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Disclaimer: Blah, Blah, Blah. I don't own Avatar; James Cameron does. All the Avatar stuff belongs to him. However, my Na'vi character, myself, the Dragon Weyr and its technologies, and the Pandoran animals of my menagerie are all mine. The Protoss - apart from my characters - all belong to Blizzard Entertainment.

Pandora's Templar

A Work-In-Progress Story by Coranth Dehanae

Chapter 9

(Continued from Chapter 8...)

"A few days ago" he continued, "whilst my kin and I were hunting yerik for the Clan, we happened upon the corpse of a Palulukan -- but this animal was not like your Sa'nok, ma Olo'eyktan. It was larger; a Male. It appeared to have been... eaten..." Seemingly troubled by what he'd said, the Na'vi hunter lapsed into silence, and at this, I frowned. 'That... doesn't seem unusual...' I thought. Aloud I said, "We know this is not unusual, ma tsmukan; we know that Toruk will hunt Palulukan, and sometimes the larger Ikran will, too. I... I do not understand." Oo'ano swallowed nervously, before he continued. "Neither Toruk nor Ikran did this, ma Olo'eyktan. This Palulukan... it... it was brutally torn apart and eaten... while it was still alive..."

Oo'ano's group shifted uneasily as he continued. "The animal's limbs... something had violently torn them off and its body... its body was mutilated - so much of the flesh was gone that my men and I almost didn't recognize the beast for what it was until we moved toward it and saw one of its frills hanging loose from its head by a piece of torn sinew! Around the beast we saw signs of a great and terrible battle, of which the Palulukan was definitely the loser. Trees had been felled, grass and plants had been trampled underfoot, and the blood... there was so much blood..." This got my attention. Still frowning in deep thought, I began to pace back and forth. 'Damn... If not Toruk or Ikran, then what on Pandora could attack - and so viciously tear apart - a Palulukan of all creatures?' I thought.

'Hmm... It could have been another Clan - perhaps the Palulukan threatened their safely, or maybe they battled it because they wanted whatever prey it might have been hunting - but that doesn't fit as most Clans would turn tail and run like hell from a Palulukan rather than fight with one... and even if a Clan did do battle with it, the warriors and hunters of said Clan surely wouldn't tear the poor beast apart; doing something like that definitely isn't the Na'vi way...' When I voiced this thought to Oo'ano, he nodded, before replying, "You are correct, it is not! Also, no Clan of the People - no matter their strength or number - would ever come between a Palulukan and its prey. It could not have been another Clan that did battle with the Palulukan.

If such a battle had taken place we surely would have seen evidence of it: felled bodies of warriors and hunters - and their smashed and broken weapons - lying upon the ground. We did not see these things. From one of the Palulukan's intact fangs, however, we took this..." Grimacing with distaste, Oo'ano reached down to a finely crafted woven psi-steel pouch affixed to his taparrabo and carefully withdrew from within it something wrapped in a bundle of sweet-smelling leaves, which he then held out for me to take. Not knowing what said leaf-bundle contained, I pulled a pair of disposable surgical gloves from my Medical Kit and slipped them onto my hands. Then, ever so carefully, I took the leaf-bundle from Oo'ano and opened it.

Almost immediately, however, I wished I hadn't, for as I parted the leaves to reveal the item within, a smell of rot and decay filled my nostrils as my eyes widened in horror. Within that bundle of leaves was a piece of necrotized, rotting, Na'vi skin tissue! At least, that's what it seemed to be. Ever so gently, ever so carefully, I reached out with a finger and touched it. 'Yep... it's definitely Na'vi tissue; it has the same texture' I noted as I gently ran my finger over the sample, 'but it seems... wrong, somehow.' Its texture was where the tissue sample's resemblance to normal Na'vi skin ended. Unlike that from a normal Na'vi man, woman, or child, this piece of skin tissue bore no 'tiger-stripes' as could be found on normal Na'vi skin. It also wasn't the usual cyan colour; it was white, as white as the stars in the sky at night.

The piece of tissue was so pale, in fact, that it appeared almost translucent - I could clearly espy through it the veins and arteries that once carried blood. 'What Na'vi Clan has this colour skin?' I wondered. 'I know of no Clans with skin this colour, and the other Clans we've traded with haven't mentioned anything about a Clan of albino Na'vi. I'm sure no Clan is withholding information or lying as that's a foreign concept to the Na'vi. Besides... we have good relations with most other Clans in this area - we trade with them, and they often make mention of animals that need healing - so I'm sure that if there were any strange sightings of Na'vi with unusual skin tones, surely one of the other Olo'eyktans would have mentioned something at the Gatherings.

If no one knows about such a thing, then I can only surmise that somewhere on Pandora must be a Clan of Na'vi that no one has ever encountered before.... probably with good reason...' A foreboding chill running down my spine, I carefully rewrapped the sample of tissue back in its leaf bundle, and then stowed it away in my Medical Kit in a small sterile container normally used for the safe disposal of dirtied, non-sterile field dressings and other substances. Then, I returned my attention to Oo'ano, my face set in a troubled expression. "You seem as troubled as I am ma tsmukan" he said. "Were you able to discern anything from that piece of flesh? If it is some kind of animal hide, I might make a guess and say that it is from an Ikran.

The only white Ikran we have found so far, however, is Mir'a'kel, and he would never do the terrible things that were done to that poor Palulukan! That piece of flesh could, however, be from a new kind of animal; one that we have never seen..." Gently raising a hand for silence, I replied, "This is no piece of animal flesh, ma tsmukan; it is from a member of a Clan of the People." Oo'ana's eyes narrowed as he looked upon the place where my Medical Kit rested as though said Kit now contained something that was cursed. "A piece of skin from one of the People , ma Olo'eyktan?" he asked, agitated. "I know of no Clans with skin this colour. Not even the tawtute have skin this colour!"

At his statement, I shook my head. Then reaching up to place a hand upon his shoulder, I replied. "Lu mawey, ma tsmukan, Lu mawey." Oo'ana closed his eyes for a moment, as he inhaled and exhaled a slow, deep, calming breath. When he opened his eyes again, I began to speak my voice soft, yet touched with power such that he, and the entire group of hunters he led, could hear it. "There is a rare disease, which some tawtute can be born with, called Albinism. Albinism is not like a normal disease - it's not something that makes you ill - and you cannot 'catch' it from someone who has it" I explained. Oo'ana's face creased as he frowned, puzzled by my words. "If this disease does not make one sick, Txa'vit, then what does it do?" he asked.

"It alters a person's appearance" I answered. "It turns the skin pale as the stars, and the eyes as purple as Pandora's twilight, or sometimes as crimson as blood. The skin of one who has Albinism lacks a dark pigment called 'melanin'; as a result of this, one who has Albinism is more susceptible to burning from the sun, and diseases that affect the skin, such as cancer." By the time I finished my explanation, Oo'ana's eyes were wide with epiphany. "It sounds like a terrible thing, Txa'vit," he said, "and you believe that there may be a Clan of the People suffering this condition?" I possessed no definite answer to his question yet, so I merely shrugged before replying, "It's possible. Aside from its colour, the piece of flesh looks like that from one of the People, and it has the same texture; I felt it through my gloves when I touched it. I will need to run some tests on in Txra'kon We'er's Laboratory to be sure, however."

Performing an analysis of the skin tissue - courtesy of the Dragon Weyr's Laboratory - revealed, to my horror, that it was indeed of Na'vi origin! However as I gazed contemplatively at one of the lab's many viewing screens - which was currently displaying a computer enhanced cross-section of said tissue, zoomed all the way down to the genetic level - I saw that there was something seriously wrong with the displayed image. "Please run the genetic scan again, would you, my friend?" Affirmation filled my thoughts as the Dragon Weyr passed the high-powered scanning beam over the tissue sample... and once again, the data gathered via the beam was analyzed and then displayed as the same wrong-looking image. At this, I sighed in agitation. "Damn it," I growled, beginning to pace back and forth.

"Are you sure there's nothing wrong with the scanner?" I asked. Affirmation, followed by a mixture of confusion and annoyance filled my thoughts. "I know" I replied, "I'm just as puzzled as you are! Okay... we know the tissue is definitely Na'vi, but... the genetic sequencing and chromosomal arrangement are all wrong; they're all scrambled and fucked up!" A mixture of affirmation and confusion filled my thoughts. "Yeah," I replied, "the Na'vi this piece of tissue belongs to should either be seriously deformed, or he shouldn't have lived at all... and yet he did! He lived... and - according to Oo'ana - with his or her Clan, took on a Palulukan. I believe that; it makes sense that our mystery Na'vi was with a group, because no individual Na'vi - no matter how skilled he or she may be - can take on a Palulukan one-on-one and expect to win.

So... our mystery Na'vi and his Clan fight, kill, and then mutilate a Palulukan. That's a mystery in itself, because both you and I know that mutilation and / or defilement of animal corpses is not the Na'vi way, at all!" Agreement filled my thoughts, then, but said agreement became neutrality as I continued, "But perhaps this Na'vi and his or her Clan don't follow Eywa. Maybe they follow a different deity that demands such violence as part of its worship..." The great construct's contemplation filled my thoughts for a moment, and then was replaced by alertness as I continued, "The Palulukan was fought and killed by our mystery Na'vi and his or her Clan... but what of this person?" Pausing, I stared up at the enhanced cross-section of tissue displayed on the viewing screen for a moment. "What happened to him or her; our mystery Na'vi?" I wondered.

"That," - I gestured to the displayed tissue sample - "was found in the Palulukan's mouth, impaled upon an intact fang, so... what happened during the battle? Was our mystery Na'vi killed and eaten? Possible... but unlikely; Oo'ana and his men are experts at tracking, and if the Na'vi who lost this piece of flesh was killed they surely would have found a body or a blood trail leading to one, but Oo'ana did not see these things. Was our mystery Na'vi able to retreat, but got injured during the process? Again, possible, but Oo'ana said that he and his men found no bodies belonging to any Clan of the people, just the mutilated body of the Palulukan. This is what baffles me: How does an entire Clan of albino-skinned Na'vi - who should not be able to exist in the first place due to deeply flawed genetics - kill and then mutilate a Palulukan, and then just disappear without a trace?" To my question the Dragon Weyr had no answer.