She stops in the middle of a small grotto where the plants are heavy with ripe fruit. Breathing deeply, she inhales the sweet essence of the succulent spheres as she readies to fill her sling. If she gathers enough this morning, then that will save the trip for many new mothers, who will be busy with their babies. Such little chores are expected now that she is nearing her Initiation, not quite a child but not quite an adult either. However, she likes to help with the children since she has no age mates of her own...
*************
"Come on! Hurry up!"
"Won't we get into trouble?"
"Not if the warriors don't catch us! You want to see one up close too, right?"
She and her best friend, Kishel, had climbed that morning to the very top of Hometree, where the ikran made their nests. It was a place forbidden to those with less than seven cycles because a misstep would mean a very long drop. The winds were also much fiercer here than anywhere else on Hometree and could pick up a small body and carry it far away. There was not much wind this morning but she still gripped the bark and branches with all the strength her small hands held. Kishel would often lead and she would typically follow.
"Kishel, I don't see any... perhaps we should come back another morning..."
"Shhhh! Wait! Don't you see it? Look! Look there." Kishel said, pointing through the leafy foliage. She followed the outstretched arm and finger to a point above them. Just barely seen through another leafy barrier was a bright spot of orange banded blue. It moved and rustled the surrounding growth, and both children looked on, wide-eyed in wonder as a head appeared. It gave a loud squawk and they both jumped guiltily, then giggled at each other. They made it back down that morning, with none of the sleeping adults the wiser....
*************
Remembering Kishel's carefree nature, she grins very widely to herself, and brings the next big fruit right up to her face. Taking a huge bite into it, she buries her nose in, getting the sticky sweet juices all over her face, as she quickly scrapes the inside clean of every mouthful. She laughs loudly as she licks her hands clean and as much of her face as she can.
She hops over a mossy log to a nearby stream that is shining in the morning sun. It is one of a few small runoffs that make it all the way down to the river. Compared to the mighty river itself, this stream is a only trickle, but it is useful to the clan to have it close by. She rinses her hands and face then plunges her head in for a long cold drink of water. Gasping, she brings her head above water and for a moment, she looks right into her own eyes....
*************
Another pair of golden eyes were staring up at her.
Fires caused by the Sky People raged all around them; they'd been running through the canopy for the safety of other nearby treetops. Flames had licked at them, confusion and terror had reigned all around them, but they'd found each other and had managed to make it to the top of a Hometree that would not stop shaking as it screamed in its death throes. However, Kishel had fallen over the edge of the branch they'd been running on, flung over by the dying shakes of the Omaticaya Clan's home for as long as anyone could remember.
She'd grabbed at Kishel's hands, but another violent shaking had sent her flying backwards. When she'd managed to scramble back to the edge, she was just able to see a last glimpse of Kishel's face as it disappeared into the flames many feet below....
"EEEYWAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaa.....!"
*************
Shaking violently, she retches and loses her breakfast in the stream. It has been some time since she's thought of Kishel... one loss among many that sorrowful day, and she's known a long time that Kishel was gone. But, this is the first time that she can remember anything of what happened when the old Hometree fell. She wishes she could lose the memory again, but fears she would never forget now. A more somber na'vi makes it back to the new Hometree than had left it this morning.
Back at the common area, the Omaticaya Clan is up and about its busy day. Groups of laughing children run here and there, generally getting in the way and making a nuisance of themselves; waiting to be fed. She runs into their midst and starts dispensing her bounty, and some of the older females look at her with gratitude on their faces. There are many children now, as the Clan has been busy rebuilding its numbers. It takes the whole clan sometimes to keep them out of trouble.
This is harder today because there is an air of particular excitement. Today, an announcement will be made of those young adults who have completed their Initiation and are now deemed worthy and ready to become warriors of the clan. Tomorrow, a select few of those will travel to the Floating Mountains and literally leap into the elite group of flying warriors by taming their own ikran. She knows most of the ones who will no doubt be selected for the trip tomorrow, they were in the age group above her own and have been her closest companions since her own age mates were lost in the Great Felling. Ever since they went through their own Initiation several cycles ago, they've grown closer to each other as budding adults and she'd been left behind...
*************
They'd all waved back at her as she watched their tails disappear into the undergrowth that evening. Tonight, Leytal and her siblings, along with Tse'tut and Prijal were leaving for their Initiation; that period of time when age-mates are sent off into Pandora's wilderness to either learn to live and survive together or be taken back into Eywa's embrace. Their whole lives had been reaching up to this point, learning at their parent's feet what it means to be Omaticaya; how to hunt, how to live. Now they would prove that they could be adults and take their first steps onto the path of being future warriors in the Clan. How she longed to go with them, but she was too small still and would have to wait.
For weeks she awaited their return, even though they were not expected back so quickly. She took to spending the evenings keeping watch at the Hometree's border, determined to be the one that would alert the clan to their triumphant return. She spent the time training with her weapons so that they would see she had not been idle and lazy during their absence. She had been intently trying to tickle a fish out of the stream when a distant cry rose from the base of Hometree. Her friends had returned but from a different direction than the expected one.
Hurriedly, she ran to join the celebration and welcome them back. There was much back thumping and laughter in the clan as the Omaticaya welcomed the new adults, and she was right by their side, beaming and laughing with the rest. She went to give a congratulatory hug to Leytal, but before she could do so, Prijal patted her on the head and, smiling, said,
"Someday you will join us and it will be great!"
Taken aback, she watched in confusion as they all left her standing there, joining their families for tales of their adventures; talk that would last long into the night. And the next day, they all left to go hunting together, taking up the mantel of adulthood and sharpening their skills for when they became full warriors of the Omaticaya. They would laugh and whisper to each other, and make references to things that happened during their Initiation. It was not sudden and no one was unfriendly, but she felt, keenly, the loss of the intimacy she'd briefly shared with them...
*************
For now, the children are sated. She sits down close to Sa'nook and puts the last piece of fruit unobtrusively between them.
A while later, she looks down and it is gone...
