ATTENTION: It's Friday. You know what that means??

YES. Funny hat day! *dons a cat-eared beanie*

Oh, and here's a story.

--Phanny


Endyna awoke long before she could bring herself to open her eyes. She felt warm; she knew that shouldn't be the case, she was still under a tree hiding from the rain, but she was laying against something warm. She was so drowsy she didn't bother questioning what it was, but it came to her slowly -- she could hear her makeshift pillow breathe, she could hear a heartbeat, she could hear…

"Mosyk!" It was a mysterious shout in the distance that had awakened her in the first place, she realized. "Endyna!"

She heard her name again, said by two different voices, before she realized what it meant.

First: her clan was looking for her and Mosyk.

Second: she knew exactly what she had been laying on all night. She lifted her head off of Mosyk's chest in a hurry, trying to shake said Na'vi awake, which was apparently easier said than done.

"Mosyk!" Endyna finally grew frustrated enough to give him a small smack in the face (not soft enough to be ignored, but much tamer than normal because she wasn't exactly trying to hurt him), which caused him fight back, reflexively kicking at his attacker. Luckily, Endyna got out of the way in time -- she learned the day before that, if nothing else, Mosyk had some pretty strong legs, and a kick from them would definitely hurt.

"Go 'way…" Mosyk murmured, pillowing his head in his arms, "m'tired…"

"Get up and listen!" Endyna pulled him upright next to her and was silent. Mosyk looked annoyed, but his ears perked up when he heard the voices.

"I knew they'd come search--ah!" Mosyk hissed in pain when he tried to move his arm, the one that had been injured the day before. Yesterday his cut just stung horribly, but now his entire upper arm throbbed whenever he moved it. He realized the area that the bandage didn't cover looked nearly red, and both he and Endyna cringed at the sight.

"Let's get out of here," Endyna said, trying to help him out without aggravating his injury, "that looks infected."

Mosyk said nothing, but he was obviously in pain.

Somehow, though, it didn't seem to hurt as much when his mother dragged him into her arms as soon as she saw him, and a grunt of surprise next to him told him that Endyna's mother, Ninat, had embraced her daughter just as tightly.

Neytiri didn't let go of her son for a long while, and her expression was one of relief. When she finally pulled back to look at him, their eyes met, and only then did Mosyk realize how worried she had been.

"Thank Eywa you both are safe," Mosyk heard Ninat murmur to her daughter quietly, and Neytiri nodded in silent agreement.

"Sa'nu, we were just hunting and we--" Mosyk hastily tried to explain himself, but Neytiri put a slender finger to his lips to silence him.

"There will be time for explaining when we get home," she said, "come. We'll have Ha'ni have a look at you two first, especially that arm."

Mosyk clung to his mother for a second longer before they began to walk. He'd stopped listening after the word "home."


If anyone other than Neytiri had Mosyk's small hand wrapped around their wrist, they would have cried for mercy within minutes. Mosyk had never been particularly strong, but now that Ha'ni, the Omaticaya clan's healer, was slowly peeling off the bandage covering Mosyk's arm wound (which she had declared infected before she had even seen the whole of it), he was squeezing his mother's wrist as he bit back a cry of pain -- the shock of having it exposed to open air felt like torture.

Neytiri, along with Ninat, had led their children to Ha'ni's hollow, wading through the barrage of questions that followed their return, mostly from curious children. Mosyk didn't bother hiding his surprise when he saw Y'enit in the medicine woman's company as well, laying in one of the hammocks set up around the large hollow that were for patients.

"I wish I could have looked at this sooner," Ha'ni shook her head in dismay before looking up again, "well, what's done is done. At least you bothered to try and dress it -- I can only imagine how it would look if you hadn't."

"If you hadn't she might have had to cut it off," Y'enit said, staring upwards instead of looking at the most recent patients (Endyna had been checked over too, revealing that she had no serious injuries but had caught a chill from the rain). "Wouldn't that be a pain?"

Mosyk's face paled, and he tried to jerk his arm away from Ha'ni. "You wouldn't do that, would you?!"

"Luckily I don't have to," Ha'ni said, tossing Y'enit an irritated glare out of the corner of her eye, "I've had to do it before and I don't like it. Now," Ha'ni looked at the inflamed monstrosity that was Mosyk's upper arm as she spoke, "it will take a little time, but I know a good mixture to dress the wound with. Let me look in my stores, and Y'enit, stop worrying him so much."

"I'm not worried," Mosyk lied pathetically, "a true warrior suffers his pain in silence."

"And those are the kinds of warriors who leave their wounds festering for so long that they have to have their limbs cut off," Y'enit told him honestly, "a good warrior is one that is able to admit that there are things he cannot do -- who accepts his flaws and works to fix them himself, and can admit when he is in need of help."

Mosyk stared at Y'enit, taking her words into account before looking at Neytiri as if silently asking if she agreed with what the old woman had said. She smiled.

"Y'enit is a smart woman," Neytiri told Mosyk, but it was intended to be heard by Y'enit herself anyway, "she was born long before most of the clan and knows many secrets."

"And now you know why we call grumpy old Akxmi 'half-tail' behind his back." Y'enit continued, and when Neytiri gave her a hard stare, she quickly amended, "but don't do that. It's impolite."

Suddenly, Y'enit broke off into a long fit of deep, painful sounding coughs. Mosyk squeezed Neytiri's wrist harder, but as soon as he did so Y'enit breaths were calm again, and she lay back in her hammock as though nothing had happened. Mosyk was about to ask what exactly was wrong with her when he heard Ha'ni approach again.

Mosyk didn't like the acrid smell of the cloth Ha'ni held in her hands. It was obviously soaked in something, and he was afraid to question what. She grabbed a roll of dry bandages on her way over to where he and Neytiri sat, and she gave Mosyk's mother a gentle stare.

"Neytiri, I need you to hold him as best you can. This is going to sting a bit."

Mosyked tensed. If it was just going to sting a bit Ha'ni wouldn't have warned his mother. He felt like escaping, but Ha'ni was too fast and wrapped the damp cloth around his arm. Whatever it was soaked in seeped into his wound and made it feel as though it was on fire. He let out a furious hiss of pain, and he couldn't make out the soothing words his mother was whispering into his ear until the pain began to fade into a dull tingling feeling. As Ha'ni pressed the cloth down to wrap a dry bandage around it, he groaned slightly until she was done.

"Have him keep that on for a few days -- come to me tomorrow morning and I'll change the bandages. He'll heal up just fine."

Neytiri nodded her thanks and led Mosyk out of the hollow and towards were Ninat and Endyna sat. When both she and Mosyk took a seat, Neytiri spoke.

"Now that that's taken care of," she said, "I promised you both you would have time to explain. Let us hear your story."


"…so then, we realized that there really weren't any yerik in the clearing--"

"--and we yelled at each other until it woke up some nantang -- at least five! So we ran--"

"--through the forest, as fast as we could go, and then I thought Mosyk would get eaten, but then he ran in to me because he was running really fast!--"

"--and I couldn't stop, no matter how hard I tried, but we got away anyway, but then I was running so fast I--"

"--didn't see the waterfall, so we accidentally jumped off of it. By accident. And then we landed in the water--"

"--it was cold and I felt like I was drowning but then I pulled me and Endyna up onto a rock and we coughed and stuff for awhile and--"

"--he asked me if I was all right, and I said yes, but then I saw he was bleeding really bad. I took off my ribbon and wrapped it around the cut and then we realized we were lost so--"

"--we looked through the forest forever, and we kept on yelling at each other because she said it was my fault we were lost and I said it was hers and--"

"--and we kept on fighting until it started to rain so we found somewhere to hide until morning."

Neytiri had requested Jake's presence at Endyna and Mosyk's storytelling session, and Ninat had called to Endyna's father, Txep. All four adult Na'vi seemed to be absorbing their story and thinking it over, and both children's hearts beat quickly, impatient to know whether or not they believed it.

"It's a lot more believable than what Ou'tan and Udrau said to me last night," Jake nodded, "they said that you took on the nantang on purpose to prove that you were brave," Jake looked at Mosyk as he spoke, and then turned to Endyna, "and that you didn't stop him."

Mosyk and Endyna looked enraged, but Neytiri calmed them both.

"We four spoke last night and knew it was lie -- you two were new at hunting, you wouldn't have taken such a risk as that. But Ou'tan's father is very respected, and even though we knew, we could not point out the lie without proof that it wasn't true."

Mosyk turned to Jake, "couldn't you have just said it wasn't true, though? You're the leader, they have to listen!"

"The clan does listen to what I say," Jake told his son, "but that doesn't mean my word is law -- every member of the clan believes what they want to believe, and I can't change their minds just by telling them to. But the fact that you two are alive ought to add a little weight to our argument."

"Are you going to punish them?" Endyna asked timidly, "Ou'tan and Udrau?"

"They tricked you and then left you out in the forest to die," Neytiri told them firmly, "they will not escape without some sort of punishment."

"Can we help pick what it is?" Mosyk asked hopefully, an almost demonic gleam in his eye.

"I'm sure you two would come up with some very…creative ideas," Jake smirked at them both before regaining all seriousness, "but we'll take care of it. Go rest -- I'm sure you missed sleeping in your own beds."

The mere mention of resting reminded both Endyna and Mosyk of how exhausted they were, and now they weren't sure if they could even drag themselves up to their homes. Somehow, though, they managed, and Mosyk collapsed in his hammock, his body going limp as he settled himself in the center. He had just awakened a few hours ago, so he didn't fall asleep, but it was enough to relax and try to clear his mind of everything, and try not to dwell on his terrifying ordeal the day before.

At the same time, though, he couldn't help but admit that it was the most exciting adventure he'd had in his whole life.


I firmly believe that if Neytiri's kid got eaten by a thanator she'd get up close, prop its mouth open with a spear, and drag her baby out of the deep depths of the beast's...yeah. Warrior mom! So yeah, she'd be worried out of her mind if she couldn't find her kid. My opinion.

Aaaaand as much as I want to believe the Na'vi are a wonderful harmonious society with no troubles at all until those dirty humans dared to tread on the pure soil *shakes fist* I hold to the belief that it is impossible for everyone to agree with everything their leader says (re: my mother's opinion of President Obama is a bad one :|). It just seems right for there to be...tension.

As far for Ou'tan and Udrau's punishment...I haven't exactly thought of anything suitable enough for their offense, and yet at the same time not too torturous, because the Na'vi aren't evil or anything...Mosyk, on the other hand, has plenty of ideas. A few of them involve fire. Lots and lots of fire.