Pandora, Planet X, Alpha Centauri System.
Fear, anger, hatred. There were the emotions that had been ever-present in the mind of Txon te Txur'kewan Tsu'lan'itan ever since the day he led the few still-living, ragtag remnants among the tribal warriors of his Txurkelku tribe back home only to have to lead a tribe—as the next chief after his father, the old chief, died during the war—that was on the brink of extinction after their so-called victory in the great war they fought against the human invaders who came from the sky.
Under the waning light of dusk, Txon rode at the front of his group of warriors—the few hunters who were still strong enough to hunt—as they returned from their hunt and entered the small, bare, but sheltered valley, where his tribe had been living in hiding ever since their hometree was destroyed by the humans during the war, after which they had been forced to relocate to this location. The valley was a good place to hide the tribe from the eyes of the human invaders and from their flying metal birds, which they called aircraft.
Unfortunately, wild game to hunt was very scarce here and not enough for the tribe to survive on. But still, the valley had originally been chosen with the intent for it to serve as only a temporary refuge and hiding place for the tribe's members who could not participate in the war until their tribe's warriors returned and led them to find and live in a new hometree. Unfortunately, even before the war ended and before their tribe's warriors could return, the tribe's circumstances took a further and much greater plunge for the worse after Eywa's Great Summoning, which finally ended the war in the People's victory but, at the same time, also forced all the animals, including all their potential hunting game animals, to migrate away from areas around the tribe in order to join the war.
So, Txon and his hunters returned from the day's hunt that had carried on from before first light of dawn till now, dusk, ending up managing to only bag one of the deer-like Tunguska and several small Hulu, also known as the flying lemurs. The hunting game in this region had still not been restored up till now.
He and his hunters bore guilty feelings in their hearts as they rode their Pa'li, the animals known as direhorses to the humans, into the midst of the disorganized collection of small huts that served as residences for the families in the tribe. Txon himself carried tiny residual feelings of fear and trepidation in his heart—which he always felt whenever he went out of the village on any matter—that he would, on returning, soon receive the news that yet another member of his tribe—whether man, woman, child, or from among the sick or elderly—had finally succumbed to and died from the constant and ever-present cloud of starvation and disease that was ravaging the tribe.
As soon as Txon and his men dismounted and jumped down from his Pa'li, he realized that something was wrong about the current atmosphere of the village. This part of the village, especially around the several huts closest to them, was unusually quiet and empty, and nobody in the tribe had come out to welcome them like they usually do whenever the tribe's hunters return from their hunt.
Suddenly, he cocked his head to the side to listen to the faint singing and chanting that he heard reaching him from the eastern side of the tribe's little settlement.
"Someone has died!" Txon blurted out in shock and sadness, eliciting similar cries and shouts from his men.
His greatest fear had yet again become painful reality.
A sharp pang of fear stabbed like a poisoned arrow into his heart. The chanting he was hearing was used only when burying a member of the tribe, and the singing was also coming from the direction of the chosen burial site of the tribe, as they no longer had a hometree to bury their people under.
Txon and his men ran towards the direction of the singing and chanting, and they arrived just to see the wrapped-up corpse of a little girl that was laid down beside the grave hole that had been dug to receive her body.
"No! Kiri! Please, no!" A scream of intense emotional pain and turmoil rang out from one of his hunters beside him.
Txon sighed, closing his watering eyes for a moment, before he turned to look at his fellow hunter and his best friend, Nan'tey, who had rushed out from beside him to kneel down on the ground beside his mate, Sänume, who was weeping and wailing, and hugged the corpse of his daughter tightly to his chest, shedding silent tears.
Txon patted his friend on the shoulders before he went and stood beside his mate and the Tsahik of the tribe, Luneya te Pllxte Tirey'ite.
"How did it happen?" Txon asked.
"She finally succumbed to her sickness a short while ago. Her body was just too weak from starvation to fight the sickness. She has returned to Eywa." Luneya answered.
"I curs—" Txon stifled the angry and hateful words he was about to say in his throat out of consideration for his mate, the Tsahik, and his mourning tribe. He said it only with his thoughts, 'I curse Eywa! She has never done anything for us.'
Nan'tey, one of Txon's friends and a subordinate tribal warrior and hunter, had even dragged his starvation-weakened body, from leaving most of the food to his mate and daughter, and joined Txon in today's hunt because he wanted to provide at least a good meal for his sick daughter, but it now looked like he was too late. She was already dead, and she would never be able to eat anything her father hunted for her ever again.
After Luneya had answered Txon's question and given him a brief explanation about how the girl had died, Txon stood silent beside her as she led the tribe to proceed with the burial ritual after the girl's father had regained some amount of calm and freed up her body for burial.
An hour later, Txon and his mate, Luneya, were back in the large hut, which doubled as their home and the tribal chief's meeting and reception room. He had just finished receiving the report from the envoy he had sent to ask for help and assistance from the Omaticaya tribe. He, like the many other smaller tribes that had been all but destroyed and left destitute by the war, had swallowed his pride as a warrior and the tribal chief of his tribe and had been sending several pleas for the larger and much more prosperous Omaticaya tribe to send relief to his tribe, but he had always only received rejections from them as they used the excuse that their own resources were limited after they had already helped and shared many of their own resources with many other tribes and that they could help only so many destitute tribes with the amount of resources they had.
Anger. The emotion boiled in his heart, rising from the pit of his stomach as he thought about the latest rejection and failed appeal for help from the Omaticaya.
'How dare the Omaticaya and that alien invader tribe's chief of theirs, Jake Sully? How dare they abandon the rest of us to suffer and die when they were the ones who instigated the war that cost our tribe everything?' thought Txon, fuming as he clenched his fist in anger.
He was also angry and envious that Eywa, their deity and goddess, had answered the prayers of the Omaticaya tribe so many times in the past, but she never once responded to the prayers of his tribe's Tsahik, even to save his tribe from their current deadly plight.
Taking a deep breath to steady his thoughts, Txon stood up from his chief's chair and said to his mate, "I have finally made up my mind and decided. I will meet with that group of humans I told you about. I will accept their proposal of an alliance between us."
Luneya grabbed his arm and asked, "Are you sure? We will be breaking the rules established after the war if you choose to work with that group of human invaders. Many of the People, especially the Omaticaya tribe, will see it as a betrayal of Eywa and the whole Na'vi people."
"Forget Eywa!" Txon spat out in angry frustration. "What has 'the Mother' ever done for our tribe?"
Then he continued, explaining, "Those humans, at least, have offered to provide food, medicine, weapons, and even knowledge on how to grow our own food for our tribe. We desperately need all those things right now, and as you can see, we can't expect to receive any help from the other Na'vi tribes."
"Don't you hate the humans for what they have done to us, to our tribe?" Luneya asked.
Hatred. Txon definitely felt deep, burning hatred for all the human invaders, for all humans, for causing the war, for killing his father and nearly wiping out all of his tribe's warriors, and for forcing him into the current situation where he had to become tribal chief before he was ready to lead a tribe, and one on the brink of extinction at that.
So, yes, he hated the humans. He also hated the Omaticaya tribe for not helping save the people of his tribe. And finally, he felt burning hatred for Jake Sully for being the one who gave the call for the war that cost him and his tribe so much suffering.
Txon had already made so many vows and sworn blood oaths to himself that he would have his revenge on every single one of them, but first he had to make sure his tribe survived and pulled through their current awful and disastrous circumstances and recovered their original strength and might.
And the group of humans he was going to meet and ally with would be key for ensuring the survival of his tribe.
And after that ….
Blood and vengeance would come.
*****
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