CHAPTER EIGHT – ARACHNOID

Crumbling stones fell from the vertical mountainside which Syani was climbing when she tried grabbing a vine. She only held it for a few seconds until its roots let go of the rock material. She let the vine go and quickly grabbed another one that grew horizontally. This one was strong enough for her to pull herself up while holding onto it. The mountain was big and vertical, and its height seemed endless to Syani, who had been climbing for a long time already. She struggled to raise herself high enough to be able to place her foot on the vine. She then used her big toe to secure her foot's grip on the vine and was able to push herself up onto flat ground above the mountainside. As she struggled one last time to get her whole body up there, she accidentally scraped her injured leg. She hissed at the pain, trying to ignore it. She wanted to lie down but she was determined to keep going.

"Hold on Syani", she told herself while catching her breath, "if you lie down now, you won't make it any further."

She kept taking deep breaths, exhausted from the mountain she had just climbed. Her legs were starting to cramp out of exhaustion both from the climbing and from the swimming. She got up and looked up at the mountain she was going to climb next. It was twice the size of the mountain she had just climbed. Luckily, there were a lot more vines to hold on to on this mountain. The thing worrying her was that this mountain moved. It moved a lot more than the one which she was standing on.

"That might become a problem… but I don't have time to wait and see… Sivako!"

She spent some seconds timing how she would reach the bottom of the mountain and jumped. She caught one of the vines growing all around the mountains and started pulling herself along with it until she was able to grab the rock material and start climbing. At first, she was freezing while climbing as the sunlight didn't reach the lower part of the mountain and the wind was fierce. It was only the climbing that kept her body warm and working, but at the same time her body was getting more and more tired. As long as she was covered in the shadow of the mountain, she preferred to keep climbing and stay warm rather than freezing while getting nowhere closer to Iknimaya. She hummed while she climbed to distract her mind, but she didn't dare to sing in case it would take away her focus. She quickly stopped humming again as the mountain continued to move, and she was nearly thrown off it when she misplaced her foot. She could only watch as her last arrow fell through the clouds beneath her and out of sight. It was the first time she looked down and realized how far down there was.

Seeing how high up in the sky she was did not scare her a bit. She looked down at the clouds. She looked around at the many floating mountains. She looked up at her hands and saw that they had reached the sunlight. She breathed out as she smiled, and when she took in another breath, she was encouraged to keep climbing. To reach the sunlight. She climbed further up until she was shone upon by the sun. Syani's smile widened with exhilaration and excitement. She was amazed by this place. She was in awe. It was like she had found a completely different world up there. It was a majestic floating landscape bursting with life everywhere. She was breathing the freshest air she had ever breathed while the wind played with her hair. She could feel the cramps in her legs disappear. She had the strength to continue.

"Ma Eywa", she said and looked around her again with an eagerness to see everything and to never take her eyes off this view, "I am not afraid."

She saw several ikrans flying by in the distance. She could hear the sounds of sparkling water sources on some of the mountains. Roars of the four-winged aerial hunters. Freedom.

"I am not afraid of being here!", she shouted with a voice full of life, "We were made to climb these mountains, weren't we?", she asked the Great Mother. She knew inside that her people were meant to thrive in this landscape. She just knew, and now she was finally here! The feeling of being right there was so different from anything she had ever experienced. Her face was one big smile. She was living and thriving up here. She could have stared at the place for the rest of her life without ever getting enough of it, had it not been for the moving mountain.

She climbed a bit further when she felt something behind her. The presence of something else. Her body was suddenly covered in shadow again, and she quickly looked back to see a smaller mountain floating towards her! The two thundering rocks were going to collide, and Syani knew she had to move away from there. She looked up and could see that she wasn't far away from the mountain top. She started moving sideways as fast as she could to get to the other side of the mountain to avoid the collision between the two massive rocks. While she climbed sideways, she also tried to continue to get further up. She kept moving and moving while the mountain moved, and the other mountain moved towards her. She could see it coming very close and she was almost on the other side of the mountain. She made her way around the floating mountain just in time to avoid being crushed by the colliding mountain. She couldn't see it from the back of the mountain, but she heard it loud and clearly when it happened. The two mountains collided, creating the biggest thundering sound of an ancient roar she had ever heard. She held onto the mountain and had to use all of her strength in her fingers to not fall off when the collision shook the entire mountain violently.

"Wiya!", Syani screamed as she looked up and saw a bunch of crumbling stones rolling hastily down the mountainside right towards her. She ducked her head and tried to lean in to make herself as small as possible. One of the bigger rocks barely missed her head but instead it fell right onto her foot, hitting it incredibly hard before falling into the sky. Syani let out a loud angered hiss of pain. Her wounded foot slipped, and she almost fell but managed to hold on. The pain in her foot was almost unbearable. She felt like she couldn't move it. Neither could she climb with it. She was hanging on the mountainside in pain, not knowing how to reach the top without her foot even though the mountaintop was only a few feet further up.

"Argh! Walew, Syani! Climb to the top! Do it now!", she yelled at herself, trying to sound as aggressive as she could to motivate herself. She hissed loudly as she forced her injured foot to grab hold of the mountain. It was shaking violently and couldn't carry the weight of her body for long. She hurriedly switched her weight to her other foot and took in some deep breaths. She repeated the tactic again. She gathered strength when her weight was resting on her good foot, and then used it to make a quick move on her injured foot to spare it as much as possible. She repeated it again. Her body was starting to shake more and more violently. Her fingers were almost giving up. The struggle was getting too much. She took one final step on her injured foot and leaped onto a vine that grew from the mountaintop. She pulled herself up and fell onto the top where she took a moment to catch her breath. While she was lying on the mountain, she looked up at the sky landscape above her. Although she had climbed a long way up into the landscape, it looked as if it continued higher and higher up in the sky. The limitless sky. She looked a bit to her left where she saw a distant mountain from which she could hear a waterfall and see lots of banshees flying around. She heard the language they spoke to each other. She didn't understand it… yet. She had been told about the place ever since she was a little girl. She and her siblings would hear stories of the breathtaking place that every na'vi deserved to experience. As she started to get back up, she wished so deeply that her brother could be there.

"Ma Eywa, let Txeptey see through my eyes. He should be here with me", she said. She then stepped forward to climb the last mountain ahead. She took a wrong step. She fell backwards over the mountain. In desperation, she grabbed a vine but fell too quickly to hold tightly enough on to it. She fell while trying to keep holding the vine that led her down towards another smaller mountain. At the end of the vine she fell onto the grassy mountaintop of the little mountain and rolled several feet backwards, unable to regain control of the situation. Helplessly she rolled until her body started slowing down. She was unable to stop completely before she rolled into a tree and hit her head, causing an arachnoid to fall from the tree and land on her. She barely had time to notice the small animal biting her before the ground beneath her started to crumble and she fell backwards right into a stone crater that covered her in total darkness.

"Ayeveng, za'u!", a faint voice called, capturing Syani's attention. It was like the voice echoed through the darkness around her. She was breathing heavily, exhausted from her struggles and the hit she took. Her body was starting to feel weird. She was sweating so much that she had trouble breathing normally.

"Ma Syani, ma Txeptey! Come join Taytiri", the voice called again. Syani opened her eyes for the first time and saw their mother calling them all over. Not only were they there in front of her; they were little children. She saw herself and her brother running towards Eynari and Taytiri.

"Where is sempul?", Txeptey asked curiously.

"He is with the olo'eyktan, and we are going to go with him. We have to… say our goodbyes to Kamun's grandfather."

"Where is he going?"

"To Eywa. Remember, he was Toruk Makto, and… now he is needed by Her."

Syani remembered that day well. She couldn't understand why she was seeing it now. What she remembered the best about that day was when she and her siblings were going to sleep. Taytiri had sung a song to her. She would always make up songs when she was a child. Something from within her gave her an irresistible urge to say: "But she is not a child anymore. She is ready to take care of one", and she had no idea what made her say it. Her words echoed through the darkness. Then, out of the darkness, came a light so bright she had to close her eyes and cover them with her hand as further protection. It was a destructive light that blinded her and roared the most horrible sound she had ever heard. She could sense the future presence of someone in her bloodline. She could sense how she would be present when this frightening light would attack while roaring. She couldn't see her, but she knew deep inside that she came from her family. The flaming light came towards Syani, but she couldn't move away from it. Her feet were stuck on the ground. The attacking light moved fast and destroyed everything on its way towards her. She tried to pull her feet up from the ground. Panic was setting in. Afraid of the blinding light, she closed her eyes and covered her face with her hands.

"Oeyä soaiä 'okvur. Sempul, sa'nok, tsmuke alu Syani, sí tsmukan alu Txeptey", she started singing. She sang from the bottom of her heart with a voice more powerful than it had ever been. It was the song Taytiri had made up that day when they were children.

"My family's history. Father, mother, sister named Syani and brother named Txeptey", she sang again. She repeated the song several times while she waited for the light to consume her. Then she felt her feet losing touch of the ground beneath her. She was moved by the wind. She curiously opened her eyes to see. Around her were forests of the Hallelujah Mountains. She was above the treetops, floating with her arms stretched out. The air carrying her like she was a feather was overwhelming and so intensely… freeing. Her eyes kept looking eagerly in different directions to make sure they saw everything while it lasted. She heard a flapping sound coming from behind her, and an animal's subtle growl. It wasn't just an animal. It wasn't an animal at all.

"Ma Txeptey?"

She turned around to see strings of grass growing around her feet. Her serenity was instantly replaced by sudden fear. The grass pulled her down towards one of the forests on one of the mountains in the sky and there was nothing she could do to prevent it. The wind tried to hold her up, and when it hit her, it didn't feel tickling. It hurt to fall through the sky. She looked up at the upper mountains as the grass had almost pulled her onto the ground, and she saw an ikran fly by. On it was Vetxo, flying away forever. The grass let go of her as she fell, but she managed to land gracefully on her feet. She stood motionless for a moment, breathing heavily. She thought the fall was going to kill her. Yet, there she was, still standing, still breathing. She looked down. She was surrounded by glowing grass. She was no longer on the mountains. She was standing at the place where her brother died. The grass was glowing even brighter. She felt her eyes tearing up. She remembered the fear in his eyes when she found him. The suffering.

"Ma Syani. We are not in a hurry. We have all the time we need to hunt."

She remembered those words so clearly, and the rainforest was repeating them all around her. The words were like knives cutting deeper and deeper under her skin every time she heard them. She wanted to scream. She took out the two bones she and Txeptey had been given while looking at the glowing grass. With her furious breathing she raised her arms and was about to start ragingly hitting the grass with them. She took in another breath and her arms sunk fast towards the ground. Her body followed and she fell to her knees, but her arms stopped right above the ground and were embraced by the glow of the grass. She couldn't harm the ground. The grass had been right all along. She took one final glance at the sky. An ikran was flying around up there. It was beautiful. It was free. Connected to something. Its colors were mesmerizing. She could see red, brown, blue, and even purple nuances on it. It was the most beautiful ikran she had seen. It reminded her so much of Txeptey. She let her head sink. Weakly she lowered herself down until she was lying on the ground.

"It is an exciting time for our family", the voice of her grandmother echoed through the trees.

While Syani was unconscious in the darkness, the wound on her upper arm started bleeding again.