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"You weren't even aiming!" Gar'han exclaimed looking at me, exasperated.

"Yes, I was!"

"No you weren't, you were looking at me," he replied, clearly annoyed with me.

My cheeks heated up; he was right. I couldn't help but notice a bead of sweat that had slipped from his forehead and making a line down his patterned face. It seemed that ever since I'd noticed that he was attractive, I'd continued to notice minor details about him. Not that I had been admiring him just now. I was just, um easily distracted. So I was caught off guard when Gar'han had suddenly said "Shoot!" It was no surprise when the arrow landed a few feet away.

"You had something on your face," I said defensively, but didn't mention that it was just a bead of sweat. But it's gone now." I said quickly.

He sighed, rubbing his forehead. I think he did this when he was frustrated. "Jessy," his voice came out bitingly so he cleared his throat and tried for a more gentle tone. "Jessy," he repeated in a softer tone. "If you want to get this right, you re going to have to concentrate." We'd been out here for the past few hours and I could see his patience was starting to slip.

I nodded my head. I could tell I was frustrating him, so I told myself I would try harder to concentrate on aiming and not on Gar'han's face.

"Now, nìmun," he said. Again.

I set my arms and feet in the stance he had taught me. I pulled the bow back, stretching it, then narrowed my eyes at the target Gar'han had hammered into a tree about 8 yards away. The target was actually some type of fruit. It remained untouched by my arrows. I narrowed my eyes at the fruit and released the arrow.

When the arrow pierced into the fruit, the air was knocked out of me. I looked wildly up at Gar'han to see if he had witnessed the same thing I had. I could tell by the purse of his lips that he had. He wasn't exactly smiling, but he wasn't frowning which was a huge improvement. I waited for him to say something.

"Did you see that?" I burst, not able to keep my excitement in any longer.

"Yes, my eyesight is fine. Do it again," he said calmly.

"But-"

"Do it again. I want to make sure it wasn't an accident," he said.

I groaned internally. Was there no pleasing him? So what if it was an accident? I'd hit the fruit.

I slipped an arrow out of the quiver on my back and settled it between my knuckles. Taking a deep breath, I pulled the bow back. I glanced at Gar'han and noticed a strand of hair had fallen in his face. Concentrate! Concentration is the key! My eyes focused back on the center of the fruit and I released the arrow.

Once again, it sunk into the fruit. I turned my smug face towards Gar'han. He truly looked as surprised as I felt.

"Wow, well I suppose were done for today," he said, still sounding astonished. A broad grin stretched over my face. He walked to the tree to pull the fruit off and collect the arrows. Bringing a knife out of his pocket he cut the thing in half revealing a vaguely familiar pink center. Hadn't I seen a fruit like that before?

He tilted his head back and slurped its contents. He glanced at me watching him and offered me the other half. To be honest, I wasn't hungry; Ja'ki had spent my morning s entire lesson either feeding me random crap or telling me which foods would give me more muscle. Apparently, according to Ja'ki, I needed to gain more muscle and I had to start off by gaining more weight. But I was curious to find out what the fruit tasted like so I took the fruit from him and took a swig.

I'd definitely had this fruit before.

My mind re-winded back to when I was fourteen on the day that Helen had been lecturing me about the Tree of Voices.

Flashback...-

"Utral Aymokriy ," Helen said interrupting me from my thoughts. I'd been distractedly watching the automatic plant-clearing machine eat away the small plants that had begun to sprout since it's last routine clean-up. Helen and I were sitting on a bench just underneath the large fence; Hells gate.

"What was that Helen," I asked.

"I said Utral Aymokriy. What does it mean in English?" she repeated patiently as she tapped her fingers against the book her hands.

"The Tree of Voices," I answered, my voice coming out sounding bored.

"Yes, and what is its importance?" she pressed.

"The Na'vi are able to communicate with the biological network that exists throughout Pandora. The Tree of Voices is the center of the Na'vi culture and religion and they believe it allows them to communicate directly with Eywa," I recited.

"And who is Eywa?" Helen asked.

I groaned. "Helen, I know who Eywa is."

She sighed behind her exopack mask. "I just want to make sure you're prepared. Eywa is very important to the Na'vi and they would take it offensively if you did not respect their goddess the way they do."

I was only fourteen, so it would be another four years before I actually would be introduced to the Na'vi. "Helen, we have plenty of time to prepare."

"Helen, Jessy!" Ray's voice called from a distance. We turned to see him jogging our way as he held onto his exopack mask.

"Ray! Put your mask on right now! That's dangerous!" Helen chided him in a motherly tone, although she was only ten years older than him. But then again Ray was ten years older than me, I thought with a twist in my stomach. Only another reason why I shouldn't have been attracted to him.

"I didn't have time!" His voice coming out rushed. "I was just getting off one of the gunships when I saw Dr. Augustine waiting for me. And you'll never believe what she told me!" He took a deep breath, "They ve started on my Avatar!"

"What! Are you serious?" Helen exclaimed.

"Yes, it s growing in an amino tank as we speak! Do you know what this means? I'm going to be one of the first ones to get an Avatar!" he said clearly excited.

Helen and Ray warped into a deep conversation about Avatars as my attention switched back to the plant-clearing machine. I noticed a small bio-luminescent plant that had sprouted. But just as quickly as I'd noticed it, it was gone.

"What happens if that machine misses a day?" I asked curiously, turning back to Helen and Ray.

Ray suddenly seemed to remember my presence again. "Oh Jessy, I got something while we were collecting," he said, rummaging through the bag that had been on his back. I was used to this. A lot of the times when Ray went out into Pandora, he would bring something back for me. He pulled out a green melon looking fruit.

"What is it?" I asked curiously as he took out a knife and sliced it in half, revealing a pink center.

"I don't know the name of it but I saw some of the Natives eating them," he said handing me the fruit. I was always eating human food that Helen gave me so it was exciting to try something new.

I took the fruit from his hands and brought it to my lips and took a sip. Mhmm. It almost tasted like grapefruit with less tang and more sweetness.

"It's delicious" I exclaimed. Ray and Helen laughed, and then continued on with their conversation as I ate from the fruit.

My attention switched to the giant fence that towered over us. Were all the fruits on the other side of those gates this delicious? I wondered what the plants looked like when they grew to their full potential instead of being hacked away routinely by a machine.

I wanted to know what was passed Hell's Gates.

"Jessy?" Gar'han asked looking at me strangely and snapping me out of my revere.

"What? I asked.

"I asked you if you liked the fruit," he said.

"Oh," I said looking down at the melon. "Yes, I've had it before." He was still looking at me strangely. I cleared my throat. "So what's next?" I asked.

Suddenly we were interrupted by a loud familiar and welcoming sound.

The sound of a Scorpion Gunship.

I looked up, my eyes wide, to see a gunship flying over the tall trees. My hair whipped around me as I gasped. A scorpion gunship meant humans. Ray or Helen could be on that gunship, I thought as my heart hammered in my chest with hope.

The melon dropped from my hands and onto the forest floor, completely forgotten, as I broke out into a sprint in the direction of the gunship.

"Jessy!" Gar'han yelled.

But I continued running. I dodged past trees and leaped over protruding roots, desperate to catch up to the gunship. I had to get its attention somehow. I bent down quickly to scoop up a rock then continued my chase. As I sprinted I launched the rock towards the gunship, but it didn't even come close to hitting it.

"Hey!" I hollered, waving my arms as I ran, trying to get its attention. The distance between me and the gunship was getting larger and my legs were starting to burn. Maybe Ja'ki was right about me being weak. Suddenly my foot connected hard with some kind of rock and I was sent flying.

I flipped and landed on my back with an "Ouff!" I scrambled up and was ready to break into a sprint before a pair of hands caught my arms from behind.

"Are you crazy?" Gar'han barked, spinning me around. I could hear the Scorpion Gunship fading away along with my hope. My eyes locked on Gar'han's face to find him severely angry. I shoved his arms off of me to turn and looked hopelessly in the direction that the gunship had gone in. I think God sent that gunship just to tease me.

"No," I said breathing heavily from my run, as I turned around to face a pissed off Gar'han.

"Then why would you go chasing after humans, and try to get their attention!" Why was he yelling? I was standing right in front of him.

"I thought I may have known them," I mumbled brushing past him as I walked in the direction we had come in. Suddenly I heard heavy breathing. Was Gar'han breathing like that? I swirled around to a huge beast towering behind Gar'han and my heart almost leaped in my throat.

The huge creature had black leathery skin with several skin flaps on the back of his huge head. My jaw dropped as the flap slowly fleshed out and large quills protruded from around its head. I knew this animal very well; a Thanator. One of my favorite topics to learn about from Helen. It was so much more scary when it wasn't in a text book!

"Gar'han!" I yelled pointing behind him as the huge creatures mouth pulled back to expose its razor teeth. Gar'han whipped around and jumped back just as the beast took a snap at him.

"Jessy tul!" Run.

I unsheathed a knife from my hip that Gar'han had given me, ready to fight. Gar'han dodges another attack and turned to grab my elbow and run. I sprinted along side of him with the beast hot on our tails.

The Thanator was gaining on our heels and I knew we couldn't out run him for long. The forest was thinning out as we continued to sprint.

As if things couldn't get any worse, just as we cleared the forest, we reached a cliff. Both Gar'han and I skidded to a stop. Below I could see a deep pool of water. The cliff wasn't incredibly high but it looked like it would hurt a little to hit the water.

"We have to jump," Gar'han said. "The Palulukans can't swim."

Just as he said this I turned around to see we were suddenly face to face with the Thanator.

"Spä!" Jump. Gar'han said grabbing my hand, and jumping, bringing me with him. We hit the water with a hard smack. Fortunately the water was deep so I sunk below for a second before emerging. I swirled around to see Gar'han also emerging. I swam on my back towards the shore as I looked up at the top of the cliff. The Thanator stood shifting indecisively at the top. Giving up, he turned on his six legs and sprinted back into the forest just as I reached the shore. I collapsed onto the grassy land soaking wet and sprawled onto my back.

Did that really just happen? I thought, while I breathed heavily. A choked airy laughter left my lips. I couldn't believe that had really just happened! How the hell did I end up in these situations?

Gar'han emerged from the water, dripping with water and stalked past me angrily. I climbed off of my back and followed him.

"What's your problem? Were not dead. Neither of us are hurt," I asked, becoming annoyed with his constant show of seriousness.

"No thanks to you," he snapped. True, I was partially to blame for leading us directly into the Thanator's territory, but I didn't do it on purpose.

I grabbed onto his arms to stop him from walking. I noticed that his wet hair was falling out of his long braid and into his face."Why do you take everything so seriously?"

"Why don't you take anything serious?" he retorted, pulling his arms out my grasp and continued walking.

I decided to drop it. I didn't feel like arguing. After a few seconds I asked, "Do you know where we are?"

"Yes," he replied in a clipped answer. So for a few minutes I trailed behind him in silence as I watched a few stray beads of water fall down his back. After a few more minutes in the forest we reached a clearing and Home Hill was visible. A few Na'vi were riding past us on their direhorse. One of them was Fara.

"Kaltxì Jessy," she called smiling. She took at my appearance as she came closer and hopped off of the direhorse. "Why are you two all wet?"

I opened my mouth but Gar'han answered for us. "Went for a swim," he muttered darkly and walked past Fara, leaving me alone with her.

"Ohh," she said but as soon as he was out of ear shot, whispered to me, "Did you two get into a fight or something?"

I shrugged as though I had no clue. "I don't know what his problem is," I said innocently.

She shrugged also and climbed back onto her direhorse and offered me a hand. I took it thankfully, tired of walking.

Later that evening I followed Fara into the dining hall for supper. Tali was sitting in a closed circle of elder Na'vi so I supposed we wouldn't be eating with her today. Instead Fara lead me to a small group of young Na'vi. Ja'ki and Gar'han were both sitting in this group.

As I passed Ja'ki he pulled me down on his lap, laughing. I couldn't tell if he had a few puffs of Yukah or if he was just being himself. I opened my mouth to object but he corked my mouth by stuffing some kind of bread in it. I chewed it and realized that it tasted pretty good. "Promise me you'll eat all of this," he placed a bowl that was ridiculously over piled with food onto my lap, "And I'll let you up."

"I promise," I said quickly, and to prove myself, I reached into the bowl and stuffed some kind of sliced fruit into my mouth.

He threw his head back laughing, and released me from my spot on his lap and I stood and took a seat between Gar'han and Fara. Gar'han didn't acknowledge my presence so I guessed he was still pissed at me. Whatever. I was happy to see that there was no meat in today's meal, so I could eat without worrying that I was consuming a viperwolf. Just as I was finishing my last bite, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned to see Tali standing over me.

"I was just about to go for a walk, would you like to join me?" she asked.

"Sure," I said, dusting the crumbs off of my fingers and standing up. We remained silent as I followed Tali through a few tunnels and out of Homehill. The night breeze brushed against my face and ruffled my hair.

"So you and Ja'ki are becoming good friends," she said casually. It had been a statement but she said it as a question.

I shrugged. "He's alright," I muttered. He's also been stuffing me with food like thanksgiving turkey. I hoped she wouldn't bring up the whole Ja'ki and Jessy=life mates thing.

"I'd hoped you two would become friends. Then maybe something more..." she trailed off.

"Tali, I thought we made a deal...You would give me three months. We don't know if I'm staying so why bother discussing life mates if we're still uncertain?" I asked.

She smiled. "Of course Jessy. We'll go at your pace."

The guilty feeling that I'd felt when she'd first hugged me settled in my stomach again. I was supposed to be convincing her that I wasn't her daughter, but here she was, still completely positive that I was her flesh and blood. I could tell by the way she smiled, she believed I was staying and I hated giving her that type of hope.

"What makes you so sure I'm your daughter?" I asked as she stooped down to pluck a small yellow bio-luminescent flower from the ground.

I noticed the bio-luminescent dots on her face were glowing and it seemed to make her blend in with Pandora's environment, as though she was a part of it."Your father had this energy in him." she started looking up at the sky wistfully. "It was like I could see Eywa's spirit in him and it showed through his eyes." She placed the flower gently behind my ear. "And you have the same spirit in your eyes."

Well that definitely proved that I was her daughter, I thought sarcastically. "Don't you think that there is a remote chance that I'm not your daughter? And maybe your daughter is still out there?" I asked.

"Kehe," no she said without hesitation. I immediately knew it would be very hard to convince her otherwise. She hummed softly to herself as we continued on our walk.

The next morning I sat with Fara by a stream of water, beading necklaces and bracelets together. A few other Na'vi women sat around gossiping but I was paying more attention to Gar'han who was showing a young child Na'vi how to catch a fish while Ja'ki and a few other Na'vi were throwing nets into the water. It was strange seeing Gar'han work with a child. He just didn't seem like the type that was good with kids. But clearly the child was enjoying himself.

Normally I would be with Ja'ki, falling off a direhorse and onto my butt, but Fara had informed me that it was "fishing day".

"Look at her, she can't take her eyes off of him." One of the girls giggled. I suddenly realized they were talking about me.

"Who?" I asked alarmed.

"Ja'ki," Fara said her eyes also on Ja'ki. I turned to see Ja'ki cast a net into the water not at all aiming for a school of fish but for a male Na'vi's head. All of the Na'vi around them burst into laughter as the net covered man lunged at Ja'ki, bringing him into the water. I couldn't help but roll my eyes. I hadn't been looking at Ja'ki at all.

"How old is Gar'han?" I asked Fara, hoping it would come out sounding like a random question.

She shrugged. "Probably twenty-two or twenty-three years old. Why?" she asked as she searched in our bowl full of beads and trinkets for something she liked.

"Just wandering. Because you know how he's always so serious. He just seems kind of mature for his age," I said casually.

"Oh he's definetly the serious type," she said as she found a bead. "But he wasn't always like that." This perked my interest.

"Really?"

"Oh yes, he was always smiling when he was younger. I don't know him all that well, but any time I visited his clan I always saw him smiling." Gar'han smiling? That'll be the day."I believe he is still greiving. When he reached his teenage years both of his parents were killed." she said sadly. Before I could rudely ask how? She said, "The demons killed them." And I snapped my mouth shut. Suddenly Gar'han's extreme hate for humans clicked into place. But why did the humans kill his parents? "But that's not all. When he turned eighteen, just like all Na'vi, he had to take a life mate."

"Did he?" I asked, my mouth going dry.

"Yes," she replied. "But she died in childbirth." I'm sure my mouth had hit the floor at this point. That meant Gar'han was a father! "But the child died also." I gasped.

"That's terrible." I whispered, my stomach twisting at the thought of a baby never having a chance at life. It was just wrong. I could never be irritated at Gar'han again. Not after knowing all of this about him. I looked down at the beads in my hand, no longer in the mood for it.

My eyes looked up and locked on Gar'han's. I knew he couldn't hear us from all the way over there but he was still staring straight at me.

I wasn't interested in being with Gar'han.

The very thought of me ever having a life mate made me sick to the stomach. Committment issues?

And I most definitely didn't want a relationship with a Native; that would just get way too complicated.

So why was I disappointed by the fact that Gar'han already had a mate and could never have another?

Thank you all for reading this far and please leaves me a review to let me know what you all think.