Author's Note: Nobody come at me. I love this fandom so much I have to get all the ideas out of me, or I'll just blow up. Not sure if anyone will be interested in this type of story, but well, here it is! Let me know what you think! Enjoy!

The sky darkens prematurely, even in this strange environment that she's still trying to get used to. One glance is enough for Tsireya to know that a storm is coming. This might not be her home resting by the ocean, but she knows a brewing storm when she sees one.

Even amongst the unfamiliar scents of the forest around her, she can still pick up the twinge of rainwater. The darkening in the sky in what should be late afternoon is the final bit of proof that she needed. And once more, as it has ever since they made it out of the ocean and into the forest, apprehension grips at her chest as she glances about their group, trudging alone day after day.

"It's going to rain soon," Tsireya says, more to fill the silence than anything else. She pretty sure their entire group already smelled the water in the air, long before she said anything.

Ao'nung, her older brother, glances up at the sky, either for her sake or because he'd been so lost in his thoughts that he honestly hadn't even noticed, a frown pulling at his lips before both of the siblings look to the broad-shouldered man leading the group through the forest. Not like he really knew where they were going any more than the rest of them, but they all followed without complaint. Questions, maybe, but no complaints.

"Should we try and find shelter?" Rotxo's, Ao'nung and Tsireya's childhood best friend, mom asks, clutching her youngest son's small hand in her own.

Rotxo glances over from where he was helping his grandfather walk, ears perking slightly. "But we don't know this forest. We have been attacked every night we have spent out here. If we can, we should get out of here. At least off the forest floor, right? Where is the forest Na'vi?"

"Have we considered the fact that they abandoned the forest? At least this area?" Tsuy'asha, one of the young hunters from their clan, asks. He looks around the darkening forest wearily. Only a few short years Tsireya's older brother's senior.

"You speak of the clan led by Toruk Makto," Zestira says flatly, glaring at the younger hunter. He shrinks beneath her heavy wintery blue gaze. "He led the clans against the Sky People before you were ever even born. They are out here somewhere; we just have to find them."

Tsuy'asha shrinks at her words, his ears flattening back against his skull glancing around, still gripping his spear between his hands.

"I meant no disrespect, Zestira. I was just asking. What if we are in the wrong side of the forest? What if we can't find Toruk Makto?" Tsuy'asha asks, trying to keep any form of accusation or criticism from his voice just in case the man leading them takes any sort of offense to it. Now that's the last thing he wants to do.

Zestira didn't have an answer for that. She looks down, creases forming between her eyes as she sucks in a small breath leaking into a long sigh, turning to glance over at the clan's former Olo'eykton. At this point, they were all clanless with only each other, since the destruction of their home.

She shakes the feeling of heat, like fire rolling across her skin. The raspy itch if smoke in her throat, the smell of iron, blood, and gun powder. Something she never knew the word for until these last few days of fighting for their lives trying to protect their home. Something a small part of her hopes will never be the case again. But she knows. This war with the Sky People isn't over. The time will come again when she is called to defend her home, wherever that may be.

Just like they were all called to protect their home just a few short days ago.

And failed to do so, the evil little voice in the back of her head whispers.

Tsireya watches as Zestira, one of her father's greatest warriors and hunters despite her relatively young age, older than Tsuy'asha but not as old as her parents, turns icy eyes forward, scanning the darkness with renewed ferocity. She's ready to fight the forest for their defense. Just as she has been every night since they got here. Zestira was orphaned when the sky people attacked almost two decades ago, and her own clan was destroyed. Her father found her adrift at sea, barely five years old at the time and took her in.

She has been loyal to their clan ever since. Always striving to earn her keep, as if her acceptance into the clan, despite how young she was when it happened, has all been conditional. And as their home burned, she raced in search of Tonowari and his family, trying to get them to safety. She was always the first to jump to his aid, offering herself and her service to the man that saved her life, and his family.

She had no one but them and the friends she had made along the way, but no mate to speak of. Tsuy'asha, though, he lost a brother in the attack, watching him die before his eyes in a spray of bullets that cut through him and was separated from his parents as their people scattered to the waves. His mother... didn't appear well as his father frantically dragged her away from the devastation, his face colorless with terror.

Having to separate, especially without knowing the fate of his parents has been gut wrenching. In his frantic searching for a path to take him to his parents so that he may find a way to help them, Tonowari grabbed him just as a marui behind them went up in flames and raced him into the water. Tsuy'asha knew that he needed to flee but watching his parents disappear into the forest behind their village and out of sight was agonizing to do.

Tonowari's order stood from when the attacks on the reef Na'vi got close to their village. Flee for your lives, go to the forest, to Toruk Makto. If anyone can help them, it's him.

Tonowari's strained silence carries them forward. He's angry at himself. For weeks the Sky People have been laying siege to villages out in the islands and while he geared up Ata'atlu for attack, and they still didn't stand a chance.

They weren't necessarily unprepared, but they sure felt like they were. They knew it would happen at some point but despite everything they did to try and prevent it, they were still caught off guard.

Tonowari, spear gripped tight in hand, keeps scanning the forest around them, blue eyes narrowed, and his ears and head are on a swivel. These last few days were spent in relative, tense silence. Other than an off handed comment and the occasional observation, no one really had anything to say.

The forest, full of a din that they are slowly becoming accustomed to, suddenly goes silent. All of the warriors, including Rotxo's mom who hasn't held a spear in a few years and his grandfather all stiffen. The younger half of the group fall in line a few breaths later, everyone falling still. Ears swiveling and eyes roaming the darkening forest around them.

Tsireya sucks in a slow breath, her heart pounding in her ears as she glances around the darkened space, dreading yet another night in this unfamiliar place. The Metkayina stand about, straining their senses out around themselves, trying to figure out what exactly it was that silenced the forest.

Rotxo's little brother looks up at his mother, as she tightly grips his hand. "Mommy?"

"Rhalwari," Ronal says softly, in warning, cutting a look toward the other mother in the group.

Rhalwari nods, blue eyes skimming the darkening forest around her, her lips parting to tell her youngest that he has to be quiet, when a rustle of the bushes next to her sets her instincts on edge and after only a split second of indecision, she leans down and quickly scoops up her son in time for a small black shadow with wild snapping jaws to come hurdling out of the bush, aiming for her son.

Rhalwari lets out a wail of terror as her son screams. She scrambles back, pulling her son up as far up her body as she can to keep him out of the way of snapping teeth. Jaws snap at her son's toes a second too late as he yanks his knees up toward his chest. Without hesitation, Rhalwari's leg launches out, catching a rib and sending the beast hurdling through the air and into the bushes beyond.

She scrambles back in time for another small beast with snapping teeth to jump out of the bushes in time to be caught by Zestira's spear midair. She brings the spear to the ground, whispering a prayer quickly before bringing her foot down on its small body, her foot molding to the curve of its ribs before jerking her spear sharply, killing the beast before it can suffer too long.

Two more lunge from the bushes, one next to Tsireya, who scrambles back in time to avoid a ferocious swipe from its front claws. Ronal spins around, rearing back her spear before striking like a crack of lightning, pinning one of the beasts to the ground and with a precise and practiced twist of her wrist, killing it.

The other manages to lash at Rotxo's grandfather, barely grazing his shin before Tonowari brings down his spear at the back of its head, with a squeak from the beast and a sharp crack, it falls dead too.

Tsireya and Rhalwari, who was still holding her youngest son, both pull together in the center of the group, encircled by the rest, Rotxo and Ao'nung push Rotxo's grandfather closer to the center with the girls and Rotxo's little brother, making themselves a second line of defense behind the warriors. Tsuy'asha manages to bat away two more of the small skittering animals that hopped up onto a nearby bolder, hissing and spitting in anger. The first one he hits lands on the dirt, whimpering and coughing in pain before jumping to its feet and running off again while the other trips off the edge of the rock when Tsuy'asha hit it.

Coughing as well, it clambers to its feet taking the moment it takes Tsuy'asha to look between his two adversaries, to break the weakness on that side as Ronal quickly ends another one that leapt off of a nearby low hanging branch with an expert jab right up through its throat, its body immediately going limp at the edge of her spear, to run up on Rhalwari, trying to snap up at the son she has perched on her arms and chest, trying to keep him as high up as he can, him seeming to be the target of the beasts as the smallest and easiest to drag away.

Tsireya turns in time to see the beast make the leap up toward Rhalwari's arms. She moves herself between the mother and son duo and the beast catching its weight in her own arms, somehow managing to place her hands on its shoulders to keep its snapping jaws from ripping into her face. The sheer, unexpected weight of the beast is enough to send her scrambling back, knocking into both Rotxo's and Ao'nung's shoulders before falling just past her father, onto her back with the beast spitting and hissing at her face as she screams, feeling razor sharp claws catch at the skin on her arms and a good cut of a back claw on her thigh. She yelps in pain.

"No!" Ronal yells, terror in her usually composed voice as Zestira cracks another beast in the ribs so hard it hits a nearby tree and crumbles to the ground, unmoving. "Tonowari!"

"Tsireya!" Tonowari roars, rage twisting his face but right as he takes a step, Ao'nung pounces on the creature, reaching one arm along the length of its ribs up toward its mouth, gripping its jaw as much as he can, lifting the beast up and off his sister, all six of its legs kicking wildly as it hisses in rage, neurowhips on either side of the back of its head smack his cheeks as it tries to dislodge itself from Ao'nung's grip.

Rotxo's who armed himself with his knife, quickly jams it between the beasts' ribs, shoving it up as far as the handle with let it go. The beast chokes, whimpers, then dies, going limp in Ao'nung's arms. With a heaving sigh, Ao'nung composes himself enough with the anger and adrenaline coursing through his body to slowly lower the beasts' body to the ground as Rotxo carefully removes his blade.

Tsireya rolls onto her stomach, huffing and puffing, shaking her head a bit to try and clear her mind of the adrenaline and terror pounding through her.

"Are you okay?" Ao'nung asks, reaching down to grip his sister's shaking shoulder as she rests on her left hip with her hand to support her. She inspects the scratches on her arms, far enough away that they only bleed a bit while the deeper on her right thigh is deeper but still shallow enough to be a clean red line. The shock probably affected her more than the cut itself, thankfully.

"I'm okay," Tsireya gasps, using her free hand to wearily push long wavy strands of hair from her face. "Just a few cuts. Thank Eywa."

Silence falls over the forest as the sounds of the remaining beasts scamper off further into the forest, the fight more than they were willing to continue. It's not worth it. Best to live and let live. The reef Na'vi don't give chase.

Ao'nung squeezes her shoulder. "Need help up?"

"Yes," Tsireya rasps, still shaken. "I just need a second." She rests her other hand into the dirt, dropping her head between her shoulders to let it hang, willing herself to calm down. That was scary. Whatever those beasts were, they must have been tracking them for a while. They were surrounded. Thankfully the beasts, while numerous, weren't overly large. But still, that very well could have gone a lot worse.

So, for that, she's thankful. It really could have been a lot worse.

"Tsireya?" Ronal calls.

"I'm okay. mom. Just a few scratches, thankfully." Tsireya sucks in a few deep breaths, her heart finally starting to slow down when a subtle shift catches her attention. Oh no. Oh no. Thet came back. She slowly raises her gaze to the darkness of the bushes in front of her, ready for a grinning set of drooling jaws and six clawed feet reared up and ready to attempt to take another running leap at them.

But instead of claws and teeth, she sees glowing golden eyes and a splash of glowing freckles along a small face and down a body and along thin arms. The small body is crouched, back curved but ready to spring up if need be, with their arms dangling between their knees, resting their hands in the dirt, low enough to the ground that they are able to lock eyes with Tsireya from under the bush.

A forest Na'vi! And not just any forest Na'vi, but a child.

Just like with the beasts, Tsireya has no idea how the child got so close - maybe in the chaos of their fight? - but there they were. Cloaked so effortlessly in the darkness that had Tsireya not looked up when she did, she's not sure they would have even known that the child was even there. But there they were. And if there was a child here, then they must be getting close to the clans of the forest!

"Mom!" Tsireya calls, trying to keep her voice calm as she holds the child's eyes. "Dad!"

"What's wrong?" Tonowari's tense voice draws closer.

The child's eyes flicker to where they can see the approaching feet, shrinking back slightly.

"Dad, stop!" Tsireya gasps, holding her hands out. Her father halts, confused. "Shh, it's okay," she says softly to the child. "Please, don't be scared of us."

Ao'nung drops to a crouch, peering into the ever-encroaching darkness to see the faint glow beneath the bush his sister is looking under. He dips his head lower, finally making out distinctive golden eyes - eyes of the forest Na'vi, as their father told them - and glowing freckles.

His eyes widen, mouth dropping open slightly as he gasps, "Is that... a forest Na'vi?"

"I think so," Tsireya says, raising up onto her knees a bit, still bent down to peer into the bush at the child. "And I think it's a child."

"A child?" Rhalwari gasps, hugging her son tightly to her, shaking like a leaf. Those beasts tried to pull her child right from her arms. She could have just lost her baby. And now there is children running around this horribly scary place?

"Come out," Tsireya says softly, holding her hand out toward the child. "We won't hurt you, I promise. Please. We just want to ask a few questions."

She edges a bit closer and the child tenses for a moment, glancing between Tsireya's hand, a bit of blood smudged on her wrist from her cuts, and her gentle face. Despite the irritation of the cuts, she offers a kind smile that pops the dimples of her cheeks.

One moment of hesitation.

Two.

Three.

Then a small hand reaches out from under the bush, resting in Tsireya's palm, letting her help guide them out from under the bush. As the child emerges from beneath the bush, the freckles dim again, and the gold of their eyes subdue as it's not quite dark enough just yet for anything to really show off its bioluminescence. As the child stretches up to their full height, Tsireya can now get a clearer look at their face and can tell immediately tell that the child is a young girl.

There is a long silence as everyone looks at the little girl and she looks at them. Her large golden eyes bouncing around the group. She pulls her hand from Tsireya as the older girl raises to her feet and pushes some of the braids from her eyes. She looks up at Tonowari at his expression, her ears flatten, and her tail goes rigid. Tonowari hesitates for a split second before lowering into a crouch, laying down his spear and holding his hands to show he means peace.

"Don't be scared of me, little one," Tonowari says softly, gentling his face. And while it has been a long last few days, Tsireya is relieved to see that expression on her father's face. He's been so angry since the attack on their clan - with good reason. She's missed seeing anything other than anger on her normally kind and composed father's face. She mentally thanks the young girl, definitely no older than ten, for drawing it out of her father.

At the shift in his expression, the little girl's ears perk back up a bit. "I'm not scared," she finally says. Her voice soft and light, belying her age even more. Maybe she's more than a little younger than ten. She turns her eyes back to Tsireya, creases forming between them. "Are you okay? The viperwolf got you a few times." Her eyes lower down Tsireya's body. She lets out a little gasp, hands flying to her mouth. "Oh no, you're hurt."

"I'm okay," Tsireya says softly, shaking her head. "Are you... part of one of the clans around here?"

The little girl lowers her hands from her mouth and peers up at Tsireya, face twisted in confusion. "No. There are no clans around here. You're in the expanse of the forest. This land belongs to Eywa's other children."

Tsireya's shoulders slump in hopelessness as Ao'nung asks, flatly, "Then what are you doing out here?"

"Playing hide and seek."

All the Metkayina glance at one another in confusion. None of them having heard of such a thing before. Finally, Rotxo asks, cautiously, "Wh... what is that?"

"You don't know what hide and seek is?" the child asks, tilting her head in confusion. The way she asked it made them feel like it was silly for them not to know this game she was referring to. "It's like hunter and hunted, except you don't have to fight for your life when you're caught. Dad said this just makes it safer since Lo'ak lost a tooth when Kiri tried to escape. She did."

The name 'hunter and hunted' does give Tsireya a greater guess on what this game was about and the morbid sense of dread that follows. She's... been the hunted enough these last few days - maybe even weeks - to last her a lifetime. But it sounds like a game that children play, so maybe it's not too bad.

"If there are no clans around here, why are you all the way out here? Surely, it's not to play games in a dangerous forest," Ao'nung says, frowning.

The child's face scrunches up. "The forest isn't dangerous. You just have to know how to listen. Oh, and be quiet. You're very loud. As mom would say, stomping around, making noise. You're like a baby." She giggles, throwing her voice to imitate her mother.

"We aren't loud," Rotxo says, somewhat insulted. Honestly, Tsireya didn't think they were being all that loud either, but then again, she certainly didn't hear this child sneak up on them, or the beasts, these viperwolves. So maybe she was on to something.

The little girl giggles. "Uh yeah, you are. If I could find you, you sure are. I haven't any hunter training yet outside of what my brother showed me. And I was able to track you here. That says that you're loud. And bad at hiding your trail. You're lucky it was just viperwolves and not something bigger."

"Like?" Tsireya asks, apprehensively.

The little girl shrugs. "All sorts." She looks around, reaching up to touch the necklace hanging at her chest, gold eyes scanning the trees before looking back over at the group. "You're not from around here, right? You're a different color and your tails are different. You're a different kind of Na'vi?"

Tsireya nods. "We are reef Na'vi." At the child's curious look, she elaborates, "Our home is in the ocean."

Her little face brightens up. "The ocean? Oh, that's so cool! I want to see the ocean! But, well, we can't because my parents are so busy, but dad takes us to the lake sometimes. He says it's a very small ocean. The one day he'll take us to see it. He says it's really pretty. Is it?" She looks around at all the Na'vi, excited.

Tsireya feels a stab of sadness at the loss of her home, but offers a thin smile and a nod. "It is. The ocean is beautiful."

The child looks down at her feet for a moment, smiling innocently to herself before looking at the group again, eyes settling on Tsireya. "Well, I should go. Spider is probably going to be angry at me for coming to the forest floor. And Lo'ak too. I should probably leave now. You should climb up into the trees, it's the safest place to be. Most of the beasts stay on the floor. Okay, bye." She gives a little wave before turning to disappear back into the bush that she came from.

"Wait," Tsireya, Tonowari and Rotxo all say at once, glancing around at one another.

The child turns back to them at the waist, blinking large golden in confusion. "Huh?"

"Little one," Tonowari starts, letting out a little sigh before continuing, "We are in search of someone. Can I ask for your help?"

The little girl tilts her head, twisting back completely toward them. "You're looking for someone? Is it Spider?"

Tonowari blinks in confusion. "No, little one. We are looking for a mighty warrior of the Omatikayan people. A man named Toruk Makto."

The little girl blinks back slowly and doesn't respond right away. Her face pulls into a look of confusion once more. "What? Why are you looking for him?" She folds her arms across her chest and leans back on her hips. A strange posture that Tsireya has never seen before. But something about it seems... defensive. Her little face pulls a bit tighter at the eyes and mouth.

"Our home was destroyed," Tonowari says, voice even despite the way his throat bobbed. Tsireya can see shame flicker across his face despite his attempt to hide it. She feels a tug at her heart strings and it's just then that Ronal stands behind her husband's crouched form, placing a hand on his shoulder, silently showing her support for her husband. "Toruk Makto once came to our clan long ago seeking aid against the Sky People. We rode to battle alongside him and many other clans. He said if we ever needed help, we could rely on him. Well..." he trails off, swallowing his shame once more before straightening his spine and looking at the little girl once more, straight into her golden eyes with his blue ones. "Well, we need his help now."

The little girl meets his gaze, the tightness in her face loosening up in tender kindness and childish remorse for people she has never met and those that she is only having a brief encounter with. "What do you want from him?" She asks softly. "He fights here, in the forest. He can't go to the ocean. Not now. We need him."

"There isn't anything that can be done for our home. It was destroyed." Tonowari sucks in a deep breath before letting it release from his mouth in a heavy whoosh of air. "We seek uturu, little one."

Her head tilts at that as she innocently asks, "What's that?"

"It means we ask for safety and sanctuary," Ronal says softly, eyes softening at the young girl, even if only a bit.

"Oh," the little girl says softly, looking down at her feet as she drops her hands to her side once more. She thinks for a moment before looking back over at Tonowari. "And you met him before? Toruk Makto? You're friends?"

Tonowari hesitates, wondering if he should fib a bit. He needs to get his family and what he was able to pull together of his clan together to safety. This little girl obviously knows of Toruk Makto. Most, if not all, Na'vi does. He's a living legend. She might be from an allied clan, or, if they're lucky, part of the same clan, which is why she's being defensive. He could be her Olo'eykton. That would be best case scenario.

But lying... it never sat right with him.

So, with a heavy heart, he admits, "No. I only met him the one time. But he seemed... to be a good man. I'm just hoping he meant what he said."

"He means it," the little girl says, her voice taking on a hint of defense. "He never lies."

"You know him?" Ao'nung asks, reaching up to grip Tsireya's arm, hope edging in his voice. They are all tired of stumbling through this forest.

The child glances at Ao'nung, cautiously, before looking back over at Tonowari. "What's his name? Toruk Makto?"

Tonowari perks up at that, surprised. Most of the time, people like him would only be remembered by his title as Toruk Makto. But when he came to Tonowari's clan, he did introduce himself.

"He said his name was... JakeSuli, if I recall. I am not very good with Sky People names."

The little girl giggles, face splitting into a smile. "Jake," she says, leaving an intentional pause before saying, "Sully. Sully."

"Jake... Sully," Tonowari echoes, committing it to memory. If he's going to try to get to the man's clan, he needs to at least be able to say his name right. That doesn't bode well for him to mess it up and possibly offend the other man. Especially if he's seeking help for himself and his family. It was a good thing he ran into this little girl.

"And you promise that you're here for help. You don't want to hurt him?" the little girl asks, big eyes wide. "I can't let you hurt him."

"We would never," Tonowari says softly, hope, for the first time in what feels like forever, builds just behind the wall of his chest. "We come seeking aid. Not to harm."

The little girl hesitates for a moment longer before offering a thin nod, more to herself, than to them. "Okay. We can ask Lo'ak if you can come back with us."

"Who is Lo'ak?" Zestira asks, sticking the head of her spear into the ground to wipe off her hands on her thighs.

"My big brother," the little girl says. "He's so smart. He knows everything. He'll be able to call for my dad."

Tonowari feels his heart pick up, daring to hope more that their tribulations wandering aimlessly through this unfamiliar forest is coming to an end. "Your father will be able to take us to Toruk Makto?"

The little girl lets out a little laugh, pretty golden eyes sparkling in joy. "No! Toruk Makto is my dad. I'm his baby girl, I'm Tuk!"