They ran through the night. Around them purple, blue, green, orange luminescent shapes wove a natural landscape more vivid than even Van Gogh could have painted. Jake breathed in, detecting the spicy scent of a flower Neytiri said would purify a festered wound. Moss, leaves, and dirt, glorious dirt, shifted under his feet as he pursued her through the jungle.
Even after three months, it still felt so good to run, to feel his new long limbs stretch and bend, and do what his brain wanted them to do. He relished the pull of the bowstring, the fluidity of his ikran moving in unison with his thought. Movement, uninhibited, still thrilled him. His new body could feel things so much more keenly than his old one, imbued with a poise that months of military training could not teach.
Ahead of him, Neytiri slowed her pace, glancing behind her to see if Jake still followed. Her eyes gleamed vibrant gold in the dimness. Jake felt his heart stutter in its usual smooth rhythm.
They came to the place Neytiri had wanted to show him. They walked among the white glow of the draping branches, and Neytiri explained the miracle of the Tree of Voices, a place of memories. To Jake, it felt rather like they had entered a cathedral where people lit candles for lost loved ones. This was a place of living prayer, recorded down to the tree's roots. Neytiri disentangled her braid from its link with a branch, and placed her palms on Jake's chest.
She explained to him the significance of his new status as a member of their clan. Her eyes grew solemn, sad, even, as she turned away at the mentioning of choosing a woman. Her sudden vulnerability surprised Jake, used to months of her chastising and frustrated impatience. She was a powerful woman in her clan, and he—he was the lowest, a dreamwalker, an imposter. Jake had grown strong over the months, and his bravery impressed her, though she often branded him stupid for it. Maybe he could push his stupidity.
"I've already chosen." He whispered, rejecting her suggestions of other female Na'vi. "But this woman must also choose me."
Neytiri appeared surprised, then elated. "She already has."
As he bent to kiss her, Jake felt his heartbeat begin to race. He was ecstatic that she reciprocated, but now he was unsure again. He had not seen the other Na'vi exchange such a gesture. There was an affectionate touch of hands, or bumping of noses, but nothing as openly passionate as a human kiss.
However, whatever Neytiri expected, she accepted his mouth willingly. Jake pressed his luck, deepened the kiss. Their touch of lips was electrifying, and Jake felt his loins stir, his veins humming with energy and arousal. Neytiri opened her eyes, smiling at him. Her cheeks had flushed almost purple with desire. This time she claimed his mouth, and trailed her hands up and down his back, sending pleasured shivers down his spine.
As they kissed, they drifted down to kneel on the forest floor, the luminescent vines glowing in a protective curtain about them. Jake caressed her long neck, kissed the spot where her jaw joined her ear, and found that when he brushed fingers along its tip, she gasped with pleasure. His body ached to join them as one, but Jake wanted to do things right. He was a virgin in this body, and assumed she was, too.
Before his injury, he'd had a girlfriend on Earth. Their sex was average, he supposed, made better by the fact that they were both young and strong. Once he joined the military, they met whenever he had leave for a few quick fucks, but it was never "making love" in any sense.
Once he became paralyzed, though, she visited him twice while in the hospital before breaking things off, citing the fact that she'd already been seeing someone else. "Besides," she had said, gathering her purse to go, "you need someone beside you who really loves you."
He recovered, slowly. The spinal chord injury meant he only had sensation from his navel up. As he healed, he discovered that women saw his wheelchair, saw the Marine muscles bulging his arms, and felt sorry for him. His legs atrophied to skinny, useless sticks, and he took to wearing baggy pants to try and conceal them. One night, two years after he was shot, he sat at a bar table nursing bad brandy, now too short to step up to the bar and order like a man. There was a cute blonde sipping something fruity-looking out of a martini glass at the opposite table. She caught Jake's drunken stare and sidled over to where he had parked his chair.
"Name's Faye." She winked. "You're a cutie, why the wheels?"
She was unusually blunt, and hot. Jake shook his head from the buzz of the brandy, attracted. Some women had a fetish for paraplegics. He couldn't understand the hell why, but he supposed beggars couldn't be choosers, and she had a great ass.
"Well, Faye," Jake leaned forward onto his elbows, "I was a soldier in Venezuela. Some bastard sniper shot a hole in my spine, and here I am today, too poor to fix it."
"That blows, if you'll excuse the expression." Faye was wearing bright red lipstick, and Jake had wondered dimly how those red lips would do wrapped around his cock.
"Not offended. So, can a cripple still buy a girl a drink?"
"Nope." Faye smiled widely, twirling a blonde curl around a fingernail also painted red. "But you can take me 'round back and give me a ride."
Jake couldn't believe his luck. He wheeled behind her, watching her buttocks sway beneath her dress. They went around to the back of the bar where the dumpsters overflowed with glass and crushed aluminum cans. The night air was hot and scratchy, thanks to pollution, and smelled of salt and rotting fish from the ocean some mile away.
Faye hitched up her dress and straddled him, lowering her red lips to his face. Jake went to work undoing her bra clasp, when Faye suddenly paused. Jake froze as well, embarrassed and anguished.
"Can you even get it up?" She asked quietly, almost tenderly.
Jake rubbed his face, anger and shame boiling his insides. "Sometimes... not really. I can't feel anything down there."
"Hmm." Faye unzipped his pants and took him in her hand. Nothing. She stood up and readjusted her clothes. "Well, kid, I can give you a ride home, if it means anything."
"Just go." Jake wheeled himself away from her, away from the bar, down the warped plank sidewalk that led to the parking lot. Maybe he could wheel himself all the way to the sea. His useless legs would drag him to the bottom.
Neytiri placed feather-light kisses on his forehead. Jake wrapped his arms around her slender waist and pulled her toward him, feeling the length of her body along his. Her thighs spanned his lap, and Jake could feel the heat from between her legs. Her tail curled around her like a cat's, is tip brushing his hip, tickling him. Jake laid his palm on her stomach. Neytiri opened her eyes and watched him. Jake swallowed. Human women were very sensitive there. He slid his hand up to cup one of her breasts beneath the intricate garment she wore to ornament them. Neytiri let out a long sigh.
"That feels good, Jake."
Emboldened, he caressed them both, before pulling her down fully onto his lap. Beneath his loincloth, his new body's cock was straining against the leather. Neytiri blushed that deep shade of purple again and smiled. She reached down and undid the fastenings of her loincloth, before tenderly untying his, tossing them aside boldly. She came from a people unashamed of the body, and a man's secret parts were no mystery to her. She had dreamed about uniting herself with Jake, but now that that dream was a reality, she also felt unsure. Mating was a serious business.
Jake gloried at her body, now completely revealed to him. He moved to enter her, but Neytiri held up a finger. She reached around and grabbed her braid, then took his.
"We must complete the bond." She whispered, before weaving her soul with his. Jake felt his mind connect with hers, felt the joy in her heart and the trepidation at their coupling. His body seemed to thrum with a whole new life, every sensation heightened, almost to a point of pain. Neytiri positioned herself, then joined them as one.
Jake could have sworn his body died for an instant. The feeling of their coupling was so strong, so close, he imagined they had become one entity, a soul floating in ecstasy. Neytiri's face swam before him, he was so dizzy from sensation. She bent to his ear.
"I am with you, Jake. We are mated for life."
They moved as one, building up a steady rhythm that seemed to last hours, days, or perhaps just minutes. Neytiri cried out something in Na'vi that Jake did not yet understand, but as he reached his climax, he did.
Neytiri's body collapsed onto his, their sweat mingling as she regained her breath. The gold of her eyes had deepened, and she looked at her lover with admiration and passion. Jake expected to be sleepy, but this new body was not tired. His desire had abated, for now, but he held his mate closely, not wishing to break their bond. From Neytiri he could feel love, and wonder, emanating, and he mirrored her emotions.
If he let his thoughts progress, however, he knew fear would set in. He did not want to return to his broken human body, and had felt in mating with Neytiri, that he could have left it forever. He could still feel the wasted man in its coffin-like machine, and wanted to forget it again. Jake pushed Neytiri to the ground and kissed her passionately, body surging to join them again.
He would delay becoming crippled Jake Sully, ex-Marine, a little longer. For now, he was a newly christened Na'vi warrior, and it was his wedding night.
