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Chapter twenty seven: No one's company
It was getting dark, not literally because Pandora is illuminated by her bioluminescent flora.
"Whoa, this is pretty nice" František said, looking over the edge of his basket at the bioluminescent flora. "It is" Rick agreed, looking once again at Tarya's behind. He was walking still behind them, weapon in his hand and keeping his eyes peeled on aforementioned object.
"[Rick]" Thanty said, but Rick didn't respond. "[RICK!]" he said angrily, hitting AMP with his tail. "Whoa! We're being attacked!" Rick yelled, as he stumbled, AMP's weren't as good on their feet as the manufacturer advertised. In fact they've got knocked down pretty easily.
"[Stop being hypnotized by her tail and actually pay attention!]" Thanty growled, and Rick saluted and said "Sir Yes sir!" The humans laughed at the sight, but Tarya was more worried about their surroundings, there were signs of recent nantang's activity. "This is not good place to stay" She said raising her opened hand to signalize Rick that they should all stop, "[I guess she noticed them too]" Thanty said, looking in general direction of nantang's heat signatures. "What is there?" Rick asked. "Pack of nantangs, they are hungry" she told him, "[And there is twelve of them]" Thanty added. Rick first wondered how he knew what she said but then he noticed that they were connected. "Hey security guy" Rick called at František.
"Name's František, what do you want?" he asked. "I hope you're armed, we're being attacked" Rick filled him. "Good to know, but I'm unarmed" he said raising his empty hands. "Well, now we know two things" Rick said, hearing angry growls from viperwolves who closed in on his position. "The first one is that I'm unarmed, what's the second one?" František guessed. "You've got it right, the second one is that it just plainly suck to be you" Rick said, raising his weapon to the firing position. "Yeah, I hate you too Tarzan" František said, laying low in the basket. Tarya was already holding her bow, arrow ready, Thanty was growling like Rick's stomach in the morning, and Alexandra was holding one of the sides of Thanty's basket.
"[Here they come]" Thanty announced, when seven of these viperwolves jumped out of the bush. For Alexandra, it all went into slow motion, the whole battle started with 'whoosh' sound made by Tarya's bow. Followed by enraged roar of their carrier "Thanty is its …his name isn't it?" there was yelping sound as the first viperwolf got hit by the arrow, but his cry wasn't heard over the 'Ka-blam' sounds made by Rick's AMP. Thanty was holding back, only four of these viperwolves remained, but he couldn't fight properly with two humans in his baskets without loosing them. More 'ka-blams' could be heard and another nantang felt while trying to leap on Thanty's rider, Tarya, the rest of them appeared. Making it eight of them, and they've attacked mercilessly, but when Rick tried to mow them down with his GAU-90, only two more ka-blam's could be heard. Then it made strained sound and stopped firing. "What?" Rick thought before red screen flickered at him saying "Ammo chain jammed." "F*&K!" he yelled. Thanty was surprised that his covering fire has all but evaporated. Even though Tarya managed to kill two more nantangs making it five of them, he had to fight as well. Tarya jumped off him, allowing him to fight on his own, she was also out of arrows, so she pulled out the knife preparing to meet the two nantangs who thought she would be an easy target, while the rest occupied Thanty. One of them tried to jump on her only to cut in half and smashed by Rick's GAU-90 mounted bayonet. The second one tried to attack AMP's leg. Only to be punted away. "He shoots and he SCORES!" Rick yelled, noticing that Thanty was playing with the last one of them. That viperwolf was pinned down by Thanty's paw, and struggled to get free "[Look at him Rick, he's cute when he tries to escape, can we keep him?]" Thanty asked, with one massive paw on the body, and preparing the second one to smash its head off. Rick was about to say something, when Tarya connected with Thanty, telling him that he should let him go. "[And your beloved wants me to let it go]" he then added, looking still at Rick, she then turned her head to face Rick's too, waiting for his decision. "Let him go then" Rick said in English. "[Oh, giving your enemies another chance, that is so cool. You're so cool that I want to kiss you]" Thanty said mockingly lifting his paw from the scared animal, which ran away the second it got free "[Come here and give me a nice kiss]" Thanty added, walking toward the AMP. He was doing this mostly because it irritated Rick, it was fun seeing him annoyed, after he was standing right in front of him, and he turned his head sideways, looking at Rick with only one eye. "[Quickly before I change my mind]" Thanty said rapidly blinking, watching irritated Rick doing something in cockpit. "Two can play this game" Rick thought, opening the canopy. Seeing Thanty's slightly surprised face, he unbuckled himself, took a deep breath and removed his exopack, and giving a long kiss on Thanty's cheek. Tarya was laughing at the sight and the humans were just simply gawking. When Thanty realized what Rick was doing it was already too late. "[Hey man that's not cool!]" he said, stepping away from Rick.
"You've asked for it, and you should take a bath" Rick said in English making the humans laugh too. "I think I've earned a vacation from these gay jokes" Rick thought amused while looking at the thanator who was now rubbing his cheek with his paw. "Priceless!" Rick thought, and then closed the canopy. B.I.B.S. started slowly filling the cabin with old breathable air.
"We'll need to make a camp soon" Rick said after he was breathing again.
"[No way, you'll rape me in my sleep]" Thanty said imitating overreaction.
"[Awh, you already know]" Rick said, faking the disappointment face.
After Tarya collected all her arrows, and 'mercy killed' the heavily wounded ones, they've walked for a two hundred meters before finding a nice spot for a camp.
"Ideal place" Rick said, and Thanty nodded. They were going to make a camp next to the small stream on the edge of the forest. They've decided not to make any campfire, in fact Tarya decided. She was strictly against any fire in the forest. So they'll just have to deal with it. The nights on Pandora weren't exactly cold, but they weren't exactly hot either, and without fire the best way to get yourself warm place, was to sleep next to the bio-heater usually known as Thanty,even though the suits they wore wouldn't let the heat of his body get to them, it was perfect thermal isolation after all. "[Oh man, so that's how it feels to be a female with little cubs]" he said, after the two humans lied down next to him, using his belly as impromptu pillow. He wasn't wearing the harness, it wasn't comfortable for sleeping in anyway, for both him and the humans, not to mention the na'vi "now that I think about them, where are they?" he thought of doing the known 'Where is my baby?!' scene but he knew that these humans wouldn't understand it, he raised his quills and searched for them, he only saw his AMP stationed nearby and Tarya, lying near a tree but he didn't find Rick. "There is no way he could get that far away" Thanty thought, there was no way he could get out of range. So he looked around some more when it dawned on him "No way" he looked back at Tarya, and used his normal eyes, with some focusing he noticed the sleeve of RDA uniform. "You dog" Thanty thought, smiling to himself as he lied down too and slowly drifted to sleep.
Same place, few minutes ago
"Your training will start after you take these tawtutte to human base. In my tribe, you're considered a child until you begin your training, but you're not adult until you finish the trials." Tarya said to Rick, who translated tawtutte word pretty quickly. "I'm looking forward to it" he said, and he was about to get over to Thanty-the-pillow to get some rest too, but he suddenly found himself lifted from the ground. "wha?" he didn't have time to finish it. "And as the only adult here, it is my duty to take care of the children" she said smiling at Rick, who blushed. "Oh Eywa, how can someone so cute and adorable be so good at hunting and fighting?" she thought, and then walked over to the tree with him. "Man, this isn't exactly how I've imagined things, but beggars can't be choosers" Rick thought. "Alright if it is tradition" He said, as he was slowly put down on the ground, while Tarya lied next to him.
She hugged him tightly, like he really was a child, but if one judged by the size then Rick was probably the same size as one of the children. "Don't think about it" Rick ordered himself, hugged her back and together they've slowly drifted to sleep.
In the morning
"I'm used to lot of strange things, but this is where I draw the line" Alexandra said angrily as her legs were covered in Thanty's drool. It didn't matter anyway, because they were in pressure suits that were airtight, waterproof and mostly droolproof. She slowly stood up, and stretched. "It'll be one of the 'Meh' mornings" she thought after she stretched. She then proceeded to kick František's side to wake him up, splattering the drool on her shoes all over him. "Rise and shine Trumpeta". She said in voice so sweet that František awoke with toothache. "I'm up already!" he said as he slowly sat and then yelled "OH GROSS!" as he noticed that he got drool all over him and that Thanty was still drooling on his legs. Thanty slept like enormous kitten he was, he somehow managed to ball up and sleep like that without waking the humans, he however managed to droll all over them.
The yelling woke him up, he blinked twice or thrice, stood up, stretched. Examined humans again and decided that they would've made up for poor breakfast. "I hate mornings" he thought, but when he noticed that Tarya and Rick were still sleeping, he smirked. "I've got to see this!" he thought as he slowly crept toward them, when he got near enough to see it whole he almost laughed. "Things didn't go as you planned them eh Rick?" he thought as he saw Tarya balled around Rick, hugging him tightly, her tail holding his leg possessively. Rick was holding one of her hands, sleeping silently like a cub. He could stand there until they both wake up but he didn't felt like that. He decided that it will be best time to wake Rick. "[Rick, wake up]" he said, and Rick awoke immediately thanks to his combat training. Everyone from RDA military section was a light sleeper, due to ever present 'security problems'
"What?" he asked trying to stretch, only to find out that he is tightly held by Tarya. "[You dog]" Thanty said, waking up Tarya unintentionally. She yawned and released Rick from her embrace, but her tail remained attached to his leg, even after he got up. "Good morning" he said to Tarya ignoring what Thanty said and not noticing that she held him with her tail. She gave him a smile "Good morning" she replied. Rick was about to turn to Thanty and tell him that he is imagining things, but rather found himself spinning and falling to the ground yelling "ihategravity!" while doing so. "Are you alright?" Tarya asked giggling as she stood up too, her tail releasing him. "Yeah, I've just tripped over something" he said, she didn't have to think about that word to know what he meant.
"You three are most strange yet most amusing company I've ever seen" Alexandra said.
"Thanks, now let's get back to the road." Rick said, once again standing up, and turning around to face Tarya, or rather Tarya's waist. "Eywa knows that there is nothing sexier than girl you have to crane your neck to see her eyes" he thought, as he looked up. She noticed him staring at her with smile on his face. "Something's wrong Rick?" She asked, smiling back. "Nope, I'm just admiring your smile" he said "Wow, that was lame!" he thought, this was another proof that he shouldn't try too hard. But he thought "Or maybe not" when she smiled at him again. "Come, there is much to do today" she said, and bended to get her bow from the ground, when she did that she turned around to see Rick was all red in his face and his nose bled. "Your nose is bleeding" she said, not being able to do anything because it was under his mask and then she went to help the humans set the Harness on Thanty.
Rick stood there for a minute or so, his nose bleeding vigorously, he stood there even after they've set the harness on Thanty, who was first to notice that Rick was just standing there, not moving a muscle. So he came over to him and asked "[Is something wrong?]" Rick turned to face Thanty, snuffling the blood, making it go where it came from. After few moments Rick said only two words
"[Loincloth only]"
First nosebleed in the whole story, I hope Rick will survive that. Also I would like to announce that this story is over 100 pages long (A4) and that we will reach the same milestone, only in reviews. So stay with (bleeding) Rick to know what happens next!
Or as I always say, STAY TUNED!
