Chapter 5

Miles swam in rivers of darkness, dove into lakes of nothingness, and floated in large oceans of silence. And liked it, the silence. The whole peace it gave him. He liked being away from the fight and the battle and the Na'vi. When he brought his hands to his face, he could have sworn he saw his old human skin, but it was too dark to tell. Then one day, the whispers came.

Miles sat on the shore of his consciousness, glaring out into the emptiness of it all, when he heard them. Soft and in short bursts at first, but then louder and more pronounced. Miles rose to his feet, listening, trying to make out what was being said but his ears were two new, two untrained. They were talking at the speed of light.

Deep voices, authoritative and male, spoke, morphing with the sound of the crashing waves, but they were drowned out by the demanding yet gentle voice of a woman as beautiful as the ocean breeze on his face. His heart stumbled a little—he knew that voice. She had found him again.

Something hard rammed into his chest, knocking him to the ground. Then again, and again. Miles stumbled to his feet, only to get knocked down again.

"Stop!" He yelled. It was definitely her. "Stop."

There was a pause and more whispers. Miles rose to his knees, breathing.

…

When he opened his eyes, he was in a room. Five dark faces looked over him, one of them being the woman from the forest, and another was the young man who found him. He sat up and like a frog, the woman leptoff him. The young man stood in front of her, his hand on his…club, perhaps, ready to strike whenever. Even the other men in the room, all dressed similarly to the young man, stood at the ready.

They stared at each other.

"Hello?" Miles said. No one responded. He racked his brain for something, anything to use—he brought his hand to his head, then down again. "I see you." The young woman standing behind the young man straightened, her eyes softening. Miles repeated the gesture to her. "I see you."

It looked like she wanted to do it back, but the young man in front of her hissed, making her ears lie flat.

"Hey!" Miles said, and he really didn't know why he did that. "Don't hiss at her." Every eye was turned to him. "Sorry…" He put his hand up in apologies.

The young man in front of him turned to the others. He barked something at them, commanding and undebatable. The three men dressed like him nodded before jogging out of the room. It was just the three of them now. Miles' eyes shifted to the young woman behind him, who seemed to try to push away from her companion to get a better look at him. Her friend pushed her behind him, using his tail as a blocker.

They must be close.

Friends? Lovers? Mates, as Jake Sully called his wife?

Whatever it was, the young woman was getting annoyed with the blockage. She growled, low and deep, and the young man stared at her. Annoyed, he lowered his tail and stepped aside to let her pass, and this time, Miles had a better view of her. Smaller than he was, but it seemed all the Na'vi in this clan were smaller than he was, with skin the same color as the midnight blue sky. She was blockier than the other Na'vi he had seen, with broad shoulders and strong arms. She must have been strong to pull him out of the mud pit. It seemed like most, If not all, the Na'vi in this clan were shaped like that. Her tail, like most of the Na'vi's, was more of a rope than anything else, strong and sturdy. He was sure if she leaned back on it, it could hold her up. But it was her face that intrigued him more; a wider nose with a wide mouth turned up into a slight grin. Her eyes were like starlight against her color, a dark yellow.

And beside her, the young man did not vary too much from her. Dark blue skin, large feet, and hands. His tail was slenderer and long, acting like a whip or a snake as it curled around his leg. His eyes were blue instead of yellow, and his nose was a little smaller than her nose was, but they were both stunning to look at. Their markings were closer to black and a dark blue, perhaps a dark brown, but they were smaller, like squares instead of stripes.

Miles felt completely out of place and utterly ridiculous sitting on that table.

The young woman walked up to him, placing a hand on her chest. "S'rrona," She said.

"Come again?"

The look on his face must have communicated his confusion because she sighed and said, "S'rrona," once again.

That must be her name. So he did the same thing, placing a hand on his own chest and saying, "Miles Quaritch."

Then, something like a smile came over her. "Miles," and the letters seemed to roll together like the distant rolling hills. "Ma'Miles," and then she said something else. When it was clear he hadn't understood a word she said, the smile faltered a little.

But the frown didn't have long to stay because the tent flap swung open. Standing in the door, like a dark shadow, was a woman around the same age as S'rrona and the young man, but a head shorter. Where their tails were vastly different, her tail was almost a mix between the two, shorter and like a whip as well. Her bright yellow eyes darted from the young man standing a good distance from them to S'rrona, who was nearly on top of Miles at this point.

A small snarl exited her mouth, and she stormed in, her feet slapping against the rock floor. With one hand, she tore S'rrona away from Miles, making him reach out to keep her from falling. His fingers brushed against the shorter woman instead and a louder, more vicious snarl escaped her lips. Miles flinched back.

S'rrona stumbled back toward the young man who mumbled something only the three of them could understand. S'rrona sighed, folding her arms and rolling her eyes.

Were they her guardians? Friends? Siblings? They dressed with more garb than the other Na'vi in the village, it seemed as if people respected at least the first two more, and he had never seen the newest edition to the group before, but she was vicious, like a lioness defending her cubs she stood almost between the Miles and S'rrona, fangs bared.

S'rrona touched her arm and gave her friend a look. He knew that look; he often gave it to his people when they became too hyped. Just calm down a little; it ain't that serious. But instead, S'rrona said something to her friend in a biting tone. Whatever anger was directed towards Miles was completely and utterly redirected towards S'rrona. The woman barked words at her, moving towards her slowly as she moved back a little faster.

Quickly the young man dashed between them, kicking up rock and dust in his wake. He placed himself between the two women, hissing words that seemed as If they were supposed to calm down the situation. The other woman was snapping at him and S'rrona and S'rrona looked as if she was trying to defend herself, talking with her hands and trying to over-talk the loudness.

And then Miles sneezed and the tent went still and silent.

The three Na'vi looked at him. It was the young man who mumbled something to him. S'rrona smirked, but the other woman just turned her back from them, her arms folded.

Everyone was debating who would make the first move, Miles could tell. It wasn't going to be S'rrona, after she was yelled at by her friend, and it surely wasn't going to be the other woman who did the yelling. Miles knew it wasn't going to be him, either, simply because he had no idea what was going on. And it seemed like the young man knew this too because he seemed to have sighed and gathered himself. He came to Miles, his hands raised, showing he was not going to hurt him but also revealing the thick club he had on the side of his hip. The other woman had a matching club too.

The young man put his hand on his chest just as S'rrona did. "Vrrtep." That must be his name. S'rrona, the sweet one, smiled at Vrrtep, her shoulders relaxing, but Vrrtep didn't notice. He kept talking, using his hands as gestures and indications of what he said. Something about them being Lefpom Na'vi and he seemed to introduce themselves to Miles: S'rrona, Vrrtep, and the angry wild beast was named "Peyral." She did not turn to face them, but her tail snapped against the floor, sounding like a gunshot.

Vrrtep kept talking, but Miles couldn't catch up; each word seemed to run into another. Slowly his eyes shifted to the side of him, focusing on S'rrona. She was focused on Vrrtep, nodding her head as he spoke, but her eyes seemed to cut to the corner at Miles. Every now and then, she would smile, and that made him smile a little.

Vrrtep quickly turned to S'rrona, asking her something. She blinked at him, her smile turning into a grin. At that point, Peyral swung around, her teeth bared. Vrrtep turned to Peyral, placing a hand on her arm, trying to explain something, but she did not want to hear it. She snatched her arm away and pointed at Miles, snapping. She then pointed outside the tent. Whatever she said made S'rrona's ears flatten. Vrrtep looked between the women, one angry and the other now a bit indecisive.

"Tam Tam," he breathed. Calm down. Miles learned that from Spider…

Spider…

Something hot and dense formed in the center of his chest, crushing his lungs until all he could do was breathe silently from his mouth.

A gentle hand landed on his leg, barely hard enough for him to notice. Miles looked up to see S'rrona smiling at him, her eyes gentle and her ears pulled back just a little. She backed away from him when she noticed she had all his attention.

She said something that accompanied a "come here" motion with her arm, a large swooping gesture. He got up, landing on the rocky ground with little effort, even though his legs were a little wobbly. While Vrrtep and Peyral backed away from him, their hands placed where they could swiftly grab their weapons, when Miles approached S'rrona, she did not flinch. She did let her ears pique, her eyes bulging at how much bigger than he was to her—or at least that was what he thought. He was still shocked to see Na'vi so much smaller than him. Even the Beach People, or whatever they were called, were around his height.

Without further talking, S'rrona exited the tent in a swift motion, only looking back to make sure Miles was following. And he was.