Concealed in the foliage, our foes appeared to be innumerable. The pig demon Na'vi swung from the treetops, firing rifles, unleashing arrows, sprang from the brush as handfuls of their comrades charged ahead brandishing knives and axes, squealing their war cries.

Two of our Tamtiwa friends, Zuvdi and Cexmurg, died immediately, Zuvdi with an arrow through the chest, Cexmurg from gunshot wounds.

"Dammit," Moe growled as his eyes searched the plants, the bushes. "I wish we had our guns!"

The man, armed only with a crude wooden spear, was clearly at a disadvantage.

Ellie, following close behind him, twirled a primitive adze in her hands, muttering, "I know, but the ship is in their turf. We should have never tried to go back."

To regain our possessions, re-establish radio communications, and improve our surroundings with the few precious creature comforts at our disposal, we had made a few expeditions in the direction of our crashed vehicle, but every time we made it halfway through the tangled, unwelcoming landscape, someone would shout an alarm, and we'd find ourselves outnumbered, forced to retreat.

"You seriously going to let these oinkers and their earth goddess force us to stay on this shithole planet forever?"

She let out a heavy sigh, seeming to indicate that she didn't mind living there. "No, I'm saying the more we try to push our way into their territory, the more we push back. We need to be smart about it."

Moe waved the spear at her. "You call this Boy Scout shit smart?"

Ellie put a finger to her lips, climbing up the sheer sides of a tree.

A moment later, a dead Na'vi tumbled from its boughs.

As Moe was checking the body for a pulse and weapons, he bumped into Caitlyn, who had previously been lurking behind a wall of plants with a knife.

"Hey!" he scolded. "I thought your mother told you to go stay with Pillow!"

"I want to help!" she cried.

"You can't! It's dangerous!"

"I've been in danger before! You didn't say anything then!"

"Yeah," Moe growled through his teeth. "That's because we were friggin' trying to get your ass to safety! You're a kid! You need to have a childhood and make it to your eighteenth birthday! Get out of here!"

"My last mom died because I didn't help! I don't want that to happen again!"

The man rolled his eyes, turned to face my sister. "Yo. Famous Amos. Can you guard the brat so she doesn't get killed?"

Moe had colorful nicknames for many of my companions. We at first took offense at it, but we've since learned to accept it as mere friendly talk, a sign of comradeship.

Amos nodded. "Yes, sir."

She pulled Caitlyn down a side trail that led back to the Tamtiwa encampment. Caitlyn struggled against her, but the Ss'sik'chtokiwij was stronger.

"Mom!"

"I'll be fine, Caitlyn," Ellie called back. "Mommy's not human!"

"Neither are they!" the little girl whimpered, but by then she was gone down the trail.

We Ss'sik'chtokiwij can sense body heat and smell, so my great grandmother charged ahead of the group, shattering skulls with her mouth claw, spearing enemies with her tail, ripping their bodies open. Golic and Tido kept to her flanks, stabbing any of the brutes daring enough to come close.

I, in the meantime, aided her much more capable hybrid children in hunting down our foes that bore mechanized weaponry.

I tracked them with my infrared sense, then Mark being gifted with the ability to projectile throwing porcupine-like spikes, quietly scaled the tree the gun firing Na'vi were hiding

Mark flew at the pig with a barrage of quills, knocking him bloody from the tree, Luke ending the creature's life with his retractable wrist spears.

I growled in annoyance when I noticed Sarah, baby in her arms, tailing me with her knife drawn.

I waved to Lammy. "She's mad! Get her out of here!"

I had been speaking in Ss'sik'chtokiwij, but she, due to being so close to our kind, understood everything I said. "I'm your mother!" she said to me. "I birthed you! I don't want you to get hurt!"

Her tongue had been sliced down the middle with a laser (a self inflicted wound) but she had mastered the art of speaking with the impairment, much to my annoyance.

Technically, I had two mothers, but it didn't help my case to mention it. "Mom, I know! I love you too, but you're in twice as much danger as me! You don't even have an exoskeleton! And you're carrying Pontius!"

With as much care and delicateness of passing a football or a doll, she handed the infant to Gabren, a big strong Tamtiwa with scars and tattoos crisscrossing his chest. "Here. Take this," she said in their language.

The feline creature grumbled something in annoyance, running down the trail with the baby.

As a group of Na'vi charged at Bo Peep and Absolute, Ellie stepped in front of them, holding out her arm to keep them back.

"We have knife and combat training," Bo Peep said.

Ellie frowned. "Be careful."

The two children slew four, but Ellie kept protectively fighting ahead of them, making it unclear if the children's skills were actually being utilized, or if they only served to mop up after her.

I and Lammy kept close to Sarah, killing any Na'vi that tried to attack her. She served no function in this fight other than bait. She'd run after one of our blue foes, only to get grabbed, beaten, fired at, or nearly stabbed to death. I and my sister kept having to yank arrows out of our shells as we functioned as her shield.

"Please, mother," I urged. "Go back to the encampment where it's safe! You can't fight! You're only getting in the way!"

She started crying. "Is that really what you think of me?"

"Mom!" I groaned. "It's not like that!"

I rushed over to Bopwan, a wiry older Tamtiwa, pointing to my mother. "Get her out of this place! She's going to get herself and everyone else killed!"

He gave me a curt nod and dragged her shouting and struggling away.

Hosea, in the meantime, fought with stealth, employing every kind of brutal dirty trick she could, throwing dirt in her enemy's eyes, pulling their reproductive braids until they caused pain, bashing their heads with rocks and tripping them with branches. She brought down as many Na'vi as Great Grandmother.

Through combat, we reduced the enemy force to seven individuals. They let out shrill noises, fleeing further and further away, dispersing to what seemed to be the four winds.

"Leave them!" Mulcow yelled to me as I dove through a thicket. "Fall back! They attempt to trap us!"

Since Great Grandmother would have kept charging ahead like a bull elephant, I caught up with her first, relaying the order.

"I can destroy them!" she roared. "I can kill them all!"

I sighed. "Perhaps, but a clever human can lure a tank into a hole to destroy or immobilize it. You are familiar with tanks, are you not?"

Great Grandmother slowly nodded her head. "The machines that make boom booms...I saw them on the box."

She referred to television.

"Yes. They are massive and deadly, like you, but they can kill us like cowards, through deception and trickery. We must return to the caves."

She stopped in her tracks, reluctantly turning around.

"Fall back!" Ellie shouted.

Our retreat was disorganized and slow, but we at last had everyone gathered together and accounted for, departing down the trail we'd come from.

I helped Mulcow carry Zuvdi's body, Moe and Ellie hauling Cexmurg. These Tamtiwa would have their own burials, but the rituals would be performed at a time honored location sacred to the tribe. There would be special rites, preparations, anointing with herbs and fragrant oils.