Chapter 4

The intricate shapes of the leaves above caused shadow to fall upon us.

Teacher crept quietly beside me. "Tal'ya, your tracks are much too deep. Remember to breathe regularly and keep your steps light." He said. I nodded in reply, unspeaking, attempting to follow his instructions. I unconsciously gasped for air.

"Tal'ya!" he said sharply. "Breathe! The more irregular your breathing is, the louder your breaths will be, and any living thing a mile away will flee." I exhaled evenly to follow his instruction. "Good. That is better."

I have not been under the guidance of Ki'at for nearly six weeks now, and already I have noticed my stamina increasing and my skill with knives improving. My new teacher had been very impressed with my running, which definitely reminded me of my near death experience with a pack of nantang. I shivered. Just thinking of that night made me shudder. Death was so close that night.

Teacher was very stern when it came to training. He may seem reasonable on the outside, but sometimes I find myself thinking that he is a ruthless teacher. However impressed, he still trains me to run for two hours a day, and three hours of tracking in the forest. Weaponry training took place on my own time. My presence at the training area was becoming more and more frequent, which I find ironic since not two months ago I would be caught dead there.

I do not complain though. No. I will not complain to him. I will be obedient and do as he says. That is how a student is to follow their teacher is it not?

He was very unimpressed by my tracking skills however. In fact, he was nearly disgusted by the fact that Ki'at had only taken me out tracking only once! So now we spend most of our time tracking. Teacher often says that I have the tracking skills of a young child and I have yet to prove him wrong, but I just know I will. I can feel it.

And I am making much more progress with Teacher than I had ever had with Ki'at. It is predicted that if I continue training at this speed, I will be able to tame my ikran a year earlier than Ki'at had. Just the thought of it made me smile

"Tal'ya," Teacher said, interrupting my thoughts, "the tracks do not lead west, they lead east."

I blushed with slight embarrassment. Before I could tame my ikran, I will of course have to learn how to track properly.

"You are distractedly much too easily young one. When tracking, one must pay attention to the lightest of tracks, and the slightest of scents. You must always be aware of your surroundings and not be lost in your thoughts like you are." He whispered, which indicated that the tapirus in which we were tracking was near.

"Yes." I said quietly, turning to the opposite direction. "I am sorry."

"Go" he had mouthed.

I jumped across two trees and landed quietly on a lower branch, hovering a clearing. I felt the branch slightly shudder at my weight but made no noise. The shadows of the canopy hid my face well amongst its gloom. In the clearing, I noticed the tapirus was peacefully grazing. Teacher came up beside me and signalled the both of us to get closer and disappeared into the vegetation. He was graceful. The branch did not shudder when he came and went. I felt a sudden rush of excitement and anxiety rush into me. This was the first animal that I was successful at tracking! Well, technically Teacher helped me this time for I was going to go in the opposite direction, but hey, I'm not complaining.

I silently crawled forward, my eyes never leaving the tapirus. This will be a day to remember. My first successful track! My mouth turned upwards in silent glee.

From then on, I didn't know what had happened. All I remember was a dramatic decline in my height, and the rushes of wind that caused my braids to fly upwards. I fell with a crash.

"What the-" a voice that was not mine exclaimed.

I didn't realise that I had clamped my eyes shut until I opened them. Hazy blurs of colours focused as I blinked. Huh. Something had broken my fall.

"Spxam." The familiar voice grimaced. The na'vi who broke my fall pushed me off of him.

I groaned and sat up, facing the na'vi. Tsu'tey was dressed in his colourful hunting feathers, weapons close at hand. His face emitted obvious frustration. "Tsu'tey," I said. "What are you doing here?" I was surprised to find him there. The last time I had seen him at all was a week ago at target practice. He occasionally comes by to briefly comment on my stance, and then he would walk away to his own target. Rude or not, I appreciated his help. I needed all the help I could get if I wanted to pass iknimaya.

"I should ask you the same question." He glanced back to (what I thought was) the tapirus and growled dangerously. "You ruined our hunt." Tsu'tey turned to face across the clearing. My eyes followed his as realization hit me square in the face. Disappointment filled me as I realised the tapirus was no longer there. "Follow it." He said to his hidden hunters before facing me with a scowl. "You have no business interfering with us. We are gathering food for the tribe. What are you doing out here alone?" His tone dripped with anger and frustration. Oh yes, he was very angry.

It was then Teacher landed right beside us with great swiftness. "I see you Tsu'tey. I apologize. I was not aware we were interfering with your hunting. If I was, I would have trained my student elsewhere. Unsurprisingly, we did not hear you." He threw in the compliment.

Tsu'tey glanced back and forth between us. "You are her teacher Ta'hik?"

"Yes, as of six weeks ago."

"I did not hear either of you." He said rather coldly. I flinched at his tone.

"Thank you. I have taught her well then. How goes today's hunt then?"

Tsu'tey's sighed as his face turned burdened. "It has not been well. Creatures are growing scarce near Kelutral and we are being forced to travel deeper in to the forest to scavenge for what little we can find."

"I am sorry." I said to him. Tsu'tey only looked at me. "I have ruined your hunt." I had to admit, I felt a little bad for causing the tapirus to flee. The hunters were doing so much to ensure that the tribe did not starve in the winter. "Is there anything I can do?" I said earnestly.

He continued to stare down hard at me. "The only way you can help is by passing iknimaya as quickly as possible and become an honoured warrior." I saw him glance at Ta'hik's smile before turning sour. "But of course, I do not know if you are able to hide in any tree with all that extra meat." He sneered, his finger harassing my stomach.

My mouth dropped. The nerve of this na'vi! Was he insinuating that I was fat? I was right! All this time he was just making fun of me at target practice, and now he was doing it again. "I am not fat." I growled.

"That is what they all say."

"You smelly, putrid, stinking, rank, pungent, foul, rotten, fvaup! You really have no consideration of anyone else but yourself don't you?"

Tsu'tey's eyes narrowed. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"It means you are a self-centered, narcissistic, selfish, egocentric txìm!"

He hissed. "You are such a skxawng that Eywal ngatu ke kameie."

I snarled at the insult. Eywa definitely sees me. She does! Of course she does! If she does not, I would not still be alive. I would've been killed by the nantang. Extremely offended, I crouched and lunged at him. His abnormally tall physique however, worked at his advantage as he held me in place at an arms length away. "Perhaps if we cannot find any meat this cool season, we may borrow some of yours for dinner."

Desperate to get free to scratch at his face and spoon his eyes out, I thrashed about. His feral smile grew wider at my futile attempt.

"Calm student, calm." Ta'hik's voice interrupted. He stepped in and laid a hand on my shoulder to bring my temper down. It worked. "Tsu'tey, I would be nice if you put my student down."

Tsu'tey looked surprised at Ta'hik for a moment before speaking. "Yes, of course." He dropped me unceremoniously on my butt. I refrained from muttering curse words at him.

Ta'hik gave a friendly smile which confused me greatly. I didn't even know if they were friends, acquaintances, or plain enemies! "If you needed my help Tsu'tey, all you needed to do was ask." He said. "No need to torment my student."

It was a joke. They were joking. So were they friends? Or acquaintances? They did not seem like enemies. Tsu'tey took a moment to think. "That would be greatly appreciated. The more help we can get, the more we may bring back to Kelutral."

"Then it is settled." He turned to me. "We will continue tracking another day. I trust you to run back to Kelutral young one." I grimaced. Ta'hik seems to have adapted into calling me "young one" a lot. He knows that it irritates me but he does it anyways to either tease or chastise me. Neither one of those situations are good. I nodded at him and began to walk away. I heard him say, "I see you", before disappearing off into the forest with Tsu'tey.

The shadows of the trees made fascinating patterns on the forest floor as I ran home. Six weeks ago, I would not have been able to run back on my own. That was partly because I was almost never in the forest, and Ki'at had only taken me once. But since I have been with Ta'hik, running the perimeters with him every day has familiarized me with Kelutral's surroundings very well. I no longer left my bow and arrows in my hammock nor did I keep my herb knife with me rather than my hunting ones. It was just more convenient this way since I spend most of my time training rather than playing with plants. With Kelutral in sight, I decided to busy myself with finding Mo'at. Since Father had caught me running off with Ret'ha, I had not examined a single fern or herb since.

I found Mo'at at the outskirts, surrounded by a group of children as she taught them about tawtsngal.

"So if I want to go big and tall like Father, do I just drink the water from tawtsngal?"

Mo'at laughed. "If it works like that young Yawtu, then we would all be as tall as Kelutral." The group snickered as the child known as Yawtu blushed. Mo'at noticed me in the distance and smiled. "Now young ones, go back to your families and prepare for the dinner bonfire. Perhaps you may help start the fire today." And they were off.

I went up to Mo'at and kneeled next to her. "May I help?"

"Do you still need to ask Tal'ya?" she smiled at me. Her forehead creased and her smile lines deepened. Age was getting to the former Tsahik. I smiled at her and borrowed her extra herb knife from one of the two baskets she had with her. "So," she began. "what have you been up to Tal'ya, because surely you have not been with me." Her eyes twinkled with amusement.

Her meaning was not in her words, but it was certainly in her tone and the peculiar way she was peering at me. "What are you insinuating Mo'at?"

She hummed as if she did not hear me, her head circled and danced to her melody. It was then that I heard the words in her song. "…your love shines the way into paradise, so I offer my life as a sacrifice, and live through your love, and live through your…"

"Mo'at!" I said, flushing, and deeply embarrassed.

"Are you then?" she smiled, looking like a gossiping old woman. I didn't realise Mo'at had this side of her. No one in the clan has certainly seen it.

"No, I am not." I said, with a pink tint to my cheeks. "I do not know where you even got such an idea!"

"Call it my intuition by your new attitude." She said.

"My new attitude?" I tilted my head, inquiring.

"Yes, and the fact that you have not visited me in so…"

"Describe my new attitude Mo'at. Please."

Mo'at just stared at me for a long time. The mother-daughter atmosphere suddenly disappeared, and the cold wind passed through our braids. "I did not understand it at all at first. "she began. "You are still in the body of a child, yet you hold yourself like an adult." She resumed chopping up some roots as she continued. "Of course, all adults have children in them, and all children have an adult in them to an extent." She paused. "But if it were the first time I had seen you, I would have thought you have long passed your iknimaya. You are different now Tal'ya, for no explicit reason, you are more like an adult than a child, and others have noticed too. I did not fully understand it then, and I do not fully understand it now. The first day you were still a child and the next morning you're an adult. Things change much too quickly with you, and I had thought perhaps it was because of a male na'vi, which I believe you when you say it is not."

After she had finished I had also resumed pulling out roots. "It is good you believe me because there is no male na'vi." I said. Then I lied. "I do not know what had triggered my new change, but I feel it." Mo'at looked up from her work. "I feel it! And now more than ever, I want to pass iknimaya and become one of The People. I want everyone to know that I am a member of the tribe. I will be respected. That is what I have been doing, Mo'at. I have been training. Did Neytiri not tell you I am no longer under Ki'at's guidance?"

"Yes, she has. You are under Ta'hik's guidance are you not? Truthfully, I had expected you to have taken a liking to Ta'hik."

"Mo'at!" I exclaimed, my cheeks aflame once more. "It is not like that. I have indeed taken a liking to Ta'hik, but it is not intimate. He had once given me advice during target practice and I found it more useful than any of the advice Ki'at has given me. I thought as a teacher and student, he was more compatible."

"If you say so, I will believe you." She said. "But you had no interest whatsoever to become a hunter before. What has sparked this aspiration?"

I looked down, avoiding her eyes. "That, I am not so sure of. I just know that this is what I want to do, and for the first time, I am following my instincts and it has not led me to a horrible place. I feel…" I paused, looking for the word. "happier."

Mo'at gave me a wide smile, the widest I have ever seen her give. "As long as you are happy." Standing up, she gathered the baskets and I immediately helped her with one of the two. "This is a good change, Tal'ya, a very good change."

It was nearly an hour before dinner and Mo'at and I were carrying full baskets back to Kelutral. Mo'at had insisted I go up to the fire first but when I had protested she had stole the basket out of my hands and climbed back to her own quarters. Clad with nothing left to do, I walked back to Kelutral with my thoughts.

Mo'at had always been a second mother to me. Sometimes she does not show it when she is upset with me, but deep down, I know she loves me just as much as my real mother does. I remember the first time I had talked to Mo'at, one on one. It was after a young na'vi had teased me about my eyes. He said they were as big as his backside! I was crying that day in the thicket, when Mo'at who happened to be in the area at the time, found me. It was back when Old Kelutral still stood.

"What troubles you child?"

I sniffed and calmed myself so my sentence would be coherent. This was after all the Tsahik. I must show her respect. "Wa'yu said my eyes were as big as his backside! He said they were too big to be normal." I sputtered the last word.

Mo'at stared at me, evaluating the size of my eyes. "You do have abnormally large eyes young Tal'ya." She said. I whimpered and more tears spilled out because it was confirmed that what Wa'yu had said was true. Mo'at took my face in her hands. "But all the better to see with. You will be able to see what others cannot."

That was the first day Mo'at had shown me what sort of medicine she was working with, and it was the also the first day that I found my strange attachment to plant life.

The solid pounding of pa'li echoed from the forest. Normally, the hunters came back in either a triumphant or disappointed attitude. Today however, it was neither. There was something urgent about the pounding of the pa'li's strong legs, something troubling. I sharply turned to face the forest and saw Ta'hik leading the group, riding next to an unoccupied pa'li. He had another na'vi in his hands, a bloodied warrior. The warrior looked weakened and his face was contorted as if he were in pain. Blood was oozing out of his wounded shoulder. I could feel my own blood run cold.

Tsu'tey.

There was only one thing to do in this type of situation: alert Tsahik and let her tend to him at Vitraya Ramunong. There, he would be in front of Eywa, and he would have a better chance in healing. But there was no time. I was no medicinal expert, but it was common sense that Tsu'tey was heavily injured and would not last long if he was not treated immediately. There will be no time. "Teacher!" I called out. I ran as fast as I could to match the pace of the unoccupied pa'li, and connected my queue with it as I jumped on. The pa'li shuddered, but continued to run. "We must bring him to the Tree of Souls. Now! There is no time." I quickly racked my brains for the best solution.

"I will go off into the forest to scavenge for paywll, while you bring him to Vitraya Ramunong. Someone else will go alert Tsahik to meet us there."

"But…"

I could already guess what Ta'hik was going to say: "But that is not procedure! We need to see Tsahik immediately!" Teacher or not, I honestly did not care what was procedure and what was not. Tsu'tey was a valued member of the clan. He is not like me.

"But nothing! There is no time, we must go!" I grabbed the queue that was unoccupied on his pa'li and steered it with my own towards the Tree of Souls. Did he not understand how serious the situation was? "Come!"

Ta'hik looked back at the other hunters. "Alert Tsahik to meet at Vitraya Ramunong!"

As we got to the clearing, Ta'hik and I had separated paths. Paywll, or "water plant", were found in the denser parts of the forest, quite near the Tree of Souls actually. I could hear Tsu'tey yell in pain as Ta'hik got him off of his pa'li and laid him down. The fvaup owes me one for this. I spotted a cluster of healthy looking paywlls at the base of a wilting tree. Trust a water plant to absorb all the nutrients in the soil, leaving none for others.

In my haste, I nearly forgot that paywlls occasionally eject spines when much too many leaves are pulled until it had actually happened to me. I grabbed a handful of the top most leaves and was treated as a target during bow wielding practice by the plant. I had accidently cried out louder than I had intended to, causing Ta'hik to call for me. "Tal'ya?" I heard him yell through the dense trees.

"I'm okay." I said, ignoring my bloody hand and making my way back to him, with two handfuls of paywll leaves. I hurried towards Tsu'tey's mess of a body. "In these leaves are substances that contain healing properties." I said, as I showed him how to squeeze the juices out of the leaves. "Apply them like this, see?" Ta'hik nodded, mimicking my actions. "Use the rest of the leaves on him, while I go find some healing liquids from tawtsngal plant. The leaves will only begin the healing process and cease the injuring, but does not help with the pain."

"Your hand Tal'ya." Ta'hik looked at my beaten hand worriedly.

I followed his eyes and took a quick glance at my hand. Strange, it was worse it was a few moments ago. But there is still no time to treat me. Paywlls were not poisonous, and this was still considered a minor, albeit bloody, injury. "It is nothing." I said. "Tsu'tey needs the liquids. I will be back."

As I was about to disappear into the forest again, I heard the arrival of Tsahik and some other members of the clan. "Ta'hik!" she exclaimed in relief as Tsu'tey seemed to still be alive.

Tal'ya, do not forget about the water from tawtsyngal! I thought to myself, as I quickly dashed back into the forest. I remember when tawtute GraceAugustine was at the Tree of Souls, Mo'at told me to retrieve some tawtsyngal liquids from a nearby tawtsyngal site, just in case.

True to my memory, I tore off a cup, and ran back to the party. Although Tsahik had arrived, I noticed Ta'hik still applying paywll to Tsu'tey's wounds while Neytiri was chanting while she worked to seal up the larger gashes. She painted over the cleaned and treated ones with her own mixed substance. "Tsahik," I said. "I have retrieved water from tawtsyngal."

Neytiri opened her closed eyes and signalled for me to pour it in his mouth. It was understood that she could not stop chanting. I gulped. If Tsu'tey was conscious, he would indeed rather die than allow me to pour anything in his mouth. Well, he will have to kill me later then I suppose. Perhaps Neytiri or Ta'hik will protect me from his wrath. Carefully, I lifted his head slightly to ensure he was comfortable and tipped the cup to pour the liquid inside his mouth.

He choked.

Oh my gosh. I'm going to be honest, this was an extremely difficult chapter to write. I do not know how long it lay open and not have any progress done.

Ugh, I actually intended this chapter to end elsewhere but sadly, I really wanted to post this chapter tonight, and it's so damn hot in my room that I just can't take it anymore. Because it did not end where I had intended it to end, this chapter is not as good as I had hoped for, but because I know exactly how this chapter was supposed to end, I can push myself to write a wonderful Chapter 5.

A note to all writers: Do not attempt to type while tanning. Your laptop will overheat and start to lag. And then, it will crash. Just speaking from experience.

The lyrics in which Mo'at was singing was by Leona Lewis and is called I See You. It's the theme song for Avatar, which is weird because I never knew there was a theme song! Anyways, it's okay, not impressive or anything but I thought it would tie into the story well.

Another note, all plants and creatures mentioned in the story are all legitimate in James Cameron's movie or game. Further information on them can be found on James Cameron's Avatar Wiki. The only thing that is not legitimate is the fvaup plant in which Tal'ya enjoys to call Tsu'tey.

Instead of writing it in a P.S. note I would like to give the BIGGEST THANKS to all reviewers and alert-ers/favourite-rs of Chapter 3. You have no idea how much motivation it gave me when I really had my doubts for this chapter, and didn't think I would be able to complete it. Even if it is just a "Good job!", it still makes me really happy. So a BIG THANKS to: Mizuki Assassin of the Mist, LeeXMichelle, Djinn17, RENZEI27, Na'viWolf, StephiHope, lilmisspurplesunshinee and Soccer11 for reviewing! Every form of feedback is greatly appreciated and I just want to get that out to everyone.

I'm just restating the above sentence, but I always do this. So here it is:

Feedback and reviews are greatly appreciated.

-smellysoap