Though he hadn´t been fighting in his real body, Jake felt drained. Tired and knocked up. And whatever one was supposed to do after a battle, being forced to sit tight, which could be taken literally in his case, was definitely the wrong thing. And the final spark of faith that had been left in him had slowly started to turn into doubts.
Eventually, he felt anger rise. He tried to feed it, push it, deciding that anger was in the end possibly much more useful than fear.
He recalled the old saying his father had liked to use and tried to hope for the best – silently preparing for the worst.
The hours stretched, testing his patience, his will. Beyond the canopy of leaves, it was hard to tell where the sun stood – he would probably just be sure if darkness would finally fall. But he hoped heartily that he wouldn´t have to wait much until then – or even longer.
He heard the approaching aircraft long before he could see it. At first, he wasn't even sure if he had really heard something or if his mind had started to play tricks on him.
His muscles tensed painfully the second he realized that he wasn´t imagining things.
Then he caught a glimpse of something large and powerful up there, moving faster and quite versatile.
Jake´s fingers clenched around his gun while he tried to brace himself for whatever was going to happen next. It was impossible to say if the banshee up there was wearing a rider at its back or not or if there was possibly a fight going on. For a single desperate moment, he wondered if it was possibly his own Ikran who had come looking for him. Seconds later, he called himself a fool for his own childish hopes.
The roaring of the aircraft´s enginges were still getting louder.
The pessimist within him didn´t dare to hope while the optimist wouldn´t accept to surrender. To his own surprise, he lent his head back and gave a drawn-out war cry. He had never tried it in his human body, not the Na´vi way, and it sounded strange and somehow wrong in his own ears, the sound muffled by the mask he needed to breath. He called himself a fool again, but while he started to lose heart, he realized helplessly that he had just wanted to do it for some reason.
Maybe as it was maybe the last thing he would be able to do as a free man.
Jake couldn´t believe it.
At first, he had barely been able to hear the shrill answer over the roaring of the helicopter´s engines. But then realiziation dawned in him.
Somebody had answered with a hunter´s cry.
It sent a shiver all over his skin and pushed his adrenaline level to a peak.
He watched the following landing maneuver with steadily growing surprise. The Samson rolled and lurched about in a rather worrying way while the pilot tried desparately to stabilize it. The Samson rose again for another try, only to land rather roughly. Jake noticed that the hull was marked by light blue handprints- three digits as well as four.
He suddenly struggled hard to get into a better position to get to see these arrivals.
Jake wondered if relief had ever tasted sweeter before. Three months ago, he had silently cursed the scientist´s bones for a hundred times. Right now, there were only few people he would have preferred to see.
"What the hell is going on around here ?" he asked instead of a greet.
Norm didn´t answer, but got down to his knees and hugged the surprised ex marine.
"I´ve never been that glad to see you, you know", Norm told him, releasing Jake slightly to check up on Jake for injuries. Jake, dumbstruck for a second, only grinned sheepishly.
"Something like that crossed my mind as well", he answered belatedly.
Norm looked at Jake for a moment, then broke into heartily laughter.
"What the hell´s so funny ?" Jake inquired.
"It´s just you and me, Jake, you know", Norm answered, relieved that he had found the friend alive and obviously even unhurt. "Just gimme the normal Jake instead of the honourable Toruk Makto!"
Jake cocked his head to catch a glimpse of the pilot.
"Who´s with you ?"
"Oh. It´s Kara."
"Kara ? Microbe Kara ?" Jake asked, referring to the rather wallflower like scientologist he had met at the lab some times. "Why did you bring her ? Who´s your pilot ?"
Norm laughed again – it sounded a little bit nervous this time.
"Actually, I am the pilot."
Jake´s eyes grew wide.
"You ?"
He wondered if he should evaluate his luck again.
"Me!" Norm confirmed. "Grace insisted in some basic piloting lessons, remember ?"
"You can only fly on visual out here !" Jake contradicted.
Norm raised his eyebrows. He looked taken aback.
"Well, we had some help."
Norm gestured vaguely towards the sky.
"Somebody sent you a tour guide ?" asked Jake with a smile.
Norm grinned again.
"Somebody did!"
