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[Kiyevanie]

Trudy's eyes widened for a moment, then narrowed. Okay - if that was Molly's secret - or secrets, plural - she suddenly understood why the girl was hesitating to share it with someone else... Trudy was a pilot, she had been flying around Avatars and drivers all her time on Pandora. What she knew about driving was what she had picked up on those tours. She wouldn't be able to read the instruments on a link pod if someone's life depended on it, but what she did know was how extended driving changed people in the long run.

So Molly - the way she was sitting here in front of Trudy, that was all that was of her. Trudy was sure there was a hell of a backstory there, especially the question "how was that possible at all?", but the fact was: Molly was here, all that was of her, a young girl on the borderline between young kid and teenager. And she must have been lonely.

Now the pilot cautiously dropped the stick, reached out and took Molly's hand. "First thing first... whatever else you are and might be: you're not and never can have been a hassle, a bother or a bad thing. Not existing, not supposed to be? What a huge pile of bullshit! You're here, ain't ya? And I can't see a frickin thing being wrong with you - what I see is a really nice young girl knowing her way around this world and with a heart big enough to shoo away a pack of wolves to help a human you've never seen before. Heck - if your father made you think something like that he's a lousy parent! And I'm glad that you found a Clan that cares for you and that they try to straighten that out."

She took a breath. "I won't claim to understand how and why and whatever. But in the end that's not important anyway - it won't change who you are." She raised one corner of her mouth in a half-grin. "But about that shinnying-up anything... I see why you aren't exactly keen on hitting the 'Gate, and to be honest, I have no idea how things are going there currently, what happened to everyone. Thing is, when I left there's been a bunch of great people there, but also a whole bunch of assholes."

[Random the Navigator]

Molly smiled.  "The Clan... Yeah, that's what they keep telling me.  Not with words, but by the way they treat me like I'm no big deal...  Just another kid.  O-kay, maybe a little peculiar one, but that makes them like me better.  I do the same things their kids do - practice with my weapons, staff and sling and bolas; race my friends through the trees like a monkey; build fires; forage because I'm too mushy to hunt.  But they're not trying to make me into a Na'vi; they're delighted to have a Me, a Dreamwalker, and they're proud of me for being what I am.  So they let me play with machines, and climb around in old buildings, and wear these clothes.  I don't wear 'em because I'm an Avatar; I wear 'em because they're mine, they're comfortable and they still fit.  I have Na'vi ones too.  And a Pa'li, and a pet Riti - I rescued it when it was hurt.  No other Dreamwalkers, true...but the ones I knew couldn't keep up with me anyways."  She grinned.

"So, yeah, a Me isn't a bad thing to be.  Mostly I like it, and I love the looks on my buddies' faces whan I'm trying to explain something like a ball-point pen.  It's just that...I dunno...my dad gave me such a head-trip, and I don't know why, and I keep telling myself I shouldn't care anymore, but..."  She bit her lip.  "I gave him what I thought he wanted, and it turned out he didn't want that at all.  Acted like I'd turned out wrong or something.  And what he did want..."  She looked up again, angry.  "My dad was a control freak, okay?  And that's the reason he did most of the bad things...and he never figured out how to control me...but I'm still afraid that someday he will."

[Kiyevanie]

Trudy mulled that over, especially the last part, a few more pieces falling into place. She couldn't make any promises here, not with her not having the faintest idea about the state of Hell's Gate. As far as she knew everything could be possible, from the basis having been reduced to a smoking hole in the ground to Molly's dad still sitting there and planning Evils. She had no idea who he could be and she wouldn't break her promise and Molly's trust and ask, but as she had said - the 'Gate was full of awesome people, but also (and to a much larger degree) full of a whole bunch of assholes. The amount of candidates for "worst father of the galaxy" was plentiful.

"He'd need to find you first", she finally said, considering every part of Molly's situation. "That clan of yours, the Tawkami," her tongue stumbling a bit at the Na'vi word, "they sound like good people. They took you in, accept you for just who you are and give you a home, making you one of their own - Na'vi or Dreamwalker, doesn't matter; just one of theirs. From what you told me they'd never let one of their kids get controlled by anyone. He couldn't control you before, I'm pretty sure he can't even less now that you have a home and friends. See, dunno why he did what he did. Why are people doing bad things? Sometimes cause they're greedy - that's why the RDA destroyed the Omaticaya Hometree, home of a whole clan, just to get to that dang mineral they wanted. And in Quaritch's case - that's the guy who commanded the dragon gunship and shot me out of the sky, I think he was on his very own head-trip, and it wasn't a good one. And totally self-inflicted. So sometimes they're doing bad things just cause they're insane or simply cause they're assholes" She snorted. "In some way the RDA were control-freaks too. And you can't control Pandora. It's the same thing as flying in the Hallelujah Mountains - try using the controls on your chopper and you'll run headfirst in one flying rock or another. Go by your instinct and you'll be safe."

"You, honey", and she squeezed Molly's hand once more, "look like someone to me who's pretty in tune with her instincts and this world here. I'd bet what's left of my equipment that he couldn't even try to pull this kind of crap again."

[Random the Navigator]

Molly had to agree with Trudy's assessment of the relative abundance of Awesome People and Assholes at the 'Gate.  She remembered (and missed) some of the Awesome ones; Max, who'd helped her father with the Good Thing, which was bringing her into the Light; Gillian, who was always good for a climb.  But not long after she'd come to Be, it had become painfully obvious that the RDA colony was no place for a child.  Supposedly this was why her father had taken her to a remote Avatar station, complete with an obstacle course for her to play on.  But maybe that had been more so he could do the Bad Things undetected.  By humans, anyway, who never really looked... She and Nok of the Tawkami, on the other hand, had figured it out and finally put a stop to them.  That was when her father began threatening her.  And that was when she vanished into the Light for keeps.

"You're right," she said, smiling.  "He would have to find me first.  And I don't make it easy..."

Then she grew thoughtful.  "My Tsahik says that people do bad things because they're in pain.  The ground, the forests, the Omaticaya Hometree...  The tawtute destroyed all of that looking for something that they can really only find inside themselves.  They don't know what that thing is; it's different for everybody, and most of them don't want to sit there and figure it out, so they think they can get it from something outside instead.  And because the rock or the medicine isn't the thing they really need, it doesn't satisfy them; and because they're not satisfied, they keep taking more and more.  My father must have been in a lot of pain.  It might have even been pain about me.  But that doesn't excuse what he did.

"I think he wanted control because he was afraid.  Afraid of the world doing something unexpected that would hurt him.  If people would just let the world be the world, and themselves be themselves, and enjoy the good things and accept the not-so-good ones, they could be happy without having to change everything or take it away from somebody else, don't you think?"

[Kiyevanie]

That was some new concept for Trudy. Pain... well... she scratched her head. "Your Tsahik gives more credit to humans than I'd do", she admitted. "Pain - even though it ain't an excuse for those things humans have done - not just here, but back on Earth too, it at least sounds a little bit nicer than greed or hate or just being stupid."

She looked down to her feet, remembering her own past. "But she could be onto something - we all have our dreams when we grow up and some tawtute try filling those dreams with money. This frickin mineral - it's worth a lot of money back on Earth. And money can help with a lot of dreams too. But sometimes, people forget about those dreams, they just notice there's a hole inside and don't know what to put in there - and then they try to fill that hole with more money." She sighed. "Letting the world just be the the world, that's something we're awfully bad at as a species. That has brought some good things, but also a lot of bad ones. Coming up here to this world, exploring, meeting the first species of intelligent aliens - that was a good thing. Or could have been - geez, there's a reason why I'm here after all. A new world, full of wonders - being here as a pilot, flying over this landscape full of forests and rivers and oceans, between floating mountains, that's been my dream come true. But then we messed it all up the way we always do."

[Random the Navigator]

Molly cocked her head. "Who's this 'we' person? --You didn't mess it up; heck, you almost got your txim shot off trying to keep the others from messing it up worse.  You flew scientists around, people who cared about this place and wanted other people to care too.  Jake didn't mess it up; pretty sure your Norm didn't mess it up; and I'll bet you the rest of my wolfsbane caps that Gillian didn't mess it up either.  Haven't you got enough to think about without blaming yourself for what other people did?  That's on those people, not all of your kind."

She got a little fire going in what, someday, would be a Hometree Commons.  Would it make a difference that a Dreamwalker had been the first person to light a fire here?  Probably not; or if it did, that would just be one more thing to weave into the story of that Tree.  "So...enough of regretting stuff, 'k?" she said with a gentle, almost parental smile.  "This isn't a place for regrets.  It's a place for dreaming."

She invited Trudy to imagine who might live here someday, what their lives would be like, and what they would be better at than anyone else.  Then, just in case her guest was too weary to put in that much mental effort, she showed her how to make the shadow of an Ikran with both hands: "...And now, anytime you want to fly again, you just call your Ikran, close your eyes, and make the Bond.  They're your hands; they feel everything you feel, and you feel everything they do.  That's like the Bond.  Go ahead, try it!"  And she sat back, beaming.

[Kiyevanie]

"A place for dreaming... good dreams, not the nightmares we've been in lately." Trudy had used the time Molly had built the fire to drink some more water and slowly started feeling a bit better. Sitting here like that helped bringing some or her energy back - as did the company. This place was peaceful in a very special way, a promise of the future, somehow not touched by the ghosts of the past. And Trudy realized how badly she needed some peace and this promise of future in this moment of her life.

"I like that idea. Guess we all can use a lot of that." The pilot chuckled at the shadow Ikran Molly produced with her fingers and even tried herself, watching the shadow wings move against the light cast by the little campfire, moving with every twist she gave her fingers. At first she was just flapping wildly until she got the hang of it and tried a few more advanced maneuvers - things she couldn't have done with her chopper due to physical limitations until her hands and the shadow dissolved in a chaotic lump of fingers. "And I like that", she stated, shaking her fingers to losen them up again, then trying a second time.

A slightly dreamy expression came into her eyes, something very few people had seen before. "I wonder how it feels", she mused. "Flying with not just your hands, but with an Ikran. Flying a chopper - well, most people keep the thing in the air and safely back to the ground again; but a few of us make that step from using a machine, following the manual, to actually feeling what we're doing. In a few, precious moments that chopper is an extension of your body - as much as a machine can be, it is a heap of metal and glass after all. But flying together with another living being... that's gotta be something else. Jake told a bit about it after he had tamed his own Ikran - jeez, I've never seen that guy excited like that. And he wasn't even a pilot before." She cocked her head at Molly. "You ever wanna try it when you're the right age?"

[Random the Navigator]

Molly's face lit up.  "Heck yeah!!" she enthused.  "Gosh, even just standing on a high branch at Hometree, all I want to do is spread my arms and legs and jump like a skydiver and go streaking towards the ground head-first, then level out and up and away, whooping and hollering the whole time...  The Ikran are scary up close; I've never dared to pet one even when I was led up to it.  But I've been told and told and told that my queue is just as good as anyone else's, and that there's no reason I couldn't Bond with an Ikran if I wanted to.  But - yeah, another But - what's a gatherer need an Ikran for?  Carry more stuff home than I can pick in a day?  You have to need an Ikran, and it has to need you.  And I can't think of one who would like such a tame life as I'd have to give it...  Ikran are for hunters and warriors and scouts.  Maybe I can be a scout?  I already go into scary places like HabMods and link rooms and the cabs of burnt-out bulldozers; a case could be made..."  She grinned.

[Kiyevanie]

Trudy's grin was wide now behind her faceplate. "That's exactly what I've been doing as a kid too", she admitted. "Okay, no branches of Hometree, but roofs of high houses in our city. It gave my mom the jitters - she can't stand heights very much and I always wanted to look out, spread my arms and imagine to just take off and fly." She ruefully shook her head in hindsight. "Sorry Mom... I've been a handful as a kid. But that's why I signed in for the army and hit flight school right when I got the right age. Only chance for a gal like me to get some wings... and back then I didn't even dare to dream of Pandora. Still I'm here."

She looked over to Molly now. "So, if you want to - just do it. I got no idea if there's any Clan taboo about a non-warrior or hunter getting an Ikran and of course your Clan might take things differently than the Omaticaya. But I remember Jake saying something about that an Ikran's gotta choose you first or you'll just sit on top of that mountain in all eternity or until you climb back down again. So - if you go up at the right time and one of those birds decides that it likes the way you look I can't see why the two of you shouldn't have fun together. And scouting is fun! I'd keep on with that bola training in your place." She let her shadow Ikran fly again, noticing that the shadow had deepened a bit and frowned. "Talking about your Clan - seems it's getting evening soon. Won't they miss you?"

[Random the Navigator]

Molly startled, then looked around to see that the light of the Suns was indeed fading.  The glowing spots and streaks that characterised the forest at night had yet to make an appearance, but she knew it was only a matter of time...  Yikes!  She'd promised to stand guard over Trudy; she'd promised her family she'd be back before dark.  And there was no way the Tawkami wouldn't notice that their beloved pet Dreamwalker was, as yet, neither present nor accounted for...

"Aaah!  You're right!!  Oooo, I'm gonna get it...  But...if I go home, who's gonna watch you?  And if I don't, someone else has to go looking for me in the dark, which isn't really a problem for a Na'vi but why make them risk it?  Nnnnn..."  She pinched her forehead, thinking; right now she felt as stuck as an Ikran in a HabMod.

Then she sat up straight, apparently having hit upon a solution.  "Got it..."  She fiddled with her belt-pouch again, extracting some small seeds and plant fibers that she'd intended to use for a wound dressing if she needed one.  She took out a bone needle and pierced each seed so it became a bead; then, separating the fibers, she wove and knotted them into a reasonable facsimile of a string and knotted the beads onto it.  From her Clan's standpoint it would look like a kindergartener's first clumsy attempts with a pencil...but that was exactly how they'd know it was from her.  Well, that and the creature who would deliver it...

She stood up.  "You know, where my dad comes from they have this little thing called 'falconry'.  You teach a hawk to hunt for you.  It's really cool, and you don't need a queue...and I imagine if the hawk was the size of an Ikran, you could ride it without the Bond."

So saying, she stepped out of the "Commons" and held a fist up high in the air.  With the other hand, she swung the object she'd made in vigorous circles and whistled; and soon enough, with the *paff!* sound of leaves and twigs being knocked loose, a little Riti came diving out of the trees, chased the string a few laps, and landed on Molly's extended fist.

"This is Squeegee," she said, showing him off to Trudy.  "Got tired of reading falconry books and thought I'd try it on someone..."

[Kiyevanie]

Trudy's eyes actually bugged at the sight. Yeah, she had heard of that thing called 'falconry', actually seen it in a movie about some medieval knights she had watched long time ago. So she knew that certain birds could be tamed. But she didn't know it could be done with those pesky stingbats... well, this one didn't look pesky at all. Actually it looked pretty, with the transparent, purple wings and the way it looked at Molly - as if it knew exactly that right now it was shown off to someone.

Carefully avoiding the poisonous spikes on it's back the pilot admired Squeegee. "Hey there", she greeted the animal - from a safe distance while remembering that Molly had mentioned something about a pet Riti she had found injured. That probably was the one. Alien planets, alien pets. And, yes, indeed a pretty one, seen from that close by. Almost like a miniature dragon... and just about now to spread his wings, slightly shining in the early evening light, looking content, playful and affectionate with his owner.
"Ya want him to send a message?", Trudy guessed, and then a second thought hit her.

Could it be possible? Molly just had said that she didn't actually bond with Squeegee - she just had said something about teaching. Now she thought of the rest of that movie too - it hadn't just been the falcons those knights had used. They had ridden on horses - tall, beautiful creatures, strong - and still doing everything their riders wanted. Nowadays pets back on Earth were rare, only for the wealthy who could afford them and offer at least enough space for a dog or a horse to run, but the concept was still there... Trudy's breath caught for a moment. Could there be a possibility for her, even if every single chopper on Pandora was trash now? She hoped it wasn't, there always were a few in maintenance, but still...
Suddenly she wished she could talk at least once again to Angelo. She had flown the driver and his scientist friend Spaz to a remote location once, and over a break he had told her something about his youth, summers spent on one of the last few ranches on Earth, herding cattle from horseback...

[Random the Navigator]

Molly's "hawk" preened a bit for Trudy, spreading his forewings, turning his head this way and that, and at one point even hopping up and landing on Molly's fist facing the other way so the guest could admire him from that side too.  She fed him a roast teylu for showing up, and another for being his winsome, gorgeous little self (in her eyes).  He settled down to the business of nipping them apart with his needle-like teeth - the teeth of a creature that caught insects on the fly.

"Na, he doesn't have to send a message," Molly smiled.  "Just deliver one."

She then spent several minutes trying to convey to the little creature just what she wanted him to do.  It was simple in Greenhome; you gave him something when you were out, and he flew it back home to Molly's hut.  But Molly and her Na'vi parents weren't at home now.  They were in the Well of Souls, with the rest of the Clan's fighters and foragers and healers and anyone else Greenhome could spare.  Would he understand that he was supposed to return there and look for Sanu and Sempu?  Would he try to fly home, or would he drop her "note" off with the first familiar face?  She wasn't sure he knew anyone by name.

Finally she slipped the message-string around one of his ankles and sent him off.  At worst, someone in Greenhome was going to know that Molly (the string was obviously hers) was outside the Well of Souls (by the plants she'd made it from) and that she wouldn't be back tonight...

That having been seen to, she turned back to Trudy.  The pilot had been mostly silent since greeting her pet, but it wasn't hard to see the look of sky-hunger in her eyes.  "Kinda makes you wish you could just buzz off like that, doesn't he?" she remarked.

[Kiyevanie]

Trudy let out a breath, watching the Riti disappear between the foliage. "Jeez... YES! By all that's sacred in this world and on Earth, definitely yes.", she said. "The most natural thing in the world, just spreading your wings and fly away. Ya know, pilots do shop talk now and then, and while there are a lot of them -and some dang good ones - just happy flying their choppers and planes, some of us have always wondered how it would be to have wings on our own." She made a face. "Of course those were the things we just admitted in the wee hours of morning, after a few drinks - and around the right people."

By now nothing could be seen anymore from Squeegee. "And he's doing it cause he's doing it for you, ain't he? It's an act of friendship between him and you, even without you doing that bonding thing. I hope he'll make it to whoever you sent him to safe and sound." Trudy smiled and some of her usual mischief showed up in her eyes now. "He's adorable and he pretty much knows it - and he likes to show off a bit. I like him!"

[Random the Navigator]

"Ah-ha!  Ai fot so!" Molly exclaimed, reverting to baby-talk playfully.  "Now, no telling if Squeegee's gonna end up in the right place with the right person.  Usually when we do this I'm sending him to my house from somewhere else in Greenhome.  Greenhome's a long way from here; I really hope he keys in on Sempu and Sa'nu instead of home...  But yes, it's 'cause we're pals.  Even if he gets it wrong, he always tries his best.

"But let's think about you for a bit," she continued.  "You like to fly...no, really like it; you need it.  You Bonded with a cargo ship.  You might even be grieving for it.  But even if you are, the real thing is that for now you've lost the sky, and that's what fills the hole in your Being, the one other tawtute try to fill with money and stuff.  You need the sky.  You need to move through the air, nothing between you and the wind except whatever you're riding.

"So we gotta figure out a way to get you some wings.  And your face started looking like that when I was talking about falconry.

"If you're gonna tame a flying mount - c'mon, I know that's what you're thinking! - wellll, I think you're a little small for an Ikran.  Maybe an Ikranay?  Same thing, but a better size for you, and they live in the forest.  That's why they're smaller, so they can zip around in cramped spaces like among and between trees.  Crazy maneuverable.  Easier to feed, and they like to catch things on the wing.  They like birds and fish and a good splash the best.  And they sound so funny when they bathe!"  She imitated the warbling cry of an Ikranay taking a bath in a pond or a stream.

"But you're probably not gonna have much luck catching a grown-up Ikranay.  There's no central place to do it, for one; and for another - if it's big enough to carry you, it's way too big to train by yourself!  So...your best bet is to raise one from scratch.  Find an egg, or have someone find one for you.  Hatch it out; it'll think you're its sa'nok and adore you to the skies.  Hunt for it when it's little.  Play with it lots.  Then, when it's strong enough to fly and hunt for itself, you start training it 'cause it's already tame...for you, and just for you.

"It's gonna take a while.  You have to wait until they're at least half-grown before you can get serious about it.  Maybe you'll even have another chopper by then.  But if you want flight without the smell and the noise, it'll be waaaayyy worth it."

[Kiyevanie]

Trudy's eyes widened with every word Molly was saying. How could the girl have read her so well in such a short time? Because Molly was right - it was the sky that filled a deep need in her, and the thought of being grounded had already tugged at her soul. "You... you think it could be done?", she stuttered. It was rare that Trudy was at a loss for words, but now she was. "Heavens... if it'd work..." Before the pilots inner eye she saw one of those Ikranay - she knew them from her flights, they indeed looked a lot like their bigger cousins, just that they loved to hunt in packs and indeed were smaller - they had outmaneuvered her Samson a few times, just for the fun of it.

"Molly - if that'd work... well..." For the second time that day Trudy's mask was getting foggy inside. "I was thinking something like that, but I don't have much experience with animals. Feeding, playing, making friends, love it... I think I can do that. No matter how long it takes. You're right, ya know that? I am grieving for my poor Samson - it's just been a cargo chopper, but he's been my part of the sky as you called it and we've been through a lot together." She tried to get up from her seat but her knees were a bit wobbly, reminding her that it was just her mood that had improved, not her physical condition. "Molly, I'd give you a hug if I could just get to my feet here."

[Random the Navigator]

"I have a better idea," the young Avatar replied.  "How 'bout I give you one, right where you're at?  I'm sure you know how to hug sitting down!"  And she gave Trudy a squeeze firm enough to indicate the strength of her friendship, but not so firm as to make any of the pilot's obvious injuries any worse.

Afterwards, she sat back and pondered.  "So, you need a starter pet - one that won't mind your first mistakes.  Hmm...  You like gentle animals or fierce ones the best?  A Yerik fawn, a Nantang pup...maybe even a Squeegee?  It's little, it hunts, and it flies...  Or if you want a bird that can play hawk without actually being one, maybe a fkio?  Those are the little purple four-winged ones who fly over the river...  Whatever it is, I'll try to find it for you and show you how to take care of it and make friends.  That goes for your Ikranay egg too when I think you're ready."  She gave a knowing wink.

But of course she wasn't done discussing practicalities.  "Next question: How are we gonna feed you?  I don't happen to have any people-mush on me, and I've nothing to boil water in or I'd make us some sweetbroth..."

And then she leaned against one of the trees that made this little tent over their heads; her face took on a pleasant, wistful look as she considered what her own dreams might be in this place meant for dreaming.

[Kiyevanie]

The hug felt almost like a little cure itself, Trudy realized as she returned it cautiously and a bit clumsily. Warm, comforting and almost grounding. As much as Trudy indeed loved flying, right this moment this feeling of getting roots was something she needed even more.

"Didn't you say that Squeegee was hurt when you found him?", Trudy asked during the following pondering. "Maybe that's something I should do too then - just look out for some animal that's hurt and needs help - and then see what happens? I like the thought that we could help each other." She paused. "And maybe something that ain't on an Ikranay's menu. It would suck to always have to keep the pets apart at dinnertime."

Trudy too leaned back to the tree, just slightly turning her head when Molly mentioned eating. "Don't worry about feeding me." She gave her emergency pack a slight nudge. "I'll stick to water with nutrient tablets for now, I'm not sure if my body can deal with much more right now, but for later there are rations in there. They taste like liquid cardboard - and that's an insult to cardboard - but they'll keep me alive until we'll get to the HabMod." She wrinkled her nose. "I'd give something for Andy's cooking now. Or what Angelo can make out of a simple Tapirus side with his bbq marinade... they both can even make RDA stuff edible." And while she too was resting peacefully she wondered if she'd meet the mercenary-turned-cook or the driver with the hugest known Avatar ever again.

After a while of comfortable silence and almost dozing off she opened her eyes again. "So - now that we've talked a lot about my dreams of flying,", she asked. "What are you dreaming of in this place here?"

[Random the Navigator]

Molly didn't think any of Trudy's supper options sounded all that appealing.  "I'd give something for some sweetbroth," she griped.

But when asked what her own brain-fluff might contain, she had to think about it for a good while.  "You know, I'm not sure I've ever really asked myself about that?" she mused.  "I mean, yeah, I have my little fantasies sometimes; I'll sit on a high branch somewhere just swinging my legs and daydreaming, but...fact is, I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up, and I'm not gonna rush it.  I've missed half my childhood as-is."

She scowled, regretting her hard turn back into reality almost as soon as she'd made it.  Hadn't she said this was a place for dreaming?  She closed her eyes and just listened to the gathering dark, the animals changing shifts, the birds settling into their roosts for the night...  Finally she opened her eyes again, and maybe they were starry with dreams, and maybe they were just reflecting the night.

"I think...I'd like to fly, too," she began.  "But mostly, I think I'd make a good toktor for animals, don't you think?  I keep finding hurt ones or lonesome ones or ones that just need a little guidance, and I help them and they do real well...  I've never had trouble talking to them.  My biggest thing I did that I feel good about was helping Nok free a bunch of animals who'd been driven mad by all the...I'm gonna say signal-noise or something from Hell's Gate.  Nantang, Palulukan, Syaksyuk, Yerik, flying creatures...they're not used to all the beams we've put in the air, and they have such sensitive feelers...  Anyway, we calmed them and released them a few at a time, and some of them we had to help get home, and Squeegee up and decided home was on my shoulder, so, whatcha gonna do?"  She grinned a little sheepishly.

"Besides that, though...maybe I just wish everyone would find what they're looking for inside, so that they can live in peace with everyone else.  I'd like to see my friends at the base again...only, I don't want to go back to the base to do it.  I'm still afraid of the soldiers and the lab scientists.  So I wish there was a way my pals could come see me, meet me somewhere like my old house if I could be sure my dad wasn't there anymore.  Maybe I'll build something - we live in timber villages in Greenhome, with stockades and gates and fields to grow things we can't find in the wild, so I know people who can build things.  Maybe we'll make a treehouse!  And I'll have a rope-ladder I can throw down so my friends can come up, then roll it up so nobody else can get in, and Squeegee will have somewhere high up to perch that's still near me.  I called him Squeegee because of the little squeaky sound he makes when he wants to come in and I don't let him!"  She chuckled.

"And we'll laugh and play pretend and do silly human things...  Or we can help Gillian with her scrapbooks...  Or try to beat Corbin in videogames...  Or we can drop nuts on the scout-trainees and see how long it takes them to figure out where they're coming from...  Or..." - and she went on to name all kinds of play, things she either missed or had heard of but never had.

[Kiyevanie]

"Mmmmmmhm." Trudy scratched her head. "You're right, you have all the time in the world to find out what you wanna do with your life. And having some fun on the way sure won't hurt." From what she knew about Molly's past the girl just deserved a few good years just being herself and young and playful before deciding for a lifetime occupation. And now, with the war won, chances seemed good for it. "Healing animals... well, if Squeegee is an example how you get along with them, you might make a great toktor for them. Hey, you could even do both things at once - flying and healing animals. On Earth there's been something like Flying Doctors. Heading out to remote locations to heal patients who lived too far away to get to a healer on their own." She blushed a bit behind her mask. "I've seen it on a TV show - an old one from way before our times, but as a kid I looked for everything that had to do with flying - and those bush pilot doctors were pretty awesome."

She then sighed, lines of fatigue showing around her eyes and mouth. "Can't say anything about your friends at the 'Gate here - I know Gillian and Corbin, good people, but I got no idea how things are at the moment." Not wanting to delve too deep into the somber subjects she went on, "But hey... if they're still there, and we'll still have some working metal bird I could always fly them to wherever you'd like to meet them." She grinned faintly. "I am the designated flyer for Avatars and drivers after all. And if there's ever gonna be a chance for it", Trudy added, "then I'll try your sweetbroth and you'll might get a taste of Angelo's bbq!" This was a place for dreams after all.

[Random the Navigator]

By the time the pilot finished, Molly was getting a lot more from her look than from her words.  "You're right," she said as if talking to Trudy's weary face itself.  "You've had a heckuva day, prob'ly a long one, and you're hurt and hungry and maybe a little bit sick.  Feed yourself, I'll feed me, and then it's bedtime."


Once supper had been seen to (such as it was), Molly gave Trudy her fatigue shirt for a pillow; if nothing else, Trudy could cover her improvised backpack with it and make it just a bit more comfortable for her head.  She left the digging-stick with her guest too, in case Trudy needed to fend something off; but the young Avatar didn't really think she'd need it, as the stench from those capsules was still hanging in the air and Molly herself intended to keep watch way above it.  Maybe the stick was just for security; Trudy might sleep better if she had some kind of weapon within reach...

Finally, and having made the rescued human as comfortable as possible, she excused herself and clambered up the tree she had been leaning on.  Moments later a boot hit the ground, then another; Molly had found her perch for the night - high enough to see out, low enough to leap down from, and springy enough to propel her to the next tree over.  She wedged her waterskin and foraging bag into the angles of nearby branches and crept out to a good vantage-point.

There was a band of Syaksyuk roosting nearby, the gibbon-like creatures who slept lightly when they slept at all, and whose calls echoed raucously all through the forest whenever anything unusual disturbed them.  They did not call at Molly.  Barefoot and alert, she had become something else entirely - a Na'vi of the Tawkami Clan, crouched, catlike, keeping watch over her Clan-sister; her mindset shedding the veneer of civilisation like an overwarm sweater and reverting to the feral state of her ancestors and adopted kin...and even the Syaksyuk didn't see anything wrong with a Na'vi in a tree.

[Kiyevanie]

  *****
Usually Trudy was a light sleeper, always keeping an eye to her surroundings, especially when she wasn't in her own bunk. But exhaustion and injury had taken their toll, so she had slept like a stone, head resting on Molly's shirt. But eventually the first rays of Alpha Centauri filtering through the leaves of the baby-hometree made their way through and Trudy drifted out of the darkness of sleep.
She took a few minutes this time to recollect everything that had happened the days before. The battle, the explosion, her waking up in the middle of nowhere... and then running into Molly.

She also made inventory of her physical state - the bruises were still there, as were the burns and the sore places. But at least her head felt a bit better this day. Still kind of foggy, still just this side of a headache, but her thoughts seemed a little bit clearer this morning. With a groan she sat up, blinking and looking around, trying to spot Molly somewhere around. "Good morning", she told the branches above.

[Random the Navigator]

Molly's voice came cheerfully from somewhere behind and above Trudy's backpack.  "Ahoy, matey!" she chirped.  "I took the liberty of replacing these--"  She showed Trudy her used filters.  "Your pack went 'Ping' and you slept right through it!"

There were still little dimples on Molly's hands and forehead.  "Yeah, Squeegee woke me up; that little horn on his head is as hard as a parrot's beak..."  she said sheepishly.

[Kiyevanie]

"Thanks. They were overdue." Trudy scratched right beneath one of the straps of her mask. "I'm still gonna be glad once i'll get rid of that thing." She cautiously got up, stretching and checking on her own stability and the flexibility of her joints. "I think I might have some travel in me after this night's sleep It's been a great place to rest here."  She looked up to the tree, almost some regret in her voice at the thought of leaving this peaceful place, then sat down again, carefully peeled away Molly's shirt, handing it back to the girl, then rummaging through her emergency pack for another ration. "After some breakfast."

She smirked at the dimples in Molly's face. "So the little guy's back? Did he find your people?"

[Random the Navigator]

"No idea," Molly chuckled.  "And he's off hunting for himself now, so I can't really ask him...  But the silly string smells like Greenhome, so I think he did take it to our house...then figured out Sa'nok and Sempu weren't there...then brought it back to me, since he didn't know what else to do with it."  She shook her head in bemusement.  "But as you can see, there aren't any Na'vi hunters standing here waiting for you to make a false move, so they can't have been too worried about me...  I don't know whether to feel honored or insulted!"  She grinned.

[Kiyevanie]

Trudy laughed. "Well, at least he tried and did the best he could; must have been quite the journey for him. Hope he finds some good hunting out there - he deserves it." She poked her straw into her 'breakfast chocolate', wrinkling her nose at the chemical taste. "And I'd go for feeling honored. Seems your family knows very well that you can hold your own around here and they trust you. Still... let's see if we can get a little closer to home today as long as I got it in me."