MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE

T W E L V E

That night went by nicely. After last meal, a bit of singing, and some dancing between the females and children, Tsu'tey pulled me off aside with Mo'at. I was a bit worried. It could've been about earlier.

"Irisreaver" Mo'at said in her well-spoken english, "you are to earn your Ikran tomorrow. You could find any kind, Ikranay, Ikran, and then maybe you might not. But, I must warn you, there has been sightings of the elusive Hufwe Mucto. The Wind Rider. Be on the lookout for this rare breed."

I gave her a confident grin, but it was ruined three seconds in by a well-earned yawn. I hadn't been sleeping well, so I knew I'd be tired. I'd finally get rest knowing that I was to be one of them tomorrow. Tsu'tey smiled wide at me, a smile not only from a teacher. I was glad we had become friends, there's more to him than meets the eye.

We walked, slowly and side-by-side, up the spiral. It was a silence that I enjoyed. He'd taught me a lot. Maybe he was a little lenient towards the end, saying I got all of the dances down. I didn't. Oh well, I'll be fine.

We stop at the branch leading to the cocoon-like beds. We stop at the same time, and turn to each other. In an awkward moment, we begin laughing. As our small outburst dies down, we sit in that silence. I find myself looking into his eyes, deep, deeper, until I'm lost in the swirling shades of orange embedded deep into vibrant greens, like a wild swirl pulling me in. His arms go from his sides, to my forearms, to my upper arms. I keep mine to his, crossing over my chest to touch his hands wherever they roam. They stop shy of my shoulders, and I feel myself gradually heat up.

"I'm proud of you, even though you are a crazy skxwang," Tsu'tey says, half here and half lost in thought. "Iris, if I could- If there was- If I had to choose, I'd choose you."

With the last cryptic sentence, in all it's pieces, he rushes away, nearly sprinting to get to his bed on the other side of the spiral. I find myself dwelling on his statement. I shake my head, and slowly walk over to my bed. I sit on the branch, about to slip into my cocoon-like space, and I feel something collide with my head. I hit the bed sideways, and go toppling what must be three floors to a human, down and down. I scream, and hit the ground, and see nor hear nothing else.

When I hit the ground, I woke up. I hit my head, and began screaming. Trudy and Grace happened to be awake and close, so they came to my rescue. It hurt so bad. I couldn't hear, nor feel the back of my mind, my legs and lower arms were numb, and my whole scrambled head was pounding. It was like I'd watched 9000 hours of T.V., IF I could see, that is.

In the end, I ended up on Jake's lap, as soon as he was back, he was singing "You Are My Sunshine" in my ear. It does a lot, because he knows that was the song my dad would always sing to me. He knows a lot about my dad, and he'd only ever met him twice. He knew his favorite color, favorite food, and favorite shows, all because I told him. Jake was the only person I had to talk to back then. I'm glad I still have him, and now I have Grace, Mo'at, Neytiri, tsu'tey, Norm, Max, and many more.

About an hour after coming out of my link with a shock, I fell asleep. I had a pretty good sleep, considering I had the Christ scared out of me by something I don't know the cause of. Despite having that scare and waking up afraid, I told Grace to wake me up at four thirty, as always.

When she asked why, I used her favorite thing. Granted, she uses it against Jake, but the tone of her afterwards laugh was worth it. "Village life starts early," I said, causing her to laugh motherly. It had made me smile.

When I woke up, I tried to link in with Jake, but Grace pulled us both aside and made us eat. After some pretty good powdered eggs and substitute bacon, made by Trudy of course, we finally got in. Grace kissed my head before I went in, like a silent prayer.