【 CHAPTER SEVENTEEN 】

THE Anurai clan was noble, renowned as meticulous artisans and skilled craftsman that dwelled in caves within an arid valley outside of the rainforests. Adept in making elaborately fashioned items from bone, Ruth recalled from her studies, they spared no detail with their work.

Their clothes, their weapons, storage vessels and even their dwellings were beautifully made, the weaving and the colors unlike anything she'd previously been able to analyze as a scientists. The caves they lived in were said to be near a bone graveyard, she'd read at some point, the climate of the area a stark difference from the humid forest she'd grown familiar with.

It was obvious to her as she strode alongside Tsu'tey that these people were weary of their impromptu appearance, as clans didn't often visit each other in the fashion they were. With the clan leaders coming themselves. They surely knew his presence meant something serious.

The handful of Omaticaya that accompanied them followed close behind as they made their way deeper into the clan's camp at the behest of some Anurai hunters who had found them landing not too far away during their hunt. When informed that the Olo'eyktan of the Omaticaya had come to speak with their own, they agreed to bring them with no hassle.

Many of the curious onlookers of the clan donned beautifully carved heavy bows or other weapons made of bone, some even wearing a type of armor made from the same substance. Curious children followed after them at a good distance, people pausing from their cooking or weaving or carving to see who had come to visit.

Ruth felt dozens of eyes on her back. She wondered if they would realize she was an avatar and not a true Na'vi, and whether that would impose some issues with the Anurai trusting them. She'd never met anyone outside of the Omaticaya. The Anurai may not take lightly the presence of a 'dream walker'.

Luckily, with Tsu'tey as Olo'eyktan, they stood a fair chance with almost every clan to be welcomed in. Jake would fair just fine as well, considering he was now Toruk Makto and would command respect just by landing on the back of his giant mount. The thought as to how he'd managed to acquire the animal in the first place still confused the hell out of Ruth, but for some reason, it made sense to her. 

A jarhead marine going after one of the most dangerous animals on the moon could only ever fit Jake.

The two hunters lead them to an area some ways into the cave that she would guess was commonplace, a giant fire blazing at its center. Anurai were scattered about within its light, the shadows dancing on their faces when their attention was drawn to the strangers.

Tsu'tey halted them near the blazing fire as the hunters peeled away in search of their leader and perhaps the Tsahik.

Ruth's gaze briefly scanned their surroundings, noting just how many eyes were on them, before looking to Tsu'tey. "Do you think they will fight with us?" She asked.

The Anurai had a history of being targeted by the RDA, she'd heard at one point during one of  Grace's alcohol-induced rantings about all the bad shit they'd been doing since first arriving on the moon. Ruth had never really known why this clan had been targeted, but there had luckily never been any massacring.

Tsu'tey's head tilted a corner of his lips tugging in a slight frown. "I am sure they will. But there is always the chance they deny us."

"Olo'eyktan," a deep voice said in Na'vi, echoing against the cave walls in comparison to the low murmurings of the clan around them. A man dressed in an ornate chest piece similar to Tsu'tey's made his way around the fire, meeting them where they stood. "I am Hai'uk te Se'cal Entamuitan. Oel ngati kameie."

He was likely early middle-aged if his slight wrinkles were any indicator, but the bony structure of worn and torn armor sitting atop his shoulders and the giant bone knife at his hip made it apparent he did not allow his age to hinder him. His hair was tightly braided, beads and other items woven in and on each strand. A headband of bone and leathers covered the expanse of his forehead.

Tsu'tey replied back with the same words, the two clan leaders offering each other the customary greeting of their hand from their forehead. Ruth and the others did the same.

"I am Tsu'tey te Rongloa Ateyitan," Tsu'tey said to the Anurai clan leader in Na'vi. "Olo'eyktan of the Omaticaya. We come to you in great need."

Hai'uk looks between them both momentarily, a brow raised. "What brings you to the Anurai?"

"The Sky People have decimated our clan," Tsu'tey tells him, his hand gesturing between her and the group of Omaticaya behind them. The way he says 'our' makes her heart skip, a momentary feeling of gratification filling her. "They have destroyed our home. They are destroying our land. And taking whatever they want... War is on the horizon."

Hai'uk tilts his head, frowning. "I am sorry for your loss and your grief," the elder Olo'eyktan says. "We have suffered at their hand as well. They steal our art, killing us and taking our bows and weapons as trophies." Ruth sees the pain in his eyes as he seems to reminisce. "But we have staved them off for now. They have not come in quite some time. I do not know if we wish to risk the reprieve we've gained."

"Toruk Makto leads the war party against the Sky People. He is gathering other clans as we speak," Tsu'tey informs him as perhaps a last ditch effort to boost the urgency of their plea, the mention of Jake seemingly drawing the attention of every individual in the cave. Silence settles eerily fast.

"Toruk Makto, another from the Omaticaya?" A commanding voice echoes from somewhere in the shadows. A woman emerged from the shadows, the light of the fire flames a sheer contrast on her cyan skin. Her gait was like that of a panther, her steps along the stone floor seemingly meticulous yet sure. She stopped near her mates side, her burning gaze focused on them. "That is quite convenient. As there was another just a few generations before."

Behind the ornately dressed Tsahik, Ruth's eyes landed on their totem: the skull of a Thanator. The Anurai revere the beast more than any other clan. Her mind flashed back to the day Jake had been chased off by one, causing the sequence of events that ultimately brought her where she was now.

In her dream hunt she had seen a Thanator, the recollection of that strange trip sending shivers down her spine.

The Tsahik seemingly sized Ruth up despite her being within the company of an Olo'eytkan, the ornately beaded headdress atop her head swaying with her movements as she circled the avatar. Ruth felt her cheeks warm, her ears pinning back as she made every effort to ignore the expectant stares of the clan watching silently around them. Her tail subconsciously flicked closer to her legs as if to avoid touching the hostile Tsahik.

"This is my mate and clan Tsahik, Ikeyla," Hai'uk informed them in a quieter tone as if her presence commanded such reverence to her respect.

Ruth felt the anger emanating off of her, saw it in her movements. Very so much the words and behavior of someone riddled with grief, perhaps masking it with a wall of defense. The beads of her headdress clinked together as she walked, circling at a slow pace around the two of them where they stood. Ruth forced herself to remain still despite feeling the urge to inch closer to Tsu'tey.

Suddenly, the Tsahik snatched her hand from where it had dangled at her side idly. Ruth was forced to stifle a gasp as the Anurai woman looked at her hand with scrutiny, her nose crinkling as if she smelt strange. Ikeyla was analyzing her. The amount of fingers she had, Ruth realized.

"A demon," the Tsahik more spat than muttered, eyes narrowing on Ruth's with cruel judgment. "Five fingers, that of a Sky Person. You are not even true Na'vi." She then looked to Tsu'tey, a scowl on her features as she let Ruth's hand drop. "And have you taken this demon as your mate?"

Ruth's tail began to lash wildly behind her as her rage was quickly consuming her to unleash venom upon the woman, but a gentle yet affirming grasp of Tsu'tey's hand on her forearm caused her to stop.

"She is no demon," Tsu'tey retorted quickly in her defense with fangs bared, a sort of primal rage Ruth had yet to see in him. He was typically so quiet and soft-spoken, yet it seemed when it came to her he was ready to fight in her defense. "She is Omaticaya. One of the people. And soon, she will be my mate."

For a moment, she was able to forget the insults that had just been lobbed at her, her eyes remaining focused on him and his fierce nature to protect her. The declaration he'd made. Perhaps he was as ready as she was. Yet the uneasiness that had settled over the differing clan leaders was beginning to turn into something far more intense if it was not diffused.

"You may choose to lie with them, but the Sky People have caused too much grief for Anurai," Ikeyla muttered as she returned to stand at her mate's side, the headdress on her head eerily similar to that of the fan display on the head of a Thanator. "Too many Anurai have died. No more will we allow them to berate us. We will remain here, where it is safe."

The logic was flawed, at least to Ruth. The RDA would always come back. There was never anything too far out of their reach if they wanted it badly enough.

"You can hide here," Ruth said, the first words she'd allowed herself to utter to either of the Anurai clan leaders. "But they will still come. They will come and massacre everyone if that is what it takes to get what they want." She gestured to every person watching, a woman clutching a baby to her chest pulling her child away as if it might protect it from the truth. 

"There is no place for a demon to speak here," Ikeyla spat, her ears pinning back. She looked to Tsu'tey, her tone and expression only changing in the slightest. "Olo'eyktan. We will not fight."

She then stalked away without another word, disappearing deeper into the shadows of the network of caves. Leaving a wake of riled emotions among those she'd left.

"My mate lost her brother to their senseless seizing of our art," Hai'uk informed Tsu'tey and Ruth almost as a way of apologizing for her harsh words. "It is perhaps her reasoning for such distrust towards your mate. But she is right, we do not want any part of what the Sky People are doing."

Accepting defeat, Tsu'tey concedes to a simple nod. He let loose a sigh, his eyes closing.

"Ma Tsu'tey," Ruth murmured, her heart heavy. She slipped her hand into his. They were depending on every clan to join them. Hell's Gate was far too well equipped for anything less. But the Anurai appeared they would not budge. "We must keep moving. Other clans will help us."

Tsu'tey's expression was hard to read as he watched Hai'uk follow after his mate, ever a good masker of his emotions. But a slight sneer appearing on his features as he turned toward the cave entrance with her in tow told her enough. He was just as enraged as she was.

RUNNING soothing strokes along Denver's leathery head as the ikran craned for more attention from Ruth, the woman tried racking her mind of any way they might convince the Anurai to join. But the reality was that they wouldn't, even at the call of Toruk Makto, surprisingly enough. Something she'd never heard of happening before.

Tsu'tey sat nearby with some of the other warriors that had joined them, gathering together a plan for the next clan they would soon be pursuing and going over the supplies they currently had. Plans for camping for the night, where her avatar would sleep in the embrace of Tsu'tey as her human body rested.

Ruth sighed, peeling away from her sunset patterned ikran. She needed water, and to clear her head. "I will be back soon," she informed Tsu'tey and the others as she walked past.

"Call if you need help," he informed her dutifully, much in the way a husband would a wife. It made her smirk a little as she began to make her way down the grassy hill they'd flown to in search of a stream.

"Of course," she replied, leaving with that.

Luckily, there was one just at the bottom of the hill. Hardy looking bushes seemed to hug the shoreline, a few trees here and there. She found a place to sit on a large boulder half submerged in the lazily flowing stream and lowered her feet into the cool water.

So much shit had had in such a short time. She couldn't remember the last time she'd been able to take a long shower or even take some time to properly care for her real body. Every moment she wasn't here, in this body, she was either eating, sleeping, or doing the very minimal care she needed in order to make sure her dirty blonde hair didn't turn into a rat's nest.

She sighed heavily as she leaned forward, plunging her blue hands into the stream. Her queue fell forward to rest in her lap, her beaded strands of hair clinking against one another. She could see her reflection in the water fairly well considering how slow and smoothly it was flowing.

Amber-yellow eyes stared back at her, so familiar yet so strange. She supposed it had been quite some time since she'd seen herself, not since she had last been in the avatar cabin back at Hell's Gate where she had access to a mirror anytime she brushed her teeth.

Ruth had come so far. Physically, she looked so integrated into Na'vi culture now that only her smaller eyes and the extra set of fingers were what was really giving her away. She'd grown muscular, attuned to the world she treaded in the months that Tsu'tey had so diligently trained her. The months she'd developed into the woman she was now.

Grace would be proud of her. Was, as she had made sure Ruth knew as she was dying in that cot. Ruth had been so distracted by everything going on that she hadn't really let it sink in yet. That Grace was gone. She wasn't so sure she wanted to yet. Perhaps when this war was over with.

A low rumbling hiss had Ruth shooting to her feet, using those unnaturally quick reflexes her avatar possessed. Just a crossed the small stream, a Thanator watched her with terrifying stillness.

Had she not steeled herself from the instant fear, she might have fainted immediately. Become an easy, five-billion-dollar meal for the apex predator standing in front of her. Yet her heart had immediately kicked into overdrive, the organ pounding with ferocity in her chest and audible in her ears.

The beast didn't seem to be baring fangs at her, or displaying its sensory quills in a challenging way, or even the fleshy flaps over its maw. No, it seemed content with watching her intently. Or perhaps evaluating its next kill for the sake of the pleasure the kill would bring it.

She'd had enough debilitating fear watching one of these things chasing after Jake months ago. But here she was, dressed in a loin cloth with nothing but a dagger to defend herself. She yanked the weapon from her hip, holding it in an unorthodox manner as many of the Na'vi did. Blade protruding away from her hand.

"I really don't want to fucking die today," she half said to herself, half said to the Thanator. "Please, for the love of god, I am not tasty."

The Thanator lowered its head, its two most forefront legs taking tentative steps toward her. Ruth began stepping back in response until they both assumed a strange circle of one another within the stream. She clutched the knife tightly as she shuffled in the water, her knuckles pale.

When she stopped, it stopped. In a particular way as if it were merely trying to mimic. That it wasn't here to make a kill, something it could have easily already done. She shook her head in confusion but was soon more relaxed to test another theory. She rose from her defensive stance, standing normally. The beast no longer prowled towards her as if it were going to pounce.

Like some sort of batshit crazy person, she sheathed her knife. And took a single step toward the giant animal, water moving with her movements. It didn't tense up or bare fangs. It remained still and watchful.

With her queue still hanging in front of her, Ruth grabbed it while refusing to take an eye from the thanator. Tentatively, she raised the braid, until the swirling tendrils connected directly to her brain were exposed.

The Thanator extended its kuru, much in the way that Denver does anytime she knows they are about to fly.

Ruth was flabbergasted as she dared to grow closer. Either this worked or she was going to die, so she was prompted to go with the former before experiencing the latter. One tentative step after another, her ankles shuffled through the water.

As she raised her braid toward the Thanator's kuru with all expectation that she was soon about to die, she drew in a sharp breath. But then the neural tendrils intertwined.

She shivered. And then exhaled.