The Breath of Water | Neteyam

31 • Signs, Symbols, and Signals

It was dark. Well sort of.

The many stars that decorated the 'sky' reflected off of the water-covered floor...well, if you could even call it a sky. This place was familiar to her. She sat up, her hair wet from the floor she was on. When she looked down, under the thin layer of water was sand.

She looked at her surroundings, finally realizing why the place felt like she had seen it before.

It was the gate—Eywa's gate.

"How am I back here?" she asked herself. "...the last thing I remember was...was..."

Before she could finish her thought, she caught a glimpse of a figure in the distance, walking slowly. This caught her off-guard, not expecting anyone else to be here. But if someone were to be here...could it have been...the Great Mother?

She got up and tried to catch up to the figure, but the distance between them didn't seem to close. So she stopped walking, and tried to figure out what was causing it.

She stared at the figure, focusing intensely on its silhouette. The edges appeared to be...wobbly.

"Hmm..."

Liyanin lifted her hands, bringing them together and then apart, creating an opening in what seemed to be a barrier. Now the figure was much more closer than she had thought at first, and so she walked through. The figure's back was turned, so she couldn't see the face.

"...Great Mother...?" she spoke, walking up slowly behind it.

But then the figure turned around, chuckling. Liyanin could now see the face—it was a Na'vi.

"Ha, I can see why you might think that...but no, I am not the Great Mother." he said.

"Who are you, then?" she asked the man.

"...my name should be familiar upon your ears...I am Awuya, surveyor of the sands."

Liyanin gasped, recognizing who he was immediately. "Oh! What? Are you..." she reached out slowly to poke his arm. When she felt his skin, she jumped, causing him to laugh. "Oh my gosh I had no idea that I would be actually meeting the Awuya of the Stars today....!" she rambled.

"Please, calm down." he laughed. She cleared her throat, wanting to reestablish her seriousness.

"You said that you survey the sands...are you talking about these sands...?" she asked, motioning towards the grains they were standing on, her feet still submerged in the thin layer of water.

"Yes, the sands of time, space, energy, light, darkness...even yours." he responded gracefully, running his fingers through his hair.

"My sands...?" she repeated.

"...I am very surprised you had discovered this place...you were not supposed to yet..." he said, ignoring her question, beginning to walk in another direction.

"What do you mean by 'yet'?" she said, following after him.

"...you are the hydrokinetic girl, correct?" he ignored her question again.

"...yes..." she answered gruntingly.

They continued walking for a while, until they reached the place Liyanin had first came to when she opened the gate. It was everyone she knew: her clan, the Sullys, her family—that same area.

"...I am sure you recognize the place. It is where you first visited." Awuya chirped.

"...is this where you see everyone's sands?" she asked, and of course, he didn't answer. She then gazed over the different people, looking for her friends and family. After a while of searching, her eyes finally landed on her mom, and next to her was her dad. She figured Tsireya and Aonung would be nearby, and that they were. She then wanted to look for the Sullys, but she felt a tap on her shoulder, prompting her to turn her head.