Thank You, Grace
Nora was tired but dared not stop. She did, however, slow to a brisk walk to catch her breath. Aside from a few falls and trips, she managed to keep a good pace since the dragging incident. Her senses were on overdrive now. At this point, she had seen just about all the landmarks Norm told her about. The last one was a clutch of helicoradians, which she saw a few minutes back. It marked the start of the Ophidians territory.
The trees were getting a little thicker, signaling to her she was entering the heart of it. Worse yet, it was getting dark. Animals way off in the distance were starting to stir with cries heard only during the night.
Nora started getting nervous as the sun dropped below the horizon and the forest grew even darker. But then the bioluminescence began. Nora nearly stopped walking, totally in awe and unable to take her eyes off the radiant patterns of the plant life all around her. There was a myriad of colors. Different shades of pinks and purples, and darker hues of greens and blues. She had seen the pictures and video, but nothing compared to standing in the middle of it all, seeing it firsthand.
Little by little, however, the luminescence started to fade. That struck her as very odd. Alarmed, she stood completely still. The color dimmed to just a faint glow. At the same time, there was a sudden hush in the air. A chill crept up her spine. The sound that broke the silence was a not-so-good squishy noise. Looking down, she saw something slip between her feet. Instinctively, she ran.
Relying only on a vague description given to her by Norm, Nora desperately searched for the Elpam, or a tree harboring any sign of a sticky substance. But they all looked alike. Panic set in. She turned in all directions, walking backwards at one point to see if she missed something. She turned and ran on, again, dreading what might soon happen if she couldn't find the tree that could provide her sanctuary.
Suddenly, however, the foliage in front of her began to brighten again but this time the color was green. All green. A familiar green. Nora stopped dead in her tracks watching in awe as the luminescence surrounded her as if protecting her. After a moment, it too faded except for one tree far off, quite some distance in front of her. It emanated an aura recognizable to her, the color she remembered as a child. Its leaves cast the same Spring green she and Grace had seen all those years before.
A small gust of wind whipped between the trees and carried with it a soft voice. It was not that of a child's. It was a woman's.
"Remember this, Nora," the voice said. It sounded like...
"Grace?" Nora said softly, both questioning and wondering at the same time. All she heard in return was that awful squishy sound, but this time it was accompanied by a nasty clicking noise, like locusts in the summer turning on and off every second or two.
Panicked, she looked around again. Ophidians were beginning to emerge in greater numbers from behind trees and under rocks, blackening the forest floor like oil seeping from the ground. A surge of energy soared through her. She bolted straight to the lone glowing tree, praying the whole way that she wasn't imagining things, that somehow through Eywa Grace was directing her toward an Elpam. Otherwise, the Ophidians were going to have a great time stripping her avatar's flesh off from the inside out. And Jake would likely die.
Nora climbed and climbed, as fast as she possibly could, as high as she could, looking for a thick, strong branch. But there was none. This tree was somewhat thick in diameter, but the branches were terribly thin. She grabbed hold of one but it bent easily. There was no other choice but to just grip the trunk a little harder.
Below, the creatures kept appearing seemingly out of nowhere. There were thousands upon thousands of them. They blackened the entire ground and were searching for things to scale: the trees, flowers, leaves, vines, bushes, anything in their path. Some of the flowers retreated into cocoons, others simply closed up as they began to crawl over them. Leaves on some of the trees even withdrew into their branches. But not the leaves on her tree. Seeing them slithering up and blanketing everything, she decided to go even higher, just in case.
In no time, the Ophidians had surrounded her tree. They were climbing up others not very far from hers and going much higher than she was. Nora strained to see them more closely. There was what looked like a long spiked claw emanating from their heads.
A burrowing mechanism, no doubt, Nora surmised, quite disgusted by their form. I hope they can't jump. Or... She swallowed hard then said aloud, "Or fall on me from..." Instead of completing her sentence, she gradually raised her head to see that some of surrounding trees' branches overlapped.
She wiggled a bit, attempting to settle into a more comfortable position. As she did, she heard something flutter across the tops of the trees. She snapped her head up. There was something flying with wings aglow in bioluminescence. Norm had mentioned these critters: Stingbats. The Na'vi called them Riti and sometimes treated them like pets, though now that Nora could see them up close she wondered why. They lived in the rainforest canopy and fed on Ophidians, that is if they survived after tackling and fighting them.
She watched as one darted and pranced around the higher branches of a tree several yards from hers, waiting for the targeted Ophidian to reach its desired height. Plenty of them were headed its way, so it seemed to wait patiently, sometimes alighting on one of the branches and watching as its dinner crawled closer and closer.
When one of the stingbats got within a comfortable range, it leapt off the branch tucking its scorpion-like tail under, aiming it right at the unaware nightcrawler. The Stingbat impaled its prey and grabbed it with its claws, lifting it off the trunk and taking it back up to the treetops to feast on it. That was a clean kill.
Nora watched nervously as yet another stingbat swooped down from above. This one missed but was close enough to reach out and grab it instead. The two predators tangled in midair thanks to the Stingbat who was not about to let go. They struggled against each other, the Ophidian squirming fiercely, trying to get away while the Stingbat's lethal tail swished this way and that, trying to incapacitate it. As their struggle went on, they got lower and lower to the ground, until finally they fell and rolled end over end among the vegetation. Nora lost sight of them, but there were more hungry Stingbats circling overhead now, waiting, watching, ready to pounce.
Nora slipped slightly and clutched the Elpam much harder. Her legs began to tremble with the firmer grip. Regrets were bad. Not listening to Max and giving her avatar a workout before now was one of them. Her avatar's muscle tone was weak from the last few hours, yet she was amazed at its strength compared to what her human body would feel under the same conditions. Still, she couldn't help but think what a world of hurt she was in right now as the Ophidians continued to climb and cover everything while the Stingbats pranced about overhead, ready to kill.
If this is going to take all night, I'm definitely in trouble.
The creatures had distracted her for a moment. Had she climbed the right tree? Carefully, she looked below her. Toward the bottom of the tree, about ten feet from the ground, a honey-like ooze, amber-orange in color, was dripping.
With immense relief, she hugged the tree a little tighter, rested her cheek against the trunk and whispered, "Thank you, Grace."
