2. I Have Touched the Sky
Earth Year: 2159 AD. 4 Years After Final Contact.
Floating in the void, she dreamed, visions of her world cascaded from far above. Light flowed from the gently curving skies as her home awoke from the darkness. Neytiri was weightless, gliding through the air like an ikran, once again seeing her home from above for the first time. It was a memory that came to her often; it was the only thing she could truly admire about the Sky People. Awakening, her eyes fluttered briefly, the memory of her dream still fresh in her mind, the amazement still surging through her. I have fallen, though I have touched the sky.
Part of her felt as if she could leap into the air and glide just as he had years ago in that final battle with the Sky People, in the bowels of their great metal beast, the star-ship. Like all things relating to the Sky People, it was both terrifying and hauntingly beautiful at the same time. Yet she could not dwell on it, for such a thing would never happen again. She was not meant to live among the stars any more than she was beneath the endless waves of the Eastern Sea. But I have touched the sky!
Whatever magic the sky held over her, it still could not compare to the love she felt for her home. It had taken sometime for the new Hometree to replace the old one in her heart, and part of her knew it never would entirely. Yet this place was beautiful in its own way, leaves a shimmering green, dancing in the wind. Branches creaked, the familiar sounds of children playing and Ancient Ones storytelling told her, in no uncertain terms, that this was where she belonged, forever.
"Neytiri." It was Pey'lal the huntress, life-mate of Norm, holding their sleeping son. She was among the few who truly understood the ambiguity in her mind when it came to the Sky People. Perhaps one needed a former dreamwalker as a mate to see them as they were, not as they appeared to be.
"Pey'lal." Neytiri greeted. Among the Omaticaya there were none who understood the Sky People better.
"Are you troubled?" Pey'lal asked.
"Not troubled. Curious," Neytiri began, her voice as soft as the morning breeze, barely audible above the pleasing sounds of the forest. "Do you wonder about your Nor-men sometimes? Where he comes from, why he left the Sky World?"
"Often," Pey'lal began. "If you could command fire, metal and the stars, what would make you give them up?" Pey'lal had always possessed a certain pragmatic wisdom that was rare among the Na'vi. In many ways, she was rather like some of the Sky People, always curious, always aloof. Neytiri supposed that was why she had bonded with Norm in the first place.
"Love. Of the forest, of the bond," said Neytiri, almost instinctively.
"Sky People things are powerful, but they lose their magic eventually. Things must be new and better to Sky People for them to be happy." Pey'lal explained. "I have seen this through the bond. Have you?"
"I have seen it with my own eyes. Up there, I touched the sky. I saw our home from so far away, it is such a tiny place. Yet the Sky People do not even notice the wonder of it." Neytiri answered.
"That's why my mate came here. To the Sky People, commanding the stars is the same. But living among the People, that is new. That is better." Pey'lal explained. Yet somehow Neytiri knew this was not the reason her Jake had crossed the endless void. He had not come so far for something new, for the sake of its newness. Jake had come to learn to live again, to learn to love, a far greater calling.
"It is fubar." Pey'lal muttered. The strange English word had caught on among the Omaticaya and all knew its meaning now. Perhaps the usage was not the same; the Sky People tongue was so different than the language of the People, but the general meaning was something all Na'vi could relate to. It was appropriate that such a word came from the humans.
"Yes, it is," Neytiri replied, walking away quietly, once again alone with her thoughts. Part of her wished she could have seen the Sky World, this Earth Jake sometimes talked about. He described it as a terrible place, a wasteland of death and destruction beyond anything she could imagine. Yet even with a ruined world, they were able to do such amazing things. How great could they have been if they did not war amongst each other, if they did not destroy their own home? What magic could they have brought to the Omaticaya if they had left their war machines behind? That they could do this had been proven by her lifemate, by all of the dreamwalkers who had forsaken their human bodies for life among the People.
Jake's approach was a thing she felt within as much as saw with her eyes. Her heart fluttered as she gazed upon him, seeing the curve of his smile, feeling the warmth of emotion deep within. Neytiri embraced her love, her lifemate, with boundless enthusiasm. Conflicting thoughts about Sky People and the nature of the world around her vanished in a heartbeat as she was flooded with the joy of the bond. Yet one final thought stirred in the deepest recesses of her mind even as she began to lose herself in the happiness around her. She knew she had been the first among the Na'vi to leave the bounds of her world. But will I be the last? The cries of their daughter, clutched protectively in Jake's arms, interrupted her thoughts. It was almost as if the child had answered her.