Eywa does not take sides in war.
That is what we have been taught from the moment we first drew breath, since the day we felt the embrace of our great mother in our earliest sacred communion.
We live in her, as she lives in us. She holds all of her children within her heart.
The great mother hears, she sees .
But as she stopped the great volcanoes from destroying our world in the dawn of creation.
And as she encouraged her children to take part in battle when a great enemy from the skies threatened us all with destruction.
Eywa provides.
When Nöa woke that morning, she did not think she would be spending the last glimmers of daylight in search of a medicinal herb.
Especially when that particular herb is so difficult to find that the Tsahìk herself had given up on adding it into medicine because it was nearly impossible to store an adequate amount of it for consistent use.
But true to her stubborn nature, Nöa is determined to find the elusive life form before darkness is upon her.
The same cannot be said for her younger brother.
"You do know that Auntie will not be less angry with you if you get her this plant, right?" The strong punctuation on the word "if " makes Nöa's tail twitch in annoyance. She turns to look back at her little brother, who is fiddling with a piece of bark, probably thinking of forging a bead out of it later.
Her little brother, so adept with his hands for creation, so attentive to details, but so very impatient.
Ketu'won gets that from Mother, she muses.
Nöa goes back to her search after throwing a bit of dirt his way, and the resulting squawk of indignation makes her smile. "She is not really angry with me. She is just frustrated, which is much better to deal with."
"Sister, I am sorry to say this, but you are delusional." Ketu'won skips a few steps to stand beside where she is crouched, looking for the traces of pollen that should indicate the area the plant is said to inhabit.
She finds none.
Ketu'won tries to destabilize her with a push of his leg against her shoulder. He fails and it gets him a pull on his tail in return that makes him hiss and jump away.
The boy gingerly massages the base of his spine. "We will have to send you to seek clarity with Eywa if you think she is not angry with you for getting hurt during a hunt again."
"The forest is a dangerous place, anyone could get hurt."
"The hunt party was in the plains," he deadpans. "And you are supposed to be one of our best hunters."
Nöa laughs at that and pushes her brother's leg until he loses his footing. "Alright, alright. Enough with bullying your big sister," she says looking up at the sky. After a beat, she finally straightens up and her right leg stings with the pull of stitches cascading down the back of her thigh.
It is almost Eclipse.
She places her hand on the back of her little brother's head, messing with his hair a bit. He is almost up to her chest, she notices. His Iknimaya should be upon him in a few cycles if he keeps up with his training in the steady manner he has been doing so far.
And if his eagerness to impress their father doesn't get the better of him.
Nöa smiles down at him and accepts her defeat in the search for this herb, for the time being. "It is late. Let us go home, little sapling."
"Don't call me that!" He grumbles while batting her hand away half heartedly, which makes his sister laugh even harder.
Ketu'won huffs and puts away the piece of bark he collected in the little pouch that was supposed to store the plant Nöa dragged him to find. He starts following after her when she begins to make her way towards the clearing from which they came from. "What is it called?"
"What?" Her ear twitches but she doesn't look back at him, fully focused on retracing their steps, silent and alert of their surroundings.
"The plant you were looking for."
"It is an herb."
Ketu'won rolls his eyes. "Herb then. What is the name of this mysterious herb?"
"Yellow Eye." Nöa's ear twitches at the rustle of wings a bird makes to their right. She keeps her hand loose by the handle of the hunter knife strapped to her uninjured leg. "It is supposed to help our bodies create new skin very fast. Good treatment for burns." She says when she senses her brother opening his mouth to ask more about it. Ketu'won thrills in response which makes her smile.
The light is beginning to dim and the forest begins to glow with life in turn. Each step they take on the mossy ground reacts to their weight and brightens their path. A show of the Great Mother embracing them and following in their footsteps.
After a particularly thick patch of high grass, the mighty trees begin to clear, showing the siblings that they are right by the place where they first landed. Nöa hears a familiar guttural grumble and quietly chuckles. He has noticed us .
Ketu'won hears it too and his tail twitches in amusement. The young boy cannot help but to fully laugh when he finally sets his eyes upon the clearly vexed creature in front of him.
"He is very annoyed." He says when he sees how his sister's mount moves and shakes his head and folded wings. The stinger at the end of his tail makes a whooshing sound when it swings from side to side. "And probably very hungry."
Nöa knows this and she hurries to her companion's side, her Taw'ne. The great Stormglider rumbles and shakes his neck, signaling his annoyance at being left alone for so long.
Taw'ne relents on his movements when Nöa lifts her hands to caress the creature's head while Ketu'won gets to his saddle and takes out a couple of thick pieces of Pa'li meat to calm his stomach.
The young Na'vi grunts as he unravels the heavy pieces of meat from their provisions pouches before getting close to Taw'ne.
Ketu'won screeches when the massive creature moves to get to the meat he carries on his arms, almost pushing him into the ground in his haste to eat. "Hey!"
But Taw'ne is far too busy swallowing the pieces of meat he snatched to pay attention to the affronted youngling in front of him. The Slotsyal chuffs, happy with his food.
Nöa laughs and gets to her baby brother's side, setting her hands on his shoulders and straightening a necklace that looks a bit skewed. "Come on little brother, climb on and let us go. Father knows we are here but let's not test his patience further today."
Ketu'won does as he is told and clambers onto the large saddle, graciously not mentioning that he was practically dragged to this little impossible search against his will, so if their father gets snappy with them, he will fully blame his sister for it. And he knows she would happily take on the heat of their father's ire over something like this.
But as he settles on the front of the saddle and grips the handles of his seat like he always does when he takes flight with his family, something out of the corner of his eye makes him stop and straighten up.
"What color did you say the plant– herb was, sister?"
She hums while securing some of the saddle's leather straps that go under Taw'ne's chest. Nöa scratches the area and relishes in the pleased purr that she gets in return. "As the name says, the herb has a particular yellow bulb on the ends that makes it look like eyes."
"Are they supposed to reflect light?"
Nöa frowns as she fastens the last of the cords securing their provisions before they take flight. She has the feeling that her companion will be doing some cheeky aerial tricks as payback for the time they left him on his own.
Wait, what? "Are they–? What? No. Of course not."
"Uh."
The hunter takes a few steps back and looks up at her brother, opening her mouth to poke fun at his silly question when the diminutive crunching of a branch makes her turn around, unsheathing her knife and dropping to a protective crouch in front of her brother and aerial companion. Her leg burns but she pays it no mind as her tail moves from side to side in agitation. Taw'ne lets out a mighty roar in the direction Nöa heard the sound coming from as well.
"Ketu, stay low." She swiftly orders her little brother, who obeys immediately and flattens his front to the saddle of the Stormglider, away from possible harm and safe within the body of the great beast. Taw'ne's breath is a welcome warmth on her back when she finally focuses enough in the area in front of her.
Her vision clears just in time to catch two terrified eyes reflecting the light of Polyphemus that already bathes their clearing. She straightens slowly from her crouched position.
Those are Na'vi eyes.
A child's eyes.