SO i come bearing the next and last chapter of "All Possible Things". Yeah, this one is super duper fluffy! I couldn't help it! :)
Anyway, I hope you enjoy!
Disclaimer: I own nothing at all!
"Faith makes all things possible…love makes all things easy,"~ Dwight L Moody
"I need your grace/To remind me/To find my own/If I lay here/If I just lay here/
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?"~ Snow Patrol "Chasing Cars"
The day I have been both anticipating and dreading dawns finally. Half of my heart is leaping at the adventure that lies before me and the other half is still grieving. And so I lie there in a puddle of new sunlight, curled up next to my Jake, unable and slightly unwilling to make any move more than necessary.
It has been a several months since the battle and two since my Jake passed through the Eye of Eywa and returned to me. And the time has passed like some kind of dream, despite all the horror and carnage we have had to face. Still, it doesn't touch me the same way it once did. I knew all along that I had made the right choice, and my doubt seems so very far away now. My Jake is at my side, sharing in my despair and it doesn't take the breath from me, or my heart. He is my heart and he cannot be taken from me. Though some have tried…and failed, of course.
In the morning light that creeps over the both of us, I take the moment and send a little prayer to Eywa, thanking her for the day, for everything, especially for my Jake. I savor the feel of his breathing and the faithful rise and fall of his chest, the way his arm curls around me protectively. But the softness of his features betray pleasant dreams this past night.
Some nights he will awake from nightmares, believing that the Sky People have returned and I am nowhere to be found. My own nightmares scare me into consciousness with a single minded terror that I, in fact, did not stop the scarred man from taking my Jake from me…that I did not kill that man soon enough, that I did not reach my human Jake in time. I was so close to losing him that even the thought still makes me shiver and cling a little closer to him.
As if to re-assure me, the arm around me flexes as he wakes up. He brushes a kiss against my temple, running his fingers up and down my arm. "…morning…" he murmurs, a sleep-slow grin spreading across his face as he sees me. He cups my face briefly, running this thumb over my cheek. That simple touch is filled with such comfort, it is almost enough to send me back to sleep even with my nerves as taunt as they are. Almost.
I return the grin and sit up a little, realizing that I've lain here too long. There's much to do and little time to do it in. "Good morning, my Jake." As much as I would like to stay and be with him, today is the day and I finally un-tangle myself from his arms.
Now he's wide awake. "Whoa…Whoa!" He tries to pull me back but I'm too quick and I evade his grasp at every turn. "Where do you think you're going?"
I sigh and roll my eyes. Such a Skxawng…I don't think he'll ever stop. "I told you I promised No-men and the others that it would be today." I've been putting it off for many weeks now and I cannot any longer. We've been living at the Tree of Souls since we lost Hometree and we must find a new one. The easiest way, we've decided, is on ikran. So many hunters, including myself, lost our ikrans in the battle; we need to choose new ones. It is not unheard of but still strange to think that I will fly without Sze'sze. And I feel as though I am going through the trial all over again, full of jittering nerves that just won't settle.
I clench and un-clench my hands a few times to hide their shaking. But as always, Jake Sees and gets up finally. When I finish tying my knife belt on, Jake's arm comes around my waist and pulls me back gently against him. "It's gonna be fine," he says confidently in my ear like a secret. "I have faith in you."
I've forgotten how good it is to have faith in someone and have that faith bestowed upon you in return. I settle myself in that faith, like a shield. And instead of replying, though, I settle my arms on his, running my fingers over his hands. This is all I need, I realize, as I feel the strong tendons beneath the smooth blue skin, note the bright dots that I know by heart.
"If you want, I'll meet you there. Like you did for me." He suggests softly.
I twist around. "I would like that very much, my Jake."
Like always, he has that silly look in his eye whenever he glances at me. Sometimes he whispers he can't believe how lucky he is. Other times, it's proceeded by a kiss.
"What is it?" Wondering which one it will be today.
He shrugs and looks away, almost dismissing the thought all together. "Nothing…"
"What is it?" I ask again, running my hand up his arm. I give him what he calls "The Face" and he crumbles, like he always does, to whatever I want.
He smiles a little and puts his arms around me. "Be careful…Please?"
"Of course." I promise with a matching smile of my own and pull away just as he is about to kiss me.
It has been many years since I made the climb myself. When I did, I was childish and over- eager. But I was young then, full of hope. I wonder every so often as we ride if any time has passed at all. The others who accompany me are many of the same from all those years ago. Some of the others start to sing an old lullaby about the climb to Iknimaya, some keeping the beat with a few claps, other raising their voices into the joyous harmony. It is a day filled with both good sometimes hard memories.
There is only one shadow that passes like a cloud over my heart…Tsu'tey. My dear friend and brother. He is one of the many missing among us. But that is a hurt that, perhaps, will never fully heal. My Jake knows this and hurts, too; Tsu'tey was his brother too.
But I smile as I watch the dream walker No-men, who sings along, in his place. I say a prayer for my departed brother and one for the dream walker whom, I have no doubt, will become my new brother.
As we reach the vines dangling from Iknimaya, I watch the others leap certainly to them, No-men among them. No-men approaches the challenge with an eager grin, much in the vein of the rest of his training. He excelled especially at riding the Pa'li. Many of the Plain's warriors admired the skills he learned and how fiercely he rode against the Sky People in such a short time. So, my Jake and I trained him intermediately. I taught him how to be silent; something that always had trouble with. Jake taught him how to use the bow, how to hunt. His Na'vi, though somewhat formal, has become more relaxed, more real during his time with us. Even Jake was surprised as to how well he took to it, owing to the fact that No-men wasn't from the Jar Head clan, like Jake was. Jake says he is a "ski-en-tist" like Grace was and was not used to running such long distances or was a warrior at all. But No-men has the advantage of knowing Eywa; something that took Jake many months to understand.
I watch with pride as another one of my students keeps up as we run towards the mountain. For some of us, we mark each passing plant and stone, noting its change since the last time we ran this familiar well worn trail. The higher and higher we climb the less No-men looks around like he normally does, in wonder. He's far too focused on the task at hand, as he should be. Though when we reach the echoing cavern behind the water fall just under the ikran rookery, we pause to take a breath before we get to the next phase of the initiation for No-men.
As promised, Jake and his ikran, Tsmaukan, come roaring in for a landing just next to us. He jumps off, running a hand over his ikran's nose.
"I see you," I greet him along with a few of the others.
"I see you," he replies, holding my hand for a moment as he moves among the rest of us. "Norm!" He calls. No-men turns, smiling as he has been all day. "You're going first!"
No-men nods, swallows hard and starts for the ledge. I follow just after him, giving him last minute instructions. "Remember, you will have one chance and one chance only."
No-men nods but doesn't say anything.
I press my hand to his shoulder, smiling. "We would not have let you come if you were not ready, No-men…remember, you must feel it here." I press my hand to my chest. "You will know."
As we move out, the ikran turn and hiss at us. But most flee as soon as we come close enough. To his credit, No-men doesn't flinch as they growl and cry, he only does as he's been instructed, spinning the fern at every ikran he comes across. They all leap off the cliff until he comes across a rather large dark blue one. It looks directly at No-men and screeches, teeth coming out in full.
No-men stops short and swings the bait faster and faster as it comes closer, its claws digging into the ground. The others start to cheer, Jake and I among them; yelling encouragement.
For being a dream walker and somewhat clumsy (much like Jake once was), No-men has become quick on his feet, dodging and almost dancing with the ikran until he boldly leaps from a small boulder onto it's back, surprising it. With little trouble, he makes Tsahalylu with it. Instantly the ikran quiets and sits back, head twisting every which way as No-men's would.
"Fly, Norm!" Jake laughs. "Go on!"
We can see No-men look skyward for a moment before they shoot upward in a flash of dark blue. Before we know it, they are a tiny speck among thousands of other ikran.
"So who's next?" Jake turns to me.
"I will go," I say, casting a side long glance at Jake who nods once, eyes never leaving mine.
I hop down from the ridge hissing just as fiercely as the ikran. This is my time, I tell myself as I walk among them. Eywa has provided all for me; a family, a clan, a mate who believes in me. But this task, this is the one that I must do on my own, with faith in myself first.
The ikran all leap away from me. Until I come upon one nestled on a huge boulder. The massive red and gold molted creature sits regally, watching my every move, but does not make a sound, doesn't so much as twitch as the others flee. Coolly, it slithers off the boulder and inches closer, a low rumbling growl in its…no, her throat, echoing rhythmically against the steep cliffs. The sound draws me in so deep, for a moment; I forget that there is anything else in the world.
I stop and our eyes lock. This is it.
She takes a step closer as I do, I swinging the strip of bait faster and faster letting out a little hiss. The ikran takes it as a challenge and suddenly lunges. Faster than I thought I could move, I'm on her back, wrestling the huge creature. Her low growl, though louder in the struggle, is still just as rhythmic.
I yank her head back toward her neck with one arm and try to reach for her queue with the other. But she will have none of it and starts to buck beneath me. She beats her massive wings a few times as well as twisting her tail to stir up a dust cloud, making me cough. In her struggle to try to remain free, however, she starts edging towards the cliff.
I can hear Jake calling my name a few times as the others begin to draw closer and closer. I try to tell them "no" with my hand and as I bring my hand back down I find the chance to grab her queue and combine it with mine.
She stops struggling with me and shakes her head a few times, swaying precariously at the edge of the cliff. Easy, I tell her. Easy. Everything is all right.
"Neytiri?" Jake calls gently as not to scare us. I look up, blinking up a few times as I re-adjust to making Tsahalylu with an ikran again, to see him standing just in front of us, sliding his knife back into its holder. "You okay?"
I nod, smiling. I heave out a careful breath and the ikran beneath me shivers a little. I make a beckoning motion with my hand to Jake. "Fly with us…" The second I image us flying, we're air borne.
With a few steady beats of her wings, she and I break through a few lingering clouds, moving straight up into the vast blue of the sky. Higher and higher, until she folds her wings in just enough to let ourselves be pulled back toward the ground. We free fall, spinning and twisting and I yell out my exuberance at the freedom of flying again. It feels…right.
Later, after an afternoon of flying, Jake lands on a nearby cliff and waves us down. Pamsteo, as I've begun to call her, lands next to Tsmaukan with a hiss at him to keep his distance. I give her one last pat and run to my Jake.
He lets out a laugh as I throw my arms around him. "I knew you could! I knew it!"
I laugh too, from joy and the exhilaration that only comes from flying, and pull him down for a kiss because I have no words to tell him what I need to. Of course, he's been wanting this kiss since the one I denied to him this morning.
"I always had faith in you," He whispers to me when we've broken apart and he doesn't just mean today.
"Why?" I want to know suddenly
He pulls back far enough so that he can cock his head to one side, considering. "You have a strong heart…" He repeats back to me finally, running his hands over my cheeks, ears and neck. "No fear."
I catch his hands and slip my fingers into his. They fit, despite my lack of an extra one or his addition, perfectly. As they always do. For this brief moment, everything else falls away, the only thing that anchors me to the here and now is my Jake and his familiar face and eyes. It is all I could ever need.
Eywa will provide.
Well? What'd ya think?