Smooth locks of hair were folded and tucked around the maiden's queue as she laced another white bud into her tswin. Blithe was her mood as she tightened her braid in her morning toilette before sitting up to don her trappings. After twisting the strap around her tail, she flattened out her purple loincloth decorated with cut-out patterns of buds and curling leaves. She wore a lei of sun lilies for a top and primped her wavy hair to bring out its natural bounce. As she looked down at her person, she felt, for the first time in her life, beautiful.
Ready for the morning, the young woman stepped out of her tent and onto the woven platform where many others were beginning their day. She stood at the ledge, slowly unfurled her arms and drank in the sunlight streaming through the dancing branches. Dapples of sun and shade flowed over her body, and she felt her bioluminescence bloom with energy the longer she lingered under the rays. She inhaled the fragrant breeze carrying the aroma of cooking fires and boiling herbs, opening flowers and flowing sap, bark and leaf and soil, and everything that was good. A stingbat perched onto her right arm; and, with a smile, she caressed the underside of his little chin as it sang out a happy trill. Kiri signed good morning to her neighbour, Pimwal, who was busy plaiting a basket. His fingers asked how she was doing, and hers replied with, "Wonderful." She skipped down the platform past the giggling Tawkami children, past the men and women who waved and beamed, past the elders with their many blessings and proceeded to the jungle floor, where villagers were heading out to either harvest food or plant seeds for the next generation.
Kiri likened the village to an unobstructed river of life-giving waters—not going too fast to damage the land and not too slow to collect debris but always flowing at a steady pace. Here, with the Tawkami, the Na'vi way was exemplified. While the Omatikaya felt lost, repressed, and frustrated, their neighbours lived in harmony with Eywa—even after Her voice went quiet. It baffled Kiri how her unhappy Omatikaya could live so near to them and yet not be influenced. Truly, the Tawkami had found a way to not only survive but thrive during the silence.
Kiri was thankful she came here as it revealed things about herself that she didn't know before—like how she could actually open up to strangers after years of thinking herself a freakish recluse. Kiri unfurled her palm and stroked her five fingers where Syotxa' had held it the previous night when he escorted her back to her tent. There was something irrefutably magical in the way his strong voice bid her goodnight, and Kiri slept on a cloud of sweet dreams.
She headed off to find her Grandmother, who was to be found in the hanging gardens where tiny clusters of kana fruit were grown on trellises. Mo'at often helped in cultivating food as it not only repaid their hospitality but allowed her to pick up on village gossip and investigate the general attitude towards her granddaughter.
Kiri appeared at the mouth of the trellis and waved hello. "Lefpoma rewon," Mo'at sang in reply, declaring the morning to be a peaceful one. "Eywa ngahu." Her granddaughter came over and relieved her of the basket. "Irayo, Kiri," The elder straightened out her back and stretched her limbs, sore from working since before dawn. |"I have been hearing much talk about the village. Everyone is overjoyed to connect with the ancient spirits again. They are starting to say we are nearing the day we will hear Eywa."| Kiri smiled in approval of the news. |"I have been communing with them myself. The ones in that grove are ancestors of ancestors. They speak strange things, that is, if you can get them to stop singing long enough to talk with them,"| she laughed.
"I know," Kiri signed after setting down the basket. "They sing a lot. It is so beautiful. I could listen to them all day."
|"I am sure you could. It is a sweet dialect, with many stops and rolls of the tongue, but it is hard to understand."|
"They sing of a desert."
Mo'at looked up at her apprentice with surprise. |"You understand their words?"|
She tapped her temple. "I see the pictures of what they sing in my head."
|"What do you see?"|
"A dark land with glowing patterns in the ground. There are plants, too, but not many. And people. Also, not many."
|"What do the people look like?"|
She thought about it for a moment. "I do not know. I see them from very high up. They are like dots. That is why I see the glowing patterns in the soil. They curl like vines with leaves and buds."
|"When you see this picture in your head, are you able to move your arms?"|
"What do you mean?"
Their conversation was interrupted by news of an ikran rider circling the village. Kiri emerged from the garden tunnel to search for the flyer and recognized the green-tipped wings of her mother's ikran, Snatanhì. She waved her hands to Mo'at, beckoning her to hurry, then left to greet her mother, coming in to land.
Neytiri leapt off her ikran to salute the approaching olo'eyktan, who was pleased but perplexed by her sudden arrival. |"I see you, Neytiri te Tskaha Mo'at'ite. What brings you here again so soon?"|
|"Matters of family. Where is my daughter?"| The answer came quickly in the light footwork of Kiri, and Neytiri stooped to embrace her. |"Ah, my daughter, how I've missed you. My, look at you. Your colour is so rich. How have you been faring?"|
Kiri grinned and nodded at everything her mother took notice of.
Mo'at arrived and took her daughter's hand and, upon such, sensed her fatigue and knew all was not well. |"Have you flown all night?"|
|"Yes. I am very tired."| Her mother was uneasy with suspicion, so Neytiri confirmed it with a subtle dip of the head that somehow managed to say, "Yes, all is not well back home, and you must return at once."
Mo'at spoke to Syotxa', |"She's in need of a refresher. We will tend to her."|
|"Of course."|
With a tug on her mother's hand, Kiri insisted on her teepee. They gathered inside the sweet abode filled with gifts of cornucopias, hanging racks, leis, cooking pots and etcetera.
|"I see you have been treated well,"| Neytiri observed as she looked about the tent filled with items she didn't remember bringing.
"They are all very kind to me," she replied after handing her mother some refreshment.
Neytiri sipped back the water with floating split wurik leaves that gave it a cold bite. |"I am sorry I must call you back then."|
The girl's ears flicked in confusion.
|"The time has come for our return already?"|
|"Jake cannot maintain our clan without you any longer. Our ears are filled with the creeping of a palulukan."|
|"What has happened back home?"|
|"All is quiet—for now. But Neteyam made a distressing discovery. The other day, he spotted the Chief of Demons flying over Sosul Syanan."|
|"The rekoms are brazen, but why does this stir our olo'eyktan?"|
|"Because, Mother, Spider was with him."| The mere mention of the name caused lithe fingers to coil around her wrist. |"Neteyam saw the two with his own eyes. He followed their trail and managed to talk with Spider in secret, who then begged him not to shoot the demon when he had the chance. I will forgive my son later for doing what he asked."|
|"That is troubling. Why did he not act?"|
|"He insisted it was for Spider's sake. 'Feelings do not factor in war,' I told him. 'You must think as a warrior like your grandfather and grandfather before you.' He is far from ready to be olo'eyktan."|
The elder shook her sage head. |"But our Spider has no reason to bond with the enemy..."|
|"You are right,"| Neytiri said with a wry smile. |"I thought the two were father-and-son—that would explain much, but—no. Spider confessed to Neteyam that they are not related. The only thing that bonds him with the Chief of Demons is friendship. Jake's foolish ward has tied himself to a burning tree—after all we've done for him."|
Kiri's shaking petitions, thus far, were going ignored, so she yanked her mother's wrist, causing her to spill her tea.
"Kiri!"
"You are wrong about Spider!"
|"Have you not listened to a word I have been saying? Your companion has befriended a great evil."|
Kiri's dazed eyes fell, regained their charge, then shot into her mother's. "Then we are wrong about the Chief of Demons!"
The statement took the princess aback.
"Spider would not befriend someone evil. Something is happening to the Chief of Demons, not to Spider. He must be the weak one because my friend is strong."
Neytiri inhaled sharply and faced away, the only suitable response in her eyes. She resumed with Mo'at. |"This is why Jake has sent me. He fears Spider is at risk of speaking our whereabouts. We need to hold council, but he cannot proceed without you."|
The tsahìk's head floated above the raging waters; and, collectedly, she spoke. |"I sensed this decision was long coming. With him in the wicked lands, we are better to err on the side of caution."|
"Spider is not a traitor!" Kiri gestured erratically.
|"We are not saying he is, Kiri,"| the grandmother calmly explained. |"But more is said in laughter than forced through pressing. Your friend is a liability if he is forming an attachment with the Chief of Demons. You know that."|
"You do not know him like I do. All of you are forgetting his heart."
Neytiri took over. |"Your father knows Spider as well as you, and he is also concerned. That is why he needs our guidance right now, Kiri. Losing your temper, he does not need,"| she rebuked.
Kiri's hands retreated to her lap, still refusing to believe that Spider was morphing into a threat of any kind.
|"We will leave today,"| Mo'at agreed.
|"Good. I do not have time to rest. I must fly back at once and let Jake know you are coming."|
Many Tawkami flocked outside the village entrance, where a convoy was being prepared for the visiting princess and tsahìk at the olo'eyktan's insistence. |"If it pleases you, Tsahìk Mo'at, I would like to accompany you on your return trip."|
|"Your offer is kind, but you have already relinquished warriors to ensure our protection, Olo'eyktan."|
He smiled. |"If I may be fully transparent, Tsahìk Mo'at, I have a second motive. I wish to visit your village and pay my respects to Rider of Last Shadow."|
|"I see. But are you not more needed here, Olo'eyktan?"|
|"My apprentice, Maynew, can govern while I am gone."|
|"Then, you may travel with us."|
Jake crossed his arms as he stood before Norman's sleeping avatar, linked to an IV and lying on a cot in the clinic. "Sorry you have to do this, Norman."
He sighed into the EXO pack that he hated wearing. "We're all making sacrifices."
"Norm, tell me the truth, is keeping Grace's avatar online making things hard?"
"Don't worry about it, Jake. I made a promise."
"So, it is." Toruk Makto turned away and drifted to where the white elephant was stored. He abstractly pinched the curtains, streaking his thumb down the crease.
"We can keep it going, Jake. It's not a huge deal."
"It's not just that, Norm. Can we feasibly transfer High Camp? You said your Samson can't keep lifting heavy loads. I didn't know I was blowing through so much of your fuel supply."
"We'll find a way. How else did we survive for sixteen-some years on this moon?"
"I feel like I'm fighting a losing battle."
"Pandora will always win." He half-smiled.
"She sure will… Norman, why don't you let us do the transfer ceremony? Because you are one of us, you're the only avatar driver my people would be willing to do this for. Other drivers would cut off their own limbs to get that privilege."
"I told you before—"
"You have, and I still don't get your thinking. You love the Na'vi so much. Why not be one forever?"
Norm stared up at Jake, stalled for some time, then finally said, "I don't think Eywa wants me to."
"Huh?"
"In my vision quest, I stood over my dead avatar. It was like She was warning me."
"About what?"
"I don't know. But if I take that path, I could never go back. When I came to Pandora, I dreamt of returning home and teaching everyone what I learned. I've got centuries of knowledge, all up here, in just a decade. If I commit, I could never do that."
"You want to go back to Earth?"
"No, but who else is going to teach people about the Na'vi? Not some scientist—they need a guy who's actually lived as one."
Jake offered the anthropologist the respectful silence his answer deserved when a smile slowly formed. "Carrying out my brother's old dream?"
"I guess I am."
Just then, Neteyam burst into the avatar clinic in a panic.
"Neteyam, what is it?" Jake asked.
"The whole clan is demanding you hold council—now!"
"Mo'at hasn't come back yet."
"They don't care."
The two olo'eyktans followed Neteyam out and ran for the entrance, where many angry Omatikaya gathered around an Anurai messenger. Every face was solemn, and Jake was at a loss.
Neytiri had Txurseng in view when her ears detected, over the violent winds, the shouts of her people rising up from the council clearing. Worried by what this augured, she dove Snatanhì into the foreboding scene. Her wings blanketed the crowd too riled to notice her, and she perched her ikran on a nearby tree; the creature was already anxious, having brushed against such palpable anger. Neytiri looked over the heads and saw her mate and son standing by the raging bonfire, trying to quell the mob. She jumped down and pushed her way through the bodies, where she broke past the last shouting obstacle and clasped her beloved's arm. When he saw her, he had to refrain from kissing her in his relief. "Ma Jake? What is happening?"
"S*** just hit the fan—Got another message from Zwefnawo."
"What did he speak?"
"Oh, let's see. 'Rider of Last Shadow's Skyperson has befriended evil. Untrustworthy. Omatikaya are at risk.'" Jake tossed up his hand in defeated exasperation.
"Ma Eywa…" she exhaled.
|"Neytiri te Tskaha! Is our tsahìk with you? We must leave this place at once,"| a voice emerged, speaking for all.
|"She is fast coming,"| she replied, trying to keep herself stable. Under her breath, she said to Jake, "What do you need me to do?"
"Are you tired?"
"Not anymore."
Jake's eyes spanned the mass of scowls first, then leaned in very close to whisper something into her ear. Neytiri was surprised by his request but made no protests and ran off to carry it out.
|"Your ward allies with the enemy! He knows where our camp is hidden! Our numbers! Our tactics! He shares it all!"|
|"At any moment, an evil could fall upon us!"|
Neteyam stepped forward. |"Peace, my clan brothers and sisters. A panicked mind only benefits the enemy. The hidden Anurai may be mistaken—meaning, we may have more time."|
|"But, Neteyam—"| Lew interjected but stopped himself to continue more privately, |"We saw with our own eyes that he has befriended him."|
When Lezarana thought she detected the faint evidence of crucial information, she prompted the young man. |"Speak up, Warrior Lew. You have more to say, do you not?"|
Neteyam stood by and listened with a pained heart. Lew hesitated, but a nod from his friend told him it was too late and to simply continue. |"The other day, I spotted Spider flying with the Chief of Demons on an ikran. They are friends."|
The whole gathering rumbled with exclamations. Jake pressed his brows, for he knew things would only become worse.
|"Why have you not shared this earlier, Lew?"|
|"I-I…"|
The olo'eyktan intervened and rescued the nervous lad. |"He did speak, Lezarana. He shared it with me the other day. That is why I sent out my mate to go and fetch Mo'at so we could have this meeting. It is The Way for our tsahìk to be present."|
|"That is two confirmations now that the Skyperson child grows fat on the enemy's food."|
Her voice rallied others, with one adding, |"It was a danger to let even one alien in our camp. They should all go back to their kind."|
|"Now we must move our village!"|
Jake raised his voice. |"I hear you all. I know and see the danger in staying, but we cannot move rashly. We must think of our friends. It is much harder for them to move."|
|"They do not belong with us!"| a voice cried. Norman was in avatar form when he heard that comment, and the man escalated, now directing his complaint straight to Norm's face. |"You aliens do not belong on Eywa'eveng. You should go back to your people in the wicked land."|
Jake was ready to advance, but Norman raised his hand and calmly faced off his attacker. |"Eywa be with you, Tamaru. We have been called by you 'good Skypeople,' and you let us live among you. We exchanged knowledge, built friendships, even married,"| he listed, with a nod to his best friend. |"It is our love for you that we choose the dangers of Pandora over the safety of Bridgehead."|
The Na'vi man who challenged Norman could not look him in the eye.
|"But we do not stay to abuse your kindness,"| the Dreamwalker continued, and he entered the centre, spanning out his strong arms and raising his gentle voice so all could hear his submission. |"If any here wish my tribe gone, please, speak your peace."|
No voice came, so Neteyam took the opportunity. |"The Skypeople need our protection. If they leave us, they leave the shield of Eywa. How can any of us condemn our friends who have renounced the evil ways of their race and sacrificed so much just to have our friendships?"|
|"But, Olo'eyktan Ngam'en,"| a woman addressed Norman in the face of Neteyam's point. |"We must migrate."|
|"By Eywa,"| Zayksuli inserted. |"We can work together and find a new place. We do not need to separate from the good Skypeople—we can work with them."| He was adamant on this point, for Jake was not about to be robbed of his closest friend. He nodded at Norman, who appreciated the support.
Just when things seemed to improve, a second cord was struck—a runner burst through the crowd, announcing the arrival of the entire Anurai clan.
Utterly dazed, Jake stood behind the curtain of his shocked convocation, pulling aside to unveil the next act. There was Häku, astride a Great Austrapede, like the horde behind her, and presenting a scowl just as contorted.
|"I see you, Häku,"| he spoke, trying to keep the situation under control, but every one of his senses detected an imminent cataclysm.
Rather than responding as a noblewoman of sound mind, Häku twisted her fingers around the antenna of her mount and bent forward, unleashing a terrible roar upon the olo'eyktan. The disconcerting act had Omatikaya hands fast on their weapons as they waited, in unbearable silence, for what the Anurai leader would do next. "Oel ngati kameie? Oel ngati kameie?" The shaken woman stirred more. |"You speak 'I see you' to me? Rider of Last Shadow,"| she spat, |"do you see my suffering?"|
Jake dreaded inquiring but knew Zayksuli had to. |"My sister from the plains, what is your grievance?"|
She worked up a morbid half-smile and stepped her mount aside, allowing her people to carry in a cot that they set before him. The moment he recognized the face, Jake Sully dropped to his knees. He palmed Zwefnawo's shoulder, but the semi-conscious man only moaned slightly and, in his delirium, turned his head.
High-voltage cries surged through the connected crowd, but Jake was paralyzed in his shock; only his eyes moved—quivering on Quaritch's handiwork.
|"The Skypeople brought him back to us like this! And as if that was not enough for breaking their trust, they set our whole village ablaze!"|
A number of Omatikaya hands reached for their mouths.
|"As we speak, our ancestral boneyard is being burned to ashes! We were exiled from our home with flame and smoke on our heels! If they had just killed us outright, that would have been kind."| Jake focused on the tears starting to pour down the olo'eykte's face. "Toruk Makto…" Her voice wavered. |"Everything you touch dies… You are not our saviour. You are a herald for the end of times!"|
The crowd erupted with anger and tears. Omatikaya, Anurai—there was no distinction anymore. The People had but one name: the wretched.
Jake could hardly think over the tumult. |"We— We will take in your clan, Häku."|
|"A sorry compensation,"| she said on inhaling her bitterness.
Lezarana surveyed the feeble Anurai man moaning on his cot, then strategically repositioned her line of sight on her olo'eyktan. |"How did this man know your Skyperson child was connected to you?"|
He retaliated with steadfast eyes of his own. |"Spider would have tried befriending the Anurai in Bridgehead. He must have told them he was my ward."|
|"Rider of Last Shadow. Did your ward know about your plan to place a hidden ear?"| When silence followed, the woman knew she was onto something. She took another step. |"Did he know about your plan?"|
"Spider…" He stammered, then lowered his head; he could not lie. |"Yes."|
A myriad of exclamations shot out from every direction.
Lezarana glared at her leader and gestured for him to look at the mess lying before his feet. |"Do you not see the obvious? To gain favour with the enemy, he has made them aware of your hidden ear! Now, your servant has been brought to you like this, forever damaged, and his people's home utterly destroyed. Have you not learned from Hometree?"|
Jake's heart sank into the deepest recess of his being and screamed.
|"We must evacuate our stronghold,"| Lezarana finished by addressing the Omatikaya.
|"We need time to plan,"| Norman reminded.
|"Your people need time, and we cannot afford to give it to you."|
|"Lezarana speaks wisdom!"|
|"We have to part ways!"|
|"It is the only way!"|
While the throng beat itself into a mad froth, where words were flung around like knives, Jake broke from his daze and discovered a flicker of hope in the sky, high above the quarrel. He swam his arms through the numbers and pulled himself towards his goal; there, beyond their heads, he met with Neytiri, coming back on her ikran with an item most vital. She passed the great relic to him, and he respectfully took it.
As fears attacked the multitude—spoken doubts germinating like weeds, infecting and discouraging men—Jake set his lips to the Omatikaya's Blue Flute. The mighty voice trumpeted across the land in all directions, enchanting everyone and everything into a state of reverent silence.
Meanwhile, much farther off, for the sound could oscillate that far, the Omatikaya tsahìk and the travelling others heard the distinct blare. Mo'at was very still by the time the last echo drifted beyond her ears. |"Zayksuli plays the Blue Flute…"|
Syotxa' and Kiri both paused and shared confused looks. He broke to ask Mo'at, |"What is the Blue Flute?"|
|"It is the Omatikaya's most precious relic. One of the few things we recovered from our fallen home and only blown by our olo'eyktan during sacred rites or matters of great urgency…"|
A great dread possessed Kiri.