"How much did you hear?" A bell-like voice asked Jake the next morning.

Jake shrugged and pushed himself into his wheelchair that stood pushed up to his bunk bed, being held in place by Alva so it wouldn't move away from him. "Nothing."

"Really?" Alva asked him sceptically and cocked a hip.

"I was out like a light once I hit the sac." Jake chuckled and lowered himself into his chair in a controlled and practiced movement, though Alva noticed his arms shook and his jaw clenched. "Why? Did you spill all your dirty little secrets?"

Alva giggled and slapped his shoulder hard. "No, silly, but I had to get some things off my chest." Her eyes took on a milky mist as she looked up at the roof, feeling a familiar presence near her. "It's not easy being as perfect as I am." She shrugged and grinned at him before moving out of his way as he wheeled himself over to the linking units. His pulls were eager, as if he couldn't wait to enter his other body and see Neytiri.

"You have a crush on her, don't you?" She asked him knowingly, crossing her arms over her chest as she leaned on the door.

"Who?" He feigned ignorance but Alva saw right through it by the panicked look in his eye and the rapid motions he used to get in the link and away from her.

"Neytiri, of course." Alva replied in a simple tone, clicking her tongue as her eyes glittered. "You have an itty bitty crush on the Na'vi princess. Cute."

"No." Jake muttered and laid down in the soft material that adorned the inside of the linking units.

Alva sighed and shook her head. "Jake, Jake, Jake. I know a lie when I hear one. It's only natural when you two have been running around alone for the last weeks, learning about energies." She wiggled her eyebrows. "Too bad she's promised to another, he's quite handsome too." She giggled and winked at him before turning around. Alva walked away from the linking part of the temporary base, leaving a flustered and confused Jake behind her begun to protest but in the end said nothing to deny or agree with her statement.

Her senses tingled as she walked towards the container they had masks in. Na'vi were near, he was near. Alva smiled and combed through some of the more unruly curls before tying it back using a large hair band she had brought with her. She swiped away some of the baby hairs before putting on the mask and securing the safety on it that would help her breathe in the toxic pandorian air.

Alva glanced back at Jake, seeing that he had entered his avatar body before she stepped into the tunnel leading to the outside. She felt light and excited to see her teacher again, even if he had company that wouldn't like her, but that was okay. Alva didn't expect any of them to like her right away, just like she didn't expect Tsu'tey to. The mask provided a comfortable pressure on her face as she opened the door leading out from the safety of the base and out to the mountain they had claimed as their temporary home.

Harsh sunlight attacked her sensitive eyes, making her squint as she looked around the floating mountain for the group of Na'vi hunters she could sense. They were lurking somewhere around her, out of sight but not out of her mind.

Her bare feet slapped gently against the rocky ground as she took a few more steps away from the door. "Hi!" Alva called out and rocked forward on the tip of her feet. "Good morning!"

Silence was her answer. Silence that echoed all around her. Silence that was tense, tense like everyone holding their breaths. Bad silence. Not like the comfortable silence her and Tsu'tey often fell into when they were together. This one was uncomfortable and heavy, like a thick blanket of despair. Something bad was going to happen, Alva realised. She could feel it in her bones and in the way Eywa was sending signs to her. All of the ikrans around them had gone silence and not even the soft whines of the wind could be heard around them.

"I know you're out there." Alva told them and wrapped her arms around her stomach as if to protect herself against harm. "Can you come out?"

She heard him before she saw him; loud cocky steps against the rocky ground, anticipating, soft pants and the way his companions could barely hold in their giggles. Alva sighed when the Na'vi hunter stepped into her view. He was tall, much taller now compared to her human form that even amongst her own kind was considered short. The wind picked up again, flowing through his braided hair and lifting it to gently flow behind him. Tsu'tey's scowl was deep and his eyes cocky and taunting as he stared down at her unimpressed. His friends stood a bit behind him but didn't bother hiding their faces of disgust and cruel smirks. One of them had a totally shaved head with only his tswin braid in the back, the ends coated in red. The other friend had one side of his head shaved and the other side had hair flowing down in a tangled mess.

"Demon." Tsu'tey greeted her with a taunting tug of his lip to show one of his sharp canines. His friends stared her down like a pack of wild wolves, no, like hyenas for they looked at Tsu'tey before joining in with their own na'vi remarks and high-pitched giggles.

"Tsu'tey." Alva smiled and took a step forward. "What are you doing here?"

He sneered at her and looked at his friend with snappish tugs of his head. "This my home, not skypeople. Why you here?" The warrior demanded of her, his voice cold and hard. He deliberately spoke to her in an even more broken english than usually and showed great disgust for it.

Alva shrugged. "We decided to camp up here for a few months."

His friends hissed at her and Alva retaliated by sticking out her tongue at them before making a grimace of disgust after her tongue touched the inside of the mask.

"." Tsu'tey sneered at her, glancing once at the friend to his right before angling his head up so he could look down at her even more. ""

The friends both laughed and one of them, the shorter one, patted Tsu'tey on the shoulder but backed away once he saw the glare the warrior gave him.

"I don't want to be eaten by an ikran." Alva took a step forward and bit her lower lip with big eyes that sparkled with shimmering innocence that could only belong to Alva.

He wrinkled his forehead and swung his head around, making his braids almost slap his friend on the left in the face. Alva giggled unashamed, not caring at all about the looks the Na'vi were sending her.

"" One of the friends hissed to her before cackling, his eyes shining with twisted satisfaction as he stared at his friends.

Tsu'tey placed a hand on his shoulder, eyes staring into hers. Alva stared back, not fazed at all by the rude nature of his friends. She was used to people being rude to her, expected it even. People were always afraid of what they don't understand, and Tsu'tey's friends didn't understand her, not like he did.

"." A brief light of pride lit in the corner of his eyes but it went away as soon as he looked back at his friends. ""

Alva stare at them, whistling as she flapped her arms around her. "You know I can understand you, right?" She crossed her arms over her chest and cocked a hip, staring up at the tall Na'vi men with an unimpressed look. "And for your information I will pass my iknimaya, and I will be accepted by Eywa when I die. Is this some kind of an image thing, 'Sey, where you can't let your friends know you like the dreamwalker so you have to push me away?"

"" The Na'vi that had most of its head shaved snarled at her and took a few long steps towards her, his eyes lit up in slow burning fires and hands twitching. "I will teach you!"

"I only have one teacher." Alva giggled and twisted one of her bracelets. "And that's 'Sey. So if anyone is going to show me where that is it's going to be him. Eywa's not complaining, do you not hear her protesting against your hatred?" The dreamwalker spread her arms out and spun around in a circle, grinning wildly. "But she will forgive you for it, as will I. No one's perfect."

Two hisses could be heard but Tsu'tey was silent, staring at her with a blank look on his face, unreadable, but Alva was sure that he was feeling a storm inside of him. She could feel his confliction but it wasn't her place to help him with that; he had to figure it out himself.

"I will kill you, tawtute." The short Na'vi snarled and took out the giant knife he had strapped to his thigh. He took a few steps forward, in front of her warrior but Alva didn't even blink at his threatening stance. She didn't blink at the aggressive swishing of his tail, his ears pressed against his head, the curled up lip or his outstretched hand that bore a silver knife.

Alva shrugged and hummed under her breath. "Many have tried and they all failed." She told him in a sing-song voice as she walked closer to him until she was standing right in front of his knife. The tip was poking at her but Alva stood her ground, challenging his threat. "A day may come when your knife kills me, when Eywa welcomes me into her eternal paradise but it is not this day." She whispered to him, her eyes milky and voice a mere breath.

"" The Na'vi pointing his knife at her exclaimed and looked back at his leader in a panicked fashion-- eyes wide and mouth gaping.

Tsu'tey snapped out of his trance and looked at them, his eyes disapproving and lips pulled into a thin frown. "" He shot back at his friend and waved a hand around his head before bringing it back down to rest on his knife.

"" The other friend asked, shocked before laughing. ""

Tsu'tey scoffed and turned around to his friend. "" He hissed and pointed a finger at his friend's chest. ""

"I'm still here."

"" The Na'vi still threatening to stab her proposed to his friends and Alva chuckled before shifting on her feet and touching the shining blade almost drawing blood.

"Personally I don't like being thrown off cliffs but I can make an exception if it means I get to ride an ikran." She cheekily smiled at them and waved at Tsu'tey's second friend who sent her a death glare. "Tsu'tey's ikran, that is. Y'all bring too much negative energy and I don't want to be tainted." Alva winked at Tsu'tey and in one swift manouver she stole the knife from the Na'vi's hand and grabbed it firmly in hers.

Instantly the Na'vi in front of her jumped back, crouched and hissed at her. Tsu'tey tensed up and pulled his own knife. Alva stared at him before looking down on the knife. "Are you scared of human me holding a gigantic knife?" The human shrugged and skipped over to the edge of the mountain, murmuring a rhyme under her breath that sounded a bit too similar to one of the Na'vi songs she had learnt from Tru'iel to be original.

Alva looked back at the hunters and with a firm tone and a pointed glance she told them, "don't push me or I'm going to be upset."

She spun the knife around before throwing it off the edge, grinning at the startled yelp the Na'vi she had stolen it from let out as he watched his knife be tossed from the mountain. Alva brushed off her hands and turned back around to face them before chuckling at the stunned looks on their faces.

"What?" She asked them and walked back to where she stood before. "You were being mean so I took your you away." Alva told the Na'vi man once she passed him and patted him on his stomach with a curled grin and a fast wink.

"Tsu'tey." He whined and glared down at her. ""

Tsu'tey stared at them, he was glancing at her with an irritated look before casting his friend a pity look. The warrior shook his head and squared his shoulders before clenching his jaw with a frustrated look, one that almost made him look constipated. He turned his head away from them but not before glaring at her.

"I'll know." She chuckled. "Eywa will know. Tsu'tey will know." Alva rambled, putting up a finger each time she said a name, keeping eye contact with the furious Na'vi in front of her, knowing that she was playing with fire again. These two didn't like her like Tsu'tey did, didn't know her like he did and were just inches away from lunging and murdering her.

"Tsu'tey will not care." The Na'vi sneered at her, creeping closer with a twisted smirk on his face that made it lit up in a sinister way. "Tsu'tey hates sky people and will thank for killing you." His voice was like that of a teenage boy just entering puberty and his words nearly impossible to understand through his thick accent. "We will be congratulated home for getting rid of one more demon."

Alva hummed and took a step back, feeling her heart speed up a bit, not sure if Tsu'tey would be able, if he even would, save her in time before this Na'vi killed her and brought her energy back to the mother. Maybe today was the day she would die, but she didn't feel like it. Alva didn't feel done with the world, or with the Na'vi, she wasn't ready to join Eywa just yet, no matter how tempting it would be to dance with her.

"Considering I'm a student at your clan I wouldn't recommend killing me." She defended herself and threw a look at Tsu'tey who was staring at her before rolling his eyes.

"We have many students. Olo'eyktan will thank, great honor." The friend standing next to Tsu'tey responded and licked his lips.

She looked at Tsu'tey again, seeing his impassive look when his friends were talking about killing her but even if she wanted to she couldn't bring herself to blame him, or to be mad at him for it. Alva smiled at him before turning back to the Na'vi hounding her and smiling.

"I think it's time for you to leave. I need to speak with Eywa." Alva told them before briskly walking back to the base, throwing a, "Bye, my strong warrior" over her shoulder with an accompanying wink and smile. Alva would be waiting for his apology but she wouldn't tempt her fate by challenging the very people she tried to live with.

The door shut behind her and she let out a breath of air before walking over to her linking unit. It was time to go back home.