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You were simply an aranahe warrior, nothing much… You did what everyone else did. You hunted, you helped collect materials. Nothing extra ordinary really… You had your ikran, you did your walks around the forest, you fought, you did the basics. It was cool really, you didn’t complain that’s for sure. You were happy to be living in the aranahe, you can’t really imagine living as a zeswa warrior for example… I mean they’re not bad but you didn’t really fancy riding a pa’li too much, your ikran was much better. That animal was like a family member and pa’lis are just there for some time then leave and never come back. Or well they do if you find the same one after ending the connection, but well you know… Your ikran stays with you thru your whole life. Not like any other animal really. Tho the zakru were cuties. And while yeah you didn’t really appreciate everything in the forest and sometimes you did wish you were out in the sunny plains mostly you really didn’t want to go live there full time ever. It didn’t seem THAT cool. You liked the forest, the trees, the fields full of animals, flowers, grass, insects. It was peaceful this way. The way the sun would shine thru the crowns of the trees at your face while you went out to hunt. The way that the forest offered a lot of places that you could hide, mask yourself and be one with it. At night you were almost invisible, blending in will all the fauna and flora. Hunting was great that way. And so was fighting or making ambushes. One day tho your peace was disturbed by humans. The sky people. They came to destroy the forest. Your home. They wanted to take it all for themselves. The forest lost its balance. There was no peace anymore. Everyone could be dead at any second. Humans knew no mercy… What did they want from your home? Why would they come here. There was nothing for them that they could take. You hated them for even thinking they could make the forest theirs. But slowly you started seeing how the forest gave in, it started dying. All the pollution made it unlivable in some places. Animals dying, Na’vi running out of supplies. It was torture, it was hell. The kinglor came to the home tree and started destroying it… Well it wasn’t the creatures fault but it did hurt the tree. It was now also at risk of dying, on breaking and falling apart. And you were scared it would happen sooner than your tsahik believed it would. The tree was weaker and weaker every single day. It wouldn’t hold much longer and you knew it very well. You often walked all over the tree praying it holds. Praying for it to be strong. To not cave under the pressure of humans. To not let their clan live without a home. You sat with Etuwa, praying with her when she also did. You tried helping in any way you could. but you knew it wasn’t enough and you hated the wold, and especially humans, for that. There was no help in praying, it didn’t help at all. You wished and hoped it would but as the saying went: hope is the mother of the stupid. You saw it with your own eyes. The tree was dying. And there was nothing that could help it… After some time you stopped praying, you stopped hopping, stopped wishing. You knew it wouldn’t help. Instead of praying with etuwa you sat with her and held her while she was praying, you held her shoulder, you helped her with the care of the small creatures. But it was not enough to even help Etuwa. You couldn’t help anyone and it was crushing you from the inside out. It was pure hell sure but you knew your clan needed you and as a great warrior you couldn’t just give up and let the clan down. That’s not what was supposed to happen, it was not how it was supposed to go. You’re the warrior, the protector, the helper. And even if you knew you hunting food wouldn’t help much you needed to do it. That was your duty. In those times the bond between you and the spiritual leader of your clan grew a little closer. It wasn’t the same as it used to be, you enjoyed your company more, you liked sitting in each ones company, even while you both were quiet the silence never felt weird. It wasn’t much but it was peaceful. You started spending more and more time with her, she was always happy to welcome you in to just sit and talk, watch the kinglor queen with her colony or to just sit and do your own things. She was mixing herbs, helping the wounded and you just sat there making yourself or her accessories to wear. You liked these little hangouts even if they were like 30 min long. It was good to have someone sit with you and not talk about everything that was happening in the forest. Just hearing about all the things was making you sick to your stomach and you dreaded it. One day everything changed tho. It has been months since the humans attacked. No one came to help, no one was able to help anyway… You were alone and dying as a clan. The same thing that happened to the sarentu was happening to your clan now. And no one could change anything. As you were coming back from a quite bad hunt you looked at the home tree and your face twisted both with horror and shock. The tree was gone. Your home. It vanished. It was down with the ground… Not burned, not bombed but it feel down. There was no home, no tree anymore. There was nothing now, just Navi gathered around, crying, screaming, running around trying to help the ones that were still in the tree or got crushed by it while walking by or out of it in panic. You quickly let go of anything you were holding in your hands and ran straight for the home tree trying to find people that needed help pulling them out and taking them to Etuwa and the others. There was no time for tears yet, there was no time to waste. These people could die. Under the tree they grew in, under the plant that was called their home. Before you knew it you ans your clan moved away from the tree walking around the forest staying in camps located all around your forests. But the pain never left you or your clan. You always looked back, you sat on the forest ground and looked in the direction your home was. Even if it was not there anymore, you hoped it was just a bad dream and it would all change soon. That the tree falling down was not real. But you never woke up. It was as if eywa was punishing you for something you never did. Because what could you possibly have done for your great mother to take away the only place you called home. You didn’t know and probably will never know. Which was probably worse than actually knowing why. The clan never recovered from the loss of home tree but you all pushed thru it. You all worked hard to try and remake everything that you lost, it was hard, Etuwa often cried at the loss. The people and the home you all knew so well was gone and the tsahik knew that. She knew she can’t help it all and she felt like she was letting the whole clan down by it. But what really could she do to help? Not like she could grow back a tree in three days. It was impossible to help in any way really… The thing happened and that was it. Nothing else could have been done. It just couldn’t hold on any longer and you knew it would have happened one day or another. The kinglor took a toll on the poor tree and to be honest you didn’t expect it to hold on so long. Well not like you rooted for the poor tree to fall but you knew it wouldn’t be able to make it out due to everything that was happening around it. While etuwa cried you always stayed close by trying to bring her any type of comfort that you could bring and the tsahik was very thankful that you at least tried to help in any way you could. And even if the woman was happy that you wanted to help it was not enough. The clan turned their backs on her. Calling her names being her back, talking about her as if she was the one to burn down the tree just out of boredom. Etuwa couldn’t stand it and after a lot of time she just left. There was no trace of her. Her ikran was gone. She was gone. You searched and searched for her for years on end but you never found her. Never saw her again and all you had left of her was her bracelet, all she left was just a ghost of herself, the memories burried deep inside your head. Never forgotten. And you realized that you would also never made new ones. Which hurt more than everything else that happened.