Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar or anything related to Avatar. James Cameron owns Avatar. I only own my characters and this story.
As I was prodded along down the path, I couldn't shake the feeling of foreboding that was rising inside of me. I mean, would the Na'vi kill me, or let me live? I highly doubted that they would let me live because I was the enemy and I had killed some Na'vi during the Great War, but I hoped that they would have some honour and understand that even though I had caused them harm, I was just a soldier who had been following orders and fighting for his home.
I followed the Na'vi through a bush, and what I saw made me stop dead in my tracks.
Banshee's flew over and around a very, very big tree, occasionally disappearing in the canopy at the top which is where I assumed they rested. How the hell could they have found a tree that they could live in so fast? Not even a month after the Great War, and already they were going about their lives as if there was never a war. Until I noticed that there were so few of them. There couldn't have been more than 200 Na'vi moving around.
'They lost so much… so much, just to defend their home…' I noted.
A few elephant sized horse like creatures were grazing nearby, and seemed to be using what looked like their tongues to lick what was probably nectar out of a few plants. Everything was so peaceful, so relaxing that it was almost surreal.
The chuckling of the Na'vi women brought me out of my stupor, and when I looked at them the one who had been carrying the basket pointed to me, and then at her mouth.
Confused, I was about to ask her what she meant when I felt that my mouth was wide open. I blushed, but closed my mouth and refused to look at either of them. This of course brought more chuckling, and before I knew it, the Na'vi woman with the Bow poked me and prodded to move again.
"What am I a fucking pincushion?" I grumbled at her under my breath.
She must have had superb hearing, because I heard her confused voice behind me.
"What is a peen-kusin?"
I chuckled at this, amused by her curiosity.
"If I live through the night, I will be sure to tell you." I assured her, but I still had my doubts.
We were getting closer now, and a group of children that had been playing what looked like a game of tag nearby the path stopped to stare at me with wide, curious eyes, and in the case of the older children, fear and anger.
Some of the children started to shout out what sounded like "Tawtute!"
This must have meant something bad or might have even been a warning, because all of a sudden the adults bristled and started for their weapons until they saw that it was only me and I was unarmed, bound, and being led by 2 Na'vi.
Many of the adults started to shout words, and one Na'vi unleashed a torrent of Rapid-fire words at me. I didn't understand a single word, let alone even hear it because there were so many voices directed at me, but I could tell by the tone that they were not happy to see me, and that they were either taunting or threatening me.
As I was led into the interior of the huge ass tree, more and more Na'vi joined the cause of mocking and threatening me. To my huge surprise, some of them even spoke English, and some of the words they said to me had me a bit on edge.
"Filthy human!"
"Go back to your planet!"
"You will die here!"
"Human! You have caused us harm and grief! We will hurt you!
I looked back at the two females behind me and made a sarcastic remark to her. "Yeah, you mean me no harm right? Ha."
The Na'vi formed up beside me and kept pushing forwards, glancing back at the crowd. They were probably the only reason that I hadn't been torn apart by the angry Na'vi yet.
My eyes roamed over the faces of the crowd, seeing all decipherable emotion. Anger, fear, shock, sadness, disgust and everything in between.
The crowd then parted to reveal what could have only been the leader.
He couldn't have been anything other than the leader, judging by the exotic native garb he wore, and the sheer authority that he carried himself with. He looked dangerous and it dawned on me that this was a man that I did not want to make angry or cross, even if I were 10 feet tall and four times stronger.
I stopped about 20 feet from him, and the cold, hard look he gave me made me almost tremble in fear. Almost.
He raised his hand, and all of the Na'vi just went silent, so fast and quickly that I was stunned by the immediate silence.
He turned his heavy gaze on the two Na'vi behind me and said something in his native language.
The female hunter behind me spoke back, reasoning and respect laced in her tone.
'At least that confirms that the guy in front of me is the leader.' I mused.
Despite the situation I was in, my eyes started to wander of their own accord. The tree that I was inside seemed to have a natural double spiralling column of wood, and I assumed that this was how the Na'vi moved up and down the tree, and my suspicions were confirmed as I saw a bunch of the blue giants coming down to see what all the commotion was, eyes widening in surprise and sending distrustful glares my way. Fires were lit up in controlled areas, and over one fire pit, I saw a strips of meat being slowly cooked over it.
I would have looked at more of my surroundings, but I was snapped out of my awe as the hunter behind me prodded me forward with her bow. I was about to turn around and snarl a few choice words at her but the feeling of self-preservation kicked in and forced me to obey her silent order.
I looked ahead, straight into the leader's eyes, feeling like he a judge and I was the inmate. Nothing could have been closer to the truth.
What happened next made my jaw drop for about the 3rd time that day. He spoke perfect fucking English.
"I don't know who you are or why you are here, but if you want to live beyond the next minute, you will answer all of my questions. If you lie, you will be on the business end of an arrow. Are we clear?" He spoke, his voice unbelievably cold.
I took one glance behind me and saw the Na'vi hunter, one of her hands holding an arrow.
'Jesus Christ! That arrow has to be at least 5 fucking feet long!'
I didn't fool myself. There was no way I could attempt an escape and make it out of here alive. So I decided to answer the leaders questions and hope that he didn't have me killed in the end.
"Yeah." I answered, my voice thankfully not wavering in fear. "Were clear."
"Good. First question. What is your name, and why are you still here on Pandora?" He questioned me, his cold eyes not holding a flicker of emotion.
"My name is Ray, and I was knocked out during the fight. When I woke up I stumbled the wrong way, thinking I was heading towards Hells Gate, but turns out I was heading the wrong way." I let out a humourless chuckle. "When I finally got my bearings straight and started to head back towards Hell Gate, I saw the Valkyrie fly off into orbit. It was then I knew that I was stranded, but I still kept heading back towards Hell Gate…. But my compass broke after I fell down a cliff into a river. And as to why I am here in your territory… well that's the cause of aimless walking and a lot of bad luck." I finished, looking up to him.
If he was surprised by my answer, he did not show any indication of it, and I half wondered if he was a cyborg, which made me chuckle inwardly a bit.
He looked off into the distance for a second before turning his gaze back on me, his eyes even more cold then before.
"It has been 3 weeks since the Great war ended. 3 weeks. How the hell did you survive for that long?" he growled.
'Oh shit! Do I tell him that I shot a few animals too survive? Ah fuck it. He will most likely be mad whether or not if I lie.
I took a deep breath in a failed attempt to slow my heartbeat, and looking up at him, I gave him the complete truth.
"I have survived by sleeping in the branches of trees, high above the ground at night, and using my Standard Issue Rifle to ward off any attackers. When I needed food, I shot those creatures with a weird shaped head, and eating some fruit and berries that looked edible, although that usually gave me the shits. Also, if it weren't for your two Na'vi that brought me, I would have been torn apart by a couple of Viperwolf's." I looked back to the two females behind me.
The man said nothing, only raised his eyebrows at the two- wait, eyebrows?
I looked behind me at the two hunters, and saw no eyebrows on them, yet when I looked back at the leader, there were eyebrows.
'Where have I seen Na'vi with eyebrows…?'
I was brought out of my thoughts by the leader's last question.
"Final question. How the hell are you able to breathe without an Exopack? Humans need them, otherwise they will die in our atmosphere, yet here you are breathing without one. How?" He all but roared the last part, frustration and anger finally appearing on his face.
I stiffened. He was an enemy and that was classified information! I was about to tell him to piss off, but a part of my subconscious started to argue with me.
'Would it really be treason? Officially, you are dead and for all the RDA cares they probably think that you died during the battle anyways. It wouldn't matter would it? Probably not. Screw it.'
"….. I am an experiment." I muttered.
"What?" He asked.
"I said I'm an experiment! A fucking freak! You understand! A FREAK!" I yelled out at him, unable to contain the anger that I felt at him.
'Who gave him the right to decide if I live or die? Who made him the fucking leader? All I'm trying to do is live my shitty life on this goddamn moon. Stupid fucking giant blue striped monkeys!' I fumed inside quietly.
The man looked surprised at my sudden outburst, but he quickly schooled his features, and asked me one last question.
"What do you mean, an experiment?"
I looked back up at him. He really wanted to know everything? Then I would give it to him.
"Well unless you know how Avatars are made, then you won't understand what I am about to say. They mixed specific parts of my DNA with the DNA of some Na'vi. Then they grew a pair of human sized lungs that Avatars have inside of them and swapped my lungs for those lungs. When I undertook this experiment, the RDA had wiped me off of all official records, so that I never existed. They wiped my memory about myself so that I would never look myself up and so I would never be able to go back to Earth and see my family, or live there. Pandora had officially become my home alright? My home! All in return for all of my debts to be paid off by the RDA and funding for my family to be provided for the rest of their lives. So do you understand? I'm a dead experiment! This is my fucking home! I yelled at him, all of my frustration finally boiling over.
The man raised his eyebrows, and with barely a small grin, he held up his five fingered-
'Five fingered? Then that must mean that he's an Avatar….'
"So…. You're the rogue Avatar…" I muttered to myself.
The rogue Avatar driver 'Jake Sully' yelled out something in the native language. Someone yelled something back to him, and then two female Na'vi descended down from the spiralling column. One was younger and favoured Jake Sully with a favour that lovers would share. The other one was older and if I thought that Jake Sully was as cold as a judge, then this older woman was as cold as an executioner.
She spoke something to Jake in the Native language who answered in kind.
Finally after what seemed like an eternity of talking between the two of them, the older woman turned towards me and asked.
"What are you called?"
"Ray" I responded. "Just Ray, I don't have any other name, at least one that I don't remember."
She seemed to take this answer as acceptable because she did not push any further. I couldn't tell though, because if there was a person that would have ever had a face of chiselled stone, then this woman would have had it, absolutely no emotion on her face whatsoever.
"Jhake has told me why you are here, and what you are. Tell me human… are you afraid of dying?" She commanded of me, slowly starting to circle me closer then I found comfortable.
I stiffened up at her close proximity, but I would not show her my fear, so I forced myself to stand up ramrod straight and harden my face.
"I would prefer to not die ma'am, but if I had to, then I would go without hesitation." I forced out, surprised at how calm I sounded. And it was true. Of course I was afraid to die, who wasn't? But there was a difference between being afraid and being a coward. I was no coward.
The older Na'vi stopped, and when I looked up at her, I saw her glance at Jake's direction and nod.
He in turn nodded to the two Na'vi females behind me.
The hunter quickly knocked her bow and took aim at me, her eyes flashing her apology, silently begging me for forgiveness for what she was about to do. The one who had been carrying the basket gave me a slight push on the shoulder and nodded to an opening where there was nothing between me and the female hunter who had taken aim at me.
'So… I am going to die here…'
I shrugged her hand off of me and marched to a spot that was 30 feet away from them. If I was going to die, then I would die with dignity and pride. The female that been carrying the basket came over towards me, and then tapping me on the shoulder, she made gesture with her hand and forehead before she started speaking in her native language. I don't know what she said, but if I had to guess then I would have bet that she was reciting a prayer of some sort. She finished with what sounded like a sad tone in her voice and then backed up to where everyone else.
It was quiet, so quiet that I could hear my own heartbeat start to quicken its pace in response to my body's natural fight or flight response. But this time, there would be no fighting. There would be no fleeing. The only thing that awaited me was death on the end of a arrow.
I saw the Na'vi hunter pull back her bow string, hearing the faint sound of the wood creak. Her eyes became intensely focused on me, ensuring that she would not miss her target. She may have been death, but I stared right back at her, wanting to see my death and not shy away from it. Her breathing became a bit quicker, and I assumed that she was trying to calm herself, because taking another person's life is not easy. Death would come in any moment, and I took the small amount of time to review my life and see if I had any regrets.
My parents had lovingly raised me since I was little, never faltering in the care and love they provided. I had passed high school with top marks, earning scholarships to numerous universities all around the world. I went to a university that specialised in engineering, graduating in 4 years later and receiving a job with the military. Got married and had kids with my childhood friend, Isabella. Got into a fight with her and how our marriage started to decline. How my parents died and how I shut myself away in work. Then finally joining the military and lastly, being selected by the RDA for security on Pandora.
Did I have any regrets? No. I had none.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath and held it in, knowing that it was probably going to be my last. My pounding heartbeat the only thing I heard…. Until a huge collective gasp arose from in front of me. I opened my eyes and saw all the Na'vi, all of them with their mouths open and eyes wide, staring above me.
Confused, I looked up and what I saw made me gasp in surprise as well. No more than a couple of feet above my head were a bunch of pure white glowing things. They almost looked like jellyfish to me, but smaller and they shone with an absolutely peaceful light. If I were religious, I would have called them holy. I was too amazed and shocked by what I saw to do anything, let alone even speak. There had to be at least 40 of those things, all seeming to group together and spiral above me bobbing and drifting as if leafs caught in the wind. Suddenly, they dispersed and drifted towards the Na'vi. There they hovered over the Na'vi like a roof, and just as if someone had flicked a switch, they started to leave, floating away from where we were. I turned my head back towards the Na'vi and saw them staring at me with mixes of wonder and surprise.
My face probably showed the same thing.
The older Na'vi had this new look in her eye that I hadn't seen before, and I didn't know if it were for better or for worse.
Hey guys, im back! Sorry for such the long waiting time, but you all know how writers block is. Anyways, i felt that i did really good with this chapter. There may have been a few mistakes i missed but overall i think its pretty good. Anyways people please leave a review on how well i did and what you think, If you have any questions i will do my best to answer them. Thanks everyone!