Talioang = Sturmbeest. Also: hehe, sorry. Left my notes at the chapter's end. Everyone forget about all that. *waves his hands mystically*
Neytiri cast about frantically in the dim clearing. Over there was the schoolhouse. And over there was the dried blood where Jake had fallen prone. But where was Jake?
She rushed up to the schoolhouse, frantically circling the structure, even leaping onto the roof to get a better view of the clearing.
"Pxasìk!" she finally snarled, splintering the thatched roof with a fist. Her tail lashed as she leaped down and tried to tame her frantic thoughts.
Jake would not have remained unconscious for long after her blow. But when she had left, trembling and furious, the darkening sky wasn't in her thoughts. Later, as she had raced back, she assured herself that he had taken shelter in the school, the human building. With that comforting thought dispelled, rising panic and guilt began to replace frustration.
She remembered the Atokirina' lighting on him like bright feathers. Eywa had chosen him for something. Eywa would protect him in the night. Unless... Maybe Eywa had counted on her to protect Jake. Maybe that was why they had met in the first place. And she had left him alone, defenseless like a child.
She sank into a crouch in the cool grass, pressing her hands against her head. It was night, but he was clumsy among the plants. She could track him. He couldn't have gone far. As long as he hadn't encountered any viper wolves, or other night hunters –
In the distance, a screaming roar, ragged and terrible. A shiver spangled up her back. That was Palulukan. He was hunting this night.
Slowly, a terrible certainty stole upon her, seeming to rise up from the ground like a shadow.
Palulukan's hunting range was very big. It would be the same one that Jake had escaped from before. He could sense prey a forest away. And he would remember Jake's scent, his sound.
Neytiri's heart began to quicken as though she were already running. The forest was silent now, even of insect noises. She waited, crouched on the balls of her feet.
Again the dreadful roar. It was enough to tell direction. She plunged back into the glowing woods.
She ran like a deer, slipping over and around some obstacles, then ripping through others in her haste. Palulukan hadn't found Jake yet, or the roars would come more often.
She sped up, leaping a wide gorge, setting a group of startled fan lizards into iridescent flight. She landed gracefully on the other side and hung her bow over her neck as she ran.
Another roar shivered the air, suddenly too loud, too close. Neytiri pulled up short so quickly she nearly lost her balance. She slipped over to a massive tree, where the shadows of the trunk would hide her. She tried to quiet her heaving breaths, flicking a bead of sweat from her eyes.
She was stupid, to come this close so fast, so loudly. Her heart thudded in her ears, drowning out the forest sounds. Blood pulsed hotly behind her eyes, in her throat.
She forced herself to calm down, listening to her heart as it gradually slowed. Good, slow breathing.
And then the ground trembled under her feet. And again. Again.
Something huge was approaching, pounding closer to the other side of the trunk. She lifted her face to the air and her nose flared as she scented the breeze – Talioang, she knew. But only one. It must have been separated from a herd sleeping nearby.
Neytiri's mouth was suddenly dry with fear, and her heart was again in her throat. Palulukan had set a trap for this animal, and she had walked right into it. She pressed her back against the tree trunk, casting about with wide, frightened eyes. She didn't dare move. She didn't dare stay.
On the other side of the tree, she heard the animal give a startled snort, as it too tasted the air. Perhaps smelling Neytiri, or sensing the approaching apex predator, the beast suddenly turned and rushed away, leaving a thunderous silence in its wake.
Neytiri sighed quietly and stepped away from the tree.
The roar this time shattered the air, left her ears ringing. From around the tree facing Neytiri the thanator's massive armored head emerged. It's bristling quills twitched and vibrated, and it turned to look straight at her with eyes black as hate.
She fled, sprinting automatically in the direction of Hometree. She wouldn't make it that far, but there was even less hope of fighting it. She cursed herself and her panicked flight. Jake wasn't here, and he was much safer than she, now.
Lithe forest dweller scrambling through roots, dodging through thickets of grass and brambles, trailing a spray of blood where a thorn ripped through her skin.
Rushing black monster, closing the distance, bending and splintering trees, smelling blood and meat and fear. It leaped.
Neytiri screamed as the beast's paw knocked her to the ground. She yanked herself along the ground, gritting her teeth as the behemoth's giant claws tore gashed down her back. She regained her feet, disoriented, and stumbled forward again, hearing nothing but a high rushing sound.
The thanator leaped up beside her and swept its armored tail at her back, splintering her bow, sending her sprawling again to the ground. She groaned, coughing blood into the dirt, and then she was up again, running.
She heard Palulukan leap again, felt the breath of his strike, and formed a desperate plan in that instant. She leaped forward and twisted in the air, drawing an arrow as she fell. Slavering black death fell from above, dwarfing her. She held the arrow high, and aimed for the unarmored spot beneath its jaw.
Smell of the beast, musky and close as the thanator landed above her. The explosive roar shaking her ears as she rolled away. And the thanator rearing up on its back legs, swiping at the poison-tipped arrow lodged in its jaw. It landed heavily on its feet again and hissed at her, crest rising and falling. Then it staggered to one side and fell heavily to the ground.
Neytiri scrambled away from the body, lightheaded with shock and blood loss. She shook her head and fell to her knees, and all the sound of the forest and her own ragged breathing came back to her ears.
She stared dumbly at the huge creature. Palulukan wasn't dead. It took many Na'vi arrows to kill it, more than she had. But one would be enough this time, enough to stop it for a little while. Itcould not climb well, was too heavy for the higher branches of the trees. She would climb, and it would find new prey. She stumbled away, looking repeatedly over her shoulder at the still-breathing monster until it was out of sight.
Nearly an hour later, Neytiri found a tree she could climb, with a sturdy low branch to get her off the ground, and an easy progression halfway up the massive bole. The beast's tail had broken something inside her chest – raising her arms was sharp, bubbling pain. She was bleeding heavily from the slashes in her back, less so from a dozen other wounds. The top of the tree split in and out of focus as she clawed her way to the top.
And as she approached the apex, she smelled... something familiar. Na'vi, but different.
And then when she was forced to claw to the other side of the trunk to continue her ascent, she saw him. Tucked into a deep depression in the trunk... was Jake. Sleeping. Unharmed, glowing very faintly in the semi-dark.
"Jake," she gasped, coming to rest on a branch that curled out in front of the cavity. She fell forward, grabbing his shoulder for balance and shaking him weakly. "Jake! Wake up!"
He didn't respond; the slow pattern of his breathing didn't change.
"Wake up," she said weakly, her hand falling away.
She sat for a while on the branch, threading in and out of consciousness, unable to make herself move. She finally leaned forward and pulled herself into the hole in the tree as well, pushing Jake aside to make room. It was a difficult fit, even for her slender body.
She heard Palulukan roar somewhere out in the forest. Shivering even in the mild Pandoran air, she pushed herself under Jake's arm and rested her head beneath his collar bone. When she closed her eyes, she could only relive the fight with the thanator.
Eventually, mercifully, unconsciousness claimed her.