MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE

S E V E N

I yawn. It's probably early. I've been waking up fairly early, according to Jake and Grace. There's an alarm set for four thirty in the morning. I sit up and stretch. Right then, said alarm goes off. It startled me. I grumbled. The sooner I could be back with the Na'vi, the better.

I wait a few seconds, before I hear the soft padding of feet making their way to my bunk. They trip, whoever it is.

"My bad, my bad," Norm says, and Trudy chuckles. "All right Iris, hop up. I'm your assigned friend today!"

Norm loves helping me out, I found. He walks me to the bathroom. Handing me the clothes that Grace picks out every day, he leads me by the sink. Then, he exits, I presume anyways, and leaves me to change.

Once I'm done, I open the door. I feel a hand slide into mine. It's smaller than Norm's. I give them a side look. Trudy chuckles.

"I didn't know who you were for a moment," I said happily. She just chuckled again.

"Well Reaver," Trudy says. "Here we are. Veula, the least glitchy. Jake is reporting to base so he'll use the one there today."

"Yessssss," I say, knowing all of the links worked perfectly fine.

She laughs and helps me in. I hear Grace from around the corner. Trudy says a "hey boss" and pats my head. Grace kisses my forehead, a habit she's gotten into. She calls me her second child. She must have another. It makes me wonder.

"All right mama," Grace says, using my nickname. "Today, I've been informed, is a free day. The clan has a lot of food, spring is hot on our heels, and there's not really anything to do. After taking care of a few children, Jake has informed me, you and Neytiri will be paired to scout Hometree from the inside. Afterwards, you're free. Now, get in there mama."

"Yes, mother," I say, giving her a childish grin. Well, I can assume it's childish. She chuckles, so I can kinda guess.

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As soon as I'm in, I hop out of my hammock. I stretch, feeling my vertebrae and neck pop. I look around and find Neytiri and Tsu'tey waiting. Tsu'tey has this flustered look on his face. Neytiri looks like she's in a smart-alic mood. This'll be very fun.

"Good morning you two," I say in Na'vi. Neytiri nods and Tsu'tey just grumbles. There's something fishy going on here. . .

"Who do you want to spend the day with, Neytiri or me," Tsu'tey says, catching me off guard. His face is almost emotionless. He holds a little bet of begging in his eyes. It's like he wants me to be with him.

"We could have a free day," Neytiri begins, "or you can ride Txur with Tsu'tey. Which you do almost every day."

I stare at them. I feel my face scrunch as I come into thought. I do ride Txur a lot... But I literally LIVE for riding him. And Tsu'tey is my teacher... But Neytiri and I never hang out... And it's a free day on the line!

"Neytiri, I will go with you," I say in Na'vi. Tsu'tey grumbles and Neytiri hits his arm. He waves us off and I catch a glimpse of abandonment in his eyes, before he smiles playfully at me. I return the gesture, waving.

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Neytiri and I spent a few hours around camp, like Grace said we would. But, after telling stories to the children, we found ourselves freed by Tsahik. The kids were fun to mess with, believe me. We took them up the the branches to watch the Ikran while we told stories, but it got boring after a while.

"We should go swimming," I say to Neytiri as we walk along the branches of Hometree. "We're free with nothing to do, come on. Let's just go do something!"

I cry out in boredom. She chuckles at me. We make our way back into the tree and down the spiral. We stop at the weird armory place and grab our bows, then we're off. I take Txur and Neytiri takes one Direhorse she likes, named Ozoza, I think.

I laugh as we splash through creeks and jump bushes. A few 'Angtsìk graze below a ledge we ride across. From above, they look beautiful, their fanned heads glistening as they lay against their backs. We make it to a shallow river, and unmake shahaylu. Neytiri tells me I shouldn't call it the halo. She just said Jake didn't understand it at first. I laugh along with her. We've been getting along lately.

It's been about a month and a half. I took to the language okay-ish, but I really love riding Direhorses. Especially Txur. Feeling his strong body, and beating heart, and pulsing lungs under me just eggs me deeper into this hole I keep riding myself into. Txur and I almost got lost yesterday. It was quite enjoyable watching Tsu'tey find Txur and not me, while I was in the trees. I enjoyed jumping on his back. He actually laughed a bit. It was like I was breaking that stone face he always had.

As Neytiri and I begin to swim up the current, which you can barely feel, we watch the small and medium fish swim by. The large fish would've gotten caught by the ridge a good ways down the river, so they wouldn't have made it up here.

I have found a sister in Neytiri. I have two best friends in the tribe, two male hunters named Aton, and of course, Ta'al. We three usually go out hunting if I'm not with Tsu'tey.

Tsu'tey is a WHOLE different bag of marbles, though. He is so different from everyone else. Where others openly share to their friends, I don't think Tsu'tey has any real friends. Besides me, I think.

I mean, I know Neytiri is promised to him, but he has told me he doesn't feel that way about her. He keeps saying yet, like he believes that he'll magically fall in love with her.

Neytiri and I must've swam for hours before we got out. My skin doesn't wrinkle into a prune state like my human skin does. It's fricking awesome.

We realize it's dark by the time we get to the tree of souls. Really, it's a grove of trees, but they don't have many plural words I've also found out. I'm finding a lot out. I don't know why I'm usually surprised, they're not humans.

I begin walking through the vines. It's so easy to just walk through them like there's no end. But, we come to the center, where a fairly large tree sits. I connect my queue to three vines, and begin to listen. I hear the voices of the Na'vi ancestors. They're telling stories, jokes, scolding children, and laughing. Just laughing. It's beautiful.

I always cry when Tsu'tey brings me here for peaceful lessons. The voices are so amazing. By themselves, they're just.... Just so.... So spectacular. That their ancestors are all here, their souls are here for them to connect with is so spectacular. It's just beautiful. I wish I was born a Na'vi. But, I'm a small dumb human who can't see. To hear my father's stern voice, see his shaggy brown hair, or hear his amazing singing on nights it was hard to sleep. It makes me cry, rivers of tears flowing down my face. And for a moment, I caught a few words.

"You are my Sunshine"

I smile. I must've been dreaming. Or hearing things. It's so active in here.

It sucks being human. I honestly wish I was Na'vi... I wonder if the all mother could make me stay in my human body forever... Maybe... But I am being ungrateful, I should be thankful that I can even be apart of this.

"Yes, my child, you will be lucky soon... Do not lose hope. I shall prevail. "

Who the? Was that.... No... In my head? Eywa? Was that you?

After I get no reply, I remove my queue from the vines, their lavender glows dying down to a bioluminescent purple color. They're still so beautiful....