781 has spent her entire life confined in a laboratory, raised and studied by scientists who see her as nothing more than a test subject. She knows nothing of the outside world or the indigenous Na'vi people who inhabit the lush moon of Pandora.
On...
We got news back from the Tipani clan that we would go to their clan in a month's time. Maybe by then I finished my rites of passage to become an adult in the clan's eyes. Today Lo'ak and I would be stalking prey and practice tracking animals.
I grabbed my bow and arrows and we started walking slowly through the woods watching, listening carefully Lo'ak stopped us.
He pointed to a set of animal tracks and knelt down. I did the same. Lo'ak started to explain how to track, and how to identify what animal it is. He said it was a hexipede. We continued to walk following the tracks for a while, we stopped and hid behide a bush as we found the animal. It was eating some grass.
We watched it for a while and we moved on. Thats how it was a for a while. We always went out to the woods and tracked the animal and watched it for a while. Every day mornings, and afternoons. Sometimes evening when it was dark so i could track during the night.
One time we even tracked some avatar's foot prints. We stalked them as they were raiding an old RDA place. Lo'ak called it in. Jake and a few other warriors came to get them took them back to camp to interrogate them.
The one day Jake and Neytiri gave me a comm and a nickname to use when talking in the comm, so incase I was out by myself and needed help, or they needed to find me. They could get to me quicker.
Norm had started quizzing me on animals in the forest so I knew what animals were which, their footprints, what they looked like. They kept saying it and drilling it into my brain. They were starting to be a real pain in the ass with that. When I told Norm that he laughed and said good, that it was supposed to be annoying.
Another day Lo'ak sat me down and started to teach me how to craft arrows. All the materials were scatted around us. Stone, long sticks, rope, and some liquid.
"So first what we want to do is strip the stick of its bark." Lo'ak held up his knife and started stripping the bark which I followed. He then told me to start carving the stone out as a arrow tip, which I did. We did a few of those.
"Next your gonna want to take the stone, stick, and rope." Lo'ak then showed me how to put it all together, sticking together the tip of the arrow and stick with rope. "So normally your next step is to put feathers onto your bow as sort of a 'calling card' it gives details and if they cant find your body or if it is unregoizeable they could identify like that, and a few other things.
We put on some green things on the other end so it would be even and balance when you go to shoot it. He then told me that you then dip the tip of the arrow in the liquid. This liquid, I guess the sky people call in neurotoxin's. if it goes through you can kill you in one minute.
Lo'ak first showed me how to dip it in and then set it down on a makeshift rack some warriors made. So the arrows could dry. We did that a bunch more times until we had about a dozen of arrows, each.
Another day, I was with Kiri, she was starting to show me how to make clothing. "Every person needs to know how to make their own clothing, to be able to go through their rites of passage. You have to make at least, a few sets of clothing, a necklace and 2 other things of your choice."
Kiri and I sat down and she started to teach me how to make them, which way the pattern go. I started out with a top and waved through it it took me a good hour to be able to complete it. I mean I am a beginner of course.
Then I started on a loincloth and made that it only took me about 30 minutes though because all I had to do was sew a piece of cloth to a brown belt that was going around my waist.
Then because we had more time before we had to go to the tent to go to bed, I created a simple arm piece, then used a marble that hung down by a string on the belt and did something for my thigh. I created a marble necklace as well that Kiri had carved out and said that I could have both marbles.
Soon the outfit was complete. A White top and arm band, a pink loincloth with a brown belt, and a white thigh piece, with blue marble pieces. I was pretty proud of myself. Kiri had also made a similar outfit to mine but with different colors, she suggested we could do matching outfits one day. Kiri asked me if I could help her clean up, so I put my outfit in a pile and started to help Kiri put away things because soon Eclipse was going to be upon us and we had to get back to the tent.
We picked up our clothing and started to head back. Talking, laughing and smiling. When we got back to the tent Tuk and Neteyam wanted to see what I made so I showed them. They thought it was pretty cool. I walked over to my corner and put it in one of the baskets I had gotten. I then stood up and walked over to the circle that was full with the Sully family and sat down.
I was so tired but I also knew that I was one step closer to become one with the people.
Word count: 995
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