Late Night P2 | Rough Draft | Fin

Growing Pains

"And the boys keep picking on me, they say I'll fail it because I'm not truly like them. They say I don't deserve to."

"Hey, hey." Norm places her hand to his chest as a show of comfort, his fingers over hers.
"Don't listen to them. They're only upset because you've bypassed them with flying colors so far." He persists. "You're smart, you're brave, and you're everything I wish I was at your age."

He reaches out to wipe at his daughters tears, holding her face so sweetly as she mourns so much at once.

"You want to go for a walk?" He offers, knowing this time of night was her favorite... maybe it would comfort her a bit more and give her more space to think.

She nods gently, and follows him out after he changes into his avatar. They have to take their ikrans to get to the lower ground, still covered by the mountains if the RDA tried to read anything this far out though, thankfully.

She's caught up to his in height for sure, maybe a two foot height difference, if even.

But it doesn't matter or change anything, he still kneels down and let's her climb on his back like she did as a toddler.
Letting her wrap her arms around his shoulders and locking his elbows so he can hold the back of her knees up around his waist.

"Where to first?" He asks, glancing back as best he can to her.

She points to the East, a beautiful path lit up amongst the forest with a gorgeous glowing creek along the way.

"I don't want you to be so hard on yourself because of what others say." He starts. "I've been there before. I wasted so much time letting others beat me down while growing up."

Although it wasn't intended, they soon reach the battlefield area. Also now known as where the recom avatars first captured the sully kids and almost kidnapped them entirely.

Lia is a little uneasy about being back here, but she knows her dad wouldn't bring her if it weren't for a reason.

He sets her down, but holds her hand the rest of the way as they come up to the old shack.

It's covered in so much grass, dusted up, bugs all over the place — but it's the last place Norm made his stand before his first avatar gave out, and maybe now was a better time than ever to tell Lia this story in full detail.

"Dad? Why are we here?" She finally asks, following him as they walk in.

"Because I wanted to show you something that might change the way you feel about yourself."

She doesn't quite get it, at least not until they're in the back bedrooms and he's digging through old things.

"I never did remember to grab these." He admits, and he slams a book on the desk as dust flies everywhere. It's full of so many photos. "These are just copies." He opens the book up and shows Lia the first few pages. So many photos of you, Jake, and him from training days. "—-Jake and Max have copies with them as well."

"Is this.. when you were completing your right of passage?" She asks, moving in closer and taking over as she fumbles through a few photos.
"Wow, you were all so.. young."

"Hey. I haven't aged that much." He elbows her in the side and smirks. "Way to make me feel old."

"Why is Uncle Jake so bruised up?"

"Because he had the hardest time getting his training in order." And her ears upturn a bit, as he'd never told her this before.
"He was behind on the weapons, the language, the cultural skills.
Other Na'vi kept wanting us out, too. Even outcasts at one point. Tsu'tey was the least convinced with us."