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AVATAR:
LIFE GOES ON
(Part Five)
Ao'nung had taken pleasure in witnessing Tuk's rite of first gathering. He still remembered being that age, and his own rite. He, too had brought back more than was expected, and had received the same affirmations as the forest girl had. She would indeed make a fine contribution to her new village, and that would be a good thing, considering that when he and his future mate would leave to start their own village, some of the people would follow him. It was good that one of those that would be staying would be a good provider.
He had watched Kiri and her family walking back to their home, and he started to follow. But then he saw the human boy intertwine his fingers with hers, andhe had to fight off a wave of pure disgust. How can she stand to be next to it, he thought. Let alone allow it to touch her.
After his father had spoken to Jakesully about arranging a union, his father had pulled him aside, sat him down and explained that while Jakesully was open to the possibility, Kiri's relationship with the human made things complicated. He didn't want to believe it. He knew he could prove himself worthy of the forest girl's affection, but he just needed to be able to speak to her alone. Explain himself to her. Let her see his good qualities, which he was sure that she would consider to be superior to anything she though the human had going for him. He'd get his chance. He'd just need to be patient.
As days passed, he made several attempts to seek her out. Finding her was never hard. But every time he did, it was always with her. Holding her hand. Talking quietly to her, saying things that made her smile. It was infuriating. He would walk past them, and put on that same fake smile he wore that day when he tricked Lo'ak into going beyond the reef. He'd greet them as tradition demanded, but he would quickly be about his business.
Then, one day he happened upon Kiri sitting alone under a tree in the wooded area of the island, looking thoughtful. He didn't see it anywhere around, so he figured that this would be as good a time as any. He strode determinedly towards her. "I see you, Kiri," he said respectfully, his smile genuine this time.
Kiri looked up, with a startled expression. She looked back at him warrily, but she greeted him respectfully in return.
"I know we have not spoken much since the battle," he said. "And I am sorry for that. And I know that you have not been comfortable around me, ever since that day when Lo'ak fought me to defend you."
Kiri could see no sign that he was trying to tease or insult her. He seemed truly apologetic. She decided that honesty would be the best response. "A little uncomfortable. You didn't really make me feel welcome."
Ao'nung looked down in shame. "It was wrong of me. I know that now. And I regret my behavior. If you would forgive me, I would like to start over." He extended his hand towards her.
Kiri again looked into Ao'nung's eyes, trying to see any sign of duplicity in him, but her senses told her that he was being sincere. She reached up and took his hand. "I would like that," she said with a smile.
"Can we walk together," he asked
"I'm waiting here for Spider, Lo'ak and Tsireya. We're going into the woods for what my father calls a picnic," she explained. "You're welcome to join us."
Ao'nung shook his head. "What is a... picnic?"
"Sorry. It's a human custom of carrying a blanket and a basket of food to a nice place when the weather is good, and spend time enjoying the company of friends," she said. "My family used to do it a lot back home. Mother thought it was strange, but changed her mind after the first couple of times."
"I do not wish to get in the way," he said. He knew that his sister and Lo'ak were in courtship, and as much as it sickened him, Kiri and the human were on the verge of it. It might prove to be uncomfortable were he to tag along.
"Nonsense," Kiri said. "I'm just glad we're all fiends now."
Most of us, thought Ao'nung. He regretted not apologizing for his initial behavior towards Kiri sooner, but his pride only allowed him to just pretend that he had never been insulting towards her or her family. The battle had changed everything, and having fought alongside the sullys to save Payakan, and after seeing the miraculous things Kiri could do, he found himself humbled. His feelings towards Kiri were confused. He didn't know if he liked her enough that he would be able to love her. But he wanted to find out.
Affection between an Olo'eyktan and his Tsahik was not always there, in the beginning. It usually came with time, after duty was satisfied. If Kiri were to become his mate, he would protect her and the children who would come, and he would provide. Love would come in time. He snapped out of his musings with the realization that Kiri had said something else. "What did you say?"
Kiri smiled mischievously at him. "I said, are you a freak?"
He narrowed his eyes, feeling anger well up, and then he started laughing. That is what he had asked her that day she was under water, staring at the sand. "No," he said, mimicking the same awkward tone she had used when she had responded.
Kiri smiled again, her eyes holding only warmth and kindness.
Ao'nung felt a wave of emotion wash over him. There was no denying his attraction to this girl. He had been looking at her as a future Tsahik for what would one day be his own village. It was a need that he had. But seeing her smile, and knowing her gentle kindness, the need had become desire. Yes, he could like her enough to love. He needed to waste no time. "You have a very beautiful smile," he said, his stance and tone radiating confidence.
Kiri was taken aback by the sudden change in Ao'nung's posture and tone. He seemed older. more mature. He seemed like someone who knew what he wanted, was determined to get it, and strong enough to hold onto it. She couldn't help but think that he had a lot to offer a potential mate, and she hoped that whomever that person would be, that she would be smart enough to accept him. "Thank you," she said appreciating the compliment. "Spider tells me that all the time,"
"I tell you what all the time," asked Spider as he emerged from the trees into the clearing.
Kiri quickly moved to stand next to him, draping her arm around his shoulder as he put his arm around the small of her back. "That you think my smile is beautiful. Ao'nung thinks so, too."
"See," said Spider. "I told you that anyone with any decency would notice."
The human boy's tone was jovial, but Ao'nung noticed him looking back at him in a way that could be considered challenging, and he couldn't hide the involuntary sneer that he felt on his own face. "Then it is a wonder that you noticed, human," he said coldly. He was beyond tired of this creature always being in his way. It could offer Kiri nothing.
Kiri laughed, causing Spider to frown.
"Someone has been hanging around Lo'ak too much," she said.
Spider chuckled. "Sounds like it," he said, looking back at Ao'nung with a nod.
Ao'nung was not smiling, and his eyes held only contempt. "I am not joking, human," he said, annoyed that this alien thing couldn't recognize sincere disdain when it was staring him in the face. "You have no decency. You think you are worthy of her," he pointed to Kiri, "but you are not. Like the rest of your kind, all you can do is take. You can give her nothing, but you expect her to give you everything she can."
Kiri couldn't believe she was listening to this. Things were so good just a few moments ago. Ao'nung had swallowed his pride and apologized. He even complimented her. And now... Realization hit her like a slap to the face. He likes me, she thought. He's acting like this because he thinks he has to prove himself dominant. She had watched her mother Grace's video logs where she talked about Na'vi courtship practices, including how males would often insult each other to provoke a challenge. Her adoptive father had told her that human males who liked the same female often did the same thing, But Spider would be no match for Ao'nung. He was strong, and knew how to fight, but there was no way that he could win against a Na'vi, strength for strength.
Spider was furious. He had no desire to take anything from Kiri that she was not willing to share. And he had no intention of even asking. He was Seventeen and Kiri was only fourteen. The human term for her was jailbait. The Na'vi had their taboos as well when it came to mating, and Kiri would not be recognized as ready for union for four more years. Courtship was permitted, but mating was forbidden, unless he wanted to die a painful death. He loved her, and another thing he liked from the Bible was that verse about love being patient. Did he want her? Of course he did. but he would respect her, and he would not try to take things any further than decency would permit. He knew that he could not ever measure up to what a Na'vi male would be. He could not make the bond with Kiri. Ao'nung was right. He would be taking without the ability to give back. There could be no true sharing. That is what angered him. Ao'nung was the better man for Kiri. If she wanted him. He was a fool to think he really stood a chance. Even if she had said she loved him, she was young, and thinking only of the moment, not ahead to what was best for her, her family, and for the village. He was born human, but his heart was Na'vi. But his heart could not make up for the lack that the rest of him made manifest. A single tear ran down his cheek as he shook his head. Then he turned away and ran from the clearing.
"See," Ao'nung said smugly. "He's a weakling and a coward. He can't even face me to even pretend that he has any honor."
Kiri rounded on Ao'nung, slapping him full in the face. "Penis face!" she shouted. She only used such vulgar language when she was really angry. And she was not usually prone to slapping. But while a typical Na'vi girl might have been flattered by Ao'nung's little show, there was nothing typical about her. She was the product of humanity as much as she was Na'vi. Until she had come to this island, she never felt she belonged to either side of her geneology. But now, she realized that, for her, there was no side. "He left because he knows he would dishonor me by fighting you. What you do not get, Ao'nung, is that you dishonor me by trying to start something that I'll have to finish!"
Ao'nung took an involuntaryb step back from her. The expression on her face was the same as it was the day of the battle, when she bonded with that anemone and commanded it to kill the humans. Only now, her fury was being directed at him. Only a fool looked into the storm with defiance. At the same time, he had to be true to his convictions. "He cannot be a true mate for you. He cannot make Tsaheylu. He can never truly see you." She narrowed her eyes at him and he licked his lips. "If you mate with him, he will experience everything his demon form can, but you won't even feel half of what you should."
Kiri felt like vomiting. She knew all of this. She had ever since she was old enough to ask questions about her body. She didn't need to have this skxawng throw the facts of life in her face. She could not keep a sneer off her face as she stepped forward, jabbing her finger into Ao'nung's chest. "And you think that by insulting him because of something he had no control over is going to somehow make me want to mate with you?" As he backed up, she advanced, until he bumped into a tree. She felt some satisfaction at the look of fear in his eyes, as he held his hands up in a pacifying gesture. "Who I choose to love, and eventually mate with is my business. MINE!"
He opened his mouth to offer an apology, but stopped when she held up her hand and looked away. It was a gesture Na'vi reserved for those whose words were considered unworthy of being heard. So he just stood there, back against the tree, breathing heavily, unable to process what had just happened. Her behavior was not typical of a Na'vi. But she was correct. The human, misguided though his desires were, wasn't to blame for how he was born. And did the pink-skinned skxawng really honor Kiri by walking away rather than fighting for her? Maybe being human was more complicated than he thought. Jakesully was once human, though he was now Na'vi. His way of thinking was not typical either, but it clearly worked. Perhaps Kiri's upbringing was an example of human insanity tempered by Na'vi sensibility, resulting in an unorthodox form of wisdom. He didn't want Kiri any less, but he clearly was going to have to go about this an entirely different way.
He was still standing with his back against the tree, staring off in the direction Kiri had gone, when Lo'ak and Tsireya entered the clearing. Perfect, he thought. How much of that did they overhear?
Tsireya saw the troubled look on her brother's face. "What has happened."
H wasn't going to lie to her. But he also didn't want to anger Lo'ak. The future Olo'eyktan had a strong right hook. There would be plenty of opportunity to fight him as part of his duty to help him prepare to be a leader, but fighting over his stupidity was not going to be a part of that. "I made a big mistake, and the fault was mine," he said, looking at Lo'ak, rather than at his sister.
"It, happens, bro." Lo'ak said dismissively. "But to help you avoid making the mistake again, tell me about it."
So much for the issue just being dismissed. He signed and told Lo'ak and Tsireya everything he had said, and everything Kiri had said back to him.
Lo'ak squeezed his eyes shut and held his fingertips against his forehead, a gesture he had seen his father make plenty of times, whenever he and Neteyam had done something stupid and had gotten themselves into trouble.
Tsireya looked back and forth between her future mate and her brother, not sure what to say. It wasn't her place to speak, as Lo'ak was now Kiri's eldest brother and so he would be the one to decide how to handle it.
Lo'ak started laughing. Not about the insults Ao'nung had spoken against his new brother, but what Kiri had said. "Bro," he said to Ao'nung. "I don't know which is more shocking. That you said what you did about Spider, or that Kiri didn't skin you alive." He wasn't angry, exactly. The Metkayina boy couldn't help acting on his impulses as they applied to seeking a future mate. But he was dealing with something way out of his element with Kiri. "I get that you like her. and I'm fine with that. But Spider is my brother now. Even if he wasn't he and I grew up together. He's always been someone I trust, and someone who trusts me. He is not selfish. He'd lay down his life for us. He certainly would not dishonor Kiri."
Tsireya reached out and took Lo'ak's hand, still not speaking, but allowing the gesture to show that she stood in solidarity with his words. It didn't go un-noticed by Ao'nung.
"What do you think I should do," the reef boy asked. "I want to fix this."
"Don't talk to Kiri," Lo'ak said quickly. "Knowing her, it will be a few days before she cools down enough that you won't risk your life by bringing it up." He thought for a minute. "If you really are serious about choosing her, alienating Spider is not the right way to go about it." He met Ao'nung's gaze. "Give it a couple of days, and then apologize to Spider. Get to know him. Learn to see how good a friend he can be. And then show him the same. If you can manage to become his friend, Kiri will not hold a grudge against you. But be aware that you should hope only for friendship with her. Only a blind fool would not be able to see that for now, she and Spider are just as close as your sister and I are."
Ao'nung clinched his teeth. His own father had told him petty much the same thing after talking with Jakesully about the matter. But he didn't like it. "The idea of being friends with one of the Sky People feels wrong to me," he said. "They are weak. They refuse to see. They take without giving back."
Lo'ak chuckled. "Is that how you see my father?"
That brought Ao'nung up short. He knew the story. How Jakesully had once been one of the Sky People. But his heart had become Na'vi before Eywa made him Na'vi in body. And he had seen the way he fought in the recent battle. Weakness was not a word that applied to the man in the slightest. "No," he said, respectfully.
"Dad explained to me that the Sky People are not all the same. But the planet they are from is dying, so many have become so desperate to survive, that they no longer care about what they do to others. Even to others of their own kind."
"They kill each other?" asked Tsireya, a look of horror on her face.
"My father's brother was murdered for the paper in his wallet."
Tsireya and Ao'nung looked at each other in confusion. "Why would someone murder someone for paper?"
Lo'ak sighed. "Money. Sky People do not trade goods for goods, or work for goods. They decided to give an idea value, and they use paper with special markings to represent it." They still seemed confused. "Money can be traded for goods or work. If a man works, he earns money. He can use that money on whatever he wishes. Those who sell stuff for money usually don't care how someone got the money, just that they have ity to trade."
Ao'nung thought about it. "As strange as it sounds, it does seem like a good idea."
Tsireya scoffed. "Untill someone kills you and takes your money."
Ao'nung nodded.
"I think that the way we do things is much better." Lo'ak said. "We all work for the betterment of all the people. Each of us knows the effort we put forth, and that cannot be taken. Even if an enemy raids us and takes what we harvest, our worth to each other is not lost." Both Ao'nung and Tsireya were clearly in agreement. "But the Sky People abandoned that wisdom long ago. Self-advancement became a driving force for many. And while a few managed to make a lot of money, most were left struggling because it started costing more money than they had to get even basic things they needed. This drove some to take it from others, even if it meant murdering someone for it."
"Why would it take more money than people could make for just basic things."
"Dad says that the strong prey on the weak," said Lo'ak. "Some with more money than others think that makes them stronger. And if they control the goods the money is traded for, they seek to become even stronger by demanding more money. If people need it badly enough, they will pay what it costs." He shook his head. He really didn't intend to go off on a tangent about how Earth's economy worked. "But there are people who would rather starve, or live in the streets than harm someone else, or take what they didn't earn." He said. "Dad was that sort of person. And so is Spider."
Ao'nung's eyes widened. The tone of Lo'ak's voice conveyed absolute certainty. Perhaps he was wrong to think of all humans as the same. And he had to admit to himself that he had never even considered actually trying to get to know one. And if he was being honest with himself, he couuld admit that Kiri would not place such value in the human boy if he hadn't earned it. "You have given me much to think about, brother," he said. With that, he turned away and headed back to the reef village.
"You did very well," Tsireya said to Lo'ak "Ao'nung has always been hard to convince of anything other than what he thinks."
Lo'ak shook his head. "Some truths just cannot be ignored. no matter who speaks them." He still felt unworthy of the role he would be assuming in the future. Especially considering how he had gone most of his life feeling like a disappointment. He remembered what his father had told him a few nights after the battle:
"I was always so hard on you because you were just like I was at your age," Jake had said. "It took almost dying and getting paralyzed to make me pull my head out of my own ass. I didn't want to see anything like that happen to any of my kids. So punishing the actions that leaned you that way was all I knew how to do."
Hearing that may have explained the why of the matter, but it did not change how he felt about himself. But then, just as his little sister had recently shown, confidence was something that came from action. If he wanted to rise to the challenges that lay ahead, his actions needed to begin with careful thinking, and he realized that careful thinking is what helped him just then with Ao'nung.
He looked over to Tsireya and smiled. "Let's go find Kiri and Spider, and see if they're still up for that picnic."
And so, hand-in-hand, they headed off in the direction Kiri had gone.
And so that's Part Five. I originally wanted to include it as part of part four, but I wasn't sure how long it would take to get it done. I ended up with a little more time than expected, so at least it got done within a week.
Part Six is going to be a scene with Kiri and Part Seven will finally be Spider's revelation to the family that Quaritch is alive. I'll be introducing my first named OC in one of these installments. I haven't decided which, yet.
After part seven, Quaritch will start getting scenes. I've got some ideas I want to play around with for him. Nothing involving the continuation of his efforts to hunt down Jake. He knows where they are, but let's just say that his actions in the movie do have consequences.