𝐇𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬
" this is the way "
INTRODUCTION
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Space was a vast place. Stars and planets were scattered like marbles across the broad black canvas, vortexes and galaxies stretching from corner to corner; painting the skies wild intertwining colours. Life forms of all kinds thrived. They traded and hunted, mastered their trades. Money, jewels, and riches filled their minds and consumed their thoughts. Life forms of all kinds suffered. The scavenged, fought and begged. They fought over the basics needs of life that had been ripped from their homes and planets to be shipped somewhere else on the other side of the universe. It was endless.
Yet somehow, in this wide and maze like universe, Neytiri never seemed to escape the Mandalorian.
He was always there, either ahead or behind her. The two hunters searched for their prey yet always seemed to find each other instead. Weather it be at the guild or collecting the spoils of a successful hunt. Two predators caught in a constant, yet fair, competition. For year's they tried to outdo each other. But slowly their conflict and competition morphed to respect and understanding yet they still couldn't escape each other, no matter how far they both traveled. So it was no surprise to either of them when they once more crossed paths on an icy planet chasing the same bounty.
The first time Neytiri and the Mandalorian met had been less than ideal. She had been tracking a bounty since her fob had pinged on a small planet in the Rivera system before she decided to seek passage on a freighter that was headed in the bounties direction. It was an old fob but that didn't matter. Money was money. In a universe as war warn as this one, every credit counted. Imperial or not.
It hadn't taken much time to get to where she needed to go. The leisure's of light speed travel was something she would never get tired of after she departed Pandora. The bounty had stashed himself in a small cabin tucked away on a desolate and barren planet, small enough to be considered a moon, that was inhabited by small reptilian creatures that would stare and whisper as she passed by. The adults barley reached her hips. They dressed themselves in sandy coloured rags, some doming a scarf of coloured silk to identify their higher class, while the villages they lived in reminded her of Tatooine. They parted for her as she strode through the crowd but followed her to the edge of their small town. A child had even grabbed at her tail, curious and cooing.
Neytiri didn't care for the native population. But as far as she was concerned; she was going to be here for at most two hours.
That turned out to be more like twenty.
The fob had taken her on a twisting trek through a towering canyon that finally let off to reveal the targets ramshackle home hidden amongst several jagged boulders. The little hut was barley standing on its foundations. Neytiri maybe could of felt bad for the man if he wasn't a murdering thief. The outside of the house was surrounded by what looked like a growing but sparse garden with several rickety ,barley being held together by their screws, droids bustling about with their chores. None of them made a sound as she stalked past them to the front door of the cabin. Said door was pushed barley open, letting a sliver of light escape the house as well as the sound of two voices.
One was rapid and high pitched, words spewing a mile a minute in a terrified panic, while the other was low and automated. It was nothing but steady. Neytiri instantly pulled her blaster out of the holster on her right thigh, not bothering with the larger weapon on her back, and pushed the door open slowly.
A Mandalorian, tall and broad, stood above her bounty. His beskar was worn and discoloured but his helmet and weapons were in perfect condition. Cuffs were clutched in one hand while his other gripped the front of the bounty's shirt. Neytiri didn't bother with introduction and instead simply pressed the tip of her blaster to the back of the bounty hunters neck under his helmet. No beskar covered the nape. The Mandalorian in turn froze mid sentence, the man in his grasp peering over his shoulder at the woman, before raising both his hands slowly. The bounty fell to the floor with a huff. He scrambled backward away from the two taller beings to press himself to the wall of his hideout.
"Step away from my bounty, I don't want to have to kill you Mandalorian" Neytiri hummed as she stepped backwards till she was a safe arms distance from the quiet man. Said man turned slowly and couldn't help but let out an automated sigh.
He was tired of tracking the man halfway across the galaxy, even if it was for a more than fair price, and had run into his fair share of rival bounty hunters in his travels. He had killed the ones that had threatened him but sadly this time he knew it would be infinitely harder. The woman was a Na'vi. Notoriously hard to kill and overpower. Their race was much like the Madalorians, hunters through and through with weapons and fighting engraved into its history, but their culture was much more secluded and native. They rarely left their planet or it's surrounding system.
That didn't stop the Mandalorian.
He jumped forward quickly with the cuffs ready only to stumble back as she pulled the trigger of her blaster. Neytiri cursed as the bolt ricocheted off of the beskar armour that covered his chest before firing a second shot that he dodged as he advanced forward quickly. Neytiri wasn't going to admit that the fellow hunter had the advantage with the small and cramped cabin but she was finding it incredibly hard not to trip up over her own tail in the minuscule space. It wasn't a surprise that when she backed up the back of her head hit a low beam.
She dodged a swift hook to her face but hissed as he snatched her blaster with surprising force. She in turn kicked him in the stomach quickly, sending him crashing back against the wall of the hut. The Mandalorians head spun for a moment, a sharp ringing echoing through his ears. His core ached. The man knew a bruise would make itself Know in the next few days. Neytiri used his confusion to advance before landing swift roundhouse kick to the side of his helmet that sent him crashing back to the ground in a metal clad heap.
The cuffs were snatched from his hand and one loop was secured around his wrist before he sprung up and landed a punch against the Na'vis gut. She grunted before her legs were swept out from beneath her in one swift move from the hunter. Mando pulled himself up and launched himself at the downed woman ,fist raised to land a blow against her face only her her to grab his wrists in her large hands an tilt her head out of his hits way. His fist slammed against the hard mud ground of the hut and pain shot up through the mans fist. He could feel this skin of his knuckles split.
Click!
Their heads snap towards the pair off cuffs now secured tightly around their wrists before snapping back forwards to face each other as their eyes widen comically, the mans hidden behind the shadowed visor. Neytiris pupils shrink, almost disappearing in the vast expanse of her yellow irises, while the Mandalorian groaned and banged his helmet against the floor of the cabin roughly. The bounty only watched on in pure confusion.
"Please tell me you have the key for these thing?" Neytiri growled as she turned her head to stare into the T shaped black visor of the Mandalorians helmet. His weight pressed down in her stomach but that was the last thing on the woman's mind as her grip on his wrist gradually tightened.
"...no"
"Fuck"
The ride back to their employers planet was more than a little awkward. Both bounty hunters were jerked and pulled around by the other constantly, Neytiris head slamming against the low doorways and the Mandalorian treading on her tail again and again. It was a miracle that they were able to agree to split the reward and an even bigger miracle that they both arrived to collect their payment alive and in one piece. They both trudged sullenly to the Guilds base where Greef Karga took far to much enjoyment out of their predicament. As soon as the cuffs clattered to the cantina table, both bounty hunters had disappeared with a new puck with the guild leaders laughter ringing in their heads on a loop. They swore they would never see each other again and that little debacle was buried in the past.
Yet it seemed fate wasn't on their side.
No matter how far either of them flew they always crossed paths once more. Which was no exception here with Neytiris yellow cat like eyes staring deep into the black tinted visor of the shorter metal clad and painfully familiar Mandalorian. Her hands rested on her hips as she buried the bottom of her face in the collar of her dark jacket as the chilled air snapped at her skin.
"There really is no escaping you, is there Mando?" Neytiri hummed over the howling and frigid wind. Her accented voice, low and smooth, made the man straighten in an attempt to match the Na'vi woman's height. He did not.
"No" he huffed gruffly "it appears there is not"
Neytiri stepped up beside him so they both stood on the end the pathway that lead to what looked like a metal structure that was half hidden in the ground. There were several cell towers dotted around it, as well as smoke billowing from the chimneys dotted across the slightly curved roofs. Neytiri glanced down at the Mandalorian out of the corner of her eye. Her gaze was sharp, angular face tight with annoyance and flushed with the spitting cold.
"Same deal as usual?" She hummed deftly. Over the years of constantly running into one another and fighting over the same bounty they had created a system of splitting the rewards fairly. Who ever reached the bounty first got the reward but if they found each other and neither of them had it, they would work together and split the reward 50-50. It was simple but it worked.
Neither of them liked to admit it, but they were a good team.
𝐇𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬
" this is the way "
FACE CLAIMS
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𝐍𝐞𝐲𝐭𝐢𝐫𝐢 𝐌𝐨'𝐚𝐭'𝐢𝐭𝐞
" the huntress "
ZOE SALDANA
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𝐃𝐢𝐧 𝐃𝐣𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐧
" the hunter "
PEDRO PASCAL
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𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐫 - I don't own anything to do with The Mandalorian or Avatar (2009). I don't own any of the gifs or photos in this book either but I do own my ocs and their plots. I own Neytiris plot as well as her actions and dialogue. She's heavily based off her movie inspiration but there will be a lot of changes.
𝐖𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 - This story will contain graphic descriptions of violence as well as swearing. Topics such as death will obviously be present.
𝐍𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐬 - I love all The Mandalorian books I find but I wanted to write one where the character is actual more of an alien because all the aliens you see in Star Wars are amazing. And Neytiri is mY GIRL! <3 nothing can stop me from writing this (except my notorious writers block and stupid school <3 ). Don't worry about her height either. I know Na'vi people are like 9 feet tall but my version of of Neytiri is only 6'5.