he growled.
"Jealousy does not make you more handsome in any woman's eyes, Apxey," Peyral chided him, "And while our new hunter and his brother are, indeed, alien, they are also well-built and well-spoken, something which most women appreciate. You would have less trouble finding a mate if you were to spend less time growling over the things others have done wrong and more time showing what you can do right." She flipped her hair back from where it had trailed over her shoulder and picked up a plate of food, handing it to her hunt-brother. "Here," she said with a placating smile, "why not eat? Clearly hunger has stolen your usual good manners."
His ears remained low, but Apxey knew better than to refuse the courtesy of any of his hunt-sisters, and especially Peyral, who tended to know just how to prank her hunt-brothers when she felt they were acting out of turn. The last thing he wanted was to wake up tomorrow with mushroom-skin in place of his loincloth! "Irayo, ma tsmuke," he muttered, genuinely smiling a little when he realized she'd passed him his favourite dish of mashed tuber mixed with shredded yerik meat and gravy. It was too bad he knew there was no way she would ever accept him should he choose her. She was, after all, a truly amazing woman. But she saw all the hunters as only her brothers, and he knew (although he never admitted this, of course) that there were those among the clan far more worthy of taking her as mate, although none had yet managed that feat.
Besides, there was a young woman among the singers who was almost ready to take her place among the clan whom he had been watching for quite some time now, and his gifts of food and special treats to her and her family seemed to be well-received so far... Perhaps he should go see if young Ama' wanted to share some of the mashed tubers. There was more here than he could eat on his own. Well, he'd say that anyway...
"So, you managed that pretty well," Grace grinned at Tom as he finally managed to shake his pursuing fangirls and join their group. "Sit down before you fall down, and get some food in you. You look like you're about to pass out!"
"I made him eat, tried," Ninat sighed, "but said he his stomach was not agreeable." She snagged a plate from a nearby pile and filled it with food before sitting next to him and setting it in his lap. "Now you eat," she frowned at him.
Grace had to laugh at the way his ears pinned back.
"I'm not a baby," he pointed out, "and I'm not going to pass out, I promise. If that was going to happen it would've by now."
She just shook her head and held up a cooked teylu to his mouth. "Eat," she said firmly, "You have had a busy day today, and tomorrow we begin preparations for another very busy time."
"What busy time is that?" Grace asked curiously.
Ninat smiled. "Oh, that is not anything to worry about tonight. Tonight we celebrate Jake and Tom's successes, tomorrow will be soon enough to worry about other things."
"Right," Grace nodded. "Speaking of which, I have to say - and keep in mind this isn't something you're likely to hear from me again, but - I'm pretty damn proud of you two boys. You've managed to accomplish feats none of my other avatar drivers have even come close to, all within the first two months or so since you arrived here. Frankly, it's almost beyond belief. So make sure I keep believing it, would you?" she grinned at them, "cause if you screw up now, I'm gonna be really pissed off."
"You can trust me," Tom said with a laugh, "Now, Jake here I'm not so sure on; there's always the chance that he'll do something monumentally stupid and get trampled by a herd of 'angtsìk or something."
"Yeah right," Jake made a face at him, "it's more likely that you'd be the one to screw up, not me."
"Well let's not turn it into a contest to see who can screw up better," Grace frowned, "God, sometimes I wonder if I haven't been afflicted with twelve-year-olds instead of researchers."
"Sorry Mom," the twins chorused in identically sing-song voices.
Grace just rolled her eyes. Secretly though, she had to admit that she did kindof think of the team as her boys, Jake and Norm especially, although what time she had spent with Tom, both here among the Omatikaya and when she stopped in at Hell's Gate for whatever reason had definitely managed to endear him to her as well.
She sat back and silently just enjoyed watching their little group, Tom and Jake eating and casually chatting with their teachers, Norm interjecting a comment here or there around his own dinner, and Trudy - definitely the odd woman out given that she was the only human sitting here in human form but managing to fit in somehow as well - every once in a while taking a deep breath before raising her exopack's mask off her face to take a bite of food or a swig of whatever it was she'd stashed in her water jug. Grace had a very strong suspicion (bolstered by her avatar's superior sense of smell) that whatever it was involved alcohol of some kind, but after all, everyone else was drinking, and she trusted the pilot to know her own limitations. Besides, there was clearly no way she was going to be flying herself back up into the mountains in the middle of the night, so what did it matter if she got a bit tipsy?
Soon enough it was midnight (or almost) and time for Norm to take Trudy back to the forest house for the night. It had been an amazing evening, and neither one of them really wanted to leave, but Norm wasn't going to push his luck, and he was sure that the reason for their leaving a little early had less to do with Trudy's tawtute presence upsetting people and more to do with Mo'at's concern over how the rising intoxication level of the party might make some people forget that the tawtute was there as a guest and do something that everyone would regret later. And although Norm would, of course, defend her with his life if he had to (something he didn't mention to her, mostly because she'd probably laugh herself silly over the sentiment, insisting that she was more likely to be the one defending him than the other way around) he would really rather not get caught up in a fight with a Na'vi tsamsiyu who would probably be far stronger, more agile and better-trained than he.
And so here they were, hiking back through the mystically luminescent forest, just the two of them. Actually, Norm couldn't have been happier. He was prattling on (yes, he knew perfectly well that was what he was doing, but hey, she wasn't complaining about being bored, was she?) about the different uses the Na'vi had for various of the plants around them and catching Trudy every time she tripped over a loose branch or bit of nothing at all. Yup, his Trudy was juuuuust a little drunk. Actually, it was kindof cute. He'd never actually seen her drink before (probably because she never got a break from the possibility that she might have to fly, and flying drunk was obviously a very bad idea) and as it turned out she was a happy, slightly giggly drunk, or at least she was so far. She certainly seemed to be finding a lot of things funny, at any rate.
"Woops!" she laughed as she tripped again, "didn't see that stick there!"
"Come on, that's the sixteenth stick you haven't seen," Norm laughed, "I thought you said you were awesome at walking through the woods."
"Well, yeah," she snorted, "but that's when I'm sober, not when I've had a few sips of tequila."
"Oh, is that what it was?" Norm raised an eyebrow, "I figured it was just rum or something."
"You kidding? No way I'd drink rotgut rum for Jake's big day, gotta haul out the good stuff!" she gestured grandiosely, startling a whole group of fan lizards. "Hey look! UFO's!" she giggled, leaning against him.
"Nope," he grinned, wrapping an arm around him, "they only look like UFO's, actually they're IFL's. Incidental Flying Lizards."
"Norm," she snorted, "that's really dumb."
"Yeah, I know," he laughed, "but hey, I tried!" He scooped her up into his arms. "Come on, let's get home before we run into a pack of thanators or something."
"Silly," she shook her head, "Even I know thanators don't hunt in packs! That's the viperwolves."
"Right, right," he nodded, carrying her safely back to the forest house in relative silence.
After the party was over and everyone had recovered, life went back to normal at Hometree. Or as close to whatever "normal" had become for the Sully twins in their rapid push to learn and become Omatikaya. For Tom, that now meant preparing to go out on a trading excursion to one of the neighboring tribes, but for Jake, it meant hunting. Hunting on foot, but more than that, learning to hunt from the back of his ikran. Well, and just flying, which was ALWAYS awesome. Every excuse he could get he was in the air with his new partner, cutting and banking, doing crazy dives and stall-flips just because they could, so when it was mentioned that someone needed to take the weekly meat supplement over to site 12, Jake was the first and most eager volunteer.
Nobody had any objections to his going, so that was how he ended up flying (with Neytiri as a guide since he'd never been to site 12 before) with a bundle of tapirus parts tied behind the brand new saddle he'd received the day after his inception party. His banshee had kept trying to swing his head around to investigate the food-smelling package until Neytiri handed him some other meat to feed him. Jake chuckled at the "foodsmellsgood/shouldgivememore" thought that came across the neural link as they drew closer to their destination.
"I'll take you hunting when we're done," he patted his boy's neck. He really needed a name for this guy, it wasn't right to just keep thinking of him as, well, "him". Maybe he'd talk with the science geeks out here and ask them for suggestions. If he remembered right, one of them was a bio-zoo-whatever - a guy that dealt with animals - maybe he'd be able to give Jake some background on banshees that might give him an idea for a name.
As they circled the complex of incongruous metallic buildings, both banshees suddenly became unsettled.
"What's wrong, boy?" Jake asked, stroking his neck.
"They smell palulukan," Neytiri called over to him, "maybe we check the camp before we land."
"A thanator nearby?" Jake gave her a look, "Well shit, that's not good."
She just nodded and directed her banshee into a wide swoop around before dropping through the canopy to fly low over the compound.
Jake was right behind her, and at first he didn't see anything, then he caught sight of someone - the girl avatar that was stationed here - waving to them cheerfully. He also saw a black shadow stalking through the rows of plants she was fussing with, and he swore. Maybe he could swoop down close enough to pick her up and get her out of there? He was just about to attempt that very maneuver when she caught sight of the shadow as well. Then she did something that totally blew his mind. She crouched down with her arms open, as if she was calling a child to come running to her, only what came running was...well, it was definitely a thanator, but it was also obviously a baby, and it was...nuzzling her affectionately? He shook his head. Okay something was very off here, but the only way he was going to find out what was up was by landing and talking to them himself.
His banshee was not going anywhere near the ground with that "fearbeast" there, so he landed in a nearby tree after he caught Neytiri's eye and gestured to her what he was doing, then he offloaded his cargo, gave his banshee another slip of meat for being so patient and well-behaved and started making his way down to the ground.
"Faysawtute! That one must be sick in the head!" Neytiri hissed as she landed behind him.
"Oh, I dunno," Jake shrugged, "you gotta admit, it is a pretty cute baby, even if it is gonna grow up to be a deadly predator and all."
"Hey! Jake, right?" the girl...what was her name again? Oh yeah, Louise...called out to him. She was linked to the baby thanator, and the two of them were walking over to meet him
"That's me," he nodded, shifting his bundle of meat slightly on his shoulder, "You're lucky I didn't have a gun on me or I might've accidentally shot your new pet there! Nobody mentioned..." He went silent as he all of a sudden became aware of a strange crooning sound. He looked around and saw two more baby thanators coming out of a nearby low hut. "Um..." he hesitated, freezing in place as the pair came up to him. He didn't want to make the wrong move here and get swiped by claws or bitten in an attempt to get at the meat he was carrying. He figured that must be what they wanted, since they were paying no attention at all to Neytiri.
"It's alright, they won't hurt you," Louise grinned at him, "they're more likely to try and beg."
He nodded slowly as the pair came right up to him and started rubbing and nudging their broad heads against him, making what almost sounded like purring noises. Well, he'd always liked cats... He lowered his free hand to lightly pass his fingers across one's forehead, and it stood, still purring, and placed all four front paws on his waist and hips, making the crooning noise again.
"Ama!" Louise scolded, "Bad manners! Momma's food!"
The baby turned its head, then dropped back down again, actually looking somewhat chagrined.
"You've trained them already?" Jake asked, raising an eyebrow. "Where do you want me to put the food?"
"We have a fridge in our avatar bunkhouse, just around the corner," Louise said, then she turned to yell over her shoulder, "Taka, Carlos, we have guests!"
"Great, lead the way," Jake shifted his load again.
"And it's not that we've trained them, more like I taught them a few words in English so I don't have to link to them every time I need to get their attention," Louise shook her head. "I've only got one queue, after all."
"Do you not fear their mother will come for them?" Neytiri finally spoke up from well behind Jake. She evidently had no desire to come too close to the baby "palulukan", as the Na'vi called them.
Louise shook her head, looking sad. "I am their mother, well, I am now, anyway," she said. "I'll tell you the whole story later, or Taka will, since he's the one who rescued them."
Jake glanced down at the two that were still walking close enough to brush against his legs, and he noticed that one of them was looking up at him and had extended one of its neural whips toward him. "Um...is it...trying to bond with me or something?" he asked carefully.
"It's how they speak," Louise said, "don't worry, they aren't like banshees, they can bond with anyone, although they mostly tend to keep it in the family. But go ahead, you might as well see what she wants to say to you."
Somewhat cautiously, Jake reached his free hand up to pull his queue forward. Even though they were babies, the little thanators were still big enough that he didn't really have to lean over very far if at all to make the link, and it was...definitely different from linking to a horse or even to his carnivorous banshee.
«Uncle brings more food after, brings food for sister and brother and Ama?» it...no, she asked, sounding like nothing so much as a little kid who hoped to score some candy from a visitor who might not know the house rules about such things.
"I dunno," he said, "I think I'd better ask your mom about that, I don't know what you're allowed or not allowed." He glanced back to check on Neytiri, suddenly reminded of her habit of rewarding him for particularly good behaviour with bits of candied fruit, and eating that treat herself if he didn't perform up to her expectations. It was always so tempting to see if she tasted of its sweetness, especially when she smirked at him in that way that meant she was teasing him...
«Daddy brought food before, smelled tasted so yummy!» she said, and he could almost hear a mental giggle, «but Daddy food was very messy. Mommy yelled at him and wouldn't nuzzle with him until he was all not-yummy again. Mommy kindof silly.»
Jake wasn't quite sure what to say to that, and her next statement only threw him more off-balance.
«Uncle nuzzles with forest-smell Auntie? Wants to nuzzles, Ama can tell,» Ama observed, «Uncle should tell forest-smell Auntie he wants nuzzles or Ama will nuzzles first.»
"Um..." He shook his head, "Now isn't the right time," he said finally, "but after I put the food away how about we play hide and seek?"
«Stalk and pounce? Uncle knows play stalk and pounce? Yesyes! Ama and sister and brother will play with Uncle!» She disconnected from their bond then and quickly bonded with the other baby who'd been pacing alongside, then ran over to bond with the baby who was still bonded with Louise.
Louise just laughed. "You don't know what you're getting yourself into there, Jake," she said, "just be sure to remind them no claws allowed."
"Right," Jake nodded as they stepped up into the bunkhouse, "I'll keep that in mind."
Once he had loaded his bundle of meat into the refrigerator, Jake turned to see another avatar coming into the bunkhouse.
"Are my babies being good?" the man asked, and suddenly all three thanator cubs turned from where they'd been staring at the fridge and bounded over to him. "Right, because of course you couldn't have been begging, because that would have been bad manners, ne?" he laughed. He turned to Jake with a smile "Taka Nakami," he said, holding out his hand, "I don't think we'd had an opportunity to meet before you moved up to the mountains."
"Jake Sully," Jake shook hands with the man, "and this is Neytiri," he added, gesturing at his "teacher" with a smile, "So you're the one in charge of these three?" he gestured at the cubs.
"I'm their "daddy", yes," Taka nodded, "it's a big job but hey, I've raised big cats before, and they couldn't talk to me to tell me what was wrong." He looked down at the cubs with a gentle expression on his face. "They're a gift from Eywa, I guess you could say, and a responsibility, but I've gladly taken them on." He turned to Neytiri with a smile, then. "Pleased to see you again, Neytiri," he said, "You probably don't remember me, but I used to hang around the pa'li meadows a lot, and you rode circles around me a few times when you were younger."
Neytiri frowned slightly. Then she remembered. This one had always been around the pa'li meadows, or following riti through the forest...he was the studier of animals. She had always thought he was a bit odd, but she'd had no idea he could be so insane as this! Living with palulukan babies! And thinking of them as a gift of the all-mother, of all things! Sawtute were strange, and ayuniltìranyu even more so, if that was even possible. "It is good to see you again," she nodded politely, "I am curious how you ended up with such...unusual companions."
Taka sat down on one of the beds, the palulukan cubs cuddling around his legs. "There is an utral aymokriyä near here where I often go to meditate," he explained to her, "and one morning while I was there, the atokirina led me to these three. Their mother had died, and they knew Eywa had sent me to be their new parent."
Neytiri sat across from him and watched him closely as he spoke, and she was very surprised to realize he didn't show any of the signs she had learned to use to recognize when sawtute were lying. It seemed unbelievable to her, but her well-trained tsahìk sense told her he was telling the truth, and he had, somehow, managed to make that deep connection to Eywa he was claiming. "You are a...very unusual person," she said finally, "but Eywa always chooses the one who will be right for the mission she gives them, and clearly you are the right one for this mission. After all, it is very unlikely any Na'vi would have taken on this burden, whether led by the atokirina or not."
"I am glad to be given such a family," he smiled, "but you are right, not everyone would be suited to this. I grew up around lions and other of Earth's big cats so to me, having these babies around just feels like home. It feels right."
Neytiri had been so focused on Taka she hadn't noticed one of the cubs moving toward her, and so she was startled when she felt a large, affectionate head bump against her. She looked down into eyes that...well, they were not quite as terrifying as they would be when this little one was grown, but there was still something that wanted to trigger deep, involuntary fears within her. The little one had its tswin extended toward her in an unmistakable invitation, and even though she'd seen Jhake and the other woman, Luuisì, make tsaheylu with these young palulukan before, it didn't make the prospect any less unsettling. Still, she did not want to appear weak and afraid before Jhake - before Jhake and these ayuniltìranyu, she corrected herself - so she brought her tswin forward as well, allowing the bond to be made.
She wasn't sure what she had been expecting, but having made tsaheylu with other creatures in her life, she was surely expecting a similar sort of experience, and yes, she did become aware of the sensations and general emotional state of the young palulukan but more than that...well... It was more like speaking with a Na'vi child than the kind of "speaking" a pa'li or ikran was capable of.
«Forest-smell Auntie should not make fear-smell,» the child said, while it made a rumbling noise which she realized was supposed to be comforting, «Tsuki and brother and sister like forest-smell Auntie. Brought-food Uncle likes so we like. Is pack with Daddy and Mommy? Is act like pack.»
«We are friends, I suppose,» Neytiri said in her mind. Unlike Jhake, she had made tsaheylu enough times to be able to compose her words in silence, «I did not know palulukan had groups, I always thought they hunted alone.»
«People of Darkness, not Fear-bringer,» the little one corrected, «Hunting is alone, beforeMomma said; sleeping is not-alone. Sleeping is with pack.»
Neytiri marvelled at how that had never occurred to anyone before. That palulukan...no, perhaps she ought to use the word the little one had given, tìvawmtute might hunt alone but sleep in groups. Then again, nobody went in search of where they might sleep, nobody was that foolish. «We sleep in groups also,» she nodded, «it makes us happy to be with family.»
«Pack is good,» the little one agreed, «Tsuki loves her pack. Tsuki is hungry. Forest-smell Auntie has food?»
«I'm afraid I don't, you will have to ask your parents,» Neytiri said, and she couldn't help smiling. The little one...Tsuki?...really was just like any other child she'd ever been around.
«Right. Ask Daddy,» Tsuki broke tsaheylu and bounded back over to Taka.
Some time later, as they watched the three thanator cubs playing "hide and seek" with Jake, Taka decided he might as well bite the bullet and ask the question he'd been thinking of asking ever since his first hunting expedition. He turned to Neytiri and cleared his throat. "I was wondering," he started a little hesitantly, "If someone might be willing to give me some instruction in hunting. I don't want to have to be constantly relying on the Omatikaya bringing us food, and now I have these three extra, hungry mouths to feed."
"I can understand the desire not to be dependent," Neytiri admitted, "and your dedication to them speaks well of you, although perhaps not all would see it that way at first. I do not know, though; there is much more to hunting than simply killing an animal. You have to be able to find it as well, and that is not an easy task. Not to mention I have not seen you ever shoot a bow."
Taka grinned. "Oh, that part I have down," he shook his head, "it's what to do with the animal after I've killed it and thanked it for its sacrifice that I'm not quite sure on. I brought down a yerik last week to feed the babies, but Louise was less than pleased with me when I came back covered in blood, and when I thought about it, that was probably a bad idea, since for sure I left a trail that any predators might pick up. I don't want a pack of nantang attacking because they think we're easy prey."
Neytiri blinked and he could tell he'd surprised her. "I had not thought any tawtute knew how to track prey," she admitted, "although I suppose I ought to say any tawtute besides Jhake, whom I taught. You need, then, not hunting training so much as training in butchering?"
"Yes, exactly," he nodded, "I need training in butchering."
"Well, Jhake can always use more training in that area as well," Neytiri smiled, "Perhaps we will drop by again soon, and take you hunting with us. Would that be acceptable to you?"
"That would be more than I ever expected," he bowed, "Thank you so very much!"
"It is the right thing to do." she shrugged. "Jhake!" she called out, "No more playing, it is time to go home!"
Taka laughed at the look of disappointment on Jake's face. He gave the piercing whistle he'd taught the babies meant "stop what you're doing and come to me" They bounded over, and Jake followed. He stopped in front of Taka as well, and knelt to hug each one of the babies in turn.
"I'll drop by again soon," he said, "um, when I can, I mean," he added, glancing over at Neytiri.
"We will come again," Neytiri nodded, "to teach Taka hunting. Now we need to get back to Kelutral. It has been longer than we were meant to be out here in the first place."
"Right," Jake nodded, "you're right, time to get going." With a final wave, he hurried after Neytiri, who had already started climbing the tree where their banshees had evidently decided to wait out the visit.
"I hadn't thought there was anyone as crazy as you out there," Carlos said, coming up next to Taka as they watched the pair mount up and fly off, "but I appear to have been wrong. That boy is completely nuts."
"Good man, though," Louise added. "He reminds me a lot of his brother, actually. But I guess that shouldn't surprise me, given that they're twins."
Taka just laughed and pulled Louise against his side. "We'd better get back to work as well. Time waits for no man, as they say."
And if any of you want to know a little more about what went on between Norm and Trudy once they got home, well, I'll be posting a small side story detailing that probably within the next few days, but certainly before I post the next chapter of Brotherhood.
And now onward and downward to the vocab! There's a couple of new (and I mean really new - Frommer just told us about them a couple weeks ago) words in here, yay!
Vocab:
uniltìranyu/ayuniltìranyu - Dreamwalker - an avatar
tawtute/sawtute - sky person - a human
ikran - banshee - the Na'vi flying mount
tsyìp - "little", but in the way I've used it here, attached to a name, it's also a diminutive. That means depending on usage it could be affectionate or derisive, very much in the way that the Japanese use the suffex "-chan". It can be used also in a way that "utral" is tree and "utraltsyìp" is bush.
iknimaya - "stairway to heaven" - rite of passage to become a hunter
skxawng - moron
'itan - son
pa'li - direhorse
Sa'nok - Mother
yawnetu - beloved person - girlfriend/boyfriend
Tsmukan - brother
Ìnglisi - English
täftxuyu - weaver
Irayo - Thank you
tsmuke - sister
yerik - hexapede - deer-like prey animal
teylu - grub, common food of the Na'vi
'angtsìk - hammerhead titanothere - those crazy rhino-like things
tsamsiyu - warrior
palulukan - thanator - big scary kitties
Faysawtute - This actually means "these sky people", it's actually the first thing you hear Neytiri say in the movie
riti - stingbat - little "birds" that are actually venomous
utral aymokriyä - tree of voices
atokirina - little messengers of Eywa
tsahìk - interpreter of the will of Eywa
tswin - queue. Yes, we finally have the Na'vi word for this!
tsaheylu - the bond that can be formed between beings and flora on Pandora
tìvawmtute - this is, essentially, the name Tsuki gave translated into Na'vi: "tìvawm" - darkness, "tute" - person
nantang - viperwolf
Kelutral - Hometree
Hey look, it's me! Yes, another chapter for all of you. Hopefully you'll enjoy this little bit of fun, I know I did
Brotherhood Chapter 20: Friends and Relations
Jake looked around as the party part of the evening began, and grinned when he saw a small, pink figure dragging an avatar toward him.
"Hey!" he jumped down to meet Trudy and Norm, "you made it after all! I wasn't sure."
"You think I was gonna miss this?" Trudy grinned at him, "Yeah right!"
"I'm just amazed you managed to get through the whole thing without making an ass of yourself," Grace laughed as she headed over to Jake. "I saw the faces, even if Neytiri didn't notice at first."
"Hey, that was just me being a supportive brother," Jake assumed an innocent air.
"Whatever you say," Grace rolled her eyes, "but speaking of brothers, why don't we go find yours before he manages to get himself completely overwhelmed by his new fans." She waved a hand in the direction of the singers' stage, which seemed to be crowded by a number of Na'vi, most of whom were female.
"Ah, fangirls," Jake laughed, "don't worry, he's used to dealing with those."
Tsu'tey watched the uniltìranyu group and the tawtute female interact with a fair amount of wariness and just the tiniest bit of curiosity. He knew the female was a guest Mo'at had approved, and he had heard the reasoning behind it as well, but...somehow this fragile-looking being didn't equate in his mind with the necessary strength to be a flier.
Then again, tawtute were small in general, so perhaps it was not all that strange. He started to move toward the group, more in an effort to hear what they were talking about than out of any desire to actually speak to any of them, but his passage was interrupted by a flying tackle from the direction of the dancers.
"Did you see me? Did you see! I danced really really well and I got to be the weaver for the children's dance and then I got to be an ikran and it was so much fun!"
He patiently stood still while his "attacker" hauled herself fully up onto his shoulders. "Yes, Laney-tsyìp, I saw you. You danced very well," he said calmly, "Although I do not understand why you find it necessary to leap at me from hiding in order to tell me that."
"Because leaping at you from hiding is fun, of course," she laughed and tugged at his braids. "Brother, you know Jhakesuuly, right?" she asked, suddenly less hyper and more thoughtful.
"You know I take all the young hunters up for their iknimaya, so of course you know that I do know him," Tsu'tey said a little warily, "but what would you want with him? He's just a foolish skxawng who's trying to be a hunter."
"His story was so sad," she said with a sigh, resting her chin on her hands and her elbows on his head, "and his prayer to Eywa was so different from the other hunters. I think he needs a friend."
"He is old enough to be able to make friends just fine on his own," Tsu'tey said warily, "He does not need your help in that, I am quite sure."
"You shouldn't be so grumpy, 'tey," Laneya pinched his ear. "Go take me over, I want to meet them!"
Tsu'tey sighed but he did as he was ordered. He knew better than to refuse his baby sister's requests when she had easy access to sensitive areas like his ears and hair to tug and pinch at to make her demands known.
Just as they were coming up behind Jake, Tsu'tey heard a light peal of laughter behind him.
"You are too soft with your sister, ma 'itan," his mother laughed, "She rides you like a docile pa'li mare."
"It does not bother me," he smiled faintly, stroking his sister's tail where it wrapped around his neck, "Soon enough she will no longer be small enough, and then I will be so busy fighting off the males from around her that I will look back on days like this and wish she had never grown."
"You will not scare off all the males," Laneya frowned and pulled a lock of his hair, "Just the ones I tell you to scare off!"
"I will scare off every one I deem unworthy of you," Tsu'tey grumbled.
"This is an argument for a later time," their mother shook her head, "I wanted to speak some more with the most interesting tawtute female."
Tsu'tey frowned. "I wasn't aware you had met her, Sa'nok,"
"Indeed," she nodded, "She and her yawnetu stopped by to visit with the weavers earlier today, and I wish to deepen the acquaintance."
Laneya, apparently having decided that they were taking too long talking, reached over and tugged at one of Jake's braids. "Hello!" she said cheerfully when he turned to see who was playing with his hair, "I'm Laneya, I'm Tsu'tey's sister. Tsmukan says you're a skxawng, but I liked your story." She snuggled her face against Tsu'tey's hair. "I think you and Tsmukan should be friends."
"Laneya!" her mother scolded her, "Manners! I didn't raise a prolemuris. How many hands do you have, is it two or four?"
"I See you, Laneya, Tsu'tey's sister," Jake grinned, unable to hide his amusement at the image presented before him. The stoic and staid (or at least that was how he was trying to look) Tsu'tey standing there clearly trying to ignore the fact that he had a little girl riding around on his shoulders and clinging to his head. "You maybe I want to be friends, but brother does not like."
That caused Tsu'tey to snort in amusement "You see, Laney-tsyìp? He is an utter skxawng who doesn't even know how to speak."
"Hey now," Jake made a face, "I think I'm doing pretty darned well for only two months of study."
"Oh! Ìnglisi!," Laneya giggled, "I know little, from Tsmukan says things I not supposed listen to."
Tsu'tey's ears pinned back fully at that. He was going to have to really start watching what he said around his little sister from now on; apparently using Ìnglisi wasn't keeping things as private as he'd hoped.
"Your accent's atrocious, Jake," Trudy spoke up then, "and if even I can tell, then it really must be bad."
"I'd like to see you do better," he objected.
Trudy smirked. "Oh, I know I can't beat you with understanding stuff," she said, "but I'll bet you my accent's better."
"What makes you think you would be any better at speaking than the skxawng here?" Tsu'tey was genuinely curious. This little tawtute female was definitely odd.
"Oh, I have a tiny advantage," Trudy shrugged, "I grew up with a lot of similar sounds. Not all us sky people speak the same language, you know."
"You same age like me?" Laneya scurried down from Tsu'tey's shoulders and over to Trudy before her brother or mother could catch her.
"Hmm...nope," Trudy shook her head, "I'm all grown up."
"Tawtute are very small," Tsu'tey grinned.
"But still strong," his mother frowned at him, "Do not judge them purely on size."
"Oh, hello again, Tamrrlìn täftxuyu," Trudy waved, grinning. She'd practiced that word a LOT since she met the weaving mistress earlier this evening, and she was pretty sure she'd got it right.
"Hello again, Trru'di," Tamrrlìn crouched down to put herself more on the other woman's level, "You will come sit with us for eating? Or do you sit with Jhakesuuly?"
Trudy glanced up at Norm, unsure what the polite thing to do was in this case. "Um...we should probably eat with Jake and Tom," she said, hoping that was right, "since they invited us, but maybe after Norm and I can come visit with you more?"
"Of course," the weaving mistress nodded, a smile spreading across her face, "in some ways tawtute and Na'vi are not so different, I see."
"Well, I don't have a tail," Trudy pointed out with a grin, "and my ears aren't quite as pointy and mobile, but yeah, we're pretty much alike other than that."
Tamrrlìn chuckled. "I look forward to more speaking with you," she nodded, getting to her feet again and retrieving Laneya, who had scampered up Norm's back and was playing with his cap with interest. "Laneya, return his head garment to him," she frowned at her daughter.
"Sorry," she hung her head, "Here." She held out the cap to Norm, who just laughed and put it on her head.
"You keep it for me, for now," he smiled, "You can give it back to me the next time we meet, how does that sound?"
"Yay! Thank you!" Laneya leaned in and kissed his cheek exuberantly before her mother pulled her away again.
"Uh-oh," Trudy laughed, "should I be jealous, do you think?"
"Oh, I wouldn't worry too much," Grace grinned, "it's clearly nothing more than a childhood crush."
"Come on," Norm tried to change the topic, "it looks like the crowd around Tom is clearing, we should grab him and find a place to sit, since it looks like they're about to start passing out food."
Peyral leaned back among her fellow hunters, watching the scene with interest. She knew it was likely that she would be among those teaching the new hunters how to work cooperatively, and it would probably be a good idea to get some idea what each of them was like before the point when they were out in the forest depending on each other alone.
She was sure the younger two would do well; after all, she had already had plenty of chances to observe them before, although perhaps not quite as close as she soon would. The other, though, the uniltìranyu... he was different. Until tonight, she had frankly written him off completely. She'd experienced uniltìranyu before and been very much less than impressed, but this one...well, if his song could be believed, he was definitely going to be a force to be reckoned with. He might even be worth flirting with a little. After all, there was little enough in the way of possible mates among the clan, as far as she was concerned. Not that there was anything wrong with her clan's males, of course, she loved them all like brothers, but... well... a woman does not mate with her brother, after all.
And speaking of brothers, the brother - the new singer - he was very interesting as well. Although it looked as though he had enough prospective admirers, at least for now. She chuckled at the way his ears were pinned almost completely back against his head. He looked a little...overwhelmed, but she was sure he could handle it. After all, he was male, and any male was more than willing to be fawned over. Ah, males were indeed entertaining!
She heard a displeased hiss behind her and turned to see Apxey frowning.
"Why do they make such a fuss over that disgusting alien?" he growled.
"Jealousy does not make you more handsome in any woman's eyes, Apxey," Peyral chided him, "And while our new hunter and his brother are, indeed, alien, they are also well-built and well-spoken, something which most women appreciate. You would have less trouble finding a mate if you were to spend less time growling over the things others have done wrong and more time showing what you can do right." She flipped her hair back from where it had trailed over her shoulder and picked up a plate of food, handing it to her hunt-brother. "Here," she said with a placating smile, "why not eat? Clearly hunger has stolen your usual good manners."
His ears remained low, but Apxey knew better than to refuse the courtesy of any of his hunt-sisters, and especially Peyral, who tended to know just how to prank her hunt-brothers when she felt they were acting out of turn. The last thing he wanted was to wake up tomorrow with mushroom-skin in place of his loincloth! "Irayo, ma tsmuke," he muttered, genuinely smiling a little when he realized she'd passed him his favourite dish of mashed tuber mixed with shredded yerik meat and gravy. It was too bad he knew there was no way she would ever accept him should he choose her. She was, after all, a truly amazing woman. But she saw all the hunters as only her brothers, and he knew (although he never admitted this, of course) that there were those among the clan far more worthy of taking her as mate, although none had yet managed that feat.
Besides, there was a young woman among the singers who was almost ready to take her place among the clan whom he had been watching for quite some time now, and his gifts of food and special treats to her and her family seemed to be well-received so far... Perhaps he should go see if young Ama' wanted to share some of the mashed tubers. There was more here than he could eat on his own. Well, he'd say that anyway...
"So, you managed that pretty well," Grace grinned at Tom as he finally managed to shake his pursuing fangirls and join their group. "Sit down before you fall down, and get some food in you. You look like you're about to pass out!"
"I made him eat, tried," Ninat sighed, "but said he his stomach was not agreeable." She snagged a plate from a nearby pile and filled it with food before sitting next to him and setting it in his lap. "Now you eat," she frowned at him.
Grace had to laugh at the way his ears pinned back.
"I'm not a baby," he pointed out, "and I'm not going to pass out, I promise. If that was going to happen it would've by now."
She just shook her head and held up a cooked teylu to his mouth. "Eat," she said firmly, "You have had a busy day today, and tomorrow we begin preparations for another very busy time."
"What busy time is that?" Grace asked curiously.
Ninat smiled. "Oh, that is not anything to worry about tonight. Tonight we celebrate Jake and Tom's successes, tomorrow will be soon enough to worry about other things."
"Right," Grace nodded. "Speaking of which, I have to say - and keep in mind this isn't something you're likely to hear from me again, but - I'm pretty damn proud of you two boys. You've managed to accomplish feats none of my other avatar drivers have even come close to, all within the first two months or so since you arrived here. Frankly, it's almost beyond belief. So make sure I keep believing it, would you?" she grinned at them, "cause if you screw up now, I'm gonna be really pissed off."
"You can trust me," Tom said with a laugh, "Now, Jake here I'm not so sure on; there's always the chance that he'll do something monumentally stupid and get trampled by a herd of 'angtsìk or something."
"Yeah right," Jake made a face at him, "it's more likely that you'd be the one to screw up, not me."
"Well let's not turn it into a contest to see who can screw up better," Grace frowned, "God, sometimes I wonder if I haven't been afflicted with twelve-year-olds instead of researchers."
"Sorry Mom," the twins chorused in identically sing-song voices.
Grace just rolled her eyes. Secretly though, she had to admit that she did kindof think of the team as her boys, Jake and Norm especially, although what time she had spent with Tom, both here among the Omatikaya and when she stopped in at Hell's Gate for whatever reason had definitely managed to endear him to her as well.
She sat back and silently just enjoyed watching their little group, Tom and Jake eating and casually chatting with their teachers, Norm interjecting a comment here or there around his own dinner, and Trudy - definitely the odd woman out given that she was the only human sitting here in human form but managing to fit in somehow as well - every once in a while taking a deep breath before raising her exopack's mask off her face to take a bite of food or a swig of whatever it was she'd stashed in her water jug. Grace had a very strong suspicion (bolstered by her avatar's superior sense of smell) that whatever it was involved alcohol of some kind, but after all, everyone else was drinking, and she trusted the pilot to know her own limitations. Besides, there was clearly no way she was going to be flying herself back up into the mountains in the middle of the night, so what did it matter if she got a bit tipsy?
Soon enough it was midnight (or almost) and time for Norm to take Trudy back to the forest house for the night. It had been an amazing evening, and neither one of them really wanted to leave, but Norm wasn't going to push his luck, and he was sure that the reason for their leaving a little early had less to do with Trudy's tawtute presence upsetting people and more to do with Mo'at's concern over how the rising intoxication level of the party might make some people forget that the tawtute was there as a guest and do something that everyone would regret later. And although Norm would, of course, defend her with his life if he had to (something he didn't mention to her, mostly because she'd probably laugh herself silly over the sentiment, insisting that she was more likely to be the one defending him than the other way around) he would really rather not get caught up in a fight with a Na'vi tsamsiyu who would probably be far stronger, more agile and better-trained than he.
And so here they were, hiking back through the mystically luminescent forest, just the two of them. Actually, Norm couldn't have been happier. He was prattling on (yes, he knew perfectly well that was what he was doing, but hey, she wasn't complaining about being bored, was she?) about the different uses the Na'vi had for various of the plants around them and catching Trudy every time she tripped over a loose branch or bit of nothing at all. Yup, his Trudy was juuuuust a little drunk. Actually, it was kindof cute. He'd never actually seen her drink before (probably because she never got a break from the possibility that she might have to fly, and flying drunk was obviously a very bad idea) and as it turned out she was a happy, slightly giggly drunk, or at least she was so far. She certainly seemed to be finding a lot of things funny, at any rate.
"Woops!" she laughed as she tripped again, "didn't see that stick there!"
"Come on, that's the sixteenth stick you haven't seen," Norm laughed, "I thought you said you were awesome at walking through the woods."
"Well, yeah," she snorted, "but that's when I'm sober, not when I've had a few sips of tequila."
"Oh, is that what it was?" Norm raised an eyebrow, "I figured it was just rum or something."
"You kidding? No way I'd drink rotgut rum for Jake's big day, gotta haul out the good stuff!" she gestured grandiosely, startling a whole group of fan lizards. "Hey look! UFO's!" she giggled, leaning against him.
"Nope," he grinned, wrapping an arm around him, "they only look like UFO's, actually they're IFL's. Incidental Flying Lizards."
"Norm," she snorted, "that's really dumb."
"Yeah, I know," he laughed, "but hey, I tried!" He scooped her up into his arms. "Come on, let's get home before we run into a pack of thanators or something."
"Silly," she shook her head, "Even I know thanators don't hunt in packs! That's the viperwolves."
"Right, right," he nodded, carrying her safely back to the forest house in relative silence.
After the party was over and everyone had recovered, life went back to normal at Hometree. Or as close to whatever "normal" had become for the Sully twins in their rapid push to learn and become Omatikaya. For Tom, that now meant preparing to go out on a trading excursion to one of the neighboring tribes, but for Jake, it meant hunting. Hunting on foot, but more than that, learning to hunt from the back of his ikran. Well, and just flying, which was ALWAYS awesome. Every excuse he could get he was in the air with his new partner, cutting and banking, doing crazy dives and stall-flips just because they could, so when it was mentioned that someone needed to take the weekly meat supplement over to site 12, Jake was the first and most eager volunteer.
Nobody had any objections to his going, so that was how he ended up flying (with Neytiri as a guide since he'd never been to site 12 before) with a bundle of tapirus parts tied behind the brand new saddle he'd received the day after his inception party. His banshee had kept trying to swing his head around to investigate the food-smelling package until Neytiri handed him some other meat to feed him. Jake chuckled at the "foodsmellsgood/shouldgivememore" thought that came across the neural link as they drew closer to their destination.
"I'll take you hunting when we're done," he patted his boy's neck. He really needed a name for this guy, it wasn't right to just keep thinking of him as, well, "him". Maybe he'd talk with the science geeks out here and ask them for suggestions. If he remembered right, one of them was a bio-zoo-whatever - a guy that dealt with animals - maybe he'd be able to give Jake some background on banshees that might give him an idea for a name.
As they circled the complex of incongruous metallic buildings, both banshees suddenly became unsettled.
"What's wrong, boy?" Jake asked, stroking his neck.
"They smell palulukan," Neytiri called over to him, "maybe we check the camp before we land."
"A thanator nearby?" Jake gave her a look, "Well shit, that's not good."
She just nodded and directed her banshee into a wide swoop around before dropping through the canopy to fly low over the compound.
Jake was right behind her, and at first he didn't see anything, then he caught sight of someone - the girl avatar that was stationed here - waving to them cheerfully. He also saw a black shadow stalking through the rows of plants she was fussing with, and he swore. Maybe he could swoop down close enough to pick her up and get her out of there? He was just about to attempt that very maneuver when she caught sight of the shadow as well. Then she did something that totally blew his mind. She crouched down with her arms open, as if she was calling a child to come running to her, only what came running was...well, it was definitely a thanator, but it was also obviously a baby, and it was...nuzzling her affectionately? He shook his head. Okay something was very off here, but the only way he was going to find out what was up was by landing and talking to them himself.
His banshee was not going anywhere near the ground with that "fearbeast" there, so he landed in a nearby tree after he caught Neytiri's eye and gestured to her what he was doing, then he offloaded his cargo, gave his banshee another slip of meat for being so patient and well-behaved and started making his way down to the ground.
"Faysawtute! That one must be sick in the head!" Neytiri hissed as she landed behind him.
"Oh, I dunno," Jake shrugged, "you gotta admit, it is a pretty cute baby, even if it is gonna grow up to be a deadly predator and all."
"Hey! Jake, right?" the girl...what was her name again? Oh yeah, Louise...called out to him. She was linked to the baby thanator, and the two of them were walking over to meet him
"That's me," he nodded, shifting his bundle of meat slightly on his shoulder, "You're lucky I didn't have a gun on me or I might've accidentally shot your new pet there! Nobody mentioned..." He went silent as he all of a sudden became aware of a strange crooning sound. He looked around and saw two more baby thanators coming out of a nearby low hut. "Um..." he hesitated, freezing in place as the pair came up to him. He didn't want to make the wrong move here and get swiped by claws or bitten in an attempt to get at the meat he was carrying. He figured that must be what they wanted, since they were paying no attention at all to Neytiri.
"It's alright, they won't hurt you," Louise grinned at him, "they're more likely to try and beg."
He nodded slowly as the pair came right up to him and started rubbing and nudging their broad heads against him, making what almost sounded like purring noises. Well, he'd always liked cats... He lowered his free hand to lightly pass his fingers across one's forehead, and it stood, still purring, and placed all four front paws on his waist and hips, making the crooning noise again.
"Ama!" Louise scolded, "Bad manners! Momma's food!"
The baby turned its head, then dropped back down again, actually looking somewhat chagrined.
"You've trained them already?" Jake asked, raising an eyebrow. "Where do you want me to put the food?"
"We have a fridge in our avatar bunkhouse, just around the corner," Louise said, then she turned to yell over her shoulder, "Taka, Carlos, we have guests!"
"Great, lead the way," Jake shifted his load again.
"And it's not that we've trained them, more like I taught them a few words in English so I don't have to link to them every time I need to get their attention," Louise shook her head. "I've only got one queue, after all."
"Do you not fear their mother will come for them?" Neytiri finally spoke up from well behind Jake. She evidently had no desire to come too close to the baby "palulukan", as the Na'vi called them.
Louise shook her head, looking sad. "I am their mother, well, I am now, anyway," she said. "I'll tell you the whole story later, or Taka will, since he's the one who rescued them."
Jake glanced down at the two that were still walking close enough to brush against his legs, and he noticed that one of them was looking up at him and had extended one of its neural whips toward him. "Um...is it...trying to bond with me or something?" he asked carefully.
"It's how they speak," Louise said, "don't worry, they aren't like banshees, they can bond with anyone, although they mostly tend to keep it in the family. But go ahead, you might as well see what she wants to say to you."
Somewhat cautiously, Jake reached his free hand up to pull his queue forward. Even though they were babies, the little thanators were still big enough that he didn't really have to lean over very far if at all to make the link, and it was...definitely different from linking to a horse or even to his carnivorous banshee.
«Uncle brings more food after, brings food for sister and brother and Ama?» it...no, she asked, sounding like nothing so much as a little kid who hoped to score some candy from a visitor who might not know the house rules about such things.
"I dunno," he said, "I think I'd better ask your mom about that, I don't know what you're allowed or not allowed." He glanced back to check on Neytiri, suddenly reminded of her habit of rewarding him for particularly good behaviour with bits of candied fruit, and eating that treat herself if he didn't perform up to her expectations. It was always so tempting to see if she tasted of its sweetness, especially when she smirked at him in that way that meant she was teasing him...
«Daddy brought food before, smelled tasted so yummy!» she said, and he could almost hear a mental giggle, «but Daddy food was very messy. Mommy yelled at him and wouldn't nuzzle with him until he was all not-yummy again. Mommy kindof silly.»
Jake wasn't quite sure what to say to that, and her next statement only threw him more off-balance.
«Uncle nuzzles with forest-smell Auntie? Wants to nuzzles, Ama can tell,» Ama observed, «Uncle should tell forest-smell Auntie he wants nuzzles or Ama will nuzzles first.»
"Um..." He shook his head, "Now isn't the right time," he said finally, "but after I put the food away how about we play hide and seek?"
«Stalk and pounce? Uncle knows play stalk and pounce? Yesyes! Ama and sister and brother will play with Uncle!» She disconnected from their bond then and quickly bonded with the other baby who'd been pacing alongside, then ran over to bond with the baby who was still bonded with Louise.
Louise just laughed. "You don't know what you're getting yourself into there, Jake," she said, "just be sure to remind them no claws allowed."
"Right," Jake nodded as they stepped up into the bunkhouse, "I'll keep that in mind."
Once he had loaded his bundle of meat into the refrigerator, Jake turned to see another avatar coming into the bunkhouse.
"Are my babies being good?" the man asked, and suddenly all three thanator cubs turned from where they'd been staring at the fridge and bounded over to him. "Right, because of course you couldn't have been begging, because that would have been bad manners, ne?" he laughed. He turned to Jake with a smile "Taka Nakami," he said, holding out his hand, "I don't think we'd had an opportunity to meet before you moved up to the mountains."
"Jake Sully," Jake shook hands with the man, "and this is Neytiri," he added, gesturing at his "teacher" with a smile, "So you're the one in charge of these three?" he gestured at the cubs.
"I'm their "daddy", yes," Taka nodded, "it's a big job but hey, I've raised big cats before, and they couldn't talk to me to tell me what was wrong." He looked down at the cubs with a gentle expression on his face. "They're a gift from Eywa, I guess you could say, and a responsibility, but I've gladly taken them on." He turned to Neytiri with a smile, then. "Pleased to see you again, Neytiri," he said, "You probably don't remember me, but I used to hang around the pa'li meadows a lot, and you rode circles around me a few times when you were younger."
Neytiri frowned slightly. Then she remembered. This one had always been around the pa'li meadows, or following riti through the forest...he was the studier of animals. She had always thought he was a bit odd, but she'd had no idea he could be so insane as this! Living with palulukan babies! And thinking of them as a gift of the all-mother, of all things! Sawtute were strange, and ayuniltìranyu even more so, if that was even possible. "It is good to see you again," she nodded politely, "I am curious how you ended up with such...unusual companions."
Taka sat down on one of the beds, the palulukan cubs cuddling around his legs. "There is an utral aymokriyä near here where I often go to meditate," he explained to her, "and one morning while I was there, the atokirina led me to these three. Their mother had died, and they knew Eywa had sent me to be their new parent."
Neytiri sat across from him and watched him closely as he spoke, and she was very surprised to realize he didn't show any of the signs she had learned to use to recognize when sawtute were lying. It seemed unbelievable to her, but her well-trained tsahìk sense told her he was telling the truth, and he had, somehow, managed to make that deep connection to Eywa he was claiming. "You are a...very unusual person," she said finally, "but Eywa always chooses the one who will be right for the mission she gives them, and clearly you are the right one for this mission. After all, it is very unlikely any Na'vi would have taken on this burden, whether led by the atokirina or not."
"I am glad to be given such a family," he smiled, "but you are right, not everyone would be suited to this. I grew up around lions and other of Earth's big cats so to me, having these babies around just feels like home. It feels right."
Neytiri had been so focused on Taka she hadn't noticed one of the cubs moving toward her, and so she was startled when she felt a large, affectionate head bump against her. She looked down into eyes that...well, they were not quite as terrifying as they would be when this little one was grown, but there was still something that wanted to trigger deep, involuntary fears within her. The little one had its tswin extended toward her in an unmistakable invitation, and even though she'd seen Jhake and the other woman, Luuisì, make tsaheylu with these young palulukan before, it didn't make the prospect any less unsettling. Still, she did not want to appear weak and afraid before Jhake - before Jhake and these ayuniltìranyu, she corrected herself - so she brought her tswin forward as well, allowing the bond to be made.
She wasn't sure what she had been expecting, but having made tsaheylu with other creatures in her life, she was surely expecting a similar sort of experience, and yes, she did become aware of the sensations and general emotional state of the young palulukan but more than that...well... It was more like speaking with a Na'vi child than the kind of "speaking" a pa'li or ikran was capable of.
«Forest-smell Auntie should not make fear-smell,» the child said, while it made a rumbling noise which she realized was supposed to be comforting, «Tsuki and brother and sister like forest-smell Auntie. Brought-food Uncle likes so we like. Is pack with Daddy and Mommy? Is act like pack.»
«We are friends, I suppose,» Neytiri said in her mind. Unlike Jhake, she had made tsaheylu enough times to be able to compose her words in silence, «I did not know palulukan had groups, I always thought they hunted alone.»
«People of Darkness, not Fear-bringer,» the little one corrected, «Hunting is alone, beforeMomma said; sleeping is not-alone. Sleeping is with pack.»
Neytiri marvelled at how that had never occurred to anyone before. That palulukan...no, perhaps she ought to use the word the little one had given, tìvawmtute might hunt alone but sleep in groups. Then again, nobody went in search of where they might sleep, nobody was that foolish. «We sleep in groups also,» she nodded, «it makes us happy to be with family.»
«Pack is good,» the little one agreed, «Tsuki loves her pack. Tsuki is hungry. Forest-smell Auntie has food?»
«I'm afraid I don't, you will have to ask your parents,» Neytiri said, and she couldn't help smiling. The little one...Tsuki?...really was just like any other child she'd ever been around.
«Right. Ask Daddy,» Tsuki broke tsaheylu and bounded back over to Taka.
Some time later, as they watched the three thanator cubs playing "hide and seek" with Jake, Taka decided he might as well bite the bullet and ask the question he'd been thinking of asking ever since his first hunting expedition. He turned to Neytiri and cleared his throat. "I was wondering," he started a little hesitantly, "If someone might be willing to give me some instruction in hunting. I don't want to have to be constantly relying on the Omatikaya bringing us food, and now I have these three extra, hungry mouths to feed."
"I can understand the desire not to be dependent," Neytiri admitted, "and your dedication to them speaks well of you, although perhaps not all would see it that way at first. I do not know, though; there is much more to hunting than simply killing an animal. You have to be able to find it as well, and that is not an easy task. Not to mention I have not seen you ever shoot a bow."
Taka grinned. "Oh, that part I have down," he shook his head, "it's what to do with the animal after I've killed it and thanked it for its sacrifice that I'm not quite sure on. I brought down a yerik last week to feed the babies, but Louise was less than pleased with me when I came back covered in blood, and when I thought about it, that was probably a bad idea, since for sure I left a trail that any predators might pick up. I don't want a pack of nantang attacking because they think we're easy prey."
Neytiri blinked and he could tell he'd surprised her. "I had not thought any tawtute knew how to track prey," she admitted, "although I suppose I ought to say any tawtute besides Jhake, whom I taught. You need, then, not hunting training so much as training in butchering?"
"Yes, exactly," he nodded, "I need training in butchering."
"Well, Jhake can always use more training in that area as well," Neytiri smiled, "Perhaps we will drop by again soon, and take you hunting with us. Would that be acceptable to you?"
"That would be more than I ever expected," he bowed, "Thank you so very much!"
"It is the right thing to do." she shrugged. "Jhake!" she called out, "No more playing, it is time to go home!"
Taka laughed at the look of disappointment on Jake's face. He gave the piercing whistle he'd taught the babies meant "stop what you're doing and come to me" They bounded over, and Jake followed. He stopped in front of Taka as well, and knelt to hug each one of the babies in turn.
"I'll drop by again soon," he said, "um, when I can, I mean," he added, glancing over at Neytiri.
"We will come again," Neytiri nodded, "to teach Taka hunting. Now we need to get back to Kelutral. It has been longer than we were meant to be out here in the first place."
"Right," Jake nodded, "you're right, time to get going." With a final wave, he hurried after Neytiri, who had already started climbing the tree where their banshees had evidently decided to wait out the visit.
"I hadn't thought there was anyone as crazy as you out there," Carlos said, coming up next to Taka as they watched the pair mount up and fly off, "but I appear to have been wrong. That boy is completely nuts."
"Good man, though," Louise added. "He reminds me a lot of his brother, actually. But I guess that shouldn't surprise me, given that they're twins."
Taka just laughed and pulled Louise against his side. "We'd better get back to work as well. Time waits for no man, as they say."
And if any of you want to know a little more about what went on between Norm and Trudy once they got home, well, I'll be posting a small side story detailing that probably within the next few days, but certainly before I post the next chapter of Brotherhood.
And now onward and downward to the vocab! There's a couple of new (and I mean really new - Frommer just told us about them a couple weeks ago) words in here, yay!
Vocab:
uniltìranyu/ayuniltìranyu - Dreamwalker - an avatar
tawtute/sawtute - sky person - a human
ikran - banshee - the Na'vi flying mount
tsyìp - "little", but in the way I've used it here, attached to a name, it's also a diminutive. That means depending on usage it could be affectionate or derisive, very much in the way that the Japanese use the suffex "-chan". It can be used also in a way that "utral" is tree and "utraltsyìp" is bush.
iknimaya - "stairway to heaven" - rite of passage to become a hunter
skxawng - moron
'itan - son
pa'li - direhorse
Sa'nok - Mother
yawnetu - beloved person - girlfriend/boyfriend
Tsmukan - brother
Ìnglisi - English
täftxuyu - weaver
Irayo - Thank you
tsmuke - sister
yerik - hexapede - deer-like prey animal
teylu - grub, common food of the Na'vi
'angtsìk - hammerhead titanothere - those crazy rhino-like things
tsamsiyu - warrior
palulukan - thanator - big scary kitties
Faysawtute - This actually means "these sky people", it's actually the first thing you hear Neytiri say in the movie
riti - stingbat - little "birds" that are actually venomous
utral aymokriyä - tree of voices
atokirina - little messengers of Eywa
tsahìk - interpreter of the will of Eywa
tswin - queue. Yes, we finally have the Na'vi word for this!
tsaheylu - the bond that can be formed between beings and flora on Pandora
tìvawmtute - this is, essentially, the name Tsuki gave translated into Na'vi: "tìvawm" - darkness, "tute" - person
nantang - viperwolf
Kelutral - Hometree