This is a piece of fiction that will be almost entirely original characters set in James Cameron's Avatar Universe. There may or may not be cameo appearances by cannon characters. All rights belong to the proper owners.

A few notes...this story contains a lot of flash backs, which will be in italics. Also, I will not be inserting random Na'vi language into this English written story, except in the cases of animal and proper names, or for things that have no real English translation. So please assume that everyone is speaking Na'vi unless I express specifically that English is being spoken. My assumption is that the Na'vi language has to have equivilents for any of the phrases that are spoken in my story.

She opens her eyes and looks out through the spaces of her hammock, and has to admire the beauty of the rising sun's rays that are sifting through the green canopy. She's always loved morning best. The view from her hammock is actually better here than in the previous Hometree, where her sleeping spot had been too far inside the huge tree for early morning light to reach it. At the thought of the former nesting place of the Omaticaya clan, she closes her eyes and sends a prayer to Eywa; the memories are still fresh, even after seven cycles.

*************

That morning, seven cycles previous... all of the Omaticaya children had been herded into the lower heart of Hometree, with but a few warriors to protect them. None of the clan expected that the attack from the Sky People would reach the Inner Circle. Some of the older children, nearing their Initiation, had tried to keep things calm, but they all knew their parents were going off to fight and the excitement couldn't be contained. Never, in their short lives, had there been such a mobilization, and despite the worried looks of their elders, not one of the children doubted the strength of those who were going to face the oncoming threat. The talk among the children was of victory.

"My Father and his brothers took on a palulukan; the Sky People will be nothing to -that-!"

"I put the red paint on my mother's face, she is very fierce today!"

"If only I could go too! I'm nearly as good with the bow as my sister!"

"We will miss the clan's greatest triumph, stuck in here!"

"Oh be quiet, you are merely a baby."

"A baby?! I'll show you!"

A short friendly scuffle had started among them, and the warriors who watched were grinning to themselves when the first screams started. The scuffle forgotten in a moment, all the children looked up simultaneously. The warriors unsheathed their bows and made ready to protect the future generation. While the screams continued, the children huddled together, touching each other for comfort, ears flat and tails twitching nervously.

A thick smoke started pouring into the Inner Circle and one of the first warriors in its way fell to the ground, twitching and retching. The children had gone to help and as some of them fell to the smoke, it was understood, finally, that the air was poison and the children started to scream themselves. A frantic scrambling ensued as the older children instructed the smaller to climb into the upper reaches to escape the gas. That was when the world started to come undone.

She'd been climbing with the others when a sound louder than anything heard before crashed through her head and the Hometree gave a great lurch and started shaking uncontrollably. She'd been flung away from the bark she'd been gripping and flew through the air to land with a breath-taking thump against another of the tree's many branches. She scrabbled to the edge and watched as a few of her playmates fell much further, screaming loudly. Too shocked to move or do more than cling in fright to the branch she was on, a moment later she was grabbed roughly by the scruff, thrown up to the next branch, and an adult voice told her to keep moving...

*************

She is broken from her memory by the distant call of an ikran. It is just as well, since she's never been able to recall who the owner of the voice was that had broken her terror freeze all that time ago. She shakes her braids to clear away the last fading sounds of screams, and jumps lightly onto the branch that holds up one end of her hammock. Grabbing her bow, she makes her way down Hometree (the new, smaller one). Moving silently past the sleeping places of other na'vi, she leaps nimbly down to the central ring. This is a common area for na'vi to gather together for doing things, but there are few up and about yet. The Na'vi, as a race, are half nocturnal and tended to sleep late into the mornings. As far as she could remember though, she'd always been an early riser. Mother would call her Little Ski'evi, for the tiny birds that would start chirping at the first sign of day. Mother....

*************

"Mother? Mother!"

Flames were licking the charring bulk of Hometree all around her as she dazedly wondered away from the place she regained consciousness. Hometree had fallen and she couldn't even remember how she'd made it to the bottom. Tears were falling from her eyes at the devastation, and the screams of her clan were a constant echo in her ears. The smoke was making her cough and ashes were clinging to her fur. Forgotten were the happy tumblings with the other children as she desperately searched for anyone she knew.

"Mother! Father!"

A burning branch crashed to the forest floor a few feet from her and she screamed, blindly running in the other direction. It seemed like the fire was pursuing her and the wind was pushing her back into it. In the distance she saw other na'vi running from fire and instinctively starting running towards them; towards some semblance of safety in her child's mind... an adult, any adult who would make things better. Make the world right again and make sense. she wasn't watching her footing as she normally would, when she tripped and fell over something. Looking back, she stared into the unseeing eyes of another Na'vi youth, the golden orbs glassy without a soul behind them to light them up. She screamed, and screamed...

*************

"Ah! I see you! You are awake early."

She can't help but chuckle at the double meaning of the greeting as she turns around to greet the eldest female in the clan. She'd used the standard greeting with the slight deviation that children used when they were playing hiding games. There are barely any in the clan who remember her real name, but everyone calls her Sa'nook, which means Old Mother.

"I see you, Sa'nook. I was going to pick some fruit for breakfast, can I bring you some?"

"Such a thoughtful child, but I have already stolen some!" the old na'vi cackles and then winks at her. Everyone in the clan gives to Sa'nook but she is very proud so instead of giving things directly to her, they would leave it out and she would take as she needed. It was an old joke among the clan that she is supposed to be cranky and sly, when really Sa'nook is sweet and wise and well sought after for advice. She remembers well the first advice she'd received from the elder....

*************

Barely more than half the clan had made it to the Well of Souls after the murder of Hometree by the Sky People. She'd trudged wearily along with her clan mates, following The Tsahik and her daughter to the only place that could comfort them now. The cries of her grieving clan seemed to go on forever without cease, but she'd long ago run out of tears to shed. She had been unable to find any trace of her family at the burning site, nor had she seen them on the trail to the Well of Souls, but she continued to hope that they were still with the hunting parties who were looking for other survivors. They'd just been too busy, obviously, to look for her yet. Or maybe they were still out there, looking for her, and soon they would come here and find her.

Many in the clan were already beginning their grieving ritual, connecting to Eywa through the Mother Tree to commune with their loved ones and find peace within themselves. Yet, she refused; even as Eywa's tendrils seemed to reach for her own queue, she resisted, afraid that she would find her family at last, in the one place she didn't want to find them. This continued for many weeks as the clan prepared for the new battle against the Sky People with the Toruk Makto.

It was Sa'nook, who found her very early one morning, sitting under a root of the great tree. She was twisting her queue braid frantically into knots, rocking back and forth. The clan would all join together that night with Eywa, to pray for the victory in the coming battle the next day. It would be expected that everyone would join together for the blessing, and she was afraid; afraid to connect to Eywa, frightened to find within Eywa that her mother and father had become ancestors. Sa'nook found her like this.

Sa'nook crouched down in front of the child with a knowing look and a tear in her eye. She stilled the girl's hands and held them tight.

"Do not be afraid, child. Eywa will hold you through it and you will not fear.", Sa'nook said with such conviction and strength that she stared wide-eyed with wonder at the odd elder that she'd always laughed at before with her friends.

"Come."

She followed closely behind Sa'nook as they made their way to the nearest glowing strand. The light of it seemed to glow within her and Sa'nook gently nudged her forward.

"Go on, child. Eywa is waiting for you."

She brought the bright tendril close to her face and sniffed it. Nuzzling it gently, she closed her eyes and lifted her small braid up to it and her queue connected...

*************

Her now much larger queue tingles with the memory as she runs lightly through the forest canopy.

A new day begins.