Author's Note: ahhh, and we arrive the atxkxe ay Eywa. Where my writing grounds to a dead halt and-wait a second, I still got the next 2 chapters written! yay...but inevitably, I'll have to stop posting every week to write some more which could take some time ;;( that's the trouble with writing ahead I guess, you never know when the juices are gonna stop flowing, but you know they'll stop eventually.

Story Note: urgh, this chapter is short. It makes me sick, but at least the 10,000 word mark is coming. some stuff happens tho.

Thanks for all the lovely reviews/alerts/faves! They definitely encourage me to keep writing every day :D

AND to make a point about something a reviewer addressed, I write a lot of Na'vi in this, and that's what translations are for. I love the language, I love to write the characters speaking it. It would've been unrealistic to have Tsu'tey address the clan in English as not many speak it.

Na'vi is Tsu'tey's first language. Anyone out there that speaks English as a second language should understand why he uses Na'vi words and such.

italics for Na'vi, translations at the bottom, folks.

X*X

The ride takes forever. Jake's eyes droop, feeling like weights are attached to them. The steady rocking of the horse does not help. Eventually the scenery changes; instead of forest and glowing greenery, the trees begin thinning out, waves of blue bioluminity racing up and down their trunks and pooling around the bottom. The plants begin to lose their forest heritage as well, replaced with white and black as their colors.

Some bushes in particular stand out; one white one looks like a bush filled with lilies, streaks of light painted down the petals, the stems connecting it to the plant short and dark, red bugs crowding around to slurp its nectar.

A purple lizard rests on the branch of a tree, its eyes a piercing gold color, its long and sinuous tail wrapped around the branch to hold itself upright. As they pass by, it blinks slowly. Jake grins at it.

The ground turns white and powdery, like a fallen snow, every other spec glinting until it looks like the whole land is carved from diamonds. Jake stares wide-eyed and open-mouthed at the change, if had thought the forest was great...

"What's this place?"

"It is called atxkxe ay Eywa. The land of Eywa. It is...swotu. Sacred. Here there is no rock for demons to dig up. And it is hard to find. We go underground," he motions to the big holes that start to mar the white landscape. "Then at least Omaticaya be safe."

Jake catches sight of something out of the corner of his eye. He looks down and observes Tsu'tey's tail wrapping around his knee, the tuff of fur at the end twitching against the joint, the bioluminescent spots glowing green in the overcast light and contrasting sharply with his pale skin.

He's about to pull away when something then touches his hand and his eyes widen at the flower-shaped glowing seed brushing its ends against his fingers. It then floats down to brush over his leg and Tsu'tey's tail, causing the clan leader to look down. His lips part in a shocked exclamation, "Atokirina!" He reaches down and unwinds his tail, almost comically bringing it up to his eyes. "Kxetse...lumpe?"

The seed undulates upwards to float on the Na'vi's hand for a moment, before going back to Jake's. Tsu'tey's tail moves out of his fingers and he looks up to watch the watch the seed hover upwards over both of them, a dawning gaze in his eyes. "Oeng...muntxa..." He frowns and shakes his head as if to clear the thoughts that dwell within. Both him and Jake watch it float until it's out of their sight.

Well what the hell am I supposed to think about that? Jake wonders to himself

"I guess you really are my new mate then," Jake mutters, sounding petulant to his own ears. On a whim, he reaches over and pulls on Tsu'tey's braid, causing it to disconnect from the pa'li. He picks up the heavy queue and watches the peach-colored tendrils wiggle around, then start straining from the dark hair towards him. He grimaces and drops it in fear.

Tsu'tey slaps his hand away and joins the queue with the pa'li again. "Do not touch."

Jake scoffs. "I'll have to touch it eventually. Us being mates and all."

"It does not matter," a blue hand reaches out to feel over his hair, mocking it's shortness. "You do not have one, we can never be bonded."

Jake's eyes widen; was that...sadness? "I'm sure Eywa will find some way I guess."

Tsu'tey changes the subject, stopping the horse. "We are here."

Jake leans over to look at the ground in front of them, the white broken by large mouth of a cave going into the ground. He stares for awhile, Tsu'tey's voice speaking in his native tongue to the clan, before the olo'eyktan abruptly jumps off.

Jake won't lie, sitting on a huge gray horse surrounded by tall Na'vi, he feels as meek as a mouse, and just as small. Being reasonably tall among his own people, it's quite a shock to have others tower over him. Of course, a direhorse is about the size of an elephant.

Tsu'tey taps his leg. "You need help getting off or not?"

Jake smiles slightly at the informal speech. "Yeah. Guess you'll have to carry me everywhere now. That's the life..."

Tsu'tey snorts before reaching up around his chest and lifting him off the horse, then suspends him in mid-air, his bare feet just touching the ground. Tsu'tey nods to his legs. "How come you cannot walk?"

Jake sighs. "When I was a warrior in the Jarhead clan, I got shot in the back. It hit the spine just right so that it takes the feeling away in my legs. No feeling; no walking." Simple version. Wonder why Neytiri never asked...

"Couldn't clan fix you?"

Jake chuckles. "They kicked me out instead. Cripples aren't high on their list of soldiers."

Tsu'tey's ears fold back. "Omaticaya accept you. I...accept you. You better warrior than at least half of this clan, even like this."

Coming from Tsu'tey, that's like a huge complement. Jake feels embarrassed.

"Why your face turn red?" Tsu'tey asks slowly, clearly perturbed at the previously white skin turning a different color.

"It's uh...nothing," Jake says nervously.

Tsu'tey stares at his face for little while longer before adjusting him in his arms, starting to walk into the cave. Jake watches the outline of the other's face for a few moments before returning his gaze to sky.

Tsu'tey sets him down in darkness, the only light being the bioluminescent spots and slightly glowing eyes of the clan as they settle into their new make-shift home. The only sound is their voices, spears, and bows clattering to the floor.

Tsu'tey's own weapons land next to him, an assortment of shiny daggers and sharp animal teeth, along with his bow and the yellow-blue fletched arrows. The last thing to go is the red neckpiece with Thanator teeth, with a sound of disgust. Jake figures it must itch.

His eyes turn to the mouth of the cave, watching it slowly being covered up by thick strands of braided vines and an assortment of flowers, until only a meager amount of light is present. Tsu'tey's voice calls out in Na'vi, and the only word Jake can make out is "fire".

And so a fire they build. Minutes later orange and red flames lick the ceiling, revealing most of the natives sitting against walls or praying softly to Eywa, others chomping down on purple fruit, small children sitting closest to the fire. It also reveals that the cave, is really more like a series of tunnels, three large gapes of them lining the wall, the high roof adding a feel of openness.

The stalactites are glowing a dark blue color when Jake looks up at them, thousands lining the roof.

Tsu'tey eventually joins him again, sitting down next to him, the fire illuminating and casting graceful shadows across his green eyes and full lips. "Are you hungry?"

"Yeah," Jake says automatically, unprepared for the large fruit that's dropped in his lap. It's a lot bigger to his human self than his Dreamwalker body; more like a melon now than an apple. He tears a piece of the supple fruit and lifts up his exopack for a moment to put it in his mouth. The skin of it is soft against his tongue as the flavor explodes on his tastebuds, the cool sugary flesh tasting better than any hamburger he's ever had.

Non-existent eyebrow raised, Tsu'tey watches the human eat the ki'ong messily, the purple liquid running down his chin and neck. "I am...glad you like the food."

"So am I," Jake talks with his mouth full. "This is the first Pandoran thing I ever ate." And then he's struck with a pang of loss for Grace and the fruit doesn't taste so sweet anymore.

Tsu'tey nods and has one of the clan bring him a fruit as well. The fellow Omaticayan stares at Jake curiously, but makes haste when Tsu'tey bares his teeth and folds his ears back, apparently noticing the staring. "Ftang tsakem!"

Jake watches the exchange while chewing on his fruit. "You shouldn't be so mean, you know. These people look up to you."

"Fnu, they should learn their place." Tsu'tey takes a particularly vicious bite into his orange and blue fruit, the tip of his tail twitching in lingering irritation.

"Yeah, but you're like, damaging their morale. In my clan, we tried to have fun when we weren't in gunfire, joke around and shit like that; it's a coping mechanism."

"And," Jake continues, "they're probably just wondering why you're around me a lot recently."

"You do not want me to "hang around"?" Tsu'tey asks, tilting his head at him.

"No, no...that's not what I meant. I don't got no one else anyway-" Jake backtracks again. "Well, you know, you're more than that, I guess. But it does look suspicious."

"Suspicious how?"

"Uh you know..." Jake makes a vague hand motion between them and lowers his voice. "They probably think we're mates and all that. But then I guess we are-...well not yet anyway. Destined to be, I guess." And shit, isn't that something to wrap his mind around?

"And that gives them reason to stare at you, Jakesully?"

Jake reddens. "I think it's justified at least." Truth is, he doesn't even know what he's talking about anymore, as if his mind has gone suddenly blank.

"I do not," Tsu'tey says, as if that explains everything. And maybe it does.

"Just forget it," Jake mutters and goes back to his fruit, unable to believe he's mated to this son-of-a-bitch.

Glossary:

atxkxe ay Eywa - land of Eywa

swotu - sacred

Kxetse...lumpe - tail...why?

Oeng...muntxa - we are...mated

Ftang tsakem - stop that

Fnu - be quiet