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A LONG STORY: TSU'TEY
Tsu'tey bid his ikran a farewell if they did not ever meet again in the same life.
Unyu yowled, and her great wings dived.
As his gravity sunk, Tsu'tey started. He pumped his legs towards the alien ship in the wind that felt like an ocean.
Pop! Pop-pop-puttaputtaputta-pop!
The stutters of the Skypeople's killing machines and wails of death all silenced. Left was the fading call of Unyu and the air Tsu'tey sucked between his teeth.
In one breath, his bow and arrow assembled in his hands; now, the movements of his muscles that he had rehearsed from childhood were no longer actions but thoughts. His legs leapt.
Aim.
He yanked on the string; it creaked; his finger bowed to the shank of an arrowhead; he fixed it at an alien with a grotesque, flabby face.
Shoot.
His lungs emptied in a cry. Tsutey's right hand released and he could watch what happened in milliseconds. The arrow zapped; the alien's eyes bulged and its mouth stretched to an uncanny length like a snake; the arrow flew into its heart and the alien's legs floated above its head. Metal rushed between Tsu'tey's eyes and he tumbled limbs-over-shoulders onto the UFO.
Kill.
He clawed any alien his eye met first and flung them into the sky. Bright flashes erupted from everywhere. Tsu'tey struck another with his bow with so much power that a gritty rumble heaved from his soul. He squeezed another's throat and hurled it overboard to its death.
A last alien darted before him. Its lips peeled back and it screeched. Tsu'tey planted his feet and snatched his knife. He would slice that one's head; he wanted to see its blood paint the walls.
White, flickering lights blinded him. At the same time, a force like nothing from his realm collided with his middle and all of the air flew from his mouth.
There was no sound.
Tsu'tey tumbled in his breath.
A kaleidoscope of blue and green was his vision. He saw his own limbs in flashes.
He couldn't sense which way was up; he was sure he was now falling sideways. He accelerated.
At his horror, he saw his own face.
A shrill sound drilled between Tsu'tey's ears when the world was still. He heard himself breathing from miles away. Tsu'tey moved his hand. It peeled from his middle and felt soaked and sticky. Trembling, each red digit bent. As his hand floated away from him, he glanced under his nose. His legs were there, but looking at them made him feel uneasy, like they were forbidden to see. Tsu'tey tried a slight lift of his legs-it brought an agony that was indescribable. Tsu'tey squeezed his teeth until he was light headed. He was finally freed from it, and then he fainted.
Tsu'tey's life ticketed by in frames. He saw his birth; he saw his mother's eyes twinkling at him with a feeling of love that was magnified to suffocate him in the dreamspace; he tumbled with a little Ree'ahn in the forest and he heard Ree'ahn squeal and guggle as their blue tails, legs, and arms tumbled down a hill; he witnessed Unyu for the first time as a young hunter and she followed his head in rage as his teacher's voice rang from far behind for Tsu'tey to take courage; he felt his father's fingers, cold and wet, trace paint over him with a smile that suited his weathered face. He saw the great Eytukan, with sunken, golden eyes like a noble creature, speak to him and lay his hands on his shoulders. He saw his enchanted mother, a head below him then, do the same to his right.
In slow-motion, memories reemerged from the happiest day of his life when he swore to tsaheylu and protect Neytiri until he took his very last breath. He saw flowers flutter in technicolor to his marriage bed, he felt the ground churning in waves, he felt Neytiri's warmth swaddled around him like a wet blanket, and he heard his breath shudder and thin to a supernatural feeling.
Then, in a nauseating speed, he watched the threads of his life unravel. Neytiri's eyes glowed red as she shrieked at him in front of an army of Na'vi-a direhorse, on fire, galloped in a smoky forest-an alien's mouth grew to the size of God, stretched over Pandora, and the whole forest silthered down its throat-his vision flickered fast to white-there was no sound-Tsu'tey staggered backwards with feet that felt giant-the universe struck him dead.
A blackness appeared that was so dark, Tsu'tey tasted it. It felt like it flowed in rivulets into his mouth and out from his fingers. It was an ink-black void with a white tunnel, like a moon, that pulsed in its center and reeked of metal and burnt grass. Tsu'tey could will his being to lean away from its stench, but no matter how far he ventured from the tunnel, he could see its light fade in and dissolve from any corner of his eyes.
Soon, his consciousness shifted. Tsu'tey never experienced that happening before, yet he was sure it did happen. The first sound that came to him was a droning beep, beep, beep. Orbs of white and blue floated from above.
One gentle beam descended through his eye. It feathered to the left, to the right, down below, up high, to the left, and to the center again.
"That's it, big guy," whispered a voice. "come on back."
The beam started to play. It punnied in a pinwheel. It zimmied in a zig-zag. It came so close, Tsu'tey could feel its angelic warmth. Then, it zoomed far away, and Tsu'tey felt his throat tighten as if he were going to cry. A click-it disappeared. Tsu'tey heard gibberish growing in volume on all sides of his head and in his foot.
The orbs above him gelled to create a crowd of oblong shapes. Tsu'tey's vision had not sharpened much more than that. He had lost the orbs to the void that had blanketed Tsu'tey again. Slowly, the white tunnel had made its presence, and it had glowed and faded for years.
Words: 1090
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