Days seemed to pass by in relative peace. Nanti had continued her hand to hand training once the Tsa'hik gave her approval for training. Most of the time they were away from the tree in order to avoid any more acts of impulse.
Time away from the tree was very different. Without the constant chatter and movements of the na'vi, the sounds of the forest could really be heard. The barks of nantang, the chatter of prolemuris above in the branches.
She followed behind Nanti quietly, footing sure as they raced through the trees. Rain fell around them, gently pattering against the leaves and splattering against her skin. It was the first rainfall she'd felt, the experience different from how she guessed it'd be. She'd seen how the drops trailed down screens and while the experience was like that, she hadn't accounted for the sensation. The feel of a drop tapping against her skin before sliding over it and dripping off.
"Gene." She perked up, quickly joining Nanti at the edge of the branches. Without any fanfare she lept down, body catching against the leaves and using them to slow her decent before looking back up expectantly. After falling from a helicopter and using them, a small leap from tree branches didn't seem so horrible as Gene threw her body over and landed on her knees.
"Could've been worse, Could've been better. Come." Tsu'tey, as her assigned teacher, should've been the one teaching her but with his contempt and general negligence, Nanti had taken it upon herself to also teach Gene tracking. No better time to start than when prints were easier to see in soft earth.
She knew she'd have to kill eventually, track and hunt her own creature to prove her worth to the tribe. It was a step to becoming a full adult. It wasn't just age but skill that made one an adult and part of the tribe. Of course those born to the tribe were already considered part of it, as an outsider she needed to earn her place.
She crouched next to Nanti, eyes sweeping over the ground and taking in the prints available. The most notable ones were from a pack of nantang. Three fingers with an opposable thumb crisscrossing all over the ground and mostly covering the hoofed indents of a yerik. They were hunting.
"Find the pack." Grace had asked, in the beginning of her creation, for her to track the movement of a light using a built in camera. The idea had been scraped but the memory remained. The code had stuck with her as well, embedded deep in her memory and was often used to track the movements of the marines around the base. She didn't have her processing unit though, only the memory and eyes instead of lenses.
The prints while easily visible, were also easily lost as the nantang rushed through undergrowth, over well washed tree branches, and ever through a shallow stream. More than once she had to back track and look over the tracks again to find the specific pack she was tracking against a pack that had passed by. It was less nantang footprints and more hoof prints that brought them to the hunt's end.
They crept across the branches, bodies low as they peeled back the leaves to peer down at the pack. The yerik dead, skin shredded as they tore into it. Blood soaked into the ground and tainted the mud. Its fan laid open and limp, pieces of it being torn off by pups, the small creatures playing more than eating as they gnawed on it.
As quietly as they approached they left, Nanti guiding her back to home tree before returning to the kitchen to help with the evening meal. Gene held back though, standing in the open and simply taking in everything around her. She lifted her head up, eyes closing as she breathed deep and immersed herself in her surroundings.
The feel of the rain, once cool against her now normal. The smell the plants gave off from the rain, a scent Grace had loved. She'd sit out on her balcony, protected only by an overhang and simply exist. She'd complain the cars below were ruining the music but never let it stop her from taking it all in. Gene could almost hear the music now to. Hear the sounds of life thriving around her.
She was pulled from her thoughts by a touch on her arm. Turning revealed the pa'li she'd bonded with previously, the mare's snout lightly brushing her while her antenna seemed to shift closer. She was hesitant to bond, aware that if she became too entwined there was no one to pull her back but did anyway. She was healed now and there was no better time than the present to test hypothesize.
The rush was just like the first time, all consuming yet loose enough to let her drift. The feel of the rain increased, droplets rolling down her back and the mare's to make a confusing mix of sensations. She ran her hand over the mare, marveling at her. Grace would have enjoyed it here. So often she seemed broken over the state of earth, the planet practically dead and humans still roaming its corpse as though they weren't the ones who killed it. She missed the animals in zoos.
It was when she was young, she'd told Gene when she'd taken to drinking for the night, and her father was the one who took her. They had already implemented holograms into some of the enclosures, animals dead and gone but some still remained. She recalled seeing many different animals, populations small as they roamed their small enclosures. As a child she'd loved horses the most and had talked fondly about the zebras and the stuffed animal her father had gotten for her. She would have like the pa'li, skin stripped in a similar fashion.
The mare snorted again, stamping her hooves into the ground as a feeling of impatience filtered over to Gene.
"You want to go for a ride? We can't go far from the tree though, I don't have a bow." It didn't bother the mare as she returned to the bulk of the herd and simply walked around with Gene. The rest of the pa'li paid her little mind, noses briefly touching her at times before moving on. A colt darted around, six little legs helping it rush around the other herd members and be underhoof.
He ran up to Gene, nose brushing against her leg and tongue rolling out to lick her before he was rushing off once more. A feeling of warmth encompassed her chest and seemed to resonate with the mare as well.
"Is he yours?" She didn't get a response and she didn't expect one either. The bond seemed less to do with communication and more with understanding emotions. There could inly the problem and answer to her situation. Weather or not she could understand emotions.
It should be easy, to know how she feels after observing others for so long but there was a strangeness to it. When she had accepted the challenge her heart had raced. For the most part Gene was sure it was simply adrenaline but Nanti had made a comment during their recent trainings. That she was brave to have felt fear and ignored it. During her fight her face had shifted, had pinched and creased with a certain light in her eyes. It was in part one of the things that had angered Rotxo. That she had feared him yet stood across from him like an equal. Grace had never shown fear, that was something she hadn't really seen outside of Jake as he stumbled through the forest the night they got seperated. And even then he seemed mostly alright, little lost and scratched up but alright.
The warriors didn't exhibit fear, and the humans felt secure and safe. Outside of movies and the media, fear seemed like such an unknown yet she'd felt it and had overcome it without any thought. Emotions seemed to come naturally for people, they knew what they were feeling. Knew the pull of their face or the rush inside like they knew how they looked and could identify how they feel. She'd laughed, smiled but the feelings that came never seemed to be the same.
She looked up as the mare snorted, eyes focusing as she turned and locked eyes with Tsu'tey. His face twitched with that same unknown emotion before returning to his neutral look of annoyance whenever he saw either her or Jake. She disconnected from the mare, brushing her hand along her snout once more before approaching. The rain continued on, heavier as large drops pelted against her and a shiver ran up her back.
"Come."
He led her back to the tree, fires alight and warm against her chilled skin. He continued up to where the rest of the tribe were eating, leaving her to find her own place beside Amhul. The women smiled at her approach, offering her a helping of Hexapede before Ralu noticed her and corralled her into a conversation about her training. Yes, Grace would have liked this.
YOU ARE READING
I Feel You
Fanfiction"Greetings Former Corporal Sully." His head whipped around, nearly jumping out of his skin at the sudden voice. "My name is G.E.N.E, Genetically Enhanced Navigational Entity. I shall be your guide in the avatar program."
