THE FALL OF HOMETREE
CHAPTER 1
An Omatikayan warrior named Ree'ahn gripped his meter-long bow of bone and scaled up a tree branch in his clan's dense forest. He swung up onto the treetop in a silent sweep, landing soundlessly on his feet. Crouching beneath the canopy of leaves, Ree'ahn inspected the movements of the forest floor.
Ree'ahn had been sent by the clan to retrieve the fallen warriors' names from the Great Battle and bring back survivors. So far, Ree'ahn had collected far too many.
Ree'ahn scanned the muddy earth floor, searching for a hand to reach out or for sunlight to catch the glimpse of a blinking eye.
Nothing.
He sighed, sliding back against the hard bark of the tree and looked up to the rising sun.
He closed his eyes and imagined the faces of his comrades, the ones that perished in the war. Every last one, gone.
Dead.
He pulled out a slim bone dagger from a bandolier over his chest and began working the last two names of the fallen be had seen into his bow.
A groan made him pause. His sawing almost drowned out the sound but Ree'ahn caught it: a faint moan, a moan of pain.
In seconds, Ree'ahn snapped his bow around his back and slid hands and feet down the slippery vine and planted his bare, blue feet firmly on the soil below him.
Ree'ahn stood from his bent legs slowly, careful not to rustle even a leaf lest it mask another's cry for help. His ears snapped this way and that but there was nothing beneath the undergrowth. Not a single bug or rodent.
Ree'ahn sagged in defeat. Was he beginning to imagine things now?
It was time to head back; he had collected enough names for now and there were families that deserved to know their fathers, children, and sisters were truly dead and not just lost. He was to be the one to rip the hope of seeing a loved one again from his people, and the thought of it pained his heart.
Straightening, Ree'ahn called for his horse-like helpmate, who he knew as his pa'li, to start for home. He trudged out from the trees and Ree'ahn patted its thick, muscled neck.
And then, there it was.
The body of one man, one brother Ree'ahn never wanted to find in the carnage.
Ree'ahn fell to his knees beside the fallen body of Tsu'tey, a clan brother he trained and grew up with. The one that held his back in every battle and whom Ree'ahn had protected him just as many times. Tsu'tey lay twisted in the grass like a fallen monument, his warrior's regalia of colorful leaves bloodied and scorched, and his skin streaked with dried mud and wounds.
Utter sorrow grasped Ree'ahn's chest but he managed to look his brother in the eyes. He put a shaking hand on Tsu'tey's chest and utter a prayer to Eywa for Tsu'tey's soul to be sent to her for eternity.
And then, Ree'ahn could have sworn he had heard…!
Ree'ahn stopped his prayer. He put an ear to Tsu'tey's chest.
One thump, and then a second heartbeat that was slow. Slow but there, alive and barely soft.
Ree'ahn wasted no time. He ripped the vines from a nearby tree and fastened them under Tsu'tey's arms. At the loud zip of the last knot, Ree'ahn yipped for his pa'li, and even the beast seemed to understand the urgency in Ree'ahn's voice.
Precious seconds ticked by as Ree'ahn yanked Tsu'tey on the back of the pa'li and used those knotted vines to attach his brother firmly to the beast. Ree'ahn lifted a shaking hand back to the warm pulse of Tsu'tey's neck and almost dropped to his knees in relief at the two- now three heartbeats he felt.
Ree'ahn threw himself onto the pa'li and raced it through the forest, panting and begging Eywa for her mercy to bring Tsu'tey safely back to the village, still alive.
All credit to my beta reader for this chapter. Please review!