Sorry for coming with this chapter late… Wait, I've never came late with chapter.
Ok Disregard that.

(P.s. about the 'why every chapter's name contain No one?' my answer is : Why the hell not?
and about my thoughts about ending this story: why? i'm just warming up :-D

And enjoy next chapter

Chapter twenty four: No one is weird

"[Bwahahaha]" Thanty laughed, and he laughed hard.

"[You know what? I f*&#in hate you]" Rick said. "Never consult your dreams with friends if they contain homosexual interspecies activities" Rick made a mental note. "What is it that made Thanty laugh that hard?" Ney'tiri asked appearing out of nowhere, as usual.

"You don't want to know" Rick said with very annoyed voice. Which made Ney'tiri frown, she never liked if anyone withheld information about anything from her.

"[If you tell her, maybe she'll help you find love from your dreams]" Thanty mocked him once again. "Oh shut your [mouth!]" Rick said, not noticing that he used three different languages, and using them pretty well, that earned two confused looks from both Ney'tiri and Thanty. "[What did you just said?]" Thanty asked, Ney'tiri asked the same question only in na'vi. "What?! I said 'zip it!'" Rick said really annoyed, almost angry. "Are you sure?" Ney'tiri asked in na'vi just to find out if he understands, or if it was just her imagination

"Yes I'm pretty damn sure!" Rick said, Ney'tiri watched him with wary eye, he couldn't understand them yesterday but now he speaks fluently?

"Where did you learn that?" She asked, her wary look changing to questioning one. "What?" Rick asked, not sure what she meant "to speak like that" she added "My mother taught me to speak like that. Look I have a nasty headache and you're not helping" Rick was annoyed beyond all measures, he was a ticking bomb. "He speaks na'vi and he isn't aware of that? How can this be?" Ney'tiri thought.

"Now if you two excuse me, I'll have to do what I've agreed to do." Rick said "They're just trying to piss you off, don't let them." He thought, but they were annoying as hell, how can you answer a question 'where did you learn to speak like that?' How was he supposed to answer that? He lived with marines, yes. But that doesn't mean he has to be same moron as they were, he doesn't need to prove his 'manliness' by talking dirty. And they are going to mock him for that? No way!

Rick wasn't aware that he indeed talked in na'vi few minutes ago, he didn't even noticed that Ney'tiri changed to na'vi with her 'are you sure' question, he was trying to figure out how to get rid of that headache, while loading things on his AMP's roof.

Meanwhile

While Jake and Norm were consulting Rick's health and state of mind with Mo'at, Ney'tiri came to them saying that "Something's wrong with Rick". But when she saw that there was no sudden reaction from that she knew that they already knew that too.

"Jake told me about his sudden ability to speak like us, and Norm told me about his unexpected survival." Mo'at said. "Anything new?" Jake asked. "He seems to have a headache, and when he talks, he suddenly switches to na'vi and back" Ney'tiri told them.

"He couldn't understand a word yesterday" Norm said "But now, he speaks na'vi better than I can" he finished that, but Mo'at was already in deep thoughts about what could've caused that, she stood there for several minutes, when suddenly gasped. "Maybe" she said, looking on nothing in particular, like she had hallucinations or some visions. "Jake do you remember that Atokirina?" Mo'at said and Jake's eyes widened. "You think that it is still there? And it causes this?" he asked, and Norm suddenly remembered. He saw that seed too.

"But how do we remove it? It is inside of his head" he said, but then Ney'tiri joined "Do we really have a right to do that? This never happened before and it IS seed of Sacred Tree" she said. and then there was another episode of 'how long can we remain silent?'

"We'll see what plan Eywa has for this one" Moat said after a few minutes.

To that everyone except Norm nodded, and they've went on their business.

"But Tsahik" Norm started, he knew that she was like a high ranking officer so he used her rank instead of her name "What if Rick's mind cannot bear it? What if he goes mad?" he asked, "Then again, it will be the will of Eywa, what will cause his insanity" she said.

But norm couldn't accept that. "I'll remove that surgically if I must" he though, imagining himself as a hero with surgical gown, holding tongs with seed of holy tree above his head, and Rick's bandaged head on the impromptu sickbed. But then it dawned on Norm that he was no surgeon, he was a xenobiologist. "Well there goes that plan" he thought as he left. "I hope he will be alright" he thought as he started helping with loading their belongings to the animals.

Later

It was about lunchtime when everyone got packed up, Every pa'li was loaded, almost every ikran too. It was nice sight. Even children helped with transportation. Every one of them held something lighter, or carried something in bags, Everyone was loaded with something, every na'vi, pa'li, ikran, thanator, or AMP. But because there was only one thanator and one AMP, to do the heaviest lifting, there would be only few na'vi who could defend the whole 'convoy' if something or someone tried to attack them. Na'vi were fierce warriors but even they couldn't fight well if they've got half of her home on their backs instead of easily reachable weapons. Rick insisted that it would be best if he held his GAU-90 in his hand and stabilized the cargo on his roof by his free one. He knew that if he had that cargo on roof and weapon on his back. He couldn't reach for it in case of emergency.

"Alright, let's go!" Jake ordered and Na'vi started their march. "It will take one and half day if we don't speed up" Rick thought but there was no need to do that, it was only him being paranoid. His headache didn't leave yet and he was getting worried that this headache never goes away. "[Hey Rick]" Thanty caught up with Rick. Rick was walking near the front of the convoy. "[What?]" Rick asked, his voice gave away that he wasn't in good mood "[What's wrong with you today?]" Thanty asked, ignoring the hostile tone. Rick sighed and would've face-palmed but he was holding something and if he turned the controls off, AMP would've dropped that cargo and the gun. "[I'm sorry]" Rick said after a while. "[I'm just breaking record in length of headache.]" he said, and his headache intensified when he said that. "[That's strange, but I'm still curious where did you learn how to speak na'vi.]" Thanty asked. "[I can't speak na'vi, you translated for me when I've talked with Tarya.]" Rick said "[I know, and that makes it even more strange]" Thanty said, "[Because I've heard you using it]" he then added and Rick gave him quizzical look. "[Sure, and I'm dating with Eywa…Wait, scratch that.]" he said, suddenly remembering that he indeed is having a drinking date with Eywa sometime.

"[Whoa, what?]" Thanty said, his eyes locked on Rick. "[Long story, I'll tell you after it actually happens]" Rick dismissed that topic. They've traveled in silence for the most of the trip, sometimes Norm or Jake came to check on Rick and that made him even more annoyed.

His headache didn't go away, and that made him even crankier. They were walking for an hour or so when Norm tried to talk with Rick, but that ended when Norm started talking and Rick just listened.

"…And then I've told him 'Ecosystem? I barely know her!'", and Norm laughed. Rick at that point thought about pro and cons of killing himself with a spoon, when his sensors started working, even for short period. "Threat detected" it said, and before the screen flickered off again, Rick saw that there were large amount of dots, which were animals and na'vi in the convoy, but he also saw that there was some dots next to the convoy

"Shut up" Rick said, catching norm off guard. "Something is watching us" he said and raised his weapon to the air, and slowed down. Thanty was about to ask what is going on when his quills sprouted and he turned to the general direction of the threat.

"Jake! Something is coming!" Rick yelled to the front. Jake stopped, his weapon already in his hands. "[There are large numbers of nantangs and few talionangs, seems like talionangs are running away, directly at us. Pulling nantangs with them]" Thanty said and Rick yelled "stampede!" he didn't notice that he yelled that in Na'vi but every na'vi prepared for a fight.

Rick couldn't drop his cargo with one hand, and because GAU-90 packs quite a kick, he couldn't do more than just to turn himself sideways, using his hip to take some of the recoil if he fired.

Hoofbeats could've been heard and earth was shaking a little. But na'vi were prepared, children got up on the trees, hunters and guards were prepared to fight if stampede attacked them, and animals were forced to walk out of the way, Thanty wasn't one of them, he stood with Rick and guards. "Ballistic threat detected!" Rick's sensors once again said but he ignored that. AMP's weren't configured to recognize Na'vi as allies, and he sure hoped that there wouldn't be sturmbeests with rocket launchers and nantangs with machine guns. "If they are packing that, only bear cavalry could save us" Rick thought. But then sturmbeests came running toward him and Thanty, he got out of their way because they weren't the main threat, the large pack of nantangs was, there were about thirty or more of them. And after they've spotted na'vi and Rick, they've changed their course toward them. Rick opened fire and na'vi started shooting arrows on them. Na'vi weren't exactly fond of killing viperwolves, but they weren't exactly fond of dying because of that either, loud shooting noises could've been heard from Rick, as he shot on viperwolves, silent whoosh sounds from na'vi who shot their arrows at nantangs. There were around ten of them now, but they've got close so they've attacked na'vi, only to be killed in process.

"Something is wrong, Nantangs usually don't attack large groups like that" Jake said to moat after the battle. Nobody was inured, well except for the Thanty. "[I said I was sorry!]" Rick said apologetically. "[it still hurts!]" Thanty said his paw on his head. "[You should've warned me about that]" he then added. "What happened?" Norm asked when he noticed that Thanty was holding his head. "He stood next to me when I've fired" Rick started but Norm interrupted him with loud "You've shot him?!" and disbelief in his eyes. "Nope, but cases from bullets in this gun weights quite a lot" "[No kiddin!]" Thanty added when he rubbed his forehead. "[like I've ran straight into tree]" he added "what he said?" Norm asked, "that it hurts, and that he'll probably get a lump." Rick roughly translated.

"We should hurry" Ney'tiri said, and the convoy assembled in a few minutes. And marched again

"This is a bad omen, nantangs do this when they are starving" Mo'at said. It was true, viperwolves do this only when they are forced to leave their hunting grounds, last attack like that happened when humans build Hell's gate on Pandora.

"I hope that I'm mistaken, and this is a different case" Mo'at thought as they've continued their journey

Is Rick getting crankier? How about his headache? Will it kill him? How bout the nantangs? Are they really bad omen? How big will Thanty's lump get? Why is Rick changing languages like that? Did he learn that ode mě*?

(*from me?)

Stay tuned to find out!