"You have hunted before?" Tsu'tey asked Alva with a frown on his face as the two walked towards the welcoming forest. Out of habit his eyes flashed towards the trees before he reminded himself that she was with him and not waiting to ambush him.

"They never look up." Alva said out of the blue as she skipped behind her teacher. "Too arrogant, and stupid." She giggled and looked longingly up at the branches far above them.

"Who?" He gruffed out and his eyes danced towards the trees again as if sensing the longing from the woman behind him.

Alva giggled and shook her head. "No, silly 'Sey. Everyone, even you." The dreamwalker emphasized the 'you' and threw a ball of grass she had made when she was waiting for him to show up earlier that morning. It hit him square in the back and he tensed, exhaled and then kept on walking. "Buzz kill"

"If you want to learn then be silent." Tsu'tey growled at her, his temper flaring, his words heavily accented and rough around the edges. The warrior squared his shoulders but refused to look back at her even when he heard her sweet giggling or when he heard the tell-tale pitter-patter of her feet as she skipped behind him, something you could only hear when she wanted to be heard.

"If you want to learn then be silent." Alva mocked him, even trying to mimic his accent and gait.

He snarled at her, tail flickering angrily behind him and eyes flashing. "If you were not hurt I would hurt you for disrespect."

"No you wouldn't." She giggled, knowing he was trying to scare her again but he was probably the safest Na'vi for her to be around. Alva looked around the area and found what almost looked like a pinecone only it was green and softer. She picked it up and twisted it around in her palm, making her rings get caught in the different sections, before she shrugged and threw it towards him.

The pinecone missed him by far, falling a good distance behind him. Alva shook her head and went to pick it up again when his voice stopped her right in her tracks.

"You are not strong enough to hit me, demon." He taunted her, a mix between a frown and a reluctant smirk was hidden from her. His tail was swinging gently behind him, showing how little of a threat he believed her to be, having apparently forgotten the numerous pranks she's done to him.

She snorted and jumped over the small green pinecone before closing the distance between them, wrapping her arms around one of his. Alva sighed and rubbed her chin against him in a very feline like manner. "The forest is happy for us, can't you feel it, 'Sey? The whispered words in the breeze, the softness of the grass under our feet? Signs, signs, 'Sey!"

He scoffed and tried to shrug out of her hold before realising she was not letting go of him. Tsu'tey stopped resisting but remained tense. "They say sky people cannot see, like rock, human rock." He said and kicked a rock on the ground. "But you speak as if you can talk to Eywa."

"Only the Tsahìk can talk to Eywa, she is the link between us and interprets her will." Alva's lips curled into a soft grin, making her cheeks puff up slightly as she stared up at Tsu'tey, though her eyes were staring into his she was not all there. Her eyes were misty and vacant. "I can only feel her, just like you. I see her but I can't talk to her."

"Maybe you are not a rock then. Perhaps you are a leaf." He retorted and smacked her with his tail before faking it as an accident, but Alva knew better and giggled.

"A leaf huh? I like the sound of that." The dreamwalker let go off his arm and swaggered away from him, looking back for just a second to send him a sly wink before disappearing among the trees.

---

She was hanging down from a tree by her knees, swinging gently back and forth as she watched her teacher demonstrate how to properly handle a bow. Of course he was using his own bow and not the smaller and not as pretty one that she was going to use. Already Alva was looking forward to making her own bow out of the hometree after completing her Iknimaya and becoming a Na'vi woman.

"Do not bend back, always straight." Tsu'tey instructed her and slouched his back before straightening up to the correct position for bow handling. His eyes flickered to her from time to time, each time hardening when flickering back to the target in front of him.

"I get it. Don't slouch." She tightened the hold her tail had on the branch, feeling herself slip a bit. "What else?"

"Be patient, student." He hissed at her, showing his sharp canines. Alva blew him a raspberry before realising the saliva from it blew back in her face. "You are weak, so we will train your muscles. Come here." Tsu'tey ordered her and gestured for her to join him.

Alva let go off the branch and fell backwards towards the ground before landing gracefully on her feet. She strutted up to him, her anklets and bracelets clinging loudly with each step. Alva stopped besides Tsu'tey and took the brown training bow he offered her.

"I have dreamed about many things but never this." She spoke up while gazing down at the bow with wide eyes. Her voice was a dreamy whisper. "I have dreamed about you with another woman, I have dreamed about you falling, I have dreamed about me coming here and me finding Kida, but never have I dreamed about the feeling of holding a bow in my hands."

"Good?" He asked her.

She shook her head. "No. Bad feeling, one of pain and destruction. I'm not made for the hunter life." Alva glances up at him and smiles sadly. "I can't kill a living thing, not even the plants around us."

Tsu'tey scoffed and forced the bow back in her hands when she tried to pass it back to him. "Demon cannot be Na'vi if she cannot make clean kill." He clicked his tongue, his words holding a bit of a snear to them. A hint of respected shined in the corner of his eye before he blinked and it was gone. "Now straight back."

"Eywa will forgive me for learning it." Alva reassured herself as she stood straighter and lifted the bow until it was right in front of her eyes. An arrow laid thrown on the forest floor and she could almost see the shift in the earth that made it roll the slightest bit away from her. She smiled and shifted her hold on the weapon.

"Nono, legs go like this." Tsu'tey told her and tapped her on the legs to make her separate them a bit. "Balance, bug, if you shoot like that you will not hit your target and you will fall to the ground. Would be embarrassing."

Alva chuckled and dug her feet into the ground before exhaling and trying to pull the string back to her face. She looked at it confused when it barely budged and she made an 'aha' sound when she heard the amused snort from her teacher. "I don't have any arm muscles." She bluntly said and pouted.

Tsu'tey nodded and pushed her arm, watching her almost fall over from the power behind it. "You do not have muscles in whole body." He frowned again before his face relaxed and a hint of mirth entered his eyes. "It is as you say, you are not meant to be hunter."

She arched an eyebrow and gave him an amused grin. "Of course not. It's the will of Eywa."

"Still, tawtute needs to learn or she will not go through iknimaya." He reminded her in the gentlest tone he had used with her since he discovered her true nature. "Now you will not shoot arrow until you can pull bow right."

Alva tried to pull the string back to her but once again she could barely pull it halfway. "Am I doing this right? I'm left-handed and usually when you're left handed you have to do things differently. Do you know the pain of finding lefthanded sci-"

Tsu'tey bristled at her confession. "You should have said this before." He barked at her while glaring. ". Switch hands and put right foot in front of left foot."

Alva giggled at how annoyed he was before doing as he said. She slightly bent her knees instinctually and already she could feel her arms shaking from holding the bow up, she had some muscles in her arms but they were all from climbing and not the same as what she needed to shoot a bow. Alva glanced over at Tsu'tey to see that he was observing her stance, scouting for any faults, his face was concentrated and in what she assumed was his 'teacher mode'.

"Relax lower back and shoulders." He mumbled and placed one warm, calloused hand on her shoulder left shoulder and the other on her lower back.

She nodded and relaxed slightly to keep herself from being too tense or slouch. Alva noticed that she could pull the string a bit further towards her now but her arms were tired and shaking. Her face was faced forward and concentrated on the big target that she would never be able to hit at this rate.

"Turn your head to right but do not turn body." Tsu'tey pushed her head to the right and the hand he had on her lower back was used to keep her torso turned forwards. "Not bad for first time, but still not good as Na'vi first time."

Alva beamed at him at that, the compliment--even if he didn't want it to sound like one-- boosted her confidence and gave her a little extra push. The dreamwalker inhaled deeply and at the exhale she pulled the string back and almost got it all the way back.

A few more tries coupled with extreme shaking in her arms and sweat shining in her face meant that she finally pulled it back all the way. Alva cheered and laughed as the bow fell from her hand and hit the ground with a woody clang. She put her hands on her knees as she let out mixtures of deep laughter, cheers and instinctual sounds she often heard the Na'vi themselves use. "I did it!" She laughed. "I did it, 'Sey! I did it!" Alva pulled herself upright and stumbled slightly but her beaming smile remained as she looked up at her stoic teacher whose lips hadn't even twitched.

"When you can pull back string with arrow and hit bullseye I will say 'good job', but no sooner." His voice drawled as he stared down his nose at her. "Now go again."

Alva stared pointedly at her practically vibrating arms, even slinging it limply towards him. "Can I take a break? I'd like to take a nap in that tree over there, with the pink flowers and green lianas? It looks dreamy." She gushed and made grabby hands towards the tree while looking at Tsu'tey. "C'mon 'Sey, don't you want to take a break too?"

"No." He forced through his teeth and pushed the bow back in her hands. "You said I was the best, this is why I am the best. You will rest when you have pulled bow right ten times."

She sighed longingly but grinned up at him nonetheless. Alva had picked him for a reason, this one of many. "If I do it correctly ten times you'll take a nap with me on that tree?" Her eyes sparkled with mischief and a teasing grin had replaced the amused one.

"If you do it correctly ten times I will let you take a nap in tree." He said with an air finality around him but Alva was never one to give up easily. Her best friend needed a nap too.

"If I do it right fifteen times you'll take a nap with me?" Alva challenged him with a daring look in her eyes. "I'll even let you pick the tree."

His eyes lit up with the challenge and a smirk grew on his face. "If you do it fifteen times we will take nap on that tree." Tsu'tey pointed to the tree she had been admiring before.

Alva took the bow from his hands, spread her legs before straightening up and pulling the string towards her. "In a row or overall?"

"Row."

"Ah." She whispered and pulled the string back once more, this one not going all the way but still further than she did in the beginning. Alva worried her lower lip between her teeth and tried again, tensing her stomach and accidentally her shoulders. This time the string went all the way, making pride blossom inside her.

"That is one time." Tsu'tey's taunting voice reminded her but she was determined to once more prove herself to the stoic hunter.

Alva released the string before pulling it back once more. She smiled when the string easily went all the way back but winced when she accidentaly hit her underarm with the string when she let it go, already she could feel the bruise blooming. She pulled it back once more and the number of successful pulls went up to a solid three, only twelve more to go until she would claim her prize.

"You should get ready for a nap, 'Sey." She giggled and her bracelets twinkled when she let go off the string a bit more aggressively than before.

Tsu'tey didn't respond to the teasing remark and Alva had a feeling he wasn't entirely against napping. It took maybe ten or fifteen more minutes before she got to the number fifteen and at that point her underarms were covered in red lines from when the string had smacked her and she had gotten a tear in one of the more fragile bracelets that she'd have to mend before the vine broke. Alva was sweating, but not as much as before, and her arms weren't hurting anymore but were a comforting numb and heavy. A smile screaming triumph was shining on her face and she looked up at Tsu'tey expectantly as she passed the bow to a surprisingly silent Tsu'tey.

"Guess it's nap time then, 'Sey." She giggled and placed her hand on his warm wrist where she grabbed and began tugging him towards his chosen tree.

"" Tsu'tey muttered as he let himself be dragged towards where they were going to take an afternoon nap together.

---

The sign hanging from the giant-sized bed swung in the gentle wind as it was being wheeled down from the ramp of the big shuttle like aircraft. The name 'Meaui' was printed in bold black on it and shimmered ever so slightly in the bright sunlight. A cyan colored hand fell limply over the side of it, the lighter blue stripes shone in comparison to the much darker cyan that covered much of the body.

"We need to hurry before she wakes up." A gruff voice spoke up, his voice cautious and eager. "Just imagine if the beast wakes up before she's contained. Selfridge would skin us alive"

A feminine snort could be heard as the woman pulled the hand up and placed it on the alien's stomach. "Shut up, Kyle"

"You know I'm right, Karen." Kyle shot back and glared at the blonde, middle-aged woman behind him. "If she wakes up and murders the lot of us it'll be all your fault. Bet those nephews of yours back home ain't gonna get those transplants if their aunt is the reason a million dollar project escaped"

"Just get it inside." Karen sighed and shook her head before pushing harder on the bed, eager to get inside and away from Kyle and his talk.

The body on the bed twitched and groaned, making the crew transporting it flinch before they started running towards the entrance. The four people pushing the bed cursed the rocky ground and shouted at the people walking around in their machines as they raced against the clock, if Meaui woke up before she was supposed to then they'd all be dead before any of the other military people could react, and she would probably be gone before they could recapture, or kill her. The bit grey base before them seemed more and more like paradise with each slow passing second, and just before they got to the big doors they swung open and revealed a smirking Quaritch.

"Is that her?" He asked them, tracing the angry red scars on his face that snaked to a good portion of the side of his head. His lips curled up, showing enough teeth to show his malicious intent.

"Yes, sir." Kyle wiped the sweat off his brow and panted heavily as he stood leaning on the bed containing Meaui. "We need to get her into the avatar hanger before she wakes up."

Quaritch hummed and shifted on his feet. "Will it be enough to contain her?"

"Yes, sir." Karen was the one who answered this time, panting even more than the practically gasping Kyle, though she was barely breaking a sweat. Her hair had become undone in the wind and now looked more like she had stuck a finger in an outlet than carefully styled hair.

"Good." He responded and turned around before walking away from the anxious set of workers.