The Balance of Life
Part One - Discovery
Chapter 4 - Part 24- NewHome
"Norm, you may be taking this whole situation with Ralu far too seriously," Judy commented as she continued to watch him closely. "For arguments sake, let's say Neytiri is right. That Ralu does see you as her future life mate once she is old enough. You have at least twelve years before you have to decide what to do about it. By that time we could all be dead ten times over."
"Yeah, you sure got that right. Depressing, but right," Norm replied. "So are you saying I should just ignore what she might be thinking, planning?"
"Yes, to some degree. Has Ralu ever done anything to make you uncomfortable—either physically or emotionally? Has her behavior ever been inappropriate for a girl of her age?"
"No. On the contrary, she has done so many things to make me feel comfortable, normal."
"How do you feel about her? What does she mean to you?" Judy studied his face carefully as he answered.
"She makes me feel closer to the Na'vi, part of them in a way that's hard to describe. She is the daughter I will never have. I love her as any father would. She has done so much for me, I sometimes feel guilty for not having helped her in her time of need. It can't be easy dealing with the loss of your birth parents."
"I think you have done far more than you know for Ralu. Every time I see you together she has a smile on her face. You comfort her just by being there, doing things with her. When I was watching the two of you playing around in the water yesterday morning I could fell the natural bond between you. It made me just a little envious."
"It did?"
"I have always been fond of children." Judy sighed. "It is one of the things that I miss the most. I think not having children around makes us hard, on the inside."
"There are many orphaned children that need parents to look after them. You should speak with Mo'at about adopting one of them."
"That's a nice idea, but not a very practical one. Children need full time parents. Being around only part of the time wouldn't be fair to them."
"You're right. Sometimes it's easy to forget that being an avatar isn't the same as being a Na'vi."
"I think we are just beginning to understand that," Judy added as she looked over at Kyle.
"You could be something of a big brother or sister for some of the orphaned children. That would not only help them, but it would further the trust that seems to be growing between us and the Omatikaya."
"That has some possibilities. Last night when we were making sure the pump kept operating we had a chance to spend time with some of the children. Most seemed quite interested in seeing what we were. Ell'a'u had to do a lot of translating, but I felt we got to know some of the children."
"I definitely feel we should look into this," Norm began as he rose to his feet. "That being said, we should go and find out what Mo'at thinks of this place a home site. See if she picked up the same negative feelings Ralu did."
"Works for us," Kyle answered as he rose and held out a helping hand for Judy.
When Kyle and Judy picked up their Hydra door guns, Norm was instantly reminded that twelve years was a long way off. Especially for someone who had been here for just over one hundred days. Shoving any future problems that Ralu might bring to the back of his mind, he set off to find Mo'at.
"What is it, mother?" Neytiri asked after they had inspected the first four trees.
"I sense a sadness about this place. It is very weak, nothing more than a whisper of the wind on your skin. I do not feel that some form of evil is the cause of this sadness. It is possible the sadness is coming from the trees. A feeling of loneliness because there are no people living in them."
"Ralu, if you do not agree, please say so," Neytiri encouraged her daughter. "You and mother will see things differently, each with your own eyes. Each of you will sense what was here with feelings that are unique to each of you."
"I too sense the sadness," Ralu began. "But I also sense that the sadness is mixed with pain, with suffering. Both feelings are very, very weak. Much of the time I feel nothing but the loneliness your mother spoke of. I think this was a happy place before it became sad, and now it is just lonely."
"I think that whatever happened here, happened a long time ago," Mo'at added thoughtfully as she gazed around the wide clearing, approving of what she saw. "The signs that people once lived here are almost completely lost. These trees will make a good home for the Omatikaya. Once we make this our home, the voices of sadness will fade, replaced by the sounds of living."
Neytiri was just about to verify that her mother felt comfortable enough with the trees to make them their new home when Norm walked over to where they were standing. Kyle and Judy were a few paces behind him.
"How's it going?" Norm asked. He noticed that Ralu seemed to still be a little moody. She barely smiled at him.
"So far everything looks very promising," Neytiri answered. "We have only two more trees to look at. If they look as good as the first four we may have found our new home."
"Is it okay if we join you?" Norm asked.
"Of course. It would be good for you to see how we look at a tree to see if it will make a suitable home for our people."
"Do you have any idea how long it has been since people lived here?" Norm asked, trying to set the stage so that Judy's archeological skills could be put to use.
"Both mother and Ralu fell that it was a very long time ago. We have no way of knowing for certain."
"Actually there may be a way to do just that. Before Judy came to Pandora she worked at determining the age of settlements of people who lived long before us. A settlement is a place where people live. Hometree for example."
"How can she do this if there is no one to talk to who lived here? Or any of their ancestors."
"By digging for things left behind by those that lived there. Arrowheads, cooking pots, tools, bones; those kinds of things. With special devices we can tell how long these things have been in the ground. It's not exact, but it will give you a good idea of how many generations have passed since people lived here. Talk with Judy and Kyle about it if you're interested."
"I'll do that. It might help to put Ralu's mind at ease. She fears that something bad happened here. She is feeling more that she's telling us. She might be uncomfortable as mother does not share her feelings. Mother can be a little intimidating."
"Let me talk to her," Norm said, as he glanced ahead to where Ralu was standing next to the tree they were walking towards.
"Alright. She may be more open with you."
"Jake, you doing okay?" Norm asked. He didn't think Jake looked as well as he claimed to be, but he didn't say so. He didn't want to worry Neytiri unnecessarily.
"Yeah, I'm okay. That arrow slowed me down more than I thought it would."
"It's a small miracle, and a testament to Max's ability, that you are up walking today, at all."
"True. Don't worry. I'm not going to overdo it. Neytiri will make sure of that."
"Yes, she will," Neytiri added as she rubbed her hand affectionately over Jake's back.
Norm picked up his pace so that he would reach Ralu well ahead of the others. "Are you still mad at me?" he asked when he reached her.
At first she did not reply. Giving her time to decide, he looked around the far end of the clearing, past the two trees that had yet to be inspected.
"Why did you treat me like a child?" she finally asked, the hurt she felt plainly audible.
'Oh boy,' Norm thought to himself. Did he tell her to stop acting like a child—and a spoiled one at that—or was he dealing with an older, more sensitive personality that quite frankly scared him a little bit. Mostly because he didn't know how to deal with it.
"I did not mean to hurt your feelings. After all that you have done for me I would never intentionally do that." While he was talking they kept walking slowly towards the edge of the clearing. "Ralu, you still are a child. I don't say that to hurt you or to make you angry. You are only six. You have twelve more years before you will be fully grown up. I know that you are much wiser than most others who are six. You have the gift of sight, which can be very scary for anyone, no matter what their age. You also have the ability to help people deal with their pain and suffering. You don't fall apart in a crisis. These gifts require you to be more mature than your age. I suspect that Eywa may have helped you deal with these gifts by passing on to you the wisdom and maturity to handle them. She would not want you to be afraid of the gifts she has given you." Norm decided to add the reference to Eywa to see what Ralu feelings were when it came to Eywa.
"Did Eywa give them to me? I have always wondered where they came from."
"Honestly, I don't know if she gave them to you specifically, or you have them because of who you are. During the times that you were linked with Eywa did you ever get a feeling that she was trying to help you use your gifts? Deal with the results of using them."
"My memories of being linked with Eywa are not very clear. Images of what happened in the past, faces, sounds of people talking. It didn't seem to make a lot of sense to me."
"Did the experience ever frighten you?"
"No. Mostly I just felt very sleepy when it was over. After I slept I would wake up feeling very contented."
"When we have more time I would like to talk about your experiences with bonding if you don't mind?"
"No, I don't mind. I would like to talk about them. It might help me to understand them—"
"Hey! Is that a path?" Ralu asked, interrupting herself in mid-sentence.
"Sure looks like one to me. Jake, Neytiri! Over here!" Norm called out as he and Ralu stood at the entrance to a wide path that led into the forest.
"What is it?" Jake asked as he and Neytiri arrived, bows at the ready.
"Jake, put that bow away before you open up your wound," Kyle admonished as he and Judy came up to flank the small group, their Hydra's ready. "The only thing you're going to accomplish is shooting yourself in the foot, or me in the back."
"And don't bother snarling at me," Kyle added. "You know better."
"Sorry," Jake replied. "I hate feeling useless."
"You're not useless, or helpless, or anything less. You're recovering from a wound that almost killed you," Judy snapped. "Let the rest of us carry the damn burden for a while. We'll give it back to you soon enough."
"Thank you," Neytiri said to Judy. "He doesn't always listen to me."
"Does any man?" Judy asked rhetorically. When Neytiri grinned back at her, Judy knew that Na'vi males were just like human males. Something she strongly suspected as Kyle was the same, human or avatar.
"What's all the fuss about?" Kyle asked.
"The path," Ralu answered, pointing to the arched opening beneath the trees. "It must lead somewhere."
"This path has not been used in a very long time," Neytiri commented after she squatted down to get a better look at it. "At some point I think it was used quite often. The surface is very hard and smooth, as though many feet traveled this path."
"Should we see where it leads?" Jake asked.
"Yes, this could be important," Mo'at replied.
"I'll take the lead, "Kyle volunteered. "I won't fire unless I have to."
The path was wide enough for six people to walk side by side. As Kyle lead off, Jake and Neytiri flanked Mo'at, following several paces behind him. When Norm started off behind Jake, Ralu took his hand in hers when he held it out to her. Judy kept a sharp eye out behind them as she followed everyone else.
The sky was completely blocked by the thick canopy of trees that intertwined into an archway that rose twenty meters into the air. Only a small amount of light filtered through the treetops. Until their eyes adjusted it was like walking inside a dark, cold tunnel.
"It's starting to look brighter up ahead," Kyle called out after they had been walking for several minutes.
"This kind of spooky," Norm whispered to Ralu.
"What does that mean?"
"Strange, just a little off."
When the path ended at a large circular opening whose canopy was a good fifty meters above their heads, everyone stopped to stare at what was directly in front of them. Sitting in the middle of the opening on a raised dais was a tree that looked identical to the Mother Tree in the Well of Souls.
"Is this what I think it is?" Jake asked when no one said anything for several seconds.
"It would appear that it is," Mo'at answered; a mixture of wonder and anxiety in her voice.
"I take it you thought your Mother Tree was the only one," Norm said as he looked back and forth between Neytiri and Mo'at.
"Yes, that is correct," Mo'at answered. "All of the Na'vi people journey to the Mother Tree at different times to worship in their own way. I do not recall anyone mentioning the existence of a second Mother Tree."
"Since there are obviously two, I suppose it would be logical to assume that there are possibly many more Mother Tree's on this continent as well as some of the others," Norm added. His mind immediately wondering how or if Eywa would be able to communicate between continents.
"From the light her tendrils are giving off I would say this tree is alive and well," Judy remarked as she moved around to the right to get a better view.
"What do we do?" Neytiri asked her mother, obviously shaken by the sight of a second Mother Tree.
"I wish I knew. This is most unexpected."
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