Chapter 6: Paradise

Viyume was sitting cross-legged on the mossy ground. Tuk was sitting right opposite her, helping her out by braiding some of her hair. They were surrounded by thick vegetation. A canopy of tree leaves provided more than enough shade for them. Though the sun managed to penetrate all the way to the ground in some small spots, it was a darker forest overall than what Viyume was used to.

That was alright, as far as she was concerned. It made it easier to stay out of sight, or at least it gave her that feeling. This was why Viyume had made her camp nearby. Right now, Tskxe was out hunting, so it was just the two of them here.

"It is fine, Tuk." Viyume said after it sounded like the young girl was not happy with some of her work.

"No, it is not." Tuk insisted, quite dissatisfied. "I think I need to start over with these last ones…"

"I am worried someone notices you are missing if you are out of sight for too long." Viyume admitted. "I can braid my own hair, you know."

"And I can do it too. Just watch me." Tuk said stubbornly, mimicking Viyume's tone.

Viyume remained silent for a moment, as Tuk continued diligently. Nevertheless, she soon couldn't stop herself from asking some of the things on her mind.

"So, how is he doing? Neteyam, I mean." Viyume started.

"Better than Lo'ak." Tuk replied simply.

"That is something at least. How does he like it here?" she pressed on.

"He likes this place a lot, maybe as much as I do." she said, becoming somewhat more talkative. "Mama does not like it here at all…And Kiri and Lo'ak are somewhere in between. Papa says he likes it here too, but I am not so sure about it."

"I see…" Viyume responded, realizing that Tuk probably wanted to talk more about her whole family, as opposed to just about Neteyam. She was therefore surprised by what she heard next.

"If I stay away for a bit longer, it will be more believable when I tell Neteyam I found something special. I can lead him here, and then you can come out and surprise him, like you surprised me!" Tuk explained enthusiastically.

"Sounds like a good plan." Viyume said with a smile. "You are smart, Tuk!"

The young girl giggled for a moment before she continued braiding Viyume's hair.

Several hours later, Viyume was still waiting anxiously. She walked around her camp aimlessly, with her rifle slung across her back, and occasionally went over to a nearby inlet of calm water to check her own reflection.

Her hair was partially braided, and partially hanging loose; a deliberate choice of hers in an attempt to look exotic. Additionally, she had tied some yellow and purple flower petals into her braids, with Tuk's help. A single toruk fang, the one she liked the most, was hanging from her neck attached to a cord.

Tuk had been gone for a while. Viyume had honestly expected her to have brought Neteyam back by now. It was certainly possible that some problems had popped up. She could imagine that Tuk had some difficulty detaching Neteyam from the others, especially Lo'ak. For example, if she made up something about having found a scary animal, then it was likely that both brothers would want to check it out to protect their little sister. And if both Neteyam and Lo'ak would show up here, it would be bad.

Viyume was suddenly startled by some moving branches. She almost gave in to her urge to jump into the bushes, not sure if she was really ready to meet him. However, the true source of the disturbance soon revealed itself. It was none other than her ikran Tskxe who descended and landed near to where she had earlier put down the crate on the forest floor. He had some kind of round creature with fins locked between his jaws. It was most definitely dead. Tskxe pranced around proudly for a moment and whirred contently at her.

"What are you doing?" Viyume asked in all seriousness. "Are you seeing me? What do I look like? I am busy, see? Take that ball-fish-thing someplace else. You do not need to impress me. Impress a girl ikran with it, will you? Go on."

When Viyume turned her back to him and walked on, he just clawed his way across the ground and when he was close enough, he gently tossed the creature right in front of her feet. When she looked back over her shoulder, she could see him staring at her with his big innocent eyes, obviously demanding to be petted.

Viyume sighed, giving in to the overwhelming cuteness. As she reached out, he leaned towards her. They touched somewhere in the middle. While thoroughly petting his snout, head and neck, Viyume was caught off-guard when she suddenly heard voices behind her.

"Tuk! Slow down! You should stay behind me." Neteyam called out in a worried voice.

"But you do not know where to go! And I do!" Tuk answered bluntly.

"And do you know what is out here in this forest? Apart from the mysterious box you found? Stay close to me at least." he said in an attempt to warn her.

"If you would hurry up, you would stay close to me! I told you it is like one of those boxes papa brought along. You know, the kind made by the Sky People!" Tuk yelled as she dashed around and through the vegetation.

Neteyam picked up the pace and quickly caught up with his little sister. Just when he wanted to grab her hand, Tuk slowed down and then came to a full stop as she crouched. There it was indeed, the box, just standing there in front of them.

"How would a human storage box end up way out here? It does not make any sense…Maybe it fell from a…" Neteyam began, as he looked down at the crate, before he noticed another person and an ikran nearby.

"Tuk, behind me." he quickly whispered to his young sister as he assumed an imposing and confident posture towards the unknown Na'vi.

"Is this yours? Who are you?" he then asked in a clear voice, in a neutral diplomatic kind of way.

Viyume felt her heart sink at those words, though she quickly rationalized it for herself that he did not recognize her because she changed the way she was wearing her hair.

"You forgot something when you left our home." Viyume began as she stepped forward with as much confidence as she could muster, despite feeling her heart beating in the side of her neck. She gracefully threw her head to one side, to fling some of her hair across her shoulder. Next, she took the scoped semi-automatic sniper rifle from her back, retrieved the magazine from her hip and loaded it. "You said it was a good weapon."

Neteyam was actually grinning by now, and appeared to momentarily be at a loss for words. Viyume continued to walk forward whilst staring into his eyes, and only stopped when she was already inside his personal space.

"Viyume." he said, sounding quite impressed. "I almost did not recognize you. How…did you find us here?"

"Skill." Viyume teased him. "I am a good tracker."

"So, what did you track? Our scent? Did my brother not wash himself behind his ears again?" Neteyam teased her back, making it clear he was at least somewhat skeptical about her claim.

Speaking of scent, Viyume savored Neteyam's quietly in the meantime. It had been so long since she had last been so physically near to him.

"It is a secret skill." Viyume continued, unable to stop herself from smiling broadly. She started walking a kind of circle around him, but he just moved along with her to keep her from walking too far away and out of his field of view.

"I would definitely not mind to learn how to do that." Neteyam admitted readily. Then, as he was turning to follow Viyume's movements, he suddenly realized he did not know where Tuk had gone to.

"Tuk!" he immediately called out, breaking eye-contact with Viyume for the first time since he had noticed her presence.

"I am going for a swim, okay? See you at dinner!" his little sister yelled, already on her way back to the village.

Viyume noticed Neteyam struggling to decide what to do. She could just read from his tense expression that he wanted to be absolutely sure Tuk was safe and that he was probably feeling obliged to escort her back. On the other hand, Viyume knew she must really have made an impression if it was now so difficult for him to decide what his priorities were.

Eventually, Neteyam said: "Alright, Tuk, but just go straight back to the village. No detours. I mean it."

"No detours, got it!" she yelled back, already quite some distance away.

"So, do you still want it?" Viyume then asked, stopping right in front of Neteyam, causing him to refocus on her.

"The weapon? You came all this way to give it to me?" he asked in slight disbelief, but while refreshing his grin nonetheless.

"Well…kind of. Also…I wanted to see you again. You said we would see each other later…" Viyume revealed. She was starting to show hints of shyness, however.

"You have a good memory. I guess I did say that. It was right before…" Neteyam answered, causing him to remember why he had never followed-up on that statement. His expression turned somewhat more serious again.

"It was not your fault." Viyume reassured him, seizing the opportunity to lightly take his hand into her own. She had longed to do that for a while now.

"Anyhow…" he continued, glancing down appreciatively at Viyume's touch, with his face relaxing. "I cannot accept it. I used it for practice and it is indeed a fine weapon, but it was never mine. If I would picture you in my head right now, I would see you with it. So, if you ask me, it belongs to you."

Viyume felt as if she could melt away after hearing him say this. She remained silent for a moment. Then, she managed to release one word past her lips, almost as a whisper: "Thanks."

"So…are you coming to the village?" he inquired, sounding hopeful.

That was probably the most difficult question he had asked up until now. Viyume didn't want to go there, but wasn't sure if she could properly put her reasoning into words. She took a deep breath before answering.

"I…do not think I would be welcome there. Your mother…she does not like me. And your father, he would probably worry that someone followed me or that his hiding spot has become common knowledge. He might want to move your whole family again. Would it not be better to keep things the way they are? We have all had to go through one drastic change already. And I do not mind living out here. I would have you and Tuk and Tskxe to keep me company." she reasoned. Then she noticed Neteyam looking somewhat puzzled.

"Tskxe is my ikran." Viyume elaborated quickly, slightly embarrassed. "It…uhm…is a long story how he got that name…"

Meanwhile, Tskxe was still undisturbedly and noisily consuming his ball-fish catch in the background.

"That is fine, I do not mind to hear it sometime. But really…do you actually want to live out here all by yourself? And what if someone else finds you?" he said with some concern in his voice.

"They are sea people, right? Do they ever come out here?" she wondered.

"True, I would not expect them to venture into the forest often, but to say they never come here…I would not count on it." Neteyam answered rationally.

"Well, if you want to keep me here and if you want things to stay the same for your family, then maybe you can help me find a better place to live? We could explore this island together. Would you not want to have the opportunity to get away from your family and this clan sometimes? And have fun together with an Omatikaya girl as if we were still back home? And without a war in the background?" Viyume suggested, smiling broadly as she silently congratulated herself on coming up with an epic response like that.

"I can help you today, and I would like to… spend time with you…but…I cannot guarantee I can free up much time in the future. We are all still getting used to living here, riding these ilu, hunting underwater… I need to look out for my siblings. My mother and father expect it, as they should, and I do not seek to disappoint them." Neteyam replied earnestly.

"I understand." Viyume answered soberly. She was a bit disappointed, but on the other hand, he had confirmed he wanted to spend time with her, and this fact filled her with joy again. Even if she got to spend just one evening every ten days with him, she would consider herself to be very lucky. She could already imagine it now.

"So… you are okay with that?" he then asked carefully, snapping Viyume out of her brief daydream and back to reality.

"I am." she answered softly, before suddenly and unexpectedly dashing towards her ikran and leaping onto the saddle. Then, she stretched out her arm to point at a hole in the leaf canopy, through which a mountain peak could be seen in the distance. "Shall we meet there, at the top?"

"Sure. I have never flown all the way up there before. It would certainly be a good vantage point." Neteyam acknowledged, clearly thinking along the lines of helping Viyume to scout for a better place for her to camp.

"Alright then, see you there!" Viyume yelled as she had Tskxe leap up and ascend. She looked back once and saw Neteyam run through the forest into the direction of the village. He looked to be in a hurry to get his own ikran.

Viyume wanted to give him a breather, as she had more or less lured him into this wholly unprepared. However, he had just gone with it, like he always did. Nothing ever seemed to perturb him. In comparison, she had had hours to prepare herself and she wasn't sure if she could have gotten through this encounter successfully, had their situations been reversed.

However, this wasn't the main reason for her suggested change of scenery, and neither was the whole scouting-for-a-better-camp idea. Perhaps she had needed a breather herself, but mostly, she was hoping she would be able to find a better spot. A more romantic place where she would finally be able to properly confess her feelings for him. She knew she had to do so today, otherwise she would run the risk he would start seeing her as just a friend. And now that she had a head start, she would be able to decide on where it would happen exactly, so that all the little details would be just right.

She made it to the peak of the mountain soon enough, and was initially distracted by the absolutely breathtaking view it provided, no matter in which direction she looked.

Viyume could look across the green and rocky ridges of the island, with its white beaches at the edges in the distance. Alternatively, she could watch the lagoon, with its bright cyan color and the wall made out of cascaded water-filled pools beyond which there was the open ocean. Another direction provided a view of multiple smaller islands and several larger ones near the horizon. It might not be home, but it was definitely something special that might even be better than home.

By the time he arrived, she was sitting on a rocky ledge, with her feet dangling over the edge, looking out across the lagoon and the many islands which dotted the landscape. The ledge was surrounded by dozens of orb-shaped red flowers. Viyume had heard him land and dismount and soon saw his ikran fly off again, accompanied by Tskxe. It wasn't long before he sat down beside her, close to her, but not intimately so.

Viyume immediately turned her head to make eye contact with him, and smiled radiantly again, simply after seeing his handsome face shine brightly out here in the open sunlight.

"I know what you want to say." he said to her in a calm, soothing voice.

This surprised Viyume, her expression turning somewhat serious in anticipation. She remained silent, though.

"I am not an idiot, Viyume." he continued. "I do not know how you did it, but you travelled all this way by yourself. That takes determination. I do not believe it had anything to do with the weapon you wanted to give to me. I think…I think you came here just for me."

"I love you." Viyume immediately blurted out, wanting to say it out loud herself before he could do so.

Neteyam moved a little closer, took both her wrists gently into his hands and said: "I like you too, Viyume. But I am not sure if either of us know what love really is."

"We can find it out together." she suggested, her eyes glued to his, the perfect combination of yellow and green in those irises captivating her.

"I am not sure if we are ready…if we are old enough."

"But we feel something for each other. Does it matter what we call it?"

"It matters to me."

"Why must we always follow the rules our parents lay down for us? Can you let go of them for once? I broke many rules to get here, and I did it for you."

Neteyam sighed slightly at this, before replying: "I am not sure if I can be there for you. Like I said before, I have a lot of responsibilities. And now you are asking me to start living a double life on top of that?"

"No." Viyume answered meekly, momentarily averting her eyes. "I just want you to know how I feel. I want to be with you and get to know you better. If you have just one free evening every ten days that you could spend with me, this would already be enough for me. Of course…if you really want to…"

"Is that an…ikran fang around your neck?" he suddenly asked, changing the subject, probably because it was only now that he noticed it. "Is it from your own ikran?"

"Actually…it is a toruk fang." Viyume revealed in a soft voice.

"A fang from a toruk…" Neteyam said in return, sounding interested. "If I may ask, where did you get it?"

"I found a toruk skeleton when I travelled here…" she improvised, not having the heart to tell him how she had really acquired it.

"Just by chance?" he wondered, seemingly lost in his thoughts for a moment. "My dad once rode a toruk, but I guess you have heard all about that. I wish I could have been there to see it…"

"It must have been an amazing sight." Viyume said in agreement.

After a short silence, Neteyam spoke again: "You broke all rules to get here, for me. You are the only girl I know who wields a human weapon with such grace and determination. And you have an incredibly rare toruk fang. So, how come you are settling for just one evening out of ten days? I do not understand this. I would like to know who you really are, Viyume."

Viyume's radiant smile returned once more as she lightly grasped his strong forearms and stroked them lightly with her fingers.

Neteyam and Viyume spent the afternoon exploring those places on the island that most Metkayina appeared to ignore. They went wherever they desired, calling their ikran in order to descend back down, leaping from branch to branch in the forest, walking along a deserted beach, taking a break whilst sitting in the shade, and spying on some Metkayina fishing in the lagoon. Sometimes Viyume followed Neteyam, and sometimes he followed her.

At one point, Neteyam found a spot underneath the giant tree roots, within walking distance of the village, somewhat comparable to where Viyume had made her first camp. An inlet of clear blue water was present as well, mostly surrounded by dark grey rocks instead of white beach sand. It was a lot brighter here, however. The canopy wasn't as thick and thus it looked far more inviting. Also, it appeared that no-one ever came here.

"So Tuk was in on the whole thing? I would not have suspected it! It makes sense, thinking about it now." Neteyam admitted in amusement.

"Yeah, she has been so helpful! She is so sweet… also a bit stubborn, though." Viyume insisted.

"Sounds like you got to know her already. And to think that before I saw you, I was worried we had stumbled into the camp of a human scout…" he revealed in a slightly more composed voice.

"I do not think any human could to come here without attracting the attention of the whole village." Viyume replied knowingly. "They are always so noisy when they travel."

Neteyam then unexpectedly grabbed Viyume's shoulder and promptly shushed her. When she shot him an alarmed look, he gave a quick nod into the direction of the inlet. Two people were swimming nearby and appeared to be drawing closer.

"Hide." Viyume whispered immediately.

Neteyam humored her by accompanying her as she moved back deeper into the forest to take shelter behind several large leaves of a nearby plant.

"What are we doing?" he asked in a low voice, curious about how Viyume wanted to handle the situation.

Viyume simply peeked through the leaves to see where the intruders were going. One of them was swimming very gracefully. The other not so much.

"That is my brother, swimming with Tsireya. I cannot say I am in any way surprised." Neteyam whispered to Viyume as they watched the swimmers draw nearer. Viyume could now indeed recognize the male one being Lo'ak, as he started speaking.

"I do not think staying in the water for this long is good for my skin. I mean, have you seen my hands? Just look at my skin." Lo'ak said in complaint as he held up both his hands momentarily for Tsireya to inspect them.

"Then let us practice sign language some more." Tsireya answered soothingly. "I wanted to show you this great place where we can sit quietly. We are almost there."

"Is it like… a secret spot?" Lo'ak wondered, trying to sound innocent.

"It can be our secret place…if you want." Tsireya said calmly, briefly making eye-contact with him. Soon, she reached some rocks at the edge of the inlet and began climbing out of the water.

Viyume had seen enough. Already turning herself around, she said in a hushed voice: "We should go. Clearly this place is already taken."

Neteyam, however, continued watching, apparently very intrigued by what he was witnessing.

"This is perfect. He is never going hear the end of this. His 'secret spot'… he will not have a clue how I managed to find that out." he whispered, sounding quite pleased.

"Come on." Viyume demanded under her breath, grabbing his hand and pulling it until he moved.

This time, they decided it would be better to search for a suitable location somewhere on the opposite side of the island. Here they found a quiet bay, surrounded by high rocky outcroppings. The water had over time eroded the bases of these rock walls, making it seem as if they floated just above the waterline. The bay was sufficiently large so that it didn't feel cramped, but at the same time it felt somewhat cozy as it was mostly encapsulated by rock and vegetation.

There was a bit of a climb involved, but there was definitely a suitable alcove halfway up one of the cliffs. This alcove provided an excellent view of the bay and appeared to offer acceptable protection against the elements as well.

"How do you like it here? Or would you prefer an actual cave where you can disappear into?" Neteyam inquired as he looked out across the water.

"Please." Viyume said, sounding quite tired. "No more caves…ever. This is fine for now. Absolutely fine."

"Then I would say: mission accomplished." he subsequently announced with a proud grin.

When seeing the orange color of the sky, Neteyam realized what time it was already. He knew it was not acceptable to miss dinner and that if he did, it would raise too many questions back at the Metkayina.

"It is getting late. I have to go back now, Viyume. Will you be alright?" he said with a hint of concern as he briefly touched her shoulder.

"I will." Viyume replied calmly. "Will I see you tomorrow?"

"Maybe I will take an ilu and ride all the way around the island to this place. We shall see." he said, before starting to walk away.

Before he disappeared out of view, Viyume wanted to say a final thing to him.

"Hey, Neteyam?" she called out, causing him to stop and look back across his shoulder. "Today was a really fun day. And I am so glad I got to spend it with you."

Neteyam took a moment to turn back around to face her properly, before slightly bowing his head to her in acknowledgement. "I am glad too.We will see each other again, soon, I promise." he spoke, before finally leaving for real.

Viyume subsequently sat down with her back against the rock. She wanted to sit for a while. She needed to sit for a while. This had probably been one of the best days of her life, though she hadn't wanted to say that to Neteyam. It was hard to imagine right now that it could get even better than this. As she was watching the small strip of horizon which was visible through the narrow sea-entrance of the oval-shaped bay, she relived many of today's moments in her mind.

The sound of a shrieking ikran in the distance brought her back to the present. She realized she still had a lot to do. She had to find Tskxe, she had to find something eat, she had to set up her camp. It was going to be a long evening. Though she wanted to see Neteyam again as soon as possible, she also hoped he would at least spend the whole of tomorrow morning with his family and with the Metkayina, so that she could sleep in.