The only thing I picked up on was the concerned scream of my sisters before my head hit the hard jungle floor. My legs gave up which led to me losing balance, falling backward, and now laying here in the cold, wet dirt. The pain was bearable and definitely not as bad as immediately being swarmed by my family like it was now happening right now.
"(Firin!)" Was the word that pierced through the air as it was repeated multiple times by the others. Everything started blending together, I was tired. I wanted to go home, I wanted to sleep and just forget about everything. Because of this, it came as an annoyance when I was now being shaken by someone, as to halter my plans of letting the welcoming void of sleep overtake me.
"Stop." I croaked out not having the energy to give a better demand to make the assailant indeed stop and let me sleep.
"(Dad, get him home!)" Was that Tuk? I didn't care, I didn't want to care and yet I weakly raised my head, as if that would let me see better through the blur that was obscuring my eyes. The rain-covered glass of the exopack didn't help in that compartment as well. I seemed to have pushed my luck though as the world around me immediately turned to darkness. Either way, I now ended up passed out and ignorant of the world around me.
If someone had asked me how long I was out, I wouldn't have had an answer and quite frankly I didn't care. I could have been out for a day, week, or month, it would have been the same to me. What was I needed for anyways? Eywa never wanted me to be happy for some reason, always torturing me in some cruel way to keep me from living a happy life. Who was I to say no to finally giving up and forever staying this way? Wait... on second thought... that doesn't that appealing.
Beep... Beep... Beep...
A monotonous beeping woke me from my slumber. Always the same sound. I rolled over, maybe that would stop the annoying sound from breaching my ears repeatedly. It didn't sadly as my sleep was still plagued by the monotonous sound which probably never heard of a good night's sleep.
"Turn it off," I mumbled to nobody in particular. "That is annoying." For a moment nothing happened before I could hear footsteps. The volume increased with every step that was made. The sound soon gave up which earned a complete exhale from me.
"(Firin?)" a feminine voice exclaimed next to my bed. Two dull metal thumps later I could feel someone grabbing the sheets I was still clinging on to, almost forcing them away and succeeding. "(Firin, thank Eywa you woke up.)" Wait... I knew that voice. I yawned whilst sitting up and finally opening my eyes. The first thing I picked up on was Kiri sitting beside my bed. Not in a chair, but on the ground, still with my bedsheets in her hands, her short messy raven hair almost covering her eyes.
"(Is this starting to become an reoccurring theme?)" I asked the na'vi teen who dropped the bedsheets and jumped on the bed in one singular motion. I kind of expected to be hugged, but was rather surprised by what happened next.
SLAP
"(Do you know how worried I was?!)" I held my stinging cheek and turned my head back to face my sister. She rather unfortunately had quite the slap which stung pretty bad. "(You can't just pass out after we were chased like that!)" I didn't register half the words she said, only focusing on the matter at hand.
SLAP
"(What was that for?!)" She cried out her face filled with shock. It was now her turn to hold her cheek after I took revenge and hit her back.
"(What was that for? Are you dumb? I just woke up and you just slap me?)" I pushed her from me as she previously sat down on top of me and delivered the unwelcome good morning lunch. I tried standing up from the bed, but before I was even able to connect my feet with the ground my attempt was stopped by the now enraged blue-skinned female.
"(Oh no you don't.)" She pushed me back down with her ears lying flat and a glare that signaled to everyone who her long enough that you wouldn't want to push your luck. "(You will stay here and explain why you have the audacity to treat me like this.)" My hands were pinned down by hers above my head and struggling didn't give me an edge as she was stronger in this situation. I was still weak from just waking up, great excuse I know. Anyhow, what didn't stop me from ignoring her question?
"(How long was I out for?)" She sighed in her frustration at me not cooperating with her as she hoped for but still found an answer to give me.
"(A day.)" I hummed in reply. We stayed like this for a good second before I took the word to not make things more uncomfortable than they already were.
"(Can you let me go? I am quite hungry.)" Her tail flicked. I knew she couldn't hold up her upset demeanor for that much longer.
"(No and I don't care. Why did you slap me?)" She ever so slightly leaned forward. I continued to give her attitude.
"(Why did you?)" She closed her eyes for a second before taking in a sharp breath and repeating her question to make like I didn't speak her language.
"(Why.)" she again leaned forward. "(Did.)" Again. "(You. Slap. Me.)" She was quite close to my face now. Only a few centimeters separate our faces. Looking down I saw her na'vi breathing pack around her neck, she must have taken it off before coming to me. This didn't go unnoticed, however. "(Hey!)" I jerked my head back up from staring in a suspicious direction, looking her in the eyes. "(My eyes are up here.)" Her tail continuously swung from side to side now. And was that a pink tint on her cheeks?
"(You were saying?)" I teased, fully knowing what she had said. She only scoffed and let go of my hands, now lightly slapping my forehead and standing up first from me and then the bed in mere moments.
"(Boys.)" she murmured whilst walking away. I let my gaze follow her, definitely not on her ass, never. Wait, that was a little more sway than usual, whatever. I now took the opportunity to look around where I even was. What met my eye was the medical branch of the laboratory. The sterile smell hitting my nose made my face scrunch up. How was I able to ignore this smell? I again swung my legs over the side of the bed to stand up, hoping to be let this time.
"Firin! Good to see that you are up." I turned my head to the source of the voice.
"Hey, Max." The older scientist made his way toward me and sat down next to me.
"Are you ok?" The concern in his voice was evident. For some reason, my mood dropped as soon as he made his way over to me. As if the shock stayed until now.
"As much as the situation allows, yes." I avoided his gaze by looking through the room. Why were my emotions acting up? "I assume they told you." I continued, purposefully avoiding the obvious subject directly, now bouncing my leg to stop myself from sounding too emotional.
"Look-" he put his arm around me to which I gave him a stern look in response, making him retreat and put his arm back. I leaned forward, staring holes into the floor. "I know it's hard for you." He leaned forward as well. "Everybody knows how much Spider meant to you." He left a brief pause in his monologue. "But we have so much on our plate with the return of the RDA that we can't focus on one person." Tears had formed in my eyes, crying to be let out. I turned to him with a sniff of my, for some reason, closed nose.
"Do you know what it feels like to lose a brother?" This time it was the dark-skinned man's turn to look away. Scratching his neck below his man-bun to signal his uncomfortableness with this topic.
"Not a brother, that would be Jake's case, but I lost people too." He turned to my teary eyes with his calm brown ones. "We lost many great people during the war back in the day." He took hold of my hands which previously laid idle on my legs. "Everyone here lost someone important back then." I wanted to look away, but he turned my face back, making me look into his eyes. "You are not alone." I nodded again sniffing. "Come here."
The tears I was holding back forced their way out, hence I broke out crying and fell into his embrace. "Life is just so unfair." Was the only thing besides the sound of crying I was able to push out.
"I know, I know." The older man reassured me as if it would bring my friend back to us. "But ask yourself this:" He pushed me an arm's length away from him at my shoulders after a good minute of my sobbing. "What would Spider want you to do?" I paused to think about this with the occasional hiccup breaking the silence between us.
"Get him back and get revenge." A brief smile made its way across Max's face, completely going against the serious and rather depressing aura around us.
"Well, besides that." He said, obviously not expecting that answer, still holding on to the somber mood.
"Stay strong? Make him proud?" Max seemed to accept that answer as he continued like I never said anything else.
"Exactly." He paused. "Don't worry about him too much. He can handle himself. Focus on the problems on hand." I nodded. After a few more seconds of staring into my eyes, he let go of me and pat me on the back. "Now get out of here, I know you wanted to do earlier." I nodded again, following his advice, and letting him sit there. After a few steps, I paused.
"Thank you, Max, thank you." I looked over my shoulder to see him looking at me. He smiled lightly.
"Anytime, Firin." With this I made my way out of the laboratory, putting on the exopack before stepping through the door.
The bright sun dimmed by the view blocking cover over the entire camp signaled that it had to be around noon. Taking a deep breath, I realized that the exopack filtered the air, removing the smell, from which I had to smile. I still forgot about the glass covering my face most of the time. Looking around I saw that nothing had changed since I last came out of the laboratory the day prior. The clan going about their business, not caring to look in my direction. Maybe it was for the better. I didn't want them to see me with red eyes from crying.
Shaking off my chain of thoughts I took off in a random direction with no goal in particular, perhaps I would find something to kill time. As soon as my feet started moving across the stone floor, I let my mind wander again the same way I crossed High Camp, with no direction. Getting Spider back from Bridgehead City was appealing to the part of my brain responsible for most of the stupid decisions I made, but the small smart part immediately yelled out to signal the large risk of dying if I would follow through with the multitude of plans the aforementioned part spat back. My emotions had calmed down enough from their previous flare to again burst into tears thinking about my hopelessness, but aside from that Max did have a point. Just because I could attempt to do something reckless with the reward of getting my best friend back, I should act reasonably for once and not let the grief overtake my brain. Maybe Jake would let me help him come up with a plan to further weaken the influence the RDA started having over the planet?
Without realizing it I had made my way back to the Marui my family and I occupied. Taking the last few steps, I could hear voices from the inside.
"(-Hence we should attack them from here.)" A brief silence occurred, maybe the unknown voice pointed somewhere on a map? Just moments before I was able to open the flaps of the entrance I heard my father answer.
"(That seems like a good idea.)" I announced my presence by throwing the coverings to the side letting more light into the dark interior. I could make out a few people I didn't know but recognized from seeing them around the base standing next to a makeshift table with a hologram of the environment on it. Of course, there was Jake in the middle of the bunch who alongside everyone else looked up to see me curiously letting my eyes wander. One of the omatikayans, clearly an important warrior raised his voice.
"(What is the human doing here?)" His questioning look met a stern frown from Jake. It only lasted a second before he made his around the others on his way to me. All eyes were on him as he kneeled to get at my eye level, his tail flicked once before he began to speak in a hushed tone.
"Firin, you're up. Are you okay?" He quickly glanced over me to see if there were any injuries. Not that there were, but I found this protective behavior kind of amusing.
"I'm fine, Dad. Max released me from the medical branch a while ago. What are you guys talking about?" Whilst saying the last part I waved my hand over the others behind him. His gaze followed before a strained expression made its way across his face as if it pained him to keep secrets from me.
"Adult stuff." I frowned, which made him wince. "Well..." This wasn't enough for me, he had unconsciously reeled me into wanting to know what was going on.
"Well, what?" Jake opened his mouth to answer but wasn't able to do so as someone from the more shady back cut in.
"(Can we continue? This is very important.)" She sounded annoyed to be delayed by me, well, sucks to be you. Jake on the other hand seemed to be torn between two sides. Being the Olo'eyktan and helping his clan with military tactics, and speaking to his son who nearly yesterday.
"(Just a second.)" The tall ex-marine hurried out over his back before turning to me. "We are discussing our next attack on the RDA, that's all you're gonna get, not get out of here." He patted my shoulder and gently urged me out of the Mauri. A sigh of relief was the last thing I was able to pick up clearly before the voices became muffled by the fabric separating me and this important meeting. I decided to stick around and listen to what was said for the next minute before I got bored and went back to wandering around the 'shithole' like I liked to call High Camp without real purpose. Maybe I should finally eat something?
Well, well, well. Guess who wrote another chapter within a month.
Anyways, I hope you enjoyed it. Vote if you liked the chapter and would like to read the next one within a month. Comment ideas you want to see inside the story, or anything else for that matter.
Have a good one.