I'm trying to make this chapter read differently from how I normally write. This chapter is in Neytiri's perspective and she thinks in Na'vi, so if you notice the writing seems sloppier, I did that on purpose. Ideally writing na'vi in english would mean literally deviating from proper English structure (subject-verb order, blah blah blah) but for your sake and my own I tried just altering my sentences.
I proofread this a couple of times, but I get the feeling it could have benefited from a few more. However, I also haven't given you guys a real chapter in around two weeks, so I took the hit with this one.
Zero Bias
Norm is a good person, and far more intelligent than most Omaticaya. He was not as foolish as Jake when he tried to assimilate: he knew Na'vi customs such as greetings and never filled in any gaps in his cultural understanding with human traditions. The worst Jake had ever done was the first time I brought him to my father, and the skxawng tried to shake his hand! Such a foolish mistake had almost gotten him killed, and all he could respond with was that dumb look on his face. Norm never made those kinds of mistakes. But his science clouds his mind. He could learn a lifetime of lessons on the balance and Eywa quicker than everyone else, but he cares more of his 'sam-pulls' than the wisdom we have to offer.
I admit that I have made less effort to understand his view as he has of ours, but how can I respect the ways of one who treats life with such disrespect? He tears apart small life and puts them into these clear containers as if they were lesser than himself. He takes them away to do some terrible experiment to for some pointless reason, and the things he takes never come back.
I do like that it is he and not one of the others that has gotten close to us. We allowed those other dream walker scientists to stay, but they were not always accepted. They would come to our camp huddled together, their alien clothing covering up the beauty that is the Na'vi form.
Norm, on the other hand, had accepted the Omaticaya cloth. I think the humans have something similar, because I had heard Norm talking to Jake about it the first day he wore the loincloth:
He and Jake were sitting by a tree one day and were just talking; idle banter that didn't seem to have any meaning that happened to float over to the cooking fire. "So, uh, Jake… how long does it take to get used to the man-thong?" Laughing followed, which left me a little confused and curious. "Just give it a few days and it'll grow on you. Besides, don't you want to show off those sexy legs?" Jake laughed, and although I wasn't looking I could tell Norm was blushing. Every time I asked about some of the words they used they would strain themselves not to laugh and change the subject.
These scientists, though! Their pants make the most irritating swishing noise as they moved and their bags look like deformities on their backs. It is not that we do not accept them, there is just a… tension, whenever they come. We sense that they need to think over their movements so as not to offend us, they barely make eye contact, and they tend not to greet those that pass by them. They are creatures out of their home, among an unfamiliar people. They did not make the effort that Norm has, and for that we prefer him.
It is for one of his science trips (They call them a difficult word: expedishuns) that we are moving through the woods. Jake had to give the morning hunting group his blessing, so it was just Norm and I walking through the woods so early in the day. It is another thing Norm is good at that Jake still has trouble with: he wakes up early like an Omaticaya. When the star brings daylight he arises, just as everyone except Jake. How do they get anything done on Earth if they waste precious time like this? It is another custom of sky people that I do not understand.
Here we are: me standing over a kneeling Norm, eyes seeing for trouble, bow at my side. There is a certain tree he wished to look at. There are plenty of trees all around, why did he need this one?
He had just scraped some moss with a very small hunting knife, even smaller than they normally would use. He had explained when I questioned him about this peculiar instrument that these were human-sized tools. They had run out of 'clean' knives made for a Na'vi, so these little tiny things were all they had left. 'Why do you need clean ones?' I had once asked. He talked of contamination. As if he was not the one contaminating the life he was destroying.
He stood up and took a very, very strange instrument from his bag. It was like a hunting knife handle, but where the blade would be was a large, skinny claw. He pulled down a leaf from the tree and clamped it between the pincers. The thing beeped and he removed it from the leaf, looked at the handle, then muttered something and wrote something else down.
Normally he is too busy doing his little experiments to notice my look of annoyance. It is something I never hid. Why should I? He knows I do not like this kind of activity, so why hide the expression I feel when he already knows I feel it?
Whether I like his work or not, the forest forgives. The holes he makes in trees heal over, the branches he cuts grow back, and the animals he captures are replaced by others. It is not the effects of his work, though, it is the process. He just swoops in, prods and injects things, and leaves just as quickly as he arrived. He is ungrateful to Eywa for allowing him to do his experiments, and for what reason? To know what something is made of? He already knows about what something does, why would he want any more?
"What is the point of this?" I finally asked. Ever since the sky people came here and began studying the forest we Omaticaya wondered why they were so obsessed with the little details of everything. I decided now would be as good a time as ever to ask.
"I'm sorry?"
"Why do all of this? This scraping and testing." I repeated. He wasn't the kind to respond with a 'what?' and look foolish. Even when confused his small responses seemed sophisticated, like he had much time to plan out how he would react to things.
He seemed almost relieved that someone finally asked him about this. It was as though he always wanted to explain himself yet did not feel in the position to do so. He gave a small nod of understanding and touched his forehead, only didn't include the customary 'I see you.' This gesture is a customary Na'vi introduction into a discussion. It means we are now on equal footing, and is tradition in peace talks and arguments.
"It's the only way to conduct these experiments." He responded.
"But why do the experiments?" I asked.
"To truly understand you need to realize what your presence on this moon means."
"It does not seem to mean anything to your people. You came here and tried to kill us."
"That… that's something I don't want to be tied to. For some of the humans this is just another place to go. But to others, like me, the discovery of life so sophisticated as the Na'vi is the most wonderful thing to have ever happened." Of course it is wonderful for him, we are his friends. How can it be bad to have met ones friends?
"We had learned so much about ourselves that we have nothing left to learn. There was simply nothing left. Biology had progressed as far as it possibly could confined to our own planet: we had figured out how every mechanism in nature works and even came up with improvements to some of them. To master biology truly meant you had reached the end of your field. And then, one day, we found this planet." He had paused.
"Now, there are entirely new avenues of life to study, to learn from-"
"This sounds like the beginning of the logic that brought the greedy sky people." I said accusingly. I couldn't help it; it felt like he was treating our planet like a stone that he was inspecting. "Your people run out of minerals on your own planet, so you come here to harvest ours. You run out of knowledge, so you come for more."
"Look, the Na'vi mean the world to me as a people, and Eywa as a deity, but the scientist in me still can't help but care about everything because of the scholarly opportunities. I've always had a huge need to learn, and this is the only chance anyone in this field will get of ever discovering new things."
Typical humans. "I don't understand why you humans always need more than you have."
"It's not about greed." He said as he ducked his head down sheepishly. He seemed to be putting down more steps than is needed to get to his point, and I grew more impatient. Now he was trying to skew the truth?
"Then it is about what?" I said the last word with force, with the frustration I was feeling at his logic. His head snapped up.
"You know, back on Earth we aren't lucky enough to have an Eywa. Our God is either a mere idea at worst or an elusive trickster at best." Norm almost spat, which made me pull back a little. Apparently my frustrations were either contagious or mutual.
"A long time ago our religions stated that God has placed our planet at the center of everything. Well, we realized that our planet revolved around our star, and then we realized that our star went around in a galaxy, as did billions of other stars, including your own. Then we realized that our galaxy was one of billions of others. Our universe went from our small, geocentric little solar system to a place so large it was inconceivable. And God was nowhere to be found."
"I-"
"When we couldn't find him in the largest of spaces we looked for him on the smallest of scales. We learned precisely what makes up everything in existence. We discovered fantastic things that seem to spit in the face of logic, yet their existence is not only possible, but necessary. We learned about every force that acts on every piece of matter, we learned about what makes matter what it is, and then we learned what made that substance the way it is. We broke down every single event in the Universe's history, filling countless books on what we have found in the process. Some of the greatest minds in our history have solved some of the greatest problems in existence. And in the end, we found no God."
"That is… very sad." I can't believe I am starting to feel bad for them. It is as if they were being tortured by an unreachable goal.
"One day we found this moon. For around two hundred years all we could ever reasonably hope for was to find a few creatures so small they couldn't be seen. Instead of finding them, we found a planet full of intelligent life. On top of that, the Na'vi have had what we have searched for the two greatest extremes imaginable. You have Eywa; God. Now, can you imagine being Tsu'Tey?" I gulped at the mention of his name. Tsu'Tey suffered a fate we view worse than death: his queue was cut off. He would no longer be able to form Tsahaylu with an Ikran, pa'li, a woman, or Eywa. He chose death over life without any of these, and my life mate took mercy on his spirit and granted his wish.
"You lost your religion?" I asked after reflecting on the point he was making.
"I was… disenchanted. I realized one day as a child that religion doesn't hold up to scientific scrutiny."
"All of this is your way of finding God?"
"Our idea of God is like a person hidden behind countless walls. Eventually I got tired of tearing down walls only to find another one on the other side. Eywa, she isn't behind anything. I'm not tearing down walls so much as getting to know the person behind them."
"Why study these trees and not the ones at the Well of Souls?"
He furrowed his brow and looked me in the eyes, and I could see a glimmer of hope: "Is this an invitation?"
"You are becoming more Omaticaya than human, but you still have yet to be inducted into the tribe. Tradition parts for no one in the time of peace."
"Of course." He said before sighing. I think he had gotten his hopes up, and I feel bad about letting him down. But like I said, our tribe has privileges that are ours alone. "Aside from the fact that I'm not allowed into the Tree of Souls, it's also best to start learning about the most basic and working my way up. On the day I'm allowed to study the Well of Souls I'll be ready to make the most of my time."
"But why do you have to learn facts? Can you not just accept Eywa for what she is?"
"But what is she? Do you truly know?" I responded with silence. "It is customary to greet people by saying 'I See you,' correct?" He said. He was clearly trying another approach. He's a very persistent person.
"You already know this is true."
"Well, how can you See someone you barely know? It carries an intimate connotation that doesn't seem appropriate for someone you have just met. I feel that way with Eywa. In order for me to See her I need to know her."
I gave a friendly smile and put my hand on his shoulder. "When the day comes for you to study Her I hope many will learn."
"Thank you." He responded. He began packing up his supplies and we headed back to the camp.
These human scientists are not as shallow as I had thought. Perhaps teaching one to See is a two-way process for all humans after all.
I know, this is my second chapter in a row involving Norm talking to Neytiri. I tried to mix it up making it from Neytiri's perspective, though. There's still another 2 chapters floating around that involve Norm which I'm going to put a hold on to get some different characters in. Also, I've noticed the way I wrap up a chapter seems shaky, so I would appreciate all input about that.
Also, I just want to point out for anyone who noticed: yes, I got the 'sexy legs' thing from Eily Close's Avatar fic 'Hybrid' and I just wanted to throw that flash back in as a sort of comic relief. Hopefully this plug will make up for it! It is a really great story that I highly recommend for anyone who hasn't already started reading it. It's far better than what I've been writing so if you like this go read hers/his!
