Chapter 4. - Shadows in the Sky

It's early now at the home of the Horse Clan of the Plain, and the environment is slowly waking up to the dawn of a fresh new morning. Still in the grips of the low morning fog you can hear birds waking up, the sound of a gentle waterfall cascading into glass-like nearby lakes slowly singing its song into the morning. Smoke still slowly lingering out of some huts from the previous night giving the camp a grayish overhead tint. A typical undisturbed morning for the people and their village.

While everyone is still sound asleep, there are 2 kids up earlier than normal moving around. The kids, Boonleay, and Aytleah, son and daughter of Akwey the tribal leader of the Horse clan of the Plains are running wild into the mist to their favorite morning hunting grounds, "Lake Zingweleh." They gather everything they need to prepare for their early morning departure out into the wild alone. Excited and ready, they head off into the morning fog down the path to their long awaited journey.

The lake is only a few miles from their home and they love going there simply because its rich in their clans favorite morning breakfast, the Saktik fish. Normally the uncle of the 2 goes and gathers the fish for the clan but today, the chief and the uncle agreed they could both go together and collect the fish for their morning breakfast. Since the son Boonleay, nicknamed, "Boonie", is 14 almost at the which the boys are made into warriors at the age of 15, they were allowed to go to the lake just the 2 of them. Aytleah is 12, and is the brains of the two siblings, seems much older mentally than age would tell, and shes very cunning and quite an agile hunter as well.

Their journey is filled with much joy and eagerness being as this was their first time allowed to go alone. A morning to themselves to help gather food for their people will bring them much honor and respect. Running through the marshes which are covered in a low thick blanket of fog, laughing and giggling with such great speed as if they cannot wait to get there to begin their catch. They stop at pass of tall grass and there it is, lying quietly in her glass-like state, Lake Zingweleh. They look at each other with big eyes of joy and laugh even more with excitement as they run towards a area where the fish are plentiful.

They arrive at their destination and begin to setup their usual fishing routine, which involves a dam-like entrapment that traps the slow and bright chubby fish into a net which they can simply just pull out for an easy catch. After a few full nets of fish, Boonie looks up towards the horizon and sees the sun finally start to come up with some haze of clouds in the distance. He looks up at Aytleah while reeling in another full net of Saktik fish and says:

Boonie: - "Ting nari na be be nimun teya lu taa trr eh tsmuke?" (Looks like its going to be another cloudy day eh sis?)

Not really paying attention to his clumsy brother, Aytleah looks up at the horizon for a second and simply nods and continues to tie up the netting with pristine and cunning quickness. She fears when it comes time for his brother to attain the warrior rank that he will not succeed because hes quite slow and not physically ready yet. Nonetheless she loves him and takes care of him even though hes a bit rough around the edges.

Within a few minutes time, their first netting is already full of the bright and chubby fish. So Boonie begins to bring up and around the net and it simply entraps them as they flop and wiggle around in the netting. The sight of the full netting brings them both a huge smile as Boonie holds up the full netting with much pride as says:

Boonie: - "Ting nari, moe awve spe'etu tsmuke!" (Look, our first catch sister!)

While almost done with the opening of the last netting, Aytleah noticed a dark shadow that quickly passed above them very fast and without a noise. She looked up to the gray covered in clouds sky and looked all around in a circle and doesn't see a thing. Confused on what it was, or maybe she just seeing things, she immediately turns to Boonie and says:

Aytleah: - "Aynga tse'a sat?" (Did you see that?)

As hes back in the deeper part of the lake pulling in the net fumbling over his own feet while doing so and falling into the water face first, he quickly gets back up shaking himself off of the water and clearing his face of the mud and says:

Boonie: - "Kempe?" (What?)

Seemingly agitated on his clumsy, goofball of a brother, she shakes her head in disgust and just seems to let it go. But once again another quick pass of a shadow overhead only this time she saw the shadow of what it was in the water, a unclear reflection. Pretty frightened and also knowing her brother is mindlessly not paying attention to anything but the nets hes pulling in she frantically says:

Aytleah: - "Kame nimun oeng kin txing set ta, fmawn tsleng fitsenge Boonie!" (I saw it again, we need to go right now from this place, something isn't right here!)

Sensing danger and concern in her scared little sisters voice, he notices that its incredibly quiet and then begins to get frightened himself. He quickly tightens up the last of the netting and begins to pack everything up quickly and says:

Boonie: - "Lumpe fnu? Ni'aw pam fnu fiseng trr kea, awsiteng txing!" (Why is it so quiet? I've never heard it so quiet here in the mornings before, lets get out of here!)

They quickly reel in the last full net of fish and Aytleah ties it up and picks up the full net and puts it onto Boonies back as its made with several straps to be meant to carry while walking. Boonie picks up the other sack and gently puts it on the back of Aytleah, although this sack is much lighter, but still decently sized. Without a peep from either of them Boonie looks around to make sure they aren't leaving anything behind, and then motions to move forward down the trail back to the village.

As they begin to walk away, they hear something high above in the trees breaking branches and moving within the tree. Scared to death as they look at each other in fear and suddenly it comes out with blazing speed and all that Aytleah had the chance to see was a black figure with wings and red glowing eyes. It had slammed into the both of them, taking him while knocking her back and unconscious in a blink of an eye. It had grabbed the boy with its sharp talon-like hands and drove its nails deep into the boys skin for a clean firm grip. Like an eagle carrying a fish as food, it flies up and over the trees with an incredible amount of speed and heads back towards Whisper Mountain.

The boy still barely clinging onto dear life, with the ancient evil flying creatures razor-sharp claws that much resemble a human hand, dug deeply into his sides and back making him bleed out profusely. Going in out of consciousness, he notices they are about to land to an entrance to some cave-like opening on top of the mountain. And finally the boy blacks out completely before they enter the cave. It carries the boy to where the leader is and kneels before him and says:

Evil Creature 1: - "Oe zamunge pxasul eyktan." (I have brought food my leader.)

The leader grabs the boy, looks at him for a split second, and pulls him apart into two pieces like a rag doll. He turns around, and walks slowly over to where there is a female of his kind lying asleep. She looks injured, as if her legs have been seriously injured, but still alive. He kneels in front of her, puts his hand on her scaly-like feathers of a skin and says:

Liderazgo Nyeoia: - "Pxasul fpi titxur srung meyp tokx tsahik." (Here is some food for strength and nourishment to heal your wounds my queen.)

She wakes up very slowly, eyes with barely any glow as if she was barely alive. Begins to eat the pieces of the boy very slowly. The others sit kneeling in front of them not daring to make any eye contact in fear of their leader. Liderazgo stands up, and turns around and faces them, which there are about 15 of them, and says deep in anger:

Liderazgo Nyeoia: - "Ayfo ay terkup fpi fikem!" (They will pay for this!)

As a few hours pass and both the Akwey and Lunac both begin to get worried knowing that his children should have returned by now. Akwey with a concerned face looks over at Lunac and says:

Akwey: - "Meo ka alim." (We should go to the lake.)

They both get on their dire horses and move with incredible speed towards the lake. When they arrive there, to their shock they find Aytleah lying unconscious and begin to wake her up. Once awake and fully awake, she beings to tremble in fear and hugs her father and begins crying. Akwey immediately asks:

Akwey: - "Peu pehem fitseng Aytleah, tsengpe ngeya tsmukan Boonie?" (What happened here Aytleah, where is your brother Boonie?)

Crying and trying to talk while trembling in agonizing fear, she finally says:

Aytleah: - "Fi'u za'u ultral,fi'u za'u ultral! Niwotx'ok tsawl kawng mefo som menari, mefo som kawng menari!" (It came from the trees, it came from the trees! All I remember is it was big and dark and those red glowing eyes, those red evil glowing eyes!)

Not knowing what to make of the situation Akwey looks at his brother in disbelief and confusion to what has happened. And Lunac looks back rather frightened and in disbelief himself. Akwey picks up his daughter and Lunac grabs the nets and gear and they go back to camp to alert the clan of what has happened.

Once back at camp, Akwey calls for the meeting of the warriors council to set up a search party for his son. He tells the clan what his daughter told him and everyone seemed to be confused and bewildered on what it could have been. Everyone that owns a dire horse volunteers to go on the search for the son, nothing like this has ever happened and there is much confusion among the clan. Riders search the entire perimeter of the lake, some swim in the lake and look underwater thinking he might have drowned.

Akwey while searching the forest sees something startling on the ground and calls for the people to come. He picks up warrior neck beads that are covered in blood, his sons neck beads. Its basically a necklace for those that are soon to be warriors when they hit the right age. The people know its the beads of his son and look up at him in sorrow and fear not knowing what hes going to do. He looks at the beads, then closes his eyes while clinching the beads like a fist and says in a very angry but held together voice:

Akwey: - "Tupe si tsa'u?" (Who would do such a thing?)

Not knowing who took his son and why, he orders everyone back to the village in a stern voice:

Akwey: - "Ne'im ka kelku! (Back to village!)

With no tracks leading in either way, no scents, nothing left behind the entire ride back was extremely tough for Akwey. His soon to be warrior son has gone missing, and finding the warrior beads covered in blood brings him much concern that he may be dead. His plans are to send messengers to all the nearby clans to see if they know anything about his son.

A gathering of the clan leaders has been made to discuss the issue at hand, few of them think it could have been another tribe on their hunter ikran that flew in and took the son, but immediately Akwey says that ikrans don't have glowing red eyes and that they also don't have dark skin. They are left clueless and without any help, so they send out messengers to other existing nearby clans for assistance and answers.


Meanwhile back at the new hometree of the Omaticaya, Neytiri thinks its time for Jake to visit the Leaders Sacred Ground. Its a burial site of all the former legendary Toruk Macto leaders, and every new one must visit to pay respects. Like a typical daughter, she walks up to Mo'At who is planting the large plant with bulb like petals that light up the night like lamps and says:

Neytiri: - "Oe ka munge Jake tsat Eyktan Swok Kllte sa'nok." (I'm going to take Jake to the Leaders Sacred Ground mother.)

Mo'At while pushing in the roots of the plant into the dug hole then covering it up with soil and putting water in it, looks up at Neytiri and nods OK. So Neytiri walks over to where Jake is making sure all the straps and the saddle on his ikran are in working order and also trying to get him to not be so hyper all the time. I guess when you apply the bond whatever you feel, he feels so Jake being himself and always full of energy, it transfers over to his ikran. Neytiri says to him:

Neytiri: - "Jake I'm going to take you to visit the Eyktan Swok Kllte, the Leaders Sacred Grounds. It's where we lay to rest all the Toruk Macto's from the past. All Toruk Macto's must visit."

Jake who has his eyes closed and concentrating on calming down his ikran with his nice activity of a gorgeous brain. The ikran sits calm and motionless like a well trained dog next to his master. He opens eyes and looks at Neytiri smiles and nods and says:

Jake: - "Ok, I am ready."

Neytiri hops on her ikran who sits there quietly and already well trained from a master. And they take off together into the sky like two jets off a carrier with extreme speed. They fly towards the northwest, an area that Jake hasn't seen yet but he remembers it from satellite as being a dry, more mountainous zone. Visible to the eyes, the mountain, desert like zone, he asks Neytiri curiously:

Jake: - "What is over there?"

She looks at Jake and says:

Neytiri: - "That is the home of the Kllkulat Kllte people, or People of the Ground, who live under the ground. We are forbidden in their lands Jake, and they are forbidden in our lands."

Looking at Jake with extreme concern and caution knowing that Jake has the knack to be the curious cat almost every time, she says with sincere concern:

Neytiri: - "Promise me you will never go there, promise me Jake."

As he gazes over towards the dry mountain zone with wide eyes of curiosity, he quickly turns and looks at Neytiri and smiles and says:

Jake: - "I promise."

Looking down she can see the area of the sacred grounds and points to it and says to Jake:

Neytiri: - "Follow."

They both land and get off their ikrans and walk towards the area, and walking through some thick mist and into the open. Its very now clear that the place has been destroyed, completely ravaged into rubble. What was 5 statue like figures of people is nothing more than piles of wood and stone torn apart and scattered among the area. Neytiri in a complete shock turns and looks at Jake and says:

Neytiri: - "Who could have done this?"

Jake kneeling down and naturally doing some recon for some intel, he kneels down and picks up a piece of some body armor and notices huge deep like claw marks on it. He gazes around and looks for any signs of anything that could have been human, but no ammo casings, no explosive evidence. Whatever it was, it was that did this was definitely not human. Jake stands up and says:

Jake: - "Whatever did this, was definitely not sky people. Look at this."

He hands Neytiri the piece of armor and notices that the claw marks are much to big to be any animal, and let alone it has 5 claw marks. She puts her hand on it and notices the extra limb and looks completely confused. As she gets up they both here a strange raspy voice from within the thick mist say:

Unknown voice: - "Tsat swot vrrtep ke za'u." (The ancient demons are coming.)

Jake immediately goes into full alert and takes out his bow with the quickness and arrow fully cocked ready to shoot in the direction of the voice and says:

Jake: - "What was that Neytiri?"

Then out comes walking a gray, scaly like Na'Vi looking thing. Same eyes as a Na'Vi, tail about half the size, same amount of fingers and about the same build type. It looks at Neytiri and points and says:

Kllkulat person: - "Tsat ke za'u." (They are coming.)

Neytiri in total disbelief that one of the People of the Ground have actually come into the Na'Vi territory, she says angrily while pointing to the direction of the dry zone:

Neytiri: - "Ayunga kxani mi atxkxe. Ka ne'im ayunga atxkxe set! (You are forbidden in these lands. Go back to your lands now!)

The gray lizard like Na'Vi who is very figity and twitch at every movement, points to the sky and says:

Kllkulat person: - "Ayunga tsam pxefo tsat faketuan ta'em tsat taw aylaru txen tsat vrrtep. Menga ke nari si!" (You war with the sky aliens have awakened the ancient demons. You are warned!)

And with blazing like speed it runs back into the mist and towards the dry zone from where it came from. Jake while still holding his bow and arrow cocked ready to shoot, Neytiri walks over to him and pushes his bow down and says:

Neytiri: - "That was one of the under ground people Jake. I do not know why he was here, it is forbidden. I am not sure what he means by ancient demons."

Jake still concerned about what has happened there says:

Jake: - "And whats with the warning of ancient demons? What demons? More sky people?"

With a scared look in her eyes, she nods no and says:

Neytiri: - "I don't know of ancient demons. We should go and talk to mother."

She throws down the piece of armor with the huge claw marks and they run back through the mist and jump on their ikrans and head off back towards the new hometree.