Alva stared at him as he blended the ceremonial paint. Her uniltaron had come quicker than she thought it would, only mere hours after she returned from her iknimaya. Tsu'tey had immediately taken her arm in a firm grip and pulled her up the spiralling stairs to one of the closed off rooms that the kelutral provided. When they arrived there, two bowls had been placed neatly on the table. One contained a white powder and the other a creamy-like liquid. Tsu'tey, the good and knowledgeable Na'vi that he was, grabbed the two bowls before pouring the powder into the liquid. He blended the mixture with his fingers until it was smooth and a pale white.

Her hair was wild from the ride and her braids had little hairs peeking out, her flowers long discarded in the wind. Maybe one day Eywa would bring them back to her, they were too beautiful to never be seen again. Everytime she tried to fix her frizzy mane of curls Tsu'tey wound send her a harsh glare and he would smack her arm with his tail. After 5 times she stopped trying and instead stood there with a pout and arms crossed over her chest.

"I've never done drugs before." Alva spoke suddenly.

He hummed. "Drugs?"

"You know, drugs, drugs." She gestured wildly with her hands as if it would suddenly make him understand what drugs were, "They, um, there's different kinds and they're all mostly bad." Alva gave him a toothy grin. "But my auntie used to have these herbs and stuff that she used in the nights before bed. I don't think they were drugs but mama told me to never use them."

Tsu'tey hummed and dipped his thumb into the mixture. "Where is your mother?" His accent was still rough but Ava liked it that way.

"Dead." She told him before trying to steal a glance at the mixture in the bowl.

His mouth formed a perfect 'o' before he turned around to face her. "I am....sorry to hear that."

"It's fine," she waved her hand and got up on the tip of her toes as he brought the bowl up. "'Sey, I wanna see." Alva whined and tugged at his arm.

Tsu'tey shook his head before tugging his arm out of her hold. "." When she still wouldn't stand still he let out a hiss of frustration and smacked her arm with his tail. "Still!"

With a huff and a pout she settled down with a soft glare in her eyes. "Fine." She told him.

The Na'vi warrior sighed and dipped his fingers in the paint again before making the first line on her face. He took his time making sure it looked absolutely perfect and that the curve fit the shape of her face. Next he did the a line on the other side of her face identical to the first one, these would be the guidelines for the rest of the strokes and the art piece that will be Alva. Alva kept fidgeting but Tsu'tey had done this before with a more restless and fidgety Na'vi, compared to them she was easy. It wasn't until he finished making the bright white lines and swirls on her face, careful not to cover any of the bigger constellations of bioluminescent dots.

After making sure the face was done and to his satisfaction he dipped his fingers once more and made eight straight lines down the length of her neck that then curved up on her shoulders, down her back and chest. His hands knew what to do, he had done it so many times and seen it happen many more. Alva let out a giggle when he brushed a hand over her ribs and he briefly grinned at her hiding the grin from her, and him.

"You are strong." He breathed out once he had finished her shoulders, more so to reassure himself than her. He lightly touched her shoulders, careful not to mess up any of the intricate lines he had made. "You are strong, Alva. Eywa will guide you and return you to me." Tsu'tey, in a moment of nervous weakness, leaned his forehead on hers and closed his eyes.

Alva closed her eyes and pressed back, grasping his arms before pulling him closer. He struggled for a second or two before practically melting into her. "Don't worry so much, my strong warrior. Eywa isn't calling me home yet. I'll go down there, do some drugs, find my spirit animal and then come back to you. Can't get rid of me that easily." She whispered to him, voice briefly taking on a dreamy note before she anchored herself to the Na'vi in her arms. "Your little leaf will always return to you."

And then the moment of weakness was over and Tsu'tey pulled away, leaving her cold and already longing for the next time he allowed himself to be held. Alva allowed him to pull away and took a step back to give him space. He glanced at her once before finishing his artwork, in silence and without eye contact.

"Done." He told her after a few more minutes of tense silence. Her face and torso was now painted with heavy and thin lines of white, curling around her cheekbones, her shoulders and chest, heavy straight lines down her neck and soft curved lines on her stomach and back.

Tsu'tey turned around to leave and Alva snapped back into focus and grabbed his arm.

"Will it hurt?" She asked him, eyes wide and lips slightly parted. Alva's eyes were begging him for both the harsh truth and the sweet, comforting lie. She was trembling softly and her hands were clammy as the shook against his skin.

"No." Tsu'tey shook his head before walking out of the room. It was up to her now to make it back to him.

---

Drums were already sounding when she walked down the spiralling stairs and into the ceremonial room. She had almost tripped twice already due to her nerves and she prayed that Eywa would guide her steps so as to not fall and make a fool out of herself in front of the elders. Tsu'tey's words had done nothing to soothe the growing anxiety inside of her and she had already felt herself start to detach from reality. Not many things frightened Alva, but this did. If she failed this she could die, no other dreamwalker had gone through the uniltaron before and even Na'vi occasionally died from the venom of the kali'weya, the arachnoid.

"Alva." The tsahìk exclaimed when she came into view. The older female Na'vi looked about the same as all the other times Alva saw her but her mood and spirit was different. If Alva had to guess it was the raw connection with Eywa that happened during the uniltaron that thawed the icy heart of the clan matriarch.

"Tsahìk." Alva inclined her head. ""

Mo'at returned the gesture before gesturing to the other elders that sat around the big fire that lit up the big room. There were two other female elders that she didn't recognise and the Olo'eyktan. Alva bowed her head to him before taking her seat in front of the fire.

Alva hadn't told Grace about her doing the uniltaron and she would without a doubt be facing the wrath of the scientist when Grace found out about it.

Her eyes zoomed in on the familiar stone jar where her very own arachnoid was waiting. The day she caught it had been unusually warm and the wind a mere, almost unnoticeable caress. It had tried to hide from her but she eventually after many scratches and ungraceful falls caught it. If she looked close enough she could almost hear the desperate scratching it made as it tried to find its way out of the jar. A pang of guilt hit her and she looked away.

The sting of the kali'weya was not the worst thing about the ritual, it was swallowing the eltungawng that got her. Though the ritual had yet to begin her throat was already drying as if to force her not to swallow the glow worm. Together the two animals would make her hallucinate and see what her spirit animal was.

Alva had zoned out so much that she had completely missed the beginning of the ritual, all the fancy words, the prayer to Eywa and the first song. She shook her head and tried to focus, this was important.

Eytukan stood up, grabbed the arachnoid from the jar and walked up behind her. The other elders' song was getting louder and faster with his every step. Alva felt unbearably warm and yet freezing at the same time.

This was it, no going back now, she thought after feeling the sharp sting of the arachnoid and the burning pain that followed it. Tsu'tey lied to her. It hurt, a lot. So much that tears formed in her eyes and she had to bite her hand to not let any of the whimpers or screams past her mouth. Alva had never had a high paintolerence and now she wished she had.

Eytukan walked back to his seat and Mo'at took his place with a eltungwang dangling from her fingers. It wasn't very big but it was a glowing blue and looked a lot like a worm, unlike the arachnoid that was dark and looked like a mix between a spider and a scorpion. The feeling of the worm slithering down her throat almost made her gag.

Slowly the outside world faded away but the loud chanting of the elders remained always. Sharp, pulsing pain travelled through her tswin and she saw stars. Still, she remained strong and fought through the pain. The world turned black and then slowly dull colors of brown and green grew out of the mind-numbing blackness.

Alva rushed forward, her heart pulling her forward. It felt like grass under her feet and the vague outlines of trees surrounded her. High-pitched yips came from her feet and she glanced down on the viperwolves but she felt no pull towards the adorable wolf-like creatures so she kept running. The forest grew denser and the trees loomed over her. Ikran screeches echoed in the air but like the nantangs she didn't feel that tug. The screeches faded away and the yips did too.

With a tired sigh Alva stopped running. No matter how far she ran she couldn't find the animal that called to her so. It wasn't an ikran, it wasn't a nantang, not an ilu and not a palulukan. The ilu she had encountered when the forest briefly turned into a bright beach with hot, rough sand scratching her sore and aching feet. The animal had jumped out of the animal and though she felt awe at seeing it there wasn't a pull. The palulukan had been chasing her for the last mile or so and since the palulukan was behind her and the pull forward it wasn't that either.

Then she looked up. Of course, she exclaimed in her head. It wasn't in the air, the beach or the forest ground she felt the most at home. It was in the trees!

Alva pulled herself up in the trees, curled her tail around the branch and gazed into the distance. Surely enough the pull felt stronger up here. She uncurled her tail and started running across the branches, willing them to move for her. This was her mind, her hallucination and the trees would bend to her will.

The branches around her groaned as they fused together to make one giant path for her to run on. With every step she took the pull got stronger. The steady chanting of the elders now sounded like an annoying mosquito in the back of her head, distracting her from her goal. Alva started singing her own song to counter theirs, a little bit of her spun together with a little bit of the Na'vi. All around her the song could be heard echoing back from her; the ikrans screeches held the same melody, the splashes from the ilu added the slow and careful beat and the mixed together sounds of the nantangs and the palulukan provided the choir. Together with her vocals they formed the coming of age song her tribe used to sing whenever a member came of age in that little village in Africa. The meaning of the words had long been forgotten but the message and feelings that came with it remained. Alva never got to hear the song sung for her.

With one long, powerful leap she jumped up on the higher branches and like the lower ones these too came together to form a bridge for her. These were greener and more colorful than the lower ones. These branches reminded her of the tree she used to sleep in before her aunt gave her a hammock in the kelutral. The familiar pattern and moss gave her comfort as she sped towards her spirit animal.

Alva abruptly stops when the bond suddenly tensed like a rubber band and then snapped. The animal in front of her stared into her eyes, into her soul. It held one set of murky yellow eyes that screamed curiosity, and the short snout held a frown that hid the needle-sharp teeth.

"Hi." She whispered, out of breath from all the running.

The animal tilted its head. It hung from a branch one level higher, legs swinging back and forth, muscles in the four forearms tensing and relaxing. Out of all the animals on Pandora this was not the one she thought she'd get, but yet it all felt so right. They shared their love for the trees, the animal spending most of its life in the high trees.

Her eyes traced the vivid blue of the body paired with some green spots. It looked a lot like a monkey would, and Alva loved monkeys. The single tswin blew gently in the breeze but before she could say or do anything more the animal snorted and jumped away.

Alva gasped and lurked forward, trying to catch her spirit animal, but it was gone before she could even react.

The chanting of the Na'vi grew louder and the forest faded out. Her heart tugged once. Alva sighed out in relief when the familiar dark walls of the forest room was painted back. She smiled and giggled when she saw the familiar faces of the Na'vi elders. She, the weak human, had gotten through her uniltaron alive.

"What did you see?" The tsahìk urged Alva.

The dreamwalker sighed again and gave a lazy grin. "I saw a syaksyuk." Alva looked up at the Na'vi woman through hooded eyes and took the steaming cup of torukspxam tea. Slowly it helped the pain from the arachnoid ebb away. "I did it." Alva cheered. "I fucking did it! Take that Grace, take that brother!"

The others smiled proudly at her and their cheers and yips felt like the sweetest music to her ears. She had done it. Alva was one of the people now and she couldn't wait to tell Tsu'tey.