Awa exhaled and then let the arrow slip past her fingers and soar towards the big target that was hung up on one of the branches in the tree in front of her. The feathers ruffled slightly as the wind forced its way past it but didn't leave the path she had sent it on- going in a gently downwards curve that would hopefully hit bullseye. She snarled when the arrow yet again missed the target and instead going straight down into the ground in front of it, right next to all the other arrows that had taken the same direction. Awa stomped her foot and whined with her ears flattening against her head in both exhaustion and annoyance.
"Again" Atxa sighed and waved his hand.
She groaned but listened to her teacher, knowing better than to defy him even more than she already was, and pulled out another arrow from the quiver she had brought with her before loading the bow with it- her shoulders positioning and hands aiming for the target she kept missing. Awa shifted her stance slightly before letting the arrow free again and only after she could see the arrow a bit in front of her did she lower it, a habit Atxa was trying to take away given that it would be a big inconvinience for her to get up her bow between targets. The arrow, now with feathers in a light purple, flew towards the target and by miracle just at the edge of the round, wooden target that had seen better years and students.
"I did it! Atxa look! I did it!" She cheered and spun around in a small circle while pumping her hands in the air. Chants of 'I did it' filled the air all the while Atxa was still staring at her the same way he did before she managed to hit the target: with his eyebrows furrowed and lips pulled into a thin line.
Her teacher hopped off the branch and walked over to where she was still celebrating her mini victory. "Do it again. Hitting the edge isn't good enough, imagine if it was a raging palulukan; that hit would have been just touching its flank and doing no damage to the animal itself other than angering it. I've told you this before, never celebrate until you're out of danger."
"Sorry Atxa" Awa said while letting her hands plop down to her sides and a sheepish smile grow on her dirty face. "I finally hit it, though! I can't wait to tell Ngeha, she told me I couldn't do it" She smirked smugly and nodded as if proud of her accomplishment.
"Ngeha works in strange ways." His eyes glittered as he talking about his love. "I bet my hammock that she said that to motivate you into trying harder. She has this gift of knowing exactly what to say to motivate others. Challenges and people not believing in you seem to be yours"
"Maybe" She shot back, neither denying or confirming his statement. "I bet yours is praise and a little bit of-"
Atxa sputtered and placed a hand over his heart. "None of that, young one. Now shoot before we both grow too old to lift a finger" The Na'vi man staggered backwards dramatically before sobering up. "I have much to teach you and so little time. Shoot again"
Awa nodded with a grimace marring her beautiful face. "Sure thing, boss", she said before getting in the right position to shoot again, her eyes sharp and focused.
The dreamwalker shut her left eye, a thing she had seen many people in movies had done, and released the arrow on her third exhale, making it soar out of its hold, nicking her cheek and the string flicking her underarm. She beared through the pain, her eyes shutting and body wincing out of instinct to get away from said pain, until she heard the arrow had hit something, hopefully the target. Awa inhaled and then forced her heavy eyes open, squinting at the sight before her before a huge grin grew on her face that made her eyes crinkle and cheeks hurt.
"I did it!" She exclaimed and hooted loudly, her voice reverberating miles around them for such was her happiness. "I hit bullseye!", Awa sighed and looked over to where her teacher stood, staring at her with thinly veiled pride and happiness. She laughed and had to place her hands on her knees before she fell over. "I actually did it", she whispered as if reassuring herself.
"You did it" Atxa confirmed and patted her on her sweaty shoulders. "Now, tracking"
"But shouldn't I train more?" Awa protested and dug her feet into the ground. "That was a lucky shot, are you sure we should already move on?"
"Moving on? No, expanding, yes. We will always come back to archery but you need to know much more than how to fire a shot at a still target. You will need to make a clean kill before your Iknimaya, and you need to track that animal yourself." Atxa pointed out, his tail swinging behind him while he circled her in an almost predatory way. "Yes, tracking is necessary. Don't question me again."
She bowed her head and wrapped her tail around her leg. "Sorry, Atxa, won't happen again"
"No. Never again" He repeated and then turned around to walk into a thicker part of the forest, his steps quiet and agile, as always. "Now come", Atxa's voice called back to her, authoritavely and none of the fondness he held for her present in the sound.
Awa picked up the arrows from the ground and put them in her quiver before rushing after Atxa, her steps loud and clumsy compared to his. Her bow was held firmly in her hand as she jumped over fallen branches and slid under the lower ones. Before long she had caught up with her teacher and started walking alongside him in the green, vibrant forest she had come to call home, a place of dreams; both nightmares and highest wishes. It was a treachorous place to be if you didn't know the way, the Na'vi way, the way of existing alongside nature and not above it. Once you could see like they did it wasn't as terrifying, if anything you could see the beauty more clearly and admire the things that used to frighten you. Eyes followed them as they walked and a plethora of different animal sounds could be heard in the forest, though fortunetly none of them the roar of a palulukan- a creature that frightened Awa beyond anything else, the one creature she wished to never meet again.
"When do I start tracking?" Awa whispered, not wanting to disrupt the fragile quiet that surrounded them.
"You should already be tracking, Awa" Atxa responded without looking at her. "Constant vigilance"
"Got it" She responded, her voice slightly louder but still a whisper.
Awa slung the training bow over her shoulder and crouched down on the ground, feeling the dirt there for possible footprints and other clues that an animal, a prey, had walked there. Her fingers fumbled around in the ground until she felt a gentle imprint there that looked like a fwampop, a small, brown and purple tapirus. Awa cheered slightly at her discovery before she straightened up again and started following where the steps led. Atxa followed tensly behind her. Awa climbed over a fallen tree that had big, brown mushrooms growing on top that made a wheezing sound when she stepped on them and a thick, brown cloud that made her nose itch.
She jumped off the tree and felt a burning pain when she didn't position her feet correctly before the impact, making her flinch and limp for the next few steps before the pain went away and her steps went back to normal. The footsteps of the fwampop were more frequent in the area now, lots of more prints from others of its group and a few small ones, probably from the babies of the pack. Her hand swept down to see how dry the upper layer of the print was, smudging it in her palm and then letting it fall back to the ground. Fresh. They were fresh, she realised with a small, accomplished grin.
With renewed energy she bounced after the track, screaming back at Atxa to hurry up before they lose track of the tapirus'. Her feet flew over the ground, kicking up plants and dirt alike before they came to an abrupt stop when she heard the loud, high-pitched, shrill cry that she had learnt to recognise in the Avatar program; the sound of a fwampop being attacked. Her breathing came out in short spurts. She was so close, but someone got to the animal before her.
"We will try again later. Do not worry too much, dreamwalker, it is the way of nature. It's the will of Eywa." Atxa tried to console her, his words soft and almost muffled against the ringing in her ears. "You didn't fail at your task. You tracked the animal, and going by that sound you were going in the right direction."
"Thanks" Awa muttered, brushing past the Na'vi and sat down on the fallen tree she had jumped over. "I missed the nantang, didn't I?"
"Yes"
"Shit" Awa cursed and threw a rock at one of the plants. "I thought I had it, y'know. That I would finally impress you and make you proud of me. But I always mess it up"
Atxa sighed and sat down next to her, laying a hard hand on her slumped shoulder. "Stop beating yourself up over mistakes. You think the Na'vi know how to hunt from birth? For a dreamwalker you are making incredible progress in a short amount of time. I will always be proud of you. Why wouldn't I? I get to watch and teach this resilient woman who never surrendered to hardship, who challenge those who wants to undermine her and who never stops fighting, even when the odds are against her"
"Thank you" Awa whimpered and threw her arms around the Na'vi, crying into his shoulder. "I needed to hear that."
"I know you did. You always do" Atxa responded and patted her on the shoulder awkwardely, his face stuck in a wince and eyes widened in shock. "You have much to learn, but you have learnt so much already. Now what's all this I hear about you and Tsu'tey?"
Awa stopped crying and sniffled slightly before responding. "It's the same as always. He ganged up on me with his friends and then the rest is history"
"When you say 'gang up', what do you mean?" Atxa tilted his head and furrowed his eyebrows. " I do not understand human sayings"
She laughed and wiped her eyes, letting go of him and sitting straight again. "It means that he uh- that he sat with his friends and together they said mean things to me, and then when I was kind to him he threw it back in my face and went on this rant about me thinking you owe me all of this"
His mouth made an 'o' shape before his lips curl up. "But he apologized for it, no? Tsu'tey is stubborn, hard headed and hot heated but not evil or mean. He is a Na'vi of honor, duty and love. Your people hurt us and so far he's responding to the injustice with what he thinks is justice"
"He didn't apologise" Awa sulked and crossed her arms over her chest.
"But he scolded the friend for wishing you dead? That, my dear Awa, is progress. He cares enough that he goes against the friends he's known all his life, for you, a dreamwalker trying to worm your way into his life." Atxa chuckled and draped his arm around his student's shoulders with a happy grin. "It will turn out just right, Awa, you'll see", he said and made a motion with his hands that she didn't understand.
"What's that?" She asked him.
"A ship" He responded and winked at her.
Awa was sitting at one of the benches in a lesser used hallway with Grace, telling her about the eventfull day she had and all of the new things she learnt when she heard a door open. It was a familiar screeching that made her want to flee, hide and wash her skin until she bled. It was the screeching of Quaritch's office, and as far as she knew not many people dared to be in there when he was- it only meant bad news and pain for her.
"Is that-?" Grace asked, both surprised and sceptical at what she was seeing.
"Maria?"