New Kid In Town
[LOCATION- TSAHIKS TENT]
The Tsahik's tent was rather sizable, with multiple mats laid on the floor, which had a few na’vi in them. They looked at you like you were a ghost, they heard the commotion earlier but couldn't see what it was, so to see a dream walker again was like seeing Eywa.
The mother was in the center grinding what you assumed were herbs used for healing. The girl walked in front of you to go and talk to her mother. You followed her, staying a bit back to continue looking around.
“Mama, I brought the dream walker for some treatment, she was injured” The mother looked up at you. One of your legs had a bite on it, the blood was dry now, but you could still feel the stinging and ache in your leg as you walked.
“Come, Y/n suli, I will fix you up” You walked to her hesitantly, still quite scared of her. “Hurry up or I'll just let you bleed” With that you rushed and sat in front of her, your back as straight as a board, she seemed to find that funny as she shook her head with a smile.
“Neytiri, grab some things for her wounds” she gestured somewhere while she took your calf and inspected the damage “How did you get this?” she looked up at you with a raised eyebrow, well she would if she had any.
“Oh umm, I walking in the forest when a pack of Viper wolves found me” she looked at you with a confused face “You fought off a pack of Nantang alone?” she looked at you with a look of bewilderment
“Well no, your daughter helped, She killed the one that jumped on me, knocking me to the ground, and another one came and latched itself onto my leg” You looked away embarrassed
“Hmm, well not many can say they met a hungry pack of Nantang and live, Be lucky she was there” The girl came back with a bowl, leaves, and some seeds “Thank you my sweet daughter” the girl's cheeks darkened at her mother's affection in public and handed the items to her and plopped down next to you and rested her head on her knee
She began to grind the materials and when it was a creamy texture she took your leg again and slathered it on your wound, it stung like a bitch and you almost pulled your leg back till she swatted your leg telling you to “stay still”.
“Daughter, you will deal with the rest, I'm going to get ready for dinner,” she got up and dusted herself off, the girl scoffed and tried to argue back “Why do I have to finish it, why not the other healers?”
The mother sent a harsh stare toward her daughter, the girl bent her ears and sat in front of you, and mumbled a quick “sorry” in na’vi. She took the remaining cream stuff and put them on your other cuts, putting a bandage on a cut across your back
You just sat in silence, you would wince when she put pressure on an area that hurt, She rolled her eyes and continued.
“Umm thanks, a lot I really appreciate it” You smiled at her, She rolled her eyes again and she got up and offered her hand.
You took her hand, standing to your full height you looked down to see you were a little taller than her, and her eyes reached your chin while you could see the top of her head. You only realized you were still holding her hand when she yanked it away and walked out, you followed her a little embarrassed
[LOCATION- COMMUNAL MEAL GATHERING]
The girl led you up the spiral walkway to where the people were eating. As you two emerged you could hear the people talking, bantering, and signing, but when they saw you, they all went silent, just staring at you
“He-Hey, how yall doing” You gave a quick awkward wave, but you were only met with silence and more staring “Please please stay seated” You tried to bring the mood back as the girl led you to a place to sit, waking a few people with your tail, even stepping on someones
When you got to the girl, she pushed you down and went to get something.
You looked around to see a little girl, she looked at you with curiosity, and you waved at her showing her your five fingers. She giggled at them and went to wave back but her parent stopped her, she frowned which made you laugh.
You looked back to see that the girl came back with something wrapped in leaves, she sat down next to you and gave one to you. “Thank you, miss, hey don't think I caught your name” You looked at her waiting for a reply, “Neytiri te Tskaha Mo'at'ite”
You looked at her confused, she said too fast “Umm can you repeat that, slower” She continued her meal “Neytiri” She looked to you “Nahtiri?” You looked back seeing if you got it right “Ney-Ti-Ri” she repeated a lot slower this time “Neytiri” she nodded “Huh, *pretty*, well it's nice to meet you, Neytiri” you smiled down at her.
You took a bite of the food she gave you earlier, your eyes widened at the taste, it was sweet and salty at the same time. The mushy part tasted like a creme puff, while the crunchy part tasted like a crispy fry
While you were eating your eyes would wander to Neytiri’s parents and the guy from earlier. Every time you looked you'd catch them staring “Uhh seems likes your folks like me” you mentioned to Neytiri, You both looked over to see them continue their gaze, this time talking
“She seems clueless” her father whispered to his mate “Hmm, and her eyes are too small” the mother finished, and they both chuckled between themselves “Though it seems she good with children” her mother continued “Perhaps it's cause she has the mind of one” her father made his mate laugh out loud, her smacking him lightly
You looked back to your meal, taking another one of these delicious things
“Mmm, these are good,” You took another one, putting it in your mouth and already grabbing another one “What are they?” she grinned “Teylu,” she told you “Teylu huh, pretty good”
“Umm you call them, beetle, larvae” She grinned at you to see your reaction.
You were about to put another one in your mouth, trying to rester that fact you were eating a bug, but you gotta admit, it was a damn good bug
“Hmm Well, some damn good Teylu, how momma used to make em” you joked and popped the bug in your mouth with a grin, she smiled “more Teylu” and gave you some more, which you excepted with a grin.
Time passed without either of you talking, and you just sat there eating.
Neytiri already fished her meal since she gave you half of hers to you. You sat eating, when you noticed the little girl again, she peeked out from behind her father. You smiled at her again, to which she waved, like she wanted to before.
You made funny faces at her which made her quietly laugh. You saw her eyeing your food, so you gave her some of your Teylu as Neytiri had done for you, She gasped and took it with a big grin on her face, You smirked at this a turned back,
You saw Neytiri looking at you “Sorry”, thinking she was gonna scold you, but she turned forward without saying anything
You finished your food when you felt a tug on your tail, you were met with the girl behind you. She held her hand out to give her last teylu to you, You smiled and took it from her “Thanks kid” You ate it and smiled.
Neytiri stood up and told you to follow her, so you did. She started to walk away from the rest of the people, and when you looked around you noticed that they're were fewer people now.
“Come, we go to sleep now” she called for you “finally, I'm exhausted” You followed her up the spiral
[LOCATION- OMATIKAYA SLEEPING AREA]
After the walk, she stops in front of two branches and jumps, grabbing the smaller one and lowering herself on a hammock thing. After seeing this you copy her and walk to the one next to her.
gathering the courage and jumped, gabbing the smaller branch, and lowered yourself into the hammock bed. It rocked a bit, but you stabilized yourself enough to get on your side, you did the ‘paint me like your French girls’ pose from a super old movie you saw once
You looked to Neytiri hoping she found it at least a little amusing, but she just rolled over and closed her hammock turning in for the night. You copied her movements and found it closing in on itself, like a cocoon.
You lay there for a second, just listening to all the noise around you. How the children plead with their families, probably saying they're not tired like you used to do as a kid. Your ears even picked up some people snoring in the distance.
But you felt your eyes get heavier by the second till your eyes finally closed for the night. You saw white and kept hearing something
[LOCATION- LINK POD BAY]
“Y/N, Y/N, Y/n, come kid, wake up” Once your vision cleared you could see Grace wave a flashlight in your eyes, You saw Norm and Max looking at your vitals “Common kid, that's it, Jake, your sister is up” you heard jake head your way and saw a head poke into your field of vision
It was Jake's big head, You smiled at him, and he was relieved that you were okay. “Thank Christ you're okay!” They sat you up as he held your hand “Man you were stubborn, weren't you missy” As you finally sat up you could feel how much sweat was on your body
“Is the avatar safe?” Grace asked, You smirked and shook your head “Oh yeah, and ain’t gonna believe where it's at” You looked at her with big eyes “Well where is it?” she asked, “Oh ya know, just sleeping with the, oh I don't know-” you stall a bit “just spit it out already” she shook you a little “it's with the Omitikaya peoples, sleeping sound and safe”
Grace's eyes were as big as Polyphemus, and her mouth was slacked jawed “And you're not gonna believe the next part, they're gonna teach me the ways of the people” Grace's mouth was like a fish, opening looking for oxygen “Ho-how did you do it?” her grip was tighter
“Well I came across this girl and she took me to her clan and the tsahik I think, she said I would learn the ways of the people, well after I told her I was a former warrior which seemed to catch the eyes of this one guy” you rambled on without catching your breath
“Ok ok kid, why don't you go eat some food, We’ll talk more about it later” she offered, You nodded your head and went to stand, but your knees gave out on you and Norm caught you
Norm put your arm around his shoulder and supported you, he and Jake walked you to your room while Max and Grace went to get your second dinner, so you could rest in your room. By the time you got there, you were able to support yourself.
When you got to your room you took a shower while Jake stayed by your room.
While in the shower you just thought about your life. You had an eventful life sure, Your parents died when you were young resulting in Tom taking care of you, and hell, you graduated high school in your junior year because a college wanted you, and when you were about to graduate college the RDA wanted to employ you as a geologist, and now you had to learn the ways of the native population on pandora.
It all happened so fast for you, you are barely in your 20s and this shit happens. All you wanted to do was look at your rocks and live a peaceful life
*
When you finished your shower you stepped out to see food on your bed and Jake waiting for you. You walked over and sat on the bed ready to eat. Jake just sat there looking at you like you'd disappear if he looked away
“I can feel you staring a hole through my head” The food you eat was bland and tasteless compared to the Teylu you ate about an hour ago “Sorry, I'm just- god” Jake sighed and threw his head in his hands
“Hey it's ok, I'm here, safe and sound, What, you think that dumb animal could kill the mighty Y/n Sully!” You flexed your muscles at that, which made Jake laugh “I'm sorry, but how did you get away, tell me everything” he laid his hand on yours.
You sighed and began to tell him everything that happened to you, how you managed to distract the Thanator, how you got caught up with the wolf pack, met Neytiri and her parents, you were recounting the embarrassing attempt at the handshake with her old man
“Did you really try that? You dumbass” he got on your ass “What, I freaked out dude” you reasoned with him
“Ain’t that what you did when you and Tess chick were dating? Ya got caught by her dad and he damn near kicked your ass?” he asked, the memory was burned into your skull
“Oh god yes! But remember when you brought that Clara girl over and mom damn near jumped out of her skin!” you laughed like a hyena, Jake didn't find it funny though
You two continued laughing and talking about old memories till you looked to see it was around midnight. You sent him off so you could sleep.
You fell asleep faster than you did in your avatar body, as you were sleeping all you could see was that Neytiri girl
[LOCATION- MESS HALL 5:30]
“This is Eytukan, he’s the leader,” she told you at the table, trying to educate you on the important people “Lytukan” you repeated hesitantly knowing it was wrong, “No, EY-tu-kan” you repeated it back to her again correctly
“Ok this is Mo’at, she’s the Tsahik, she’s like a shaman and interprets the will of Eywa”, “Mo’at, the scary vampire lady” You made sure to remember hers correctly, less she do something to you for not remembering
“Oh she's not scary, she's just a bit harsh” Grace tried to defend her “She stabbed my shoulder and licked my blood” you retorted with a scared tone in your voice grabbing the shoulder she "stabbed"
“Ok ok, and this is Tsu’tey, he’s the next clan leader, as of now he trains the new hunters” Ahh you remember him, he seemed to not like you at all “Yeah the dick who tripped me up” You shoved a spoon full of food in your mouth “well your gonna have to play nice with him, now repeat his name” you sighed “tsa’tey- ow” she smacked your head “fine tsu’tey”
She showed you the final photo “and this is-” You cut her off “Neytiri” You looked at her “Yes, she’s the next tsahik, she and Tsu’tey are to be mated” for some reason you were disappointed “Oh bummer…for her cause you know he's an asshole” you joked, Jake was the only one who laughed
“Looks like someone jealous- Ow” you hit him upside the head “Oh gross Jake, be mature about this” Norm cut him off. As Jake and Norm were about to bicker someone came to your table, a guy who seemed to shrink under Grace's gaze
“Umm is there a Y/n Sully? Mister Selfridge wants a word with her” You looked at him “Yeah that’d be me” You got up, same as Grace “Oh um Dr. Augustine he made it very clear he doesn't want you there”
“Well that's too damn bad-” interrupting her you said “It's fine Grace, I got this” As the guy walked away you gave them all thumbs up and turn to follow him
* Control center
“Umm mister Selfridge, I have Miss Sully with me” he presented you, everyone was wearing their military uniforms while you wore a punny geology shirt and men's athletics shorts, you could feel Selfridges judging it “Ahh, the woman of the hour, come with me,” and he walked to his office you followed him
His office was decorated in what you assumed were Na’vi artifacts, all in display cases, he even had a bow in the center. He went behind his desk sat down and grabbed something off his desk
“So, geologist huh, so that must mean you know what this is” he held up a mineral you knew quite well, and you nodded “This here is Unobtanium, and you know it cost millions per kilo back on earth, right”
He looked at you “Umm yeah, it's the whole reason we here-” he cut you off “BINGO, this stuff funds everything here, our military and your research” he placed it down on a gravity thing
You looked at him, you knew this information already so why is he repeating it “But we're kinda hitting road bumps, you see we're running out of UBH-310 in our current mine, and we need a new place to mine it. And good news we found a huge vein of it”
“Oh that's good I guess” you didn't know how to react “But OH NO another bump in the road, it's under the local native population's home so we need them out” Your eyes widened a bit as he finished
“And I heard through the grapevine that you were accepted as one of them” He leaned on his desk “So Heres is what I want you to do, okay” he paused to effect trying to gather his thoughts
“I want you to try and get the people out of there to not cause any war and stuff, ya know be peaceful” You weren't buying his “no war” bullshit he just didn't want to cause a scandal
You didn't know what to say though “I'll even throw in something worth your while, I know you were rather poor back on earth getting by on scholarship money and student loans, so if you accept my offer ill get that taken care of and even give you a little extra”
You thought about it, yeah you needed to pay those off, and having a shit ton of money would be amazing, then a thought came to your mind, you could pay for jakes surgery, he could get his legs back, be his old self
“Alright, I'll gamble, How much time do I get?” he seemed to think in his head “You got 5 months Sully, make every moment count” You went to walk out “Oh, and don't say anything to Grace or this whole deal is off” You nodded and left to pod bay
[LOCATION- LINK POD BAY]
“So what did Selfridge want with you?” Grace asked you as she got you ready “Hmm oh he wanted to know what the hell happened to me” Grace looked annoyed “And he didn't come to me huh” she side-eyed you as she punched in some commands
“Nah, he looked scared shitless when I asked ‘Why couldn't she tell you” You both laughed as she closed the metal cage “all right now let's get serious, don't do anything your brother would do, alright” you smirked “Aww man that's gonna be hard” the lid shut and you closed your eyes
[LOCATION- HOME TREE]
You opened your eyes to see that Neytiri was already gone ‘Well that sucks’ you thought. You got up and made your way down the spiral to the base, As you made your way you saw Mo’at talking to her mate Eytukan, She noticed you and you kept walking faster in fear
When you got down you saw that everyone was already doing their village chores. You walked past a group of kids, you recognized the girl from last night in the group. As you passed a group of children, you could hear giggling follow you
You pretend like you can't hear them as you observe everyone else. They kept following you getting louder, you assumed more children decided to follow you too.
You felt a tiny hand grab your tail, and in retaliation, you softly flicked them in the face with your tail. They laughed louder clearly amused by it. The girl would walk in front of you making funny faces and you smiled every time, she liked that you found it funny
Some other kids yanked on your pinky and when you looked over, they were gone then you felt someone pull the other pinky. Their giggling and laughter got louder the more you interacted with them
When you got to the edge of the village you turned around and roared at them making a funny face by pulling your eyelids down and towering your body. They screamed in surprise then quickly laughed getting over their shock
Some copied your pose, and you would playfully growl at them, and growl at you in return. Some adult na’vi looked on seeing you play with them, they had a look of utter confusion, seeing the Dream Walker playing with the children
You stopped playing, hearing something coming from behind you. You looked to see Neytiri with a dire horse, she led the one she had over to you.
“Howdy,” you said in a fake southern drawl while tippy a nonexistent hat to her, the kids behind you laughed, while Neytiri raised a nonexistent eyebrow at you. One of the children pulled on your arm again breaking your concentration
“Come, I teach you to ride” She took the lead again and walked away, prompting you to leave, The kids whined when you left, “Don't worry I'll play with you guys later” They cheered in excitement and ran away wishing you good luck
On the way, Neytiri made a comment “You are good with children” She looked at you “Hmm, oh yeah, tons of my friends had younger siblings, so I would play with them sometimes” you told her rather excitedly “I'm actually the youngest of two brothers, we always played games like hide n seek, tag, I spy-” You quickly noticed you were rambling
“Ahh sorry I ramble sometimes-” she cut you off “No need to apologize” she looked at you briefly “So what other games did you three play?” You smiled and listed some other ones
*
Neytiri had taken you to a watering hole of sorts with other dire horses around, You saw one feeding it was kind of cool how it fed on nectar like butterflies.
The dire horse was acting up, kicking its feet in the dirt and making noise
“Easy boy” patting the horse's side “Pale is female” she corrected you” “Easy girl, sorry” you apologized to the horse, You could feel Pale hit you with her queue, “Good, good” you hear Neytiri muttered under breath to the animal
You geared up to Mount Pale “Easy girl, just stay still for me 'Kay” You leaped onto her, which was rather difficult, Tsu’tey made it look so easy last night. But after your attempts to get on, you made it
You adjusted your position trying to get more comfortable, Pale made noises to which Neytiri just calmed her down with some commands. You took hold of the queue and looked at it. You could see white tendrils coming out of it, like your queue
“This is a Pa’li, a mighty animal we use to ride on the forest floor. Many clans use these animals, the Olangi Clan of the plains is one” When Neytiri finished her little lecture you took your queue and connected both yours and Pale's queue
You took a minute to process it all, your eyes dilating as Pale jumped from the connection, your breathing was out of sync, and your heart rate spiked from it as you were trying to regain it all.
“This is Tsaheylu, the bond, feel her, feel her heartbeat, her breath, and feel her mighty legs” You could feel everything she was feeling as if you were her, you could feel an invisible weight on your back, and as your breath evened out you realized it was in sync with Pale's
“You can tell her what to do, lead her anywhere you want, tell her, in here” She pointed to her forehead “but for now tell her to go forward” You readjusted your seating on Pale, and leaned forward to get better stability
“Alright, Pale forward” you commanded was strong and clear but loud, and it startled her and she sped off, bucking you off in the process. you landed face-first in the mud. You could hear Neytiri laughing at you
You started to get up “Yoau jast lobe ma pien, doant you?” you spat the mud in your mouth out, and she ran past you to retrieve Pale. As you were getting up you could hear more Pa’il riding over, looking up you see none other than Tsu’tey and his underling
Shaking your head you stood up he stopped in front of you “You should go away” you shook your head “Nah, you'd miss my pretty face” Tsu’tey scowled at you while you gave him a cheeking grin “knew you could speak English, You were just shy huh” he laughed at you as you picked mud out off your tongue.
Neytiri walked over with Pale, you glared at Pale for a second before rubbing her head
“Look at her, a rock can see more” His underling laughed with him, while Neytiri smiled before sending him away. She looked at you “again” You looked to Pale as she huffed “All alright Miss Neytiri” you joked hoping onto Pale
You made Tsaheylu once more, this time you had a game plan “OK Pale, work with me here,” you tried to make your voice soft this time “Go forward slowly, to that log over there” You gave her directions slowly and clearly while using the softer voice
And she did just that, she walked slowly to a log, not that far ahead, and stopped awaiting your next command. You looked to Neytiri for her praise, and she walked forward “You did well on your second try, keep working you will be a good rider” She looked to you
“Oh really? better than Tsu'tey?” Looking down at her, she only shook her head and smacked Pale's hind, sending her running, knocking you off again, this time in the water,
You rolled over onto your elbows “You definitely like my pain” You squinted your eyes at her and splashed some water at her with a mischievous smirk on your lips
She froze from the shock and kicked some water at you, “I deserved that” You wiped your hair out of your eyes to see that Neytiri was staring down at you with a small amused smile
“Get up, we need to continue the lesson” you started to get up “Yes ma’am” When you were off the ground you looked to see her already walking away ‘Man she really doesn't wait’ you thought to yourself, noting how she just goes expecting you to follow her like a lost puppy
“Go retrieve Pale” she pointed in the Pa’lis direction, you got up and jogged over to her. On the way you could hear Neytiri talk to herself, though you couldn't hear her but it made you wonder what she was talking about.
*
An hour went by with you practicing how to ride peil, Neytiri showed off her riding skills which only encouraged you more
You saw a small group of kids walk your way, and you noticed the girl from earlier leading the charge “YOU, DREAM WALKER” she pointed to you “Yeah kid?” you tried to calm Pale, as the extra commotion seemed to nerve her “you said you'd play with us, we want to play!”
“I'm sorry kid but I'm still doing my lesson” It took her a minute to process your response, and when she understood she turned around and whispered it back to her friends translating it, “She said she still training, What do we do now” one girl piped up “what if we joined her? Tsu’tey still wants us to practice our riding” another boy entered his two cents “yeah! Let's show this dream walker what we know!”
You looked on with suspicion, Neytiri was in earshot of them and had a slight smile on her face, knowing what they were saying. Their ring leader turned away and faced you, You raised an eyebrow at her “Dreamwalker! We will train with you!” You scoffed at this “You want to train with me”
They all nodded after she did, The kids only understood a little of what you were saying but the leader could so she helped them “All alright, go get you a Pa’il then” She turned and told them just that and they broke like a pack of rats to find on
Once they returned, they showed you some of their tricks. Some even raced and helped you the best they could with little English
“When run, stay calm,” one boy told you “Keep mind empty” You took his advice and told Pale to trot over to Neytiri “Good dream walker, go fast” You decided to try, bad idea as you fell once more. All the children laughed at you
“You be steady dream walker, hold her shoulders when you run” the girl trotted over, While all this was happening Neytiri grabbed her own pail to show you how to balance yourself properly
“You should hold her as this” Neytiri leaned forward, and put her hand on the base of the pa’il's neck in the front “lay on her body like a blanket” You took their advice and tried to replicate it
“Ok Pale, let's try this again” You made the final adjustments to your posture “Move forward, and pick up speed slowly” Pale listened to your commands, and her walk turned into a trot until she started into a run. You guess what you didn't fall off
You looked to Neytiri, and all the kids cheered at your accomplishment. You rode over to Neytiri smiling like a kid on Christmas, you looked proud to as her first lesson went well
Eventually, you all headed towards the home tree again. You ate dinner without a disturbance and rather quickly headed off to bed. Seeing that white light once more.