Avatar Tails!
Avatar Tails => The Day the Planet Went Dark => Topic started by: Random the Navigator on July 17, 2018, 05:44:04 PM
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::: [ One Small Life ] :::
Brenda couldn't figure out why she'd been so nervous about getting on a Pa'li. Granted, Kilvanä was the right size for an Avatar who was almost twice her height; but mere height had never bothered "Mountain Girl". Nor had instability, really; her homeland was mostly sitting on volcanic rock on the seam that had created the Caucasus Range, while on the personal level her feet had seldom known level ground during her fugitive years. So if it wasn't the way-up-there and it wasn't the rhythmic rocking, what was it?
It's that I'm hanging onto "Baby-girl" right where I know she's been hurt, she concluded. And that I don't give a rat's-ass if I fall as long as I don't take her with me.
She was not out-of-line to worry about this. After all, she couldn't feel the corrections; couldn't know how Kilvanä instructed Enya's body as easily as her own; couldn't know that, for all intents and purposes, the stranded Avatar could be considered "linked in".
She caught the name "Atreyu" and urged Enya to catch up with Kenten. "Speaking of who...guess who Ni'ka and I ran into this morning? Atreyu sends his affectionate regards; he's with a big group on their way to a village a day's ride upstream from here. And, personally...? I think that'd be a better place for you guys..."
Tali's eyebrows shot up. "Funny you should mention that; Sa'nok was just talking about moving us somewhere..."
Kenten just bit his lip and looked away.
"Seriously?" Brenda asked; she'd been with Tsanten when 'Iheyu and the others had discussed it. "Damn, didn't know I was touching a nerve... I seem to do that a lot," she added ruefully. "See why I took a job that keeps me out in the boonies all by myself?"
"Seriously," said Tali. "It's mostly Tangek who wants to go, but we figured if we try to make this place a little more like home, it'll be good for him and everybody else... Sa'nok's not going anywhere until we see if that's working."
Kenten filled in. "'Iheyu's in no hurry. And Enya thinks giving Tangek the sorts of things he likes best about Hometree--mainly greenery, a perch, and lots of excuses to fly--might help everyone. That's why we're foraging today, is to find camouflage for our camp--but you knew that; this is just an extra reason."
Enya furnished another detail. "Is a lot 'cause Ash get mad at people all-sudden about little things... I not understand, though. She been real nice since she come back from Hometree! She talk, she listen, she share with Sprout a lot--all like in short wood place before Mother-god came... She even say sorry for fussing at me, and she try real hard not to, and not to be nosy... Do know she used-to fuss a lot and say 'It gotta be this way or is not gonna work!!' Ahh, nobody really like her when she get like that. But is used-to. She not has been like that in days! Why everybody picking on Ash? We almost Close-friends again; is like picking on me!"
"And Sa'nok already talked him into waiting for Ash to come back; maybe she'll be better, so he won't have that excuse," said Tali.
Brenda took all this in. "So you guys are not in favor of going just yet? And Tangek's pushing for it anyway and getting everybody upset? Sounds like I'd better have a talk with him," she said, her mouth tight. "I might just show him where to put his anger..."
"Dum, dee-dum-dum," Enya and Tali chimed together.
Talk then turned to perches, with Brenda admitting that she hadn't been able to get Tall Brenda into a proper tree last night, and opining that an observation tower like the ones in the Avatar compound might be a little less problematic. After all, they'd never been attacked by Changed ones in a tower. "Guess we're just gonna try to give everyone a little slice of the familiar," she concluded.
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Rick had been listening quietly to the whole conversation. "And an observation tower would have the charm that us clumsy humans can use it too," he now chimed in. "You know, you don't have to do all the standing guard."
Silently he had already decided to be somewhere else when Brenda cornered Tangek, almost feeling sorry for the guy, even though he definitely shared Brenda's opinion on the matter.
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"Don't bet on the tower," said Brenda matter-of-factly. "I have a feeling the spacing of the rungs is going to be better-suited to an Avatar's limbs than a human's. But then...we are pretty athletic humans!"
Kenten grinned at Rick. "We've been wondering when you were going to earn your keep!" he quipped.
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"Ah, crap... And there I was, hoping nobody noticed me just hanging around doin' nothing." Rick grinned back up at the Na'vi hunter. "At least you guys will all have fun watching me trying to climb a Na'vi-sized tower." He wriggled his brow. "Of course, we humans could also use an additional rope or something."
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"Or one of those chains you've got in the Samson," Brenda suggested. "I mean, it's not like you're gonna be hauling any more shacks anytime soon." She bit her lip. "That's gotta stink, not being able to haul a real load or cover that kind of territory... Crap. Our supply situation just keeps looking worse and worse. And it takes time to make our own stuff out of whatever's handy."
They rode on rather glumly, coming to the stream and crossing it; they'd already seen most of what their own territory had to offer.
But it wasn't all bad news; far from it, they realised as they explored the lands on the other side of the water. The Fwampop were still hanging around, as were the fish. Animals that depended on decaying wood and leaf-litter were thriving, as was the nourishing humus soil they made; the glow-worms for Enya's lanterns would stay fat and well-fed. Moss and algae, which didn't seem to mind the cold, were everywhere on rocks and tree-trunks, as were loose bark and the occasional patch of congealed tree-sap. All had their uses.
Brenda asked Enya to stop and Kenten to help her down so she could scoop up enough of the humus to grow Enya's "houseplants" in. They did so, and applied more of the same to the few food plants and struggling herbs Kenten spotted in the forest's more sheltered places. Between them, they also accounted for a considerable haul of nuts, plus fruit-seeds whose coverings had rotted away.
Enya herself, still mounted, kept her eyes high for the kinds of plants that grew in the crooks of branches, as well as for nests that might hold eggs and suitable branches for the camouflage effort. The plants she could harvest herself, shinnying up the trees and taking just a few leaves from each; true to her promise, 'Iheyu had freed her from her sling and authorised climbing...as long as she didn't try to come down head-first!
Tali, meanwhile, kept his eyes open for threats.
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While the others were foraging for things that could be edible, Rick checked out the forest for anything they could use to mask the shacks. He cut dead vines, rolling them up and stowing them away in one of the makeshift gathering bags they had, as he did for the ferns and other big leaves he found. He was very careful to choose just dead parts of plants, not wanting to do more harm to the forest than he had to, but even then he soon had a big pile of camouflage material ready.
He looked at it and scratched his neck. "Ya know - that looks like a lot of stuff here, but if we want to mask all three shacks like that we'll have to do a lot of these expeditions."
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Kenten looked at everyone's saddlebags with an appraising eye, nodding his approval. "I think we have enough to at least cover the roofs," he said. "That'll keep us from being spotted from the air."
Brenda smiled. "Well, we have to start somewhere," she said. "First we make sure we don't get carpet-bombed. The ruffles and flourishes can wait."
By now most of the party was on foot except Enya, who stayed mounted for easy access to the trees.
The terrain had been sloping gently ever since they'd left the stream, but now it began to climb in earnest. The trees thinned out a little as they ascended, becoming close woodland instead of dense forest. Eventually they began spotting rock outcroppings here and there, more of them as the land rose. Enya became a little excited at this; while the rocks closer to the stream had been formed by its sediments, these looked like good old-fashioned basalt.
"Heia, Brenda," she said softly. "Be fire-mountain kinda rocks here; maybe mica growing in cracks and holes?"
"Mica definitely growing in cracks and holes," Brenda said with considerable satisfaction. This was her kind of country; she knew what to expect from it; it resembled the area around her old outpost, which resembled the landscapes of Armenia. "Thanks, babe." She disappeared into the nearest grotto to do a little mining.
Tali and Kenten, keeping their eyes ahead and all around, came to a sudden halt as they spotted something on one of the higher outcroppings. "Brenda..." muttered Kenten. "When you come out of there...try not to look too much like a fwampop..."
The reason became amply clear when the occupant of the perch noticed their movement, and though they were still a considerable distance away, it warned them off with a dragon's roar.
But Enya, on her Pa'li and with the advantage of height, knew exactly who that amber-gold Ikran was. "Ni'tingal!!!" she squeaked. Then, despite everyone's cautions that a nesting bird could be aggressive even to those it knew, she nudged Kilvanä into their first-ever canter. "Is okay--I baby-Ikran to Ni'tingal!" she laughed.
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"FUCK!!!" Rick almost jumped behind Enya. "'Iheyu will have our heads if something happens to Enya here!" He stared up to the perch and the Ikran nesting on it. "I mean - yeah, I know that Ni'tingal kinda mothered her, but this here's a nesting mother..." He swallowed, then looked at his friends, running through the options in his head. "Kenten, how fast can you get back to the camp? I think we need 'Iheyu here - as a healer, Enya's mother and Ni'tingal's rider."
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Brenda heard the shout and dashed out of the grotto, managing to avoid looking like a Tapirus. "ENYA!!!" she bellowed in a way that would have stopped the Avatar cold at Hell's Gate. But Enya was no longer the awkward child she'd been at the longhouse. In her temperament, no less than in her clothing, there was now a strong hint of the wild. It'd always been there, making itself known in her romps, in her escapes; and her choices of sleeping-spots had owed less to fear than to the need to be outdoors under an open sky, able to move in all three dimensions by whatever means suited her best.
And now this liberty was her way of life. She was free. Unfortunately, this included being free to get her head bitten off by a nesting Ikran. She was as subject to the dictates of natural selection as any other creature born on this world, and it had many ways to keep her from reaching breeding age. She had yet to understand what a dangerous place it could be, or that impulsiveness might have consequences...
In the amount of time it took Rick to swear, Tali mounted and took off after her.
Wordlessly, Kenten also swung onto his mount and made the Bond...but he gave Rick a 'stay' gesture with one hand and made no further move to get between Enya and her sitution. "Ni'tingal's not going to harm her, unless she's still too sensitive for a good chewing-out," he said. "That's pretty reckless, charging a sitting hen like that, hmm? But it's not just a matter of Enya wanting to go. Not with Tsaheylu, it isn't; and least of all for that particular girl on that particular Pa'li. If Kilvanä thought there was real danger, she would not have agreed to take her. Tali's got it in hand; let's just see what happens now, shall we?"
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Rick swallowed hard, but nodded. After all, Kenten was the expert on Ikran here, not he... Still, it took him a lot of self-restraint to not race off after the Avatar girl.
"Let's just hope that Ni'tingal recognizes those two," he breathed, eyes still fixed on the scene.
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Ni'tingal had cocked her head at Enya's happy cry of recognition; her next screech almost seemed like a reply, though she rose up and mantled protectively over her sitting-spot.
"Ni'tingal!!" Enya called again breathlessly as Kilvanä pulled up at the foot of the outcropping. Enya spotted a good place to start climbing; Kilvanä, made aware of it through the Bond, sidled up to as favorable a relative position as she could. The Pa'li leaned in; the Avatar dismounted in her odd but effective over-the-neck way. "Heia, Ni'!! Is Enya! So this where you been, silly girl!"
The Ikran still stood over a depression in the rock, huffing a bit as she took in Enya's scent through her chest-intakes, and her distinctive look and heat-signature with her four eyes. Her next vocalisation was a questioning cluck as she cocked her head to the other side. Satisfied, she braced herself, reached down with her neck and chirped at the Avatar encouragingly.
Enya scrambled up the rest of the way, the last several feet of the climb not helped much by Ni'tingal's persistent nuzzling. Finally the big bird picked her up gingerly by the seat of her pants ("HEI!! Ooo, you gonna regret that!") and deposited her at the edge of her nest like a wayward chick who'd tried to fly too soon.
"Well, I'll be..." Brenda breathed, and even Kenten looked thunderstruck.
But Tali, who'd seen the trick before, just parked himself on the rock a respectful distance away. "Hei, Kenten--you thought I was making that up!" he said triumphantly, beaming at the startled people down below.
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"Uh huh. Me too," Rick agreed full-heartedly, mouth widely agape. "If someone had told me this..." He shook himself like a dog coming out of the water. "Ni'tingal really sees her as a chick, huh?"
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"With her, it's easy to do," Kenten allowed. "Ni'ka calls Enya her 'baby sister'; she's 'Evi to her mother, 'not-so-little sister' to Tali..."
"...And 'Little One' to everybody at the longhouse, and 'Baby-girl' to me," Brenda finished for him. "Because she's so obviously a child, right down to the things she likes and the mistakes she makes and the way she warms our hearts--underworld guardians and flying dragons apparently included!"
The Ikran and the Avatar, meanwhile, seemed to be having a discussion, their body-language and tones of voice anxious at first, then subdued.
Kenten cocked his head. "That's right; Ni's a first-time mother... You know, she actually seems relieved that her family showed up!"
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"It's heartwarming," Rick agreed. "When Enya ran up there I thought she'd at least be shooed away, but that..." He smiled. "And Enya seems to be a natural with communications - she was the first one to understand Tsanten; now she obviously speaks 'Ikran' too."
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Brenda regarded the scene, then turned to the two men. "I think we can blame that on her nature and upbringing," she said. "Her empathy factor is through the roof. As well it might be; she's an Avatar, and there's always room in an Avatar's head for at least one other mind, and they get to know that mind in the most intimate way possible. Granted, nobody here is Solanda; there'll never be a perfect fit again--but the capability is there.
"And then there's her life-experience. If you think about it, she had to have been one lonely kid. Nobody really understood her, what it was like to be her, and she didn't have the words or mental development to say. So dealing with people who are cut off from their kind, who don't have a 'kind', or who can't speak for themselves? I guess she would be a natural."
Her voice dropped; her eyes were getting moist again. "Damn, I'm becoming a mushpot...but...I'm glad something good came out of her suffering," she ended quietly.
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"Yeah...me too," Rick agreed. "So - I think we should give those two some time for their family reunion." He watched Ni'tingal cooing over Enya. "Ain't Ikran beautiful creatures? I know a wild one would see a human as nothing but dinner, but I could watch them for hours."
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Kenten grinned. "Be seen with Enya and I think you'll be able to watch this one all you like! --Errm, from way over here," he clarified.
Enya was still sitting on the edge of the nest, and to everyone's puzzlement she was looking sadder and sadder. Kenten even caught her faint "Awww..." Then she stroked Ni'tingal's chin-crest, followed by the bridge of her muzzle. She stood and somehow got the Ikran to do the same. She cocked her head at something in the depression while Ni'tingal hovered anxiously.
And then she did something that made even Tali blanch: She crawled right into the nest, and after a few moments she sat up cradling an egg.
"Aww..." she said again, gently replacing the egg and gazing at Ni'tingal with a look of unspeakable tragedy.
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That was clear enough even for Rick to read, and it made his heart sink. "Something's wrong with that egg," he said quietly. "So all the stress she's been through didn't keep her from laying it, but..." He couldn't help but feel deep sympathy for the Ikran. "Is there anything we could do?" he asked. "I mean, she fought so hard for finding a nest..."
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"It might be all right," said Kenten. "Enya doesn't know what she's looking at; it's not like she has much experience with Ikran nests..." He rode up right to the foot of the outcrop. "Heia, Enya!!" he called up. "What's the matter, then?"
Enya leaned out, bracing herself against the rim of the depression. "Egg is wee-small...and only one...and broken!" At least she knew there should be more than one; she'd raided enough birds' nests.
"Broken? How so?" Kenten asked.
"Got big crack, and little hole on one end--"
Kenten paled a bit. "That's not broken--it's about to HATCH!!" he shouted over his shoulder as he wheeled his Pa'li around and took off for the camp.
"H-hatch?" Rick stuttered. "As in...the chick coming out?"
Brenda smirked. "That's what 'hatch' meant the last time I checked," she said drily.
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Rick stared at the nest and the obviously worried Ikran and Avatar sitting in there nervously. The rational part of his mind kept telling him that Ikran had hatched for millennia on Pandora without any outside help, and that if this hatchling was too weak to make it it would only be part of how nature worked. Still, the thought of something going wrong here disturbed him deeply. "And it's too small? M-maybe we should help somehow?"
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"You and me? And she doesn't know either of us from Adam? Or Enya, who hasn't a clue?" Brenda asked. "Off the top, I'd say Tali's in a better position to help than anybody else--thank goodness he's here!"
Tali was patting the rock, urging Enya to come out of the nest and join him for a briefing.
"It is pretty small," he told her. "And it's not moving; the chick is either resting or it's too weak to peck anymore."
"What we gonna DO?" asked Enya a little desperately.
"Get Sa'nok--Kenten's doing that; and meanwhile, since Ni' lets you in there, try to help her keep it warm!"
Enya dutifully re-entered the hollow and explained to the anxious Ikran what was going on and what she intended to do. Then she sat cross-legged right in the middle of the nest and put the egg in her lap. Next came as much moss as she'd managed to stuff into the pockets of her shorts; then she donated her poncho; and finally Ni'tingal settled, mantling them both, keeping the weather away from them with her broad wings.
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Viewed objectively, Ni'tingal hovering over Enya, who was hovering over the egg, could have been a funny sight. But Rick didn't grin at all. He was way too worried. He couldn't even tell why, but something in the whole situation got to him. Somehow the thought of that tiny Ikran inside its shell was a complete sum-up of the whole dire situation this world was in. There were probably millions of other animals right now in a similar situation, giving birth to weak young, or even worse. But Ni'tingal's egg was right here; they all had to watch the drama unfold.
So Rick didn't grin but nervously raked his hands through his hair. "Yeah...and it seems Tali knows what to do." He looked at his shirt. "Hey, do you need more warm clothing up there?" he called up to Enya.
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The Avatar, sitting right under the running jet-engine of an Ikran's metabolism, shook her head, smiling. But Tali, after conferring with her, called down to the human pair: "No, but we could use some water; Enya thinks the shell's too hard!"
Enya's brow creased. "What you gonna do with that, make baby-Ikran swim?"
"No," the boy explained to her and the humans alike. "We're gonna sprinkle the egg with it. Between that and our body-heat, it'll soften the shell!"
Enya turned back to the fragile object, the fragile life, in her lap. "Gonna be okay," she said, stroking it. "'Iheyu coming, and Tali know what to do, and I keep you from cold and sharp, and Ni'tingal gonna keep you from white."
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"Water... Alright, water." Rick reached for his belt flask, shaking it slightly to see if there was still enough in it, then cautiously climbed up to Tali, handing the boy the water. "Here - I don't think Ni'tingal will let me close."
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Tali climbed down far enough to meet Rick halfway. "Thanks!" he said, taking the canteen; then he made the trip back up and summoned his tsmuke out of the nest again. After a little tutoring, in which he demonstrated the wetting technique on the back of her hand, she crawled back in, settled, and put the canteen under herself to warm the water before flicking droplets of it under her poncho and onto the egg.
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The foraging party had ridden a good two hours out from the shack, not counting the time they'd spent actually harvesting food and supplies. Now Kenten had to make it back--at a gallop, to be sure, but on a Pa'li with fully-laden saddlebags. The terrain helped; it was downhill all the way to the stream. In a way the burden helped too, lending more mass to the pair's interaction with gravity. But it was still the better part of an hour before the little hunter burst into the camp.
He found Tangek awake and in an intense discussion with a tired 'Iheyu, about which he did not have to guess the subject-matter. Of course they froze when he arrived; but there was nothing frozen at all about their response to his news. Almost before he'd unloaded his Pa'li, the two healers took off on Atan's back, carrying a patient pod full of supplies...and a pair of anxious hearts.
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Tangek had flown more widely and more recently than anyone else in the settlement; from what Kenten told him, he thought he might know the place where Ni'tingal was nesting. Thus it wasn't long at all before Atan was barrelling through the forest, arrow-swift but hardly arrow-straight; she tilted and jinked in a way she never would have with a patient on board, threading herself between the trees like a forest-hawk after a sparrow and putting even 'Iheyu's heart in her throat.
In less time than it took to wonder about her, she blasted into view of the foraging party. She popped up and over Rick and Brenda's heads and circled the rock, screaming furiously at Ni'tingal, who screamed furiously back while Enya cowered and covered her ears. This didn't keep Atan from touching down where Tali was sitting, which brought more threats and challenges. But she and Tangek remained where they were, Tangek looking on impassively; both knowing better than to stare Ni'tingal in the eye, but otherwise quite plainly unmoveable by any force short of continental drift.
The tension evaporated, however, when 'Iheyu stepped down. She paused, taking in the scene the way Rick had: An Ikran mantling an Avatar who hunched over a bundle, which must contain the egg... She couldn't help a smile.
Ni'tingal, for her part, cawed repeatedly at Atan, smirking and "trash-talking" because now she had 'Iheyu to back her up! But even she calmed down as the healer walked up to the nest in her usual dignified way. They had a quiet reunion, both speaking in coos, with the Ikran trading gentle nuzzles for long, firm, comforting strokes.
Once her mount had finally settled again, 'Iheyu crouched on the rim of the depression and eyed her youngest child. "Is there something I can help you with, ma'ite?"
Enya uncurled. "Yah, is baby-Ikran here..." came her shaky reply.
"So I've been told," her Sa'nok said benignly; apparently Ni's weren't the only set of nerves that needed settling. "And what can you tell me about him?"
"Be just one, and he wee-small, and he not move much, and we not know if he got trouble hatching or if he just asleep."
"Maybe I'd better ask Ni'? She's the only one who can tell me how long he's been trying," 'Iheyu suggested. "But only one of us fits in that bowl."
"Ahh, okay--I leave moss and poncho and come out!" said Enya, only too glad to yield to someone who actually knew what she was doing.
"Moss, hmm?" the healer mused. "Good choice; that's just the thing for keeping tender things warm and protecting them from going 'ka-bump'!" She gave Enya's hair a tousle as they switched places, the Avatar joining her brother while 'Iheyu again soothed the amber-colored Ikran.
As it turned out ('Iheyu learned through Tsaheylu), Ni'tingal had flown to this spot the night of the Blessing and laid the retained egg the very next morning...yesterday morning. Only the one; the rest had been resorbed into her body, returning their calcium and protein to their mother, who was still recovering from her long, hungry vigil on the floating mountain. Because the surviving egg had been within her so long, it was almost ready to hatch when she laid it. But she'd been sitting it all this time, and after the chick's initial breakthrough it had only managed a few short struggles and some feeble cheeps. All told, it was a testament to Ni'tingal's rootedness, body heat, and somewhat better state of nutrition that the little creature had survived the night.
'Iheyu communed with her a little further. What she proposed to the bird was hardly standard procedure and would require even more than the usual trust between mount and rider, deep as that was. They spent quite a while refining the details to the Ikran's liking. Even so, it went against almost all of Ni'tingal's instincts...except for her awareness of her inexperience and her sheer desperation.
The Ikran was still tutting and shifting nervously when 'Iheyu released the Bond. "We have her permission," she announced to the group. "We--Ni'tingal and I--are taking the little one back to the camp. We will be better able to care for him there."
She turned to Tangek. "Your patient pod, please...? Or did you think she would let her baby ride with Atan?" she asked in a tone that showed the tension between them.
"Of course not," said Tangek, dismounting and busying himself with the straps of his saddle.
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Rick couldn't help but feel relieved once the activities started. So they really would do something, trying to save that little life that was still hidden inside the eggshell.
"It's good she'll let you help," he said to 'Iheyu, then turned to Tali and Enya. "I don't know about you, but I'd like to go back to the camp as well."
It then hit him that his mount was still back there, no Kenten to be seen around. "Um...yeah...especially as it will take some time."
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"How come?" asked Enya as she worked her way carefully back down the rock-face. "You come with Tali, Brenda come with me; can go back same way--both our Pa'li still here... Unless you want to switch? You ride with me this time? Have seen Kilvanä know how to run..." She smiled impishly, wrinkling her nose for good measure.
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Rick stared at Enya, then back at the Pa'li, then at Enya again. Then he finally shook his head. "Jeez...something must have hit my head or something... Of course you're right. Thanks, Enya."
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The Avatar just leaned down and gave Rick a hug. "Is okay; nothing hit you 'cept worry-'bout-baby Ikran. So we better get home while we still can sit straight on Pa'li!"
Her point was well-taken; for, while Atan's saddle only really fit Atan, Tangek and 'Iheyu were able to fasten it well-enough on Ni'tingal to be sure it wouldn't slip. 'Iheyu wasn't going to sit on it anyway. She would crouch in front. The only real weight in the patient pod would be the precious egg itself, now tucked away deep inside a pocket lined with Enya's moss.
Enya straightened up and smiled. "So...you riding with me or with Tali?" she asked.
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Remembering how tightly Brenda had clung to Enya on the first leg of their trip, Rick smiled. "There's that saying - never change a winning team. So I guess you, Brenda and Kilvanä are just fine, same as Tali, Peke and me."
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"Are you suuuure?" Enya asked in a teasing voice. "Tali not has told you 'bout crazy ride-home-on-Lor stunt yet, has he? Maybe he gonna try it on Peke!"
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"Huh - that sounds ominous," Rick joked back, eyeing the young Na'vi boy. "What did you do? Make a handstand on Lor's back? I mean, at least a Pa'li can't do barrel rolls."
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Tali whipped his head around and boggled at his sister; apparently it wasn't Pandora's best-kept secret: "Enya?? How did you--but--you were asleep the whole way back!!" he spluttered.
"Sa'nok wasn't," the Avatar smirked.
"Ohhh, all right..." the boy grumbled, then looked at Rick. "It's easier to show that to explain... Enya? You wanna help? It'll be good fighting practice..."
Of course she nodded enthusiastically, whereupon Tali took some time to pose her in a half-crouch with her arms out to the sides, now that she could use both of them. Then he assumed the same position, both of them facing Rick. Tali counted off: "Ready? On three... One, two, three, HIT IT!!" And the two broke out in a Jan-and-Dean beach tune, their upper bodies rocking side to side in a credible imitation of a pair of surfers. Enya, of course, had all she could do just to stay upright; but Tali's leg-muscles were bunching and relaxing to absorb the imaginary shocks.
"He do that on Lor's back while Ni'ka flying," Enya said helpfully.
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Right off the bat Rick had to fight his laughter, the two of them being quite the sight. But then he thought about doing that on the back of an Ikran - and remembered very well how he himself on his very few Ikran rides had clung to the respective rider.
"Oh dear," he muttered. "And you're still alive? I mean - not that you crashed down, but remembering my own mom, if she had seen me pull that kind of a stunt she'd ripped off my ears."
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Now Enya did tip over, mostly from laughing so hard. "Sa'nok's hands too busy just then, she not coulda taken Tali's ears; is why he reeeeal glad her arms were all fulla ME!"
"How come she always ends up carrying Dreamwalkers?" the boy smirked. "When it isn't you, it's Sprout! Nothing but trouble, I tell ya..."
Brenda, standing on a rock to make it easier for her to mount, was doubled over laughing too. "Surf City, here we come!!" she sang.
Tali grinned. "Surf City ain't coming to us, now, is it? So we'd better go meet it," he said...and that was all the warning Rick got before he was suddenly boosted up onto Peke's back, while Enya and Brenda scrambled up to their respective places on Kilvanä's.
The fliers had long since left. At first glance the little party might have seemed vulnerable; there were no hunters or healers with them. But Tali knew what he was doing with a bow and a dagger, as did Brenda; both knew their way around a home-grown first-aid kit; and Rick was armed in his way. Consequently, Enya didn't have a worry in the world as they made their way back to the shack.
-
Rick was still chuckling when he was sitting behind Tali on his mount. "Surf City, eh? Alright, when all this is over we better make a trip to the sea; let's see how you guys do on a surfboard..." He was still worried about the little Ikran inside its egg, but the little play had definitely lightened up his mood.
-
Brenda grinned over from behind Enya. "Ohh, I'm sure Tali won't have any trouble at all! Me and Enya, however..."
"You? How you gonna have trouble with surfing?" Enya wondered; it just didn't seem possible that any physical endeavor could be beyond her auntie's powers.
"Babe, back home our only beaches were along the shores of a really big lake," said Brenda ruefully. "In other words, there's no surf in Armenia!"
"You wait'll Enya's all-the-way better," Tali mused. "She'll make us all look bad!!"
-:- -:- -:-
-
The journey back could have been slow, thanks to the Pa'lis' loads of camouflage material and whatever else the party had thought might be useful; but then again, they knew the way back now and they weren't stopping to forage every several hundred yards. They made it back in decent time, arriving a couple of hours behind the flyers.
Tali's eyes swept the compound. Ni'tingal was perched on the roof of the longhouse, wearing her own saddle again and occasionally bristling at Atan, who was also saddled and clinging awkwardly quite a ways up Ni'ka's watch-tree, panting like she'd just evaded a Toruk.
Tangek, who'd rather expected that his Ikran would be dispossessed, was standing by the B-shack musing on the proposed climbing-tower's possibilities as an Ikran nest.
The boy didn't see 'Iheyu; it was safe to assume she was inside one of the structures, and quite possibly asleep in the cabin. Silronsem and Tsanten, of course, wouldn't have moved far from the module, he thought wryly...
As Kenten approached to help any riders down and take over the Pa'li, Enya got right to the point: "Where be baby-Ikran??"; while Tali, a little more collected, asked him: "So...what'd we miss?"
"The little one's in the cabin, or will be once he hatches," said Kenten. "Not that we didn't go a few rounds with Ni'tingal before she let us take the egg out of her sight! I don't recommend interacting with her right now... Anyway, the little fellow's in an herb-pouch in Brenda's stall; that's the most sheltered spot in the building, with its own firepot and shielded from the draft. But we'd prefer him someplace where the roof is a bit closer to the floor--Tsanten's dwelling, perhaps? That's small; it'll retain the heat, and he won't lack for company..."
"And Sa'nok?" asked Enya.
"Curled up around that herb-pouch, asleep," said the little hunter with an affectionate smile.
-
"I could take our blankets out of the shack," offered Rick. "Bringing the little one in there wouldn't be the best of ideas, not with the different air. So Tsanten's module would be a good idea."
-
Enya pondered. "Even better if there be something like greenhouse, hmm? Had tender plants there, baby ones, and did keep them in glass boxes with plenty steam and warm light... Maybe be something like that in shacks? Could put it under bunks in Tsanten's house--soft soil to lay on, moss to make nest-shape; already got heater and lamp in there..." She turned to Rick. "Heia, maybe where I gonna grow houseplants be good place for baby-Ikran too while he wee-small and weak?"
-
Rick peeked into the longhouse, just to see 'Iheyu curled up as mentioned, holding on tightly to the bundle with the egg. "Once she's awake again, that is." He scratched his head. "What do you think - how long will it take for the little one to come out? And...can we help him? Maybe crack the eggshell a bit further?"
-
"We don't want to expose any part of him before he's ready," Kenten advised. "He'll have to emerge bit by bit on his own. What we can do, we're doing: warming the egg, softening the shell, and mostly giving the little fellow ample time to rest. He's moving around in there now; 'Iheyu heard some little scratches... He'll be a while gathering his strength; but when the time comes, he won't need quite so much of it."
-
"Okay, so no cracking open the shell. But a greenhouse..." the soldier mused, scratching his neck. "I think I can find something like that in the lab section...and maybe even something like an infrared lamp. Light that warms," he explained. "I'll be back in a little."
Rick usually stayed clear of the lab section; there were too many fragile things there. But he remembered from packing up things for the transport of the shack that there were several crates of glass in there - probably for greenhousing indeed, nursing young plants for food or for the scientists' experiments. And he remembered someone on a former expedition say something about lights that emulated Alpha Centauri's light spectrum...
Of course, he had no idea if this lab had something along those lines. So he rummaged through the cupboards and closets there until he finally found something that looked a bit like a kind of fish tank, including a lid, that was big enough for the egg plus padding to fit inside. Just no lamp, so the glass cube would have to do.
He stepped out of the shack, holding the item out. "One greenhouse for our egg," he stated.
-
Enya's eyes lit up. "Ahhh, is perfect!!" she beamed.
"For the egg, absolutely!" mused Kenten. "And we can spray some water in there once in a while to mist the shell. Once he's out, we'll want to remove the lid so he can hear and see us going in and out. He's not in this by himself, you know; our Ikran are part of a community... Once we know that he's holding his own, we can put him in a warm area without the box. The heater and the Tawtute lamps in Tsanten's house will keep him warm. And as for the lighting? --I believe Enya's bladder-lamp will do nicely!"
Brenda's eyebrows went up. So the designers of the amnio tanks were right? That warm blue ambience, Enya's "floating blue", was thought to mimic the gentler end of Pandora's light-spectrum. Supposedly this helped the Avatars' development. She didn't doubt, now, that it must have helped their temperaments too; it'd certainly been critical to settling Enya's and Tall Brenda's nerves in even the most trying circumstances. Apparently the Na'vi also thought it was a good thing... "I wonder how many of the nurseries at Hometree are lit with those things?" she mused aloud.
"All of them, especially the midwives' chambers," said Kenten.
-
"Then the little guy there should like it too," Rick said. "Okay, we better find a place where we can set up our makeshift incubator so it's ready once 'Iheyu wakes up. What should we put in for padding? More of that moss?"
-
Surprisingly, Brenda knew more than a little bit about this. "Moss and the peat it comes in," she said, going on when Kenten nodded. "They hold moisture and warmth very well, and the soil actually has nutrients in it from the decaying organic matter, which'll help when he starts pecking at it--you know how babies are, always putting things in their mouths!" This drew a communal chuckle; then she continued. "Should get some coarse sand in there too, if there's any to be had; dunno about Ikran, but Earth-birds use grit to help them digest their food. And some decent-sized stones to put in the container; he's gonna start moving around in there, and if he's as weak as he might be he'll need something to push off against."
"Kinda like me at first?" said Enya, thinking back to both her recent injury and when she'd first had to learn how to move on her own at the Avatar compound. "Push away to go, hang onto while I walk, pull up on when I fall?"
"Like that, babe," Brenda confirmed. "And for the same set of reasons; even if he's vigorous, he still has to figure out his limbs!"
Kenten listened, bemused. "You know, for someone who's never raised an Ikran, you seem to know a lot about this!" he declared.
"We didn't have Ikran on Earth, true," said Brenda. "But we did have glass boxes called terrariums, and we raised creatures in them that needed to be kept warm. Baby birds; lizards; even snakes, which were like long lizards without legs."
Tali had been taking all this in, and now he had a question. "If he's living in a box inside Tsanten's house, when's he get to see his mama? He's not gonna know he's an Ikran if he doesn't...and that could be big trouble when he's grown!!"
"We'll need to arrange something about that," Kenten concurred. "It is asking a bit much of Ni'tingal to allow us to raise her baby sight unseen..."
-
Rick looked at his very mixed group of friends. "I think at one point we'll have to take the risk and bring the box out. I mean - Ni'tingal managed to keep the egg warm all night; she'll be able to keep her baby warm for some bonding."
-
"Ni'tingal's own inner fires are running lower than they should be," said Kenten. "She is still recovering from her time on the mountain. 'Iheyu knows best, of course; but I think at least one way she could explain it to Ni' is that we want to keep the baby warm until she has the life-force to spare; that is, until she is strong enough to keep the youngling warm and fed herself."
Tali considered. "That still leaves them needing to see each other a lot--especially early on," he pointed out.
"Well," said Brenda, "once he's off to a good start, I don't see a problem with bringing him to her for cuddles a few times a day. He's gonna need exercise periods anyway as soon as he can stand up on his knuckles."
Kenten mulled it over. "I suppose we'd just better keep an eye on both of them," he said. "When she's better-fed; when he's stronger; when she's stronger... And we want to return him to her full-time as soon as we can. She doesn't have to hunt for him; we have plenty of meat-scraps. But he must learn to be an Ikran, and no part of that involves confined spaces."
-
Rick agreed to that wholeheartedly. Ikran were meant to be outside, to soar though the air, either free or together with their Na'vi companions. Having one of them confined for longer than absolutely necessary was just wrong in his book.
"So it's gonna be a step-by-step approach," he mused. "Maybe for a while just bring the little one out in the day, when it's a bit warmer. And at the same time, we're pampering Ni'tingal so that she's stronger and warmer too."
-
"One more thing, and it's going to be a little tricky," said Kenten. "The first person to give him solid food must be his mother. Normally she'd be the first one to feed him at all, which is why we don't have our adult Ikran snatching away our suppers!" He smirked. "Hand-feeding is far, far from ideal. But with this one it wouldn't be wise to rush him outside the moment he's out of the shell. We'll give him something nourishing but not all too appealing--no meat scraps!--and let his mama introduce him to the good stuff."
Enya didn't even have to think about that one. "Little Grey Packs!!" she squeaked.
-
"Little Grey Packs?" Rick made a face. He could see Kenten's reasoning, but still... "You seriously wanna feed this poor little chick that stuff? How about...I don't know, some broth or something?"
-
"Ikran don't really drink," Kenten explained. "They get most of what they need from their prey, and the rest almost by accident when they're fishing or bathing themselves and manage to swallow some water."
Brenda thought about Enya's idea. "Avatar rations actually make sense. They've got everything a Pandoran creature needs...and nothing that they want!!" She grinned.
"Is so!" Enya vouched. "When Tali and Waytelem found my pack, animals not had touched - no animals, not in ten days! Already ate Solanda's sandwiches; no food left in there 'cept Little Grey Packs...and even Palulukan musta said 'Nuh-uh; no thanks!'"
-
Rick still wasn't too ecstatic about using the Avatar rations on the little Ikran. "I can still picture Ni'ka's face when she first tried them. Poor girl; she didn't even know her name back then, but she definitely didn't like that stuff... Well, it's gonna make sure he'll love his mommy once she starts feeding him the good stuff."
-
"That's the idea," said Kenten. "She should be the only one feeding him, so that his strongest attachment will be to his own kind. But we'll have to settle for her being the only one feeding him anything he'll enjoy."
"Oh, I dunno," Brenda mused. "He won't complain about the grey mush if he's never known anything else."
Enya put up her nose. "I did!" she huffed.
"You cheated--Solanda kept bringing you cookies after hours!" said Brenda. "And speaking of cheating..." She stretched and yawned hugely. "Bedtime for Brenda; I've cheated myself of sleep!"
"Indeed," Kenten realised as he considered that she'd been up since yesterday's dusk.
-
"Yeah, you've been up quite some time now, one way or the other. You go get some shuteye." Rick nodded to the other human. "Should we wake you if something happens with the little guy?"
-
"I think Ni'tingal will take care of that - when she hears her baby chirp, you'll be able to hear her from Hometree!" Kenten answered. "All right; let's get this thing into Tsanten's house."
"I go get rocks and moss," Enya volunteered.
Tali considered. "I can do that," he said. "We'll need you to work the Tawtute equipment, such as the heat-lamps."
"What I know 'bout heat-lamps?" said Enya. "Is Sky-People stuff, yes...but that don't mean I know how to use 'em; old-animal rocks not need to be kept warm!"
"Ah - you have a point there," Rick agreed with Kenten, then laughed about Tali's and Enya's discussion. "Why don't you go looking for moss and stuff together and leave those heat lamps to me? Ya know - let the Sky People do the Sky People stuff?"
"THANK YOU!!" Enya squeaked, all but picking Rick up bodily in her most vigorous embrace, then setting him gently back on his feet to catch his breath. "Is embarrassing, everybody thinking that 'cause I grew up at Sky-camp, I must know how to use everything they do! I not know how to use robots or special bed or Little Blinky Machines; I not even know how to use Solanda's deep-sound machine; someone hadda show me where big lamps are here..." Her ears colored and her shoulders slumped. "Only know what I been taught; and been learning that that not was much!"
-
"Eh, that's still more than I can do." Rick shrugged, loosening his shoulders after Enya's enthusiastic hug. "And I've been guarding science expeditions for years...but most of the equipment those guys use is still some big mystery to me. You're a child, Enya, and you're still learning - there's nothing wrong with that." He gave a wink at Tali. "And according to your brother, I'm a complete baby with a lot of things one needs to know to get along on Pandora, with even more to learn."
-
"Is not to worry," Enya reassured him. "Na'vi teach you all that if you stay home enough! And, umm, Brenda show me paints and paper and stuff she made, all from here...so think she maybe know a little bit 'bout that too."
Tali bumped the Avatar's arm. "All right, now that that's settled--let's go set the little guy up. Between him and putting green on the shacks, we have a lot of work to do today!"
"Oo, and only us four to do it," said Enya, meaning Rick, Kenten, Tali and herself. "And I not can do much..."
"Tangek's here," Tali reminded her.
"But who gonna ask him??" Enya said anxiously. "He all stiff with Sa'nok--think they still mad!!"
"It won't get better if he sticks to pouting. Sooner or later they'll have to figure it out," Rick mused. "Alright, I'm gonna set up those heat lamps, and then I'm talking to Tangek about helping us cover the shacks."
Enya giggled. "'Pouting'? Never did think of it that way! Not so scary now--'less you tell him you said that!"
Tali was pondering their manning situation. "I think Brenda knows the most about hiding the shacks, but she's zonked out now or about to be... Maybe that'll have to wait? Nobody's found us yet..."
Kenten looked doubtful. "That doesn't mean they won't find us today," he said. "If you ask me, we've been beating the odds. It doesn't take much technical expertise to spread dirt on the roofs for starters. After that, we can make nets to hold the leaves and branches--you know, put them through the holes and tangle them in the twine? You and I fish; we know how to make netting, though it'll be a while before we have enough. At least we managed to find plenty of vines."
They discussed the details a bit further; then, getting back to the matter at hand, Tali took the soon-to-be terrarium out of Rick's hands and carried it into Tsanten's module while Enya went to get some moss.
-
Rick followed Tali along into the module where Silronsem was still watching for Tsanten. "You're getting some company in here," he smirked at the healer and her patient while checking for a good place to put the terrarium. It had to be out of the way so that nobody accidently stumbled across it, and close enough to a power outlet for setting up the lamps.
"Oh? And who might that be?" asked Silronsem.
"Ni'tingal's baby - once he's worked his way out of his egg," Rick grinned.
Silronsem's hand flew to her mouth. "Oh...my!" she blurted out.
-
Tali and Rick spend the next quite-a-while setting up the incubator/terrarium for Ni'tingal's egg. They put it under a bottom bunk in Tsanten's module, with the idea of Tali, Rick, Enya and maybe Brenda taking turns sleeping on the bunk itself so that no matter when the egg hatches, someone will be there to notice.
Meanwhile, a certain self-propelled Avatar gets an inspiration...
Enya, having collected a whole armful of moss in a large gathering-pouch, now contemplated the matter of stones. They weren't hard to find; but her eyes chanced to fall on the pit-oven next to the bonfire, and it gave her an idea. "If stones be good, warm stones be better, yes?" she mused. "Can keep baby-Ikran warm same way me and Tsanten stay warm at Hometree, bringing stones from fire... Not gotta learn how to work those! And when they cool, he can use them for bracing."
Surprised and pleased by this burst of cleverness, she hustled into the longhouse to fetch a firepot for the stones.
She returns with her finds as Tali is briefing the young healer Silronsem:
...Silronsem's second verbalisation sounded just like her first: "Oh, my!"
"That's all right," Tali assured her. "We've had plenty of practice with strange roommates...right, Enya?" He grinned at the Avatar as she maneuvered her way into the module, drawing a predictable "HEI!" in response. Only then did the boy notice that his not-so-little sister was armed with a pot of hot stones. Fortunately for his full head of hair, their possibilities as projectiles didn't occur to Enya either.
Enya takes "first watch", with predictable results...
Rick chuckled while checking out the second lamp, switching it on; and when it started glowing too, he backed off again. "Seriously, I've never seen someone fall asleep that fast before; and as a soldier you usually learn to take your naps when- and wherever possible."
"She's earned it, though," said Tali; then he turned to Silronsem. "Do you have any idea what a hero she's been this morning?" And he gave the healer the rundown on all that had transpired during their foraging trip, including Enya's first time riding at a canter, her quite competent climb up the rock, her discovery of the undersized egg in Ni'tingal's nest, and everything she'd done since then to nurse it along.
"I'll just have to tell Tsanten, then," Silronsem said. "I'm sure he'll get a good round of taps and scratches out of that tale!"
-
Rick climbed down from where he had been fixing the lamps. "Seems as if everything's prepared here and we can do nothing but wait. In the meantime, I'd better go and try to enlist Tangek's help."
Tali smiled again. "The sooner that egg gets in here, the better...and I know all the gentle ways to wake up Sa'nok."
So saying, he ducked out of the module and began to make his way across the courtyard.
-
-:-
Tangek was leaning against the B-shack looking broody...or, to those few people who knew him closely, maybe a little lost.
Interpersonal relations with non-patients had never been his strong point. But 'Iheyu understood him. 'Iheyu had always been there for him as coworker, counsellor or "Close-friend" according to his needs of the moment. And lately, to their mutual surprise and delight, they'd been drifting into something more like soul-friendship.
He'd surprised himself again by how quickly and thoroughly he'd bonded with her family once he'd permitted himself the leisure time to meet them. How he treasured the moments they'd already given him! When he'd taken Enya on that thinking-walk, and when she'd called him "Sempul", and when Tali had chosen to sleep in the cabin near him instead of in the module with his mother their first night at the compound, he had felt honored. He had also known the, for him, rare sensation of affection both given and received; of his flaws and quirks just being part of what endeared him to those who mattered most.
All told, and the occasional spat aside, the experience had gentled him somewhat. He hadn't known he had that kind of tenderness in him. Neither had anybody else...except probably 'Iheyu in her wisdom; 'Iheyu, who could See without Tsaheylu almost as well as most people could See with it.
So how had it come to this? Why had she said those things? Did she really think he and his mentor Tiye were cowards?
If anyone else had said such a thing, he'd have bristled and roared and sent them scurrying. Even the warriors knew better than to test his temper. There wasn't much that anyone in the Clan could say or do that would get to him, unless it was concerning a patient. But he'd handed himself over to 'Iheyu. Only her insights really mattered; only her advice had he taken to heart...and thus, only she had the power to wound him.
He let out a long, shuddering sigh. Blast this place; for him it had been nothing but pain and frustration. Blast the circumstance that had brought them here; why here, and not a place of the People? And blast the constant little crises surrounding the human woman - the mood swings and mini-panics that everyone was forced to respond to, and that everyone had to deal with instead of having the chance to really bond with each other, and be a family, and work out how to have some semblance of a normal life again.
-
Rick followed close behind Tali, looking around for Tangek until he finally spotted the healer leaning against the wall. The Na'vi's face was dark and Rick's own mood sank - Tangek didn't look very open to any suggestions. But the soldier still walked over and leaned against the wall too, giving the taller man a greeting nod.
"Kaltxi, Tangek," he started. "It's been quite a day so far, huh?"
-
"That it has," the burly healer said noncommitally; it was only the truth.
Tali, more than aware of the tensions in the camp, was still nearby in case Rick needed some help with Tangek, and it was looking like he did. "You're not kidding!" he replied with a wide smile. "'Course, you've been part of the big news..."
"Indeed," Tangek said a little more warmly; his prickliness did not extend to anybody's boy-child, most especially this one. "You finding Ni'tingal's nest; us bringing her baby home... That's one load off our minds, at least. Give me one of those great bloody Tawtute digging-machines and I might be able to move the whole lot..."
"Enya did it," Tali informed him. "We were looking for stuff to dress up these shacks with--you know, like we were talking about yesterday? And we heard an Ikran screech--and Enya took off on Kilvanä--and we were all 'Wait!! You're gonna get your head bitten off!!!' And she's all 'Na, is Ni'tingal! I baby-Ikran to her!' And she goes tearing over there and jumps off Kilvanä and hauls herself up that rock-face and jumps right into the nest as if she jumps into Ikrans' nests every day or something, and she's all 'Hei, girl, how ya doin', long time no see!'"
This breathless account had the desired effect; Tangek chuckled softly, a hint of a smile in his throat if not on his lips. "Now, lad, you know to save the tale-speech for the bonfire..."
"No, really!" the boy protested...then just as promptly began backing water. "Okay, maybe she didn't jump off Kilvanä--more like wriggled; and maybe she didn't haul herself up the rock--more like crept..."
"I get the idea," Tangek said with a wave-off, the smile making inroads into his voice this time. "Of course, by tonight she'll have flown up there...and all the witnesses will agree!"
Tali grinned, then gave him an earnest look. "You know...that's the first I've seen of the old Enya since she came to us. Really seen. We've had fits and snatches, sure--mostly when she'd try some stunt she wasn't ready for. But up there...she was her again. Not a cripple; not a klutz who used to be an acrobat. Just her, being herself because she can. It's...good to see..."
-
"Tali's right," Rick agreed, recalling the scene at the nest. "Guess it's 'cause she didn't think of it, she just did it 'cause she knew it was the right thing to do. And we all know it's only partly her body that's keeping her back." He grinned to the two Na'vi. "Although I think my heart was in my pants half the time, at least until Ni'tingal almost hugged her back."
-
"Ni' did hug her!" Tali exclaimed. "She stretched a wing over her, pulled her right in, nuzzled, cooed... Actually, you know how she got the rest of the way up? --Ni'tingal grabbed her by the seat of her shorts and plopped her in the nest!!"
Then he pondered Rick's statement about Enya's relationship with her body. "Umm...last week, yeah; about the only times she moved fast were when she did it without thinking. This, though... This was totally thought out, totally on purpose. Did you see how carefully she got off Kilvanä at just the right spot to start climbing? And how sure she was of each hand- and foothold? Rick...I don't think her body's getting in the way anymore. I think she tells it what to do and it does it, same as you and me. Same as old times. She's the boss again."
-
"Well, then we'll find her up the trees and on top of the shack soon," Rick only half-joked. "We all know how she loves to climb."
He eyed Tangek. "Actually that brings me to something I wanted to ask you. It's about time this place stops looking like a human camp. Not only to hide from any search parties from Hell's Gate, but even more to make it a place we can all feel a bit more comfy with." He raised a brow. "I had to be blind to see that living in a longhouse around human shacks makes all of you uncomfortable - and that's not how it's meant to be."
-
Tangek gave Rick an enigmatic look as he debated in what tone to respond. What was he supposed to say to that? 'Is that so'? 'About time you noticed'? 'And what, exactly, do you think you can do about it'?
To his credit, he said none of these things. Instead he replied, "Rick...this is a human camp; it can't very well pretend to be anything else. Dress it up how you like; it'll be easier to look at, at least. But it's still not, and never will be, a place of the People."
-
Rick suppressed a sigh. "It started out as one, true. But that doesn't mean the place can't change. It's true, it can never be your real home, especially 'cause you can't make a connection to the place like you're used to - things being as they are. And I'd bet all the paychecks I'm never gonna get that the only thing you really want is to just go back home again."
He glanced at Tali, briefly pondering how much he should go into detail around him, then decided that the boy probably knew the reasons behind the move anyway. "But you decided to come here for a reason...to keep Tsanten safe, and the children. And those reasons are still valid, as much as I wish it wasn't so. So...we all have to make the best out of things as they are." He gave a faint smile. "And I just don't know what it takes to make this place as un-miserable in Na'vi eyes as possible. So we need you and 'Iheyu, Kenten, Silronsem, Tali, Enya - all of you - to decide what you need."
-
"Na," Tangek agreed. "It never can be our real home. You see, home isn't just a place. If it were, any little knot of us could stay anywhere, free of commitments or attachments...even here. But...and I'm not the best person to say this, but I'm the only one here right now to say it...'home' is mostly people. Lots of them, doing all kinds of things. Hunters, warriors and healers, yes...but dancers, singers, crafters, and teachers too; wise older people and adventurous young ones; and leaders to take that burden off the rest of us.
"We here, this little knot dropped into this foreign place, have to do it all without any support except for each other...and we can't. We've been giving it our best for a week...and we can't. We live in numbers for a reason. And we are wearing ourselves down trying to be a whole Clan by ourselves. In trying to be everything, we are becoming nothing, and making ourselves less and less able to stand the strain... Does any of that make sense to you? Is it a thing than can be fixed with nets full of twigs?"
Tali, seeing that the discussion had gotten underway, slipped away to see about getting the little Ikran egg from his sleeping mother.
-
"Yeah, it does make sense," Rick nodded. "And no, that can't be changed with a net full of twigs." He looked down, kind of beaten; a Na'vi in his position would probably have drooped his ears. "And to be honest, I have no frickin' idea how to solve that one. I'm fresh out of miracles."
-
"Well, we were talking last night about visiting Hometree now and again," Tangek said. "Especially Tali and Enya; they could spend the day there, learn what they can, meet who they're going to... I think they'd like that, and I wouldn't mind ferrying them back and forth every day if I had to. There are only two problems with that--neither of which would keep us from doing it. The first is that Enya, at least, is thriving here, and she might need to make a more gradual transition into her new life, and this'd be the best place for her to do it. The second is...if the rest of us go even once, we might not want to come back..."
-
"Mmmmmmhm." Rick rubbed his temple, thinking. "Maybe...uh... Say, did anyone already tell you that Brenda and Ni'ka ran into Atreyu and his family this morning? He and the rest of his hunter friends were on their way to another settlement, a bit upriver, just far away enough to not hurt our hunting. I'm pretty sure Kenten will make a trip there soon; maybe that's something for the rest of you as well?"
-
"Just the pongu?" Tangek asked. "So they're finally doing it... Well, that's another place to visit and a few more friends to see, at least--though I can't say it brings any new skills to our mix. It's out of harm's way; there wouldn't be the same worry as with Hometree. And if it's the one I'm thinking of, it's a long day's ride from here, or a few hours' flight... Why, I do think we could be talked into staying overnight, or maybe for a few days..."
Then he came back to earth; his mouth went tight. "But someone has to hunt for you, and someone has to care for Tsanten, and someone has to tend the animals and the fire, and someone has to be on-hand for Ash's next incident--and someone else in each category has to stay behind to relieve the first batch. Well, that's all of us..." he growled, throwing up his hands.
"I'm not sure, you'll have to ask Ni'ka or Brenda, but I think there were more of them than just their hunting group and their families," Rick said.
Tangek raised his eyebrows a little. "You mean they might have a real evacuation going? That'd be something..." He thought about that for several moments; the meanings; the implications. "Then enough people have become convinced that the threat is real," he said, a little dismayed.
-
"Yeah, it sounded like that... From what I got from Ni'ka and Brenda, it wasn't just a few families but a really big group of people living there," Rick said, confirming Tangek's guess.
Then he gave Tangek a sideways glance. "You know - the way you say it it sounds like we need a babysitter all the time. We might actually be able to survive one or two days on our own." To be honest, he was starting to get a little impatient; Tangek was turning out to be one of the most stubborn people he'd ever had to deal with. And the healer had a talent for looking for the fly in the ointment...
-
Any incipient softness in the healer's demeanor lifted away, though not beyond recall. "May I ask you one question?" he said acerbically. "What with archery lessons, riding lessons, our hunters earning that Angtsik meat, Ash's...problematic condition, the plan to grow food-plants from the nuts and seeds in our rations, your mate being suicidal, and the entertainment value of having Tali and Enya around, exactly how much of yesterday do you think you would have gotten through if we were not here?"
-
Rick sighed and gave a half grin. "Hey, don't let Tali or Enya hear that you think we'd value them just for their entertainment value... In my book, Tali's a great scout already at his young age - and it might have been Enya and her reaction that saved Ni'tingal's baby in the end." He let his shoulders sag. "And you have no idea how grateful I am that Kenten was there at the right moment..."
He kicked at a little stone, frustrated as he somehow couldn't seem to find the right words. "We've got a real mixed bag of a group here - Na'vi, humans, Avatars, Changed ones from each of those... Somehow I think all we can do is work together as well as we can to make things work out somehow. As you said, for Enya this here is probably the best place to make a gentle slip into her new life..."
-
Tangek reflected on what he'd just said and what Rick had just said, then chuckled and shook his head ruefully. "Oh, dear...I suppose I did sound a bit patronising there, hmm? No offense, Rick, but I've been listening to that kind of talk from your mate since we were still at Hometree, and hating every minute of it--and then here I go doing the same thing." He sighed. "And you're right; we just don't seem to know how to talk to each other about these things...
"But that's one of the reasons I think it'd be better if we were, as Tali might say, out of each others' faces. We can't clash if we're not here dealing with each other every moment we're all home. And I don't mean to make it sound like 'us against you'...but you two only have your own situation to deal with. We have both yours and ours, and it's a strain. So much so that a part of me is relieved that a largish group of people has chosen to leave Hometree and take themselves to somewhere we can visit--if we could only spare the manpower... But there it is. There are just enough of us to sustain ourselves here--and nothing else. And it takes everything we've got just to do that. And even at that we're living in guest quarters and largely on the food others bring us. Rick..." He made a somewhat helpless gesture. "We can't keep this up..."
-
"Wouldn't you live in guest quarters in that other camp too?" Rick asked. "I mean, it's not as if that group will have a grown Hometree there - or would they?" He had never really thought about how close those trees grew to each other. "But of course, it'd be Na'vi guest quarters, not something we humans set up - that probably makes the difference..."
His face mirrored Tangek's helplessness. "I know we're in a tight spot - and there's no use in running yourself ragged. And we don't have the right to ask it from you."
-
Tangek only now became aware that he'd been speaking to Rick from three feet overhead all this time, and he had the insight to realise that it was probably not going to help the tone of the conversation should either of them step too hard on a delicate subject. He took a seat on Brenda's porch steps and sighed.
"What's making this difficult for me personally right now--what's really brought it to a head--is that Tsanten is now well enough to travel. He doesn't need to be here anymore; and since most of us are here to support him and the rest are here to support us, it means the rest of us don't absolutely have to be here either. You have no idea how badly I would like to leave. But Tali and Enya like it here, and 'Iheyu would stay for their sake, and Ni'ka won't leave you two... This threatens to tear our family apart."
He fell silent for a bit and gazed out, to the extent that he could in an enclosed space, as he debated saying anything more. When he finally spoke again, his voice was shaking: "Rick...'Iheyu and I had a talk last night that turned into a verbal brawl. She said some things... I hope she didn't mean them; I hope it's only the tension of our unnatural situation. But there is a barrier now between me and my beloved, and I don't know how thick it is or how long it will take to wear it down or what I might lose in the process...and this could not have happened--the discussion that started it would not have happened--if we were not feeling so...trapped. Do you see what I'm saying?"
-
Rick gave a half-chuckle. "Oh yeah - I see exactly what you're saying here. Actually, it's a sign that Na'vi and humans aren't that different in some things at all. Saying the wrong things or acting in a way we wouldn't have otherwise when we're tense or upset... Seems we have that in common."
He looked over to Tangek. "I don't know if you know it - but when I was younger, in a different life, back on Earth... there was this girl I loved - we wanted to become mates. And then she died in a stupid, useless accident, just 'cause someone else was sloppy." He shook his head. "I said quite my share of stupid things back then - almost killed the guy who I thought was responsible, not even listening to what he had to say. Then I drowned myself in alcohol, and when I sobered up I enlisted for the next ship to Pandora 'cause that was as far away as I could get. In the end that turned out to be the best thing I've ever done, but I still feel ashamed about how I treated that poor guy. It wasn't me that day speaking and acting, it was my grief and anger. So - yes, I think I can see where you're coming from."
He scratched his neck. "What a mess... Nobody ever meant to risk your family. That's not worth it at all - crap is, I've got no solution for you. Just one bit of advice: Go talk to 'Iheyu. Don't let that wall become too thick or too high. Tell her what you told me. And without shouting or yelling," he added with a smile. "I'm sure she'll understand; she cares for you."
-
"Easier said than done!" Tangek replied with a half-smile. "Or do you remember she's got a temper too? And I wouldn't dream of shouting...not with Brenda right behind me." He jerked his thumb in the fierce Dreamwalker's general direction; he'd been inside the B-shack, he knew where the bunks were.
Then he sighed. "I don't have an answer either, except to leave my family; leave with my family; or keep putting up with it. Well, nothing for it now..." He spread his palms, shrugging; then he stood and dusted himself off. "So let's give ourselves something to think about besides rocks and hard places, shall we? We can start on the shacks; at least it'll make the kiddos happy."
-
"Yeah, they were both all for some redecorating...although I guess a bit of that moss now went into baby-Ni'tingal's future nest." He shook his head with a grin while he started towards the piled-up bags with leaves, ferns and vines. "If someone had told me I'd ever be building a crib for an Ikran baby, I'd've probably asked what he had smoked out there..."
"What'd you come up with for him, anyway?" Tangek asked.
"A box made of glass...that size." Rick showed with his hands. "It's filled with sand and moss and heated stones - Enya's idea, by the way - so the little guy will have it soft and cozy; it's in Tsanten's module, with heating lamps above. It's not perfect, but it'll keep him warm until he's strong enough to stay with his mother."
-
"Sounds like," Tangek nodded. "And the box sounds big enough for the egg. But once the little fellow's out, he'll need to be able to stretch his wings...they have to dry after hatching, you know, and after that it's just what an Ikran has to learn how to do more than anything else. We might want to just fix up that whole end of the module so he can spread out to his little heart's content." The thought made him chuckle.
"There's a bunk where he can jump around a bit," Rick grinned. "The one where Enya's taking her nap right now. And yeah, he should be outside of that box as much as possible - and of course with his mother."
Tangek considered. "By the time he's hopping on and off platforms, he'll be too big for inside! Not to mention he'll have been with Ni'tingal for a while before he gets to that stage. But Enya's stones are a wonderful idea for helping him learn to sit up and to crawl. Once he's mastered those, he'll be ready for his mother and, ahh, 'life on the edge'."
-
Rick chuckled. "You should have heard the discussion about feeding him. Poor little guy; there are Avatar rations in his future...nutritious, but they taste like cardboard. And that's insulting for cardboard... That way he learns that the really good stuff only comes from his Mommy. It makes sense, but I still feel kinda sorry for the little guy."
-
"You mean Little Grey Packs?" the healer laughed. "I have it on very good authority that eating a few of those will make you immune to Vrrtep for life!" By now he was well into the task of gathering all the ashes he could from the firepit and funnelling them into containers so they could be spread over the roofs of the shacks. "It's a good plan, though; the little fellow won't know anything better until he gets it from his mama. --Say, could you find Kenten and ask him if he's got some manure? Na, I won't ask you to work with it..." He winked.
Rick raised a brow. "Do I even wanna know what you want to do with the stuff?" As Kenten was nowhere to be seen, he guessed the hunter would probably be with the Pa'li, caring for them.
Tangek smiled wryly. "It's going on the shacks too, but mostly around the perimeter of the camp," he began. "It helps the camouflage. You see, we're not just trying to remain unseen by the kunsips. We're trying to make this into something other than a scar on the land. The animals we hunt are not going to come any closer to this place as long as it smells too clean. No fear; most of the scent will dissipate as it dries, and I suspect it'll fall below the threshold for humans at least... The other thing is that there might be plants in your haul that will grow from fallen leaves and stems just as well as if they had roots. If we put the manure on the roofs and the plants sprout in it, we will indeed have shacks--or at least coverings for shacks--that grew here."
-
"Makes a lot of sense." Rick nodded. "We might put an extra load around the chopper then, too, to mask the smell of fuel and metal and grease. Which reminds me that Brenda said she might have a camouflage net for it too..." He peeked over to where the Samson rested between the closest trees and sighed. "Not that there's enough fuel left to fly anyway. Whatever, I'm gonna find Kenten now - and hopefully some manure."
-
"I think I know where Brenda keeps that net," Tangek said. "Not that I'd go in there while she's asleep!" He took a moment to look around the compound and frowned as his eyes fell on the Avatar cabin. "Now, where is that boy? You'd think he'd've been back out with the egg by now--we need his help!"
-
"I don't know - maybe he's wrapping it up in an additional layer? Or he has to wake 'Iheyu first? As far as I know she's sleeping curled up around it." Rick shrugged. "Whatever - I won't find Kenten by just standing around here..." He turned on his heel and made his way towards the corner where the Pa'li used to graze.
-
Tangek tiptoed over to the longhouse and ventured a peek inside. 'Iheyu was indeed asleep in Tall Brenda's stall, curled up on a mat under the Avatar's hammock...and Tali was napping with her, his arms around her neck, and the egg covered and secure in the warm pocket between mother and son.
-:-
-
"Kenten? Are you there?" Being a human between a group of gentle but huge Pa'li wasn't the easiest way to spot someone, even if said someone was a Na'vi. At least Rick could see several heaps of manure on the ground, so even if the hunter wasn't there he would at least be able to collect some of the stuff.
-
But Kenten was there; the little hunter had seen to the Pa'li and their burdens after the outing, so now he was actually breaking up the manure with a trimmed branch that served him as a rake. "I was thinking this might be good for Enya's houseplants," he said when he heard Rick's voice.
-
"It probably would," Rick agreed. "But right now we need the first load for, um, decorating the roofs of the shacks. And the chopper." He pointed with his thumb. "Ya know, to mask the scent of the things? Tangek's idea...and if you ask me, we should start with the chopper, 'cause even I can smell that one."
-
"Now, there's a thought!" Kenten said cheerily; then, his voice a bit more subdued, he asked: "So you've talked to the poor fellow? What's the reading on his mood?"
-
Rick sighed and started counting on his fingers. "Torn, lost and worried. He doesn't like the situation you guys are all living in, and I can really see where he's coming from, even though I can't see a solution for it. And the fight with 'Iheyu is getting to him. So, in a nutshell, I've already seen happier people than Tangek is at the moment."
-
"Like, say, Enya her first night here?" Kenten mentioned. "Or Tsanten his first day at Hometree? Difficult times for those two, to be sure...but they were surrounded by people who were concerned for them. Tangek, now...he doesn't have many close friends. This must be something close to terrifying for him."
He walked to where the now-empty gathering-pouches lay against the Avatar cabin and began to fill one with 'horse-apples'. "Very good idea, doing the kunsip first. It's the smelliest object here, true...but it's also the one you least want the other Skyfolk to discover. A leaf-net over it and some manure where needed should keep anyone from finding it...or wanting to take it with them if they do!" he laughed.
-
"Probably not," Rick chuckled. "We should just try to avoid manure on the pilot's seat. I mean, chances are low I'm ever gonna fly that baby again, but you never know - and then I'd rather not have any Pa'li excretions on my rear."
He eyed the chopper with a slightly regretful smile. "I'm really gonna miss flying - but even with enough fuel it'd be too risky."
-
Kenten's expressive face now took on a look of quiet concern. "I'm surprised they haven't found us already..." It said something that he used "us" instead of "you", including himself in Rick's group and Rick in his; at least one Na'vi in the place felt that he and the rebels had a common cause.
Their pouches full with the first load, they made their way to the mostly-hidden aircraft and spent some time determining the parts of it that most needed the olfactory camouflage. It was while they were inspecting it that Kenten made a most pleasant discovery: "Heia, look here--I think we've found Brenda's leaf-net!!"
At this, Tangek pricked his ears and jogged over. "You realise that you two have just saved me a very risky expedition into her home, don't you?" he said, quirking a smile.
-
"Kenten has; I had completely forgotten," Rick admitted, looking slightly sheepish. "Yeah, we threw it in there when we packed up all her stuff yesterday, and we never took it out."
Being the shortest of the three, he jumped into the chopper and started tugging at the folded-up camouflage net, pulling it towards the two Na'vi. "One leaf net to hide a chopper away."
The net was big enough to cover a shack...or the trailer of a big-rig, which was much the same size. So it draped very nicely over the contours of the Samson, which, while being close to a shack's length, didn't have those boxy corners...just the rotors jutting out on each side. The two Na'vi then went to gather leafy branches to fill in the holes in the net.
- - -
-
Enya, napping in the module, was being paged by her nervous system. She wasn't as comfortable as she had been when she'd plopped herself face-down on the bunk above the terrarium's heat-lamps. In fact, her skin informed her, it was getting a little too warm... "Nngghh!" she suddenly grunted. A normal environment was one thing, but even she couldn't sleep through being roasted!
She sat up; it was still hot underneath her, so no, she hadn't been half-dreaming things. She stumbled when she alit on the floor, but caught herself on the opposite wall, discovering that her newfound coordination did not extend to leaps...not even short ones. She got on her hands and knees and pinpointed the problem; then, still not knowing how to regulate the lamps, she went outside in search of someone who did.
"Hei!" she called out towards the busy group in the bushes. "Think lamps maybe way too strong; what they gonna do to baby-Ikran when they almost cook me??"
-
Rick was busy draping the net over the Samson's back when Enya stumbled out. When she complained about the lamps getting too hot he frowned. "I was almost afraid of that," he muttered. "And those darn things can't be regulated - I better switch them off before someone gets fried."
-
-:-
Enya's shout had not only gotten the mens' attention, but also roused 'Iheyu and Tali in the cabin. 'Iheyu, like any mother, always had one ear tuned to her childrens' voices, distress calls in particular; while Tali, of course, seldom slept deeply to begin with.
Their eyes opened at the same time; they startled; they smiled. Tali patted the little bundle between them. "We made somewhere to put him now," he said softly. "But, umm...how do you know it's a 'him'?"
"Ni' knows, and I learned it through Tsaheylu," 'Iheyu smiled. "The only thing more intimate than the Bond is carrying someone as a part of your body... You had your name before you were born."
They made sure Ni'tingal's egg was secure in its gathering-pouch, then scooted out from beneath Tall Brenda's hammock and levered themselves up off the floor to see what the fuss was about, with Tali carrying the egg.
-:-
-
Rick jogged back towards the module and checked the lamps - and the temperature of the bunk. "Ow - yeah, that's definitely too much. So there goes that idea." Then a thought crossed his mind. "But maybe we can use those lamps to reheat the stones once they get colder."
Enya considered. "Do like that idea! Maybe put lamps on floor, and put rack over lamps, and put stones on rack? Then not gotta run out to the fire all the time... Think maybe one lamp for stones and one for baby-Ikran? Or both for stones? Hmm..." She put a finger on a lip and went into Ponder mode, one ear up and one ear back.
"Let's keep both for the stones," Rick suggested. "I don't wanna risk him getting too hot. After all he'll be just a baby, with very soft and sensitive skin."
-
They made this determination just in time, for it was right then that Tali entered with the egg. "Umm, what happened to the lamps?" he asked.
"Got too hot!" Enya answered.
"Must have, if it woke you up," Tali teased; Enya just glowered.
Silronsem came over from Tsanten's bedside. "Here, let me check it..." she said, moving her hands through the space beneath the bunk. "Hmm...I think if we move his box right in front of the heater, that will keep him warm enough from above and behind, while Enya's stones will cover his needs at ground-level."
Tali, who'd appointed himself Terrarium Master, did as the healer suggested. The group found the temperature in the new spot much more to their liking; Enya placed her stones, and her brother finally lowered the egg into the tank and replaced the lid. "Now to find something to use as a rack," he said and went back outside.
"So who gonna sleep with him first?" asked Enya.
-
Rick rubbed his chin. "Mhm...I'd say you or Tali." He would have liked to keep an eye on the egg as well; but he had no idea if Ash would link out overnight, and he wanted to be there if she did.
-
"Gonna be me, you, Tali and Brenda," Enya said. "Think I done sleeping, and you guys be putting stuff on shacks soon and I wanna help... Tali?"
"Had my nap," her brother reported. "Didn't really need one, but I saw Sa'nok crashed out under Tall Brenda's hammock and I felt sorry for her, so I kept her company... But who says the person has to be asleep? I'll mind him."
Silronsem smiled at them both. "You know, it's not a long walk from Tsanten's end to this one," she said. "And it's not noisy in here either. You two go have a normal day; I think the healer on duty will know when the baby hatches. We'll save bunk duty for nighttime."
"Irayo!!" Tali and Enya chirped together, then bounced and crawled, respectively, out through the airlock.
-
Rick smiled at Silronsem. "Thanks...that's sure gonna help. And now to get the kids up onto the roofs..." He gave Silronsem a good-bye wave and ducked out of the module as well, strolling back towards the chopper where he guessed Kenten and Tangek would still be busy with the additional leaves.
-
Tangek spotted Rick first. "Kaltxi again; how's our patient doing?" he asked, meaning Tsanten.
"Which one?" Tali grinned. "The little Ikran's in there too now!" This brought the biggest smile Tangek had given in two days.
Meanwhile, Kenten stood back and looked over their work. "It's hidden, all right... Of course we could add a lot to this over the next few days, but I do believe we've done the job for now!" he said, satisfied.
Enya's nose twitched; she knew the smell of Pa'li manure, but there was something familiar about what the men were doing with it... "Ahh, is 'spreading', like John teach me in garden!!" she remembered. "But, umm...why you doing that around kunsip? Is not gonna grow!"
-
"Now wouldn't that be great?" Rick chuckled. "Just take a small one, sprinkle some manure around it and water it, and then watch it grow." He turned to Enya. "So - nope, not for growing, but for masking the smell. You know, the animals around don't like the smell of oil and fuel and grease and metal, so we hope the manure will make the place at least smell a bit less 'alien'. We're gonna put some on top of the roofs too. And there's the hope that maybe some of the seeds and vines might develop roots and the manure might help them with that."
Then he grinned at Tangek. "And Tsanten's just fine - now that he found a way to 'talk' again he's already got Brenda wrapped around his fingers. Literally - she wanted to do some manicure for him, and he made pretty clear that he likes his nails just the way they are."
-
Tangek did a double-take. "He...what?? He's speaking again?? How--" Then he excused himself and dashed over to the module.
Tali took off after him: "Wait up--let me explain!!"
'Iheyu lofted her eyebrows. "I'd like to see that...or hear it," she said, smiling softly. "But we don't *all* fit in there, and I'll have my turn tonight... So: How did he do it? We thought his voice was gone for keeps!"
-
"Whoops... Well, guess Tsanten's gonna show him...or Tali will." Rick gave a lopsided grin. "He's using his hands for it, and that Morse code. You remember the sounds - long ones and short ones, what we used to encrypt Brenda's info? In a string, with beads and knots? He uses the same method to 'talk' now. And as Brenda knows the Morse code, she can understand it."
-
"I do remember about that code," 'Iheyu smiled. "And now that I think about it, it shouldn't surprise me that he remembers it after using it just once... It's what a Lorekeeper does: remember things and make symbols for them. I suppose this is just a new set of symbols--and I suppose we'd all better learn them!"
She considered a bit further. "Enya, you know it by sound if not by sight, don't you?"
The Avatar nodded tentatively. "Can see, too, with knots in strings; knots mean taps, taps mean marks..."
"Let's teach you those marks, then," 'Iheyu suggested. "I think they might be easier to make than a story-string."
Enya's nod became vigorous, and she broke into a smile: "Rick and Brenda can show me; then I can write what Tsanten say!"
"Yes, you can," her Sa'nok concurred. "And once you do, I will present you by the fire as a symbol-maker and full member of the Clan. Your code-string will be your armband."
"Olo'eyktan not gotta do it?" Enya queried; and "No Dreamhunt?" asked Kenten.
"We're not all hunters and warriors," the healer reminded him. "And we're not at Hometree. I believe there is a thing among the Skyfolk called a 'field promotion'? Her spirit animal will come to her soon enough."
Enya just stood there dumbstruck, her eyes gone wide in something deeper than joy.
-
"Yeah - there's such a thing," Rick confirmed. "And I agree, Enya sure deserves it. That's something important she came up with." He was pretty sure the Na'vi wouldn't stick to writing down simple letters like humans did, but come up with something much more complex--especially as they didn't have any written language yet.
-
The ecstatic look slowly left Enya's face as her more typical uncertainty crept back in. In all her conscious life, very few good things--certainly not the important ones--had come to her completely without stipulations. There was always something she had to do or some way she had to be or some who-knew-how-long period of time she had to wait, and this had never been more so than in her time with the Na'vi.
"But...Sa'nok..." she began, "I not know nothing 'bout being Na'vi...I not know stories or hunting or how anybody do stuff or even much words..."
'Iheyu put her hands on the Avatar's shoulders and smiled. "Oh, but you do know things...and you have done some very remarkable things," she said. "Do you remember when you sorted the clothes and blankets Rick brought in his kunsip?"
Enya nodded.
"Or when you were upstairs that morning, singing in Solanda-talk to Tsanten?"
"Uh-huh..."
"Or being the first to notice his eyes had turned blue?"
Enya nodded again.
"And you certainly were Na'vi enough for Atreyu that night, and for the whole Clan when we came down the next morning..."
"Really?"
"Really," 'Iheyu assured her. "And, Enya...after what happened to you and your Sky Person, choosing to Bond with Kilvanä was one of the bravest things I've ever seen--and I know all the warriors."
Enya bit her lip.
"Who's our best gatherer? Who brought Brenda to us? And who went completely out of herself and played with Eywa's first daughter?"
"Awwww...." The Avatar looked down and blushed.
"And who rescued Ni'tingal's egg?" 'Iheyu asked softly. "I will be forever grateful to you for that...and I thank Tali in my heart every day for bringing you to Hometree, and the Olo'eyktan for letting me keep you."
What could Enya say to that? She didn't; she just melted into her Sa'nok's arms, her eyes moist and her tanhi absolutely glowing.
-
Rick stepped away a bit at that, wanting to give mother and daughter their little bit of privacy after such an intense and tender moment. They'd be back to business soon enough.
"Sa'nok?" Enya asked eventually from somewhere over 'Iheyu's shoulder.
"Hmm...?" the healer said from somewhere over Enya's.
"What be symbol-maker?"
"Oh, my..." 'Iheyu stepped back. "I suppose that was a bit rash of me to say you were going to be something when you don't really know what it is," she chided herself gently.
"Is okay," Enya responded to her mother's sheepish smile. "'Rash' is same-same as 'all-sudden', yes? I do lotsa all-sudden stuff...like get-on-Pa'li stunt, 'member?"
"How could I forget? If I ever forget any of your stunts, it will only be because you've pulled so many of them that I lose track!"
They shared a hearty laugh; then 'Iheyu addressed the question. "A symbol-maker is someone who speaks in ways other than words. There are many kinds of symbol-makers. Some make bead-strings that mean something--a highly skilled one might even make story-strings for the Lorekeepers. Others, such as those in Tsanten's lands, paint on rock-walls or carve things into them. Others carve certain objects from wood or stone, such as story-stones or objects used in rituals that stand for the Clan. The Olo'eyktan has such an object. It is made of a black stone dotted with white crystal growths. We are the Tompa'tanhi, the Rain Star Clan, and this bowl symbolises the rain of stars that marked our founding."
"Rain of stars...?" Enya had no idea what that might mean, but she knew one thing. "Ooo, Brenda gonna like that story!" she said, bouncing a little bit. "Stone sound like one called 'snowflake obsidian'..."
Now it was 'Iheyu's turn to look puzzled; but then, it could be hoped that no Na'vi would ever have to learn what a 'snowflake' was.
"Umm...so I be somebody who says by making?" Enya asked, returning to the subject.
"I think so," said 'Iheyu. "You make things for a Lorekeeper, and before you even came to us you'd found a story-stone. I believe Eywa let you find that stone for a reason... And I think you are going to show us new ways of making."
Enya thought about this--thought about her code-band, the beads that meant pats that meant marks; about Tsanten's speech of hands, which only she could read with any skill; about the teaching she would do for those without words; and about the stories in old-animal rocks, which only she could tell.
-
"Brenda's definitely gonna like that story," Rick nodded at one point in the talk. A rain of stars - that sounded very much like a meteorite shower. It had probably made the already impressive night sky of Pandora even more fascinating. The Na'vi, being close to their homeworld and Eywa as they were, might not have seen it as a divine sign the way so many former cultures on Earth might have, but it still must have made an impression. There sure were worse ways to name a new Clan.
"Rick, what you think?" Enya asked, cocking her head at him. "Brenda be symbol-maker too? She draw, write, make maps, make code-talk...even knows story-dance!"
"In a way...maybe." Rick tried to wrap his head around the whole concept. "But I think she's more like a scholar who just uses the symbols." He thought of Brenda's knowledge in guerilla fighting. "And a warrior as well."
-
'Iheyu considered. "People who tell stories by dancing are dancers," she clarified. "A symbol-maker tells stories by making. And not just any sort of making; Tali carves things, but the things he makes are for everyday use."
Enya cocked her head at Rick again. "Brenda very fierce when she gotta be...but she a warrior?" Apparently her barracks-mate had not told the young Avatar about her past as a resistance fighter... But Enya wasn't done yet: "And how anybody gonna be warrior and dancer and symbol-maker all at once?"
-
"Not all at the same time," Rick smirked. "But people change over time, learn new things, decide to pick up something else, but that doesn't mean they forget what they learned before. And sometimes they want a break from what they're doing." He looked up to the tall Avatar child. "Back on Earth, the man who taught me to shoot a gun, he was a really good warrior. But he also loved to play guitar and sing in a band - so at daytime he was a warrior and in the nights he was a singer. Both things were part of him."
-
'Iheyu nodded in agreement. "I don't think the People specialise quite the way the Skyfolk do," she added. "If someone is a Lorekeeper, for example, that doesn't exclude him from dancing; indeed, he can make dancing part of how he tells stories. Brenda might be a kind of Lorekeeper; she writes and paints to tell the stories of the sky.
"The way someone gives to the Clan is a calling that comes from the deepest parts of her being. You cannot keep a dancer from moving her body in beautiful ways; you will know she is a dancer the first moment she can stand on her own feet. And a born storyteller will play all kinds of pretend games with her toys and chat your ears off as soon as she can talk! But while that is who she is, it is not *all* of who she is. And it seems that among the Skyfolk, too, a person is permitted to do more than one thing. If all we had was our work, it'd be a dreary world."
"What if I not like drawing or writing that much?" asked Enya.
'Iheyu smiled. "You'd still like beads and codes. It's not the act but the way of thinking that makes someone a symbol-maker. And they are rare; it is a rare thing for one of us to consider not just what something is as it rests in our hand, but what it means and how we can pass that meaning on to people who will be born a very long time from now...maybe even 'millions'. A symbol-maker is a preserver. If all the Lorekeepers fell silent, we would still hear their voices in those carvings on the rocks."
"Wow..." Enya looked like she'd been rocked back on her heels. To think, to imagine, that anything from her hand might last as long as Tsanten's story-stone, or eventually become as ancient as old-animal rocks... She felt a power rise up within her as she gazed at her hands.
-
Rick remembered something he had read as a boy - back in the days when he had tried to get his hands on all information about Pandora, he had also stumbled across a few pieces about ancient human cultures. "Humans did it too," he said, almost hesitating as he tried to recall the information. "There are paintings in caves...and they're old, very old." He smiled at 'Iheyu. "I guess you would say from the time of our First Songs. They told stories about hunts, and other stuff I can't remember."
He peeked over to where the others were still working on the camouflage project. "But I think I better go now and help with masking the chopper, or there'll be a very different hunt going on here!" he joked.
-
'Iheyu peered at the Samson. "No, I think Kenten said they're done with the kunsip," she said; and, indeed, the little hunter had moved on to the large branch Rick had shot down--he was chipping part of it into shack debris. "I know what I'd like to see," the healer continued. "The place you've put Ni'tingal's egg!"
"Is in Tsanten's house," Enya told her. "But I not all-the-way understand how it work...think maybe Rick can explain!"
Rick could get that - of course 'Iheyu would want to see where her companion's egg and later the baby would be. "Okay - come along," he said. "Tali should have put it in by now."
Enya led her two companions to the module and ventured a peek inside. "Oo, got three big Na'vi and a little one," she tallied. "Tsanten and Silronsem *gotta* be here, so, Sempul? You gotta come out so Sa'nok can come in..."
There was an awkward silence on the healers' end of the module; then Tangek nodded, said "All right," and exited the module.
"What be that about?" Enya asked Tali.
"I dunno," her tsmukan replied. "I know he and Sa'nok disagree about Hometree; but that's not the same as actually being mad at each other...is it?"
-
Outside, Tangek stepped aside so 'Iheyu could ascend the porch-steps. He gave her a nod and a little go-on-in gesture; she nodded back; but no words passed between them.
Rick, standing literally in between the two healers, let out a breath. "You know - you're gonna have to figure that out sooner or later," he said just loud enough that he couldn't be heard inside the module. "If you ask me, I'd go for 'sooner'." He looked up between the Na'vi. "Times are bad enough already without us fighting with the ones we love."
He didn't stop to wait for any reaction but instead stepped inside the module.
-
Enya and Tali proudly escorted 'Iheyu to the glass case on the floor in front of the climate-control unit that kept the module warm. "See?" said Enya. "Got warm stones in there like for me and Tsanten at Hometree, and here be rack on top of heat-lamps to make cold stones warm again, and..." She prattled on.
But 'Iheyu's eyes were only on the egg. "We've put you through some trouble, haven't we?" she murmured to Rick. "I feel responsible for this whole situation; I ask myself if Ni' mightn't have done better if she could have chosen any nest-site she wanted, in any territory that suited her. But she will not stray far from either me or the Ikran of our Clan. Our mounts are wild, yes. But because of their loyalty, they are not free..."
-
"Oh no," Rick shook his head. "Tell me, where could she have gone to? Do wild Ikran really stray far from their rookery in the mountains? And is there a place better than here for her now? Would the other Ikran have hunted for her while she was breeding? Or cared for the egg like we do now?"
He didn't really have answers to that; but something told him that the little guy inside his egg would only survive because they were all helping his mother - by feeding her as well as keeping the egg warm when Ni'tingal didn't have enough body warmth to spare.
-
'Iheyu made no reply except a soft and grateful smile. Then she lifted the egg out of the terrarium and gave it to Rick to hold. It was mountain-colored and about the size of an ostrich egg; big for an Earth-bird, but more like a shed tear for an animal who might one day carry a Na'vi on its back.
"You've earned the right to cradle him as much as anyone," she said quietly.
-
Rick took the egg with awe and held it like something precious; actually he felt as if it was one of the most precious things he'd ever held. Suddenly he felt almost clumsy - that was a little life he held in his hands now. Still tiny; but he remembered the impressive shape of Ni'tingal, and the difference even deepened his awe. He slightly caressed the cracked shell, peeking into the tiny hole the Ikran chick had already produced.
"I think you're a strong one," he told the not-yet-hatched baby Ikran. "You survived so many bad odds until now. The cold, your mommy not having enough food, your siblings not being born... But you're a fighter, in there. And I know you'll make this last step too, once you're ready."
He turned to 'Iheyu. "Ya know, it's as if I can feel his heart already beating in that egg."
-
"As he already feels your love and the love of those around him," 'Iheyu responded warmly. "He should have as much company in here as we can provide him."
"Not gonna be a problem!" Enya announced. "Small people gonna take turns: Me, Brenda, Tali--and Rick!"
'Iheyu quirked a brow. "And do Brenda and Rick know this?"
"'Bout like Brenda know yesterday she was gonna hide shacks; she find out when I tell her!" Enya grinned.
-
"Yeah, and if Enya's gonna tell her, she'll just smile and agree." Rick grinned too, knowing that the Avatar had the driver wrapped around her little blue finger. "Rick, on the other hand - he knows already, and he's ready for egg watch."
'Iheyu smiled. "The little one is part of a community--part of the Clan--and the sooner he knows this, the better. In the shell isn't too early to learn it in his heart..."
"Well, if it depends on sending him good feelings, that's something we all can do." Rick very carefully handed the egg back to 'Iheyu. "You want to hold him a bit longer or put him back in his box?"
-
"I think he's warmed enough that we can take turns, if they're not too long," 'Iheyu advised. She carefully handed the egg to Tali first. Enya didn't get jealous, didn't fuss; she might have been the one who rescued the egg, but she didn't feel more entitled to it than her brother. Tali was, after all, both older than her and a true Na'vi. But in this matter both children were infants, as was their mother. Ikran always nested far away in the mountains, not at Hometree. No one in memory had actually witnessed a hatching.
Tali suddenly smiled. "He's moving a little," he said; and as the others pricked their ears, they could indeed make out the faint scratches the chick made as he repositioned himself within the shell. "I think he's turning in his sleep..."
All three just gazed, their expressions those of a five-year-old lying belly-down on the grass watching in fascination as some little insect crept up a blade and flew away.
-
There were actually four pairs of eyes staring in complete fascination at the egg. Rick couldn't prick his ears and he wasn't sure if he could really hear something, but the picture of a tiny Ikran moving in his shell had something heartwarming to it.
-
Tali handed the egg back to his Sa'nok to be put back in the terrarium for a while before Enya got her turn. In this, too, his sister was patient; and when 'Iheyu nodded after a time, she lifted the egg out herself and cradled it much more tenderly than she had ever held a fossil, a story-stone, or even Solanda's pass. But there was a strength in her aura too as she communed with the little spirit inside, lending it the steadiness, the peace, and the sense of her place in the world that Mother-god had given her the night of the Blessing.
'Iheyu Saw this and smiled. Apparently the not-so-lost Avatar now had enough of these things to spare.
-
Of course Rick couldn't See the way 'Iheyu did; all he could see was that Enya cradled the egg tenderly and seemed to talk to it silently - maybe trying to give the little guy in there strength and encouragement as well as he had tried to do.
-
Enya, being Enya, didn't remain silent for long. But there was nothing intrusive about the hushed tones in which she encouraged Ni'tingal's child: "You wanna be born, yes...yes, you do. Is a good world out here. Cold outside, yes; not so bad right now. Real nice under Ni'tingal--have tried it. And in here? Is warm and blue! Warm and blue, baby-Ikran. You wanna be in warm and blue, yes? --Is what I like best; warm and blue and floaty." Then she winked into the little hole and grinned. "But floaty is different for you than for me. I was floaty before being born. You gotta wait 'til you big and strong! Is good reason to learn how to fly, yes? You come on out when you gonna; everybody here be real good with wee-small people--Enya and Sprout and Tall Brenda when they wee-small inside sometimes; you and Tali and Rick and Ash wee-small outside; Kenten smaller than me. You gonna like it here. Is a good world."
She gave the egg another cuddle and a few strokes, then returned it to its "nest" and arranged the warm stones and insulating moss to her liking.
-
"Maybe we should leave the little guy alone now for a while?" Rick suggested. "We've showed him that we're waiting for him, and maybe now he just needs some time to sleep and rest. I guess it's hard work to pick his way out of an egg shell."
-
Tali nodded. "I'm sure it is! Especially since he fills the whole thing," he said. "Kinda hard to get any leverage when you can't even straighten your neck..."
"And yet hundreds of Ikran chicks do it on our mountain every year," 'Iheyu responded. "It's amazing what someone can do before they're old enough to know any better." The subtle jest was lost on Enya, but Tali beamed.
'Iheyu turned to Rick. "All right, then... I think we've got a bit of work waiting for us outside? The sooner we see to those buildings the sooner we can make that watch-tower tomorrow," she said.
Tali arched his eyebrows at her. "Maybe you better check with Tangek to see if you're allowed to lift anything today?" he suggested teasingly.
"Good idea; I think I'll do that," 'Iheyu replied with a gentle smile.
A little fussing in the corridor later, the family emerged into the courtyard, Enya rubbing her arms as she adjusted to the temperature outside again.