Author's Note: Another one!
Tsyeyk, once he became six, he was able to start his lessons. It was weird not going to the Carers with Neytiri anymore, and it was hard for him to sit around and listen to the teachers at first, having to be told many times to pay attention, but he came to enjoy the lessons because he got to join the class that Arvok was in as they were pretty close in age. He didn't get to see Tsu'tey every day during lessons, but sometimes the classes would mix as it helped the younger kids to get help from the older kids. A lot had siblings in the other class, like Arvok and Tsyeyk did. Tsyeyk had so much fun with Tsu'tey and Sylwanin as they were in the same class.
Tsyeyk wasn't old enough to start learning about what he wanted to be when he grew up, so he wasn't given any skills to build on in that regard, but they learned about plants and animals - what sounds they made, which was Tsyeyk's favorite as he liked to mimic the teacher. Well, him and the rest of the class. All giggling when the teacher would smile at their echo. They started learning how to braid and craft items. Tsyeyk was particularly fond of this, setting to work to make a bracelet for his mom as soon as possible, as her birthday was coming up.
Even though Tsu'tey is Tsyeyk's best friend, he's gotten closer to Arvok during this time. They got along well with one another, doing all the projects together.
It's nice for Tsyeyk, as his little world expands more and more. He was able to spend time with other kids, but he was more interested in just spending time with Tsu'tey, but now that he was in lessons, he was kind of forced to expand his horizons, even though he ended up having a lot of fun getting to know the other kids. Making a few friends himself. None would ever be Tsu'tey, but he still didn't mind playing with them too.
Tsu'tey never really said, but Tsyeyk suspected that Tsu'tey didn't like his new friends. He would quietly watch them and frown, but never chase them away or say anything when they would interrupt Tsyeyk and Tsu'tey's alone time. He would put his hands on Tsyeyk a lot. On his leg, his shoulder, hold his hand. But that wasn't too abnormal as they were best friends, and their clan was particularly affectionate.
And Tsyeyk loved Tsu'tey. They used to spend all day, every day together, but now they were spending more time apart than ever and Tsyeyk missed his best friend. Missed wrapping his arms around him and lying beside him, missed the way Tsu'tey would laugh as he tried to decipher what it was that Tsyeyk was trying to say to him. It was all getting easier - playing and communicating - but the reliance one another was lessening as time went on. Tsyeyk missed it. Missed when his parents insisted on them being together because Tsu'tey was his only friend and they wanted to make sure he was acclimating to clan life.
He knows that he was going to be Tsahik one day, mom has told him enough times to know what awaited him, but he also knew that he wanted to be a hunter like his dad. As the days go on, Tsyeyk and his mom kept having dreams of Tsu'tey as the next Olo'eyktan so that solidified Tsyeyk's parents in their decision to make Tsyeyk the clan's future Tsahik, and Tsu'tey Olo'eyktan. But there weren't ready to tell the clan, to tell Tsu'tey, just yet. They wanted to give him more time to grow and enjoy his childhood, which is why they haven't even talked about starting Tsyeyk's own training.
Someday. Maybe in a year or two, they'll officially get started, but they weren't sure when just yet.
"We were willing to break tradition to allow Tsyeyk to be both Olo'eyktan and Tsahik, but now he'll just be Tsahik," dad says slowly, later one night, gently pushing the loose strands of Tsyeyk's hair over his shoulder as he dozes off with his cheek smushed against his dad's leg.
"Yes," Mom says, leaning down to press a sweet kiss to Sylwanin's forehead as the oldest of their children holds the youngest in her arms, snoring softly. "What of it? You don't think a male can be Tsahik?"
"Not at all," dad says back, evenly despite mom's teasing tone. "I won't claim to understand the Great Mother's will. Nor am I the person to question one's connection to her. Let alone her own son. I'm just curious as to how it will work between Tsyeyk and Tsu'tey as Tsahik and Olo'eyktan. Tsu'tey is proving to be a more dominant male even at such a young age. If Tsyeyk turns out to be one too, they may come into conflict with one another a lot easier. A dominant male and female are hard enough to get to work with one another."
"It is harder for two dominant males to get along," mom agrees loosely. There is a pause, then she laughs softly at something, probably her own thoughts.
Dad is quiet for a moment before he asks, "You think he won't be?"
Mom harrumphs. "I don't know. Tsyeyk is still too young. Tsu'tey too, should be, but he is definitely already showing signs of being a more dominant male. Taking control, being more assertive - "
"- Being possessive of our son," dad points out.
"Not a big fan of those other kids getting close to him, is he?" Mom says mirthfully. "I've never seen Tsu'tey pout like that before. Too cute."
"Adorable," dad says, dryly. "If Tsyeyk is also a dominant male like Tsu'tey appears like he's going to be and Tsu'tey keeps trying to impress his influence upon him, that's going to lead them into fighting one another, and that won't be good for the clan."
"True," Mom says, leaning down to kiss Sylwanin again before reaching out to smooth down Neytiri's wild braids. "Two dominants can only co-exist peacefully one of two ways. Either one proves to be more dominant and forces the other to submit, or..." She lets out a little laugh. "They bond to become a mated pair and have two beautiful daughters and adopt a miracle boy from the forest."
Dad snorts, hand lightly petting down Tsyeyk's back. "You and I both know that I submitted to you long ago, my love."
Mom's laugh is throaty and warm. She leans over Tsyeyk, he feels the gentle brush of her shawl over his shoulder, as she presses her forehead to dad's for a moment, grinning brightly. She shakes her head before leaning down and pressing a kiss to Tsyeyk's temple.
When she leans back, she says, "We still have plenty of time to see how it works out for them. Keep in mind, my love, our son is six. He's not showing any abnormal signs of possession or assertiveness or any of that. And he typically won't until he goes into puberty. Just because Tsu'tey already is showing signs doesn't mean it's set in stone. He could also just be a seven-year-old that isn't used to his best friend having friends outside of him. As mature as Tsu'tey is for his age, he's still a kid. Give him time. We don't have to worry right now. Besides, even if that does come to pass, these boys have many years to figure out how to get used to each other. They will find their balance."
Dad is quiet for a long moment, considering before admitting, "Well, they are best friends now. Hopefully that will last their entire lives."
"Agreed," Mom says softly. She leans down and kisses Tsyeyk's temple again, lulling him further into slumber.
Mommy found the monsters.
Or they found her. Or something, but somehow, they met. And mommy spent time with them. And daddy was furious. Tsyeyk doesn't fully understand what they were fighting about that night when she same back after having been gone the whole day. But he remembered that they argued over dinner, keeping their voices cold and even, sending glares back and forth at one another while Tsyeyk and his sisters just look between them not fully understanding what was going on with them. Tsyeyk has never seen his parents arguing that badly before.
He was worried, but not completely scared, because whenever he got scared, he would just keep watching and see daddy take a fruit that mommy was struggling to crack open and do it for her before passing it back, and mommy would do her regular grooming. She would push his hair over his shoulder while he works or wipe something off of his knee for him. All the while, they argued. Their acts of love and affection so subconscious that even while they fight, they still see to each other. So, it made him feel better that, while he's never really seen them like that, they weren't all that different from how they usually are - just... well, arguing.
He had never seen his parents fight, but even while they were, there was still something so... loving about it. While he had seen others fight, it had been hissing and spitting in anger, saying cruel things, but not his parents. He was so incredibly grateful for it. They were angry, but only about the situation, it seemed, not at each other. They were still so loving for one another. Still so gentle and kind, despite their harsh whispers. Something that Tsyeyk hopes that he'll have with his mate in the future. The instinctual habit of tenderly caring for another that even in the middle of fighting, they are still looking after each other.
And while they ate in silence, tending to their children, when they went to bed, it was with their arms around one another. Mommy pulled daddy onto her chest, running a hand up and down his back, whispering something soft and soothing to him. Their argument having come to an end. He murmured his disapproval to her, to which she nodded and pressed a kiss into his hair, hugging him tightly to her chest.
Tsyeyk, holding Neytiri in his arms and Sylwanin pressed into his back, drifts off to sleep to the soft sounds of his parents whispering to one another. And the soft purring of affection as they cuddled close to one another.
In the months that followed, Tsyeyk didn't get to spend as much time with mommy as he used to. She was there every day, but she spent more time out in the forest than she ever had before. She would come back to Hometree and talk about her new friend Grace. She would talk about how Grace came from the sky and that she was trying to learn how to See as the Omatikaya do. But talking with them were hard as their words were not the same as Tsyeyk's and his people. Tsyeyk didn't fully understand how their words were different at first, but mommy just said it was because they came from the sky.
He did think about when he had heard the monsters talking out in the forest to Tsu'tey the first, and only, day that Tsyeyk had ever seen them. How their strange sounds couldn't be anything other than words, yet Tsyeyk simply didn't understand them. Okay, so maybe Tsyeyk could get why their words were different. How talking with them could be difficult if they didn't know how to use the same words. Now, how they came from the sky? That he doesn't understand. Like they fell from the floating mountains? No, mommy had said. They came from the stars.
The stars? How could that be?
After learning that, Tsyeyk spent a lot of time standing outside Hometree before bed, leaning against the leg of one of the hunters standing vigil over Hometree's entrance and stares up at the sky, wondering if one of the stars would wink out and fall to the ground, bringing people of the sky with them. The hunters would usually let him lean into them without protest and answer whatever nonsensical questions that they could interpret as his vocabulary continued to grow, most of the time, a hand would card through his braids or rub at the back of his neck while he stared.
Until either his parents or Sylwanin would find him and bring him back into Hometree to get ready for bed.
Mommy and daddy would fight on and off, but never as badly as that first day.
"Is your mommy not scared of the monsters?" Tsu'tey whispers to him one day. Tsyeyk glances over at him, his little fingers moving alongside Tsu'tey's as they try to weave a basket together. Tsu'tey's practicing for his lessons the next day while Tsyeyk is learning for the first time. And he really isn't all that much help, but Tsu'tey doesn't seem to mind - he never does, which Tsyeyk loves about him. Tsyeyk tries his best even though he's not very good, and Tsu'tey seems to never mind this, which is too sweet. Both are just relieved to spend time together.
It's been months since mommy found the monsters and has since been learning about them from her friend, Grace, as well as teaching her. She's often out in the forest, not yet ready to show where the Omatikaya make their home, and daddy has sent the hunters to follow and look after her, which mom didn't protest about. She seemed to realize that daddy needed her to be safe, and this was all he could do to ensure it without going himself.
Tsyeyk too. When dad had said he was worried about her, her safety, Tsyeyk had started sobbing, worried the people of the sky would hurt her. Just like he had been scared that they would hurt Tsu'tey that first day out in the forest. Had mommy any intention of arguing with daddy about the hunters, she didn't after soothing Tsyeyk that she was going to be okay.
Everyone knows about mommy and the monsters - Sky People, they're called. Most are weary, some are scared, but there are those that go with mommy because they are interested. Daddy is unhappy about all of this but doesn't stop mommy. They argue - they seem to do that a lot - but he doesn't stop her, and she always ends up holding him in her arms to sooth him. They don't think that Tsyeyk and his sisters see, but they do. They see everything.
"Mommy not scared of monsters," Tsyeyk says, glancing up at Tsu'tey with big, golden eyes. "Grace is mommy's friend."
Tsu'tey tilts his head. "Oh," he says. He shifts, lifting the leg of the knee his cheek was resting against to wiggle the ankle that he had hurt all those months ago when he fell in front of the monsters - Sky People. It's all healed up now but sometimes he spins it in remembrance as if feeling a phantom pain.
"Is... Tsu'tey... scared...?" Tsyeyk asks, smiling a bit when Tsu'tey smiles back. He's working hard to break his habit of calling Tsu'tey 'Tu'tey'." He's getting so much better at their language, and he's proud of himself for how far he's coming.
Tsu'tey looks down at the mess of weaving material between them, not at all resembling a basket. "I don't know. I was scared back then, but if... if Mo'at says that they aren't bad... she must be right... right?"
Tsyeyk nods, firmly believing so. His parents talk about it a lot and while his daddy is much more reluctant, it seems like they both come to that agreement - right? But it seems so. And mommy seems to be having fun with her friend. Tsyeyk wonders when he's going to be able to meet her. He was sort of scared but also interested. He wanted to meet his mommy's friend. It seems strange without them being able to understand each other, so while mommy is teaching Grace, then he'll go to meet her. It's going to be exciting!
Tsyeyk and Tsu'tey squeal with joy and jump into the water with the other kids, splashing and running around a few days later. Unlike the boys, who were too excited to just get into the pond, most of the other kids remember to undress. Neytiri cries out a moment later as Sylwanin grabs hold of her, and another girl tickles her sides. She laughs, kicking out her legs, both trying to get away and having too much fun to stop it.
Tsyeyk and Tsu'tey splash at one another, teeth flashing with their smiles. A bunch of kids race by all splashing and playing while the parents are trying to wrangle them together to get them to clean up. Tsyeyk hugs Tsu'tey looking up at his long wavy hair loose down his shoulders ready for wash day. It's rare to see his best friend without his hair braided, but Tsyeyk likes it. He reaches up and touches one of the long strands of black hair as it falls down to his chest.
He twirls it a bit, smiling when he sees Tsu'tey smile in his peripheral. He looks up at Tsu'tey's face and says, quietly, "Tsu'tey is pretty!"
Tsu'tey laughs, grinning brighter. "No, you, Tsyeyk. You're pretty!" His hand pets down Tsyeyk's own loose long black hair, pushing it over his shoulders, down his back to get it out of his face. Despite the single year that separates them, when Tsyeyk hugged Tsu'tey and looked up at him, his little chin digs into the center of Tsu'tey's chest. As more kids run by, the water that settles around his ribs pushes up closer to his shoulders.
Tsu'tey wraps his arms tightly around Tsyeyk as they stare at one another. Carefully, Tsu'tey maneuvers them closer to the rocks so that the water level is lower on the shorter boy. It's such a Tsu'tey thing to do. Tsyeyk knows that Tsu'tey is very careful with him, always trying to keep him out of trouble or away from things that'll hurt him, and it just warms his heart every time because, well, his Tsu'tey is just the best. He can understand why daddy would pick him. Why Mother would pick him to lead the Omatikaya in the future.
Tsyeyk blinks, realizing he still hadn't told his best friend yet, then says, "Mommy and daddy said that you're going to be Olo'eyktan."
They've been talking about it a lot, since Tsyeyk and mommy started having the dreams of Tsu'tey as an adult. But just last night, daddy said that he was going to give Tsu'tey a little bit more time, before he starts to give him lessons. Now Tsyeyk feels justified in being able to talk to his friend about it. Tsu'tey was about to learn of his future, but Tsyeyk wanted it to be from him.
"I am?" Tsu'tey asks, big golden eyes wide. "But... what about you?"
"I'll be your mommy," Tsyeyk says.
Tsu'tey blinks, perplexed. Then, he says, "Your mommy... you mean the Tsahik?" His ears flick and his eyes widen more. He leans in closer, studying Tsyeyk's face. "You said I'm going to be Olo'eyktan?" Tsyeyk nods. "And you're going to be... Tsahik?"
Tsyeyk nods, grinning up at his best friend. "Yes!"
Tsu'tey's expression brightens up even more. He looks up, eyes scanning the open pond and all the kids running around, refusing to be wrangled by their parents. His eyes track his father and brother for a moment. Then looks over at his mother talking to another mom before puffing out his chest and looking down at Tsyeyk, smiling. He leans down and they press their foreheads together.
"We'll be together forever..." Tsu'tey says softly. There is a beautiful shine in his eyes.
Tsyeyk tilts his head, not understanding why he was saying that. Of course, they were going to be together forever. Tsyeyk can't imagine a life without Tsu'tey and wasn't sure why he was saying that they could be together because they were taking his parents positions as if that hadn't been an option before. Did Tsu'tey not want to be with him forever if he wasn't Olo'eyktan? No, that can't be. Tsyeyk must just not understand.
He looks around at all the kids and parents. He spots his mom caring for Neytiri while talking with Sylwanin who was washing up a foot away. His mom glances over at him, being sure to keep sight of him, smiling faintly, before looking back down at Neytiri while nodding at whatever it was Sylwanin was saying. His dad was a few feet away, talking with some of the hunters that stopped him, frowning at what they were telling him. When he's done, though, he'll come to clean Tsyeyk up so they only have until then to keep talking.
Tsu'tey's hands run up and down his back, drawing his eyes back over to his best friend.
Tsyeyk tries to understand the expression of relief and joy on his best friend's face, but isn't able to, so he asks, "Tsu'tey don't want Tsyeyk not Mommy?"
Tsu'tey tilts his head, frowning. "What? Of course I want you. You're my best friend!"
"Only cause of unless Tsyeyk's mommy?"
Tsu'tey purses his lips, trying to understand. "You're worried that I wouldn't want you? Unless you're Tsahik?" He guesses.
Tsyeyk nods. "We'll be together forever, Tsu'tey, you say these."
"I did," Tsu'tey agrees. He considers for a long moment, then, he says, "I'm just happy that we'll get to be together."
Frowning, Tsyeyk presses his little chin into Tsu'tey's chest. "But we do, not just with the Olo'eyktan and Tsahik, Tsu'tey. We be because of Tsu'tey and Tsyeyk." He wraps his arms tightly around Tsu'tey's waist.
Tsu'tey's eyes crest with his smile. "Yes," he says, squeezing Tsyeyk back. "We'll be together forever, Tsu'tey and Tsyeyk. No matter what."
Tsyeyk is not allowed to meet Grace.
"But..." Eight-year-old Tsyeyk says slowly, brows furrowed in confusion. "But Sylwanin got to meet mom's friend! Why don't I?"
Mom purses her lips, glaring at the pointed look that dad sends her way. She shakes her head, considering something before walking over and kneeling down to take Tsyeyk's hands as dad crossed his arms over his chest. Tsyeyk knows that look. The look on his dad's face. The I-told-you-so look that mom despises. Tsyeyk too. He's been on the receiving end of that look enough times too.
He waited patiently, for a long time. These last few months, mommy started taking Sylwanin with her. Daddy had protested at first, but relented, as he usually does whenever mom was involved. Whatever she had said seemed to only placate him, not convince him, as he was always anxious until they came back. And while Tsyeyk can understand why Sylwanin could go as the older of the two of them - and yet now, after months, Tsyeyk couldn't? He didn't understand why.
"My son," Mom says softly, cradling his hands in her own as he stares down at her. "Mommy's friend is... different."
"I know," Tsyeyk says. "She comes from the sky. But I don't get to meet her like Sylwanin gets to? Why?"
Mom looks down at the ground for a moment, trying to get her thoughts in order, before sighing again, and looking back at him. "Listen, my baby, there is something that I don't want to tell Grace about yet, and that is you. You are special, my son, and while Grace is my friend, I'm not ready for her to meet you."
Tsyeyk frowns at that. "Why? Why Sylwanin and not me?"
"Their dreamwalker bodies are... scary," mommy admits softly. Her eyes flicker up to the hair above his eyes - eyebrows, she had suddenly started calling them - and then down to the additional fingers on his little hands and tiny toes. He follows her eyes; not sure he understands what the look was for.
"Why? If Sylwanin is going, how is it scary?"
Now that he thought about it, Sylwanin did look at him with wide eyes once they came back from meeting Grace for the first time. But she never said anything about Grace being scary - just that it was nice to meet her - and she would tell him and Neytiri all about what they did together. She never said anything about Grace being scary. Why didn't she say that if mommy says that she is?
His disbelief must have shown on his face, because mom sighs again, asking softly, "You know how the Sky People like Grace made bodies like ours? Made them look Na'vi?"
Sort of. He had heard that they took stuff from some of the clan, with their permission, to make... bodies. Tsyeyk doesn't really understand how it's possible, but he had heard that they are able to pass between their own bodies and that of the bodies that look like Na'vi. Tsyeyk doesn't know how it works, just that whenever they go to sleep their Na'vi body becomes... lifeless. Scary and unnatural from what Tsyeyk understands. He doesn't know how he is different when he sleeps then they are. But then again, Tsyeyk has never seen the Sky People outside of that very first time in the forest. Let alone them in their new, Na'vi bodies.
"I know about it..." Tsyeyk mumbles.
Mom nods, squeezing his hands. "While they look like us, yes, they more than that... they look like you."
Tsyeyk blinks a few times, confused. "I... what?"
Mom pulls one hand from his and runs her thumb across the hair above his eyes while the other hand wraps around the smallest finger on his hand. "Your extra fingers and toes, and the little hair above your eyes - your eyebrows - it is just like them."
Tsyeyk frowns at that. "I don't... how?"
Mom shakes her head. "I don't know why it is this way. I don't want her to ask about you. I don't want to know what the Sky People that command her will ask of you or about you. You are the son of the Great Mother, and she made you like them for a reason, but if I do not understand her reasons, how can I expect them to? To respect what you are. Grace... she might be able to understand, to be respectful enough, but I don't trust them in their entirety with you."
"But..." Tsyeyk studders, not sure what to say. They look like him? Their strangely Na'vi made forms take after him? Is it somehow a coincidence? Or is Mother trying to tell him something? Show him something he doesn't understand? "But..."
Why would Mother do that? A part of him had always wondered why she made him look so much like them with just those subtle differences in the number of fingers and toes, and the little hair above his eyes. Perhaps that had been Mother's way of making him close enough to be accepted by the Na'vi but still different. Still... special? And yet now... there is people from the sky... and they look like him? Why? Why is this?
"I'm... scary..?" Tsyeyk asks softly, ears pressing back and tail dipping low.
Mom blinks, shaking her head, surprise written all over her face as dad kneels down to place one hand onto his arm and the other on small of his back.
"No, Tsyeyk," dad says, squeezing his arm. "What your mom is trying to say, is seeing these strange people looking like us is strange enough, but the fact that they take your unique traits is scary. You, who were blessed as the Great Mother's true son, are unlike all others. Yet these people emulate you. That is what is scary, not you. They do not know you, or they shouldn't, and yet they take after you."
Tsyeyk doesn't know what to say. He looks from his dad's face to his mom's, tears burning in his eyes as he quietly whispers to her, "Am I scary, mommy?"
"No!" Mom says fiercely, pulling Tsyeyk to her chest and holding him tightly. "I am sorry, Ma'Tsyeyk. I'm sorry I didn't say that well. Your dad is right. I'm just scared for you, not because of you. I'm sorry I hurt your feelings. Please don't cry. I love you so much, my sweet son."
Tsyeyk sniffles, unsure of if he could hug her or not so he just rests his hands on her shoulder. Sensing his fears, mom squeezes him hard enough to almost hurt and kisses his cheeks and shoulders, whispering apologies into his ear. Tsyeyk hesitates for a moment longer before hugging her back, resting his cheek on her shoulder while burying his face into her neck, settling into her lap.
"I'm sorry, baby," she says softly. "I'm sorry I said it that way and hurt you. I am so sorry."
Tsyeyk nods, relieved, feeling his daddy rub at his back. He's glad that he waited until they were in the hut to talk instead of doing it out in the open sections of Hometree where people could have heard this. He would have hated for people to think differently of his mom. He knows that he doesn't. He was just shocked by her words and confused about the situation. He doesn't know how any of this is possible but so long as his parents love him, it'll be okay. He knows it.
Why Mother made him this way is still a mystery to him, though. He can't come up with a reason for it. But for the moment, it's fine. He just... wants to be here, being held by his mom while she gently rocks back and forth soothingly.
"If you want to meet Grace you can," Mom says slowly, hesitantly, "but not now, okay? Give me more time. I promise, if you still want to meet her, then you will. But not now."
Tsyeyk had wanted to meet Grace because she was mommy's friend and he'd not yet got to meet the strange people from the sky. He had been excited to know more about them outside of the bits and pieces he learned from the clan and what his mom and sister could tell him. He had been excited to learn more about them, but now that he does, he's not sure if this is a good thing, or a bad one.
Mom promised that if he wanted to, later, then he could meet her. Which means they still have time. If he changes his mind, then they will simply avoid one another, and while he'll always wonder why they appear like that, at least he won't have to face the Sky People and their strange Dreamwalkers if he doesn't want to. He can continue to live his life peacefully in his home forest as he always had and not have to worry about the Sky People and their strange ways.