Title: Cat Outta Hell
Length: 756
Characters: Jake Sully, Neytiri
Pairings: JakeXNeytiri
Summary: Jake and Neytiri have some bad luck when a 'black cat' crosses their path.
I DID NOT WRITE THIS. All credit goes to the awesome Q42. They requested this chapter make an appearance in Knock on Wood and so, here it is! All I did was spell check and edit a part slightly. So shower them with praise, cause this is their babeh, not mine!
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The forest sighed, trees swaying in the breezes that blew above and below the canopy. Everywhere, living creatures chirped, whistled, and called out for one another. Emerald light filtered down through the leaves, creating brilliant shafts of sunlight and deep, blue-green patches of shadow.
Jake Sully and his lovely mate, Neytiri, strolled through the rainforest, drinking in the beauty of the world around them. Both carried their bows slung across their backs; with Neytiri expecting their child, Jake hoped this would be one of her last hunting trips. Though he knew the difficulty of that argument.
Frankly, Jake had no idea how his mate would stand seven months of pregnancy and forced inactivity. She's always up before me, always moves faster than I do, and she gets twitchy whenever there's nothing for her to do. Man, she's gonna go stir-crazy after the first week….
For now, though, the couple was content to walk along, following the tracks of a hexapede herd. The deer-like animals had passed through about half an hour ago, moving slowly. There was no need to hurry, so the hunters talked as they went.
"So, Jake," Neytiri whispered, "have the Sky People any special soo-pur-sti-ions about hunting?"
Jake tried to think of something. Humans are crazy enough; there's gotta be some kind of hunting-related custom I can tell her to weird her out. No matter how hard he tried, though, his mind was drawing a blank. "Well, uh, let's see. There's the one about not walking under ladders, which you know about."
"Yes, and which even you seem never to worry about anyway."
"Yeah, well, that one really is just a silly superstition. Like not walking
on cracks, or letting black cats cross your path."
"Black khats? What is a khat?"
Jake couldn't help but smile. Even though he knew Na'vi weren't related to cats, or to any Terran life forms for that matter, he couldn't help but see the similarities. "Hmm. Well, see, cats are these cute little critters on Earth." Reaching out to caress Neytiri, he ran his fingers over her long, mobile ears. "They have these pointy ears that wiggle around, like this."
He gently tugged on his mate's ear, bringing forth a beautiful, musical laugh from Neytiri's lips.
"And they have little pink noses like this," he added, leaning in to give Neytiri's triangular nose a kiss. "And long tails like this," he said, reaching back around and tugging playfully on his mate's prehensile appendage.
Startled, Neytiri gave a little yelp. Then she fixed her mate with a look somewhere between playful and devious. "So," she murmured, leaning in and gazing up into Jake's eyes, "I am … bad luck, where you come from?"
"Nah," Jake said with a grin. "You're blue, not black." Leaning close, he looked long and tenderly into his mate's eyes. "Although you do have these gorgeous golden eyes. Some cats have those too, you know."
"Mmm. Do they?" Neytiri purred, bringing her lips up to meet his, letting
their heated, longing gazes meet ….
Until a low, ominous hissing sound caused them to turn.
Standing at the edge of the clearing, about fifty feet away, was a large black palulukan- what Terran explorers had named a thanator. The lovers' mood was immediately shattered. Even though Neytiri had once ridden one of these beasts, they were generally wild and aggressive. They were also known to hunt titanotheres, sturmbeest … and Na'vi.
"Um, Neytiri?" Jake whispered, backing away. "You wanted to know what a black cat looks like? The unlucky kind?"
Neytiri spared a second to glance over at her mate. "What has that to do with anything?"
"Well, there's one, right now!"
With that, the hunters turned and sprinted off through the underbrush, the thanator in hot pursuit. Knowing that they would never be able to outrun the beast on foot, Jake pointed toward a sturdy, low-hanging branch. Taking the hint, Neytiri leaped up into the tree, followed closely by Jake. The thanator managed an impressive twenty-foot vertical leap, swiping at them with its long, wicked curved claws. After a few unsuccessful attempts to climb up after its blue-skinned prey, the predator gave a frustrated growl, then stalked off, searching for an easier meal.
Up in the tree, Jake and Neytiri sat panting from their brush with Pandora's apex land predator.
"Jake?" Neytiri said shakily.
"Yeah?"
"Do you remember those soo-pur-sti-ions of yours?"
"Uh-huh."
"I think," she said between gulps of air, "that the one about black cats
may not be so unreasonable after all…."
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REMEMBER, ME NO WRITEY THIS CHAPTER! All credit goes to Q42. Show them the love! See you next chapter!