11 11. Sending the kids back home

After the honest and heartfelt words of Mìruk Liam stopped what he was doing and met the gaze of a teen, then he looked over the two quizzically, and simply nodded. 

He understood the general gist of them being grateful to him which felt nice, not gonna lie but it was forced upon him, not helping them was bad for a lot of reasons, and besides this he understood nothing of what they said. 

It was good, what he feared didn't happen, the boy, in particular being irrational and blaming him for whatever reason didn't happen as it would force him to do things he wouldn't like. 

It was his life here the most important, and if the kid ever so dared to blame him, chances were Liam would have put the kid back in his place. He wasn't going to fold backward and let someone spit at him for no reason, the consequence be damned.

Liam then pointed a finger at himself and said, presenting himself with a smile, "Liam, my name is Liam. Liam Cram."

<Leer Ham? Leer Ham Cr'Ham the name of our savior! I'm Tutee te Tusna'itan and this is my dearest friend Mìruk te Ra'aka.>, Tutee repeated his name excitedly then pointed at her and the other teen. 

All the fear from yesterday was gone to the excited teenager, Liam was far less scary without that bizarre headpiece and also not looking like a wild animal ready to tear you apart.

It was a strange name but what does she know about sky people's culture? From what she could see this sky person and his home was already totally different than what she ever saw. 

In the first place the concept of a 'stationary home' was entirely foreign to her but that is what makes it so fascinating. Why would Liam Cram limit himself to one place?

Liam proceeded to correct her pronunciation of his name until she roughly got it right and he also did the same for both of their names until he got it right. He was trying to learn their language, it was a must. 

This was what happened while he cooked, he talked to the teenagers asking for the names of various objects and actions via mimic. It was a moment of sharing between two entirely different yet similar species in many aspects. 

It was pleasant in a way to be able to communicate with others, even with the language barrier, and not humans. They were sapiens just like humans, they were people, even if there was an undeniable indestructible barrier due to them being of different species.

It was weird for Liam, never would he have thought two months ago he would speak to aliens, and himself be the alien of the situation. 

It also made him remember he was far from home, as an alien in another universe, and that he lost everything but he shoved those depressing thoughts aside.

The moment the food was ready and served, Liam had the bigger portion, the Na'vi were even more grateful to their savior, and the food was delicious, one of the best meals they ever ate.

Something made with ingredients they usually consume but prepared in an entirely new and unique way. It made Mìruk temporarily forget about his crippled hand, sadly it was only temporary.

Speaking of hands, the two ate with their bare hands, and when they saw Liam eat with these strange multi-pointy-ended wood objects they realized he had given them one such thing for that purpose. 

Though it was a bit too small for them to use and using this new alien utensil was impractical at first. But even then it was instantly cleaner and easier to eat the soft and succulent meat with the melting alien potatoes than making mushy and messy with their hand. 

Liam finished first and as always never stayed idle. He rapidly looked over his egg hidden in the tree to see if it was fine then borough a plain slightly damaged two-wheeled wood cart half full of dried grass put in a way to something akin to a mattress big enough for a Na'vi to fit inside.

As to why he made a wood cart when he had an inventory. Simple, to carry more things and it was easy for him to drag with his strength even if it was full. Though it's limited because it needs a predesigned and predetermined path otherwise it became obsolete.

Finishing his plate Mìruk really started to feel the pain of his injuries, the mixture that Tutee had given to him was wearing off, mostly purged by his body. 

Noticing this she took the leftover from the mortar and gave it to him, put a bit of water from a jar, and gave it to him. Alleviating the teen's pain.

The three suns shone down on the base, and Liam's face suddenly hardened, it was their time to go, doing various gestures and even drawing stickmen on a piece of slate with a natural piece of chalk he collected from the coast. 

The message got across and they understood, they needed to get back to their clan fast, and not abuse their host and savior's generosity. They must be worried sick looking for them… And they will be punished by the Olo'eyktan for their foolishness.

Liam was also on the same line of thought, all other possibilities of why they were running away from viperwolves in the middle of the night with no weapons. 

And how both acted didn't hint at anything but them being teens having done dumb shit such as going out in the middle of the night in a plain full of dangerous beasts that won't refuse two free blue snacks, and it's what would have happened if he didn't intervene.

Dumb shit with consequences, which angered him to no end but he kept it inside and didn't lash out, if he learned the reason why they were in this situation he wouldn't have either.  

He was better than that, that wasn't the intention of the teens to cause him problems, it was he who decided to help them after all, and it gave him a good headstart in his relationship with the local native if all things went right.

But being forced into a situation by the consequence of stupid action done by other people completely unrelated to you in any way shape or form was quite high on the list of things that pissed him off royally. He just was good at hiding it, even if his implant constantly glowed slightly brighter than usual.

Liam put on his light bronze and leather armor, without a helmet having learned that it scares them quite a bit, not like it would stop an arrow as long as he was tall, and equipped a small wrist crossbow on his left wrist. 

Nothing powerful and mostly a prototype with barely 5 meters (23ft) of effective range and a wood magazine above consisting of 15 small wood bolts freshly coated in a temporary paralyzing mixture from the venomous gland found in the tails of stingbats. Nothing deadly.

It was far from being the most effective or powerful of ranged weapons that much was obvious but it worked and was quite unremarkable with just enough power to kill most things around his size and weight if hit a vital area unsurprisingly enough.

And speaking of effectiveness he took a war scythe out of his inventory, not the one that is used by the grim reaper of course as that was a silly, and ineffective weapon with the only purpose of earning oneself a swift death in any real-life battle. So in a way it indeed brings death.

The war scythe's pole was made out of charcoal black wood where Lian carved various animals from Earth's past and present and some of Pandora, at the end of the pole was a sort of bludgeon made of bronze.

And the blade, it wasn't per se a blade forged from any metal, it was one of the great austrapede's claws, extremely sharp and hard, capable of cutting through a heavy layer of bronze plating with ease, for him that is. 

And what a scary thought it was. The weapon for him was no heavier than a butter knife is to a regular man, enhanced strength was terrifying, even more with weapons. 

He named it 'Cleaver', for one simple reason; he was bad at naming things and it cleaved through flesh and carbon-reinforced bones powered by his strength with barely any resistance. 

Not like a normal bronze spearhead didn't either but it had a high chance to break or chip, and it was not as strong in that aspect either.

Bronze was good, excellent even in many scenarios, and had various advantages over steel but not in the weaponry department and the claw was bonafide biological stainless steel.

Anyway, Liam walked up to them fully equipped with the cart at the front for the struggling teens, Tutee helped Mìruk onto the cart even if it evidently displeased the teen. 

He even tried to play it as if his injuries were nothing and he could walk just fine but he was shut down and put back into the cart by the worried and angry girl. 

Technically he could walk if he ignored the pain for at least several and also most of the injuries he had would reopen and which could lead to infections, infections that could also lead to the loss of his legs or worse. Either way, it was a stupid idea.

The three, or more like two with a dead weight, moved out of the base, Liam closing the heavy door behind, passing by two piles of unrecognizable bones. The corpse of the viperwolves, or what little remained of them.

The wooden wheel crushed them as they advanced, the direction being pointed to Liam by a fidgeting Tutee whose mind was more preoccupied with her teacher would shout at her and as such didn't pay a lot of attention to what the weapon Liam had outside of the strange weapon being incredibly beautiful. 

Pretty much unaware of her surroundings, which caused Liam to wonder how she survived till then. It was silent outside of the sound of the wind and alien cicada.

Now that she walked Liam could but notice that the native was freaking tall, she was at least a head and a half taller and the adult Na'vi should tower over her.

'Surprise surprise… I was right.', Liam thought as the direction was the same as he predicted, not that any Tom, Harry, or Dick couldn't have deduced this. 

They continued to follow the path for a good hour, not encountering anything worthwhile, no suicidal stingbats only two crimsysoraus, four-legged birds, they were next to a small bush that as soon as they saw them they ran as far and fast their biology possibly let them do.

An hour later Liam suddenly stopped pushing the cart and frowned at three shapes in the far distance rapidly approaching their position.

'Six-legged horse with three blue people… One on each. Na'vi… A rescue team? Probably.', Liam remarked, mind going over multiple scenarios and how he will act and react in accordance. 

Pointing in the direction of what he saw he grunted quite loudly and made known what was approaching to the two brooding teens next to him who instantly perked up. 

Mìruk spoke and from the tone, it was the voice of someone who was praying for their Father not to beat the shit out of them after having caused a car crash with the sole family car while drunk, underage, and without anyone's permission.

As the rescue team of Na'vi slowly approached them Liam studied while tensing up instinctively and the air became heavy. He was ready to attack, defend himself, and run at any given moment.

All were male and riding direhorses. The one at the back was an old Na'vi but without any apparent wrinkle, a dagger strapped to his torso, and at his right was a young man with a spear and the same dagger as the elder. 

Finally in the middle was a middle-aged Na'vi, he was visibly the leader, wearing a left shoulder pad with intricate but barely noticeable jewelry and a long bone piercing horizontally through the middle of his cat-like nose.  

All looked at Liam, then at Tutee, and then at the bandaged Na'vi in the strange wood contraception, a Na'vi they were looking for. Various emotions were on their faces. From confusion, anger, sadness, worry, and even hate.

The older male talked to Akwey, the leader, both of whom had never seen a sky person, but both were smart and experienced enough to not act rashly as from what little information they had they instantly understood the grand line of the situation.

This man, this sky person, a creature they never saw, was wearing garments reminiscent of the fierce warrior of the Tipani clan but of an unknown material, a weapon on his back of the like he never saw, the blade like to the deadly claws of a tsawltsping(great austrapede). 

Creatures feared but also greatly respected, it was known for some time that one recently perished, and for him, the human must have found the body and made a weapon out of one of the claws. Just as he would have, however, there was no envy or jealousy in his heart. It was the All-Mother's will.

This man before them wasn't an enemy, he wasn't the same as the Demons depicted by the words of the mouth. 

He wasn't their enemy, neither of his clan nor the People, Akwey could see that much through those lonely and warry alien grey eyes. There wasn't any malice toward them, just wariness as it should be. It was strange that this sky person was alone, however, but what does he know?

The man wasn't looking for conflict; he was here to let the children he saved be back to their families. Any other possibilities were fallacies in the Olo'eyktan's mind. 

'Son… How foolish of you.', Akwey thought, saddened and disappointed while his gaze fell upon his injured son, clearly wounded from an animal, his heart sank at the sight of the cripled hand. At least he was alive.

Then all of a sudden the hot-blooded young hunter next to him, unable to contain himself, roared with clear disgust, and hate oozing at the human, <Demon!>

*

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