2: Beginnings to Come

Davian's alarm clock went off on time, which was about an hour earlier than he wanted it to. He slapped it quiet and just rolled over. One of the myriad beauties of not being a marine anymore was being able to set his own schedule, that is when he didn't have a taskmaster of a team leader cracking her whip of punctuality over him every morning.

Dr. Simon walked down the row of bunks and started poking at the bundle of blankets that was Davian on the top bunk at the end, "Come on, soldier. Rise and shine. Brand new day and lots of stuff to do." Davian's only response to her prodding was grunting at her with his face buried in his pillow.

Anita leaned on the bunk, "Davian, what are you doing?"

"Trying to smother myself. If I suffocate, I won't have to get up so early." His answer came back muffled through the pillow.

The doctor chuckled lightly, "Were you this sluggish in the marines?"

Davian shook his head, his face still in the pillow, "No. But I'm not in the Corps anymore. So I was hoping to sleep in a little."

Dr. Simon jabbed him in the ribs, "Not on my watch, lazy bones."

"All right, all right. I can take a hint." The former marine finally rolled over and threw the covers off to get up, "You know, doc, you remind me of my mom sometimes."

"Well, if she's not around to make you brush your teeth and eat your vegetables, then who will?" Dr. Simon tossed Davian a bar of soap, "Get yourself cleaned up and fed so we can get to work today. So far, you're the only one who's making any progress these days."

Davian hurried through a shower and sat down to an even more hurried breakfast. "Progress" was a relative term in this case. The last two weeks had been both fruitful and barren at the same time. While the other members of the team had been logging various kinds of clan activity amongst the Omaticaya, Davian's research had been going surprisingly slow. At the rate he was going, he might be able to go to the direct contact step in a decade or two. It was slow and frustrating, but necessary in the end, and he'd been learning a lot about them, so he couldn't rightly complain.

The soldier-scientist finished breakfast and hopped into his link pod to start his "other morning" as he called it. At times like these, he was jealous of his avatar. The avatar would always get a sound sleep because it was essentially comatose while not in use. Davian only wished he could unplug himself from his own body every now and then so he could get a good night's rest. He relaxed in the chamber and made the link to his avatar to start his day…again.

Davian blinked his eyes open to be staring at the ceiling of his tent once again. He got up and put on a shirt on before venturing out for the morning. He climbed out of the tent and looked around. The fire was dead, as usual, and some of the items around the campsite had been disturbed. There had likely been yet another midnight visitor, a rather common occurrence on Pandora it seemed. He went to the nearby tree and retrieved the food he'd hung from the branch to keep it away from the local fauna. After shooing away the customary bugs on the bag, Davian built a new fire and sat down to "second breakfast". After all, he'd already eaten that morning, and yet he was still hungry when he woke up; a little bit of déjà vu, there. After another quick breakfast, Davian gathered his gear and set out to take up his usual observation post on the fringes of the Omaticaya Hometree community.

Sateyah observed the Dreamwalker from the concealment of a shaded tree branch. She watched him as he went about his morning habits and shook her head. Did this man know nothing of the forest? The noise he made, his flimsy dwelling, the way he trampled the brush in his path, and the fires – oh, the fires! Sateyah had been entering his camp every night for the last two weeks to put out the infernal fires he built. If she didn't, he'd have been easy prey for the packs of nantang that prowled the night in these parts. He would not feel the forest, and if it wasn't going to be the death of him, Sateyah's frustrations with his stupidity would be.

She made her way through the forest canopy to follow him covertly as he went back to the outskirts of the village as he did every day, nimbly swinging through the trees and climbing across limbs to pursue him. She paused on a branch and watched as the Dreamwalker climbed over a tree root to continue on his way. Sateyah shook her head again. She didn't know whether to hate him or pity him. He clearly had no sense of the forest, and yet he seemed strong enough and determined enough to be out here on his own for this long. He was a unique one; that was for certain.

As she watched, Sateyah's eyes suddenly widened and her ears perked up. As the Dreamwalker made his way through the forest, a cluster of atrokirina', seeds of the Sacred Tree, gracefully floated through the air he'd just passed through. They followed him down the path, oddly enough, as though they were drawn to him. Sateyah thought idly to herself as he continued on his path. Could this be a sign from Eywa; a sign that he had a pure spirit? She would have to tell the tsahík of this.

Sateyah continued to watch the Dreamwalker as she'd been told as the day went on. Just like every other day, he did the same thing. He went to the furthest fringes away from Hometree and sat down to observe the clan as they went about their lives. He would do this all day, every day. It was more than a little monotonous, to say the least, but today was somewhat different. Today, Sateyah observed the Dreamwalker with the sign she'd seen in mind, trying to See him for herself, see if he was indeed of a pure spirit. She'd been watching him closely, and nothing he had done in the last two weeks indicated that he was a danger to the clan, and now there was this sign. It was ample cause for thought in her mind. As the day drew to a close, Sateyah put her thoughts aside as she followed him back to his camp. She would watch him more closely from now on, keeping this in mind, and see how it unfolded.

Davian walked back into his camp after another long and rather uneventful day of observing the Na'vi. It was a most puzzling question to him. They did the same things every day. So why did he find them so fascinating? He found them somehow alluring, captivating in a way that he just couldn't explain. He shrugged it off as he dropped his gear next to his tent and went about looking for more pitch for the fire.

As soon as his computer case hit the ground was when he heard it. A high-pitched, laugh-like yelp; rather close from the sound of it. Davian's ears perked up and he looked around the clearing. The sun had fallen behind the horizon and his fire had gone out again, leaving only the light from inside his tent, so he couldn't see very far. But Davian's senses as a soldier were flaring up. Something was out there, and it wasn't friendly.

His suspicions were justified when four viperwolves dashed out of the brush and quickly surrounded him. His first instinct was to go for his gun, but it was well out of reach and one of the animals was between him and it. He lowered himself into a crouch as the viperwolves slowly closed their circle. The only weapon he had on him was a large survival knife, meaning he was in no condition to fight off four predators hand-to-hand. He saw the one closest to his rifle crouch low as if readying to pounce. Davian bit his lip. He was going to have to time this perfectly. He waited until the animal lunged, and Davian made his move. He dove toward the wolf and shoulder-rolled under it as it flew over him. He rolled to his feet with his rifle in hand, and he leveled it on the predators in front of him. Now he had two options: open up with full-auto on the viperwolves, or try to scare them off. Either one would accomplish the intended goal.

Davian shook his head, "I don't want to kill you critters if I don't have to." The largest of the wolves lunged forward and snarled loudly, as if trying to scare him. Never having been the easily intimidated type, Davian only snarled right back, yelling at the pack in a bloodthirsty scream. Stupid though the gesture may have been normally, in this case the viperwolves seemed to react to it. They all recoiled, as if they weren't expecting this reaction from their prey. The lead wolf snarled again, and Davian snarled back, once again spooking the pack. Having fallen for this trick before, he took a quick glance over his shoulder and confirmed that they weren't cowering from a larger predator behind him. It seemed that he was indeed scaring them.

Davian lowered his rifle and bumped his chest, "Come on! You want a piece of me? Bring it!" The viperwolves took a step back away from him. Now it seemed that they where afraid of him.

Davian lunged toward them, "Come on! You're not so tough!" The pack of predators backed away from him, their spindly tails tucked firmly between their legs.

The marine nodded in satisfaction, "Who's the predator now? Why don't you guys high-tail it back to mommy?" The pack didn't move much, not wanting to abandon a hunt on an empty stomach.

"Shoo!" Davian pointed his rifle into the air and fired three rounds to spook them, "Go on! Get out of here!" The viperwovles immediately turned and ran back into the brush, their yelps following them into the distance.

Davian rested his rifle on his shoulder, "A planet where you can reason with the wildlife. I think I've officially seen everything." He reset the safety on his weapon and set it down inside the tent. He may have scared off the viperwolves, but he wanted his firearm within reach all the same in case they returned with a bigger pack. Davian acknowledged the possibility of having to wake up a few times during the night to make sure nothing was dining on his avatar. It was an annoying prospect, but necessary, so he was going to have to do it. He resigned himself to a long night as he crawled into his tent.

Sateyah watched with wide eyes from her tree as the nantang ran back into the forest. It was settled in her mind now. This was no ordinary Dreamwalker. First, there was the sign she had seen, and now this. He'd done his best to drive the nantang off without harming them, which told her that he respected their lives. And what's more, he'd succeeded. To stare down a pack of predators against four to one odds was a feat that required no small amount of courage. He may be a Dreamwalker, but he had the soul of a warrior…the soul of a Na'vi. Sateyah made up her mind. The time for watching was past. It was now time for action. She nodded to herself before jumping down to the forest floor below.

Davian smacked his alarm clock when it sounded and rolled out of bed, nearly falling to the floor in the process. He'd had a horrible night. After vlogging last evening's activities with the viperwolves, Dr. Simon had insisted that he wake up at least three times during the night to check on his avatar. "Ensuring the safety of a significant Foundation investment" as she put it. Since only one person was compatible with the avatar, that left only one person to do the job. Right now, Davian felt like the morning after an all-night tequila bender; "wasted" wasn't the half of it. A cold shower and about five cups of straight coffee helped bring him out of it a bit, but he still felt trashed as he climbed into his link pod. Hopefully, his human body could rest while he went about his day in his Na'vi body.

Davian's avatar awoke feeling surprisingly chipper compared to how his real body felt. He sat up and stretched. At least something was going right today. He pulled on a shirt and climbed out of his tent to start his day.

The scientist marine climbed out of the tent and immediately froze when he looked up. There was an adult Na'vi woman crouched in the middle of his campsite, poking at some glowing embers in the fire pit with a stick. She looked up at him as he stood up slowly, but didn't move beyond that. She was dressed in a traditional tribal garb, which was to say rather scantly. A simple grey loincloth and band covered her private parts, leaving the rest of her blue skin exposed. Her tail had a pair of beaded cords braided around it as she slowly waved it from side to side, and her hair fell in small dreadlocks down to her lower shoulder blades. She wore a beaded necklace with an odd amulet hanging at the end. She was quite attractive as the natives were concerned, and Davian found himself needing to make a concerted effort not to stare. Davian's eyes darted briefly toward where his rifle rested. He wanted to know where it was in case things went bad. Apparently, she noticed, because he saw her trio of slender fingers work once around the grip of the longbow in her hand.

Davian knelt to one knee and held out his hand, "Hello. My name is Davian. What's yours?" She didn't answer, but rather just stared at him with large golden eyes.

With his first question unanswered, Davian pointed toward the village, "Are you one of the Omaticaya?" Once again, she simply stared at him, meaning she either didn't know what he was saying, or she had other reasons for being here that didn't include small-talk.

He nodded with resignation, "Okay. If you don't want to tell me, that's all right." He gestured toward his camping gear, "Just so you know, I'm going to cook some food now. I haven't eaten yet this morning." He picked up a pot and turned to fill it at the purifier tank.

"The nantang…attack you last night." Davian's head snapped around at hearing her speak, "You…not kill…why?"

Davian set the pot down, "nantang?" He furrowed his brow for a moment, "You mean the viperwolves?"

"Yes," The Na'vi woman nodded quickly, "nantang. Why did you not kill?"

"Why didn't I kill them?" Davian shifted his weight to his other knee and he shrugged, "They're just hungry animals; just doing what comes naturally. Why should I kill them just because they don't know any better?"

She didn't respond to his answer aside from simply staring at him again, her tail twitching back and forth restlessly. The look on her face was almost like she was trying to figure out what to do with Davian. He went back to preparing his breakfast as she scrutinized him, but her gaze started making him feel rather self-conscious.

It was a long and awkwardly silent moment before she stood and gestured to Davian, "Come. Follow."

Her voice brought Davian's head around again, "What?"

"Follow." She turned to go into the woods. Davian dropped what he was doing and stood to follow her as he was bidden. He briefly considered bringing his computer with him, but decided against it. He could vlog everything he saw when he broke link for the night. He followed the woman with a bit of anticipation in his step. Maybe she could help him make contact with the villagers. His research could jump into overdrive with her assistance. It wasn't long before Davian realized that she was leading him down the same path he'd been taking to and from the village every day. That was when he realized she'd been watching him for a while now. That's why he felt like he was being watched all the time; he was.

They broke through into the clearing surrounding Hometree and the woman proceeded onward toward the enormous roots. They quickly passed up the spot Davian had been using as his observation post. He'd fairly effectively flattened the grass in that spot from two weeks of sitting exactly there every day. They continued on toward Hometree as the woman led Davian. As they approached the roots, Davian paused to look up and nearly fell backward in the process. The size of the tree could never be properly conveyed from a distance, and trying to sum it up in words was like saying the Grand Canyon was "big". Davian shook himself free of his reverie and hurried forward to catch up with his guide. This was the closest he'd been to the settlement, and they were still going closer.

As they approached Hometree, a group of Na'vi riding direhorses came out of nowhere and surrounded them, raising their bows and aiming at Davian. The woman raised her hand toward them and said something in the native language, which seemed to stop them. A sturdy-looking warrior rode his mount closer to the woman and spoke to her in their language.

The clan's second-in-command approached Sateyah on his pa'li and looked at her guest, "{Why have you brought him here, Sateyah? You know the command of olo'eyktan that these demons are forbidden in Hometree.}"

Sateyah nodded confidently, "{I have reason to bring him, Txur'Tul. I believe olo'eyktan and tsahík must see him.}"

The warrior, Txur'Tul, looked at Davian for a moment longer before nodding reluctantly, "{Very well. Bring him. But know that I'll kill him if I feel he's a danger.}" He turned his horse around and led the group forward. The warriors in his party kept their bows trained on Davian as they made their way closer to Hometree.

The girl looked back at Davian and motioned him to follow her again as the group of warriors joined them on their path. He continued with her tentatively, casting sidelong glances at the warriors surrounding him with bows still at the ready. As they passed the first set of roots, which were more like columns than tree roots, Davian saw that his original estimates of the clan's size had been very wrong. The bits of bustle he'd been observing around the base of the tree betrayed only a minor fraction of the population within. The place was positively teeming with Na'vi, men, women, and children alike. Many of them gathered around as he followed the woman into their home, some leaning forward from the crowd to get a closer look at him and some even going so far as to touch the outsider. A child darted out to touch his arm before recoiling to the safety of his mother. In spite of their invasions of his personal space, Davian tolerated it. He knew he was probably the first of his kind they'd seen in a long time, and this was just as much a new experience for them as it was for him.

Finally, the journey through the sea of people ended as they came to a pair of thick roots that spiraled upward like a staircase. A rather important looking woman stood at the base, likely some sort of clan leader. The woman guiding Davian approached her and began speaking to her in the native tongue, leaving Davian in the dust as they conversed.

Sateyah approached the woman and nodded respectfully, "{I See you, Neytiri.}"

Neytiri responded with a nod of her own, "{I See you, Sateyah.}" She looked around her shoulder, "{And I see that you've brought the Dreamwalker to us. Why?}"

"{I brought him so you may See him, tsahík.}" Sateyah glanced back at him briefly before stepping closer, "{I believe there has been a sign. I believe he may be chosen of Eywa.}"

Neytiri shook her head, "{Signs do not happen every day, Sateyah. I will see him for myself.}" She stepped around her and came invasively close to Davian to look him over carefully. She walked a slow circle around him, looking at his hair, his queue, his skin, his clothes, his tail, everything. She came around in front of him again and looked into his eyes. She couldn't quite determine what it was, but there something familiar about him, something that reminded Neytiri of her mate. Could it be that he was also of a pure spirit?

"{What's he doing here?}"

Neytiri turned around as her mate, the clan chieftain, descended one of the spiral roots, a scowl on his face as he looked at the outsider in their midst. Davian just stood there amidst the exchanges with a befuddled look on his face, trying to make sense of it all, but more lost than a sheep in a blizzard because of their language. He was an anthropologist, not a linguist.

Sateyah stepped forward and bowed her head respectfully, "{That is my doing, olo'eyktan. I brought the Dreamwalker here so that you may See him.}"

The chieftain was quite a sight to behold as he approached Davian. He was clearly the fittest specimen of them, wearing a pair of beaded bands on both of his well-sculpted biceps and a decorative headband made of what looked like leather in addition to an ornate beaded collar around his neck. His hair was shaven on both temples while the rest descended the top and back of his head in a mohawk of small, thin dreadlocks that ended well past his shoulders. What unnerved Davian the most was the bow and arrows he held in his hand and the knife across his chest, and the look on his face that said he was inclined to used them. He stepped invasively close to Davian and looked him over once, standing eye-to-eye with him. One thing Davian found quite interesting about the chieftain was a number of human-like features his body boasted. His hands had a total of five fingers rather than the four most Na'vi did, and his build was considerably stockier than the willowy inhabitants of the planet. To Davian, he looked a lot like…an avatar?

The chieftain glanced at his mate, "{What's your sense of him, Neytiri?}"

She shrugged, shaking the bead chains she wore, "{He seems as any other Dreamwalker, but…there is something…pure about him. Something that says we should not dismiss him so quickly.}"

The chieftain looked at Davian and pointed at him, "Come with me. I want a word with you."

Davian's eyes widened, "What? You speak English?"

"Follow me." The chieftain repeated himself only once before turning around and ascending one of the roots. Davian reluctantly followed him up, not entirely sure that he wanted to be alone with a guy who seemed like he wanted to kill him so badly. They ascended the roots for a quite a bit before stepping into what seemed to be a natural chamber further up in the tree's trunk. There were what appeared to be either natural or carved windows along the walls and even a large balcony along one side.

The chieftain set his weapons down before turning around and folding his arms over his chest, "So, who are you and what are you doing here?"

Davian smiled, "So you do speak English."

"A lot better than you think. Now answer my question. Who are you and what are you doing here?"

Davian shut off the small-talk generator, seeing that this Na'vi was the "strictly business" type, "My name's Davian. Davian Steele. I'm a scientist, a researcher studying your people."

The chieftain huffed, "A scientist…" He pointed to Davian's chest, "…who looks more like a soldier to me."

Davian looked down to what he referred to, seeing his survival knife positioned upside down on the front of his vest and ready for a quick main-hand draw, something he'd picked up in the Corps.

The chieftain folded his arms again, "A scholar who is also a warrior. What's your service record, Steele?"

Davian shrugged, "Marines. Scout/sniper and DM. Four years."

The chief's eyebrows rose appreciatively, "Marines, huh?" He smirked, "Semper Fi."

"Semper Fi?" Davian's brow furrowed, "Hold on a minute. How do you know so much about human culture? Just who are you really?"

The chieftain turned to look out one of the windows, "My people know me as Jakesully of the Omaticaya." He looked at Davian, "But you would've known me as Jake Sully, ex-marine and avatar driver."

Davian's eyebrows rose in surprise, "So…this is your avatar then?"

Jake shook his head, "No. This is the real me."

The scientist furrowed his brow, "Care to run that by me again?"

"Make yourself comfortable." Jake stooped down where he stood, gesturing for Davian to do the same, "Maybe I should start at the beginning…" The two spent the next hour talking as Jake recounted the story of the Pandora Incident seven years ago, except from an insider's perspective. Davian was all ears as Jake went on about how the Sky People wanted to take what wasn't theirs, and were willing to displace and even kill anyone who stood in their way. He was gripped as Jake recounted the story of how the clans united, the battle at the Tree of Souls, how Eywa came to their aid just when all seemed lost.

Jake wrapped up the story with the explanation of how he came to be as he was now, "…They performed an ancient ritual that permanently transferred me from my human body to my avatar. I can't tell you how much I wanted this. Not only can I walk, but I'm part of something worth fighting for now, and…" He looked up and smiled as the woman Davian had seen below walked up next to him and rested her hand on his shoulder, "…I'm loved, which is a whole lot more than I could say for my sorry old life."

"Wow." Davian finally stopped staring and rubbed his forehead, "That's all I can really say about that. And what's crazier is that I believe it all."

Jake looked up at the woman next to him when she tapped his shoulder, "The people grow restless, Jake. They want to know what is to become of the Dreamwalker."

"Tell them to be patient, Neytiri. We'll be done soon." She nodded and descended the root to pass on the message.

Davian furrowed his brow curiously, "What's a Dreamwalker?"

"You are. It's my people's name for an avatar." Jake stood again and turned to look out the window, folding his arms once again, "As much as I wouldn't mind you studying us, I'm not going to be able to allow it. As I just finished saying, our dealings with humans have been…trouble in the past."

Davian stood and shook his head, "I assure you, the Foundation isn't here to strip-mine the place. We're here strictly for the science. We understand that Pandora's wealth isn't in the ground."

"You can say that all you want, but words are just words, and I can't trust the lives of my clan to them." Jake turned to face Davian, "As olo'eyktan of my clan, it's my job to ensure the safety of my people, and that's a duty I do not take lightly. Which is why I plan to…" Jake trailed off and furrowed his brow subtly when he saw it, keeping his surprise to himself. It was a small cluster of atrokirina' resting gently on Davian's right shoulder. They stayed there for a moment before lighting off again and fluttering slowly away.

"Plan to do what?" Davian questioned, completely oblivious to what had just occurred.

Jake nodded slowly, "…to help you with your research." He walked around Davian, "Come with me." They descended the roots down to the forest floor, where the people still stood gathered around. The hum of their muted conversation dulled to a hush as Jake came into view with Davian in his wake. The scientist was thoroughly puzzled by Jake's sudden change of mind, but he wasn't going to complain about it.

Jake approached Neytiri and Sateyah, "{I've come to a decision. We're going to teach him the ways of our people.}"

Davian piped up from behind, "Um, excuse me. You lost me at the whole 'alien language' part."

They ignored him as Sateyah furrowed her brow curiously, "{Why would we do this for him?}"

Jake took a breath before continuing, "{Because I believe he's chosen of Eywa.}"

Neytiri's ears perked up, "{You've seen a sign, also?}"

"{Yes, I have.}" The chieftain nodded before looking at the young huntress with them, "{Which is also why I want you to train him, Sateyah.}"

Her eyes widened in surprise and her ears flattened back, "{Me? Aren't there others better suited?}"

Jake shook his head, "{You've observed him these past two weeks, Sateyah. You know his behaviors. And you were the first to see these signs. Who better than you to train him?}" The clan leader looked back at Davian, "{He's searching for something, even if he doesn't know it yet. By doing this, hopefully we can help him find what he seeks.}"

Sateyah just stared at Jake speechlessly for a moment before bowing her head respectfully, "{As you wish, ma eyktan.}"

"{Thank you.}" Jake turned and led her over to Davian, who was waiting patiently to be let in on the conversation, "Davian, as leader of this clan, I've decided that we're going to teach you the ways of the Na'vi. You're going to learn our culture, our language, everything. That should help you out in your research." He gestured to the woman next to him, "This is Sateyah. You're already familiar with her because she's been watching you for a while now. She'll be in charge of your training."

Davian's eyes widened suddenly and his ears perked up, "You're…you're going to teach me the ways of the Na'vi?" He sputtered for a moment before regaining his wits, "All I can say is thank you. That's a dream come true for an anthropologist."

Jake nodded, "Then it's settled. You can get started immediately." He stepped forward and put a hand on Davian's shoulder, "I hope you're a fast learner." With that, he turned and walked up the roots, Neytiri closely behind him.

Sateyah stepped closer to Davian, "I am called Sateyah. It is Jakesully's will that I teach you our ways. You will learn to move as we do, hunt as we do, speak as we do. In time, olo'eyktan may even allow you to become one of us; One of the People." As she spoke, her tone suggested that she was not doing this because she wanted to.

Davian nodded carefully, "That's all well and good, but I think I should tell you now that I'm not going to be staying here forever. Once I've learned all I can, I have to go back to my people to tell them what I've learned, so we can better understand the Na'vi."

"That is good." The huntress nodded curtly, "Perhaps what you learn will teach the Sky People to leave us alone."

Just as Jake said, Davian's training began immediately, starting with trading his human clothes for traditional clan garb, which was to say a loincloth and nothing else. Needless to say, Davian felt quite exposed in the garment. He followed Sateyah to an open field away from the Tree, where a few direhorses wandered from flower to flower sipping nectar. Sateyah turned around and tossed Davian a longbow and arrow, which he caught awkwardly.

She stepped back and folded her arms, "Draw the bow." Davian did as he was told, drawing the arrow back in a proper traditional human form.

Sateyah shook her head adamantly, rattling the beads in her hair, "Your form is wrong." She stepped forward and proceeded to accost Davian with a myriad of corrections. She kicked his feet further apart, turned his left hand around, straightened his right arm, raised his left elbow, lowered his right shoulder, pushed in his gut, and had him take a deep breath to expand his chest.

She stepped back and folded her arms again, "This is proper form. Learn it and remember it."

"You expect me to remember it with one demonstration?" Davian lowered the bow as his arms grew tired.

Sateyah shrugged casually, "The Sky People are so much greater than Na'vi. If you are truly so great, you will remember." She pointed to him, "Now draw the bow." Davian drew the bow again, trying to use proper Na'vi form this time. Sateyah shook her head again and muttered something in Na'vi before stepping forward and correcting his form again.

Davian lowered the bow as she stepped back, "I thought that was correct form."

"You think it is correct?" She nodded down range, "Loose the arrow." Davian snorted as he drew back the arrow and aimed down range. He knew some tips about archery, and he planned on showing his instructor a thing or two about what he knew. He loosed the arrow, letting it fly about thirty or forty meters before planting in the dirt.

He looked at Sateyah, "You see? That wasn't bad."

Sateyah's scowl said otherwise, "If you were hunting with children, no, it was not. Your draw was shallow and your loose was weak. The arrow could have gone much farther and with greater force." She turned to go retrieve the arrow, "Eywa's pity for foolish creatures must be how you survived this long."

Davian rolled his eyes as Sateyah retrieved the arrow, "Yippee. I've made a friend." Sateyah tossed the arrow at him when she returned and finished it out with a slap to the back of his head as she passed him.

She turned and folded her arms again, "Now draw properly, eltu hì'i."

The rest of the day's training that wasn't practice with the bow consisted of running. Sateyah took Davian along some trails around Hometree over, under, and through the forest, teaching him how to maintain his balance and to toughen his feet up. There were a few gaps Sateyah hopped over quite nimbly that she had to goad Davian into jumping himself. The next time Davian saw Jake was at the evening meal around the bonfire. There was more than one local who got a little miffed at Davian for more than one tail stepped on as he made his way around the fire to find a place to sit. He wasn't off to a good start at making friends in the clan, especially considering his instructor's attitude toward him.

Sateyah sat him down before getting some food, what the Na'vi called teylu, for both of them before squatting down next to him.

"Tomorrow, you will learn of tsahaylu and you will learn to ride pa'li." She opened the leaf that held her teylu and took a bite.

Davian suppressed a snort, "Heck of a lesson plan. Nice to know I have a choice."

Sateyah set her food down and glared at him, "You come to us to learn, and then you make jests when we try to teach you." She shook her head as she went back to eating, "Tsahík Mo'at was right. You cannot fill a cup that is already full."

The scientist's eyes widened suddenly with the comment, mostly about the fact that she was right. He'd come to the Na'vi to learn about them, but instead he'd been treating it like he was teaching them. He'd been letting his own intelligence and sarcasm get in the way of the real reason he was here in the first place. For his first day learning the ways of the Na'vi, he wasn't off to a good start. Perhaps it was time that the heady scientist empty his cup and allow it to be filled.

Davian glanced at Sateyah as he opened his teylu, "Hey, uh…for what it's worth…I'm sorry." In response, Sateyah simply looked at him briefly before going back to her meal.

Rather than hit the rack for the night, Sateyah saw it necessary to take another run through some of the higher trails around Hometree before bunking down. As the sun disappeared behind the horizon and Polyphemus began to rise, Davian couldn't help but marvel at the brightness of the forest around him. Everywhere he looked, some sort of bioluminescence lit up the darkness in cacophonies of soft, beautiful colors. He'd never seen it before because the light from his campfire always blocked it out. But now, he could see this world of Pandora in some of its truest beauty. He and the Na'vi were even part of this biological light display, with patterns of luminescent spots ascending and descending his body.

When they did finally hit the sack, Sateyah led Davian to a higher tree branch with a number of things that looked like large leaves hanging from it, but were actually hammocks made from plant fibers. Sateyah jumped from the branch and slid gracefully down into one of these hammocks. Rather than jumping, Davian more fell into his own hammock, sliding in quite ungracefully by contrast. Sateyah showed him how to close the hammock, touching the edge to be rewarded with a brief glow and the fibers closing around him. Davian laid back and thought about all that had happened today. It was an anthropologist's dream come true. He'd been accepted into the clan and they were teaching him how to become one of them. His teacher clearly didn't like him much, but she was competent, and that's what mattered. He felt rather tired from the events of the day, in particular Sateyah's training runs, and so he relaxed and quickly fell asleep.

Davian's eyes popped open inside the link pod. He looked around the interior to remind himself where he was. It'd all been so real. It was real, accept for a different body. The pod opened and he looked up to find all of the other team members, including Dr. Simon, gathered around.

Jim, the team link technician, nodded to him, "About time you came out of there, man. You were in there forever."

Will, the other team anthropologist, piped up, "Here we were thinking you gave up your human body for Lent and liked it."

"That's enough." Dr. Simon opened the network cage over Davian's chest and leaned on the edge of the pod, "I don't mean to be a nag, Davian, but what took you so long?"

Davian sat up and ran his hands over his face and back through his hair before answering, hardly believing it himself, "They…The clan took me in."

Anita's brow furrowed, "What?"

"The clan…the Omaticaya. They took me in. They're going to teach me! They're going to help me learn the ways of the Na'vi!"

Dr. Simon waved down his excitement, "All right, all right, settle down. So…You've made a step in the right direction, then."

Davian nodded emphatically, "A huge step in the right direction! This is amazing! The woman they assigned to teach me seems to hate my guts, but she knows what she's doing."

The doctor patted him on the shoulder, "Settle down, Davian. You're going to blow a fuse. Hop out of there and get started on your vlog so you can get some sleep. The team and I will clean up your campsite in the morning."

Davian could barely contain his excitement as he logged his activities for the day. Jim told him he sounded like a squirrel on a caffeine rush as he chattered on and on in the video log. He toned down when the adrenaline finally wore off and his body remembered how tired it was at the beginning of the day. He hit the rack early, guessing that it was probably going to be an early morning for him back at Hometree. Even as he went to sleep for real, and even with how tired he was, he was still pumped about the events of the day. He'd been accepted into the clan and they were going to teach him the ways of the People. He'd been dreaming of something like this ever since first setting foot on Pandora. As Davian drifted off to sleep, he never fully grasped the reality of what had happened. He never knew that he'd been chosen. He never knew that this was just the beginning for far greater, and more dire, things to come.