【 CHAPTER NINE 】

TSU'TEY returned to the Tree of Voices on his own a few nights after bringing the woman with him, a veil of uncertainty and anticipation hovering over his mind. With every cluster of the glowing tendrils he passed while padding along the soft moss covered ground, he felt heavier, sluggish.

It had been weeks since he'd last held communion to Silwanin. To see her and perhaps ease the ever festering hold of grief that had often drove his anger, drove his desire to eradicate all the skypeople. He hadn't been here on his own to commune with her since he'd begun training Ruth.

A part of him held guilt over his lack of visitation since taking on the responsibility of teaching the skyperson woman, a decision he'd made out of a mixture of curiosity and kindness considering he knew her.

Nevertheless, the man felt that speaking to his lost love would clear his conscious and perhaps give him direction. It was everything he needed now when he was questioning his honor and duty as the next Olo'eyktan, his duty to mating with Neytiri and leading a life he wasn't all too sure he wanted.

All because of a woman with demon-blood that had begun to make him question his stance on the skypeople and their inherit evil.

With no visibility of the looming planet Pandora clung to in the sky, the night came with a promise of rain with the overcast of clouds. Stopping near a group of glowing tendrils, Tsu'tey looked toward the night sky as his ears pinned back and he sighed. Retrieving his braid from his back, he lifted the pink swirling tendrils to view as they pushed aside the hair that surrounded them, reaching and ready to grab the nearest object he put them to.

Closing his eyes and drawing a breath through his nose, Tsu'tey allowed his queue to connect to the tree. All at once his mind transferred to an entirely different place, like falling into a dream after a long day. Suddenly he was no longer under the cover and soft illumination of the Tree of Voices. He stood in the wake of the lush forest floor, the sun shining down through the holes of the canopy above as all the life of Pandora carried on in a symphony of gentle noises. Comforting, at least, as a dreamlike haze envelope all he saw.

"You are troubled," Sylwanin said, clear as day as if everything around him were truly real. Tsu'tey turned, a smile on his face as he was pleased to see her. He stepped forward, reaching to pull her into an embrace.

"You do not miss a thing," he replied as she met him and he held her close, savoring her touch and smell. By Eywa, what he would do for this all to be real despite how lifelike it felt at the moment.

She pulled back, looking up at him with a slight frown. "Tell me what it is," she murmured as they held each other by the forearms. Her features, so much like Neytiri but also entirely her own, made his heartache. It felt like an eternity since the schoolhouse was attacked when Tsu'tey had watched Sylwanin die on the door's threshold. He had come for clarity from her as if she might have some grandeur answer for all the issues he faced at the moment. He felt as if he were betraying her by coming here for the reason he did.

"I am conflicted about my role as Olo'eyktan in waiting," he sighed. Eytukan had chosen him for a reason, for his prowess as a warrior and hunter. He wished they could stay in the dreamlike state he was currently in to never worry about the outside world again. "My duty is to take Neytiri as my mate now and for her to become Tsahik. But I don't want her to be my mate. I feel as if I may have found another I... feel different about."

Sylwanin didn't frown or seem wounded by the news of it as he had expected. Her expression seemed to change to something happier, peaceful as she looked up to him. Immediately, Tsu'tey was confused.

"You have found another?" She asks with a head tilt.

Tsu'tey immediately begins to apologize, guilty for bringing up the subject, but Sylwanin stops him. "I could not wish for anything else," she says. "Who is she?"

Still thoroughly confused, he blinked a few times before saying, "A woman of the skypeople. Ruth, from the school house."

By Eywa, what was he saying? A woman of the skypeople?

The mention of Ruth alone was enough for Sylwanin to beam. She smiled brightly. "You know Ruth and I were close. She is a kind and brave woman and I miss her dearly. You have made contact with her and Grace again?"

"I elected to train her in our ways in honor of you," he said. "As I know you would have wanted me to. After Neytiri was instructed to teach another outsider, a man. You are not angered by this news? That I have grown close to her?"

Sylwanin shook her head. Sadness clouds her gaze as she looks at him. "You and I were to be mates in a different life, as different people. Death does not mean the end, only change. It would seem that Eywa wills it that you move on to another, Tsu'tey." His eyes had turned downcast, ears pinned back and brow furrowed as he tried to fight tears. She continued. "Find your happiness. If Ruth is your happiness, then so be it. You will have my blessing,"

He looked back up to her with watery eyes but nodded. Letting Sylwanin go was as if losing a piece of him, but he could not remain where he was. She was bound to the memory of this tree, to a place he could only ever visit. Ruth was out there, in the real world, somewhere in Hometree likely dreaming in a hammock. She was real and living.

Tsu'tey nodded. "You will always have a place in my heart," he murmured. They leaned toward one another, pressing their foreheads and noses against the other's as a farewell.

"I will always be here for you," she sighed just before Tsu'tey pulled his queue away from the glowing tendril, drawing his consciousness back to the surface.

RUTH became popular with the clan's children, she'd realized, when they often came to visit her during dinner in Hometree's common dining area. They asked questions, played with her hair, and had an odd fascination with her fingers, toes, and eyes that they seemingly could not get over. She told them stories of her journey a crossed the stars as if she could actually remember it while deep in cryogenic sleep.

The looks of joy on their faces, when she managed to crock up a story about it, was enough to make her want to continue to string it along until they would eventually skip off at the call of their parents.

Watching a few of the children who had been visiting her at dinner leave her side to return to their families, Ruth's attention was drawn to Jake, who took a seat at her side.

"Those kids never leave you alone," Jake stated with a grin as he handed her a leaf full of freshly cooked meat, the heat soaking through the plant and onto her palm.

She chuckled as she took the leaf from his. "It would seem. Are they as obsessed with your fingers and toes as they are mine?"

"I don't ever understand what they're saying, but they can't seem to get over my eyes," he chuckled as he began plucking meat off his leaf and popping it into his mouth.

Ruth hummed a laugh. "That's likely because we have smaller eyes in comparison to the Na'vi, with our human DNA and all."

For a few minutes, they both kept their attention on their dinner in a comfortable silence while the clan carried on in song and and soft conversation around them, the glow of the fire in the center of the dinner enclave casting a soft glow on every surface and individual's face. A calming atmosphere.

"You've improved since you started learning from him. Like, a lot," Jake stated as he broke the silence. He glanced over and flashed her a smirk. "Your avatar has changed a lot too. I remember how gangly and thin you were when I first linked with mine, out by the obstacle course at Hell's Gate. This training with Tsu'tey seems to be paying off."

Indeed, Ruth's body had begun to tone as it attuned to the moon it was supposed to inhabit, not a heavily fortified military base and an occasional visit to the forest via helicopter. Her muscles had grown substantially, her ability to grip and climb and run rivaling that of Tsu'tey and any other natural born clan member. She was truly immersing herself as one of the people.

"To think a scientist like me managed to keep up and become this," she pointed a thumb toward herself with emphasis. They both shared a laugh before Jake went on.

"It's always good to be ready for anything," he murmured, his eyes remaining on his leaf of food and when they did look up, it was on anyone other than Ruth.

She didn't miss his seemingly cryptic message or the way he'd purposefully adverted his gaze from her. He was a military guy, she tried to remind herself, and from what she'd seen they were all always on edge and ready to fight and defend at a moment's notice. She supposed his behavior could be attributed to that.

"It doesn't hurt," Ruth agreed softly. She continued to eat a while longer in silence before setting her head down and looking at him. Her attention drew his gaze to her, the slightest hint of uneasiness in his eyes. She pursed her lips, head slightly cocked. "You never told me why they have you here."

Obviously playing off a casual reply, he said, "They figured since I didn't have any use with you guys doing lab stuff I might as well do something. They figured it would be a good study to have someone like me learn from the clan."

Not entirely pleased with his answer, Ruth merely shrugged. She'd eventually learn the truth, one way or another. It may not even be as important or complicated as she thought.

"Interesting," was all she had to say before forcing her way to her feet in search of Tsu'tey, leaving Jake where he sat.

PANDORA seemed to have grown to love Ruth in the same way she'd grown to love it. Her avatar, strengthened and toned and attuned to the moon, to its natural environment, was lean and moved with ease anytime she found herself in the forest.

Alone or with Tsu'tey, she began to become efficient at tracking, at navigating the dense forest that two months before she might have been lost forever in. Perhaps two months ago she'd want to stay on the forest floor all day to examine the flora and what fauna she could, but her interests soon turned toward the sky.

With the assistance of Tsu'tey and a few of the elder members of the clan that were particularly proficient with weaving and crafting, a saddle, harness, and queue binder were created for Denver, the scientist's sunset colored Ikran. Ruth was given a rider's mask, better known as ionar, completing her flight necessary items that quickly made her a proficient hunter by way of Ikran.

Flying alongside Tsu'tey just a mere days before her dream hunt, Ruth gazed out among the landscape below. They were beginning to fly into the floating mountains, where the pods currently rested on one of the smaller rock structures. Where her other body was lying in a deep sleep.

The sun shown on her blue skin with radiating warmth as she balanced on the wooden stirrups of the saddle, her hand gripping the queue binder near the base of Denver's head. It had taken a few flights to learn the grip and balance of being on the back of Ikran but eventually, it became as easy as walking.

Almost two months had passed since Tsu'tey had offered to train her. She'd come an extremely long way, the physical sides to hunting and navigating the forest coming to her the longer time passed and she pushed herself. Soon, she would need to figure out a way to prolong her accessibility to the clan.

What would she do after she was considered one of the people? Return to the bio lab at Hell's Gate to do her mind numbing 9-5 after spending day after day in this? She couldn't fathom leaving this all behind as if it were a prolonged vacation that didn't have any depth to it, beyond maybe building upon the studies of Na'vi culture and lifestyle that Grace had started years ago.

She had to find a way to stay. If not because of the effort she'd put forth to learn and grow stronger, but because she'd finally accepted the reality she knew would make everything so much more complicated: that she wanted Tsu'tey. No matter how much she tried to convince herself that everything would work out in the end, Grace's warning always loomed in the back of her mind.

Catching a view of Site 26 in the near distance, was enough to draw her away from her reminiscing thoughts and worries. A few hoots from her were enough to draw Tsu'tey's as she drove her Ikran down toward the pods, Trudy's helicopter resting nearby. She glanced back as they dove, saw that he followed close behind. After a few moments of steady diving, they evened out and landed in the grassy open area of the mountain adjacent to the pods.

Sliding down from Denver's back, she looked to Tsu'tey as she lifted her rider's mask from over her eyes. He wandered over from his Ikran, glancing at the mobile buildings she'd been living in before looking back to her. "Is this where you are?" He asked in English, referring to her alternative self.

Her eyes looked to the windows of the pods, where she saw Grace and Norm's figures flit back and forth, likely spotting the two of them, and ecstatic that Ruth fulfilled her promise to bring Denver up to them for an examination as they gathered their supplies.

She sighed, nodding. "Unfortunately, yes." This was the closest Tsu'tey had ever been to her human self, not even fifteen meters away. The thought of waking herself up to emerge out that door donning an exo-pack was almost comical in her mind, as well as daunting. Part of her didn't want his view of her to change if he were to see who she truly was, blue skin lacking. Would his opinion of her change if he saw who she really was? Dual lives, yet he'd only seen one.

Soon enough, Grace and Norm emerged as Ruth had expected, the excitement evident in their eager steps. With their oxygen masks and equipment slung over their shoulders, it was almost comical to see how small they were in comparison to her and Tsu'tey. She hadn't been around humans in quite some time.

"I almost forgot how small we are," Ruth chuckled as Norm and Grace came up to them. They had to physically look up to make eye contact with her.

"And you definitely look different from the last time I saw you," Grace replied as she shielded her eyes from the sun with her hand while looking Ruth up and down, native apparel and physique the big changes. "You've surely indulged yourself in the clan's culture. You've packed on muscle too."

Ruth shrugged. "I'm merely doing as you told."

Grace shook her head with a grin before looking at Tsu'tey. She performs the customary hand gesture as she says, "Oel ngati kameie." Tsu'tey returns the gesture respectfully before Grace looks back to Ruth. "Now, I'd like to see your Ikran. Denver will be at least docile enough for us to observe, right?"

"I wouldn't suggest poking her with needles," Ruth half-joked to Grace as she crossed her arms. "But yes. She'll be fine to touch. I'll keep an eye on her."

Luckily, Denver would remain safe for Grace and Norm to approach cautiously because Ruth had been working on easing the images and thoughts of her colleagues to the Ikran anytime they were bonded. From what she felt in the bond, it seemed it was working.

Since she and Jake were currently using the only two link chambers on the site, and that had left Norm and Grace to venture out of the pod with exo-packs and their equipment in their hands, Ruth would give them as much time as they wanted with Denver. Before Ruth and Tsu'tey stepped aside to allow Grace and Norm to study the Ikran, the former flashed Ruth a glare that said, "Remember my warning".

Aware of the warning, Ruth guided Tsu'tey as they peeled away to another area of the grassy landing where they watched Grace and Norm get to work from a distance.

"The skypeople and your ways confuse me," Tsu'tey murmured in Na'vi as they watched her colleagues get to work. Norm nervously reached a hand to stroke the colorful, leathery neck of Ruth's Ikran to find that she indeed was docile toward him. His reaction to being able to freely pet the animal was amusing to her.

"There are two different types of us here," she murmured while crossing her arms and looking to him. "There are those with the guns and metal suits and a very small view of how things work in this world," she looked back to Grace and Norm again, the sight of her mentor grinning gleefully as she earned a gentle nudge of Denver's head as she and Norm spoke. "And there are those of us that will die defending it."

The feeling of Tsu'tey's gaze on her pulled her attention away from her colleagues as she locked eyes with him. His expression was soft, but eyes unreadable. She'd begun to attribute that toward his effort to remain the stoic and serious war leader he was. Part of her had grown to like mystery in guessing what was on his mind at any given time. She had grown to enjoy the chase.

"You have always been different, Ruth," Tsu'tey stated. "You have changed the way I see the skypeople. Those that are like you." She smirked slightly at his kind words, but it would seem he was not finished speaking. "You come to me to learn our ways yet you have not backed away in fear. Completed everything I put in front of you. You have fought to be here." He referenced to her in general with a dip of his head, to her accomplishments.

"I have faced much in my life," she murmured as she looked up at him. "From my own planet. To here." How could she explain the suffocation and fight to survive that was planet Earth now? To the blood, sweat, and tears she'd put in continuously to bring her to the place she was at this moment? He wouldn't understand, but part of her believed he would try to.

"Here?" He asked, brow furrowed.

Her mind thought back on everything that had happened with Quaritch behind the walls of Hell's Gate, the fear and feminine rage he'd instilled in her.

"A man hurt me. He tried to claim what was not his," she almost whispered, tears starting to form in her yellow eyes. The change in his expression made it apparent he was growing dangerously furious over what she said, over what it meant. She wasn't even sure the Na'vi had a word or concept for what Quaritch had tried to do. His deceit and malicious intent.

"You have a warrior's heart, Ruth," he stated as he placed his free hand against her chest, just above where her heart pounded. It was obvious he was trying to contain all of his anger the best he could. "Should I find this man, I will end him. For you."

Her lips pulled into a weak smile, her heart swelling with the notion of his declaration to avenge and protect her. No matter how gruesome she knew such an encounter would be.

"I held communion with Sylwanin a few nights ago," Tsu'tey said after a moment of clenching her hand as if it might slip from his own, the anger of her troubles still boiling inside him. Ruth's ears perked in anticipation despite rubbing away a stray tear that had begun to fall down her striped cheek. He continued. "I revealed worries to her I had been avoiding."

About me? Ruth thought with the hopelessness of someone trying to wish her desires into reality. She'd practically thrown out everything regarding professionalism that had told her her interest in him was unnecessary.

"Never have I had something— someone, make me question my duty as future Olo'eyktan," he said to her as if it were hard to get out as if he didn't want to hear the words come from his mouth. His expression had hardened, but not toward her. He was visibly conflicted with himself, it seemed. "To the people. I still grieve for her," Tsu'tey went on. "Sylwanin was to be my mate, by duty and by choice and the skypeople took that away from me. But here I find her in you."

And so it is truth, Ruth Carson thought. Grace's warning was somewhere unimportant in her mind, a million miles away.

Too stunned to speak, she offered a kind hand to him for comfort. He looked at it for a moment before deciding to pull into his. Their difference in digits had them fumbling for a true grip until his three fingers found their place in between each of her four. His touch was warm and comforting, the callous on his hands unlike those of the Colonel's. They were kinder and told of gentleness.

"I have feared acknowledging any of this," she murmured. Fear kicked in momentarily, making her think of taking everything back so that they would remain in a professional setting, nothing more than teacher and student. She'd already damned the consequences in her mind. What was the point in holding back?

"I want you," she finally said after so much anticipation building. "I want this life of flying with the Ikran, of living with the clan and hunting and singing and living—," she stopped herself as she began to realize how passionate she was beginning to grow about her desires.

"But we cannot—," Tsu'tey began to say, but Ruth stopped him. Knowing what he would say.

"Then we leave it like this," she lifted their clasped hands into view. As if the silent gesture of their hands together was all they would need for now. "Just like this. We do nothing more than continue as we have here. We do not speak of it. For now, at least."

He didn't speak as his eyes went from focusing on their hands to her eyes once more. Ears pinned back, he dipped his head in quiet agreement.

"Never would I have expected that you and I would find ourselves feeling this way," she sighed. "But if all I ever get to do is tell you how I feel, then so be it."

He didn't say another word on the particular matter, but the glimmer in his eyes the rest of that day broke Ruth's inability to read him. It was enough to ease her eager heart.