A/N: Thanks for the continued reviews, I got a few tricks & tips up my sleeve still for Norm (Noruhmann for my Na'vi readers out there) and I definitely appreciate the cautions of making him a Mary-Sue. Believe you me, we aren't going there with him. He's a fun character to write with little backstory so I got a lot of room to play. Enjoy.
-Outreach117
Chapter 6
Norm and Ninat stayed atop the mountain that night, talking. They didn't hunt or mount their ikran, the just talked. At some point Norm had gone back inside the outpost and gotten back inside his Na'vi body so he could talk in relative ease and comfort without his Exo-pack. Now, out under the stars the two just lay there intertwined.
They had not bonded or mated, the decision to consummate that aspect of the relationship Norm decided, and Ninat reluctantly agreed, should wait at least until after he completed his transference to his Na'vi body. He had no desire for them to mate and then make Ninat a "widow" should the transference fail.
Even that would be on ice for the time being, the point he reluctantly admitted was that he didn't want to leave Max high and dry and be shy an extra person should anything go wrong with his Avatar. It would take time, that much Ninat understood, but she was understandably less than thrilled about having to wait so long. Nonetheless it was decided that it was for the best, and in the end would make the actual event all the more wondrous.
Norm had playfully remarked that she was only afraid someone else in the Clan would try and claim him. Pey'lal, the Clan's best huntress, had been practically stalking Norm, and he couldn't help but feel like a rather unique variety of prey to her. He was convinced that one night she was going to catch him in a snare, club him over the head and drag him to the Tree of Souls to finish the deed right there. One other unique difference about Na'vi culture versus human culture was that becoming an Ikran Makto merely made a hunter eligible and while they could choose a woman, she had to choose him back, and it was more often than not that the women actually proposed to the men.
That comment about Pey'lal, who was one of Ninat's closest female friends, had earned Norm a clot of dirt to his face by a wickedly grinning Ninat, who was laughing hysterically afterward much to Norm's expense as he spit out bits of dirt. Of course she followed up the dirt clod with a kiss on his cheek that flushed with embarrassment, but in hindsight was totally worth it and one of the sweetest things he had felt in a long, long time.
Now the young couple, still unbonded but very much in love lay below the twinkling stars. As Ninat fell asleep next to him in the warm breeze, Norm winked up at the stars and closed his eyes as he settled down to sleep. Ewya winked back.
Things seemed to fall more into a pattern with Norm around the village after that. He now participated in hunts riding both a Pa'li and his Ikran that he named Maiestas, latin for greatness. On the hunting parties he still acted as the flusher of the game more often than not, but his archery skills continued to improve and he brought in his share of food for the Clan. Jake and Neytiri continued his tutelage in earnest, oftentimes going for runs that went for miles over rugged terrain.
When he was not in the hunting packs or working with Jake and Neytiri, he spent a fair bit of time with Mo'at to learn the Na'vi healing arts. While Norm had experience with internal surgery and was very familiar with Na'vi physiology, most of his training centered around being able to perform his duties with a fully function medical lab along with every drug and tool that humanity had developed. What he lacked was a knowledge of herbal remedies and natural solutions that could be found in the flora and fauna of Pandora. Some of these medicines were as effective, if not moreso, than quite a bit of modern medicine. Pandora overall actually had an under-abundance of harmful parasites and bacteria. Ewya kept the ecology in such a balance that they were fortunately rare.
It had been absolutely amazing to Norm what the locals had been able to concoct from Pandoran plants. They had a mild painkiller that could be garnered by chewing on the roots of certain plants. take the same plants leaves and boil a tea with it, and one had a potently powerful anesthetic that could put out a grown Na'vi for hours. One had to be careful not to use too much since it could potentially stop someone's heart. The plants reminded Norm of opium from earth, although the "recreational" use was essentially nonexistent with the Na'vi.
There were others too, many others. Tree sap that could function as a congealant for major wounds, spices that could be ground into a paste and became a crude but effective type of Icy/Hot for sore muscles, leaves that when bound together were effective bandages, muscle relaxants, stimulants, even neurotoxins for their arrows. The only thing that modern medicine could potentially provide over these remedies and solutions would be in the area of preventative medicine, which is where the Na'vi differed greatly from humans. They did not look at age and death as being some great barrier or something to be feared. Norm understood this, they had a link so deep and connected with Ewya and the world, indeed the universe that they viewed aging and death so casually that it was almost unnerving. With their ancestral memory stored in Pandora itself, it could be said that Na'vi lived forever. As long as Ewya lived, so did the Na'vi.
That is not to say that Na'vi did not grieve, they did but ultimately they could find comfort by touching into the memories of their lost relatives at the Tree of Souls. Humans might be able to look back at home movies or videos, perhaps a photo album, but the Na'vi could still touch their souls.
Norm gained a wholly new appreciation for the Na'vi's resistance to humans. Jake had been right about the humans not having anything the Na'vi wanted, and if anything humans were something to be pitied. The Na'vi had their own version of the internet that was Ewya where they could link into and share so much more than mere computer code. They could fly on their Ikran mounts, they had great strength and agility, lived in complete comfort and in perfect balance on Pandora. Humans could be said to have developed technology merely to compensate for their lack of ability to commune and connect with the world and the universe the way Na'vi could.
Norm was beginning to truly understand the Na'vi, for the absolute wonder that their society was. They didn't have technology because they didn't need it, they had everything they ever needed and would ever need.
Twice a month Norm would go out with a small contingent of hunters to the remains of Hell's Gate. Once there they would usually assist by clearing out some of the encroaching vegetation on the base's perimeter, and also hunt any small game that came close to the base. This food was then split between the Omaticaya and the small contingent of humans still living at Hell's Gate to help alleviate their reliance on stored foodstuffs since there was a limited supply.
Norm watched as Max's Avatar grew inside the incubation chamber. It had started as little more than a quarter-sized embryo, and now had matured to a Na'vi about the age of six or seven. It would still be about another year and a half before it was completely finished, not soon enough as far as anyone at the base was concerned. Power outages were becoming more and more common throughout the base as rolling brownouts caused multiple issues with the equipment, and on more than one occasion the Avatar had almost been lost from the unreliable power. Sadly there was not a whole lot that the remaining scientists or staff could do about it, in fact all were Avatar drivers themselves with the exception of Max.
There had been a few fatalities, a Thanator had gotten loose in the base and had killed several Avatar drivers late one evening as they traveled outside across the tarmac from one building to another. There was nothing left of the victims, and their Avatars were buried by the Na'vi. There had also been a couple suicides, anything from self-hangings to gunshots to the head by those who were just not willing to transfer their consciousness and felt that it was over. Some left notes explaining that they did it so that resources would be free for the remaining humans, others cursing humans, Na'vi and Pandora alike.
Now only Max and four Avatars and their drivers remained. Since the incident with the Thanator Jake had posted a constant watch at the base, a posting that most of the Na'vi were reluctant to take, but out of obligation for Doctor Patel, accepted. Secretly, however, the morale at Hell's Gate was looking worse and worse. Norm, Ninat and their party did what they could to assuage the feelings of helplessness, but it was a battle in vain. The four remaining Avatar drivers themselves had long since concluded that their chances of survival were bleak....very bleak. If the Pandoran jungle beasts didn't get them, then a power outage or air filtration failure would. Max and Norm merely hoped they were wrong. In the meantime, below the base and deep inside the micro-fusion power source, a magnetic coil started to rattle loose........
