Disclaimer: Don't own, never will, sadly.
Authors note: So, I'm guessing you guys liked the last chapter, with some fluffy goodness ;) This time, no fluff, just mostly serious stuff and a meeting.
This chapter focuses only on Sarah, no Tsu'tey thoughts at all. He'll have his own chapter next time. :P
Enjoy,
Lunatic.
Chapter 6 – Hell's Gate
After taking a long shower, cleaning her body completely with some very nice shampoo and soap left by someone who returned to Earth, which had been found when they had gone through all the rooms and personal lockers existing at the base.
She even shaved her legs, loving the silky smooth feeling, which she had all the time in her Avatar body as the Na'vi had only hair on their head, the tip of their tail and their eye lashes.
Dressing in clean clothes; soft velvet pajama pants and a simple white top, she let her wet locks fall freely over her shoulders and stepped out of her room, wearing simple flip-flops to finish off her before-I-go-to-bed outfit.
Sarah headed down the hallway, sniffing out the scent of chicken teriyaki being cooked in the mess hall. She was so hungry, haven't fed her human body for more than twelve hours, she felt a bit ravenous to say the least.
Loading up a big pile of chicken teriyaki and vegetables, she sat down at the same table as Max, Gina and Rogan, all three glancing at her, but not saying anything. They continued to glance at her, so much it became annoying.
"I'm gonna eat, sleep until at least noon tomorrow and then I will tell you what happened and why I screamed 'the f-word' when I got out from the link." She said with a dark voice, glaring at her co-workers, who nodded and turned back to their conversation.
Eating up her dinner, she left after about an hour, listening to the conversations, getting updated on what they had been doing in Hells Gate during the days she was in the Village with the Omaticaya.
When she normally returned for the night, she ate a late dinner, even though her mind told her she felt full from the Na'vi meal and that she was really starving. Having two bodies really confused her mind when it came to food. After dinner, she showered and went to bed. Then she got up early, so she would be on time for the morning meal with the Clan, but before she linked up, she drank two nutrition drinks, to tide her human body over the day, so her body could endure the day when she was linked.
It felt weird knowing that she wouldn't go into the link the next morning, on her own decision. It felt good to have a pause, to step away for a while from her other reality, but still, she wanted back as soon as possible, knowing her friends would worry when she didn't join them for the morning meal.
But she couldn't go back yet, not when he was such an ass, and the possibility that the Horse Clan still was with them. One thing she could count on though when being away from her Avatar; no one would move her body without her will. So she was safe from getting transported to the plains in the arms of the violent brute.
Something her Na'vi life had inflicted on her was the habit of sleeping with almost without a thread on her body, save for her underwear and a loose top. Before she was really a prude and slept in pants and a t-shirt, but now, she felt less ashamed of her body and didn't feel the need to cover it up.
Starting to feel more like a Na'vi than a human, she felt scared for losing her humanity, the part of her that was the starting point of all this. It felt like her Avatar body was becoming more and more the real body and her human form was the clone, the copy she used to house her mind in when she needed too.
So many thoughts rushed through her mind as she lay down between the white sheets and the fluffy comforter, also taken from someone who returned to Earth, making it really hard to fall asleep. She blanked out eventually, but not after she had tossed and turned for at least three hours.
"So… how much do you want to know?" Sarah sat down backwards on a chair, resting her arms on the back piece and looking at her friends, Max, Gina and Rogan sitting opposite of her, on a chair each, wanting to hear to as why Sarah had come out early and screamed 'fuck' when doing so.
"What do you think? All of it." Gina said and leaned forward on her chair.
Seeing the males nod in confirmation, she sighed and began telling her story.
"So, yesterday lunch, one of our scouts came down, telling us that some visitors from another clan approached, closing in fast on Pa'li barely giving us any time to prepare anything. Well, I couldn't prepare anything as Neytiri showed me in the direction of Mo'at's nest, where the radio was kept, telling me to stay down or I might be killed. She told me to contact Jake, who conveniently was on a hunting trip with Tsu'tey and the other experienced hunters/warriors."
Seeing she got them hooked, she continued to tell them how she contacted Jake, how scared she was, 'cause those other warriors looked like they could take her and snap her in half like a toothpick.
"Jake and the others were about, I don't know, fifteen-twenty minutes away from Home, when I look up to see three atokirina float in through the long bead drapes that is the door, and after them comes this big, broad warrior brute, who is as surprised to see me as I am to see him. He sees that I am not a true Na'vi, grabs my queue and hauls me out through the doorway, shouting at his leader, the male with the stick through his nose, that he had found an alien pet in Mo'at's nest."
She touched her neck subconsciously, almost feeling the pain once more emanating through her skull, neck and braid.
"Be glad he didn't cut it off, then you would never be able to link with anything again." Rogan said, wincing and also rubbing his neck.
"Yeah, I've been counting my blessings all day." She said, shaking the feeling off of her. "Anyway, the leader of the Horse Clan, Akwey, questioned my reasoning to be here and I told him I was on my way to be an Omaticaya, and he then wondered why Eywa would accept someone like me."
"What did you answer?" Max asked, still not quite believing Eywa really existed, but the whole thing with the War and all… Who knew?
"I didn't know what to say, but while I was on my knees, the brute pulling my queue so hard, I saw something come down from above: it was some atokirina and I said 'Why don't you ask her yourself?' and made him look up. He saw them and they floated down between us and landed on my head, holding on to strands of my hair, as if they dared him to hit me. If he did, then he would probably go to the Pandoran version of hell, I guess." She shrugged and remembered the feeling when the small spirits landed on her forehead. It was like they soothed her, saying that everything would be alright.
"And…? What did he do?" Gina pressed.
"He just stared at the seeds on my head, and then came Jake and his warriors, surrounding us, and I was pushed unceremoniously to the ground. And my braid hurt like hell. Mo'at gave me a very nasty brew, but it helped and I was okay after that."
'More than okay…' She thought, thinking on the soft massage Tsu'tey had given her, helping her and caring for her, for a short moment.
"But if you were okay, why did you want to get out from the link early?" Max looked very confused, and so did the other two. It didn't add up; if she was safe, then it was no reason to go back early.
"Well… we had an early dinner and I sat with the children instead of sitting too close to the brute, who sat not so far from Mo'at and Neytiri and the other warriors to be, where I usually sit. And he came up to me, asking why an alien would have any right to get an ikran. I started to walk away, he yelled he was talking to me, I said I was not and he grabbed my arm, pulling me to him, hissing that I would talk to him." She felt so angry when thinking how he assumed she would be timid and compliant.
"Then I swore in English at him, yelling at him to let me go. He then said that the language was ugly and that when he took me with him, he would never let me speak it again."
Her three friends looked shocked when she said that. A possessive Na'vi was rarely heard of, and the 'taking a woman' even rarer.
"What do you mean 'take you with him'?" Gina exclaimed.
"I don't know really, as his slave? His mate? I have no idea…" She never really asked why the idiot warrior had claimed to take her with him
"Maybe I know…" Max said, thinking. "Grace said something about clans exchanging males and females, if their number is low, like after a war, to prevent cross-breeding in the clan."
"It would make sense…" She said, thinking about it. Maybe it was that they had discussed when she sat with the children.
"How did you get out of his grip?" Rogan asked, knowing Na'vi warriors to be sometimes exceedingly strong.
"I was saved, again… By Tsu'tey and two of his warriors who held arrows under his chin. So he let me go, but not until he rubbed against me like some cat marking his turf." She shuddered and made a disgusted face. "Then Tsu'tey basically said that I was only trouble and that I could go with the other warrior immediately, so I wouldn't be his problem anymore. I snapped then and slapped him hard, telling him that I would rather commit suicide than go with that warrior. Then I came here."
Gina looked like a light just went on in her mind; she stared at Sarah very intently.
"You like him."
"Who?" Sarah was not following her pattern of thought.
"Tsu'tey."
"That moron, the teacher devil from hell that gets me up at an ungodly hour to make me run through the jungle and back, and tells me to be faster, to ride better and to not waste his time, that Tsu'tey?" She had gotten up from the chair, her voice raised quite a bit.
Gina knew they hadn't been friends long, and with Sarah just eating with them, almost never staying long enough to chat, they would technically just be co-workers or acquaintances, Gina felt that she maybe hadn't the right to point out this to the younger woman. But as Sarah didn't really have anyone else to talk to, it should be her and not one of the lab technicians who didn't know squat about being in another body and living another life so to speak.
"Boys, get out." She pointed at the door and the two men complied without too much fuss.
Sighing, Gina turned to the almost fuming young woman.
"I know we're not best friends or anything like that yet. But you have the option to either talk to me, crazy flower lady, or the lab techs who don't know shit about being inside an Avatar body. So, who'll it be?"
"Fine. I was so angry with him, telling me to go with the brute, wanting me out of his hair. I mean, come on, I have tried so hard for the last two months, I can almost ride on my own, I am stronger in my arms, so I can pull back the bow string without trembling anymore and I know about Na'vi etiquette and customs. I don't know what he wants from me."
"You've been trying to please him, make him 'See' you?" Gina questioned.
"Yes, if we're not training, he never looks at me and… oh shit…" She caught herself, realizing what she had said. "I'm trying to make him notice me… it's like fucking high school again, with me trying to get Kyle to see me instead of the bimbos that always were hanging over him."
"Ignore Kyle, focus on Tsu'tey."
"I'm falling for him, maybe, no, that can't be true. He's a stick-in-the-mud, a Na'vi with something sour shoved up his ass, who only laughs when I fall off the horse and make the bowstring hit my arm, telling me what a skxawng I am and that I'll never be a warrior or hunter."
"Let me tell you something. My best friend, Anna, she's still on Earth, reminds me of you a bit. She had this kind of relationship with a guy; he made her so angry sometimes, telling her off, calling her a moron and so on. They grew up together, neighboring children and all that. She told me that every time she went on a date with some other guy, he was always there, ruining it for her; he never left her alone. One night, after one of those dates, she had stalked off, leaving her date and her constant thorn in her side behind. She took a shortcut, good one to take at daytime, but not in the evenings. She was attacked, but saved before she was about to be raped, guess by who?"
Sarah tried to keep up with Gina's fast storytelling and guessed.
"The guy she went on a date with?"
"Nope. The thorn in her side. He beat the fucking daylight of those who dared touch her, lifted her up and carried her home to his place, patched her up and slept on his own couch that night."
"Happily ever after ending next morning?"
"You'd wish." Gina laughed. "The next morning she was kicked out and he told her to wear flats next time, so she could run away from molesters."
"Your point is…?"
"Oh, I was coming to that. When I left Earth six years ago, that happened just before I left. When I got here, I had a message waiting from her. She and her thorn had gotten married, with one girl of two and another child waiting to be born any minute. About a year after I left, she was about to move to another town, when he came over to talk, kissed her and confessed that he had always loved her, but thought she saw him as the boy next door and never made a move."
"And you're telling me this story because…?"
"I think Tsu'tey reminds me of my friend's husband. He has a strong exterior, knowing that it's important to be strong and tough, but when it comes to females, he's out of his home field, not really knowing how to show her how he feels about her without looking weak in front of the others. That's why, I think, he push you away; he don't know how to handle those feelings for you."
"So if you're saying that Tsu'tey is in love with me, then you have to be kidding me." Sarah shook her head. "Even if it was true, I doubt he would mate with me when I do the final rite of passage. When I am 'legally' allowed to mate the man who chooses me."
"I'm just saying, I think he likes you, maybe even loves you, but don't know it yet." Gina said with determination, nodding to Sarah and felt they had become a little bit closer friends.
After the girl-talk with Gina, Sarah had wandered around inside the big base, somehow ending up in the Ops Center, with a few techs sitting and looking over the monitors for activity from Earth.
Recognizing a few of them, she nodded hello and looked around on the different screens. One big console in the middle woke her curiosity and she walked up to it.
It was the big map viewer, which could give you the topography of any place on Pandora.
"Can I look at something with this?" She asked a man sitting closest to her.
"Sure, love." A British accent came over his lips and he smiled at her. "What do you wish to see?"
"The New Hometree, if I may?"
The man, in his early fifties, stepped up next to her and pressed a few buttons, and the great tree she lived in came up in front of her.
"Awesome…" She whispered and smiled, looking at the big tree, seeing where the ikran rested, the pools and the entrance to their home.
"Can you show me where the Horse Clan lives? If it's marked on this map?"
"Let me see…" He pressed another button and a list of known Na'vi Clans came up. He scrolled down a bit on the list, and found; Na'vi, Horse Plain Clan, written and marked as 'no contact'. Pressing the coordinates listed, the map swished over the jungle, over the plains and stopping in the middle of the Great Plain.
There was a single tree, with a village around it, corrals for the horses and a river not far away. It looked so bare compared to the Omaticaya tree, no jungle to climb in, no ikran to fly, no nothing. And they wanted her to move there?
Geez… they could've asked her to move to the Ice land in the north instead. However, as her mother had said, more than often, 'don't judge a book by its cover', maybe it wouldn't be that bad?
Kerusey'itan could be a nice fellow, when she got to know him? Maybe she could learn to love him? Being with him might be better if her budding feelings for Tsu'tey weren't returned.
Best to quench the fire before it grew too large.
"What do you mean it won't work?"
Sarah was so frustrated; it was the sixth time the link failed to start up properly. It was very strange; she hadn't done anything differently than the other times she had linked.
"The system seems to be fine, but if it won't work after six times, I have to do a diagnostic on your link. It'll take a few hours, maybe the whole morning if we're out of fortune." Max sighed and turned off link four completely.
"I'll miss morning meal… and I'll be super hungry when I get back into my other body…" She murmured and stepped out from the link.
"If this is not fixed until lunch, we'll contact them and tell them what the problem is, and Norm has to get your Avatar something to drink at least." Max went down on his knees and pulled loose a hatch underneath the link.
"Yeah, alright… I'll… go outside for a while…" She said, leaving Max to curse over the machinery.
Putting on the restrictive exopack, she looked at the world though a bubble. Stepping out in the Avatar compound, she saw Gina and Rogan sit by an Avatar sized table and discuss something about a plant they had between them. Walking over in a leisure pace, she pulled on Gina's tail gently to give up her presence.
"What the hell…." She turned and looked down. "Oh, hi Sarah. What are you doing here?" She reached down and lifted up the small human onto the seat next to her.
"Link's messed up, we've tried six times already, but I won't transfer at all." She shrugged and pouted.
"That's very weird…" Rogan said, not being aware of that happening, ever before.
"Yep, very…" She leaned on the table and looked at the plant lying on the top of the table. "What are you up to?"
"Trying to classify this plant, but we're not agreeing one bit." Gina said, looking really frustrated.
"Have you looked in Dr. Augustine's book? She's most likely already classified it." Sarah said, looking at her two friends.
"We're trying to classify it on our own, but as we're stuck, we might as well do so." Rogan pulled up his data pad and began flipping through the images of different plants.
"Gina, wanna give me a lift down?"
The blue xenobiologist smiled and acted as a lift, before turning back to Rogan.
"So, who was right?" She saw that he had the image of the plant up on his screen. When he sighed, she understood. "I was right, wasn't I? I was right! I rock!" She yelled and was sure to tease him the rest of the day for this.
Sarah smiled at them, shaking her head at their grown childishness. She headed to the Avatar house and found a tree she liked, when first coming to Pandora, she had climbed it every day, before she joined Norm and the others back to Hometree. After a bit of effort, she got up on the lowest branch and sat down, leaning her back against the big tree and looked out over the compound, seeing the other Avatar's work, play or just hang out.
After a while, she felt the stress she had felt when she wasn't able to link take its toll and she closed her eyes and drifted off.
As soon as her eyes had closed, a dozen, or so, atokirina floated down from the branches above her and landed on her head and body, coming to rest with her.
A soft wind caressed her face, feeling almost like a hand touching her gently. Opening her eyes, she saw only white, everywhere around her, white.
Looking down, she saw no floor, no ground to walk on and she began to fall through the white. Soft pink hues passed her by, or was she falling past them? They laughed, sang and spoke in Na'vi, both old and young voices, all happy to be here.
Slowing down, she suddenly felt how her toes touched ground and she fell to her knees in soft white grass. Everything around her took shape now, a white jungle formed around a small white river and on a small white hill, a big old white tree stood and three people sat underneath it.
Feeling drawn to it, she rose and walked slowly to see that the people were Na'vi, all having soft blue skin, instead of her darker blue.
Realizing that she was in her Avatar body, she was very confused, not knowing why she was dreaming this, or if it was real.
"No, it's not real, child." One of the Na'vi said, smiling at her. He was an older Na'vi, strong face, sitting like Tsu'tey did; proudly and with a slightly air of overconfidence coming from him.
"Right on the spot." One of the two females said, mirth glittering in her eyes, the male scoffing at her, but still smiling.
The other female smiled too, but she had a more human face than the other two and reminded Sarah of someone she'd seen on a picture.
"You are Grace Augustine… but you died and… am I dreaming?" Sarah was confused and sat down when the male pointed to a spot in front of them.
"No, and yes. You're still sitting in the tree, but your spirit has gone on a dream hunt, but one that we…" Grace pointed to herself and the other two. "…wanted you to do before you go back to the New Hometree."
"Eytukan is very fond of the new tree you found. He's been watching over it ever since you moved in." The male said. "You can tell Mo'at that, if you remember later." He smiled mysteriously.
"I'm guessing you want something special, taking me here…" Sarah said, still very confused to why the two unknown and Grace wanted to speak with her.
"We heard your thoughts before." The female said gently and looked at Sarah with concern. "About moving to the Horse Clan with Kerusey'itan." She frowned a bit when she said his name, as if she really didn't like him.
"Yeah, then I would be less trouble for the Omaticaya…" Sarah looked down at her hands, feeling sad.
"Less trouble for Tsu'tey, you mean…" The male's gentle voice got her to look up, and see him very close, he was now sitting in front of her, looking straight into her eyes, trying to make her See.
"Well, yes, I can't ride, can't hunt and he literarily runs around in circles around me, yells at me and tells me I'm no good as a hunter. I have tried for two months now, and I feel like giving up. So maybe I can learn better with someone else." She said softly, still looking into the male's eyes, who reminded her of someone.
"I felt like that too about my teacher." The female said and sat down next to Sarah, touching the small braids with the white pearls. "He yelled at me; I could not stay on the horse, I could not shoot, I could not hunt and I was useless to the Clan. I was like you; young, frustrated and feeling like my teacher had squashed me with a rock."
"What did you do?" Sarah began to relax, feeling safe with them, like having a mother and father close, just holding you.
"I moved away for a few months, to see my relatives in another clan and get away from him for a while, to think." She sighed and moved her hands to Sarah's neck and began to knead the muscles there soothingly. "And I met another male in my relative's clan, he was very interested in me and helped me to ride the pa'li without falling off, to shoot with my bow and he taught me with patience, not yelling."
"Did you mate him?" Sarah found herself asking, hoping she wasn't too rude.
"I was going too, but Eywa sent my mother to speak with me, just like we speak to you now. My mother told me that a young Omaticaya warrior grieved me and wanted me to return, but he had not the courage to come and get me, in case I refused him. He had apparently spoken to Eywa through the Tree of Voices, begging her to make me return to him. I thought about it for a few days, and decided I would give him a chance, to see if he had changed during the months I had been gone."
Sarah was really intrigued of this story, it felt similar to hers ongoing one, and she began to consider staying with the Omaticaya.
"Had he? Changed, I mean." She looked over her shoulder, seeing the beautiful Na'vi female smile at her. She had her whole hair braided, with blue and green beads in them, and a pretty green stone sitting in a leather band on her forehead, almost the same color Sarah had on her arm bracelet she had gotten from Neytiri.
"Well, I didn't notice anything when I returned, I think he was too shocked to see me back and he didn't approach me for a few days. But then he came and talked to me, when I was practicing my archery, which was really better than it had been. He asked if my relative had trained me, but I told him it was a warrior in my age who had, and that he had been really patient with me." She laughed then, remembering that talk.
"He was so angry, thinking I had gone and mated with someone that wasn't him. He stalked off, his heart broken and went to sulk somewhere in the jungle. When he came back to his hammock, he found my most precious necklace lying there, with white and green stones; I had gotten it from my grandmother when I was young. I think he understood then, did you?" She turned to the male sitting in front of Sarah and he was touching said necklace that sat around his neck.
"I did, and I was very happy then. We mated two days later." He said, winking at Sarah.
Suddenly she saw the resemblance, the dark yellow eyes and the proud and overconfident male he was…
"You're Tsu'tey's parents…" She whispered and didn't understand why they wanted to speak with her; they should speak with Tsu'tey, as it was his parents.
"We are Ateyo and Tse'rina, and we want to make sure you don't go with Kerusey'itan when you have bonded with your ikran. Your faith is in the sky, together with your mate." Ateyo said seriously.
"And I'm guessing, now that you're sitting here, that Tsu'tey is my mate?"
"Yes, he will balance you, as you will balance him. He is like his father, fond of yelling and sometimes pushing away those he love so they will be safe. But the comment he made that you should go to the Horse Clan…" Tse'rina shook her head so the beads in her hair clinked together. "That was from fear; he was scared that you would choose to go with the horse warrior, so he lashed out at you."
"I wish I could have slapped him harder…" Sarah muttered.
"That was good of you, slapping some sense in that boy. He sure needs it." Grace cut in, wanting to slap him herself a few times for those times he had ridiculed her.
"I understand somewhat why they are here, but not you Grace."
"I just wanted to pop by and see how you're adapting. The Avatar program is my baby and I have to look out for you guys." She smiled. "Tell Jake that he's still a Jarhead when you see him. And you should introduce La'ri to Norm." She winked conspiratorially and faded out.
"Ma'ite, listen with your heart when it comes to Tsu'tey. And ask another warrior to teach you for a while, maybe he will come around and See you better." Tse'rina hugged Sarah close and faded she too.
Ateyo was the last one and he rose, pulling Sarah up with him.
"Take care of him, ma'ite…" He then also hugged her and then, he gave her a light shove backwards and she began falling, falling, falling…
…down in the bushes underneath the tree she had been in.
"Fucking hell… that hurt…" Lying still, she felt fuzzy after that nap, but she slowly remembered her conversation and what they said to her.
It still felt very fuzzy, the whole conversation was chopped up in pieces; she remembered that Eytukan liked the new Hometree and that Tsu'tey was like his father, but she had a big puzzle to do and many of the pieces didn't fit. However, the main thing was clear; she was not to move to the Horse Clan and she would try to change teacher for a while, maybe Neytiri would have more patience with her. She had trained Jake, and he had worked out okay.
"Sarah! We're gonna try again!" Max shouted through the com system.
Rising up and brushing off leaves, she jogged back to the complex and the link room, hoping it would work this time.
Authors note: If you think the 'dream' part if somewhat inconsistent in some parts, it is as it should be, as dream can be somewhat strange and fuzzy.
Otherwise, tell me what you think, and please, don't do reviews that say: 'omg pleaze update now, I need to know more!'
The chapters are in my head and they won't come out until I sort them out and get them down on paper. Give me reviews like: 'I liked that part, and when he did that, I couldn't believe my eyes' etc. those make me really happy and when you tell me I really surprised you, I love it the most =)
Next chapter will be about Tsu'tey reflecting his attitude towards Sarah, what would you like to see him thinking of, what should he be beating himself up about? Give me ideas, 'cause then more ideas will be born.
Lunatic.