"Let's run through them again," Grace said, shoving holo-pad in front of his face for what seemed to be the hundredth time in the last two days. Jake rolled his eyes, but nodded anyway. He grabbed for the pad, but Grace held it out of reach, only bringing it back down when he lowered his hand. She thrust it back in front of him, flicking her fingers across the screen and bringing up the image of stern faced Na'vi.

Neytiri's mother frowned at him from the picture, looking as ill humored and grumpy as ever. What was her name again? She was the shaman or something, yeah? "Mo'at. The dragon lady."

Grace pulled back the holo-pad, summoning up the next image. Jake felt like he was playing the alien edition of guess who, only this time the stakes were diplomatic relationships with an alien race. No pressure at all. He glanced at the picture, recognizing it immediately.

"Atucan," Jake said after a moment's hesitation. He doubted Grace would accept 'cheif guy' as an answer. She'd probably skin him alive for even thinking it. Grace was funny that way.

" Eytukan . Hes the clan leader, but she's the spiritual leader. Like a shaman."

"Okay, okay. I got it."

Grace scowled, flicking her cigarette and breathing out an irritated whisp of smoke. She was only missing fangs and some scales and then she'd be a veritable dragon herself. "Well, you won't have it if you call him that to his face. Names are important, especially to the Omaticaya. Mess it up and half the clan won't talk to you."

"And the other half?" He asked, more to piss her off than because of any real interest. Grace was one tough piece of work but as long as you didn't fuck around and mess up her science she wouldn't to more than chew you out a little. Usually.

Grace just looked at him. And yep, there you go. You could tell she was about a second away from throwing the pad at his head for his idiocy.

"You don't want to know what the other half of the clan would do. You haven't got many friends there, Marine." She said bluntly. Grace took another drag of her cigarette. "Now enough with the dumb questions. Let's get on with it."

Jake rolled his eyes. He rolled to a stop beside the pod, beginning the complicated process of hauling himself. Grace moved as if to offer him a hand but he waved her off, receiving a holoppad shoved in his face in response. Jake glanced at it, grabbing the material of his trousers and hauling his legs up into the pod.

That one was easy, the guy hated his guts. If he had anything to worry, it was this guy. Jake had no doubt the he'd would sooner stick him full of arrows than even look in his direction. "Tsu'tey."

" Tsu 'tey." Grace corrected, scowling.

" Tsu 'tey." Jake parroted obediently.

"He'll be the next clan leader." Grace said, loading the next picture. Neytiri. She was younger than she was now by at least a year. He grabbed the holo-pad, bringing it closer. It was a beautiful picture, there was a rare smile on her face as she talked to someone off screen, an expression he'd only seen once or twice in real life.

He couldn't help but smile a little, her name rolling of his tongue easily. "Neytiri."

Grace made an affirming noise. "She'll be the next Tsahik after Mo'at. She and Tsu'tey would have become a mated pair if it hadn't been for Isonali."

"Who?" Jake said, dragging his legs into the right position. Every time he came back his body felt even more restricting. It was like that first year stuck in the wheelchair after the accident all over again. He couldn't wait to get back to the village, back into his avatar, where he he could actually move, run, even just being able to stand on his own two feet without needing people to help him.

Norm leaned on the end of the pod, hanging around just to watch Jake suffer, he reckoned. He scoffed at Jake's question. Evidently someone was still in a bad mood. "Isonali te Hufwe. Or Isonali of Wind. He's the clan's top flyer and aerial hunter. Best they've ever had. The Omaticaya say he has the soul of an Ikran, thats how good he is. You'd know this if you'd had any training."

"Who's got a date with the chief daughter?"Jake smirked, enjoying Norms put upon scowl. He was still bitter about Jake getting an in with the clan while he and the other avatars, you know, the proper scientists, were still banned from entering Omaticaya territory. He'd get over it eventually, or Grace would kick his ass for sulking round like a kid while on the job.

"Anyway what'd he do?" He turned to Grace, ignoring Norm. A dark thought creeping into his mind. "He's not engaged to Neytiri or something, is he?"

Grace just looked at him, the sheer intensity of how unimpressed she was was astronomical. And alright, fair enough, he wasn't a genius like his brother, but how the hell was he supposed to know all this shit? He'd only been hanging out with the Omaticaya for a couple of weeks and most the time Neytiri was trying to teach him every single skill she could down, practically cramming their clan histories down his throat in an effort to get him up to standard. It didn't leave much time for random chit-chat with the clan, and even if there was he doubted he could get more than five Na'vi combined to talk to him. Most of the clan was beyond apprehensive at his presence and some, mostly Tsu'ety's faction, were outright hostile.

"So?" Jake prompted, undeterred.

Grace fiddled with the pod controls, prepping it for activation. She rolled her eyes and sucked on her cigarette, exasperated. "No, he's not engaged to Neytiri."

That Jake felt a wash of relief at her answer probably wasn't a good sign. "Then what did he do?"

"Ask him yourself." Grace said, "Now lets go, village life starts early."

He took the hint and settled into position, letting her bring down the monitoring frame, flickering lights and cables and all. A push of a button set the lights flashing, the frame whirring gently as the device went to action monitoring his body while his mind was away. Glancing over to make sure everything was in place Grace tapped at the pod console, pulling up the activation sequence.

Just before the lid came down Grace paused, hand slapping down on the side of the pod.

"Don't do anything unusually stupid." She ordered. There was a threatening gleam in her eye that left him with no trouble imagining just what she would to to him if he bungled up their one chance of getting back in favor with the clan.

Jake grinned and reached up a hand, giving the pod lid the small tug it needed slide closed. He was enclosed in a world of green foam for the few seconds it took Grace to finish activating the pod and send his mind spinning out of his body and through the link to his avatar.