AWAKENING
This is a preview of Act 2. I will be working on it offline. :)
Sky saw pulsing lights. White, then glittering pink, then grey. She felt a feeling blossom in her soul that felt like seeing her mother at her front door when she had returned from primary school in her Earth country, India. She felt her small legs running into her mother's arms as a little girl and she heard her mother chortle sweetly in her ears as she was twirled around in welcome. Sky felt a similar motherly feeling hug her spirit for a long time, and waves of reassurance coursed through her veins. She knew right then that she had passed some sort of test from the Being that kept Sky enveloped in her presence.
Sky felt her soul descending gently through galaxies, then star systems, then the sky, and finally her body pressed into soft grass. Her limbs felt longer than normal and more far away from her. The dimension Sky was in slipped away, and she slowly opened her eyes. The first thing she saw was twinkling white lights in a dark-blue setting. Upon further adjustment, the soft face of Neytiri appeared, and then light pink, glowing tendrils swept to-and-fro at the edges of Sky's vision. Sky realized ahe was laying flat on her back under the hood of the Vitrayamokri, the Tree of Souls.
"Ma Jake!" Neytiri's voice cried; her breath picked up with exhilaration.
Sky's vision sharpened and she saw Neytiri smile wide and beckon someone near her. Quickly, Jake's face appeared in Sky's vigil of the twinkling night sky of Pandora directly above her. At first he looked shocked, and then he chuckled loudly and his lips stretched into a big grin of relief. The lightly- beaded braids from Jake's temples stretched down over Sky's face and almost brushed her cheeks. Sky thought of touching them, but she couldn't yet move her hands. She felt someone's hands squish warmly around hers, and Sky understood in her foggy state that it was Jake doing the action.
"Welcome home," Jake said. Neytiri's and Jake's face stayed peaceful above Sky.
Sky felt long pads of fingers and palms gingerly push her spine forward to sit up straight. She saw her hand on front of her. It was the hand of her Avatar. It was long, slender, and violet-blue, with five fingers. She wiggled her toes, and Neytiri laughed demurely with some others who were surrounding her.
"Now you are one of us," Neytiri assured Sky.
Sky saw her human body coiled in neon-lime roots from the Tree of Souls that were still glowing with spiritual energy from the mass prayer of the entire Omatikayan tribe to transfer all that Sky was into her Avatar body. Her human body's black hair was tassled limply around her olive-brown face. Her lips were closed in finality, and her eyes were also closed like she was sleeping in a dream that would last forever. Sky wanted to hold her human body like a child she had just lost. She began to feel tears well in her eyes. The body before her had been with her all of her life. She had awoken with it every day, she had dresaed itnfor work every week, she had taught it to walk, and she had spoken with its mouth for twenty-seven years, and she had her first kiss in that body. And now she had no choice but to say goodbye to it. It wasn't until she was outside of it that she realized how much she would miss it, and how expertly God had created it. Sky felt other hands from the Omatikayans dry hot tears from her cheeks and console her that everything was going to be fine in their language. Sky let Neytiri take her up to stand and she leaned into her strong body for support. Sky walked forward on shaky legs like she had just emerged from an ocean onto a seashore. She saw Tanner and Victoria in Na'vi form wearing Omatikayan garbs, and immediately Sky sobbed, feeling overwhelmed from happiness and from the gravity of what they had evolved to become.
Tanner squeezed Sky securely, whispering, "we're out of our minds."
Sky laughed shakily and inhaled another sob. She basked in the feeling of Tanner's strong muscles in his hug of empathy.
Victoria bent down slightly and closed her arms around Sky's shaking form next, saying nothing, but closing her eyes on Sky's shoulder as the hold of them together nestled her worries away.
Tsu'tey came to embrace Sky as well. Sky heard him say in Na'vi, "dry your eyes. This is a happy day for everyone, and for me, ma karyue." My teacher.
Sky gripped him solely, wetting his shoulders. Tsu'tey's cheeks bloomed by Sky's head and Sky felt his sturdy hand clamp on her back atop her tswin. Sky identified the feeling of her Na'vi features as new attaches to the concept of her new body, which she would have to fet used to.
"All of the Skypeople have been granted a second life among us by the All-mother!" Neytiri declared, looking to Mo'at and Jake.
The Omatikayans before the Tree of Souls cheered. Itoyo smiled as he angled his head to see Sky alive in her new Na'vi form. It was a little hard to see her from where he sat next to Piral and Ree'ahn. The three of them had linked their hands over each other's shoulders, and they had circled together trance-like dance with the entire tribe to awaken the healing powers of the Vitrayamokri for the Avatars' soul transfer. The ritual had been unsuccessful for Grace Augustine, but it had fortunately worked for Sky, Victoria, and Tanner.
"Fpi Eywa!" My God, Ree'ahn complained to Piral and Itoyo, stretching his arms. His mouth was sticky and dry from chanting prayers, and his torso throbbed from circling left and right for a very long time. Such prayer rituals were uncommon and intensely draining. "You would think we we're raising them from the dead!"
"Shh!" Piral hissed.
Itoyo and Piral and Ree'ahn listened to Neytiri continue, "Let us welcome them with the best of our meals, and pray their sleep is peaceful."
"Lu hasey!" It is finished, Itoyo sighed coyly. He yawned. He was a bit ashamed to admit he was also incredibly tired from the ritual, but he didn't want to be rude. It was a joyous day for Tsu'tey's friends, and he wanted to be in a good mood to congratulate them when he saw them at the meal. The Omatikayans all around them began to stand and make their way to the Hometree ruins to prepare the night's meal. Itoyo saw some preferred to head for their Hammocks. "You will come to the meal?" Itoyo asked to his standing fellow warriors.
"Sran," Piral said without question.
Ree'ahn leaned his head unsurely. "I do not know."
"You will miss the chance to dance? You of all of us?!" Piral asked Ree'ahn.
"I will need a long sleep." Ree'ahn said. He looked to Norm and Max who were talking with the theee new entrants to the clan with Jake and Neytiri. "I must be awake early to teach them their first lesson, since Tsu'tey has cursed me to do so."
Itoyo and Piral made a sound of rememberance and pity.
Piral said, "I remember when I taught you, Little Ree'ahn, when you were only a hunter. There was never a day where your vomit had not spilled on my feet!" She giggled brightly.
"Oh, Piral, how my heart bleeds for those sweet memories," Ree'ahn sniped.
"It could be fun," Itoyo suggested. "You may also learn something from being their teacher."
Ree'ahn considered that, but refused to dwell on it. "I shall see at dawn. I will see you in the kelku. Leave me alone, Toyo."
Itouo understood that Ree'ahn didn't wish to be asked anymore questions. He followed Piral to the main site of the clan and left Ree'ahn to his thoughts.
Words: 1000
