Chapter 2. - Her Last Bond
Passing through what seems to be ancient ruins of some sort, its as if there was another civilization that once lived among them. Jake notices the huge rings that sky around the Tree of Souls area above and knows that this was not built by the Omaticaya people. Even the floor where the people plug into the roots seem to be some sort of ruins covered in roots, and the tree itself sits on a platform made of stone that is also covered heavily by roots, plants and moss. Cant help not to ask Jake says to Neytiri as he points to the rings above:
Jake: - "What are those giant rings up there?
Neytiri looking up and around to see them herself and while slightly shrugging and nodding her head as if she did not know, she says:
Neytiri: - "We do not know who made these big things Jake. They have always been here, before our people. Our elders say this is where we all started. But still we do not know for sure."
Seeing the giant rings reminds him of the ancient pyramids back on earth that nobody really know who built them and why. As they ride really close to one of the base of the rings Jake rides over to it and looks closely at it and touches it. It has the feeling of something metallic and stone. He wonders if these rings are also made up of the mineral that RDA was mining, and also ponders the idea that the rings themselves give off some sort of energy from Eywa. And could be the reason that nothing electrical functions normally in this 'flux vortex'. He looks up at the giant ring one more time than rides up and catches up to Neytiri who just shakes her head at his curiousness.
As they go thundering through the night forest without any danger or worry about sky people, it brings a smile to his face knowing that he IS forever more a Na'Vi. He is finally seeing the world through his own real eyes, and not a dream world assisted by a machine. Taking in deep fresh clean air with his own lungs, the REAL feel of the bond wit his dire horse, the sight of Neytiri with his own eyes. His soul and consciousness, the avatars flesh and blood is now at one. Like an ugly worm transforming of the crippled human in the wheelchair to the beautiful butterfly that is now Jake in the avatar. He rides, and follows wherever his soul mate now leads him to.
They continue to ride, passing numerous streams, elegant waterfalls, and dangerous narrow tree trunks riding over ridges. Seems to him that Pandora never has flat lands, always something to look out for, good thing for this dumb grunt has Neytiri leading the way otherwise he would be in a world of hurt out here alone. Up ahead he hears a sound that hes only heard of through virtual reality scenarios and movies, the sounds of an actual real ocean.
And finally the path ends at some cliffs that ride above and along the oceans beach. And with it being close to midnight, the two moons are so big, and so bright its as if you can reach out and grab them. The planet Polyphemus which sits behind the two moons, gives the ocean and the surrounding scenery a mysterious silver glow. Jake who used to love swimming back home before he got hurt, sits and stares at the beautiful clean ocean, which has this very faint greenish glow to it. It immediately puts him into this wide eyed daze, its as if the ocean has hypnotized him. Looking down at the beach he can see some enormous sea-lion type animals with their young laying down on the rocks sleeping. He looks up at the ocean as if he wants to go over there and into the water and jump in like a child. Neytiri notices the anticipation in him and says:
Neytiri: - "Another time Jake we will go there, for now we must go."
They keep riding along the cliffs for a while and Jake still cant help not to look at the ocean and wonder whats out there. He gets glimpses of what looks like whales of some sort in the water spouting out water really high, but their size is much to enormous to be one. The sand being so bright and visible with the two full moons, he can easily see how clean and pure it is. His memory of a beach is that of something man made and hes only read stories of people actually walking along a real beach. From the time and world that he comes from, the beaches are nothing but full of black and oily sand with a disgusting frothy like ocean with a oily tinge to it. As they are leaving he says:
Jake: - "I've never actually seen anything like that, it was always just a story, or in books at school. The world I come from the oceans were dead and black."
Seeing the beauty here on Pandora and remembering the oceans back on Earth disgusts him. Wondering if Neytiri ever goes out there for a swim or something, curiously he points to the ocean and says:
Jake: - "Do you ever go out there in the water? It looks so clean and warm."
Neytiri quickly shaking her head no, points to the ocean herself and sternly says:
Neytiri: - "No Jake, its dangerous. Many deadly animals there, not safe to go in water."
She stops and Jake pulls up next to her and she looks at Jake and says and points at him knowing he loves to get into trouble with curiosity:
Neytiri: - "Do not go there OK. Do not go there."
She taps him on the shoulders as shes telling him that then begins to move forward again. Jake just smiles and shakes his head and follows behind her. Although he still cant help not to look over at the awesome ocean. He would die to be able to just run wild on the beach and do a belly flop into the water like a little kid. Even though hes the big bad leader of the Omaticaya, its quite clear to him who actually runs the show here, and its definitely not him.
Finally they come to an area where they will stop and rest for a few hours before they hurdle the next big move. They sit down on some soft moss along the cliff that overlooks the ocean. Very tired Jake yawns but keeps looking down at the ground as if something is bothering him. Neytiri notices something isn't right and says:
Neytiri: - "What is it Jake?"
With arms crossed at the knees and sitting up, he looks up at the crystal clear dark sky and says with a sense of fear and doubt:
Jake: - "I'm scared to close my eyes to fall asleep, what if I don't wake up?"
She pushes him back so hes laying down flat on his back and gently lays her head down on his chest says:
Neytiri: - "Do not worry, you will, rest now."
With the feeling of peace and closeness, Jake bravely closes his eyes and falls asleep. Usually falling asleep in his Avatar meant waking up back as a human, crippled and inside a machine and back to the nightmare. And what seemed like in an instant, the sound of the sea-lion like animals roaring below quickly awakens him. In a panic he looks down at his hands then to his feet wiggling his toes. It brings a smile to his face knowing he slept and woke up still a Na'Vi. He slowly gets up and notices Neytiri not there, nowhere in sight. He walks towards the edge of the cliff and for the sounds of the ocean is like a gentle melody singing to him. No voices, no ikrans, no screams, no terror or war, just the pure sound of the ocean is what he hears. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath and just listens to the ocean for a few moments.
He opens his eyes and begins to look around for his Neytiri, only place she could have gone was into the forest. He hears something coming through and out of the thick forest out comes out Neytiri smiling all bright eyed and bushy tailed to a brand new morning. She tosses him this green fruit looking thing that feels much like an apple and he wastes no time and takes a huge bite:
Neytiri: - "Eat as you walk, we must not wait around. Come."
They make their way into the thick forest and with so much new scenery at hand, he cant help but to not stop and look at everything. Every new insect, or giant ant, anything flying he just cant help but to stop to look at it. After all hes never really had a chance to sit there and just look at everything. It was always on the run, or in some battle for life, or learning not to die while training with Neytiri. Now that he feels at peace with himself and with her, looking at everything is a learning and eye opening experience. Neytiri on the other hand seems to get agitated with him and his curiosity. She says in a very annoyed voice:
Neytiri: - "Come, stop looking at everything."
He behaves well until they come across these big red, thick pipe plants that resemble long balloons. And being the curios cat that Jake is, he hits one on the side and a big plume of white smoke comes spraying out, and like a child playing with a new toy, he begins to hit them all in order. So excited he even lets out a:
Jake: - "Hell yea!"
Until finally the last one that he hits, some big screeching insect comes flying out and quickly stings him and attaches itself to his arm. Although not in a lot of pain he yells out:
Jake: - "Neytiri!"
She was quite a bit ahead so when she heard Jake yell, she got immediately frightened. So she comes running back bow drawn and on full alert not knowing what to expect. Jake with the shameful look on his face points to the giant insect thing that looks like a mix between a giant wasp and a lizard dug into his arm and says with no clue on what to do:
Jake: - "Ow?"
Neytiri lets out a huge angry sigh and says:
Neytiri: - "Skxawng! I told you to stop!"
She quickly grabs her knife and with superb accuracy and quickness she cuts the head off the insect. And with the tip of the knife she slightly digs into his arm and pull out the stinger and it falls off. She then quickly grabs some of the moss from the trunk next to where they were sitting, puts a little of the neurotoxin on it and pushes it into the wound and he says:
Jake: - "Ow!"
As angry as she gets for him being such a curious cat and always getting into some sort of trouble. When she looks up at him after tying it up with some vines and leaves, he just smiles warmly at her. And that's what drives her love for him, that hes such a fearless warrior on the battlefield, that he can still a playful kitten getting into trouble. She cant help but to smile back and nod her head in a small laughter, grabs him by the hand and stands him up and says:
Neytiri: - "Come."
After about about a 15 minute run, and without Jake getting into more trouble, they finally arrive to where they intended to, the Pass of Rock. It looks like two giant rock mountains with a very narrow pass right down the middle, covered in very heavy rain forest. She pulls out her bow, and she tells Jake:
Neytiri: - "We must be quiet and careful now, must not wake anything until we reach end."
They slowly enter the pass walking carefully making sure not to make loud noises. The entrance is nothing but rock covered in moss and vines with huge blueish green thorns. They have to carefully maneuver through the spiky vines and rock without making any noise. It's not easy making way through this pass because they have to be very careful where they step, one small slip and they those spines could easily kill them. Not to mention there are some type of arachnids with 6 legs that very much resembles scorpions running around with stingers the size of large spears. Neytiri seem them and looks at Jake and points at her two eyes, and then points at the scorpions. He nods acknowledging their presents, and to be careful.
All they can hear is a slight humming like bursts from up ahead, and when they reach an opening of swamp marsh, with gigantic lily pads they see what is making the noises. The pass is full of these bright green with red spots slimy worm looking creatures that move slowly but have a very bright spiny red tip. Then overhead they notice this enormous white butterfly looking thing flying in all peaceful, gorgeous wings lined with bright green spots then in an instant you see it get speared by one of those red prongs from the worm. The worm uses that red prong as a piercing weapon, and its long like a tongue and quickly snaps it back. The end of the worm opens up and inside are huge teeth that line the inside like a great white shark, and in goes the beautiful butterfly into the mouth of this disgusting worm.
Neytiri looks at Jake and notions to move forward. Up ahead is a solid mass of rock with a cave entrance which they have to make their way through. The entrance has some bat-like birds sleeping with their faces covered by their own wings as they hang upside down by their claws on their feet. Neytiri grabs Jakes hand and puts her finger to her mouth as to be very quiet as they slowly walk under them and into the cave. The inside is lit from bio-luminescent slugs of some sort that are slowly moving along the top of the cave. As they go through a small cave, they can start hearing the ikrans on the other side. And when they finally get through the cave, they are flying around in this enormous very misty crater of a home. Neytiri says to Jake:
Neytiri: - "If you see them all flying into one spot, run. That means I died. You stay here and hold onto this, I must go in and do this alone."
Jake surely does not want Neytiri to go in there alone, specially with the size of these things. What used to be her looking out for him, sure feels like hes the one looking out for her now. She hands him her bow and arrows and pulls out the strap they use to close the mouths of the ikrans so they can apply the bond, and beings to move forward down some rocks. There isn't a clear path set to where she has to go, but its very hard to see where the ikrans are all at. With all the mist and giant rocks in the way, he just has to hope that things go as planned for her.
Finally she gets far enough to where she disappears behind some of the rocks down below. As he keeps hidden in the corner of the cave trying to see where she went, he notices all kinds of commotion to where she was heading. At this point Jake sees a lot of them flying around now, and notices that they are slightly bigger lined with a lot more sits and continues to constantly look for any signs of trouble, but all he sees and hears are ikrans screeching wildly and some of them flying out away to where she had walked.
What seems like an eternity of a wait, Jake begins to worry some for her. Even though its only been about a minute or so, the wait for him is a dreadful one. Just as hes had enough of this waiting business, the warrior in him begins to kick in and as hes about to go out there to look for her. And right as hes about to head down there, out of the thick must from above in comes Neytiri flying in on this awesome looking ikran. She gets off, begins to pat it on the neck and Jake says impressively:
Jake: - "Whoa that one is cool, and big!"
Neytiri was not there to show off her new ikran, the old feeling of Seze is still very much there, so she says:
Neytiri: - "This is Rim'Tyal, or Yellow Wing, my new ikran. Come, lets go, I will take you to your pa'li (dire horse) and guide you to new tree."
Her new ikran has a greenish body with red stripes along the side, but its most apparent features are the bright yellow wings lined with red streaks, almost the marks of lightning bolts. These can easily fit two people, and with her already knowing how to properly and correctly apply a bond, this one listens and obeys her right away. Without any trouble Jake gets on her new ikran and they fly back to where they left the dire horse back at the cliff near the ocean. She lands and he gets off and she says to him
Neytiri: - "Follow me to river, tie horses together with rope and mine will follow."
The two dire horses were just standing there grazing and he quickly ties up a rope from his dire horse to hers. He quickly jumps on his and signals for her to go and hell follow. Still not 100% in complete control of his own dire horse, he still gets clumsy and has to really concentrate for the horse to maintain a straight running line. They arrive to the mouth of a river and she lands in front of them and says to him:
Neytiri: - "Follow river up, and new hometree will be on right side. Make fast time and no looking at everything. See you then."
Like a mother telling her son not to do anything bad when shes gone, Jake just laughs and smiles and says:
Jake: - "Ok, better hurry or I'm going to beat you there!"
He takes off in a blazing speed up the rivers edge before she could even take off. She smiles and shakes her head in a slight sigh of his Jake and his wildness. Although she loves the attention and joy he brings to her, she plays along with the race and they head off to their new hometree.
They quickly make their way back to where Mo'At was leading the people to find their new home.
