To Truly See

"Nok? Is that you?"

The Alaksi Nari didn't jump, nor let out an exclamation in an embarrassing manner fitting of a child. Instead, he flicked his tail, he grasped his spear and swivelled his gaze towards-…

"Molly?"

Scratch his train of thought. Bearing a weapon on a friend was far more embarrassing…and shameful…then jumping like a startled animal.

"Um, yes? the Dreamwalker said hesitantly, clearly unsettled (though not too much, thankfully) by the na'vi's reaction. "Molly Ossman, your…friend?"

"Yes…yes, of course."

Eye of Eywa indeed. Clearly the mind didn't come as part of the leaf package.

Nok knew he was taking a big risk, being this close to the hometree of the Sky People. For starters it wasn't a tree at all and if the pit and strange gray soil was any indication, there wasn't going to be a hometree around here in his lifetime. Still, curiosity had got the better of him. He wanted to know where his enemies…and Dreamwalker friends…had come from. And until Molly caught him off guard like an infant, he wasn't too impressed.

"You don't like it, do you?"

And being more perceptive than any tawtute he'd met so far, Molly could see that.

Turning to face his friend, part of Nok's mind came to the conclusion that after all the destruction he'd viewed over the past few hours, the Dreamwalker's visage somehow eclipsed that. A strange thought, but as another part of his mind pointed out, not entirely baseless. Night had fallen on the forest and even Dreamwalkers added to the surface stars, mirroring those above. Molly was no exception, though had brought another light source. A strange cylindrical device, one that cast golden light rather than silver. Still, as the light caressed her features, it didn't seem out of place. Nor did the now almost ethereal Dreamwalker.

Nok's heart began to race faster than when he saw a riti downed by one of the tawtute's emplaced arrow machines. He'd let his guard down and as pleasant as it was to see his friend, she was causing him to let his guard down even further.

"I should go," the Alaksi Nari murmured, turning back towards the jungle. "I should-…"
"No, wait," Molly said quietly, resting a hand on the na'vi's shoulder. "I…I just want to talk."

"Talk? What would a Sky Person talk about?"

His tone was bitter…far too bitter, given how his friend recoiled, visibly hurt. Even if she hadn't, Nok still knew he'd gone too far. Here was a person who in her tawtute body was in a coma…whatever that was. Her father had done everything in his power to find a cure to that coma, even harm Eywa's children. Molly had placed her father in a coma through her actions in an effort to protect Nok's world, fully aware that she was effectively damning herself to a half life. And whilst she was fully alive in her…avatar body as far as Nok was concerned, it wouldn't be forever as far as he understood. Molly was useful to her clan (or corporation as it was strangely called), but only in one body. There were many others willing to take her place who'd be useful in two.

Her time on this world was limited. And he was squandering it.

"Listen…" began the Alaksi Nari slowly, wondering how in the name of Eywa a tawtute had made him so…blind. "I…didn't…"

"You meant everything you said," answered the Dreamwalker calmly. "I accept that. I'm just a blind Skyperson who'll be forgotten by the world as soon as I board an ISV and-…"

"Molly, of course I'll remember you. You're kind, you're inquisitive, you're beautiful, you're-…"

"I'm what?"

Nok wished the tawtute arrows had hit him rather than the riti right now.

Sky People had a concept called lying-a situation where they said something but didn't mean it. Regretfully, na'vi didn't. If they did, Nok knew he might have been able to twist his words to get him out of the hole he'd dug for himself. His words must have been true on some level, but he didn't know what. True, Molly had intrigue him…everything from her manner of speech to her strange clothes, most admirably her actions. But physically? Well, her golden light, now holstered on her shoulder leaf (or bag, whatever) was still making her seem more like a spirit, but apart from that…

I don't know. I feel like one of the animals her father blinded…

"I should leave," the na'vi murmured, deciding that the shame of flight was nothing compared to the shame he was feeling right now…even if he didn't know why he wasn't feeling ashamed at all. "You shouldn't follow."

Molly didn't say anything. Which was bad. Because that meant that when she clasped her five fingered hand on his shoulder, she was waiting to say something even more direct than what she might have said if she'd spurted out words in the heat of the moment. Words that Nok might have been able to ignore.

"Is this it?" the Dreamwalker asked scathingly. "The Alaksi Nari, the Eye of Eywa, running from a blind-…"

"You're not blind," Nok blurted out. "You're not blind Molly. You…you see. You hear. You smell, you feel, you even speak in that…accent of yours. That's why…"

Apparently Sky People had a saying that beauty wasn't skin deep. Apparently it was a universal truth.

As the two beings drew closer, as their bio-luminescence became one, as their skin made contact…apparently the Sky People saying that actions spoke louder than words was a universal truth as well.