Neteyam

Relevance

"What is this?" Merq'ena slammed the bundle of pictures onto the space right in front of the Olo'eyktan.

A heavy thump sounded. "Merq'ena." Viryn pulled Merq'ena's arm so that she didn't lurch right into Jake's face. "Who is this?" Jake looked at the bundle and his eyes widened. He took off the rubber band that stuck the pictures together. "Where did you get these?" He fingered through the pictures and paused at one in particular. "That doesn't matter. Who is that?" Her eyes were locked onto Jake's even as his attention was on the pictures. "What is going on?" Neytiri followed them into the large family tent. "Merq'ena found these." Jake held up a picture up for Neytiri.

The woman gingerly picked the picture out of her husband's fingers. "Grace." She smiled. "Grace? The dream-walker's name is Grace?" Merq'ena asked again. "Grace Augustine." Jake finally answered her. "She was in charge of a school for the Omaticaya. Where did you find these?" "An overgrown building not that far from here. But why is she with you guys. You hated the Sky people." The "right?" hung in the air as she desperately looked for a sound of confirmation l. "Merq'ena... the story isn't as simple as-." "No." Merq'ena couldn't believe it. The shock has slapped her so hard in the face her head was spinning. "No!"

"The Sky people committed atrocities that could never be atoned for, not just to the Omaticaya." Merq'ena scowled with her ears pinned down. "She's one of them! And you know her?" Merq'ena quickly smacked her hand on the bundle and picked out a picture where a young Neytiri was posing next to the Grace.

The two were smiling for the photographer but it looked genuine, as if the two were genuinely friends. "Who are you?" Merq'ena stepped back while grabbing her bow in her hand. "You befriended sky people? Do you know what they have done?" Jake lifted his hands to soothe the girl but she smacked his palm by a snap of her weapon. The action causing Neytiri to hiss and put herself between the two. "You forget yourself!" Merq'ena turned to Neytiri with clenched teeth. "You knew what they did!" She pointed an angry finger at Neytiri. "You all knew!" Merq'ena snarled out as she held out her finger between them. "Hey, hey, let's all calm down." Jake pulled back Neytiri and stood in between them. Viryn put a hand on Merq'ena's arm but made no other move to hold her friend back.

"Grace Augustine, was my friend." The Olo'eyktan lowered himself so that he was more at Merq'ena's level. "Friend?" The girl scoffed back. "Do you even know what the Sky people did to my people?" "The Omaticaya got help for-." "No!" Merq'ena finally raised voice so that her out rage was heard outside the tent. "My people!" She gripped her thigh where the fear bringer was snarling up at Jake, its vibrant yellow eyes mirroring her own. "Do you even know what Sky people did to us?" Neytiri met Merq'ena's eyes but her ears lowered in shame. "Dad?" The group instantly stopped to look at the new voice. "And you." This time Viryn held back her friend from approaching Kiri. The younger girl flinched when Merq'ena attempted to approach her but it came off as more aggressive than what was intended. "Who are you? Who are all of you?" Merq'ena gripped onto the Viryn's arm with her tail swinging side to side.

"What?" Kiri looked between her parents and the snarling Merq'ena. "Hey; why don't you wait outside?" Jake made the mistake of holding onto the picture. Kiri gripped the printed out picture and looked at the image. "Mom?" "Mom?!" Merq'ena and Viryn said at the same. "Let's try and settle down, ok?" Jake stepped between the two and lifted his hand up. "I'll answer all your questions, just, calm down." "Calm down? I've just discovered you and a dream-walker were friends, and you just let it happen after they decimated us!" Merq'ena pointed between Neytiri and Jake. "What can be said that will change that?"

"I think we need to tell her what really happened?" Neytiri whispered to Jake. The Olo'eyktan tilted his head in a question but she shook her head. "She needs this." Jake licked his lips and turned around to Merq'ena. The girl gripped her bow so tightly that her knuckles were white and she was staring up at him. Merq'ena's face was scrunched up into a sorrowful scowl. "Let me just explain." Jake finally relented to Neytiri's suggestion. "Were you truly even Toruk Makto?" "There's just some parts that are missing." Neytiri said soothingly, her steady calm somehow easing Merq'ena. "Let's just listen, we can leave the moment you want to stop." Viryn rubbed Merq'ena's back. Neytiri sat down first pulling Jake down with her. "Kiri." The matriarch caught her eldest daughter's attention away from the photograph. "I think that you hear this too."