Pandora's Hope

[MidnaPhobia]

Nearae looked to Ethan as he said that he wished that he could feel it all night. The girl frowned slightly and gave him a curious look but shrugged, assuming that he just meant that he wouldn’t be able to feel it because he was asleep. “Well I hope that you have a good night’s sleep anyway.” The girl yawned and lay down on the ground, stretching out leisurely. It was strange to be sleeping on the solid ground, compared to what she was used to, which was the feeling of hanging free in the hammocks of Home Tree.

Illarion probably wouldn’t be joining them tonight, the ikran couldn’t get into the small cave but she’d probably stay close to the plateau in case something happened, she would get out of the pool when she was good and ready though. It was a rare treat for the ikran and she was a big, powerful animal. There was no way Nerae could force her to do something that she really didn't want to do. “Goodnight Ethan. Sleep well and I will see you in the morning.” Nearae said softly as she closed her eyes an settled down to sleep.

[Draco_James]

"Thank you," Ethan replied as he too sat and then lay down, shifting a little to find a comfortable position, which wasn't very hard to do given the soft ground. He mostly did it out of habit more than anything, but it was for the best, because even if he wouldn't feel any discomfort from his avatar, he could still wake up sore in it. "Goodnight," he added, and let his eyes close, and his body relax fully.

Waking in his human body caused him to let out a small groan. Not only hadn't it just spent time in a natural hot spring, he could also more easily notice the tension in his muscles now by contrast. He sat up, slowly rolling his shoulders a bit in an attempt to loosen them up, and then had a bit of food and enough water to make up for yet another full day without from morning to night. Sleep still came pretty easily, though, thanks to how drowsy his mind had gotten from the long comfortable soak.

[MidnaPhobia]

It was a bit harder to tell when the sun rose from inside the cave, as the softly lit inner walls did not chance with the rising sun. When Nearae woke she looked to Ethan’s sleeping form and knew he’d probably be hungry because they hadn’t eaten last night or all during the flight it had taken them to get here. She was also wondering how late to leave returning to Home Tree because she didn't want it to become dark while they were flying but she also wanted to stay here for as long as they could get away with.

She exited the cave and walked out, looking to Illarion who looked up at her and stood slowly. “You feeling hungry too?” Nearae asked as she walked to the ikran and petted her gently before mounting up and the pair took off to go and try to find some breakfast. They returned about two hours later, and Nearae knew that she had brought back too much food and Illarion had had to stopped to eat her own meal but she would rather have brought too much rather than Ethan going hungry.

[Draco_James]

Ethan had once again given himself a little extra time to sleep, figuring that a matter of half an hour wouldn't make a lot of difference on a day where they would probably only be flying back to Hometree. There hadn't been an huge abundance of extra time the day before after all. When he did make it into his avatar, Nearae was gone from the cave, and he figured that she must have gone back to the plateau. His shoulder was stiff and more sore than it had been when he gone to sleep, but definitely a big improvement over the pain he'd been in the day before. He moved down to the shallow little pool at the end of cave, scooping up a little water in his hand and splashing it over the wounds.

After that, he headed out of the cave, trying to follow the path from the night before, but it was hard to remember it to begin with, let alone in reverse. It was harder, with just the splash of water not having done all that much for his pain. He managed to eventually get back out onto the plateau, and was a little worried when he found neither Nearae nor Illarion there. He wasn't afraid that she'd left him, though - only that it was possible something could happen to her while she was out. That would, of course, leave him stuck there.

He knew that he couldn't do anything but wait, though. He slipped into the pool they'd been in the night before, submerging his shoulder again, deciding that he should take advantage of the time here as much as possible. He'd been in the pool for maybe an hour when he caught sight of a silhouette in the sky. It was clearly an ikran, but he wasn't immediately sure if it was Illarion because he couldn't see Nearae on it's back. As such, he sunk down into the water further, only reemerging when he could finally make out the Na'vi on the creature's back. He stepped out of the water, watching as they landed before approaching. "Morning!" he called.

[MidnaPhobia]

Nearae smiled as she saw Ethan getting out of the pool as Illarion landed. The girl placed what she had collected onto the ground as Illarion settled onto the plateau. “Sorry I wasn't here when you woke. I realised we didn't really have anything to eat yesterday so I wanted to make sure that you weren’t hungry this morning and Illarion was hungry as well. I see you wasted no time getting back into the pool. How is your shoulder doing?” She asked as she sat down and handed the boy a fruit at random before she picked one out for herself and began eating.

Illarion watched for a little while before she stood and took one for herself and walked off, settling back into the hard ground. Nearae was enjoying the time of just relaxing and eating. She, once again, considered the idea of living on her own but she knew that although she didn't really hate life there, it wasn't bad enough to consider leaving her new tribe. “I’m not entirely sure when we should be heading back... it probably should be today... even though I’m enjoying the time here, but we don’t want to raise suspicion. As it is people will likely be asking where you’ve been and how your shoulder healed so quickly.”

She sighed softly. That was a complication Nearae hadn’t really thought about until now. What were they going to tell everyone about where they went and how his shoulder healed so fast without revealing her secret?

[Draco_James]

Ethan shrugged off Nearae's apology, understanding completely why'd she'd headed out to find food. "Nothing to worry about. And my shoulder's a lot better than I would have expected it to be a this point. It was still stiff and sore when I woke, but it's decidedly an improvement," he told her - the wounds barely hurt at all again now after soaking in the pool again, and he briefly wondered how long that would last. In any case, this had definitely cut a good amount of time off the recovery. He accepted the offered fruit, sitting a few feet away and digging in.

"Thank you for this - I was starting to get a little hungry," he admitted, then ate in silence until Nearae brought up the concern of when to head back, and how people would be wondering about where they'd gone. He nodded his somewhat reluctant agreement that they should return today - he didn't want to raise anyone's suspicions either, anymore than they would have already.

"Well... I really should wrap my shoulder again, to keep it clean... if we did my training away from Hometree the next few days, it would be hard to tell how much it really has healed," he suggested. He didn't like the idea of lying or deceiving anyone, but he'd promised Nearae he wouldn't tell anyone about this place, and in his mind that was the promise he needed to keep the most.

[MidnaPhobia]

(I do apologise for my slow posting. There has been some majorly stressful stuff for me going on at home. I’ll try to be on a bit more frequently)

Nearae smiled and nodded to Ethan. “I’m glad that you’re feeling better. If we had been able to stay I’d say that your shoulder would be almost fully healed in another few days but it would certainly attract too much attention, both your amazing recovery and the amount of time we’ve spent away. As it is you’re going to have to keep a non-existent wound covered up for another three to five days.” Nearae smiled, despite her words. She was worried, yes, but she knew she had nothing to worry about at the same time because Ethan would never betray her trust like that.

When he mentioned wrapping his shoulder the girl pulled out the leaf that she had wrapped the food in, as well as the fibres she had used to tie it with. “I wasn't able to find the same stuff we use at Home Tree, but we did use these when I lived here.” The Na’vi explained as she displayed a few purple fruits to him. “It is not as good for open wounds as the other things are, but it doesn’t hurt as much either.” She squished the fruits between her palms and rubbed it onto the leaf before offering it to Ethan. “I still think we should keep the training gentle for the next few days, not so... physical.” Nearae explained with a smile.

[Draco_James]

"I'd rather have to keep it covered even though it's healed than have it not be healed," Ethan said, smiling back at her. He watched and listened as she prepared the wrap for him, and he took it when she was done, wrapping it around his shoulder. He took a calming breath as he put it on - she was right that it did hurt a lot less than the other balm, but there was still a bit of pain. He tied the fibers around it to hold it in place, and then moved his shoulder just a bit to make sure it was secure, looking to Nearae as he said a "Thank you."

"You won't get any argument from me there..." he continued at the idea of keeping training less physical for a few days. "I'm sure there's a lot of other stuff you have to teach me... not to mention I'm sure this still will hurt for a while longer once the effects of the springs wears off," he added, "And if people don't see me using my arm, they'll have no reason to question it."

[MidnaPhobia]

Nearae nodded several times at Ethan’s suggestions. They were all very good ones. “I think that’s a good idea.” The Na’vi agreed as she tried to think about what else she could try to teach Ethan. She wasn't specifically a teacher; it was hard, sometimes, to think of the things that he needed to learn. Especially things that weren’t overly physical. In their world most things were. “I um... I’m not entirely sure what I could teach you though... oh! Maybe I could show you how we get our food every day? I mean you’ve seen where it comes from but not what happens in between it being brought back to Home Tree and it being given to us at our meals.”

She thought that would be a really easy task for him, nothing overly physically demanding and it wasn't something he knew yet. It also kept him safe in the tree rather than something like gathering which, while not overly demanding, still carried the dangers of being exposed on the forest floor. “Mostly you’ll just be watching, but I’ll be there with you. And they’ll probably ask you to help out with the evening meal if you’re feeling up to it.”

[Draco_James]

Ethan smiled a little, glad that she agreed, and he thought a moment too when seemed at a loss for what to teach him. He hadn't thought that much about it until now, but it would be hard to think of things to teach a person to get them used to things that for you were second nature. If somone asked him to teach them what they needed to know to get by on Earth, he'd be completely at a loss for where to even start. The suggestion she gave a moment later sounded good to him though.

"Perfect," he said with a smile and a nod before taking another bite put of a fruit and savouring the taste. "I'm sure I will be... And it'll be nice to be contributing, even if it's just something small," he said to the thought of helping with the evening meal. He knew that the idea was for him to become one of the tribe and then he would contribute all the time, but until that time came, it felt a little like he was more of a burden on them.