21 21. Humans make no sense
The last few days since the agreement between the human and the Na'vi have been very enriching for both parties.
<Liam, what is that "moohneyy" that your people are so enthralled with and you have spoken of?>, Tsu'mong asked Liam after he finished explaining in half-broken Na'vi language half English the grand line of modern human society on a chalkboard placed in front of the giant gateways.
Understanding of modern society at least from Liam's understanding as a cook in his mid-twenties in a well-developed country was far from being truly accurate and he didn't consider everything as it was too big and complicated but even then it shouldn't have truly shifted in its essence here, power, and self-interest. Liam thought an answer as he translated what was just asked.
"It's pronounced 'muh-nee'." Liam corrected the Na'vi, an action that both did at various intervals, then the human paused thinking of a response.
It was a strange concept to Na'vi, even if they do trade, it was more along the line of bartering from material objects to knowledge and nothing remotely close in importance to humans in day-to-day life.
"It's a concept based on the belief of a thing holding value, a value that lets people exchange goods and services… For a price.", Liam paused frowning as he switched to his very bad Na'vi, <Give power-option over in life and is behind most Sky People's actions too.>
<I see…>, after a long moment of thought the Na'vi responded with a scowl, focusing on getting angry, his mind going over and trying but failing to comprehend as he remembered stories and even one of the experiences of his own clan with them, he knew they were lucky as of yet it was only curiosity toward their creations.
He could see the use of such a principle but if it led to the current situation and great tragedy it might as well be a curse hidden as a gift.
An unneeded one at that, the People didn't need any more curses from the Sky People and the way the Lost Child spoke of it showed he didn't want it here either. Which was strange but welcomed.
Liam was strange for a Sky Person, it was clear he was apart from the others, a pariah maybe. He didn't dare to ask why the human was here all alone living by his own mean as it would be inappropriate.
Tsu'mong couldn't understand why any sane individual would want to live this way, to let themselves suffer, it didn't make sense, yet who was he to judge? If only he knew it was only barely a fraction of the very tip of the iceberg.
This was how they proceeded to learn, asking questions, doing what amounted to lectures, and overall socializing between two alien species, it was always outside as both the Na'vi and his mount were scared of Gladius when Liam was here and terrified when Liam wasn't.
There were several ground rules, no stealing between one another, no entering the base without Liam being present, no killing one another, and other such guidelines that were more born of common sense for both best interests more than anything.
For Liam, it was relieving to have someone to talk to, even if not human, and need to be on guard to a degree. This deal they made let him learn a lot more important and useful information on the Na'vi culture in general and their way of thinking than Tsu'mong on humans from him.
As far as Liam was aware if a Na'vi knew of the existence of social media such as Twitter or TikTok, what is a country, etcetera it wasn't going to change much besides maybe granting confusion.
And the more 'complex' aspects needed to be severely dumbed down, not that Tsu'mong was particularly stupid if a bit slow at times in Liam's opinion but he didn't know how to count past 16.
This number 16 coincided with the number of influential and important Na'vi clans, the Omatikaya, the Tipani, the Anurai, the Tawkami, the Kekunan, the Rey'tanu, the Hulanta, the Li'ona, the Meltkayina, the Tayrangi, the Ni'awve, the Olangi, the Huyutukaya, the Mangckwan, the Tomak'at and last but not least the mysterious, aggressive and dangerous almost psychotic Ash People. Each with its own specialty.
The number past this did not even exist in their language as after that it was considered a 'bunch', it was based on octane instead of a decimal as they possessed 16 digits instead of the 20 for humans. They only know how to count all of these digits.
No concept of math besides the bare-bone basics of addition and subtraction, none going above 16 obviously as everything above was just a bunch, they didn't even have a shred of a written language! As primitive as the Na'vi may be on the technological aspect, this lack of anything noteworthy on that aspect was puzzling for Liam.
Tsu'mong was shocked and then frightened to learn how complex mathematics was, even if it was only the basic of multiplication and division that Liam taught.
Liam didn't give the Na'vi the information on for example various human wars or various ideas such as water poisoning or other such things that could be a problem later on for himself. His self-interest came first and foremost.
The man wanted to stay neutral as long as he realistically could while not passing for a threat to be rid of until he was prepared and knew where he was roughly in the timeline.
Not that he knew a lot but some key events such as the paraplegic guy arriving, and the destruction of multiple kilometers high trees that forced hundreds of Na'vi to flee their now-destroyed ancestral home.
Liam learned a lot, particularly about how most Na'vi, specifically the Anurai. Tsu'mong's clan saw the world and what it represented for them, all were connected, and all were borrowed to be given back once the time had come to die.
And they could be brought back to 'life' by their hands and craft in the form of art, be it tools, artifacts, or simple home decorations. All with meaning and reason behind it.
Every life has a start, a place to be, and an end. They live in symbiosis and harmony with their environment. Only taking what was strictly necessary. Taking more would go against their very being as they damage the tapestries of life.
It was both alien and familiar. Alien in the sense it was real here due to the Na'vi's biology letting them connect to the deeper level of the flora and fauna and familiar with the concept of 'being one with nature' by various means.
It wasn't a foreign concept to humans, it was simply faulty and flawed for humans to attempt this as even without their chaotic nature and ever-climbing ambition his species simply lacked the biology to do as Na'vi does and have a 'symbiosis' and 'harmony' with their environment.
It made both humans a more successful and less successful species in a sense. Or so Liam thought as they always were exceptions.
Another point that made this possible was Eywa, their 'goddess' by her vague yet grand but also humble descriptions.
The All-Mother, Eywa, all born of this earth are connected to her, being so old and wise none close to equal could begin to comprehend, caring and compassionate yet cold and ruthless, present in all life and death.
Liam wasn't quite sure of how he should think about this being besides prudence as he knew she existed in some shape or form via the little bit he knew of the movie. And a being like this existing here isn't fundamentally revolutionizing with him walking around.
One definition that could potentially describe Eywa from Liam's understanding and plenty of extrapolation would be an all-encompassing living being on a planetary scale where a central mind resided and everything else was but cells of a greater whole connected to her, with those various whipping willow glowing trees were Na'vi connected to.
And humans were considered foreign bodies within, explaining how the wild animals acted 'unnaturally aggressive to the point of uncaringness for potential death or mortal injuries' when in close proximity to him, the stingbats or riti in Na'vi being a bit of an exception as that kind of behavior was 'normal' to them he learned from the native.
It was understandable why the Na'vi, who held the highest of respect for Eywa, considered her divine and mystical in various ways and that their 'religion' and spirituality are in big part centralized on this being.
There was a lot of rationality in those beliefs, it was very down to earth, as bizarre as it sounded from his general understanding of religious or spiritual belief from humans on Earth where madness ruled at various levels of intensity. Not that humans needed those to act this way.
But again this was only from one Na'vi, one he didn't exactly trust, so it was a bad idea to consider him and his knowledge as the norm and hope all were similar. Crazy zealot Na'vi must exist as if the one that tried to murder wasn't an example enough and simply difference appearing.
Then there were the three laws of Eywa;
First, you shall not set stone upon stone.
Second, neither shall you use the turning wheel.
Third and last, nor use the metals of the ground.
The translation from Na'vi to English was not exact but that was the gist of it and there were several interpretations, which all could be shortened to you shall stay as hunters-gatherers to not damage the environment.
The punishment was unknown, if any, as those rules might not even be directly from Eywa but if they exist, and from how old they presumably were they must have been at a point in time where Na'vi or another humanoid sapient species had a civilization.
And this hypothetical civilization was brought down eaon ago by probably some horrible war, disease, climate change, or again Eywa herself which as horrific as it sounds, was again understandable if he put himself at her place, an alien and extremely old mind connected to all life on this moon. It was like having a cancerous part and deciding to cut it off and start anew.
Again all was hypothesized upon hypotheses and only one possibility between an infinite more was right.
Yet it made sense to a degree and explained the harmony between Na'vi and their environment. Because the possibility it was another alien species was just as possible.
And humans broke all of these rules and him as well depending on the interpretation, it would at some point inevitably happen either way.
But balance seemed to play an important role, so the rules should be more akin to suggestions unless in excess, are a real threat and disturbance to the ecosystem. Which was ultimately still very vague and subjective.
It wasn't all, as he learned what he was called after he rescued the two children and why the Na'vi called him <Lost Child> It translated roughly the same in English apart from 'child' as the word in Na'vi also hinted toward 'orphan' and he found it depressingly fitting.
Tsu'mong who told him this didn't know why he had such a title as it was a Tsahìk, a sort of shaman most of the time a female, a male one in this case, and the one who told him but apparently the Tsahìk seemed confused as well, to the point of not even knowing what species Liam was.
But like all things with Na'vi, it must have a deeper spiritual meaning he didn't really grasp at the moment due to a lack of information.
Liam suddenly stood up, eyes widened, puzzling the bone carver who the human was teaching how to make porcelain, one of his tetrapteron alerted the human of something close, something that wasn't a threat to him or his own if only a trespasser but a threat to something nonetheless.
<Your mount big danger!>, he informed the Na'vi causing even more puzzlement however Liam didn't wait as there wasn't time and ran at the opposite of his base faster than a human should ever be.
'What?!', as the Na'vi realized what Liam had informed him, he felt his heart drop but that didn't stop him from already running after the human, and to his shock, he was marginally slower.
A direhorse could be seen sipping the nectar within a beautiful yellow flower while in the distant sky, the closest and most massive of the three suns was setting. The surroundings were starting to show their real bioluminescent color as the night was establishing itself.
Four dozen meters away was a 3.5 meter (~10ft5) long predator lurking closer, its hairless tapered body built for speed hidden within the tall blades of grass. A slinth or txumre' depending on either English or Na'vi.
The silence was broken by the sudden cawing of a tetrapteron flying above in a circle; this caused the direhorse to stop feeding and look warily around until his four-eyed gaze fell upon the slinth that was lurking.
The horse like a dear seeing a speeding car in the middle of a highway froze as the slinth knowing it was seen, abandoned all stealth and ran at its immobile prey, passing from 0 to 95 kilometers per hour (59 mi/h) in but an instant.
Closing the distance between the two yet again as its face split open revealing fanged jaws ready to envenoming and shred the direhorse's flesh a voice was heard and the whistling of something was in the air.
"Hey!", Liam shouted as he finished mimicking the motion of picking something up on the ground with his left hand taking out a sizable and jagged stone from his inventory that he directly threw.
The slinth instantly slowed down as its head snapped in Liam's direction, small eyes locked onto his mildly amused grey one, its quadri articulated jaws stretched wide open with the four bright orange chitinous-like flaps flared out in hostility.
Then the stone that was thrown earlier hit the fastest land predator of Pandora square within its maws, the stone shattered into two sharp pieces and many smaller fragments just as sharp.
This stopped the extremely venomous animal dead in its tracks causing it to ragdoll with its momentum in the grass past the still frozen direhorse, six limbs tangled as it trashed in agony, and an ungodly screech escaping it.
The two biggest pieces of stones ended with one perforating its palate stopping at the carbon-reinforced bone as it shattered further the splinter digging into a very sensitive sensory while the other one lodged itself deeply in its throat causing great damage in its wake.
It didn't have the time to process further what was happening as Liam was now a dozen of meters away and a dagger made of great austrapede claw was thrown from his right hand.
It flew faster than an eye could blink the blade stabbed through the right of the slinth's head before stopping as the handle kept it from flying out of the upper right part of the skull, the creature had a short seizure before its body went slack as if a puppet had its string cut off.
<I… I thank you… for saving my pa'li (direhorse).>, Tsu'mong said shell shocked as he finally arrived behind Liam standing way above the human. He had seen what unfolded, while the death that occurred was a tragedy the death of his faithful steed would have been far worse. Not all lives were equal or had the same value, but each was important in its own way.
Liam nodded at the Na'vi before walking toward the corpse, checking if it was truly dead, picking it up over his shoulder he walked back to the Na'vi who was reassuring his horse that only now unfroze kept his wary gaze on the human, and then dead slinth on his shoulder.
<Food?>, the human spoke pointing at what he was carrying while at the same time, Meri the one who alarmed him landed on the top of his head, glaring dagger at the Na'vi.
*
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