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[Random the Navigator]

::: [ Crossroads ] :::

In all the time she'd spent at Hometree, Ash had actually really come to know only a few areas: the Commons; the sparring grounds; the upstairs and downstairs healers' wards; Enya's alcove (sad, diminished little place that it was now); the Council's meeting area; the Olo'eyktan's meditation spot.  That still left almost a third of the ground floor that she'd never seen except when she'd been led through it, and countless sleeping, working, and social spaces in the upper levels, all woven together by the great Tree's inner struts and branches.  She knew that a Hometree was actually not just one tree, but up to a dozen giants that had grown together, leaning on each other like the poles of a teepee; this was how there could be branches within it for travelling along and hanging hammocks.  The Tompa'tanhi Clan was smallish, so its Hometree was small for its kind--just five trees intertwined, supporting each other and the people who lived within them.  And of those five trees, she had perhaps explored two of them if you counted the spaces between them that formed the outermost rooms and niches...like Enya's alcove, which was only a few levels below the healers' aerie, which opened out onto the branches, including the one that had held her swing.

Now the young weaver guided them through the ever-denser thicket of roots that led away from the larger ground-level spaces and formed most of the smaller ones.  It took quite a while before they passed beneath the 'center' of that particular sister- or brother-tree, and there were more dense root-clusters to negotiate before they began to thin out enough to see daylight again.

It was here that the party emerged into the lush fern 'valley' between a pair of massive external roots.  Ash had only seen it in passing the last time she'd come and, eyes-front person that she was, she had taken no note of what was around her, only of the back of the Olo'eyktan in front of her.  But now it occurred to her to question how such a healthy growth of such a fragile plant could even exist with the world the way it was.  The first time she'd seen it, there had only been frost on the ground...everywhere except here; and since then they'd had freezing rain and ice.  How did this place escape the touch of the rainforest's first real winter?

But the humidity told a story, the basalt outcrops told a story, the rich black soil under their feet told a story--a story of long-ago volcanic activity and a cluster of young sibling trees growing out of the fertile ashes.  She was no geologist; perhaps Solanda, Enya's former driver, could have told her the particulars--or, come to think of it, so (probably) could Enya herself.  But now that she was paying attention, she recognised the landscape around a geothermal hot spring that had long since stopped belching out colorful but caustic minerals and yielded to the plant growth that lapped around its borders.  This thing happened on Earth in places as far north as Armenia and Iceland.  And these Na'vi had settled here over an underground channel of very warm water.  Probably deep underground; even the Commons wasn't low enough to benefit from its heat.  She wondered if the subterranean ceremonial chambers, the ones initiates descended into for their Dreamhunts, were warm; if so, she would suggest that the most fragile of the remaining Clan members be housed there, if doing so would not violate some taboo.

Now the roots that arched over their heads gave way to a rock ledge that partially overhung the valley.  Already Ash could smell the sulfur springs that emerged at the other end of this half-tunnel, and she smiled.  And then they came to the place...a chain of round, wide pools with bubbling vents underneath; with the basalt overhang on one side, dripping so much with the steam that it looked like a thin waterfall, and the bottom of which had eroded out into a smooth, gentle slope that made a good place to sit; and on the other side, opposite the rock ledge, a strip of black-sand beach backed by yet more ferns and cycad-like trees.  A Jurassic landscape, she thought, and she remembered a friend back home who'd liked dinosaurs...  What was he up to now?

She eyeballed the overhang again, which was just tall enough; imagined a certain childlike Avatar diving off of it; and couldn't help a huge grin.

"After you," she said to Ni'ka, eyes shining.  "But Enya's gonna love this place...!"

[Kiyevanie]

Ni'ka had no idea of geology or volcanic activities in the ground, but she had the keen senses of a hunter.  So, following the weaver, her ears had swiveled left and right, and her nose wrinkled while she was sniffing the air to identify the unfamiliar scent.  Her skin had noticed the air getting a little bit warmer and more humid, and of course she noticed the growing ferns, strong and healthy where most other plants were trying to adjust to the cold.

Then the path opened up to the springs and Ni'ka's jaw dropped.  In an instant she was sure that she hadn't seen a place like this before; how could even the Red have destroyed the memory of a place like that?  The steamy air was warm, the water looked more than inviting, and the slope and beach looked like a perfect place to play, recover and rest.

She nodded to Ash, beaming.  "Oh yes, she's going to love it!"  She winked.  "Like I do!"

Cautiously she put a toe into the water.  "Oooooo - that's good!"  She quickly followed Ru'ni's lead in removing the delicate feather necklace, dropping it on a flat rock and cleaning herself from dust and dirt in the small outflow of the pool, then stepping in, enjoying the sensation of warm water caressing her skin.

Now she turned back to the weaver.  "This place is a blessing in itself," she stated, finally submerging neck-deep into the water.

Ru'ni, already a few steps ahead, grinned.  "Oh yes, it is!"

[Random the Navigator]

Ash looked after Ni'ka with a wide smile, eyes shining in anticipation.  But when the huntress removed her necklace, which had been the only thing keeping her upper body "decent" by the standards of Western human civilisation, the Dreamwalker balked.  "Umm...do I have to go in there naked?" she asked Ru'ni, her reddening ears lowered apologetically and her tail seeking refuge, Enya-like, around her ankles.  "I, uhh, didn't bring a swimsuit..."

[Kiyevanie]

Ru'ni blinked in confusion.  "You don't have to, but do you want your clothes to get wet?" she asked, trying to make any sense out of the picture of embarrassment that was Ash.  "My loincloth is going to dry quickly, but the feathers of the necklace don't like too much water."

Ni'ka, on the other hand, had seen the very same thing happening with Enya.  "It's a cultural thing," she explained to the other woman.  "For some reason, Tawtute Dreamwalkers don't like to show too much of their body.  At least the females," she added, thinking about what she had overheard about Rick and the loincloth.

She looked at Ash, wondering.  If Ash came into the water with all her clothes on, they'd be wet afterwards and that would be cold.  "Maybe you can only keep part of them?" she suggested, remembering that sometimes Dreamwalkers wore more than just one layer of clothing.

[Random the Navigator]

Ash took a break from flustering just long enough to smirk.  "The males, too," she told Ni'ka.  "You should see how Rick stammers and fumbles whenever I remind him about that loincloth..."

Then she turned to Ru'ni and tried to explain.  "Ni'ka's right...it's just how we're raised, and our upbringing doesn't change when we're in these bodies.  I know, you probably think it's silly or weird; and in my head I am totally on-board with people just taking a flying leap into a warm pool with nothing on but their hair and their attitudes.  But it's a little different when I think about me jumping in with nothing on but an attitude...  Well, maybe ditch the attitude, you're gonna say, right?"  She smirked, then continued: "Look, I love the idea, but I can't make myself do it.  And I can't make myself go in there in my clothes because I think they're dirty even when I've only worn them for half a day.  And Sprout's been sleeping in these for a long time..."  She looked keenly disappointed; the one thing she never seemed to be prepared for in life was *fun*.

[Kiyevanie]

Ru'ni frowned - Dreamwalkers were strange!  But she could respect the thought of not wanting to bring any dirt into the pool.  "Too bad I didn't know before," she said, "or I would have brought one of the blankets along.  They're clean and you could have wrapped yourself in them."

Ni'ka eyed Ash's shorts and boots.  "For now - you could at least dangle your feet in?" she suggested.  She felt sorry for her friend that she couldn't join the fun in there.

By now one or two faces were turned in their direction - they weren't the only ones who had come for a dip.

[Random the Navigator]

"Too bad I didn't know before," Ash mumbled, the color making it to her cheeks.  "I could have brought...something..."  She wracked her brain trying to remember what in any of those crates might have made serviceable swimwear, and came to one uncomfortable conclusion: "Or not; Enya gave away all my modesty wear...or did you ever wonder what those 'baby caps' were originally for?  Ohh, well..."  She removed her hiking shoes and her socks, found a spot on a rock and dipped her feet into the water.

She was not prepared for the deliciousness of the sensation.  Her face lit up like a little girl's; she swung her legs back and forth Enya-style, first together, then alternately; she kicked up a small splash, then a big one; then she found a lower rock and submerged her legs up to her knees.  "Aaaahhhhh, yummmmm...!" she sighed ecstatically.  Then she gave Ru'ni a shyly hopeful look. "Say, umm...I remember you guys were wondering how to dress Enya...  She's found her own solution by now, we know...but did you ever come up with any prototypes--err, actually make one of your inventions?  Something for her to try on?  She's smaller than me, but maybe if it's loose enough..."  Her brows knit; she pouted a little.  "Or maybe you should just find me a blanket and show me where you do your laundry," she said resignedly; anyone could tell she'd rather swim in native-Enya clothing.

[Kiyevanie]

Ru'ni bit her lips.  "I can find you a blanket, but it's no fun for swimming..."  Then her face lit up.  "But of course," she exclaimed.  "I remember 'Iheyu coming down, having a few ideas about clothes for her daughter."

She accidently caught Ni'ka's eyes, the dark huntress remembering the whole attempt to talk Enya into Na'vi clothes, and they shared a short smile.  "They're not completely done yet; we didn't find time to make decorations.  But that's even better for swimming, I think.  Just wait here!"

And she darted out of the water, only to come back a few minutes later with a wide breastband, wide enough to reach almost towards the belly button, that could be adjusted in width at the back.  And the weavers had actually managed to produce something reminiscent of Enya's beloved shorts - or, better, the pair of sweat-shorts that had been in Rick's delivery of "warms".  Both items were made out of soft leather, the breastband being yellow, the shorts in a deep, soft purple.

Ru'ni looked at Ash.  "Would those do?" she asked hopefully.  She had brought a blanket as well, but hoped they wouldn't need it.  After all, if those clothes would work for Ash, they'd probably work for Enya too, and they could be promoted from "prototype" to "model clothes".

[Random the Navigator]

Ash's grin bespoke unadulterated delight.  "Are you kidding?  These are fantastic!!" she crowed.  But then, being Ash, she stumbled upon a niggling detail: "But...these are leather...  Won't they get ruined in the water?"

The question answered itself, however, as she fingered the items; they'd been treated with oil, the same oil the Na'vi used to waterproof their deerskin canoes--the children of the Clan well remembered how much Enya had liked diving into waterfalls, even if she'd been too hurt to try it while she was here.  "Oops...never mind..."  And without further reservation, she slipped into the pool and changed her clothing underwater; then, surfacing like a sea-nymph, she gleefully tossed Sprout's human clothing up onto her rock.  "YAH!!" she exulted, tossing up her arms; and in that moment she felt she was letting Sprout be a childlike Avatar too.

[Kiyevanie]

Ru'ni answered the grin with a very delighted one of her own.  For one thing, Ash's gleeful attitude was catching - and for another, Ash had just proven that those clothes were fit for Enya's use as well.

Ni'ka didn't bother with grinning, but instead dove under, coming up again and sending a friendly splash in Ash's and Runi's direction.  If Ash was letting Sprout be a childlike Avatar again for a moment, Ni'ka felt like the playful and irresponsible girl she'd been before her world had gotten turned upside down - the girl who had played hide and seek in the woods.

Then she blushed, her few tanhi lighting up.  "Oooops," she said, thinking of the other people enjoying the water.

But Ru'ni just laughed.  "There's nothing wrong with a bit of splashing games," she said, "as long as we take care to not involve anyone but the combatants."  And she sent a splash of her own towards Ni'ka.

[Random the Navigator]

Ash flinched when the water hit her; but then her pugnacious streak came to the fore and she paid Ni'ka back with about fifteen percent interest.  After that, though, she wasn't really sure what to do.  A sickly child, she'd never really been exposed to vigorous play.  No one in her life, then or now, considered her sturdy enough to arm-wrestle, let alone to grapple with and tumble over like puppies the way that Enya pounced on anyone she thought could withstand it.  And even her "bedsports" with Rick were usually cut short by some manifestation of her weakness.  Leukemia last decade, the Red this year...what difference did it make?  Her body always found a way to let her down...a lot like Enya's since her injury, she realised, except that Enya knew what she was missing.

So Ash did what she always had and found quieter, more solitary sorts of fun.  She dove underwater and swam a bit, at first with her eyes closed...but when she opened them, she found her Avatar's eyes were not bothered by the alkalinity of the water.  But of course...weren't Pandora's oceans, and even the fluid in the amnio tanks, at least a little bit caustic?  What else about Sprout's body didn't she know that might come in handy?

She surfaced again after a while, impressed with her Na'vi lung capacity, then rolled over and floated on her back, just gazing upwards at the ferns and the rocks and the overhang, tail drifting below and behind her like seagrass.  This she could do.  This she could handle.  If you could float at all, there was no way to do it weakly or do it wrong.

[Kiyevanie]

Ni'ka's and Ru'ni's splashing game didn't last too long either; after a bit of giggling, both of them were happy to just enjoy the sensation of floating in the water.

Ni'ka gave a deep, happy sigh.  "Somehow this is the first time I've felt really warm and carefree for a long while," she admitted.  Yes, the campfire at the shack complex was burning brightly, and the longhouse was kept warm too, as was Tsanten's module.  But still in the last days, especially while flying in nothing but a loincloth and - on the worst days - her hunter's poncho, she had found the cold creeping deep into her bones.  Now it was warmth that was creeping in and driving the cold out, and Ni'ka enjoyed it deeply.

"I hear you," Ru'ni nodded.  "This weather, it's just wrong, but you hunters and the gatherers just have to go out."  She smiled.  "But we might have something for you too, once we come back," she offered.  "Even a pair of riding leggings will help, and after seeing what your friend Rick brought in for the 'evi and older people, some of the hunters made a few suggestions about something for your upper body that will keep the cold out and won't hinder as much as a poncho.  Most of the ones we made are already being worn, and a lot of them went with the refugees, but we're all working overtime to produce more of them.  Maybe one will be ready when we get back."  She smirked.  "Maybe we'll find one you can take along for Kenten as well - the two of you deserve it, after finding that Talioang herd."

Ni'ka's ears perked up at the idea.  "I'd love to see and try that," she admitted.  "It is cold out there."  Then she frowned.  "We aren't keeping you from anything, are we?"

But Ru'ni shook her head.  "No, the Elder said I should take a break for a while."

[Random the Navigator]

Ash was still alone with the sensations of warmth, floating, and the movements of the water.  ~ Floating blue, ~ she thought drowsily, and wondered whether that was her own idea or if Sprout, on some subconscious level, had brought the association to mind.  She remembered what Tiye had said about Tall Brenda, how they'd suspended her in her own hammock in a screened-off corner bathed in the blue light of Enya's miniature bladder-lamp; for all she knew, that might have kept the Changing Avatar sane.  Could an Avatar lose its mind? she wondered.  For so long she'd never considered them to have 'minds' at all...and yet, Brenda's solicitousness went far beyond the hovering of an operator waiting for a machine to come back out of the shop.  Floating blue...  It had calmed Enya, it had calmed Tall Brenda, and maybe now it was calming Sprout too, and calming Ash within her.  When you came right down to it, weren't emotions largely a matter of brain chemistry?  And wasn't brain chemistry independent of conscious thought?

Had Sprout been afraid, then, all that time that Ash had been gone?  Had she been comforted by Enya's nurturing?  Had she missed her driver, missed being awake, missed taking part in her world?  Enya had said--insisted!--that she'd heard Sprout's prayers in 'the pretty place' as well as Ash's.  Enya...Sprout needs you...  How could Sprout "need" something if she weren't at least marginally aware that it existed and that it was missing?

~ This seems to be my day for finally stopping to think about things, ~ Ash sighed inwardly.  But if it was a sigh of resignation, it was also one of release.  The Olo'eyktan--she still thought of him as such, and would until another was chosen to replace him--had released her from...something.  In the same stroke, he had released her for something else.  Maybe that's what it was?  Maybe she was being given time out to think?

She exhaled outwardly this time and yielded to the sensation of floating blue.

[Kiyevanie]

While chatting with Ru'ni, Ni'ka looked over to Ash.  The Dreamwalker was floating almost weightless in the warm water and her face looked relaxed and at peace...more at peace than Ni'ka had seen her for a long time, if at all.  The Changed huntress smiled; no matter what the Tsahiks would decide, there had been at least one good thing for her friend, this time here spent in the warm water.

This is a place to heal, Ni'ka thought, now laying back in the water and closing her eyes in more ways than one.  Closing them from the outside, from the cold and the stiff and aching muscles; but also from the inside.  It was then that she realised how much tension she herself had been under, even as it was slowly receding from her body and mind.

On the other side of the pool a small group of women - for some reason at that time there were only women bathing - stepped out of the water, talking quietly to each other and reaching out for the blankets they had brought along so they would't freeze when they had to go back.  This was an adjustment to the weather; normally nobody would have thought of drying themselves off after a swim.  The group gave a friendly wave in passing, noticing the contemplatative mood that had settled over the three so-different young women.

[Random the Navigator]

...And then the moment passed; if there was anything anathemic to Ash's psychological makeup, it was the notion of doing nothing.  But she managed to get annoyed with her inner restlessness; she was so enjoying being weightless and disconnected from the 'real world'!  So she arrived at a compromise: Easing herself upright, she went into some of her yoga exercises.  There; that satisfied her need for purpose while at the same time allowing--indeed, encouraging--further communion with this pool, this valley, this experience.

As she did so, moving gracefully, hypnotically, her whole body becoming sea-grass the way her tail and queue had already, she found herself remembering 'Iheyu's meditation exercise: All that lives is an expression of Eywa's being.  The yearning of a tree, the playfulness of the wind, the nurturing love of the soil...all are Eywa.  You are one such facet yourself...  As long as there is such a thing as life, Eywa has not completely deserted us.

And indeed she felt herself becoming a little fuzzy around the edges, finding something of herself in the water, the ferns and the rocks, or something of them in herself.  Human Ash had never managed this.  For Avatar Ash, it was almost effortless.  How...?  Wasn't this body a product of technology?  What did its creators know about such things?

~ But of course, ~ her rational mind informed her; and because it was her rational mind, she gave it a lot of weight.  She wasn't just wearing a Na'vi shell, it told her.  Her Avatar had a queue, could Bond with anything a Na'vi could, and as far as she could tell, there was absolutely no difference between her level of communion with a Pa'li and, say, Kenten's or Ni'ka's.  The connection was there, the spiritual potential was there.  She hadn't just inherited Sprout's strength and limbs and senses.  The RDA, all unknowing, had given her the whole package.

She decided she rather liked that thought; it was deliciously subversive--and when she finally opened her eyes, she greeted the world with a fiercely mischievous grin.

[Kiyevanie]

After a while of soaking, Ru'ni decided that she felt relaxed and her back recovered enough to end her break.  Watching Ash being focused on her yoga exercises - something that the weaver hadn't seen before but easily identified as some kind of meditation routine - she decided that Ash was probably less in a speaking mood than Ni'ka, who still had her eyes open, taking in the beauty of the scenery.

"Ni'ka," she quietly said, "I'm heading back to Hometree."  She smiled.  "I will see if I can find those clothes for you and Kenten, if you come over to the weaver's area before you leave again."

Ni'ka smiled back.  "Irayo," she said.  "For the clothes as well as for showing us this place.  It's been exactly what we needed, I think."

"I can see that," Ru'ni agreed. "Especially for your friend, I think."  The young weaver left the pool, drying herself with the blanket she had brought along, leaving the item for Ni'ka and Ash to use once they wanted to leave too.  Then, with a last wave, she was gone.

With Ash still exercising, Ni'ka decided to swim over to the ledge with the waterfall-like dripping, letting the warm drops run over her.  For the first time since she had woken up from her nightmare, she thought of her lost past with a smile, wondering what her family and friends would have made of this place here.  They would have probably loved it, she decided, the same way Ni'ka enjoyed it.

After a while she noticed that Ash had stopped her exercises and opened her eyes again - and had a very mischieveous, very fierce grin on her face.  Ni'ka swam back again.  "Do I want to know what you're thinking about?" she asked, raising a brow and smiling too.

[Random the Navigator]

Ash decided she liked the look of the dripping overhang, so she intercepted the dark-skinned huntress before hauling out onto the smooth, sloping foot of the ledge.  "Ohh, nothing much," she then replied saucily.  "Just Avatars...'scuse me, Dreamwalkers.  I'm overdue to give them some thought, don't you agree?  Especially when I know two of them who can smack me upside the head--one when she's linked in, the other when she's not--about the way I've treated this one."  She put a hand to her chest.  "I think I've found us another ally--this body here, and whatever innate wisdom is in it.  I've never really checked out what it has to offer.  More than I thought, I think...  What I told Andy was just to impress him, but I'm not sure I really believed it myself.  Then again, after soaking my head, so to speak--old human expression; when someone says something that is patently ridiculous, we tell him to go soak his head--I'm not super-sure I don't believe it, either.  And if it or anything like it is for real, the RDA is in way worse trouble than they thought..."

[Kiyevanie]

Ni'ka's second brow went up now - something that would have been much more impressive, truth be told, if her brows would have been a bit more visible.  "You sounded pretty convinced and convincing while talking to Andy," she stated, leaning back to let some water run over her smiling face.  "Maybe that's been one of those moments where people say more of the truth than they know themselves?  But I know that someone will be very happy about you being on better terms with Sprout."  Then her grin turned fierce and mischievous too.  "If we want to bring the RDA some trouble, we should just do it right: We really should talk to Ngatapa about that training course he wanted to set up for Enya, for Rick...and for Sprout!"

[Random the Navigator]

Now Ash's brows arched quite plainly, marked as they were by actual hair.  "Umm, did I miss something?" she asked bemusedly.  "Like, saayyy, the whole lot of you plus Ngatapa ganging up on Sprout in my absence?  All right, out with it; I knew I shouldn't have left you guys unattended for two whole days!"  And she sat back with her arms around her knees and awaited the tale, if such there was, of whatever Enya's extended family had cooked up in the name of homebrew "Avatar training".

[Kiyevanie]

Ni'ka chuckled.  "Ah, but we were ganging up on Rick too...and on Enya, and she was right in the middle of it.  And don't think I couldn't do with a bit of that training myself...I was a better shot before the Red.  So it's not only about a training course, but about many other things as well--like reading tracks, gathering, archery for the ones who want to learn it..."

Her mind went back to the evening they had been sitting around the fire.  "I think it all started with Enya being worried about Sprout when you and Rick went to find those caves beneath the Tawtute camp.  Ngatapa told her that he would care for Sprout and that Sprout had had a hard day anyway - said he had shown you a few exercises to strengthen her muscles, but that it isn't enough.  Then he told us about that playground the Dreamwalkers use to play and get stronger, that you never had a chance to use it and that it would make sense to have something like it at our camp, as apart from you there are a few of us who need some practice.  There's you, as in Sprout, of course; then Enya as well, as this was the way she learned everything the first time, before her fall.  But also Rick - with his Change and growth he needs to find out what his body can do too.  So he and Enya thought they'd come up with something."  She smirked.  "And that was even before Brenda showed up.  I'm guessing Tawtute Brenda as well as Tall Brenda would like the place too, and maybe she can add a few ideas of her own.  I think you might like it, learning more about what Sprout can do."  The smile widened into a full-blown grin.  "And don't think that the rest of us wouldn't love to play there too!  Just think of Tali - he'll have a field day with that."

[Random the Navigator]

"A training course at the shack...?" Ash mused, her own smile widening.  "Why, that's--that'd help a lot of things!  See, just before Enya's family came, Ngatapa was on me about exercising more in this body...and he mentioned spying on the Avatar compound while Enya was there, so he knows what the course looks like...and he said the same thing you just did, about me and Rick getting to know our new bodies and Enya needing to get to know hers again.  But I thought his notion of 'training' was just to run me ragged through the woods, so if he really thinks an actual training course would be a good thing, I'm not gonna argue!

"And remember when we came back from my archery lesson?  Kenten was talking about fixing the place up to look more natural--I'm guessing that's been an issue for you guys, huh?  Just something else I never picked up on because I was hardly ever home...  And Tangek described Brenda's outpost to me, and we all agreed that rope-bridges and a watchtower would be a good idea.  Totally different reason, to keep everyone off the ground and away from the red mist, but of course those things would have to be climbed and balanced on too...  And we had rope-bridges and towers at the Sky-camp.  Plus things to swing on, things to jump over, things to crawl under; even obstacles with water under them so that if you fell off one, you had to swim!"  She wrinkled her nose, grinning: "And Alice said the water wasn't particularly clean...ee-yuck!"

Then she took on a pensive look.  "Yeah, Enya would like that; it'd be a 'baby-step' to get her to where she could start really moving again.  And of course I never have learned how to move through the forest, and it's becoming important with us on the run all the time; if the RDA jumped us right this minute, I'd be hard put to keep up with everybody escaping.  And Rick, well...it'd be oversized for him, but that'd just make it a better test.  And Brenda's been saying from the get-go that she feels like a caged animal at the complex; I think it would help her feel a lot more at home too... And anything that helps any of us helps all of us.  Even the ones who just want to be able to play again."

[Kiyevanie]

Ni'ka's eyes shone in excitement.  "Oh yes...  Oh, that will be fun!" she declared.  "We could start with just a few of those rope-bridges and things to climb over and balance on and just let it grow over time."

She thought a bit more about Ash's description and wrinkled her nose too.  "None-too-clean water to swim in?  Intentionally?  Aww, that's mean!"  But she was grinning at the thought.  "Whoever came up with that might get along great with Ngatapa.  Or with Neru; he was the hunters' Eldest at my old Clan, and his fighting and tracking lessons soooooo often ended with someone in some muddy waterhole."  She suddenly realized that this was just another memory patch coming back from out of nowhere.

Then she got more serious.  "Yes, what Ngatapa said to you, he said to us that evening as well.  And having our camp look a bit more like a place of the forest and the People, that would help a lot."  She made a face.  "Tawtute seem to be awfully fond of straight lines and hard, cold materials and ugly colours...  No offense intended; the longhouse is as good a place to live in as a place can be in those times.  But making it all a bit more natural looking, it would help our spirits."

[Random the Navigator]

"We'll need the watchtowers right away, I think," Ash mused.  "Even if they're just platforms in the trees, it'd be a lot more comfortable for anyone pulling sentry duty, don't you think?  And then string those bridges between the trees--there's our safety factor, and already Enya will have something to climb, somewhere to perch, and something to balance on..."  Her brow furrowed.  "But where are we going to find things to make rope out of?  Kenten says all the suitable vines are dead..."

Then it hit her what Ni'ka had said about her Elder.  "Why, Ni'ka, your memory's coming back!  And you've long since regained your cheekiness," she added with a wink.

[Kiyevanie]

"I'll have you know that people of my old Clan would think of me as very settled and reasonable," Ni'ka stated saucily, then sighed.  "They probably think of me as someone who's been lost to the Red and what it has done to our world."  The thought still hurt her, knowing that her family and friends would think of her as dead, probably.  But it was the hurt of a wound well on its way to healing, not as sharp anymore as it had been in the first days, and it didn't bring her down anymore.  "Yes, that's another memory coming back," she added with a smile.  "It's always like that, a little thing here and there, but it will take much time before I get the whole picture, if ever at all.  But it's great to remember those little things.  Even if this time it's been Neru and his well-meant but painful lessons."

She thought about what Ash had said about platforms and ropes.  "For a sentry, there's nothing wrong with sitting on a branch; but a platform will be much more comfortable, and for Enya it will be perfect."  The mentioned cheekiness came back.  "As it will be for Sprout, I think," she teased her friend with a wink back.  "About the vines..."  She bit her lips in thought.  "Yes, most of them are dead - maybe we'll have to see how sturdy the dead ones are, weave a few of them together to make them stronger if they're not too brittle.  Or maybe one of the others has an idea."

[Random the Navigator]

"Well, have you got a story for them," Ash said of Ni'ka and her old Clan.  "For what it's worth, if they didn't witness your capture first-hand, all they know about you for certain is that you've disappeared.  And if the Changed ones haven't reached them yet, or if they never do, it won't occur to anyone you know that you might have become one of them.  So here comes Ni'ka - dark, stately Ni'ka - with a tale fit for the ages..."  Her expression softened.  "I hope you really do find your way home, Ni'ka.  You might or might not want to stay there, but they should at least hear your story and celebrate you for the hero you are."

She took several moments to just look around the pools again; and this time she thought she could actually feel them, just a little bit, as if she were getting to know the face of a friend.  ~ Like Enya says about Kilvanä...? ~ she mused.  Did Ash now carry a little of this place's essence within her?  Would it always carry a little bit of hers?

She slipped back into the water and closed her eyes again, imagining its impressions of her flowing out and onwards, eventually to either sink into the ground again or merge with the sea...and either way, to become as much a part of the world as the streambeds which carried them.