Starting New

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Chapter 9

I awoke only minutes later to find myself being roughly dragged through the forest. My head felt like it was going to explode and I’m sure there would be a huge bump there later on. There were warriors on each side of me, carrying me by my upper arms and letting my knees and feet drag on the ground. The moment I came back into complete consciousness, I started fighting again. The one to my left was Ski’ra, who was a close friend of Xanos’, and on the other side was one I wasn’t at all familiar with.

“Ugh! What are you doing?” I yelled in English, trying to pull away.

The one to my left cursed, and grabbed my arm in an even rougher grip. The other muttered something in Na’vi and mentioned “dreamwalker” in his sentence and then grabbed the end of my braid, pulling unnecessarily roughly on hair, snapping my head to the side.

I tried to look behind me to see where Jake was, but he seemed to be further up. He was speaking with them rapidly in Na’vi and didn’t seem to be winning at all. Eventually they forced him down onto the ground and tied his hands behind his back.

“What of these dreamwalkers?” Ski’ra asked, motioning to Xanos who was restraining Jake.

“Eywa will decide,” He responded, pulling Jake up and grapping hold of him similar as they had done to me, “We will hold a meeting.”

“We didn’t do anything wrong. What is wrong with you? I demand that you left me go. I am your olo’eyktan*-”

Jake was roughly hit across the face, his head whipping to the side. His head hung down for a moment and when he looked up there was such an expression of confusion and betrayal on his face.

“You are no olo’eyktan. You never were,” Xanos hissed and pulled us into camp.

Once we were back at camp, people came to stare and watch. I could feel Jake’s humiliation just radiating off of him. He looked at me and looked completely lost. He had a discoloring wound on his face that was leaking blood.

“What is going on here?” Mo’at said as soon as we were brought forward.

“Do not worry, Mo’at. We have this under control,” Xanos said, almost completely bypassing her.

She stepped in front o f him and blocked the way to the meeting hall, “You have our olo’eyktan tied up. Why?”

“Mei’Rae followed them into the forest,” He said, straightening up, but still holding tightly onto Jake, “She saw them together.”

Mei’Rae stepped forward and hissed slightly at Jake. He bared his teeth at her and struggled in his captor’s arms. She stood near Mo’at and began speaking.

“Mo’at, he has replaced all of us. First he replaced Eytucan and when Tsu’Tey went with Eywa, he replaced him as well. But he didn’t stop there, Tsahik*.”

Xanos left Jake in the care of another warrior and stepped forward, “He then replaced Neytiri with this…filth! And look at Normspellman now, Tsahik. Now, they are trying to replace you.”

Xanos spat out my name and then walked over, grabbing at my shaman leathers Jake had so tenderly put on only hours ago. He ripped them off my arms, causing them both to rip and fall carelessly to the dirt ground.

“That’s not true!” Jake argued, struggling, “I’m not trying to replace anyone. I’m sorry so many people passed away during the wars, but I did not cause that. I-”

Xanos lunged over to him with a knife. I screamed and Jake jumped back. I expected to see my mate’s life end before me, but Xanos roughly cut at the tie that held Jake’s chief jewelry together. The long painted wood strips with attached feathers fell to the ground. The gift I gave him went with it, the beads shattering all over the ground.

“You will never be chief,” Xanos said, pushing Jake away.

I tried desperately to think of something to say, something to do. I knew Xanos had deep hatred for Jake and for dreamwalkers in general. There was no telling what he might to do Jake.

I tried to think of something to do or something to say that might help us out of this mess. I suddenly thought of something. It may have not been the right thing, but it was the only thing that could save us at that time.

“We are mated before Eywa,” I said suddenly, my eyes on Mo’at, who really didn’t look that surprised; “You can’t touch him.”

Xanos came over at me quickly and I recoiled.

“Xanos, leave him be,” Mo’at said, stepping down and coming closer, “Mated before Eywa? Is this true?”

“It wasn’t the Tree of Souls. It only counts if-” Mei’Rae immediately started arguing.

“Tree of Trust,” I said, picking my head up, “It does count. It does count…”

Xanos and the other warriors roughly released me. I stood up on shaky legs, feeling an intense headache surfacing and looked on. So many people were gathered to watch. Even Jake’s so called “friends” looked on, but said nothing in order to prevent what was happening.

“Eywa would never allow such kawng,” Xanos said, twisting his head to the side.

“She allowed it. What we have is swok. Don’t speak ill of something Eywa allowed,” Jake said, finally pulling out of the rough hold and stood up straight. Even without all the elaborate decorations, he was still chief and his tone and actions spoke it.

“You have degraded the Omaticaya with your evils,” Ski’ra added, encouraging the flame to continue.

“First you come and invade the people, settle upon our lands. Then you decide you want to be one of us and attempt to take on our forms. If that wasn’t enough you mated with our princess, killed our two chiefs, and then replaced all of them. You should be dead! And then to mate with this dreamwalker—you are supposed to be mated for life! You have replaced Neytiri,” Xanos said and I finally had the opportunity to edge closer to Jake.

“I would have been mated to life with Neytiri if she were with us today. You refused to find alternate care for her. If the humans had seen to her, she may as well have been alive. But you and your ‘followers’ refused help. You’re bitter over Tsu’Tey’s death and are taking it out on us-”

I watched in horror as Xanos slapped him again. Jake was hit hard enough so that he fell down backwards. I quickly jumped to his aide.

“Pitiful,” Xanos said, pulling out his knife and coming closer to us.

“Narisi!” Mo’at yelled, “I’m sorry. I didn’t foresee this."

No one tried to prevent the attack. They just all stood by the rumors, watching what could have been another unnecessary casualty. Jake jumped up just in time, pulling me along by the wrist.

“Come on-”

We started running through the forest and I could hear the hoofbeats of the pa’li following closely behind us. Jake made a high call in the back of his throat, apparently calling his Ikran. His hand never left mine as he pulled me deeper into the forest. The Pa’li had difficulty jumping over this area considering the amount of foliage and hills of the land. Jake and I could change course quicker than the pa’li and before we knew it, we were suddenly in the lead. We ran and ran. I didn’t know where to. Before I knew it there was a cliff in front of us. I stopped quickly, my feet pressed firmly into the dirt. I barely stopped from slipping over the side.

“Jake!” I yelled, over the drum of the waterfall.

“Trust me!” He said, pulling me along and jumping over the cliff.

I didn’t think twice and followed him over that steep cliff. We were suspended high over the raging river. The rapids below beckoned us. I closed my eyes, thinking the worst. I looked down, seeing a flash of orange and landed roughly upon a large body. It wasn’t his Ikran that jake had been calling, it was the Leonopteryx. I looked down in shock, amazed that we were actually on such a large aerial predator. Jake quickly made the bond and looked back at me.

“Hold onto me, Norm. Hold onto me tightly,” He instructed and I wrapped my arms around his waist and bent my knees.

He pulled the huge animal higher and higher in the sky. I looked back once to see the Na’vi sitting on their pa’li at the edge of the cliff. I held on tightly to Jake and pressed my face against his neck. We were so high up and truth be told, I had a little fear of heights. Jake instructed the Leonopteryx to fly straight up and I could have fallen off if I wasn’t holding on so tightly. My breathing increased and I just decided to close my eyes. I could feel the flapping of the large wings and the large breeze it sent my way.

Even when we evened out I continued to hold tightly onto him. He wiggled a little and looked back at me.

“Norm?” He questioned, “I can’t breathe.”

“Oh sorry,” I said, opening my eyes and relaxing my arms slightly.

“Are you alright?” He asked.

“Yeah, fine,” I responded, feeling the wind blowing my braid, “Are you?”

“I think…I feel like-”

I pulled my right hand away from his chest and looked at what remained. My hand shook as I witnessed why his chest had felt so warm—warm and sticky. My blue hand was now red, blood red.

“Oh, Jake. You’re bleeding. What happened?” I asked, still holding on tightly, but trying to avoid the area.

“He cut off your necklace.”

I sighed and nodded, “I know. I’ll make you another-”

“He cut me with the knife I think…it hurts,” He said and was hunched over slightly, “I didn’t notice until now.”

“What are we going to do? Where are we supposed to go?” I asked.

He shook his head and winced at the pain from the wound, “Down…down for now. Somewhere where they can’t find us.”

__________________________

*olo’eyktan – Clan Leader

*Tsa’hik – Matriarch

*Kawng – Evil

*Swok – Sacred