I Feel You

Chapter 16

She slowly released a breath, arrow drawn further back to her cheek as her eyes followed the Yerik. All signs indicated it being an older male, a slight limp making it as easier target. It hid itself well within its herd, keeping closer to the center with the children in order to hide its weakness, but it can't hide it's imprints in the dirt.

With the next inhale she released the arrow into her mark, the shaft sticking out of it's breathing hole as it fell down with a cry. The rest of the herd quickly bolted, crying out in fear but she paid them no mind as she rushed to the struggling creatures side. Something in her chest seized at seeing the dying creature, whose blood now stained her hands. Tsu'tey was at her side, watching carefully as she pulled out the dagger Amhul had gifted her.

"I see you my brother and I thank you. Your spirit will return to Eywa while your body will stay and become one with the people. Sleep well." In one fluid stroke she ended its suffering, knife sliding into its heart and stilling it at last.

"Good." Tsu'tey whistled for their Pa'li, his stallion and the mare she first bonded with coming quickly. She tied the Yerik securely to the mare's back before connecting and returning to the hometree. She was well and truly on her way to becoming one of the people fully, one of the larger steps of a successful hunt now taken. Of course she doubted one hunt was enough to qualify one as ready but it was a start.

Amhul greeted her when she entered the kitchen, smiling as she brought in her catch.

"Did you miss?" She teased, carefully removing the arrow Gene had forgotten to remove and placing it to the side.

"My strike was true and the blade you gave me swift. Thank you."

"I'm glad then. You'll finally get to taste something you hunted yourself. It is often said it taste better that way. Will you stay to prepare it as well?"

"As long as you will allow me."

"Then I'll instruct you on how to properly deliver your catch. Your teacher left out a few steps."

They started with first gutting the Yerik, it's intestines and organs carefully removed to be used for other necessities. 

"If time allows you'll be able to use it's intestine for your own bow string. I'm sure Ralu would not mind showing you how to cure it along with the bladder for a water skin. It's hide you can take to the weavers for new clothes or learn how to make your own as I'm sure you'd love to learn."

"If they are willing to teach me I'd be honored to learn."

"Then I will teach you." She paused at that, head tilting.

"You would teach me?"

"I don't see why not. I have taught you already."

"I look forward to learning then. What use do the kidneys and lungs have?"

"We use them when growing plants. They help them thrive." Nanti entered then with Ralu who perked up at the Yerik they were gutting.

"Good job on your first kill. Before long you'll be a hunter right alongside us."

"Thank you, however I find myself leaning more towards a different job."

"Going to become one of the cooks?"

"Maybe. I have yet to try all the jobs so I should wait to decide." He shook his head before spotting the intestines they'd set aside.

"Do you have a plan for those?"

"I suggested you teach her to make her own bow string." Amhul piped up as Gene watched him eagerly, tail swaying expectantly.

"If she's willing to learn. It'll have to happen after she makes her bow though, I don't believe she'll have enough time to make the string before she has to make her bow."

"How can I make my bow without a string?"

"I'll teach you to turn the gut into string, once it's complete you can then give it to me in exchange for the one I give you."

"Alright, thank you Ralu." Dinner went on without fanfare, Jake congratulating her on a successful hunt.

"Neytiri says i'm not ready yet. Soon though."

"I wish you luck than Jake. You've been training hard for this, to the point Grace worries for your health." Grace didn't eat with them, instead sitting with a few children who remembered her and eagerly asked her questions under their parent's watchful eye. While she was welcomed back into the clan, there was no mending the bonds that had shattered. Instead she can only move forward in the hopes that new ones and healing old ones would be enough.

"She doesn't need to worry."

"While I may not be able to feel like you jake, having only one organic body to care for, I am equipped to know that you are neglecting your human one. If it deteriorates too much then you will lose both bodies." He looked at her series look, eyes imploring him to listen.

"Food for thought. We just worry you are becoming too absorbed in one life. I am happy for you, to have found happiness here," She gestured around them. Navi talking and eating together around fires. Even if he didn't have the greatest grasp on the language, he could at least assume from their expression the easy conversations. "But you are not fully Navi. You are native and intruder. Human and alien," She placed her hand on his chest, right above his heart, "But those two cannot live together for long. Sooner or later, one will extinguish the other."

Suddenly the easy conversations around them seemed like walls, enclosing him in the dangers of her words. "Wh-what do you mean?"

"No two apex predators can exist in the same niche of a ecosystem. Observed in the ferocious creatures that used to roam earth before their death, if they do then they kill each other." He swallowed harshly, chills running down his spine as it finally clicked that he was staring at something dangerous. Despite the bright eyed curiosity and general harmlessness Gene seemed to exude, right here in this moment he was given a rude awakening. Gene, even in an organic body, was still machine. The rules, feelings, and thoughts that drove them didn't apply to her, not fully. It seemed everyone except Gene noticed how much she'd grown and changed since being given a body, and it was that obliviousness that made her dangerous.

"I would suggest, if you are finished eating of course, of getting some rest. Your human body needs it just as much as your avatar, and if you're to complete your first hunt soon you'll need your strength." She patted his shoulder with a light hearted smile, the seriousness and ominous feelings gone just like that as she returned to the Gene he had grown to know. The Gene who would worry about his health and give suggestions on how best to manage both lives effectively without destroying one or the other. She left him with that, standing and moving to sit with the older Navi who'd taken her under her wing.