Living La Vida Loca!
It's been awhile, hasn't it? Enjoy -QueenNothingness
Note: When speaking Na'vi, I am putting the sentences in bold so the distinction is clear.
The first morning dawned bright and early for Opal and Jake. While he was stuck with the reluctant Neytiri, the nicer if a bit cold Peyral was her teacher. Riding a horse was nothing like back home. For all intents and purposes, though Opal fell a little bit less than Jake, she sucked at it just as much as her friend.
She could see a smile twitching on Peyral's lips as she fell again. 'This is clearly not made for me.' Opal groaned, thankfully grabbing Peyral's hand. She brushed some of the mud off, the direhorse next to her seeming to snort in mockery.
'It is time to eat. Come with me. I will start teaching you our language this afternoon.' Opal's groan changed into a happy and excited grin, the ex-marine giving her a questioning look as his friend munched on something close to deer.
The days bled into weeks, as Peyral taught Opal everything she knew. Unlike Neytiri, the huntress was patient and understanding, giving Opal the chance to learn at her own pace.
Grace's assistant got the hang of the language quite quickly, and it was not long until she could understand most of what was said, though her accent butchered the Na'vi language. Speaking was a bit more difficult, but understanding was getting easier by the day.
Even the stern Eytuckan felt a smirk creep on his lips when Opal butchered the language, said girl cringing in embarrassment.
And while Jake was very good at hunting, his lighthaired friend did okay but not great. It was on such a afternoon that she also finally met the infamous Tsu'tey. She had been warned by the ex-marine that he did not like outsiders and just as her friend had said, Tsu'tey did not give a flying fuck that she and her friend had had no intention to come here to start with. He could apparently not get into his thick head that it had been a series of unfortunate events and bad luck that landed them here.
Peyral's attention, who had started to grow on Opal, was not with the lesson, not correcting any of Opal's mistakes like she usually did, and soon the human girl understood why. A group of nearby hunters was whispering loudly, presumably about her.
Their whispering changed into smirking and laughing, and Grace's assistant could not stop her ears from going flat. Her tail was moving around anxiously, Opal's gaze trained on the ground. The huntress next to her growled, throwing her bow and arrows on the ground as she marched over to the leering group.
Peyral muttered something underneath her breath, turning on her feet and complaining in quick Na'vi, too fast for Opal to understand. She did hear her name being mentioned several times, and when one of those hunters gazes' fell on her, she could not stop a sneer from appearing on her lips.
'Men...' she muttered, turning her back to them and going back to trying out her bow. Her cup was full however when one of them came close and touched her tail. He was young, she noted, but had overstepped, and that was not something she would let go so easily. Opal whipped around, hissing like an angry cat at the hunter, the poor boy falling on his ass backwards in shock.
'Next time you touch me withoutpermission, you get a slap in the face without a warning first, understood?' Opal bit out, the hunter nodding and blinking, standing up and backing off, stumbling out of her view.
'And that goes for all of you as well!' Opal shouted at the group, another annoyed hiss leaving her mouth. One of them stared angrily at her, but when Opal stared right back, the infamous Tsu'tey she would later learn, he eventually huffed and turned around, following his friends into the trees.
Peyral looked at her, a proud look on her face. 'What?' Opal asked, shrugging when the huntress started laughing. 'You should have seen the look on his face!'
'How are you feeling?' Aunt Grace asked that night, giving her niece a plate with some food on it. The light haired woman gave her aunt a tired smile, her feet dangling off the edge of her linkunit, named "Venus". It was after "Beulah", the least glitchy one.
The move to the floating mountains of Pandora had taken some time to get used to, Opal mused, but she absolutely loved it.
She spend most nights sitting outside of their temporary home in the mountains, laying down in the grass (with her oxygen mask on ofcourse), looking at the stars and the nightsky, listening to the sounds of the living planet around them. Her relationship with Grace was also getting better and better, the woman sharing some stories of her mother from time to time.
'Do not forget to record your day at the village, alright?' Grace said, sitting next to her and looking into a microscope. Opal nodded, munching on her food and taking one of the datapads, organizing Grace's notes.
She was more in the village in her avatar-body than in her human body lately, but she did try to help Grace out when she could, since she originally had been hired as her aunt's assistant, no matter how many times the scientist said she could handle the workload just fine.
'Opal, there you are!' Peyral called out, waving the human over. 'I have something to show you.'Opal nodded, her excitement soon replaced by apprehension and a little bit of nerves as they went higher and higher in Hometree.
She nodded at the ex-marine and Neytiri, who were a few feet away, and tried not to look down. 'You look a bit pale, Opal. Are you...scared of heights?' The huntress, now her friend, guessed. 'Do not look down.' Peyral smiled, grabbing Opal by the arm and steering her to the thick, big branches ahead of them.
'Wait here.' Opal nodded, taking another deep breath as she tried to steady her breathing. She really did not do well with heights. She never had, but it had never been this bad. She hoped it would not cripple her in the future.
Her friend gave her a small smile, turning to the branches in front of her and making a calling sound in her throat. Only now did Opal remark the thing on Peyral's forehead, something akin to flying glasses?, resting there.
The very much human girl inside Opal cringed, but her ears only flattened a little bit when she heard rustling in the top of tree. That and her moving tail were the only sign of her nerves, but she did stumble back a bit when she heard the screeching.
A squeak left Opal when something flew out off the branches, straight to Peyral, a low noise leaving the huntress. 'A banshee?' Opal whispered, her nerves momentarily replaced by wonder.
'Do not look into her eyes.' Peyral warned, as the ikran hissed in warning when Opal looked up, but her attention was quickly diverted to Peyral who pat her on the head. 'Not banshee, an ikran.'
Peyral's smile was warm when her apprentice scratched her head sheepishly, apologizing for the wording. 'Ikran are not horses. When Tsaheylu is made, it is only with one person. Ikran will only fly with one hunter for it's whole life.'
Opal gulped as the ikran straightened, flaring out her wings to ready for flight. 'To become a huntress, you must choose an ikran and he or she must choose you.'
Jake and Opal both shared a look at that, the uncertainty in his friend's eyes making him doubtful as well. 'When?' Opal eeped, her gaze falling once more on the huntress, Peyral giving her a smirk as she placed the goggles over her eyes.
Neytiri was the first to jump off the tree, her ikran flying around in circles. 'When it is time.' Peyral said, nodding at her friend. 'I will tell you, when it is time.'
The banshee jumped off the tree, joining Neytiri in the air. Jake shook his head, still excited as to what the future would bring. Opal, not so much.
That night, when she had showered and sat down in the grass, the doubt came back in full swing. Yes, she was good at understanding and starting to speak the language, and sure, she loved to learn how the dynamics and life in the village worked, but this...
She was a mediocre hunter at best, not like Jake, who was clearly made for it. She understood some things a bit better than Jake, like when everytime Peyral said "I see you", she knew it meant more than just seeing, she knew it meant seeing into someone, showing all of yourself, but still...
She was a mediocre hunter at best, and the test she would have to pass was all about hunting, and...
'I can see the gears turning inside your head from here, Opal.' A voice said, Jake riding his wheelchair next to her. 'What is bothering you?'
Opal opened her mouth and than stayed silent, shaking her head. 'The test to become a hunter? Is that what you are worried about?'
The silence said it all, and the ex-marine snorted. 'There is more, isn't there?' His light haired friend nodded. 'I feel like I belong somewhere for the first time in a long time. And if I do not pass, ...'
'You fear they will kick you out.' Opal let out a bitter laugh, gazing back up at the stars that were twinkling by the thousands in the sky.
'I found...peace here.' Opal whispered, almost too quietly for her friend to hear. 'Something I have not known for a very long time.' Grace, who had just gone outside to search for her missing niece, stopped in her tracks.
'You want to stay here.' Opal sighed, giving a sad smile. 'For as long as I can, yes. I have the feeling I can breathe here, at last.' Jake hummed, also looking up at the sky.
'You need to have some more confidence in yourself, Opal. If anyone can pass, it will be you and Jake. You both. Have some faith.' Grace said, sitting next to her niece, patting the girl on her shoulder.
A comfortable silence fell over the three, and Opal did not know how long they sat outside, but it was pitchblack inside the shack when she finally lay down in her bunk.
And maybe, her aunt and Jake were right. She needed to have some confidence, and faith in herself.
You will pass. You are stronger and have more courage than you know.
A voice whispered in her dream that night, a voice she would often hear in the future. But for now, it was enough. And that night, the dreams were not tinged by doubts and everything that Opal left behind on Earth, but this time, the dreams were sweet.