Avatar: The Return of The Songbirds

Chapter Forty-Two - Magic

After a few more hours of walking through the trees Pxäkngam finally called it for the day and everyone was finally able to relax. "Do you think they'll find us?" Tsovey asked nervously.

"I do not think they will find us my love." Lìyìnuk exclaimed, trying to reassure her youngest child.

"But what if they do?" Tsovey continued, as she held her mothers hand tightly.

"How about this?" Pxäkngam began, motioning for Tsovey to come to him and she wasted not time. Tsovey quickly made her way over to her father and climbed into his lap. "We won't make a fire tonight." Pxäkngam continued, keeping a firm hold of Tsovey. "That way they won't be able to see us." He exclaimed with a smile.

"How will we eat if we do not make a fire?" Tsovey giggled.

"We will figure it out." Pxäkngam replied in kind, kissing the top of Tsovey's head.

"We have rations in our bags." Matt offered. "It isn't the best, but you don't need a fire to warm it." He added with an awkward smirk.

"See we figured it out." Pxäkngam laughed, before looking over to Matt. "Thank you Matt." He added with a small bow of his head.

"It is my pleasure, really!" Matt stated happily. After a moment Nick, Matt and Chris began ripping their bags open, pulling all of their rations out.

"Wow...we have more than I thought we did!" Nick exclaimed. "We have enough for a few days." He added.

"What is all of this?" Tatal asked, sitting next to Nick.

"Well...most of them are like crackers or cookies, but these bags have meals!" Nick chuckled. "Like this one." Nick continued picking up one of the square brown bags. "This one has chicken and rice." Nick read, grabbing for another meal. "This one is pasta with red sauce and meatballs." He paused, looking over at Matt. "What does yours say?" Nick asked.

"Mine are steak with Spanish rice and fettuccine with white sauce." Matt replied as he cringed at the names. "White sauce...that sounds terrible." Matt laughed.

"Yeah...that can be yours." Nick joked, gaining an eye roll from Matt. "Chris, what about you?" Nick continued.

"One is the same as Nick's. Chicken and rice, but this one." Chris paused, picking up the other bag. "Meatloaf." Chris groaned.

"Great." Nick sighed. "So there are only a few good options, but it's food for tonight." Nick finished.

"Well food is good, no matter the taste." Tatal laughed. "We will be fine." He added.

"Alright let's eat then." Nick proclaimed placing all the good options in the middle of everyone.

"So, how do we eat these meals?" Sakire questioned with a smile. "You said meat, but you need fire to cook meat." She continued.

"Good question." Matt laughed. "Each meal comes with two bags. You put the meal into this bag, fill it with a little bit of water and watch the magic happen." he smiled.

"Magic?" Tsovey chimed in. "What is magic?" She questioned.

"That is another great question, however that is a lot to explain right now." Matt sighed, rubbing the back of his head.

"You will see." Nick exclaimed, as he began pouring a small amount of water into the bag. The group of Na'vi stared at the bag intensely and waited for the "magic" to happen.

"Why is it making that sound?" Lerukì stated nervously as he crawled over to Solko due to the bag beginning to bubble.

"The magic." Nick laughed. A few minutes went by and the bubbling sound finally began to die down. "Okay, are you ready to see what the magic did?" Nick asked, gaining nods from everyone. Nick smiled and opened the bag, as it revealed smoke.

"It is smoking!" Tsovey shouted. "Why is it smoking!" She continued, as she and the other young children got closer to Nick.

"That's the magic." Nick smiled. "The food is cooked." He laughed.

"It is cooked?" Lìyìnuk exclaimed in pure fascination. "That is very interesting." She smiled.

"Well everyone can have a bit of everything." Nick exclaimed, placing a little of the first item onto everyone's makeshift plates. Soon two more meals were made and distributed amongst the group. "I hope you guys like it...but I can't promise anything." Nick chuckled. With a bit of hesitation everyone slowly began eating the meal.

"This is not bad." Henilo cooed, as he began eating faster.

"Really?" Chris chuckled. "Well at least you guys like it." He laughed.

"You guys do not like eating these things?" Vialo questioned.

"Well we eat these items daily so I guess we have just grown tired of them." Chris admitted in a shy tone.

"Well they are good." Vialo stated with a smile. "Thank you for sharing them with us." She giggled.

"Of course, we can eat the other ones tomorrow too." Chris proclaimed happily. "Just to make sure that we are fully out of their line of sight." He added looking over to Tsovey who just smiled back at him.

"Well that was a delicious meal, thank you boys." Lìyìnuk praised. "But now I am afraid it is time for bed." She playfully ordered. Normally the younger children would fight her on it, but due to the level of exertion they were forced to endure the children were already half asleep by this point, and within minutes they were completely zonked. "That was so easy...what do we do now?" Lìyìnuk laughed.

"I guess we should go to sleep as well. We have to push ourselves even further tomorrow." Pxäkngam exclaimed. "If we move quickly, we will only have one more rest point before we reach home." He added.

"We will go as far as we have too!" Tatal smiled in response. "We should continue to stay in the trees. They will never fully be able to locate us because we aren't leaving any footprints." Tatal added gaining agreement from all the adults.

"I agree, we will continue in the trees the rest of the way." Pxäkngam proclaimed. "But for now let's rest." He smiled, as everyone took a minute to get settled in their respective areas.

"Solko?" Sìlaru's small voice was heard.

"Yes?" Solko asked, walking over to the sleepy child.

"Can you sleep over here with me?" Sìlaru asked tiredly.

Solko smiled softly. "Of course." Solko agreed, laying next to the child who quickly latched onto her, falling asleep instantly. "Goodnight everyone, see you in the morning." Solko exclaimed with a smile, before lying down for the night. As Solko was getting comfortable she felt someone press up against her back, and when she turned to look she was met with Lerukì's sleeping face. She smiled lightly as she gently changed her position until she was laying on her back. Almost immediately after, Lerukì's head found its way onto Solko's arm.

"Solko, are you going to be comfortable over there?" Tatal joked, looking at the position her sister was in.

Solko lifted her head to make eye contact with Tatal. "I will have to be." She replied in kind, as her let out a low sigh. She made a few more adjustments to her "sleeping" position.. if you could even call it that, before drifting into a deep sleep.