Tsaheylu

A New Family

Kiri's body lay motionless on the floor, a dozen tubes and machines hooked up to her body. As soon as we got back Jake had called in for backup, alerting his Sky People friends about his daughter's condition. The flew straight over as quickly as they could, and started hooking up machines to her to check her vitals, all things I could have told them if they had just asked.

Somehow the news had reached its way to Lo'ak too, and before long he was sat beside Neteyam watching everything unfold in front of him.

Neytiri was pacing again, probably sick of her children almost dying at this point. I could tell it was exhausting, but the woman never stopped. I admired that about her. The all talked in English over Kiri's body, a lot of the words entirely unknown to me.

Before long Ronal was stood in the doorway, watching what the sky people were doing to the girl with disgust. We had a way that we did things here, and this was most certainly not one of them. For the first time since they arrived, I think I see Neytiri actually smile at Ronal's presence, glad that she was there to respect our Na'vi traditions.

"Can you help?" Neytiri asks, looking to Ronal with hope in her eyes. Ronal shakes her head as her nose turns up at the sky people once more, "Not while they're here." She says simply.

Neytiri saunters forward and shouts, "Out. All of you out. You have done nothing." Jake heeds his wife's words and takes a few steps back, watching as the older, plump guy took some of his equipment out of the Pod. The skinnier of the two guys was trying to say something, fiddling with one of the needles in Kiri's arms before Ronal pushed past him and took it out. She held her finger over the pinprick, stopping any blood from flowing out as she turned to me.

"Ai'ina. This is what I've been training you for. I need your help." She says to me, beckoning me over to her. I leap forward and take to Kiri's other side, the two of us wasting no time in starting the ritual.

Ronal starts to hum a single note, rummaging through her bag for the things we needed. I laid Kiri's head flat onto the floor, moving her arms to the sides of her body to create more space for us to move around her. Ronal passes me the paste first, letting me draw the lines down Kiri's chest and around her heart while she blew some incense into the air above her.

We worked simultaneously, moving fast paced yet intricately, not making any mistakes. We place the pins in her muscles, tapping them gently to see if Kiri had any motor function, and when she twitched against us it was a good sign. Ronal started to sing lowly, sending her prayers to Eywa while I found the large nuts in her bag, handing one to her.

When she finished her prayer, we lifted the nuts into the air and cracked them open, the dust and powder inside falling onto Kiri's face. Her nose twitches and we all watch intently, and finally her eyes snap open and focus into the world around her. "You're awake!" I hear Tuk exclaim from behind me, though my eyes were trained to Kiri, waiting to see her speak.

"Mum..." She whimpers out, crying helplessly as she comes back into her body. Ronal and I sigh in relief, moving away as Neytiri rushed to her daughter's side, cradling her head in her lap as Kiri sobbed in both fear and confusion.

"You did well," Ronal whispers into my ear, gathering her things and placing them into her bag. She bows out of the Pod without so much as another word, leaving the family to reunite once more.

I watch as they all crowd around the girl who was now sitting herself up, placing their hands on her body to let her feel them. I realised that I was intruding on something sacred, something only a family should be there for and felt guilty, not wanting to ruin their moment. I push myself to my feet and quietly step round them, only to have my hand caught by someone elses. I turn around to look at them, seeing Neytiri's soft, amber eyes staring up at me.