Recombinant Bridgehead

Sully's Grotto

High Camp was the Omatikaya stronghold located deep within the floating mountain, Txurseng, also dubbed "Sully's Grotto" by the humans who lived there. When the invaders returned five years ago, the Hallelujah Mountains were the safest place for Jake to hide his people, as the same magnetic flux which levitated the mountains was also known to disrupt their navigational instruments, making detection impossible. The former tree dwellers had to adapt to the unpleasant, cold stone, but they were grateful to Eywa for the sanctuary. However, the labyrinth wasn't entirely naturally occurring, as Jake and his friends cleared out a better portion using explosives. He knew the Omatikaya would denounce this Skyperson technique, so it was all done in secret.

The cavern's threshold was roughly forty-five metres high and fifty metres across and housed the bulk of the Omatikaya's living needs; this ranged from tents to field cabins to, most importantly, their ikrans. The cave entrance was a five-hundred-metre drop into the dense jungle below and acted like a moon pool for ikran riders to fly in and out of High Camp.

Parked precariously to the side of this deadly drop, amongst the supply crates and weapons, sat the great Toruk Makto. His braided hair was frayed, and his feather mantle slumped over a box of ammunition. Haggard from the awful night, he had set out to douse his wrought nerves through drink.

Squatting next to Jake was his best friend, currently operating his avatar in order to survive the Na'vi liquor. He was Norman Spellman of the Omatikaya—the only outsider aside from Jake to enter the tribe officially. He, too, had gone through several gruelling rites of passage, including his Dream Hunt, to become another respected member of the clan.

Norm, as he was more commonly called, came to the world as a greenhorn anthropologist. He had spent years training to become an avatar driver along with his dorm mate, Tom Sully. The two would while away many nights talking about Pandora and the Omatikaya tribe they would one day get to meet. Together, they'd revolutionize the field of xenoanthropology—then Tom died. And the shock of his friend's death nearly killed his resolve to go, that is, until he learned the timely news that Tom's twin would take his place. Norm prepared himself for his eventual encounter with Jake, but it still took him back.

There, rolling in on two wheels, was Tom, staring right at him as if he'd never died.

He made it his goal, then and there, to befriend Jake despite him being nothing like his educated brother. Jake was a deadbeat, tossed out of bars, wheelchair and all: an idiot who knew nothing about science; this was why Augustine overlooked him in favour of Norman. She filled his head with starry-eyed dreams that he could be the one—the one who could bridge the shattered relations between humans and the Omatikaya.

Norm wasn't the one.

A bunch of stupid woodsprites decided to land on the Marine, and you'd think it was the second coming of Christ with the amount of attention he got. The jarhead was accepted into the Omatikaya village and taught by their sexy princess, while Norman had to spend several hours alone, monitoring Jake's vitals as he waited for him to finish up his dates with Neytiri. To say he was salty would be putting it mildly.

That is until Norm discovered Trudy Chacón, their cute little helicopter pilot who didn't think he was bad-looking either. Aside from Jake and Dr. Augustine, who was mostly out studying plants, Trudy was the only other person staying at their remote link shack. After the two made eyes at one another, Norm quickly became exceedingly grateful for how long Jake would take during link sessions.

Trudy sadly perished during the Assault on the Tree of Souls. Her name lived on through Omatikaya songs and the sole heart tattoo inked on her lover's arm. Though he received several propositions over time, Norman never took another lover.