Chapter 7. - The Truth

Neytiri gets up quite agitated from sitting next to her mother which is still in a deep like trance staring at the camp fire. Jake sees this and immediately senses and fears that she knows what they are and where they come from. The look on Mo'At's face is that of fear and a sense of more things to come in the not too distant future. She slowly gets up from her deep gaze looks around at everyone and calls for everyone's attention to gather around the camp fire. Neytiri and Jake look at each other in fear as if something was about to happen, Neytiri grabs Jake's hand and they sit next to Mo'At as she begins to talk:

Mo'At: - "There is an ancient story, of a battle here long long ago about the people, our people, being slaves to the Plectorthan Avispouli. It is uncertain where they came from and how the people overcame their struggle with such evil. It was always just a myth, a legend, a story that you would tell kids, but now we know that it is true. I am certain it is them because one thing always remains the same from all the stories, legends and myths, those red glowing eyes."

People begin to question the next move, or how do they fight back against something like that. The "head of the warriors", the next to be leader or "eyktan" of the Omaticaya is Kahn-Leu. He asks:

Kahn-Leu: - "How do we kill them? Its skin looked like rock made of feathers."

The Plectorthan Avispouli are covered in multilayer-ed, very thick black feathers which are impenetrable with simple Na'Vi arrows. They are also twice the size of the Na'Vi and much faster and stronger, making the Na'Vi very easy prey for food. Mo'At shaking her head in disbelief as to what they just saw says:

Mo'At: - "It is unclear Kahn-Leu, no knowledge of such an accomplishment was passed down through the generations of people, and if it was, it was lost with time. Nobody knows where they have been this entire time. I think they were in hibernation and this battle with the sky people and the disruption to Eywa must have awakened them."

Jake looks at Mo'At with fear and uncertainty and begins to ponder on how to keep his people safe from such terror from the skies at night. Jake's natural marine instinct to gather as much information as possible on the enemy is quite apparent, he begins to question Mo'At of anyone else that might know about the Plectors and where they come from. He says:

Jake: - "Is there anyone else that knows the stories or myths about these creatures, or any other information that we can use? The more we know about our enemy, the easier it is to fight them."

Mo'At at this point begins to cry deeply and begins to talk again:

Mo'At: - "The only ones to my knowledge that could have known more about them was Eytukan, and hes dead now. And the only other elder than myself would be the high priestess of the 4 Winds Clan. You must seek her out and see if she knows more information Jake. You must hurry, I fear we have little time."

With the people in such a panic and in an agonizing fear. Jakes decides to stay to with the people for the night, and to leave for the village of the 4 Winds Clan first thing at sun up. Neytiri and Mo'At reassure the people that everything is going to to be ok and let them know what they are going to do tomorrow in the morning.

The next morning as Jake and Neytiri prepare a proper burial for there lost friend Max. The people dig out a hole exactly where he died and that is where they will honor him. Much like all the deaths of the Na'Vi its done with a little ceremony of flowers on the body in the hole. The honor was given to Sirinlu of releasing a Seed of the Sacred tree into the grave where Max's body lies to rest. Another loss of a human that died to protect a Na'Vi, they are becoming more and more aware that some of the sky people are just like themselves, full of care and unselfishness. Before they begin to bury him, Norm places his exomask on top along with the picture of him and his family in the window of the mask. And they begin to bury him as they sing a song for Eywa to take him as one of their own.

After the little ceremony, Jake and Neytiri have some matters to take care of. And the people are now are a lot more cautious about where they go, and are more aware of their surroundings. With the new threat they saw, they are very much in fear in going out anywhere from out of the area of their hometree. Jake and Neytiri are ready for their trip to the 4 Winds Clan to find the priestess.

As Jake is about to call down his ikran Neytiri stops him and she says:

Neytiri: - "It would be much wiser to use our Pa'lis and use the forest for cover Jake. Flying on ikran in the open sky is not safe right now."

Jake looks up at the bright blue clear sky and nods and says:

Jake: - "Good idea, lets do that."

And they make haste through the thick rain forest for some safety of the thick overhead tree tops. And they use the shoreline below the cliffs for some added cover in hope of not being detected by the flying Plectors. As they are riding on the shoreline, Jake's notices once again beauty of their oceans, the blueish green tint of the ocean water. And how fierce and massive the waves are, makes north shore of Hawaii look like a ripple of water in a cup. Passing the shoreline and into more heavy rain forest, ride almost takes up an entire day, but worth the wait of riding vs the risk of flying.

When they arrive there its nearly midnight and they are in for a shock, the entire village is destroyed, bodies half eaten everywhere, huts burned down, a kid crying over there dead mother. In total disbelief Neytiri begins to cry as she comforts the little boy huddling over her dead mother. She grabs the boy and says:

Neytiri: - "Mawey, mawey, os hawnu aynga." (It's ok, it's ok, I'm here to protect you.)

Jake's heads over to where the Leaders hut is and looks inside and finds the High-priestess barely still alive with a leg half eaten. Jake calls over Neytiri to help with the wounded priestess and says:

Jake: - "Ra'a txopu fra'u be be fpom." (Don t worry everything is going to be ok.)

Neytiri bandages her up the best she could with some healing leaves of the forest and Jake gently carries her and puts her on Neytiri's dire horse. Jake picks up the boy and puts him on his dire horse and they head off back to the Omaticaya tree. Although this time now that its night time, the ride back isn't so easy, every single sound is a frightening one and the ride back will be full of agonizing terror.

The poor boy holds onto Jake for his dear life, trembling and is frightened to death of being in the forest at night knowing whats now out there. Even a innocent small glowing frog that jumps out across their path frightens everyone. They are on edge, and extremely jumpy to every sight and sound that the forest has to offer. What was once a peaceful place, seems freakishly scary now. Neytiri checks on the priestess which still alive but unconscious as they make their way through the glowing shadowy darkness of the forest.

Upon arriving back to the tree, Kahn-Leu approaches Jake and Neytiri and informs them that other messengers from 5 other clans arrived here in distress about being attacked by these evil dark Plectors. They all agree that something needs to be done about them. In the meantime, they make the High-priestess, which is now awake, as comfortable as they can. And Mo'At sits with her and begins to question the elderly lady about the new evil while Jake and Neytiri listen in:

High-priestess: - "Its an ancient myth, about a legendary battle that took place here thousands of years ago. We were all were once slaves to them once and we fought back against them and won our freedom. Nothing was ever said on how they killed them, or how they won the battle. That knowledge seemed to have been forgotten and was lost in time. The only thing that I know is that they think they come from Whisper Mountain, the summit, a cave which is supposedly their home."

As she mentions Whisper Mountain she points at the mountain in the background that has the mysterious soft blue mist at the base of the mountain. At this time the old lady falls unconscious again from all the fatigue and pain she endured. Neytiri with a deep fear in her eyes looks at Jake and says in a crying tone:

Neytiri: - "What are we going to do against those things Jake? We don't know how to kill them, I'm scared for our people."

Jake comforts her and ponders on how they can kill them. Norm while hiding in the berry bush behind them had also listened to the old lady talk about the Plectors. He comes out from behind the bush to talk to Jake and Neytiri. Seeing him come out of the bush was no surprise for some reason, they seemed glad for someone to come out and speak up. Norm says:

Norm: - "Jake, I can go check back at the old base camp to see if there is any weapons still there that we can use against those dam things. There has got to be something there still, im sure they left something behind."

Kahn-Leu the other fearless warrior of the Omaticaya stands up to speak and says to Norm:

Kahn-Leu: - "I'll go with you Norm, its too dangerous for you to go alone and I know these lands very well, I'll guide us through a safe and fast route to the sky people camp."

Jake: - "OK, meanwhile I'll put all the warriors here on high alert and we will wait for your return. Wait until morning at sun up to go, its much to dangerous to go out at night."

When it comes time for the people to sleep, they are all simply too frightened to close their eyes to sleep. Most simply just lay there with their eyes open looking around at everything. Even Jake and Neytiri have a hard time getting some sleep, mainly Jake since he has his own personal sleeping issues. Norm on the other hand seems to be sleeping like a baby, after all he basically is sleeping on a bed like cot that is made for the Na'Vi's kids.

After a few hours of a calm and usually normal night most do end up getting some rest for the entire duration of the night. Even Jake has managed to fall asleep cuddled up like a baby with Neytiri sleeping in their nest like bed.

As morning quickly came, Norm and Kahn-Leu are the first ones up and gather a few things before they head off down the trail towards the old base RDA base move from tree to tree and bush to bush like trained ninjas through the forest. Not knowing where the evil creatures are they take no chances and move silently through the forest unheard. Their only problem comes when they have to cross the river which Kahn-Leu can run across easily but Norm would have to swim slowly. Kahn-Leu looks over at Norm and crouches down on one knee and says:

Kahn-Leu: - "Get on like baby, I carry you fast across."

Norm extremely hesitant to climb aboard Kahn-Leu's back says jokingly:

Norm: - "Don't tell Jake, he'll laugh!

With Norm holding onto Kahn-Leu, he runs through the water fairly fast to the other side. And quickly Norm jumps off and they continue their way towards the camp.

Seeing the sky people base camp again, Kahn-Leu does not want to enter the buildings since hes too tall, but Norm insists that its not safe outside so they both go in. While inside and walking around, Kahn-Leu keeps bumping his head on everything and is getting very agitated. Norm keeps telling him to watch out, but doesn't seem to help much. The Na'Vi are just simply much taller than humans.

While looking around the building, Kahn-Leu comes across a set of pictures on a bulletin like board of Jake when he was a human on his wheelchair doing some wheelies for the scientists in the lab. He also looks at another picture of Jake wearing some shorts showing his really skinny atrophied legs giving a thumbs up in the sync tube. Feeling sorry for Jake and being slightly confused he says:

Kahn-Leu - "Is it true that JakeSully's body was broken and couldn't walk?"

Norm now looking at Kahn-Leu and notices that he sees a picture of Jake when he was a human in a wheel-chair on the wall near his old locker. Kahn-Leu says to Norm:

Kahn-Leu - "It is hard to imagine that someone so mighty and brave, can come from something so broken and weak. His heart was waiting to be born again, and im glad that Eywa chose him to lead our people."

Norm: - "Yea it shocked us all how someone can change everything like he did. He's a true warrior in spirit, he's a good guy."

Moving into the old armory room was a big relief for Kahn-Leu, no more squatting and ducking ever few seconds, this room is like a huge hangar and he can move normally about. Norm notices a crate a weapons crate under some blankets behind one of the loading bays. Removes the blanket and opens the crate and there are three ZR520's weapons with some ammo magazines inside. There aren't the typical standard issued marine weapons, these are the ones used to take down the AMP mechs and some of the smaller flying machines. Although pretty large in size, they are very lightweight, and he begins to load them up with the remaining ammo and says:

Norm: - "These weapons should do some good damage to them. Lets go to the other storage room, maybe other stuff there."

Walking back through the normal area to get to the storage room while Norm finishes loading the remaining ammo into the last ZR520 they notice a shadow fly quickly above the doorway over the building. Quickly they both run to look out the windows to the sky but they don't see anything. Then they hear something big land off in the distance, then the roar of the ancient evil. They quickly move away from the window and go towards the middle of the room. Standing there stunned for a sec looking at the doorway waiting for it to come in and Norm hands Kahn-Leu the 2nd ZR520 and quickly says:

Norm: - "When you see it, pull this down and it shoots hot fast arrows at your target. Put this against your shoulder, and pull the trigger. Remember, against shoulder, aim, pull trigger. Ok?"

Norm gave Kahn-Leu the how-to-shoot a gun lesson 101 as fast and as easily as he could. Giving him the visual of putting the gun against his shoulder, aiming and pulling the trigger, Kahn-Leu grabs the gun and says:

Kahn-Leu: - "Shoulder, aim, pull this thing, Ok I got it."

It was silent for about 20-30 seconds of dead silence then suddenly they hear something breaking down the wall from behind them. They could slightly see the evil Plector easily tearing down the metal wall trying to get to them. And sure enough as the last pieces of the wall falls down, Norm yells out:

Norm: - "Shoot shoot shoot!"

They both open fire on the beast injuring it some but with its size and strength, it flies away in a rage. It keeps hitting the building from different angles tearing off pieces here and there, then suddenly it all stops and gets quiet. They look around frantically trying to find the beast and then BOOM through the front door it tried to get in but with its large size, it gets stuck trying to reach to them. Kahn- Leu's warrior instinct kicks in says:

Kahn-Leu: - "Kill kill kill!"

They open fire full bore hitting and penetrating the thick skin through the chest making it bleed heavily. As its trying to crawl back towards the opening that the back of it under their wings is not armored. Norm yells out to Kahn-Leu to aim there and they easily kill it with the clear damage to the unarmored back. They approach the beast which is no longer breathing and are amazed on the sheer muscles and size of such monstrosity, and let alone the wings of a devil. Norm says:

Norm: - "Oh man those things are so dam strong, it took so many rounds to kill it, we are royally fucked if another one comes!"

Kahn-Leu quickly checks outside and around the buildings to see if there are anymore of the Plectors, but it looks all clear for now. Once back inside he points to his weapon and says to Norm:

Kahn-Leu: - "I think my weapon is broken, it stopped shooting the hot fast arrows when we took down the beast."

Norm grabs the gun and notices that its out of ammo and immediately gets even more concerned. Norm says:

Norm: - "It's out of arrows. We need to keep looking for other weapons to use, come on."

As Norm scrambles around to look for more ammo for their weapons, he fails to do so. He turns around with a desperate look on his face and says to Kahn-Leu:

Norm: - "We used about 200 rounds to bring down that dam thing down and we have about 100 rounds left. There is no way that your weapons can penetrate their thick feathery hide from the front. The only way is if you guys manage to land some arrows on the non armored areas of the back with your arrows tipped with that neurotoxin to poison it."

Kahn-Leu: - "Do not worry, all Omaticaya have precision aim, we can take them down I am sure of it."