okay, here's the next chapter! I felt so, so, so shaky on this chapter...i hope that i didnt screw up too badly. It just felt so...i dont know...weird...

hope you guys like it!

IMPORTANT CHALLENGE/WEIRD IMPULSE OF AUTHOR: Since you guys will probably be wondering what the heck is going on by the end of this, i'm going to help you out with the whole POV thing at the end of the chapter. But for those who like a challenge...let's see if you can interpret what the regular text represents and what the italics represent. Please, tell me what you guessed (not after reading the answer at the bottom) from the information given in the chapter. I'm curious to see if you guys will be able to guess it.

Please review!

In the time before the First Songs, the Na'vi people were a savage people. There was no Eywa to revere and love, no tsahaylu to treasure and adore. There was only survival, and there was but a fragmented clan, a nameless clan that was separated by hatred and resentment. No one could see beyond what was given to them, and their eyes were clouded by the hardship of everyday life.

The creatures of the land only sought to kill the Na'vi, and many were taken by the palulukan…so many lives taken by the Bringer of Fear, as your language calls it. The people were in distress as their numbers began to dwindle…

I felt my heart racing as I hid behind the tree whose roots were stretched into a kind of spiral pattern under my feet. My hair was in tangles, not that it really mattered. Cleanliness wasn't really on anyone's mind when in the middle of an inner-clan conflict. Though they happened on a daily basis, it was hard to get used to it.

And unlike my brothers, I wasn't looking forward to battling with the southern camp, our greatest enemy.

I heard my mother screaming my name.

"Arana, where are you?"

But I remained silent, knowing that if I answered her she would leave the shelter of the neutral zone to come look for me.

How could they still call us a clan after all this time? It was more like a constant battlefield, children kept out of sight, babies nearly invisible until full grown, because of the fear mothers had for their safety. This was not a clan, this was not a family. This was a broken society, a sad and torn society that had no one else to blame but each other.

I heard the cries of angry fighters as they tackled each other, and the voice of my eldest brother Elute as he fought with one of the southern warriors raised above all the rest.

The sad part of this was that the real reason for all this fighting had been absent for so many years that I could no longer remember how long it had been. My brothers and sisters, cousins and friends…they were all fighting to avenge some unknown thing taken from them.

No one knew why the hatred was there, instead fighting just to fight…and by this time I was crying just to cry as I slid down until I was kneeling on the smooth bark, the tears making smooth paths through the grime that covered my cheeks.

A hiss filled the air, and my eyes slowly opened to see a young man not much older than myself standing there before me, his eyes large with the energy of battle, and the tip of his knife inches from my throat.

I smiled brokenly, and held up my knife.

"Go ahead. Kill me. I've suffered enough."

The smooth handle slipped between my fingers, and the knife fell uselessly to the ground.

The warrior before me was calm as his green eyes followed the dagger as it fell, and I felt my heart beginning to pump frantically as he stepped forward until his knife was touching my throat. I flinched, and he leaned in.

"Why do you not fight?"

"I…do not hate the southern camp, or anyone else in this so-called clan. I never have. Why should I waste my anger and vengeance against someone who has done me no wrong?"

"Your camp is evil."

I laughed again, and the sounds of battle seemed to fade away as I spoke. "What have I done? What have I done to deserve your hate? Please, tell me. I am of the northern camp, you are of the southern, but are we really that different? My skin is as blue as yours, my hair just as black. We call ourselves a clan, but that could not be farther from the truth."

The young man blinked slowly, and he stared at me with those deep green eyes that were so unusual for the people of the Na'vi. Golden eyes were more common; while only a small number had green intermixed with the gold. For the eyes to be completely green was extremely rare.

I closed my eyes once more, tensing in preparation for that knife to sink into my flesh.

I was shocked when I heard a thunk beside my head, and opened my eyes to see that the young man was gone, his dagger impeded deeply into the bark. I let out my breath in a gasp, my heart still racing.

I was about to run away back to my camp, but the bright blue-green handle of the dagger caught my eye, shining in the sunlight that bathed the battlefield with its radiance. Deeply etched into the pommel was the mark of the southern camp – a diamond with a dot in the center. I glanced at my own dagger – the symbol marked there was a circle with a line vertically going through it – and bent down with a sigh.

When my dagger was safely in its sheath, I hesitated, and then quickly grabbed the other warrior's dagger as well, holding it in my hand while effectively covering the southern camp symbol.

The Na'vi did not live in Kelutral, instead making large camps in the forest, with fire around the area to ward off predators. They all lived separately into camps of different directions: north, south, east and west.

It was so separate that members of different directions were not allowed to befriend each other or take each other as a mate – mates were not chosen by Eywa back then, instead being arranged by the parents for status within their camp– and if they were seen together they were banished from the clan.

And so it was for many years.

I sat in a circular branch that hung far above the forest floor, twirling the small southern camp dagger in my hand. I smiled as I compared it to my own knife, only to find that they were exactly the same.

But then the southern camp symbol caught my eye, and the image of similarity was shattered as I glanced at my own northern camp symbol.

Two different worlds. Who was I kidding to imagine that we could all live together?

I glanced up as a lean figure slowly slid down the vine that hung just beside my seat, and a lean figure swung to land on the opposite branch from me, his mouth in a snarl of suspicion. It was the young man from before, but I wasn't surprised. I had been watching him for the past few weeks…and had found out that he patrolled during the hours before dawn. I assumed that he would see me up here, and would come to investigate.

"Why are you in our territory?"

I sighed. "I wasn't aware that we had gone so far as to put boundaries on the trees, but obviously it has come to that."

I stared out at the lightening sky, knowing that it was close to dawn, when my family would wake. They would throw a fit when they found that I was missing, and would probably start another fight with the south, making up some foolish story about how they supposedly kidnapped me to get back at them.

The young man scowled even more deeply, and reached back for his knife, and I laughed at the shock that crossed his face as he found that the sheath was empty. I held up the missing object with a smile.

"Looking for this?"

He reached for it, but I held it just out of his reach.

"What is your name?"

His green eyes narrowed, and I rolled my eyes as I spoke. "My name is Arana."

Those eyes stared at me unblinkingly for a few long moments, his mouth opening hesitantly.

"I am Toruk, of the –"

I waved my hand, cutting him off. "I do not care what camp you come from…Toruk is who you are to me. Just Toruk. And I am just Arana."

I stood as the sun broke over the horizon, and looked down at him.

"Nice to meet you…Toruk."

And with that I lightly leapt off the branch, feeling no fear as I fell towards large leaves that were as large and as wide as two full grown men, going limp and allowing myself to slide down to the forest floor.

The look in his eyes – they were the exact color that I saw when the sun shone through a large leaf from one of the trees, a warm and glowing green – was almost surprised…as though he had never experienced kindness, never seen someone smile at him.

I wonder if my thoughts had any basis in truth…or if I was just imagining it…

One day, the clan leader disappeared into the forest, seemingly chasing a light that appeared to him alone.

The days turned to weeks, the weeks transformed into months, and the years began to blur together. How many had it been now? Three, four?

I was too happy to keep track anymore.

My tail flicked impatiently behind me as I was pulled forward by Toruk, his blinding smile making my heart melt.

My knife – his knife – was strapped to my waist, and I felt so secure…having that same knife always by my side. It was a symbol of all that we had overcome…what lay in the future for us to overcome.

But now, my mind was focused on Toruk.

"Toruk, what is it?" I asked, and he stopped for a moment, leaning in to kiss me for a moment, making me smile as our tails intertwined. He pulled away, grinning.

"I have to show you something, it's–"

A blinding light suddenly appeared before us, and the power was so overwhelming that I was sent tumbling into the underbrush, Toruk pulled with me. I whipped out my knife, crouched on the ground in a fighting stance, and Toruk strung his bow.

There was a figure standing in the light, and as I watched the light slowly began to fade and the figure became a woman. She was tiny and petite, and for a split second I wanted to scoff at how frightened I had been. But then the figure opened her eyes, and those thoughts were scattered, destroyed completely.

Her eyes were silver, a bright piercing color that made me want to cry and laugh at the same time. The rest of her face was a blur, those eyes so bright and overwhelming that the details of her complexion blended into one another.

Toruk pulled me behind him, his tail touching my leg in worry as the figure smiled. The voice that filled the air was low and gentle, soothing like a lullaby yet as powerful as a hurricane.

"I see you, My Children…and you have finally seen me."

I touched Toruk's arm to calm him as I spoke. "Who are you?"

"I am Eywa, and I know who both of you are. You are the ones who shall lead the way for the rest of My Children, who have lost their way."

Toruk frowned. "But it is impossible."

Those silver eyes smiled at him, and the light was growing once more, pulling us in.

"Nothing is impossible, my Toruk. Nothing is impossible when you have the entire forest on your side."

The leader returned, riding a pa'li and closely followed by an ikran, and he told his people of his meeting with a strange figure named Eywa, and how she had told him how to be one with the pa'li and ikran through tsahaylu – often called the bond. The people adapted to his ways, and the clan united in harmony once more.

The rumbling of the pa'li beneath my legs was almost soothing in a way, but the feeling was ruined by the anxious thrumming of my heart. The bond that the creature and I shared was unlike anything I had ever felt before.

I was one with the pa'li, and he was one with me.

Our legs moved in harmony as we raced through the underbrush, and I heard the call of the ikran that soared above our heads, weaving in and out of the branches and tree trunks. Toruk was low on the bright red ikran's neck, and his green eyes often found mine in the silence, and our minds seemed as one in those short moments.

There is no going back now.

"I see you, My Children, and you have finally seen me."

Eywa's words resounded in my thoughts, and I urged my pa'li faster.

It was time to make everyone else see, as well.

It was time for the hostility to end.

The air rushed past my skin as we entered the clearing in which the camps were situated, and I watched as the warriors yelled their surprise, backing up and tripping over their feet at the ikran that swooped into the clearing to land in the center of the camp, on the large stone that separated all of the camps. I jumped onto the stone as well, and disconnected my braid from the antennae of the pa'li, patting its neck comfortingly as the camp members began to recover from their shock.

The leader stepped forward, his face paint bright and malicious in the light of the new day.

"What is the meaning of this?"

Toruk smiled slightly, dismounting to stand beside me, his hand finding mine.

There were hushed gasps and murmurs throughout the crowd, and Toruk's father stepped forward.

"You…with, that…a northern–"

"Yes."

My mother was in tears at the sight of us holding hands, and my father's face was black with rage. My brothers were also furious, but my two older sisters were merely curious, their golden eyes absorbing the scene with no hostility or anger. Merely curious.

I took a deep breath, and stepped forward, speaking as loudly as I could.

"I have something to say. Not as a member of the northern camp, but as a member of this clan. Yes, we are a clan, even if some of you want to say that we are not. Do you see how cruel we are becoming? How can you call ourselves a clan when we are always so angry and resentful? This is not how we were meant to live, and I don't intend to stand back and wait for someone to put a stop to it!

"Look at each other, are we really that different?" The people, who were separated into their four camps, glanced around nervously. "We are all the same, and all of us can learn from each other. In order to survive, we need to cooperate! Where has fighting gotten us? Nowhere!"

One of the woman called out. "How are you controlling the pa'li and ikran?"

Toruk stepped forward, and pulled forward the thick braid that hung down his back. "The strands at the end can be connected with the strands of another creature," He gently pulled forward the ikran's antennae to show the clan as he made tsahaylu with the creature, making them both shiver slightly as the feeling settled in. "and it creates a bond called tsahaylu. The ikran's thoughts are now my thoughts, and I can control his movements in flight. It is the same with Arana and the pa'li."

I smiled at him. "Now, I know that the tradition is that if a person from another camp associates themselves with another camp, they will be banished. I understand that, and after I am done speaking…" I glanced at Toruk, and he nodded. "…Toruk and I will be leaving this place forever, to start a new clan and live the way we want to. Anyone is free to come with us, if they choose."

"Wait," A young boy spoke. "you mean…that I can ride an ikran as well?"

Toruk smiled at him. "Yes, all of you can. But you'll need to learn how to subdue it so you can make the bond..."

I smiled as well. "The pa'li travel in herds, and if you capture a group of young foals you will have no problem taming them and breeding them, they can help survival in many ways."

I turned back to the crowd. "But we will not force these things upon you. After we leave, you all will be free to live however you choose. But just know that fighting will not achieve anything, and more lives will be taken because of it."

I mounted my pa'li, and Toruk leapt onto his ikran. A sense of bittersweet sadness swept through my heart as I stared at the people who had been my family for as long as I could remember, even if we had been fighting for the time I had known them. Their faces were shocked, but I saw some of them smiling at each other.

My sister stepped forward.

"Sister…I will go with you."

My other sister also came forward. I hugged them, and looked around in shock as more members began to come forward, all from different camps. I felt tears of joy filling my eyes as the people stood around us, all staring at us with smiles on their faces.

Toruk's ikran roared, its wings spreading majestically as the sun broke the tops of the trees, sending a warm glow on the camps, the light warm and soothing on my skin.

With a large group behind us, and the rest watching us with somber faces, we began walking, Toruk flying above us with his braids flying behind him as he soared upwards into the bright gold and pink sky of the early morning.

I looked up, and saw a single creature, barely the size of my fist, floating in the path before us. It glowed with a silvery pink shimmer, and I watched as it twirled once before gently gliding into the trees once more.

"I see you…Eywa." I whispered, and could have sworn that the sound of the wind rushing through the leaves was her way of saying thank you.

The leader of the clan brought peace to the clan, and though he spoke of the light he had seen, he could not remember what it had called itself, or if it had been real at all. And so all was peaceful with the clans for many years.

I frowned as Neytiri finished, and leaned back on my hands. "Doesn't that seem kind of unrealistic? Not to be rude or anything, but do you really believe that the leader suddenly saw a light and realized that he could bond with a direhorse and banshee?"

Neytiri's ears flattened against her skull, and I quickly backtracked. "I'm sorry, but I'm used to studying facts…and the idea of this being true is just a little too farfetched for me."

Neytiri scoffed angrily. "It is one of our most told stories, and how else could it have happened?"

Kinak was stiff and cold beside me, and I glanced over at him to see his face almost offended, his eyes widened slightly. I touched his arm, and he stared at me with those deep golden eyes. He seemed like he was about to say something, but then Jake interrupted.

"Never mind that now. Neytiri, let's move on to the Life-Giving Tree part."

Neytiri nodded, and we all listened as she continued.

The whole POV deal:

Italics: this was what REALLY happened back in the time before the First Songs. Arana and Toruk formed the Tipani Clan (oh, and the huge banshee called Toruk was named after this guy, cuz he was the first banshee rider and kind of a bad-ass. So when Neytiri -- in the movie of course -- said "Toruk was mighty", she was talking about the banshee, but she was also talking about the man who tamed the very first banshee, though no one really remembers Toruk like that except the Tipani Clan, who know the real story.)

Regular: Neytiri's telling of the story, the way it was twisted to hide the shame of the clans and their mistakes in the past. Even though the clans ceased attacking each other after Toruk and Arana came to them, they still seperated themselves into seperate clans, which explains why there are many seperate clans of the Na'vi. The clans are still not very accepting towards relationships outside ones own clan, which is why they excluded Arana and Toruk from the tale of the first pa'li and banshee.