Soldiers of Fortune
"The Fog part 1"
Leon rubbed his mask with his hand. He continued to rub it until he found out that it was fogging up on the inside.
"Damn thing is broken," muttered Leon. "Keeps fogging up on the inside."
Grace let out a hearty chuckle. He did the best he could to look at her but everything was getting all cloudy.
"Your pack is working fine," said Grace. "Relax. You can't see anything up here anyway."
"What do you mean?" asked Leon who didn't quite understand what was going on.
"Your pack is sucking up all the fog," said Grace who laughed again as Leon's face was slowly disappearing in the thick fog forming in his mask.
Alice couldn't help but laugh at him too.
"Yeah easy for you guys to laugh at this," grumbled Leon who's mask was now full of fog thick as pea soup.
"You afraid of flying Corporal?" asked the pilot.
"I don't mind flying but I'd prefer to have my feet on solid ground," complained Leon.
"Then you probably don't want to be watching this," said the pilot.
Leon would have to take his word as they continued to fly through the thick fog. But after a few minutes of flying blind the fog was clearing and so was Leon's mask. He jumped back as they had just passed… Leon shook his head. No it couldn't have been. But another floating mountain bigger than the last one floated by. He rubbed his mask to make sure that the fog had cleared and he wasn't seeing things.
Grace leaned out from her seat to see what Leon was seeing.
"Is this heaven?" asked Leon.
"I've been wondering that myself," said Grace.
"We're approaching the drop zone," said the pilot to the other passengers.
"Hallelujah," mumbled Leon.
"What did you say?" asked Grace.
"I said 'Hallelujah!'" yelled Leon. "You know prayer. 'Hallelujah! Praise be to God. For he has risen.' You got something against religion too?"
Grace shook her head. "Soldier you need to stop naming everything and leave that to us."
"Sounds like you got quite a lucky charm there boss," said the pilot to Grace as they touched down on a mountain.
"You have no idea," said Grace who began to chuckle. She'd have to make a mental note to remember to change the name from "The Floating Mountains" to "Hallelujah Mountains."
"So what are we doing here?" asked Leon as they climbed out of the Samson.
"We've gotten reports of Na'vi climbing these mountains," said Grace checking her gear. "There appears to be a Banshee rookery near by."
"Okay well have fun," said Leon sitting back down in the Samson.
"Oh no you're not," said Grace. "I thought you said and I quote: 'Its my job to protect you.'"
"Well if you haven't noticed I'm afraid of heights," he said. "There is no way I'm climbing those mountains."
"This is ridiculous," said Leon shaking his head as Grace had managed to jury-rig a harness to carry Leon onto her back.
"Stop moving back there," she barked as she climbed a long vine up to mountain. "You're not making this any easier."
They finally reached a ledge which they could stand upon. Both women were exhausted from the climb.
"Do you see anything?" asked Grace.
Leon looked around. "There looks like hand and foot holds on this cliff. Actually they look man made. Er whatever made."
He was right. The foot holds had perfect spacing for Grace and Alice to scale up the cliffside. This must be one of the routes that the Na'vi took to get to the rookeries. One of Grace's foot slipped from her foot hold instinctively causing Leon to wrap his arms around her neck.
"Sorry," said Grace regaining her footing.
"Please don't do that again," said Leon closing his eyes. "Falling once to my death is enough in one life time."
Grace was up and moving again. She was nearly out of breath when she climbed over the cliff and into a large cave. Grace finally removed the small backpack and let him wander the cave. He peered over the cliff they had just scaled. Chills ran up his spine.
"Hey maybe I'm speaking too soon but how are we going to get back down?" asked Leon.
Alice leaned over the cliff as well. "Its too hard climb down in reverse. There's got to be another way down."
"There is," said Grace at the other end of the cave.
Alice and Leon walked across the cave as it opened up into to reveal a waterfall and another side of the floating mountain. Hundreds upon hundreds of Banshee of all different colors were flying around or nesting on the side across from them.
Even Leon was at a loss for words at the sight. Alice and Grace would be busy studying the Banshee and pay no attention to him.
He noticed a small ledge leading to behind the waterfall. Probably lead to the other side or into a secret passage way. The path was relatively worn and smooth. It was well traveled and just large enough for a single Na'vi to walk across.
"What have you got there?" asked Grace looking over him completely like a woman looking over a child. She noticed the path that Leon was studying. "Wonderful. Now we can get to the other side."
"You're not serious," said Leon but it was already too late. She was pushing him along the path. Leon hugged the wall keeping as far away from the edge as possible.
"You are such a baby," said Grace picking him up.
"What are you doing?" asked Leon to tried to grab at the wall.
She cradled him in her arms and inched herself along. Leon grabbed hold of her large arm in case she accidentally dropped him. Grace inched along with her back against the wall trying to keep dry. But Leon was not so lucky, he got drenched by the waterfall.
"You did that on purpose," said Leon as soon as they reached the other side.
Grace laughed at him as he was soaked to the bone. "I did not."
"Grace," said Alice frantically. Grace looked up from the little man in her arms. They were face to face with a large Banshee.
Leon gulped extra hard. If the Na'vi rode these things, he hoped it didn't look like Grace was giving them a piece of meat.
Leon did something which he hoped he wouldn't regret later. He shooed it away. Surprisingly it worked. The Banshee looked scared and took off.
"What did you do?" asked Grace just as surprised as Leon was.
"I don't know," said Leon. "All I did was shoo it away."
Grace and Alice looked at each other and shrugged their large shoulders. Alice approached a Banshee and watched it quickly scramble out of her way.
"These things are just big pigeons," said Alice laughing as she scared away another.
"Yeah if pigeons were fifteen feet tall reptiles with razor sharp teeth," said Leon as Grace put him down wanting to try for herself. "What are you guys doing?"
"This is all in the name of science," said Grace watching a Banshee flying off when she took a step towards it.
"So where's this way down?" asked Leon looking for paths around the flying mountain.
"You're looking at it," said Grace pointing to the Banshees circling above.
"Come again?" asked Leon staring skyward.
"The Na'vi use the Banshees for transportation," said Grace. "This is where they get them. Its probably a right of passage for a youth to become an adult. So there's only one way down."
Not wanting to look like meat, Leon stuck close to Alice as she maneuvered her way away from the cliff and moved inward. Watching her back Leon accidentally trotted on her tail. She let out a yelp.
"Sorry," mumbled Leon not taking his eyes off of a Banshee in front of him.
"I thought you were a big tough soldier?" asked Grace.
"Easy for you, you don't look like an appetizer," said Leon.
"Just the main corse," said Grace as she was slowly backing away from a green one that didn't budge when she approached it. It eyed her as she slowly backed away from it. It let out an ear piercing cry at her.
"So that's why they call em Banshees," said Leon who covered his ears.
"That's why," said Alice who covered her own ears even when they were folded nearly close.
Leon reached for his gun and took aim at the creature.
"Don't get trigger happy on me," said Grace who watched the Banshee. Her eyes locked with it.
The Banshee let out another cry before taking off and flying away.
"What the hell was that all about?" asked Leon lowering his weapon but quickly wished he hadn't.
A voice in a language he had never heard before sounded behind them. They quickly spun around to find themselves staring straight at arrows pointed at them. Very large poisonous arrows.
"Don't move a muscle," said Grace to Leon. She began to talk back to them in their language. The blue man in front relaxed his bow but the others still held their aim at them. The blue man looked at Leon curiously. Maybe this was the first human he had ever seen. He began to talk to him in his language.
"He knows who you are," said Grace. "He is saying they call you 'Falls from Trees.'"
"Well you can tell him he's a jackass," said Leon.
"You can tell it to his face," said Grace. "He speaks english."
"What?" asked Leon not believing his ears.
"What mean 'jackass?'" asked the Na'vi.