The vines slid closed behind Tsu'tey, leaving him alone with the strange woman once more. He shifted slightly as she prodded at his leg, quickly stilling again when she turned her eyes on him sternly. She didn't say anything, returning to attending to his leg, and the silence stretched on.

After a couple of minutes he couldn't stand it any more. "Tsu'tey said you were a..." He struggled with the word. "Tsahik?"

She nodded, the movement sending the long strings of beads in her complex headdress clinking together faintly, like wind chimes in a light breeze. It hung down on each side of her face, connection at her collarbones, holding what looked to be a small knife. "That is correct."

He bit lis lip, still confused but too awkward to ask more. She'd taken care of him the last couple of days, been caring and considerate - if not overly friendly. Stern, but that seemed to be something of a theme among these people - and had given him no reason to be wary of her. Still, he couldn't help but be a little intimidated.

Thankfully she didn't wait for him to fill the silence, continuing all on her own. "I heal, I advise, but above all I hear the will of Eywa and share her teachings with the clan."

"Eywa?" It wasn't the first time he'd heard the name. Tsu'tey had mentioned it once or twice, but he'd never explained it in any detail and he, occupied by so many other questions, had never thought to ask more. "Who is she?"

"Much was taken from you when you lost your memory." She said, and there was a deep sadness to her voice that left him feeling slightly uncomfortable. "Eywa is the mother - the Goddess. She is the one who gives life, and it is to she that it returns when it has run its course."

He opened his mouth to ask another question but she held up a hand, silencing him. "Do not worry yourself. It will return to you in time."

"And if it doesn't?" He asked urgently. People kept saying things, making vague promises he'd get better, but none of them had said anything about what would happen in the very real possibility that his memory didn't return. Because it had shown no signs of coming back so far - he was just as lost as that first day in the forest!

"Then you will learn again." She said, and the certainly in her voice was absolute. "The Na'vi never turn away from one who is willing to learn, even in a situation as strange as yours."

He was left dumbstruck and settled down to think about it, fiery temper going out as surely as if someone had dumped a bucket of water on it. She took his silence in stride, returning her attention to bandaging his leg as if the whole encounter hadn't happened. He watched her silently from the corner of his eye, but her composure never slipped.

"How long will it take to heal?" He asked quietly, half hoping she wouldn't hear him. There was something intense about her gaze that left him fidgeting, unable to meet her eyes.

"Rest and it will heal quickly." She promised. "In a few weeks you may be able to walk again. With help." She added when his eyes widened hopefully. "But it will take months for a full recovery."

He clenched his fists. He didn't have moths. People were waiting for him. He needed to-

He needed to what?

Burying his face in the bed mat, he groaned, pressing his forehead hard into the mat - until he could feel the pattern of the threads impressed into his skin. "Why can't I remember?"

A hand threaded through his hair and he tensed, not sure what to expect, but she only brushed her fingers back and forth through his hair tenderly.

"You are going through a trail, and it is a difficult one. Do not fear it. You are one of the people, and the clan will take care of you. In time you will heal and Eywa may eventually return your memories to you."

"And after that?" He mumbled hopelessly.

"We wait for the return of the messengers. Your clan might still return to claim you."

He slumped down, defeated. He knew with a certainly he couldn't explain that none of the clans would claim, but if asked he doubted he would be able to produce a single solid reason why. He didn't say any of this, letting himself embrace for a short time the impossible chance that he did belong to one of the clans and that prospect that things maybe were really as simple as they seemed.

It was an illusion, but a comforting one and he clung to it while he could.

"I will let you rest."She said, stroking his hair one last time before standing. "If you are to have guests tomorrow you must sleep and recover."

But she didn't head for the door immediately, instead gathering up a bowl from one of the shelves. Inside was a long piece of coiled twine, woven through with leaves and flowers, each one still intact. She unwound it delicately, taking the looped end and attaching them to a small root on the ceiling, helpfully serving as a hook. That done, she reached into a small pouch on her belt, retrieving a pair of smooth stone and, sticking them together, produced a small spark.

It fizzled out before it could touch the coil, but the next one struck true, catching the bottom end of it and smouldering away. As the embers ate up the first few leaves and flower it released a pale smoke that drifted through the air sluggishly.

"This will help you sleep." She said. The thread continued to smoulder, the bottom smoking away as the ember slowly ate their way higher. Wisps of fragrant smoke drifted away from it, carried on unknown currents, coiling through the air like dancing snakes.

The longer he watched, the more hypnotic they became, the fragrant smell filling his head until all the pains and worries of the day seemed like nothing but a distant dream. He didn't know when he closed his eyes, only that he soon slept.

Tsu'tey returned late the next day. He'd been awake for hours by then, with Mo'at and the healers already checking him over once that morning - Mo'at leaving him with a stern warning not to strain himself.

A few of the other healers lingered after she had gone, pottering around the place grinding up herbs and gathering up old bandages to be washed. They left him alone for the most part, bring him water when he asked but otherwise leaving him in peace. They must have been under orders not to disturb, he realized, because more than one glanced at him, obviously curious, but none approached.

It was a relief in a way not to have people constantly fawning over him, but after a while he almost wished they would come talk to him. The healing chambers, while overflowing with curiosities and intriguing new sights, grew dull after the tenth hour staring at its walls. he could only sleep so much before feeling like he was going to get a splitting headache if he tried to nap away even another hour.

When the vines pulled aside and Tsu'tey finally appeared he would have leapt from his bed if he could have. Instead he settled for smiling and waving Tsu'tey over eagerly, impatient for a distraction.

Tsu'tey approached. He didn't smile exactly but there was a warmth to his eyes that gave him away. He'd spent most of yesterday thinking Tsu'tey was just putting up with him, only to slowly realize that that was just the way Tsu'tey was. His smiles might be smaller than everyone else's, but they were still there.

Tsu'tey sat down beside him. He waved him off when he offered to go get him some water, diving straight back into where they'd left off yesterday. Being stuck in the healing chambers with nothing to do had left him with plenty of time to think over everything Tsu'tey had told him yesterday, and it had left him with another hundred questions buzzing around his head and not one to answer them, since all the healers had been keeping their distance.

"It's called a Palulukan." Tsu'tey explained. He said the name with a sort of reverent fear that he could empathize with entirely. The creature - the Palulukan, he corrected himself - had been immense, and utterly lethal in a way few creatures managed to achieve.

"To escape it was a great feat indeed." Tsu'tey continued. He glanced at his leg, well able to believe it. It's claws had torn through him like so much wet paper, and he didn't doubt that if he'd been even a minute slower he would certainly be dead.

He shrugged, winching regretfully when the movement sent the scratches across his shoulders biting painfully. "It was more luck than anything."

Tsu'tey didn't say anything, but he could tell he didn't believe him. Quickly looking to change the subject, he continued. "There were these monkey things too."

"Mo'anki?" Tsu'tey said, sounding out the word. "I do not know such a creature. What is a mo'anki?"

He frowned. "Um- It's like an animal that lives in the trees. It swings around, eating fruit and things."

"A syaksyuk?" Tsu'tey offered. "They are blue, with four arms? Only two eyes?"

He nodded, a little amused. Only two eyes. Didn't most thing have only two eyes? But then, he thought back to the Palulukan, and the herd of 'angtsik, even that little fan lizard he'd seen. All of those had more than two eyes, so maybe Tsu'tey wasn't too far off the mark after all.

Another oddity to think about.

"It was weird, though. They... took care of me, I guess. Brought me food." Everything Tsu'tey had said in the last two days hadn't explained that, and he still found himself baffled by the whole event.

"Ah, that is not so much of a surprise." Tsu'tey said. "The clan is on good terms with the nearby troupes. Mo'at's unil'ioang is a syaksyuk. She had bonded with them, and so the troupes share her will. They only did as she would have wanted them to do."

"Bond?" He asked curiously.

Tsu'tey sat up straighter. "You do not know."

He sent Tsu'tey an impatient look, making a self-explanatory gesture at his head. "I can't remember, okay?"

"Forgive me." Tsu'tey said, looking genuinely regretful. He waved him off, not holding a grudge.

"So what's the bond?"

Tsu'tey leaned in, eyes lighting up as he went to explain. The conversation created more questions than it answered, and when Mo'at returned they were still at it, fascinated. Eventually she was forced to shoo Tsu'tey away or risk disturbing the check up completely.

Every day Tsu'tey continued to visit him in the healing chambers, and while his visits passed quickly in a flurry of never-ending questions or friendly debate, the hours in between seemed to stretch on eternally.

The scratched on his back had mostly healed up by now and bruises on his side from his encounter with the 'angtsik faded to a motley yellow, but his leg remained agonisingly slow to heal. Even when he could finally sit up he could barely managed to limp a couple of paces before it gave out beneath him and the healers descended, scolding him for getting up so early into his healing.

Out of sheer desperation to escape the boredom, he struck up an acquaintance with some of the healers, coaxing them into ignoring their orders not to disturb him so that eventually even the most stubborn among them would chat to him idly as they went about their tasks, sharing news from the hometree, of the hunt, even random gossip from their sister's friend's cousin, and whatever else helped the endless hours pass more quickly.

Tsu'tey's visits were still the highlight of his day. While the healers provided surprisingly good company, they always had something else to do and often couldn't spare the time to talk to him as much as he'd want. Tsu'tey on the other hand seemed to have no compunction against spending the whole afternoon sitting with him, telling him this and that - from the mundane to things he could barely imagine were even possible.

"What do you do all day then, when you're not here?" He asked one day, when Tsu'tey arrived later than usual.

"I train and I work to help the clan." Tsu'tey replied.

"Train for what?" He asked, curious.

"To be a warrior. Mo'at and Eytukan have decreed that I may take part in the next Unaltiron, and if that goes well, the Iknimaya. Until then I must train even harder, so when the time comes I can prove myself to the warriors and be accepted as one of them in turn."

He was a little taken aback. "You want to be a soldier." He'd couldn't imagine anyone voluntarily signing up for that, especially when the Omaticaya were at peace and had been for so long. "But why?"

"A warrior." Tsu'tey corrected. "It is a great honor to serve the clan as a warrior, to protect and guard it's people from harm."

"Who would you fight?"

"It is true that in times of peace, warriors are often no different than hunters, but should something happen they are the first to step forward - to do what has to be done for the protection of the clan. Mostly that involves driving of predators that come too close to the hometree, but..." Tsu'tey was troubled by the idea, his frown growing ever deeper.

"But what?" He prompted.

"It is nothing, a possibility that may never come to pass. Still, it is better to be prepared."

He couldn't get anything more out of Tsu'tey no matter his wheedling, and eventually gave up, turning to easier topics of conversation. But look on Tsu'tey's face remained, making him uneasy. Tsu'tey was worried about something - the clan was worried about something - and he wasn't sure what.

"Alright then." He shrugged. "Tell me more about these floating mountains." He still had trouble wrapping his head around the idea. In his head all he could imagine was small pointy spires sitting on the top of clouds, floating about on the breeze and swaying to and fro. It hardly seemed real. "How big are they?"

Tsu'tey nodded, and settled into to explain, calmly arguing his way through his many incredulous questions. The dark look on his face faded after a while, melting away beneath the barrage of his increasingly strange questions, and he felt a small flicker of satisfaction.

"But seriously, seriously - don't look at me like that - would they still float if you turned them upside down?"

Tsu'tey just stared at him, bewildered and more than a little amused. "Why would you turn them upside down, and how would you ever manage such a feat?"

"Fine, whatever. You said there were waterfalls right? Where does the water come from? Surely it must all run off after a while, and then there'd be no waterfall, but you said they were always there?"

"True rain rarely comes except during the monsoon season." Tsu'tey said, hazarding a reply. "But the mists rise every morning from the jungle, fading by midday. The water has to go somewhere, so perhaps it collections on the mountains?"

"Maybe there are floating lakes." He said, sitting up. "Do you think there could be? The water could accumulate during the monsoon, the mists, whatever, and then remain, slowly draining off all year round!"

"I do not know if that is possible." Tsu'tey replied, skeptical. "Some of the mountains are very small."

"Then maybe they have small lakes." He said, just to be contrary.

"We will have to go look when you are healed." Tsu'tey said, smirking. "Just to end this debate once and for all."

"Yeah." He replied more mutedly. "Once I'm healed."

The idea of what what to come still troubled him to some extent. Without his memory he had no idea what to expect - no idea where he would go, what he would do once he had finished his stay with the Omaticaya. The restless feeling that something was waiting for him something important, had not abated, and it kept him up at night - searching hopelessly for any indication, any stray thought of what it might be.

None came, and over time he was slowly forced to admit that perhaps this was one mystery he would not be able to solve. The thought grated at him, leaving him all the more appreciative of Tsu'tey and the distraction he provided.

Tsu'tey waited for him a moment, looking concerned but trying to hide it, before resuming the conversation once more. He was gradually becoming used to these mood swings of his, and had learned the best way to deal with them was to ignore them and keep going. He would tell him if he really wanted to be alone, and until then Tsu'tey would provide the best distraction he could, keeping his mind on happier things.

Sometimes Tsu'tey couldn't help but wonder, though. Did the boy have a family waiting for him, siblings and friends and rowdy cousins? Was that why he sometimes looked so sad. But he never asked. No answers would be forth coming, and he didn't want to trouble the boy more than he already was.

Two weeks in and he was finally allowed his first glimpse of the world outside the healing chambers. Tsu'tey was not allowed to take him far as per Mo'at's orders, but the walkway just outside the healing chambers she allowed. It took the help of Tsu'tey and another of the healers, Ji'nai, both of them carrying him more than supporting him, but he made it nonetheless.

He was panting when they set him down, out of breath and sweating, but it was more the pain than anything. When he had winced the first time, stumbling, they had almost turned around, barely halfway to the door, but he hadn't allowed it, glaring them into submission with the promise that if they didn't help him he would make the trip himself.

"Alone. Without help." He glowered. Ji'nai shot him a reproachful look, but gave in, and Tsu'tey, already becoming well accustomed to his stubbornness didn't try and argue.

He leaned against the wall, head tilting back and gritting his teeth through the pain. His leg throbbed angrily, throwing out flares of pain like a fire, burned down to embers, that had just had a bucket of gasoline chucked on it. It burned with his pulse, each beat of his heart seeming to strike a hammer to the flames making them soar higher. Perhaps Ji'nai was right, perhaps it had been too much, but he didn't give a damn.

If he had stayed in the healing chambers one minute longer he would have gone insane.

Ji'nai had run off to get him something to ease the pain, but Tsu'tey remained beside him, watching him struggle to his breathing even. He could see he didn't approve, but he didn't comment, respecting his wishes.

"Why- Why is healing so slow?" He asked between the breaths. "I feel like I've already been here an eternity and I've barely healed."

"Perhaps the medicine are better where you come from," Tsu'tey said, "but no matter where you were such a serious injury would require a slow recovery."

He shook his head. He knew he'd been injured before - his arm? He thinks - something serious anyway, and yet that had barely taken a day to heal. One night. Maybe? He thinks? The more he thought about it, the less clear the details became.

"Maybe you're right." He must have been imagining it. No serious wound could be healed over night. He might have lost his memory but he wasn't stupid - such a thing was impossible.

He was thankful when Ji'nai returned, producing a bowl of foul smelling liquid for him to drink. It wasn't the first time he'd sampled this particular delicacy, and while it tasted absolutely awful it had an undeniable effect on the pain - numbing his leg almost completely. He gulped it down eagerly, trying not to breath through his nose as he did.

Ji'nai removed the bowl but lingered, continuing to fuss until he gave him a tired smile and assured him he was alright. In other conditions he might have snapped at him to go away, but he had brought this upon himself, both the walk and the fussing. No doubt Ji'nai would not do it if he had not encouraged them all to talk to him, fussing included.

With the pain in his leg already starting to recede, he turned to get a better look of the hometree.

It was a strange sight to say the least. Everywhere he looked wood grew in enormous proportions, making up every wall he saw. It was like being in the hollow trunk of an enormous tree - and in a sense that was exactly where he was. Except the closer he looked, the more he realised it wasn't just one tree, but half a dozen smaller ones all coiled together, winding around each other as they rose into the sky.

He couldn't see what the outside branches were doing, but it looked as if each level in the hometree was made up to its own branch growing inwards, spreading outwards into a patchy network that made up a level, leaving gaps through the floor sometimes meters across. And the structure wasn't just flat, with wide offshoots of the branches sometimes going up or down connecting different levels in a complex tangle.

From where he was sitting he could just see one such gap, and when he peered down he was surprised to find himself a lot higher up than he had anticipated. There had to be at least half a dozen other levels below them, each one joined by a spiral of branches that grew straight up through the center of the hometree, piercing through each level and continuing upwards.

A double helix he realized, and too perfectly formed to have been grown naturally. He turned to Tsu'tey. "How was it made?"

Tsu'tey smiled a little, Ji'nai sending him an openly pleased look, grinning, both flattered by his obvious awe at the hometree. "The clan has lived here since the hometree was first planted. Our ancestors gathered the seeds, arranged them, and when they started to grow they shaped them. Every generation since has continued their work for a thousand years - creating the home of the Omaticaya."

He shuddered, looking back at the hometree with an entirely new light in his eyes. It was different seeing it and knowing that every branch, every coincidentally well placed coil was in fact the product of centuries of work.

"Thats- " He wanted to say something, some praise, some admiration, but words failed him. The scale of it, of all the work that had gone into it, was immense, beyond what he could imagine.

Tsu'tey smiled, and this time it wasn't a half-smile shy and hidden beneath layers of duty and stenness and the image of what a warrior should be. It was open, radiant.

Beautiful.

He turned to him, stumbling over the words in the haste to get them out. "Tell me more."

And Tsu'tey did.

His visits outside the healing chamber continued to grow ever longer over the next two weeks. One of the healers always accompanied them, but he found he minded their company less and less. He'd come to know quite a few of them well over the last couple of weeks, and he would almost count them as friends.

Ji'nai wasn't always able to come with them, but when he did it was with obvious pleasure. His endless fascination with everything seemed to amuse them, his questions about the most basic, sometimes even silly things, more than once driving them to laughter.

Still, he thought, perhaps that it was simple that, seeing each thing for the first time, even the most mundane aspects of their lives were a source of fascination and awe. His appreciation of their culture and his eagerness to learn were flattering, as was the obvious awe he showed the works of their people - things so subtle, or sometimes so immense, that they often didn't get remarked on at all.

They stayed mostly on that one level, but even from there there was a dozen different things so see. Through the gaps in the level he could see down into the hometree, all the way down into the ground cavern where the branches gave way, leaving a huge open space, and even up through the higher layers, where hammocks and other strange constructions were visible.

"That's where the clan sleeps." Tsu'tey had said when he'd asked.

"Everyone?" He asked. He'd only gotten a peek at them, but there hadn't been so many, but those he had seen had been large indeed.

Tsu'tey nodded. "They go up for several levels, tied between the branches."

"You have one too then?" He said.

"Families sleep together." Tsu'tey corrected. "It is a way of reaffirming bonds. When we sleep we share the same space, the same air, and in doing so we become closer. Children sleep with their parents until they become adult members of the clan, and when they mate they build a one for their new family, with the help of their old."

"Isn't it dangerous, sleeping over a drop like that?" Some of the hammocks have hung directly over a gap in the level. If anyone fell of in their sleep they could plummet through the hometree, perhaps all the way to the ground cavern if they didn't meet their fate sooner on one of the lower branches.

"Not really." Tsu'tey said. "If the hammock is good it will protect you from falling. That is why all the family helps make it - partly to share their spirits together, joining two families as one, but also so that their parents can teach them, as their parents taught them."

He didn't feel entirely reassured by that. He didn't have much of a fear of heights himself, but even he would have trouble getting to sleep over a fifty meter fall.

"I have never seen anyone fall off one." Tsu'tey added reassuringly.

That... didn't really help. He shook his head. "I believe you." Still, he glanced at the hammocks cautiously from then on. That idea would take some getting used to.

They'd been walking around for a while now and his leg was starting to act up again. He still wasn't able to walk by himself yet, but at least it no longer took Ji'nai and Tsu'tey's combined efforts to keep him upright. Ji'nai and the other healers continued to tag along even despite this, waiting at the ready in case something happened and he needed to be rushed back to the healing chambers.

Even with Tsu'tey's help he was starting to wince with each step, and so they called it a day, heading back to the hometree, Ji'nai stepping in when he leg became too painful halfway back and almost collapsed beneath him.

He was always exhausted after their walks, but this time they had pushed a little further than usual and his leg was paying the price for it. They set him down gently on his bed mat, and he gladly accepted Ji'nai's offer to get some water.

He'd been receiving more visitors of late, outside Tsu'tey and the healers. Other clan members, growing more bold as they heard news of his continuing recover sometimes stopped by to give him their well wishes. He met them with as much friendliness as he could muster, quashing down the terrible sense of awkwardness when these strangers came to meet him.

But somehow it was less awful than he expected. Each one introduced themselves, some staying to chat for a while but it was always a meeting between strangers. None pretended to know him better than they did, none clamored for his attention or lingered longer than was comfortable.

He didn't know why he had expected them to, but all the same it was a relief.

Tsu'tey's father had even come and visited once. Ateyo, he'd introduced himself, and explained how it had been his patrol that had found him in the forest - or rather his patrol that Tsu'tey had been a part of when he spotted him.

His company was perhaps the easiest to deal with of all the visitors, if the most strange. When he had nothing to say he was silent, more than happy to just listen to he and Tsu'tey talk, and when he did have something to say he didn't beat about the bush, speaking bluntly and honestly.

A little awkward maybe, but he liked him. Ateyo would never lie, would never pretend to feel something when he didn't, and he couldn't help but admire him for it. It didn't help that Ateyo was a wealth of knowledge about the clan, even more so than Tsu'tey for all his years of experience. No doubt he could have gotten the same information from any adult of the clan, but Ateyo was an easy source, and one with whom he already had some connection through Tsu'tey.

"I think it will be a good thing when the messengers return," Tsu'tey said at one point. Usually he kept well clear of the issues of his memory and the other clans, but for once he broached the subject. "Perhaps then we will learn your name. I do not think it is good to go around referring to you as 'the boy'."

That had been something of a source of annoyance lately. It wasn't so much a problem in one on one conversations, but it get somewhat tiresome to be constantly referred to as 'you, child' all the time, but he didn't have the heart to tell Tsu'tey that the return of the messengers likely wouldn't be any help on that front.

The day was drawing ever closer, and with it his worries grew larger. Tsu'tey had said the closest clan was six days ride away, two by flight, which meant that the messengers could be returning anyday now. No doubt the Omaticaya would let him stay until he was healed, but what about after?

He'd had a long time to think about it, but he still didn't have much of an idea of what he could do. Now that he knew a bit more about the jungle he'd probably manage to survive, so maybe he could visit a couple of the clans? See if they knew anything more? In any case it would give him something to do.

Still, it didn't overcome the fact that until his memory returned he was basically stuck. He didn't know where he should be going, what he should be doing, and from what Mo'at had said it could be months, years, before his memory returned, if it ever did.

Tsu'tey said something and it broke through his thoughts. He turned to answer.

In anycase, the messengers hadn't returned just yet. He still had time before he had to come to a decision.