Video Log: 12

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"Do I have to do this now Grace?!"

I asked, annoyed to Grace who was busy looking over at a few samples Norm and Tom had acquired. Grace looked at Me and nodded "Yes, now. No excuses" I sighed and turned my attention to the video recording.

"Okay location is shack and the days are just starting to blur together..."

***

"Kaltxì..."

"Kalti..."

"Kaltxì!"

"Kaltxì"

The language is a pain in the ass. Mostly because it was concerning who was teaching it.

"Tsmukan"

"Tsukan..."

"Tsmukan!"

"Tsmucan..!"

Whack!

"Learn fast or we are going nowhere!"

***

I notched an arrow and pulled back the bowstring before I heard Tsu'tey scowl. Oh come on!

"You are doing your mistakes again! Just when I thought you made progress! Skxawng!"

Tsu'tey calls me and Jake and sometimes Tom (but its mostly me that's getting that word) skxawng which means moron. Ironically, that was the first word I got it right.

And it became my favorite word to use on Tsu'tey to annoy him.

***

"Look, look its not the I see you that I see in front of you but I See Into You"

Norm explained to Jake exasperatedly while Tom tried to help me get my Na'vi language pronunciation right.

"We are getting to nowhere!"

I groaned before Norm poked his head from the doorway with an annoyed expression etched on his face "Its not my fault you two signed up for this trip with no idea whatsoever. You two gotta get this alright!?" He said before turning his attention to Jake.

Grace's school is back on board though Jake and I (there were times Trudy would join in) were the only students. Norm thinks were all skxawngs too.

Tom looked at me with a grin. I wish I could wipe that grin off his face.

"So...what word were we again?"

***

Tsu'tey and I ran across the huge branches of the forest as an exercise to becoming quick and stealthy when I get to hunt.

As the days fly by I could feel my feet are getting tougher. I could run further everyday. When your in the forest, you have to trust your body and instincts to know what to do.

Tsu'tey swung across a hanging branch to look back to see his student copying his movement. Emersyn landed on her feet with a grin.

Tsu'tey looked away and proceeded running. Emersyn wondered is she was seeing imaginable things but she thought she caught a ghost of a smile in Tsu'tey's face.

***

"Yeah, check it out!"

Jake smiled as he managed to stay in balance while riding the pa'li however, it was around that time, Tsu'tey and Emersyn darted in with their pa'li and before Jake could order his direhorse to stop, he rammed it in Emersyn's pa'li causing the siblings to tumble down.

"Ah Shit!"

"Crap!"

Jake and I cursed while Tsu'tey and Neytiri laughed. I glared at Jake who gave me a sheepish grin.

"I will kill you skxawng!"

"Hey you sound like Tsu'tey"

Jake quipped making my tanhi glow and Tsu'tey scowl while Neytiri looked at Tsu'tey with a raised brow.

"Not funny ma tsmukan"

***

Everyday is reading the trails, the tracks of the animals. The tiniest sense and sound.

I followed Tsu'tey as he tracked down the location of a viperwolf or a pack of viperwolves. He turned to me "Which way did they go?" I eyed the tracks criss crossing each other and picked up a few sounds before answering.

"East.."

***

My narration was cut off by Grace speaking to Jake "Thus is not only about eye hand coordination out there you know, you need to see the forest through her eyes" Jake ran a hand down his hair in exasperation.

"Excuse me this is my video log here!"

"And your ruining mine by speaking back there Jake!"

***

Tsu'tey and I were heading towards a dead end of the branch. I watched as Tsu'tey didn't hesitate to jump down and slowly slide down from the leaves of the trees and landing safely to the ground.

I immediately followed and was really pretty good in sliding but I needed to practice my landing. Once I was on the ground, Tsu'tey nodded and we were off again.

***

Tom had convinced Mo'at and Eytukan to let Grace into the village. Its been a long time since her school closed down.

The siblings watched as a joyfully Grace interact and reunite with the children she sorely missed.

***

While joining Tsu'tey in patrolling, my ears picked up the sound of Jake and Neytiri with Tom and Ni'nat in a nearby lake. Tsu'tey seemed to have heard to because he was then heading to the direction of the lake.

I spotted them swimming and laughing "Hey Sis, come join us!" Tom yelled as Ni'nat made a gesture to come. I was about to shake my head before Tsu'tey slowly pushed me forward.

I gaped at him before smiling wildly and racing to the lake and jumped in the soothing cold water.

***

Grace eyed the sample in the microscope before turning it off and ready to hit the bed before she spotted the triplets sleeping in different directions.

Jake was sleeping on his wheelchair with the video log still on.

Emersyn's head was on the table with her arms underneath it. Dark circles marred her face and soft snores were heard.

Tom was on his bunk yet one leg was on the bed while the other was dangling. His face was covered by a book about the different types of flora in Pandora.

Grace sighed and proceeded to tuck Jake in his bunk, remove the book from Tom's face and righted his sleeping figure so as to not get a stiff neck and placed a blanket on Emersyn's shoulders.

She eyed the triplets before heading to bed herself.

***

I checked my stance before notching an arrow and drawing out the bowstring. I stiffened up when I felt Tsu'tey go behind me and he gently raised my arm up to the target. I looked at him in shock before he pulled away.

"Shoot"

It was a perfect hit.

***

I watched as Tsu'tey held up a purple leaf that was filled with rain water and drank from it. Feeling thirsty myself, I grabbed a leaf and opened my mouth and felt water flowing in. Feeling satisfied, I eased back only to see Tsu'tey staring at me "'uo keyawr? (Something wrong?)" My Na'vi must have snapped him out of whatever thought he was thinking (probably thinking on how I looked ridiculous a few moments ago).

He turned away and answered "Ke'u (Nothing)" Before I could blink, he was already leaving.

I'm trying to understand this deep connection the people have to Pandora. He talks about, a network of energy that flows through all living things. He also said all energy we have is borrowed and there will come a time we have to give it back.

***

Later that night, Jake and Tom led me to a clearing to show me something. I eyed a crawling creature they called fan lizard before turning to Jake with a confused brow.

He grinned before trying to touch it only for the creature to open up its wings and made it spin to fly. I gasped in surprise and delight. Tom screamed, scaring a few and the three of us spent a night trying to catch a few fan lizards like little kids.

For the first time since we were adults, we had sibling time.

***

Grace waited patiently for the triplets to unlink while studying a few samples Norm and Trudy had acquired. She swore those two always hung out together.

Jake's link slowly stopped and a tired marine followed by a yawning scientist and their exhausted sister came out. The triplets flexed their arms and legs to regain control of their human body.

"You three were out for 16 hours and the three of you are starting to lose weight"

Grace stated as the three hopped out of their links and start to head to their perspective bunks. Grace quickly pulled out a few food for them.

"Oh no you don't!"

She pulled Jake's wheelchair back and grasped Tom and I by the arms and made us face in front of a small dinning table. I made a whine of protest "But we gotta get some sleep" Grace gave us her look.

"Bon Appetite"

She said, bringing the food closer to us. Tom, too tired to argue, grabbed the wrapper and opened up the pack and slowly ate. I sighed "But today we made a kill. We ate it at least I know where that meal came from" Jake said stubbornly. Grace looked at him disapprovingly "Other body, you need to take care of THIS body" Grace said and Jake sighed before making a move to open up his dinner which Grace beat him to it.

"You three look like crap"

"Thank you for the complement"

I said before plucking out the cigarette from her mouth. Grace looked at me with a somewhat stunned look "Get rid of that shit, and then you can lecture us" I gave her a smug grin. Grace gave me a displeased look "Now I'm telling you, as your boss and someday you might even consider a friend to take some down time" I hate to admit it but Grace was starting to sound like an overbearing mother.

Grace went to the microwave to heat up the food "Trust me, I learned it the hard way" Gloom settled into the shack and the sleep that almost made the three of us drop down dead at the table was gone. Jake reached out for an old photo of Grace's school and saw Neytiri with her sister, Sylwanin and a Na'vi child.

"What did happen to the school Grace?"

Jake asked. Grace grabbed her coffee and closed the microwave, she sighed and answered "Neytiri's sister, Sylwanin, stopped coming to school" looks like our interest was not on going to bed anymore. We waited for her to continue "She was angry about the clear-cutting. And one day she and a couple of young hunters came running in, all painted up" Grace gripped Jake's food as she continued her story.

"They had set a bulldozer on fire. I guess they thought I could protect them. The troopers pursued them to the school. They killed Sylwanin in the doorway right in front of Neytiri and then shot the others"

Tom's jaw dropped and my mind flashed to the bullet holes and the stains I had found. Were they...

"I got most of the kids out and after that, they never came back"

I looked at Jake who looked like he was seeing something in a new light. I hope and pray to whoever god or goddess is out there to give him sense and stop reporting to Quaritch and Selfridge.

"I'm sorry"

Jake said, handing the photo to Grace who placed it on the windowsill. I get the feeling he was apologizing because of his loyalty to the RDA. Grace looked at the three of us "A scientist stays objective. We can't be ruled by emotion" Tom made a move to protest but I held my hand up to shut him up. Grace shocked us when her eyes misted and tears began to form but Grace wouldn't let a single one drop.

"Now I put 10 years of my life into that school. They called me Sa'nok"

Jake looked at her in confusion "What -"

"It means Mother"

I turned away and Tom placed an arm around my shoulder while Jake held my arm for support. Grace gave us a moment or two before continuing "That kind of pain reaches back...through the link" She touched Jake's chest where his heart lay and I stood up.

"I'm going to bed"

Not bothering to finish my food I covered my head with my pillow and the dam broke and tears fell from my eyes as I remembered the pain I felt when Jake was injured, the same pain when mother died, the same pain when father  never sees us.

And the same kind of pain I felt when I left my brothers.