FAN FIC – AVATAR: The Skxawng and his Gaia are soon parted.
By Christopher Paul "Txur`itan" Nelson
*** learn Na'vi at learnnavi DOT ORG - Dictionary - mwf-data DOT clonk2c DOT ch SLASH dvi SLASH attach SLASH NaviDictionary DOT pdf
Chapter 3 – The little ones.
"Kaltxì, ma Lestia Skxawng. Säsetìri, lu ngaru tusaronyu nume srak?" ~ Hello "Angry Moron". As for now, have you learned to be hunter?
Oeyä sa'nok ~ my mother was not being polite to oeyä sempu ~ my father, but she was disappointed with him.
"Lu ngaru ke tstxo Yawne Tsamsiyu sì ke tstxo Toruk Makto set. Lu ngaru tstxo Lestia Skxawng ma Tseyk. Ngaru nolume fìlì'u srak?" ~ You are not called "Beloved Hunter" and not called "Toruk Makto" for now. You are called "Angry Moron" Jake. Have you learned these words?
"Sran. Ma Neytiri, rutxe txìng a Oeru txoa livu." ~ Yes. Please give me your forgiveness Neytiri.
My father pleads with my mother to forgive him, and she does not even smile.
"Kehe, ngal poru tìsraw seyki. Norimur nivume oehu. Awngal ngati keykamänge fpi Ngaru slängu. Fì'uìri zene lasyatem." ~ No, you hurt him. Norm learns with me. We see you for who you are, and it is a problem. This thing must change.
My mother was so very final in her voice, like she was challenging him to prove himself again. I had seen this before, where my mother would be cold to my father, and he would spend hours trying to sing to her, and speak poems to have her smile on him again. Oeyä sa'nok ~ my mother told me they were mated for life, and it meant that they had an unbreakable bond. But, sometimes she would say strengthening it meant testing it from time to time, to help bring the pairing together txur nì'ul ~ more strong. Being separated for a long time brought sorrow to our family, and fear, and many tears, but oeyä sa'nok was worried, she did not talk to oeyä sempu ~ my father like she did before the Iroquois man came, and everything that is sad now and reminds me of him. If I could fly my own Ikran to him, I would make him tell me why.
Oeyä sempu road his Ikran back to Hells Gate, and oeyä sa'nok took Norm and I back to our sleeping places in Mipa Kelutral ~ New Hometree.
Oeyä sempu was always called "Skxawng", which means moron, or "Yawne Tsamsiyu", which means beloved warrior. For as long as I could remember he was called these things. It made me think of him as odd, but he never was angry about it, not then. He was also called "Toruk Makto", which means rider of last shadow, once in a while, but I knew that story because everyone talked about it so much, so I do not talk about it at all.
In the last few weeks, oeyä sempu has been called something new, "Lestia Skxawng", which means Angry Moron. I hated that nick name, and would yell at oeyä smuktu ~ my clan brothers and sisters, when they would say it. They heard oeyä sa'nok say it to him every day that he would fly back here to plead for forgiveness from my mother. But it was true, he was angry, and he would do stupid things that everyone knew he should not do, or do things wrong that everyone knew how to do better. But, oel poanur tìyawnit lu ~ I love my father… Because of this, I could never say it to him, or say it about him like they do, and oeyä sa'nok would not say "Lestia Skxawng" either before now. Things were different between them, worrisome, I felt like I would when a Palulukan ~ thanator was close, like something dangerous was going to happen soon. Feelings like these would make me grit my teeth, bite my tongue, and breathe deep and soft and slow to not make noise. I would be watching them both look at each other with these angry stares they had for each other. I had only known them to be happy mostly, or playful, this was new, not right, wrong somehow, and I did not like them like this. I liked it better when they would smile, when they would sing, even when oeyä sempu could not sing well. I needed a reason to make them laugh, or to smile, or at least place a hand on each other and touch once again.
Oeyä 'eylan ~ my friendNorman, he had the most right to say this nick name about oeyä sempu, and he was sad when he would hear it, and so he never said it, least wise not where I could hear him.
"Tomo 'ite" was not a real name for me either, it was a little name, one that would not leave me any more than my own shadow, something said to be affectionate. I used to think it came from a mistake oeyä sempu made while speaking my name or oeyä sa'nok said when I was a baby. Oeyä sempu was not good with Na'vi speaking, he would say things wrong, or make many mistakes. The little name was also my father's way of thinking, my father spoke of the old languages of his home, when talking about oeyä sa'nok long ago he said many things about how there was many songs in her ways of movement, and her skills on Ikran, or tracking in the woods. My father said Tomo'ite sounded like a sky person word for friendly archer, but in Na'vi that was something else, and the Na'vi language version was once a little name of oeyä sa'nok that later became mine, and then stopped being spoken for a while. The way my father spoke sometimes made oeyä sa'nok sì Mo'at hangham ~ my mother and Mo'at laugh at him. The little names they gave him for his mistakes would only become more and more insulting. He said to me, if this is how they treat someone they love, imagine if they hated me, and then he would smile as if he knew they were not being harsh or txe'lana tskxe ~ stone hearted. My name, Tomitxe came from tompa the word for rain, `ite the word for daughter, and txe`lan the word for heart. To them, this was a soothing sound, a child's noises, the soft `ekong ~ rhythmic beating of the rain and a living heart. Something about these things reminded them of the life that the Na'vi people had to fight to protect, and the stories and songs from the time of great sorrow, and what it meant to not have to fear, not have to shed blood to remain free, and what it was to remain at peace with all of Eywa`eveng ~ Pandora.
"A few days to cool off" are about all the time it took before oeyä sempu was asking oeyä sa'nok to let him back into our lives. She decided that the best way for things to be better between us was for him to teach me to hunt. Norman and a few other friends were learning also, so there were a few of us going into the near wood to learn to track.
Learning to hunt is dangerous business when Palulukan, Toruk, and other animals want to eat your food, or eat you, whichever comes more easily. How do you keep yourself and your friend's safe, when you are the size of a meal? I think the truth might just surprise you.
On the day oeyä sempul took Norman in his Uniltìrontokx and I together on nume letusaron ~ hunt learning, we were following a trail of nantang ~ viper wolves. We were mostly to learn how to follow scents, and the leaning of pamtseowll ~ the music plants that look in the direction of living animals. The river near here was at high level from the recent heavy rains, and running swiftly to a nearby canyon. Father told me to avoid the river when it was like this, it looked very strong, I did not need to question him. Father would lead us quietly, giving only nods, and hand gestures, to not alert to our presence that which we track. Norman was learning fast, he was practicing frequently, and knew how to move, oeyä sa'nok was impressed with him, and pleased with how well he was learning to be like the Na'vi people. I was feeling like an outsider, wanting to know so much about the world my father came from, I was not looking where I placed the weight of my foot…
SNAP!
"TOMITXE!"
A yelling whisper told me everything I needed to know about my mistake. The nantang'eveng sì nantang sa'nok ~ the viper wolf mother and her pups knew we were here, along with the rest of their pack, and we were too close to the pups for the mother not to become very protective, they were going to attack us soon, and they showed it with their teeth and posturing. The nantang yelping made my blood stop flowing, then as if I could feel a wind blowing from under my skin, the shiver of deepened and fear took me.
"txopu rä'ä si…" ~ Do not fear. My father said backing us away from the pups, but it was too late, they were everywhere. "tsko swizaw si set." ~ bow and arrows now. I did not understand what this meant, but norm did, he had his bow and arrow drawn, and I copied Norm a bit late.
My father nodded at a small clearing, where he was going to call his Ikran, and hopefully fly us away. "ho' wai' hu!" ~ Oeyä sempul made a rapid half yelp half howl that his Ikran knew immediately.
Norm shot an arrow, my father shot an arrow, I dropped my bow and ran. They were on the Ikran very quickly, but I heard something, a wild Ikran, it swooped at Norm knocking us all down as it landed. My father turned at it, and it was hissing manically. He drew his bow, and readied for a killing shot, but the nantang did not want to wait for my father to be ready for them, they started leaping in on us. My father was able to fend off the nantang one by one, but they were trying to protect their pups, they did not want us near the pups so the nantang would not stop attacking us.
In a moment, two nantang were between me and my father, his back turned fending them off, and Norman trying not to get eaten himself. Norm saw one ready to pounce and he ran, leaping over one, and grabbing me, we both fall clumsily into the river and are washed downstream very quickly. I could not hear my father calling for me, and before long, everything in my mind and my eyes went dark.
I do not know how long it had been, but I woke up warm, dry, and covered with leaves. Norm had brought us both to a deep cave, and out of a rain shower. I had been worried I might have died, but I was not dead. Norm spoke English to me when it was just him and me, but he was not speaking at all right now.
"Oel ngati steyki ko?" ~ I have made you angry?
"No, I am not angry with you, disappointed, worried, but not angry."
"Why are you disappointed?"
"You were supposed to be paying attention; your mother told you how dangerous a bad hunt can be. What were you thinking?"
"Videogames, chocolate, my father's Earth, and the Iroquois man."
"You were supposed to be focused on the hunt, and above all else watching where you placed your feet. You have single handedly dampened my image of your people as natural hunters. Hahahahaha…"
"Tsap'alute. I did not mean to damage you."
"Oh… I am not really hurt, what I mean is I think I see things a bit differently. However, you took a few bumps; you are going have to stay lying down, until I can find a way to get us back to Hometree or Hell's Gate. But first, I need to get my bearings; I have no idea where we ended up. I should probably de-link so that I can talk to sat tracking to find my AVTR. They should be able to get us with a pick up via gunship. If I do that, you are going to be alone out here I won't be able to help you. Is that going to be OK with you?"
"I don't know, I have never been alone before." I think the sound of my voice gave away a bit too much of my fears. Norm looked at me with a bit of worry, threw some wood onto the fire he made, then came over near me and sat down against the wall of the cave.
"I don't know how Na'vi children survive to adulthood. This is a harsh place, no way to grow up being hunted for food all of the time. It's a nightmare being so small. It's especially so when everything around you is so big and so dangerous. And why did that Ikran swoop in on us, it seemed unnatural for that creature to come after us like that."
"It chose you."
"What?"
"It is an Ikran that chose you. I saw it. You must find it again, to become taronyu."
"I am in a fractionally developed body; it will probably be another ten years before I am strong enough to bond with a creature that size. By then, it will probably have died of old age, or choked on my bones if it tries to eat me again before then… I'll pass, I know when I am not ready. I don't need Tsahìk to tell me that."
"Ma Norm, you are ready now, more than any young hunter in the clan. You may be small, but your mind is that of tsamsiyu and taronyu, Peyral has said so many times, so has oeyä sa'nok. You know the people, and our ways, and are better at speaking our language than oeyä sempu. If you can bring us your Ikran, we can fly home."
He was looking at me, he saw that I believed in him, and he was holding his up a little higher after I spoke. Only a small moment passed and then he was looking at the ground again, and shaking his head not believing anymore. "You are very kind with your words kiddo, but I need to live in the real world, and get you home safely, I will worry about this Ikran business when I am better able to deal with it."
"Eywa will provide."
"I hope you're right, if this rain keeps going, we may have some company in this cave. I found some fresh droppings in the back, I think it was Palulukan. I hope my tracking skills are wrong though."
"So do I… But, If you are right, then we must leave, and soon."
"Alright, it's getting dark, I'm going to lie down. My AVTR is going to be asleep, remember what I told you about that."
"What if something comes?"
"Leave the AVTR, save yourself."
"Kehe ma `eylan."
"It's OK, we will try again, I think we have a way of making more… Maybe… But, you are more important, you don't have another body to return to, so you save yourself, and don't try to rescue my AVTR. If something comes, you run, and don't look back. Do you understand me?"
"Srane… Kä…"
"Here goes…" He was lying down, closed his eyes, and it was like he was dead. He was still breathing, but when I would touch him, he did not move.
I took a deep breath, smelled the stagnant air of the cave, and covered up to be warm near the fading fire. Txepvi ~ sparks jump away from it as it slowly goes out, the txepa srew ~ dancing fire was something I wanted to try with Munemun'I, but he was not good at it, I just liked the sounds of letakuka 'ekon au si ~ the rhythmic beating of the drumming.
After a long time, it was very dark, and the forest was showing the inner lights. I wanted to look, my parents kept me inside of buildings, fences, home tree, this was my first real trip outside, and I am alone in the deep woods, I wanted to see it. I stuck my head out of the cave, and saw that we were at the bottom of a river canyon, and that on both sides of it was steep mountain, hard to climb for adult Na'vi, two children would have to walk along the bottom. The fish nearby could see me, and they scattered when I came near the river shore. I thought about the things my friends would say, about how they would talk about me getting my father and my friend Norman killed. I thought for certain that I would be returning to an angry clan, with no honor left in me. I sat on the river bank, and started to cry.
I did not notice it, but a small animal had followed me out of the cave, and decided to lay down against me, at first I thought it was Norman, and I asked him what happened. "Norman, what did they say? Norman stop leaning on me, your heavy… Norman!"
I looked at the cave, and Norman was standing and alert, he had his hand up, his eyes wide open, and he was slowly gesturing me to come near to him. But' if Norman was still in the cave quite a distance from me. Who was leaning against me? I took a big inhale, and I could not believe it, it was from the cave, it had been in there with us, and it followed me out. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and reached out my hand to touch whatever it was…
"No… no… don't touch it… Tomitxe… Tomitxe!"
"Ma Eywa, kempe seykängi ngal oeru?" ~ O Eywa, what are you doing to me?
I felt smoothed skin, warm flesh, strong muscles, and soft breathing, and when I saw it's queue move near, I took it quickly and made tsaheylu ~ the bond without spending a moment on another thought.
I could see Norm through its eyes, and the trail it followed out of the cave towards me. I could see animals moving about on the cliffs, skittering away to hide. I could see me, and what I looked like through its eyes. I could feel that it was lost, afraid, lonely, like me, and for some reason it connected with me before, when we were in the cave, and I did not know of this until now. A strong and quiet creature, but very young itself, it had no sa'nok anymore, and it did not have food for some time, it was very hungry, and it needed to find food.
"Ma Norm?"
"Tomitxe, what are you doing?"
"It is hungry, we are going to find food, and be back."
"Do you even know what you are doing?"
"Tsahìk interprets the will of Eywa, and the will of Eywa is to help this creature."
"I don't think it'll need much help from you."
I had not thought about what he meant until I turned around and looked at it, in its eyes. Palulukan'ewan, a thanator cub, very young, very small, and not very scary right now.
"Come ma Norm, we must make spears to get fish. We have to get to those trees and get some long branches. Help me."
"You and your mother have some interesting things in common."
"Like what?"
"Palulukan Makto!" ~ Rider of "Dry mouth Bringer of Fear".
"This one is too small."
"Yeah, your right. That totally will matter in six months when you have to feed it a whole Yerik to keep it from eating your cousins back at Hometree."
"I do not understand what you mean by that Ma Norman, this Palulukan will be wild again. It will not be near Hometree once we teach it how to hunt."
"We have some bigger problems right now. There's no way we have time or wherewithal to teach a Palulukan cub how to hunt. We still need to work on getting rescued ourselves. I was going to tell you before you made friends with the carnivorous apex predator here, I spoke to hell's gate, and your father is fine. They will have a gunship here in about three hours, they know where we are now, and they will be coming for us to pick us up."
"We must take him with us."
"NO!"
"Rutxe!"
"NO!"
Norm did not win this argument. Mostly because my mother was on the gunship, and she understood why I insisted on saving the cub. My father was glad that we were safe, and so was my mother, norm watched as I was held tightly by both my parents, and they held each other. Some of my cousins, uncles, aunts, and my grandmother were at the base waiting for my safe return, but I watched as Norman sat quietly with oeyä Palulukan 'eylan ~ my thanator friend.
Norman, separate from his own family so far from his world, there was no such worried greeting waiting for him, and I felt his loneliness for him, while I was so very glad to see my family. I watched from over the shoulders of my parents as Norman walked his uniltìrantokx to the cabin in the garden. I did not see him for the rest of the night.
Later on that night I spoke to my family what happened, about the nantang pack, about the ikran, about falling into the river, and finding the Palulukan, the journey was not very long, we were only lost for a few hours, but it could have been very dangerous for us. Norman saved my life, and I wanted oeyä sempu to know it. My father decided that he would speak with Norman about this tomorrow. My mother would not let go of me until she fell asleep, and then I did also. The oeyä `eylan laid down next to us, and fell asleep as though it were family with us. My mother told me, and Mo'at told me that the creatures of the forest were our brothers and sisters, like the clan, and they should always be respected as such, they did not have to speak it, but they were showing great pride when they saw what I had done, this made me feel good, and I was glad to be back with my family and whole again.
When I was about to fade into the nights dreaming, everyone was startled and awakened by a vrrtepa nguway ~ a demonic howling noise like none of us had heard before! Everyone was alert to it, but no one knew where it came from, it sounded to me like it was flying, moving through the far wood, and going away from us.
"Fì'u kawnga aungia livu." ~ this is an evil omen. Mo'at said with a wavering voice. Everyone looked at her as she looked at the sky.
A bad omen indeed…
