TW : mentions of maternal death (briefly)
requested by wolfblood1732
kiri x halfbreed!y/n
~
y/n pov
i have been alone my whole life, abandoned in the forest. well, maybe not completely alone; i was raised by the animals, specifically a group of thanators, who were my family, although i was definitely adopted.
i also have a friend, although i think we're more. her name is kiri, and she is the only native blue person to not stare at me in fear instead she stared intrigued.
she had tried to explain to me many times since our first meeting when we were kids that i must be part human, but i didn't know what a human was or why i suddenly was one.
kiri's clan would often send out hunters (i think that's what she called them), and somehow they always managed to stumble upon my family and i.
they'd give me weird looks, confused as to what i was, but they'd leave as soon as the thanators growled and gave them a look that said, "move along, and we won't hurt you." there was mutual peace between us and them.
i knew i was different from them. sure, i wasn't blue, but i still had pointed ears and sharp teeth, and i hissed like them. i was also taller than some of those blue people.
kiri had explained why i wasn't blue and why i had the skin tone of a human. she had started to speculate that my mother was human, and that's why i was alone in the forest. a na'vi woman would have survived the birth of a giant baby.
a lot of kiri's explanations fell on my deaf ears; i had never learned how to talk growing up with a pack of wild animals. they only ever taught me how to growl at my prey before pouncing on them.
kiri had taught me some basics when we were younger. we'd lie in the grass, and kiri would roll around, telling me to listen to the heartbeat of eywa. i didn't know who eywa was or why their heartbeat was underground, but i'd always do as kiri said.
kiri would tell me about her family. her eldest brother, neteyam, who was the "golden child," lo'ak, who was a misfit, and little tuk, who was the sweetest, and spider, whom she'd mentioned wasn't technically family but was a close friend of hers,
she'd also tell me stories of her adoptive parents when they fought in the war against the sky people: how her father, jake sully, was toruk makto and once a human, and her mother, neytiri, was palulukan makto and a mighty warrior, and how her biological mother was a smart and caring woman.
i had asked about her biological father once, and kiri said she didn't know who he was; no one did, which is why her clan often referred to her as the daughter of eywa.
kiri told me a load of other things, but it was hard to understand. she'd point out certain plants and say something, or she'd talk about different animals, and i could only ever guess what she was saying by the tone of her voice or the expression she held on her face.
when we were kids, it was hard to connect with kiri, not knowing a single thing i do now. i had almost killed her when we first met.
~
i was stalking towards my pray. it was sitting down by a small river, cupping its hand and bringing it up to its face to drink.
i was just behind it, ready to pounce, ready to rip its throat out and bring its body back to my family to celebrate.
i take one more step forward and push off the ground, ready to tackle my prey, when my front foot slips, and instead of finally getting my first kill, i slip and roll down the small bank.
my blue prey jumps up and squeals, turning around and facing me. i am quick to move from my position in the mud to a squat.
baring my fangs, hissing, and bringing one of my clawed hands up at my prey, whose face i am now seeing for the first time,
they looked like me. my face drops, and so does my hand that was raised. they seemed to take that as peaceful.
before i could process what was happening, they were crouched in front of me with their hands rubbing my face and saying something that sounded alien to me.
"you have mud everywhere. you might have to jump in the river to clean it off." their voice was squeaky and high-pitched; it almost hurt my ears. "helloooo, do you hear what i'm saying?" they kept talking while i cocked my head to the side in confusion.
"do you not understand me?" i stood up and moved away from the weird blue thing that kept making noises. they stood up as well, saying, "i'm kiri." they pointed toward themselves before asking, "what's your name?"
i stared them up and down before repeating what they said, "kiri?" i pointed toward them. my voice sounds harsh for such a young child.
"yes! i'm kiri, and you are?" kiri had said something again, pointing towards me, and i still didn't understand what she was saying.
"kiri," she pointed back at herself before pointing back at me. my brows frowned even deeper, confused as to why she was now pointing at me.
kiri lets her head flop back, looking up at the sky, before her head snaps back up and she looks at me again.
"kiri," she points to herself again before squatting down, "rock," she points at a rock. "water," she says, splashing her hand in the river.
she stood back up and finally pointed back at me. i understood what she was asking, but i didn't know how to tell her that i didn't know what or who i was.
~
from then on, kiri had given me the name y/n. she explained it was a human name and she saw it in a book full of names, but y/n stood out to her the most. she said it matched me perfectly.
kiri would visit me just about every day, and sometimes i'd wait by her home tree for her, but after a few short years of seeing each other, kiri had seemingly disappeared along with her entire clan.
~
"ugh," i let out an exaggerated sign. i had been waiting by kiri's home tree for the past 10 minutes. this is the time we'd normally meet, and kiri should've been here by now.
i stood around for another 10 minutes before my mind started to think the worst. kiri had told me about her family's situation with the sky people. what if they had come back and done something bad? what if kiri was hurt?
curiosity got the better of me and i was suddenly running the short distance between kiri and i's meeting spot to her home tree. once i had reached it, i was spinning around looking for anyone or any signs of life.
"kiri!" it's like no one has ever even lived here, as if it had been untouched for centuries. "kiri!" i started to believe she and her entire clan had been taken, or worse, killed, by the sky people.
weeks had passed and there was still no sign of kiri. i wasn't sure if i was supposed to grieve the loss of someone i wasn't sure i had lost.
i was down by the river kiri and we first met at i was staring at the water rushing by, my mind elsewhere, when a twig snapped from behind me.
i quickly jump and turn towards the noise, only to be greeted with a smiling kiri. "hello," she says, walking closer. my expression, which was blank, rapidly turned to anger.
kiri has her arms out for a hug, but i push her back and ask, "where have you been? why didn't you come and see me sooner? i thought you were dead!" i sobbed, tears running down my face. it was the first time i had cried in years.
kiri raps her arms around me, comforting me and whispering reassuring things in my ear, before she pulls back and brings both her hands up to wipe my cheek.
"we had to leave; the sky people came back; it wasn't safe for us to stay down here in the forest," kiri explains her disappearance while i only slowly nod my head. "you'll still visit me, right?" i ask the slightly shorter blue girl in front of me. "of course i will, but it won't be as often, and i might not make it all the time. we'll meet by this river instead of by the home tree."
i nodded my head once again, this time with a small smile, knowing i would continue to see kiri.
~
that day, kiri and i stayed close, never letting each other go. kiri had also offered for me to come and stay with her family up in the mountains, but i had to refuse. i couldn't leave my own family.
it's been years since then, and the sky people have built monstrosities. i would often hear the wizzing of their metal boxes flying through the forest, and sometimes i would get caught in the middle of a raid.
seeing kiri's parents and brothers occasionally, but never getting close enough for them to see me, i would run off before anything got too heated. i didn't want to get hurt when i was so far away from any form of help.
i am currently out hunting, and the last raid was a day ago. hearing the loud booming sounds that shook the earth. it was almost an eclipse, and i was stalking through the forest silently, trying to pick up any noise of an animal i could jump at.
i noticed imprints in the ground. they were big and were just a bunch of lines. kiri had told me how humans would wear things called "shoes," but these prints were too big to be human, and what a na'vi person would wear shoes?
i followed the trail of marks in the mud, making sure to keep low to the ground and hide in between bushes as the prints led towards the sound of talking.
i stay back, knowing what the sky people are capable of. i peek between the leaves of plants to get a better look at the people i am hearing. i spot a group of blue na'vi-like individuals, but they are wearing cloth that covers a majority of their bodies.
the group was standing around an old shack behind them as two of them stood over a metal suit. i circled around the group to get a better look at them all when i heard a familiar voice say, "let go of me." my eyes were instantly darting around trying to locate kiri. i stood up just a bit more to see her on the floor of the forest along with her siblings and a human boy.
i had to help them. i knew i wouldn't be able to do it on my own, so i slowly creeped away from the armed group before sprinting off in the direction of my family.
i ask the thanators for help, but a lot of them refuse, not wanting to mess with the sky people. "please, they have kiri," i beg my family to help; they had met kiri a handful of times and knew how important she was to me; my thanator sister being the only one to change her mind and help me.
i hopped on her back and directed her to where kiri was being held captive. by the time we got there, it was dark and raining. i lay low on my sister's back as she stalked through the bushes around the hostile group, one of them commanding the others.
i signalling my thanator sister to go after the man with kiri and the human boy, knowing i wouldn't be able to take him down and grab both of them. i slowly slid off her back and crept around the group, looking for tuk.
kiri had told me everything about her family, including how tuk didn't have any training on how to defend herself, but i couldn't blame her because she was still so young.
i stop once i am right in front of the man with the tuk; even though they are all looking out around the forest, they don't see me or my thanator sister.
i stare at each one of the abductors, waiting for the perfect time to strike, and that seems to come quite quickly as kiri's brother, lo'ak, pulls the pin on a smoke bomb on one of the abductors' belts.
i let out an animalistic scream, telling my sister to pounce. i jumped on the back of the man who had a tuk in his grasp, biting down hard on the space between his shoulder and neck, and tuk was also biting down on his arm that was rapping around her.
once he released his hold on tuk, i jumped off his back and kicked his knees in. he struggled on the ground, pushing his hands up against the spot i had bitten.
pushing tuk off in the direction lo'ak had ran, i run towards kiri, grabbing her arms and pulling her with me, but before we could both run to safety, a man jumped up and grabbed kiri's queue, yanking her back.
before i can react, there is an arrow lodged in his throat. i grab kiri again and start to pull her along, with the human boy following. we all stumble on a tree acting as a bridge over a large pit as the ground shakes and an explosive goes off.
kiri drops to her knees, leaning over the edge of the fallen tree, screaming, "spider! spider!" i try to pull kiri up by grabbing at her shoulders, "kiri, we have to go," but she doesn't budge, continuing to look over the edge where the human boy had fallen.
"kiri!" a tall, heroic-looking na'vi woman comes jumping down from the trees, joining me by kiri. "come! come on!" she successfully pulls kiri up and drags her the rest of the way across the bridge.
i trail behind the two. "spider, he's down there!" kiri explains before pulling back from the women, i can only assume is her mother, to lean against a tree that overlooks the pit.
looking down into the pit from over kiri's shoulder, i see the group of hostile people walking towards spider. "kiri, we have to go," i tell her, gently laying my hand on her shoulder in a slight effort to comfort her.
"kiri, come! come!" neytiri yells, grabbing onto kiri once again, pulling her further away from spider and deeper into the forest. i head off in a different direction, calling for my thanator sister.
she appears at my side, and we both walk towards the small family gathering. once we had arrived, the family was checking on each other and sharing hugs.
i stand off to the side, feeling a little awkward and not wanting to interrupt the sweet moment, but once jake notices my thanator sister and me standing nearby, he pushes his family behind him, trying to protect them.
kiri pushes her way through jake and jumps into my arms, resting her head on my shoulder. i hold her tight, scared i might almost lose her again. she pulls her head up to look at me, and as i look down at her tears streaming down her face, i bring one of my hands up from resting on her back to her face to wipe her tears.
kiri lets out a small giggle before bringing her own hand up and pointing at the lower half of my face. i move my hand from her face to mine and rub it, realising my face was also wet. i pull my hand away to look at what it had just wiped up. i notice it was blood. "sorry," i say as i unwrap myself from kiri and turn my back on the family to quickly clean myself up.
kiri lets out another giggle at my action. i was embarrassed that i was meeting her parents this way. i turn back around, giving a small smile to the family. "mother, father, this is y/n." kiri introduces me, wrapping one arm around my waist while the other comes up to wipe at a spot i had missed on my face.
i turn my head down to face kiri as she leans up on her toes to give me a peck on the lips. my smile only widens as she pulls away from me and faces her family again.
"is it alright if y/n stays with us tonight?" kiri asks her parents "of course," neytiri accepts the invitation without hesitation, while jake stands there with a dumbfounded face.
jake, neytiri, and neteyam call for their ikran, and we all fly back up to the hallelujah mountains.
the sully family and i walk through the cave, getting odd looks from everyone and occasionally a shocked look from one of the many hunters that had seen me in the forest.
we reach the sully family tent, and neytiri and jake quickly leave us children alone, explaining they need to come up with a "game plan."
"i'm neteyam, and this is lo'ak and tuk," kiri's eldest brother introduces himself before pointing out the other siblings. "ah, the golden boy," i point at him and turn to face kiri in hopes of some reassurance that i had gotten that right. "what?" neteyam asks me a question, and i go to answer him, but before i can, kiri has her hand over my mouth, saying, "no!" she shouts at me to stop even though she has already stopped me.
"it's been a long night. we should head to bed and get some sleep," kiri commands as she now runs around the tent, blowing out the few lanterns that hung from the ceiling.
everyone had fallen asleep beside kiri and me. we both lay on our sides facing each other with barely any space between us. kiri has both her hands tucked under her head while i only have one, the other tracing small shapes on kiri's hip.
"you should be more careful," i comment, moving my eyes to look into kiri's. "more careful about what?" she asks, confused as to what i am saying, "getting kidnapped." i say half-jokingly, "pft." kiri lets out a sound of disagreement and playfully rolls her eyes.
"i've been in the forest for years since the sky people have come back, and i haven't gotten kidnapped." i exaggerate my statement while giving kiri a goofy smile, "i just don't want to lose you." my tone turns serious as i move my hand from her waist to her cheek, "you won't." kiri states
we both lay in silence for a while, slowly drifting off to sleep, when a meek voice broke in, "can i sleep with you guys?" tuk quietly whispers, standing at kiri's and my feet.
kiri, being already deep asleep, doesn't answer "of course." i answer, scouting back slightly so there is room between us.
tuk snuggles in between kiri and me, resting on her back. "thank you for saving us," tuk thanks, turning her head to face me. i smile down at the kindhearted girl. "anytime," i say.
tuk smiles back at me before rolling over and getting comfortable. i reach my arm around the snoring girl to place my hand back on kiri, wanting to make sure she was still there before drifting off to sleep.
~
word count : 3333