I follow behind Jake, my ankle wrapped in what I assume to be Na'vi medicine. The top piece I had on was similar to hers as its rough material moved against my breasts, it was a little awkward and it'll be a while before I'm used to it, probably.
I walk up the spiral and look at the Omatikaya people as they sit crouched and waiting, a few staring at us. Jake messes with his bottom piece, pulling it and adjusting it.
"Good evening." He awkwardly greets the people he passed, and I brush past him feeling no need. I'm an alien to them, they'd give less shits if I said hi or not.
"Please don't get up." He jokes and pushes my back to go faster, I glare at him as I step over hands and tails. I look back as Jake steps on a tail,
"Sorry." He rushes out and we get beside Neytiri, she was closer to her parents and the warrior leaders—being the chief's daughter obviously. She shoves Jake down by the shoulder and I lower myself to a sit, unable to crouch with my ankle, it looked a bit clumsy.
"Hey, how you doin." Jake greets a man beside him; I slap his arm and nod to the front. I meet eyes with that one Na'vi again, how it keeps happening is beyond me.
He curls his lip up at me and glares. I stare at him before rolling my eyes and taking the food given to me. His eyes staying on me as I eat the delicious meat, what it was I could care less about. It was tasty.
I hover my hand above my leaf plate that held the meat and look straight at the Na'vi man who slowly ate his food his eyes for some fucking reason still on me. I cock a brow and stare directly at him for a minute till he's forced to look away. I could already tell he was a bastard, makes my eye twitch.
#
I follow Neytiri up the spiral tree more as Jake looks around. She jumps onto a separated limp and down into a hammock looking thing, Jake does the same and I slide down on my butt; It looked like a hammock but definitely didn't feel like it. I sigh and turn onto my side, closing it on my own once I figured out that touch helped. I wanted back into my body; this one was in too much pain to tolerate.
I close my eyes and when I open them, I'm immediately blinded by a flashlight,
"Tegan, are you with me?"
I cough and nod. "Yeah,"
I'm sat up with some help and I take a moment to adjust to my body again. I felt like it'd been longer than it probably was—my joints were stiff, and I felt a bit wonky.
"You okay Nasrine?" She asks with a bit of concern,
I look up at her and nod, getting to my feet, I walk over to Jake's machine and see Norm and Grace there.
"Damn you were dug in like a tick." Grace laughs as she helps him sit up. I walk past Norm and pat Jake's shoulder with a grin, feeling a lot better outside of my avatar.
"Are the Avatar's safe?" I gave Grace a smug look,
"Yeah Doc, and you are not gonna believe where we are." Jake laughs out—you could practically taste the smugness in the air.
#
I sit next to Norm shoving food into my mouth like I've been starved for years.
"The last thing we see are these two's asses disappearing into the brush with this angry thanator coming after them." Grace explains and everyone laughs,
"Hey, it's not something you can teach." I look at Max as he laughs,
"That is awesome."
"For reasons I cannot fathom, the Omatikaya have chosen you two. God help us all." Grace chuckles with a smile on her face. Being called the 'chosen ones' feels cheesy and cliche almost.
#
I glare at the back of Corporal Mile's head; I never liked him, not from the stories that spread around during training.
"Jarhead clan?" He chuckles out as Sully nods proudly. Miles is one man I cannot stand to be near, and yet here I am.
"And it worked?" Sully raises his arms and grins,
"Hey, we're practically family." He looks back at me and a grin spread across his face.
"Get on over here girl, you're a part of this." He grabs me by the shoulder and shook me like I was his best friend. I ripped my shoulder from him and stood by Jake. Staring the man down,
"They're gonna study us. We have to learn to be one of them." Jake explains leaning against the machine in front of us displaying a layout of Pandora.
"That's called taking the initiative son. I wish I had 10 more like you." I roll my eyes as I see Miles sucking up to Jake, sweet talking him. He walks back with a grin as Selfridge walks up.
"Look, Sully, Sully. Just find what the blue monkeys want." I scoff at his choice of words. He doesn't even know them; all he wants is what he can get his grubby man hands on to sell for profit. He doesn't know how the Na'vi people work, think, act. Nothing. It's disgusting how he treats them. How all these marines do.
"I mean, we try to give them medicine, education, roads. But no, no ,no ,no they like mud. And it wouldn't bother me, it's just that they're..." He tries zooming in on something but fucks it up.
"Hey can, can somebody just pull up sector 12." Someone takes over for him,
"Okay, go, go, go. Stop. Stop...Rich stop Jesus. Their damn village happens to be resting on richest unobtanium deposit within 200 klicks in any direction. I mean, look at all that chedder!" Selfridge laughs obnoxiously as he looks at us,
"Well, who gets them to move?"
"Guess." I look at Miles and laugh thinking he has to be kidding,
"Us? The things they consider demons?" I look at Jake as he laughs.
"What if they won't go?"
Miles gets up and moves closer, "Oh I'm betting they will."
Selfridge walks up to us and places an arm on my shoulder to which I shove off.
"Okay, okay, okay, hey. Look. Look. Killing the indigenous looks bad, but there's one thing that shareholdings hate more than bad press, and that's bad quarterly statement. I didn't make up the rules. So just find me a carrot that'll get them to move, otherwise it's gonna have to be all stick, okay?" Selfridge says and Miles looks at us.
"You got three months. That's when the 'dozers get there." I scowl as I listen to the men banter, this is sick. Absolutely sick.
"Well, then we're wasting time." Jake looks up at Selfridge and back to the layout,
"I like this guy." He says, patting Jake's back. I roll my eyes and walk off.
#
I walk next to Grace as she holds her tablet out,
"Okay, let's run through them again." I look at the picture and it's Neytiri's mother.
"Mo'at, dragon lady." Sully says, she switches photos and holds it out.
"Eytucan."
I roll my eyes and correct him; "Eytukan."
Grace nods and adds, "He's the clan leader, she's the spiritual leader. Like a shaman."
Sully nods and sets up next to his machine. "Got it."
she holds a new one up,
"Tsu'tey."
I look away from the screens attached to the machine and down to the tablet. I curl my lip up at the photo displayed on the device, his blue face got on my nerves.
"(T)Su'tey." He repeats Grace's correction,
"He'll be the next clan leader," Grace explains,
"He's an asshole." I mutter under my breath as I make sure the links ready. She holds up the last photo and Sully takes the tablet,
"Neytiri."
"She'll be the next Tsahik. They become a mated pair."
Sully sets the tablet on his lap. "So, who's Eywa?"
I groan and go over to my machine and set myself up as I get in.
"You're retarded Jake!" I insult him as I close my machine's top, Tracy, the scientist that's been helping me starts it up.
#
Neytiri walks two direhorse over and stands in front of us,
"Palè is female, Saēk is male." She introduces as Jake inspects his direhorse. I gently rub the neck of mine, smiling as he pokes around with his tswin. I slowly bring my braid over my shoulder as I pat his side,
"It's alright." I coo comfortingly as he eyes me—I connect our queues as gently as I could his eyes widen a bit as he shakes his head. I step onto the side of him and throw my leg over his side and let him relax before I continue with anything else.
I pat the side of his neck when he shows he's ready. I take a moment for myself and close my eyes, my breathing soft as I could feel his breath shallowly exiting the sides of his neck. His heartbeat was faster than mine, it was a bit rhythmic, comforting almost. I look up as Jake still struggles to even get on.
"You may tell her what to do, inside." Neytiri explains and pointing to her head. I grip onto him and tell him to go forward, he does just that and I laugh when he takes off faster than I expected. Neytiri looks at me and grins before she looks at Jake as he tries the same thing and ends up falling flat on his face in the mud. I let out a loud laugh as I stop Saek beside him. He glares at me as he gets up, wiping his face off.
I look up as Tsu'tey and his men stride in. His eyes go to me then to Jake on the ground. He gets up and wipes his arm off as he looks at the man,
"You should go away." Tsu'tey charmingly spits out, looking at Jake with disdain.
I roll my eyes as I scratch Saek's neck. I don't even think my horse likes this bastard's face either. I wonder if it'd hurt if a direhorse bit someone—would there be a punishment?
"Nah, you'd miss me. I knew you could speak English." Jake snarks back, swiping mud off him.
Tsu'tey lets out a chuckle before looking at Neytiri and speaking Na'vi. She smiles and lightly smacks his horse's butt, getting it to move. I share one more glare with the man as he rides off.
Neytiri looks at Jake before nodding towards Pale, "Again."