Author's Note: Okay, I stared this chapter not all that sure both where it was going to take me, and how I was going to feel about it. I was stuck for a time on how to proceed and just decided to shut my mind off and let the chapter just flow and let me tell you, I actually like how it turned out. I know it might seem like things are moving fast, and I apologize for that, but it just seemed to make sense to me. Sorry if it's not all that good. I do appreciate all of your support thus far! I really do hope that you're all still enjoying regardless!
The son managed to make his way back to the cave before Father woke up. He stood at the mouth of it, shaken and trembling. He wraps his arms and tail around himself for comfort before lowering down at the mouth of the cave to lean against the side. The stone is rough against the skin of his behind and against the shoulder he presses to the wall. He stares out over the forest beyond, eyes scanning the trees for the strange beast that was out there, watching him, waiting for him. It didn't hurt him, but it still chased him, still hunted him. Maybe if he waited long enough, it would have hurt him. He... he would hurt him.
Scared, the son twists around to see Father sleeping deeper into the cave, laid out on his side, snoring softly, flank rising and falling with each deep breath. Carefully, the son unravels himself, willing his racing heart to slow, and makes his way over to Father, lowering and pressing his back against Father's. He curls up into a tight little ball and closes his eyes.
He wraps his arms around himself and pulls his tail up between his legs and wraps it around his thigh, doing everything he can to keep himself warm in the shade of the cave. He presses back against his father, warming up the length of his spine with the heat radiating from Father's body.
His stomach hurts, cramping painfully both in fear and hunger. Apparently, the fear from earlier wasn't enough to fight biological desire. But the son is not ready for that, nor does he want to go back out there at this moment. He just wants to feel better and to not think about the scary beast out there that hunted him. It didn't hurt him. It didn't attack him, but... it scared him.
He hears Father yawn, stretching out his long limbs, chopping his massive jaws before shifting around a bit. He rests his head down onto the son's ribs, huffing softly, licking his lips before falling still once more. The son shifts closer to Father, absorbing as much of his warmth as possible. He unfurls enough to place one of his hands on Father's muzzle, running his fingers along the rough, hardened skin. He feels Father exhale deeply, blasting his hand in hot air.
The son carefully twists onto his back, Father lifting his chin a get before pressing down onto his chest and stomach, deadly fangs pressing lightly into the son's collarbone and shoulder. He groans, eyes squeezed shut as the son tries to absorb as much heat from him as possible before closing his eyes and finally getting some sleep.
The son cries softly, trying to sleep away the painful cramping in his stomach, laying a few feet from a pile of gore and bile. He thought that he was going to be okay, but it turns out that he wasn't. It has been a few days since the son has been willing to leave the cave while Father was sleeping, scared that he would run into the strange beast again and that it would change its mind about hurting him. But his spirit is too free, he can't stay away for long. He has to be out there exploring the beauty that his mother created all around him. He could only stay away for those few days, then he couldn't anymore.
Bathed in Mother's beautiful purple light, the son cries, curling into a call to try and will away the pain in his stomach. Once more, dinner just didn't agree with him, but he must have eaten late enough that it really hit him when he finally left the cave. All he could do was get to Mother and her safety so that he could be in some semblance of peace while he vomits his guts out and cries beneath her light.
He squeezes his eyes shut and tries to sleep, huffing and shaking. He tries to relax as much as he can, still sniffling and whimpering despite his best efforts. He toes the line between conscious and unconscious until he feels something. A sensation that was a caress against the skin except nothing touched him. But the hairs on the back of his neck stands on end and he forces himself to open his eyes, peering around in Mother's dim light, surprised something would come to hurt him with her there to protect him.
Then his eyes find the beast, carefully approaching the raised space right in front of mother than the son is laying on.
The son leans up onto his hip, lips peeling back into a furious hiss that makes the beast pause. He holds his hands to the side, fingers spreading out toward him again, but the son still doesn't know what the action means. Despite the son hissing, ears pressed firmly back, head dipped between his shoulders to look as deadly as possible, the beast doesn't look dissuaded. He approaches slowly, saying something in a soft, raspy voice in a language that the son doesn't know. It's just sounds to him.
The beast looks down at the bloody pile of vomit a few feet from them, his ears twisting a bit. He looks back over at the son and says something softly, lowering down onto his hunches so that his chest is just above eye-level with the son, staring back up at him with wide, sad eyes.
The son hisses again, shrinking back a bit, placing a hand on his cramping stomach as bile starts to work up his throat, filling his mouth with saliva. The son hesitates for a moment before shivering, burping and then twisting away to vomit. Mouth and nose burning as he vomits again and again and again until there is nothing but spittle down his chin and he's shaking like crazy, sobbing. His stomach is killing him, and now his sinuses and throat are hurting too.
He starts to cry again, lowering back onto his side and curling up into a ball. He wraps his arms around himself, sending a weak glare toward the beast, baring his teeth in the weak imitation of a threat. The beast rests and gentle hand on the son's shoulder, cooing softly, not at all intimidated by his actions. Despite it being day out, there is a dense overcropping of tall trees that bathed Mother in darkness so that she's perpetually shining, day and night.
And even though it's a radiant light, the darkness around him chills him to the bone. More than one reason for him to have wished that Father was here with him. He will not be able to defend himself, especially in this case. He was hesitant to fight when he felt alright, but now that he feels weak and drained, he's more vulnerable than ever. He shouldn't have left Father. He's always regretting it, yet he does it anyway.
"Shh," the beast says softly, pulling watery eyes toward him, going from his hunches down to his knees. Despite the son hissing softly, the beast gently pushes his hair away from his face and over his shoulder so it's out of the way. He keeps saying something, softly, over and over again.
The son whimpers, not having the energy to keep playing tough. The beast coos softly again, gently brushing away a tear. The hands of the beast, the one on his face and the other on his shoulder, are both warm. A comfortable warmth unlike the heat of the son's body.
Thankfully, and sadly, that heat is dying away as the cramping is lessening. Throwing up did always make him feel better - eventually. He just hated doing it. He hated the feeling, and he knew it always upset Father. And... even the beast looks concerned.
And Mother let him come close. So... maybe he's not so bad. He hasn't hurt the son yet and hasn't made the son feel certain that he would. The son is just scared. The son doesn't understand. But if Mother is okay with him being here, especially without Father around to help protect him, and him being unable to protect himself, maybe this beast really won't hurt him.
The son sniffles, keeping his hips stationary on the right side, while twisting his shoulders flat to the ground, reaching for the hand on his shoulder to place it onto his stomach, whimpering. The beast says something softly, fingers gently caressing the skin there, filling him with a strange warmth before his eyes find the son's and he says something else. The son doesn't understand, he just whimpers again as a trickle of tears make for his hairline.
Carefully, the beast pulls away, the son whining softly as he watches the beast head off toward the forest, saying something back to the son before vanishing. The son curls back onto his side all the way and closes his eyes, trying not to feel bad by the abandonment of the beast. Father never left him. Father may pace around, whimpering and whining too, but he would usually rest a massive paw on the son's stomach or his head, after a while, and once the son had thrown up all the contents in his stomach until literally nothing was left, he would find comfort in it.
He had hoped the beast would be the same. But he just left him.
The son places his own hand onto his stomach, but it's not the same. His hand is too cold, too clammy. He should just try to get back to the cave, it hasn't been very long since he left, so maybe Father would still be conscious enough to hear him whimpering down at the bottom of the cliff. Father will be able to take care of him. Father won't leave him.
Just as the son was mustering the strength to get up and leave, the beast returns with an armful of leaves and something sweet smelling that hits him right away. The son's stomach rumbles a bit and then cramp a bit. He blinks through tears as the beast returns to his side, lowering down onto his knees, lowering all the leaves, berries and a piece of cloth that has something sweet smelling smeared across it down onto his lap.
Quickly, but efficiently, he smears the leaves with the sweet-smelling goo from the cloth and puts a berry on the first one, folding it up and bringing it over to the son's mouth.
The son whimpers, turning away a bit but the beast puts his free hand onto the son's cheek, turning his face back toward the beast. He says something soft, running a thumb across his cheek, offering a tip of his head before bringing the sweet-smelling leaf back to the son's mouth. The son's lower lip quivers and he whimpers, rubbing his stomach, turning his shoulders again so they're flat against the ground.
He reaches up, grabbing the beast's hand and brings it down to his stomach again, wanting that instead. He knows that works. Food is not kind to him right now. While he feels better after throwing up, it doesn't mean that he wants to do it again.
The son whimpers, pressing the beast's hand against his stomach, looking at him with wide, teary doe eyes. He sniffles, watching the beast's ears press back and a mixture of compassion and sympathy cross his features. The beast gently rubs his stomach before saying something softly before bringing the folded leaf back to the son's lips, saying something softly, urging him to eat it.
It smells good. And even though he just threw up his guts, he hasn't been eating well for a long time and he knows it's not okay. He can see the eyes of the beast tracing his bones pressing against his skin. His ears pressed back in what his brain tells him is concern but the son doesn't understand why. Why would this strange beast, who doesn't know him, be concerned for him?
But the beast's voice is soft and raspy. His hands are rough but gentle. He came back when he didn't have to. And he didn't hurt the son when he very well could have. Mother let him come close. Mother must trust that he isn't going to hurt him. And he hasn't given the son any reason to think that he wants to hurt him either.
Slowly, carefully, the son opens his mouth, ears pressing back in fear. He doesn't want to get hurt. He doesn't want to throw up more. He just wants to feel better and sleep, but he's hungry. He can feel himself slow down more and more every day. The climb to and from the cave is harder each day. He knows that Father is worried about him so he has to eat something... and maybe the beast is enough like him that he knows what they can eat without it hurting them.
The beast places it gently on his tongue, still gently rubbing his stomach, soothingly. He says something softly as he reaches for another one. The son carefully chews up the leaf, the goo and the berries are both sweet and hits his tongue just right, making his mouth water. He opens his mouth for the next one and barely tastes it before opening his mouth for another one. The beast flashes his fangs in a smile, saying something mirthfully as he rolls another leaf for the son. He feeds the son that one before placing a hand on his own chest and says something.
Starved, but feeling slightly better, the son blinks away the last of his tears, ears perking as he stares at the beast, lips parting. "Ahhh," he rasps.
The beast shifts closer, placing his hand on his chest, tapping it, while the other hand is gently rubbing the son's stomach. He carefully parts his lips and says, slowly, "Tsu'tey." He taps his own chest again, staring meaningfully into the eyes of the son. "Tsu'tey."
The son blinks slowly, lips moving as he tries to figure out how to form words. If the beast wants to communicate with him... he owes him that much. His stomach is aching a little bit, but that might just be because he's still hungry. But at least he hasn't thrown anything up yet again. Plus... he's been so kind. And his gentle hand is still rubbing his aching stomach, like the son wanted.
"Tsu'tey," the beast says again, softly. "Tsu'tey."
Wait... is that what the beast is called? His... His...
Name, his brain tells him.
The son purses his lips, rasping sounds out, trying to find a sound similar to the one that the beast was using - Tsu'tey - was using. Tsu'tey's fangs flash again in his smile as he leans closer, saying his name again and again, slowly.
The son brings his hand out, turn his head slightly and pulling Tsu'tey closer so that he's speaking right into his ear, listening to it a few times, making sounds similar to it, until he can make something close to it before turning his cheek and staring intently down at Tsu'tey's lips just inches from him, watching the motion for how to shape them into words. His fingers are ice cold against the warm skin at the back of Tsu'tey's neck, but thankfully he doesn't seem to mind.
The son mimic's Tsu'tey's lip movements quietly, over and over again before carefully saying, "Tu'ta."
Tsu'tey's lips curl into a pleased smile. "Tsu'tey..."
"Tu...tey..." the son says softly, staring at Tsu'tey's lips, still trying to mimic his motions. "Tu'tey."
Tsu'tey beams, excited, before placing his hand onto the son's chest. At the son's confused look, between the hand on his chest and Tsu'tey's eyes, his ears flicking back and forth, unsure. Tsu'tey brings his hand to his chest. "Tsu'tey," he says, then brings his hand to the son's chest. Over and over again until the son understands, blinking rapidly, trying to summon a memory.
The him before had a name, he knows this. But he hasn't thought about it since waking up. And it doesn't come to him right away. He knows that he knows it, he just doesn't remember it. Eyelashes fluttering, the son starts making sounds again, trying to work his way through his memory for the name the him before had. Mother never renamed him, probably because she didn't need to as the one that he had before didn't change anything. Father didn't talk with words, so he wasn't going to rename the son. So, the name before should be fine, right?
If he can remember it.
Tsu'tey sits quietly as the son just makes sounds for a while. The son keeps glancing at Tsu'tey to see if he's getting annoyed with waiting or not, but he's just sitting quietly, listening with a gentle look on his face, one hand still lightly rubbing the son's stomach. After a few minutes, the son finally works out, very, very slowly, a strained, "Tsy...ey...k..."
Tsu'tey's ears flutter. "Tsyeyk..?
Tsyeyk's lips part, knowing it wasn't completely correct, but he also knows he's not saying Tsu'tey's name right either. But it does feel like a part of him is slipping into place. He hadn't thought about something as simple as his own name in so long, he's surprised that he never put a lot of thought into it. But this... Tsu'tey... he is very interesting to Tsyeyk. He's soft. He's gentle. He's... radiant.
"Tu'tey," Tsyeyk says, finally smiling at the other male.
Tsu'tey smiles back, shifting a little bit closer. "Tsyeyk."
"Tu'tey," he laughs, pulling his hand back, feeling it run across the smooth surface of Tsu'tey's woven hair. His eyes widen at the feeling, foreign and interesting. He brings his hands together, carefully touching a few of the longer ones at the back of his head, pulling it over his shoulder so that he can look at it, and run his fingers up and down the length of it, fascinated.
Tsu'tey shift closer as, fully sitting on his legs as he grabs another leaf, folding it up and bringing it to Tsyeyk's lips. It takes Tsu'tey poking it once before the prone young man to open his mouth and eat the leaf, chewing slowly as he ran his fingers across the hair. He doesn't complain or protest as Tsyeyk plays with his hair, then moves over to the beaded choker, gently running a finger along the length of the choker, golden eyes wide and fascinated.
Tsu'tey keeps feeding him until Tsyeyk can't eat anymore. His stomach doesn't hurt anymore, and he feels somewhat full now, which is rare. A part of him is waiting for the cramping pain to start again, but fruit is usually good for him, so hopefully that means that he's going to be able to hold this down. All he can do is hope. it was really good, anyway, so maybe he'll look for more of that - maybe show it to Father for both of them to eat.
Tsu'tey then carefully starts to point to parts of himself. Eyes, first.
"Nari," Tsu'tey says. "Nari."
Tsyeyk's ears perk and he turns onto his side to face Tsu'tey, golden eyes wide. He grabs Tsu'tey's hand and brings it up to his chest, holding it there, comforted by this stranger, who he was afraid of not too long ago. His eyelashes flutter as he leans a bit closer, staring at Tsu'tey's lips, mouth moving silently to mimic Tsu'tey's. Around the word, Tsu'tey's smile spreads wider, joy ficking his ears back and forth.
Tsyeyk's stomach was able to settle with whatever it was that Tsu'tey gave him. Which was a relief. Tsyeyk stayed with Tsu'tey for a while, repeating words over and over again until Tsyeyk realized how late it was and made to leave. Tsu'tey grabs onto his hand, tilting his head to the side and says a few words, with a questioning lilt. Some of the words Tsyeyk somewhat recognizes, but they are strung together in a way that Tsyeyk doesn't know.
They spent all that time sitting across from one another. Tsu'tey sitting with one hand trapped against Tsyeyk's chest, while the other was rubbing his shoulder and the length of his arm, when not pointing to a new body part. He seemed concerned by Tsyeyk's cold skin and would keep rubbing at it. The friction felt good and Tsu'tey's smile would turn strained whenever Tsyeyk would pause trying to mimic the sounds of the words to purr in pleasure as a wave of warmth washed over him from the action. But they stayed like that the whole time until it was time for Tsyeyk to leave.
Tsyeyk just points away once he's standing before smiling brightly at the beast - Na'vi, Tsu'tey said he was - and made his way out of Mother's light and into the forest, heading towards the cave his Father is waiting for him in. He hums to himself as he goes, a tune stuck in his head from a time he doesn't remember. To fill the tune with words he uses the ones that he learned today. In just a few hours, he knows so many. They no doubt make no sense as most of them are parts of the body and others are things around them at the time and that's it.
But... if he can find Tsu'tey - or Tsu'tey could find him - again tomorrow then maybe he could learn more.
It's kind of exciting, Tsyeyk decides. He feels like he's learning more about his mother. That through Tsu'tey, he gets to see more. Gets to experience more. Just like Father is showing him more, teaching him more, helping him be more. Tsu'tey is doing that too.
So, he heads back to the cave, excited for the next day, to see if Tsu'tey will teach him more words. He climbs back up to the cave to see Father still snoring softly in the darkness. Tsyeyk steps out of the sun and into the cave, immediately shivering at the loss of warmth, but makes his way over to Father, laying down next to him, gently poking parts of Father's face, reciting the new words out loud. Father groans at the disturbance after a few minutes, with Tsyeyk not stopping, so he brings up a massive paw, hooking it around Tsyeyk's arm and back, pulling him close and nuzzling him roughly, as if to tell him to sleep.
Tsyeyk giggles at his father's annoyed growl, wrapping his arms around as much of Father as possible before pulling his knees up to his chest and press them into the burning hot chest of Father to help him warm up. He shifts slightly so that he can wrap his tail around his ankles to keep it warm too. Contently, Tsyeyk smiles to himself, whispering his first new word, "Tu'tey," before letting Father's warmth seep into his skin and draw him into slumber. For however longer Father is going to sleep, that is.
Just before he loses consciousness, he whispers, once more, "Tu'tey," and imagined the face of the pretty blue flower, with peddles colored with every shade Mother ever made, that not only made his hurt stomach better, but taught him something new. Something he never thought to do before. And with a faint smile on his lips, Tsyeyk, finally remembering his name, falls asleep.
Father seems to sense Tsyeyk's extremely good mood, because he took Tsyeyk to the pond that they play in - the one Father taught him how to swim in - and they spent all night playing. They weren't exactly being quiet, but Tsyeyk didn't mind. He was running around, splashing father and playing with the fish. He would swim around while Father rested on the rocks or disappear into the forest to scare things away that got too close.
When Tsyeyk got too tired, still not having a lot of energy despite all the fun he's having, every break he would take, he would sit next to Father on one of the rocks while Father lounged, and he would poke parts of Father, telling him the words he learned. Father's ears perked at the sound of Tsyeyk's voice, but then his massive tail thumped heavily against the rock, and he would huff for Tsyeyk to keep going.
"Nari," Tsyeyk says, stressing the 'i' while flashing his fangs in Father's face, which only seemed to amuse him. Tsyeyk giggles, resting his palms against Father's eyes, saying again, "Nari..."
Father rumbles, amused still, before nuzzling Tsyeyk's chest before looking back toward the water when Tsyeyk finally pulled his hands back. Tsyeyk's ears perk in interest before they both hop into the water and play around more. He jumps around, giggling and chasing Father around, having the best day of his life.
When Father snuck away to hunt for them as Tsyeyk curled up on one of the rocks that Father didn't soak while laying on them trying to dry off, he searched the trees for Tsu'tey, wondering if he was still out there, but he didn't see anything in the trees, like that first time. He wraps his freezing arms around himself, making himself as small as possible before closing his eyes to try and catch up on some sleep, knowing that Father isn't far.
He awakens to Father wrapping around him, the smell of a fresh kill on his fangs, but Tsyeyk is more interested in his warmth. He welcomes Father's head resting on his chest and stomach, wrapping himself around Father as much as possible, going back to sleep.
Father wakes him a while later, gently nudging him until Tsyeyk groggily climbs to his feet to make for their cave. Father grabs his prey, offering some to Tsyeyk to eat, but Tsyeyk shakes his head, accustomed to skipping meals when his stomach hurts, but he just doesn't want to risk throwing up again after finally having something that he can stomach and still feeling fine is a relief.
Father huffs, worried, but then devours the prey in a few mighty bites, dunking his jaws into the water and shaking a bit until most of the blood is cleaned, as Tsyeyk didn't like the blood smearing on his chest while they sleep so Father acquiesced for him. Tsyeyk grins playfully, still in a great mood despite how tired he is, and skips back home, still repeating his new words as he goes, pointing to them on himself as he goes.
He kept repeating them over and over again as they climbed but once they made it over the top and into the cave as the sun crests over the horizon, Tsyeyk waited for Father to be resting next to him, yawning, before turning to face him, sitting up enough that Father can look at him with those bright blue eyes and points to his chest and says, "Tsyeyk. Tsyeyk."
Father's ears perk up at that, face fan fluttering slightly, before his heavy tail thuds against the hard stone floor of the cave, eyes cresting in a mimicry of a smile, while licking sharp teeth, letting out a little huff.
"Tsyeyk," Tsyeyk says again, lightly tapping his chest, curling up to Father and closing his eyes to get some rest before going to meet Tsu'tey again. "Tsyeyk."
Tsyeyk wondered where he should go to meet with Tsu'tey when he snuck away a few hours later, too excited to sleep for longer. Father snoring behind him was the norm as he climbed down the cliff, wondering if he should go back to pond where they first met, or maybe to Mother, so that he could really relax without worrying about anything else sneaking up on him, but he just wanted to bathe in the warmth of the sun, so he heads for the field not too far from the cave.
Once more, he heads to the middle of the field and finds a comfy patch of grass before lowering into it onto his back and staring up at the clouds floating by mouth parted in a smile, trying to make images out of them. The sun feels so good against his skin that he yawns, despite feeling relatively alright seeing as how he's usually always tired. He's not out there long when something approaches him. He blinks when a figure hunches down by his head and his smile nearly splits his face in two as he sits up and twists around to look at the smiling face of Tsu'tey.
"Tu'tey," he gushes, excitedly, turning to face him completely as Tsu'tey brings his hand up to his forehead and flicks it toward Tsyeyk.
He says something that Tsyeyk doesn't follow but they immediately get into position, crossing his legs, laying down a sack that he brought, next to him but off to the side for a moment. He makes the motion again before saying the whole phrase over again. He twists to the sack, digging around for a moment before pulling out a large strip of fabric, unfolding it, before draping it delicately across Tsyeyk's waist.
Immediately distracted by the weight of it and the soft feel, Tsyeyk begins to investigate, bringing it up to rub against his face and between his fingers before smelling it, realizing he could smell Tsu'tey on it. It carries an extremely strong scent of Tsu'tey. Tsyeyk inhales slowly, a shiver running down his spine as he pulls it closer, purring at the warmth washing over him as he snuggles it close.
Tsu'tey watches him for a moment, ears perked and eyes wide. When Tsyeyk peaks over the fabric at him, still purring, Tsu'tey glances away, swallowing thickly before reaching out to take one of Tsyeyk's hand and giving his hand a little squeeze before releasing it. He brings his hand up to his forehead and waves it toward Tsyeyk, smiling softly as he says the phrase again. Tsyeyk scoots close so that their knees are touching before leaning forward to press his ear close to Tsu'tey's lips to listen closely to the words and starts to mimic the sounds, having access to some of the sounds from other words he knows.
"Oel Ngati Kameie," Tsu'tey says, waving his hand from his forehead. "Oel Ngati Kameie."
Tsyeyk takes much longer to get this one, as it is multiple words as opposed to just the single word per part that he's learning about at a time, but he's determined to learn it, as it seems important to Tsu'tey that he learn it. And the joy, oh, the joy on his face once Tsyeyk finally said it. Said it perfectly enough for Tsu'tey, who was all jubilant grins and whoops, his hands thrown up in the air.
He reaches out with one hand to hold onto Tsyeyk's, giving it another squeeze before motioning the hand from his forehead toward Tsyeyk and saying, sweetly, "Oel Ngati Kameie, Tsyeyk."
Tsyeyk's ears perk at the sound of his name, tail wagging behind him as he inches closer until his knees are resting on top of Tsu'tey's, excitedly saying, "Oel Ngati Kameie, Tu'tey!" He hesitates for a split second, and despite Tsu'tey's bright smile and laugh, he tries again, this time bringing his hand to his forehead and waving it toward the Na'vi in front of him. "Oel Ngati Kameie, Tu'tey!"
Tsu'tey laughs, leaning forward to run both hands down the length of Tsyeyk's arms until he is holding onto both of his hands, grinning from ear to ear as he stares into Tsyeyk's eyes. He says something that Tsyeyk doesn't understand, but his joy is infections, so Tsyeyk grins back at him, bouncing in excitement, ready to see what else Tsu'tey - and Mother - have in store for him.
