Tribe: a social division in a traditional society consisting of families or communities linked together by social, economic, religious, or blood ties, with a common culture and dialect, typically having a recognized leader
"Would you guys hurry up?" Spider called back to the two Na'vi as they climbed over the scaly rock shore. "We're going to lose sight of them at this rate."
"We're coming, we're coming, just wait there for a second," Lo'ak called back to Spider.
"And here you guys were saying I would be the one to slow you down," Spider grumbled.
Aonung glared up at the human teenager as he climbed over another boulder. It seemed that the Metakayina's bodies, while well adapted to swimming in the ocean, were not so great at climbing. Or at least, Aonung wasn't. "Oh, shut it," he scoffed.
"Don't worry, Spider, we're coming," Lo'ak called back to Spider as he held his hand out to Aonung for a lift up the next rock.
"Yeah, yeah," Spider mumbled to himself, turning back around.
Spider climbed up another couple rocks and peered around them, trying to keep Jake's group in his sight as he waited for the other two to catch up.
Only he could no longer see them. They must have gotten too far ahead of them and been hidden behind another stone by now.
"Fuck," he cursed to himself. He knew this would probably have happened eventually. But still… fuck.
"Everything good up there?" Lo'ak looked back up at Spider and asked when he heard Spider mumble something angrily.
"You still got a view of them?" Aonung asked.
"No," Spider said. "Hurry up, we might be able to find them again."
"Again?" Aonung asked. "Did you lose sight of them?"
Spider rolled his eyes. "Yeah, maybe if you moved faster it wouldn't have happened," he said, annoyance clear in his voice, just as Lo'ak and Aonung caught up to his location.
Aonung looked at Spider, irritation evident on his features. Honestly, he didn't even know why he agreed to go on with these two on… whatever it was they were doing. Sure, before that one battle he and Lo'ak had been getting along marginally better, if that's what you called them avoiding each other, but ever since that, and since this Sky person kid showed up, their relationship quickly turned back to what it originally was.
But the Sky person kid. Aonung would be lying if he said the kid's presence didn't irk him just a little bit. He didn't know where the kid came from, for one thing. He also didn't know why his father just let the kid stay among the tribe, for another thing. Whenever he asked, his father only said, "now's not the time to talk about it."
It didn't help that the kid was just so… infuriating. What with whatever need the kid had to argue with him whenever they crossed paths. Meanwhile, becoming friends with his sister.
And the two still haven't told him what exactly they were doing out here. Only said they were following Lo'ak's father because… they still haven't told him why. He should have never agreed to this, it's only spelling trouble. And he was still in enough trouble for when he left Lo'ak out at sea… almost a month ago now.
Spider's eyebrow twitched hearing this. "Well I wasn't the one slowing us down," he yelled out, a scowl present on his face.
Xx?xXx?xXx?xX
About fifty yards above the teenagers, hidden on a small ledge of a cliff and looking down below, the squad of six Marines squatted, listening to the three teenagers bickering below.
"You see those people down there?" Morrow asked.
"Yeah," Lopez nodded as he precariously looked down the rocky face at the three, careful so that they wouldn't see him if they looked up. "They look like kids though."
The Marines hadn't planned on finding them out here. They were still following the trail carved into the trees back on the islands. Eventually they were able to reach the rocky landmass the trail pointed to and picked up the trail again.
Although it wasn't long after they made it to the new landmass that they caught sight of the two Na'vi and human teenagers.
They hadn't originally planned on following them, intending on continuing the trail they were already on. Although they shortly realized that whatever path the three were going on, it was similar to the trail the Marines had been following.
Only similar though. There were a number of deviations the Na'vi and human teenager made, enough so that it seemed they didn't know about the trail the Recombinants had left.
Which was all good for them. If the boys didn't suspect the Marines were out here or had any idea what they were looking for, there should be no problems then. Should be.
They still didn't know what the three were doing out here. And with the lack of vegetation and animal life in this area, it was doubtful to say that they were hunting or gathering food. And judging by their last interactions with the Na'vi near the wreckage site, Lopez figured it would be best if they remained unnoticed.
"It's two Na'vi and that one human we saw on the beach with them," Pile said. "Almost look like adults," he added.
"Maybe, the human looks sixteen at the most," Lopez said. Then he motioned to Pile. "Can you make out anything they're saying?" he asked.
Pile scooted closer to the cliff's edge, straining his ears to make out what they were saying. Lucky for him, the three weren't attempting to be quiet at all and as whatever conversation they were having went on, their volume only increased.
"Sounds like an argument of some sort," Pile said.
"Well I could have guessed that," Blatchford huffed out, sitting next to him. "Do your job and translate it, or did that linguist training go to waste?"
"Oh shut up and let me listen," Pile said, again focusing on the three boys below them. "Sounds like… there's another group of Na'vi around here… and those boys got separated from them."
"Wait, there's more of them around here?" Morrow asked.
"That's what they're making it sound like," Pile said.
"Well, I don't want to find out," Lopez said. He moved his feet, readjusting his legs as they grew sore from squatting on the hard stone. "Can you make out anything else they are saying?" he asked Pile.
"Not much, sir," Pile replied.
Then, the teenagers suddenly stopped talking.
"I think they heard us, sir," Pile whispered.
"Fucking shit," Morrow cursed.
Xx?xXx?xXx?xX
Over the sound of Spider and Aonung arguing, Lo'ak could hear something in the distance. Something that sounded like people talking. Which was weird and sort of disconcerting, considering the fact that the only other living being around here was his father's hunting party, that was a distance ahead of them. He couldn't make out what exactly whoever's voices were saying, or where the sounds were coming from, but he knew it wasn't from his father's group up ahead.
"Hey, you guys, quiet down for a second," Lo'ak said to his two companions. Getting them to stop talking for just a second.
"What is it?" Aonung asked, looking at him.
"Listen," Lo'ak said as he motioned for them to stop talking and be quiet.
Aonung and Spider both remained silent, trying to listen for whatever Lo'ak heard. They all looked around their surroundings, but couldn't see anything, anything except for the gray of more rocks and stones for as long as their eyes could see.
"What is it?" Spider asked quietly after a couple minutes of nothing happening.
Lo'ak ear twitched and he turned around and looked up, to the top of the rock wall they were standing next to. He couldn't see anyone or anything though.
"I think there's something up there," he said, ears twitching and trying to pick up any more sounds.
"Something?... or someone?" Aonung asked.
"It sounded like voices," Lo'ak said quietly.
The three continued to look around. "I don't see anything," Aonung said, and motioned to the direction they had been intending to walk towards. "We should keep moving, try and catch up."
Then, a couple stones and dust dropped down from the side of the rock wall the three were standing next to. They all froze where they were standing, and slowly turned their gazes upwards.
"Still don't believe me?" Lo'ak said as he grabbed ahold of the rock face.
"I never said I didn't," Aonung said.
"Hey, where you going?" Spider asked as he watched Lo'ak start to scale up the cliff's edge.
"What's it look like?" Lo'ak asked, reaching up and grabbing a rock above his head. "I'm gonna go up and just take a look at what's up there."
"Are you insane?!" Aonung almost yelled. "You don't know what's up there, we should just leave it be and try to catch up to the others."
For once, and probably the first time, Spider agreed with Aonung. If they got any more separated from Jake's group, they'd be lost out here. And he doubted any of them knew the way back. If only they knew this trip would take them out so far.
"Lo'ak, we need to keep moving," Spider said.
"Then move up here with me," Lo'ak said. When he noticed neither boy move to follow him, he said instead. "Relax, this'll only take a minute, we aren't that far behind.
Lo'ak gripped his hand around the top of the high ledge, where he thought the voices he heard minutes earlier were coming from. He heaved and pulled his upper body up.
He looked up, and saw his head was only mere inches away from Pile's boot. His eyes grew wide and his ears pinned back in surprise. "What the-"
"Don't just sit there Pile!" Lo'ak watched as one of the human Marines he found on top of the cliff yelled out in English, then grabbed the one sitting right next to Lo'ak and pulled him back by the shoulders.
The next thing Lo'ak knew was the butt of a rifle being jammed into his face and him falling to the ground next to Spider and Aonung.
"Lo'ak!" Both Spider and Aonung called out his name as he landed next to him.
"What the hell was that?!" Spider asked as he came and crouched over Lo'ak. He pulled the bow he had off his back and pointed it to the top of the cliff.
Lo'ak shook his head to clear it and looked at where he just came tumbling down from. "There's a group of humans up there. Friggin' RDA," he said.
"You mean Sky people?" Aonung asked as he looked up. "What are they doing out here?"
Pile and Blatchford then poked their heads over the cliff's edge to look at the three beings down below. When they saw that two of them now had weapons pointed at them they brought out their rifles to point down as well.
"What the fuck did you do, Sarge?" Pile asked as Morrow came up as well to point his gun down. "You got them pointing weapons at us now."
"I saved your life is what I did," Morrow replied.
The next thing that happened, Spider shot his arrow up at the Marine's. But it missed, and the men were easily able to dodge out of the way. The arrow embedded itself in a rock above.
"Is that it?" Pile asked as he looked up at it. It wasn't a full size Na'vi arrow, that was for sure, but if it hit one of them, the damage would be severe.
Blatchford lifted up his rifle and aimed it down at the boys. "Permission to fire, sir?" he asked.
Lopez precariously peered over the ledge again. "Hold your fire," he said as he noticed that all his men had their rifles trained on the boys.
Spider and Lo'ak each readied another arrow.
Lopez looked down through his rifle scope, a million and one possibilities for how to get out of this flowing through his mind. "We can't just shoot at them, it's a freaking kid," he mumbled.
"Respectfully sir," Morrow said. "They did shoot their arrows at us first."
"After you pushed one off a cliff," Lopez interjected.
"Well what else should we have done? He was about to attack," Morrow asked.
"You don't know that," Lopez said as he looked through his rifle's sight at the Na'vi Morrow kicked down the cliff. "Now he looks like he's about to attack," Lopez said, noticing the arrow trained on them.
Lo'ak took their pause as an opportunity to shoot another arrow at the group. This too, went high, hitting the rocks above them right next to where Spider's landed, but it caused the group of Marines to jump back to the far side of the ledge, away from the cliff's drop.
"Shit," Morrow cursed.
Before anyone on either side of the small fight was able to do anything, they paused after hearing a loud series of cracks, coming exactly from the rocks the two arrows had landed in.
The three teens at the bottom of the cliff turned their eyes higher up to where their arrows had landed while Lopez quickly turned his head behind himself.
"What the-" he said, his eyes grew wide as he saw a large piece of stone break off from the mountain and start tumbling down towards all of them.