Alright! Finally, after being tossed and turned for these few months, I have returned to this awesome story. My only other story had a plot holier than swis chese, so I'm back on this one.
Thanyou for all your reviews. and without further delay, I present to you... your dinner, uh...chapter. heh.
Then Mo'at pulled something I never would have expected.
She set me down. She actually set me down, Ahrim and all, releasing her iron grip on the flesh and fur of the back of my neck, and spoke sharply to the crowd. The small gathering dissipated soon after.
Ahrim slid off my shoulders and hit the wooden floor with a muted thud. Mo'at's face broke into a kind smile, instead of the reprimanding gaze I had expected. My nerves were still on end though. I was jittery. Like if anyone made a loud noise I'd bolt out through the hole in the wall and into the encroaching forest.
She placed a comforting hand on my head. "Mawey, ma Jarrat. Mawey."
The sense of panic I had before simply evaporated, leaving my legs and body feeling hollow. My legs gave way under my weight, and I slumped to my thinner canine knees, now only slightly shorter than Ahrim's tall frame.
I was at a loss for words. Even as my hair began to recede slightly and my bones continued their popping and snapping, I couldn't think of anything that could adequately convey my thanks. Luckily, Ahrim picked up from where I left off.
"What is your name?" He asked lightly, cautiously.
Mo'at cocked her head, looking down at him. Her eye's glinted with something… a memory, or perhaps a kind of weariness. Her gaze was less trustful resting on Ahrim than I. "I am called Mo'at." She stated without inflection. "You are one who made our hunters into stone, yes?"
Ahrim bore a confused expression, but remembered before I or she could jog his memory. "Ye…yeah." He wrung his hands, his expression shameful. "I can reverse the formula now if you want."
"For-ay-mu-la?" She asked.
"Yeah, I…if you could take me to them, I'll explain on the way." Ahrim offered, his thin fingers moving nervously against each other.
"Jarrat?" Mo'at asked.
"I'll be fine." I said rising from the floor, and shaking on my unstable legs like a leaf in the breeze. "He really should tend to your hunters." I moved to the wall for a little support, as my body shifted internally once more in a sickening way. "Just make sure they give him a chance to explain before they whack him with a bow again."
She cast me a slightly concerned glance, before deciding to lead Ahrim to her petrified hunting party.
"I have to say, It looks like you and Mo'at get along pretty well."
My legs snapped and groaned in complaint when I whirled around to face a towering Na'vi.
It was the guy from last night. The one who saw the ugly imprint of my furry face in the bark of his and the woman's home. He was relaxed, leisurely even. Jhake, right? My memory was failing me at the moment, probably because of some deep neurological brain chemistry voodoo. I didn't like it.
"You're the guy…" I said, failing to elaborate any further.
He laughed. "Yeah, I guess you could call me 'the guy'. I'm Jake." Ah ha! So I wasn't too far off. "Yeah, Neytiri wanted to thank you personally, but she was already to set out for a morning hunt last night."
I nodded mutely, not entirely decided on what to say. He, thankfully, filled in that blank. "So, you're a shape shifter, or something?", his question was earnest.
"I-uh, yeah…kind-of…I guess. My friend can explain it better than I can…" I replied, leaning on the supporting wall of tree bark.
"Your friend?" He asked. "Oh! Right, the kid…sorry about his head."
I shrugged. "It's ice. His skull is thicker than a rock." I gnawed at the inside of my muzzle as it shrunk little by little, for a moment before a question burst from my lips. "How did you get here?"
He looked at me in surprise for a moment. "By the ISV." He answered nonchalantly, though not really the answer I was looking for. "How'd you get here?"
Not a good subject, but lying at this point would be moot. "My friend and I opened a gate way from Earth and kind of…just walked onto Pandora."
His jaw hung open for a moment. Wait for it. Wait for it… He burst into laughter. I knew he would.
Just like the many scientists and scholars that Ahrim and I had consulted, it was just as absurd to this man as it had been for them. Anything is possible.
I scowled. I had been unable to present the professors with any tangible evidence, but I could do it now. My fingers, which had grown fractionally longer lashed at the air directly in front of me. There was a pop, like static electricity, my skin went all tingly, and the smell of burning fur engulfed the much taller Na'vi and I. Well, so much for my proof. My proof had gone 'poof', or 'pop' is more like it.
My hopes that we were close enough to be able to evoke the sigil's pseudo-aura were shattered like sugar glass. Maybe lying wouldn't have been such a bad idea after all. As for the pop? Well, static tends to gather in furry organisms, me included. (For now at least.)
"Well…that was interesting." Jake said.
I frowned, or as best I could with my silver streaked muzzle, and poked him with my charged fingers. The effect was exactly as desired. A static bolt the size of a pencil leaped off my finger and arced into his leg with another crackle of energy.
There was a single moment when all his muscles tensed, and then expounded in a great leap up, followed by a hoot of pain.
I stalked off in slight anger and mirth, trying not to wince or smile as the ligaments in my body groaned and cracked in protest to my movement.
Heck, maybe it wasn't the best time to be revealing the modern magic anyway. They could always blame the uh, 'man into living stone', thing Ahrim did to the hunters on some kind of stun compound. But me? Hah, I'd have some big explaining to do once I started shedding fur and growing skin.
I bet Ahrim would have a solution, and I had no doubt that he was as keen on keeping the magic a secret until we absolutely needed it… at least if he hasn't started showing off yet…
