Okay, TuckingFypo says that the humans have lived on Pandora for 12 years, while SGTCJC says the humans have been there around 20 years. So, I'll round it off and say 15 years they have been there. All this time I thought it was six. Fail.

Anyways, yes, Blackwood is coming. My friend says that she hates his guts. And you'll see why. xp So in seven months, you'll see Blackwood.

Rather five now; two months has passed here.

And I go the Avatar Survival book thing last night. :D It'll help me out a lot with this story.

And if ya'll wondering who my avatar is, it's Tu'sky. :3


Exploring the Hostile Land of Pandora

12

"Fifty . . . fifty-one . . . fifty-two . . . fifty-three," Quaritch whispered to himself, lifting the heavy weights, and laying on the bench.

Rajian walked into Quaritch's workout room, tapping at the door. "Hey, Miles," he called.

"Ah, Rajian," the clone stated. He placed his weights on their handles, and sat up, careful not to hit his head on the handling. "Whatcha need?"

Quaritch reached over, grabbing a towel, and damping his face dry with the towel. The Indian male nurse walked over, sitting on an available metal stool. "Since you woken up, you are going through leaps and bounds, you should be proud of yourself," Rajian stated, smiling.

Quaritch chuckled, rubbing the fluffy towel at his damp neck. "Thank you," he stated, smirking. He glanced up at his only friend. "Hey, Rajian, you said you always wanted to explore Pandora?"

Rajian glanced up from his clipboard. "Yeah," he stated, his eyes going back down on the paper.

"Would you like to?"

Rajian glanced up, and there was a childlike flicker of excitement in his eyes. "Really?" he questioned. "C-can we?"

Quaritch smirked, grabbing a bottle of cold water, and drank it. "I don't see why not," he stated, pressing the cold plastic bottle to his forehead.

Rajian beamed, but then it melted from his face. "But, what about Selfridge," he whispered.

"Hey, what he doesn't know can't hurt him."

Rajian then smiled again, placing his clipboard and pen on the desk behind him. "Oh, Miles, there's something I heard—but, it might be a rumor," he stated.

"What?" Quaritch asked. He stood up, rubbing his shoulders.

"Um, ever heard of General Blackwood?"

Quaritch paused, searching his memory. "Sounds familiar," he said.

"Well, rumor says that Selfridge hired him to come here, and about five months he's going to be here," Rajian stated.

"Oh, okay."

"I heard he was—is a tyrant. I don't think it's good that he's coming, if it's true."

Quaritch sighed. If he was coming, and tried anything with the Na'vi, he would not hesitate to kill the man. The clone grabbed his camouflaged jacket, and slipped it on. He reached over to a rack, grabbing an air mask, and tossed it to Rajian, who clumsily caught it. Quaritch smirked, hitching the breathing pack to his back. "Well, let's go," he stated.

"R-right now?" Rajian called, placing it on.

"Why not?" Quaritch called, smirking.

"Oh—okay," he stated, following Quaritch. "Um, you don't want an AMP?"

"Nah, let's walk, we can see the world better," he stated, brushing by some soldiers.

The two soon found themselves in the large humid forest of Pandora. Quaritch was armed with a machine gun, and two hand guns. Rajian had his own gun, but he mostly relied on Quaritch for protection. The Indian man looked up in awe, his jaw open. The clone glanced behind him, smirking.

"This is amazing," Rajian said.

Quaritch turned around, walking backwards, his arms out. "I know, right?" he asked, smirking. "This place is amazing! Right?"

Rajian glanced at the clone. "Please tell me that you stopped seeing the Na'vi," he said.

The clone looked at the male nurse. He chose not to answer, but Rajian understood: "You are still seeing them!"

The colonel growled, casting a glare to his friend. He turned around, walking forward.

"I told you to stay away from them! This is dangerous!"

"Oh, c'mon," Quaritch snapped. "I just want to make sure my men aren't doing anything to them."

"But you are seeing a female Na'vi, who you like."

"I like her 'cause she's tough."

"You like her 'cause she's hot."

"That too, but mostly 'cause she's tough." He looked at his friend sternly. "Let's drop this."

Rajian opened his mouth to comment, but then clamped it shut. Quaritch only had about an hour before they would have to return to Hell's Gate so he could watch his troops. The Indian man touched the bark of the tall trees, and amazed. The grass glowed with every step, and pollen drifted in the air. There was a light breeze, and the winds blew. The grass swayed, following the path of the wind. Curled up odd brightly coloured plants stood tall, and when Quaritch brushed against it, and it curled neatly into itself.

"Wow, seeing only pictures of Pandora, now I finally get to see the real thing," Rajian exclaimed.

Quaritch stepped over a dead tree trunk, glancing around. Rajian flopped on the trunk, pushing himself over, but landed on his side. The clone looked at his friend, who quickly stood up, brushing himself off. "I'm okay."

Quaritch shook his head, chuckling softly to himself. They walked into a large open field. There were animal bones and ribcages lodged in the earth. Mounds of earth rose up, covered in patches of living grass and dead grass. The clone glanced around.

"What's this place?"

"I have no idea," Rajian said. "It might just be a dead place."

A small blue deer stood off in the distance, it grazed on the long grass. It was all alone. No other next to it. The animal glanced up, chewing its cud. Just then, another animal jumped, knocking it off its hooves. The creature's jaws snapped around the deer-like creature's neck, killing it. Quaritch stepped back, recognizing the animal.

Thanator.

The panther-like creature glanced up, the animal still in its mouth. The thanator took sudden interest in Quaritch. The creature dropped the deer, approaching. The clone aimed the machine gun at the beast, and fired. Rajian jumped behind a log for protection. The panther from hell recoiled, the bullets hitting its skin. The thanator jumped back, snarling and hissing. Quaritch rushed, firing his rounds. The alien cat charged the small human, lashing out its paws, nearly hitting the clone. The colonel dropped to the ground, firing his gun. The thanator snapped its jaws, saliva flying, hitting the clone. A rock flew, hitting the side of the alien panther's head. It blinked, and whipped around, snarling, a line of drool dripping from its mouth. Rajian stood, holding rocks, the only weapon he had.

"Here, kitty, kitty, kitty!" he yelled, throwing another rock.

It hit the centre of the creature's head. The thanator snarled, jumping at Rajian. Quaritch turned at his side, and fired at the soft underbelly of the beast. The alien creature fell, landing on its side. It gasped, choking on its own blood. The clone stood up, firing at the head of the animal—killing it quickly. It soon laid on the grass. Rajian sighed, rushing over to his friend.

"Palulukan, dry mouth bringer of fear," he translated. He patted Quaritch's slobber-covered shoulder. "Good job." He pulled back his hand, and a trail of slobber formed from his hand and shoulder. "Ew, gross." He shook his hand, saliva flying.

Quaritch looked at his friend. "Let's go," he stated, placing his gun against his shoulder. He ran his fingers down his face, the creature's spit clinging to his fingertips. He needed a shower as soon as he got back.


Quaritch's view on Pandora dramatically changed. First he thought it was a peaceful, now he realized that this Eden had claws and fangs. His first month and a half on the lush moon was spent running away from the bugs that wanted to kill him. One that caught on him was what humans call the Arachnoid, or the Kali'weya. According to Na'vi culture, a warrior must catch one of their own, and allow the bug to stab them with their stinger, which causes the person to have visions that are thought to be visions show their spirit animal and their future. But if not treated right, it could kill a person, and Quaritch was attacked by numerous swarms of them, in which Tu'sky had to save him, and remove all the venom. Those little bastards looked like scorpions with two stingers. His arm was bruised for a few days. It was purple and blue, and Quaritch groaned about it for the longest time.

He also noticed how all the Na'vis marking were unique—like zebra patterns. It was very odd, yet beautiful. And he was becoming addicted to a plant that gave off hallucinogenic properties. He tried it out, by accident, and then everything went black from there. According to Jake, he was smiling like an idiot and he freaked out when Tu'sky made him believe that he was in a box. Neytiri assured the clone that the same thing happened to Jake, but unlike Jake, Quaritch began to smuggle the plant back to Hell's Gate for random highs.

When night would come, Quaritch was amazed. Every single plant would glow in bright hues of green, white, purple, and pink. It was beautiful, wild, errotic almost. It was very sensual as well. Sometimes he would sit out outside, and just look at the plant life, taking in whatever was before him. How could he ever hate this place? He had wondered so much over that. It made no sense to him now. Tu'sky would also show him the glowing plants and other creatures when they were together. She would hold his hand, tugging him along. She had a child-like wonder to her, when she was in a good mood, of course. It seemed like most of the time she was sad. Quaritch wondered why.

The Fan Lizard was one animal Tu'sky showed him. It's "wings" were like a swirled Chinese fan. Quaritch loved to disturb those creatures, and watch them spin around in the air. Ma'ki and several other children would run into a field, and watched them fly. And a swarm of red bugs about the size of a sparrow called the Hellfire Wasp randomly attacked Quaritch, in which Tu'sky, again, had to save him. The female Na'vi mad jokes about "the midget scar-face ran like a scared baby!" Quaritch was extremely embarrassed, but smirked as she told the story. Neytiri was still awkward around him, but she was getting better, and he loved to tease her. He purposely called her "Pocahontas" one day, and she would look at him oddly and Jake laughed in the background. He also liked the Hunt Song, or the Taron Tìrol. A fire was lit, and the Na'vi painted their faces and bodies. They sung in their language:

"Terìan ayoe ayngane

Zera'u

Reral ayoe anyngane

Ha ftexy

Awpot set ftexy ayngal a lu

Ayngakip

Awpot a Na'viru yamtìyìng

Oeyä swizaw nìngay tivakuk

Oeyä tukrul txe'lanit tivakuk

Orei tìngayìl txe'lan livu ngay

Lu nga win sì txur

Lu nga txantslusam

Liva win sì txur oe zene

Ha nì'aw

Pxan livu txo nì'aw oe ngari

Tsakrnga Na'viru yamtìyìng."

Quaritch memorized the entire song. Tu'sky sung it to him, and he was mesmorised by her voice (but when he tried, he said something X-rated and Tu'sky then started laughing at him). And Tu'sky was mesmorised by him—mostly by his hands. There was one day when she randomly took his hand, and just looked at it, comparing it to hers. She pressed her hand to his, and her long fingers brushed against his knuckles. She would also randomly take off his shoes to look at his bare feet. Over the next few days, there was growing tension between them. Quaritch walked by her one day, and ran his hand down her tail. She was startled by his forwardness, but silently pleased. There were times when she was teaching her brother to arch correctly; she could feel his eyes on her. When she turned around, he suddenly became interested in what Jake was saying. But after a month, Tu'sky and Quaritch began to grow more comfortable with each other. And what about Selfridge? He knew. He knew what Quaritch was doing, but did not care. After all, Blackwood was coming in five more months.


Hunt song:

We are walking your way

We are coming

We are singing your way

So choose

Choose one among you

Who will feed the People

Let my arrow strike true

Let my spear strike the heart

Let my heart be true

You are fast and strong

You are wise

I must be fast and strong

So only

Only if I am worthy of you

Will you feed the People.