Reborn - Pandora's Box (Book 2) AU

-.-Teachers and Students-.-

"Fine, let's suit up - or suit down..." All her outfits had become 'forest friendly'. On the day she'd been captured she had chosen to wear a blue sleeveless button-up and tank top underneath, and green khaki trousers (forest-y colours). Now she just removed her boots and went barefoot. The squad wasn't as receptive to this idea. 

 "Come on, chop chop, feet and hands uncovered. We're going to need a few things, and to lose some things. We need bare feet and hands-" She turned to Spider. "-And some blue paint."

Spider cheered. "Yes!"

Once their request was fulfilled, he helped paint her like he did himself. "The animals totally respect you more when you're painted. They don't think of you as human."

"Yeah, and you're tall, so you probably look more Na'vi to them."

"Yeah - maybe they think you're a Na'vi kid." He chuckled as she shoved him playfully. 

"This would be easier if you had your Avatar body," Quaritch said while watching Spider paint blue stripes on Nix's exposed skin, arms crossed. 

"Oh, I'm sorry," she drawled.  "I wasn't expecting to get captured when I ventured out into the woods."

"You don't spend all your time in your body?"

"Clearly. Jake underwent a full consciousness transfer, I'm still an Avatar Driver, so I have two bodies."

Once she was 'why so blue?', it was time to start the training. Oh goody. 

"All right listen up," Quaritch ordered the squad. 

Nix jumped up onto a fallen log to stand and address them, her students. 

"All right folks, we are going to teach you the Na'vi way the way we were taught it. Now, to become One of the People, there are several steps one must take..." This was so weird, so so weird. She just kept trying to tell herself that it was keeping them alive. And, if they could drag this out for as long as possible, that would delay the tracking of the Sullys and keep their friends safe. "It is called the Rite of Passage. Every Na'vi goes through it when they reach adulthood. Navi kids prepare their whole childhoods for this. To become a Na'vi warrior, which seems appropriate in this instance..." This could work, if they were careful and calculated. "With your training as marines, you're already a bit ahead with fight training, however, you must learn to use the knife and bow, to fight and hunt with both. Training usually takes several months-"

"No," Quaritch interrupted. 

"You got something to say? You're students, raise your hand."

He didn't.  'We ain't got time for all these steps. We're on a mission."

"You said you wanted to learn, this is how it works-"

"We know how to fight and defend and all that, and use knives. And we got rifles, better than bows."

She shrugged. "Doesn't matter I guess, you'll never be one of the people anyways." Then, "Fine, but don't blame us when you get eaten."

Spider snickered. 

And so onward they went, the two humans leading the way. 

"Shh..." Nix stopped suddenly, holding up a hand to halt everyone.  "You hear that?"

"Is that a viper wolf?" Spider recognized. 

"Yes - mating call..."

There were some snickers from the squad members.

She whirled on them.  "What are you? Twelve?" Great Mother give me strength!

As night began to fall, the temperature dropped. She and Spider leaned against each other, sharing body heat and blankets.

Against her wishes, the squad had made a fire. As soon as it was dark enough, the whole of the forest was plunged into the beautiful wonder of the bioluminescent, well, everything. Hide it as they may try, this certainly wowed the squad. And this was only the beginning. 

"Told you you didn't need it," she quipped.  

As they settled down for the night, she clutched her necklace and took to whispering in the ritual she had created over the last few nights. "Great Mother, please watch over my daughter for me until I can be reunited with her." She felt the familiar pull in her chest, the familiar ache, to be reunited with Gracie. Soon, someday soon - or so she could only hope. 

"What are we going to do next?" Spider asked her.  "They don't seem very keen about anything."

"Yeah, that's what I was afraid of. I guess if we skip all the training steps, then the next thing would be-"

"Ikrans," he jumped in.

"Yes."

"Oh, that'll be good."

Yes, it would. Next step: bonding with their Ikran. 

This was going to be interesting. 

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"Okay, repeat after me: Tsaheylu."

"Tsaheylu..."  There was a chorus of terrible pronunciation. 

"Tsaheylu," she tried again.

"Tsaheylu."

Spider was laughing. 

She huffed and blew her fringe out of her eyes. This was more exhausting than working with children. 

"As you all will have noticed you each have a long braid. It's not the braid itself that's the core of Tsaheylu, but what it protects: your queue." She held up her own braid for emphasis, and encouraged them to look at the little tendrils the ends of their queues possessed.  "Don't play with it, you'll go blind." She smiled as she remembered Grace's words. "This is how you connect with everything around you, to Eywa herself."

Quaritch leaned close to Wainfleet. "Tree-hugger crap." This made the Corporal, and others. chuckle. 

She tensed. "Oi, this is important. Anyone not paying attention will be given an old-school ass-whipping." That shut them up. 

He smirked and held up his hands in surrender. "Apologies, Sweetheart. Continue."

"This is also how you bond with the wildlife, including your Ikran, or banshee, in order to become Ikranä Maktoyu, or 'Banshee rider'. We will be venturing up into the floating mountains to do this."

They arrived at the base of the mountains. Spider, Monkey Boy himself, immediately began climbing. 

"Up we go," Nix said, and started climbing herself, leaving the others in the dust. 

(The Ikran scene is one of my favs! ;) Always makes me laugh!

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :))