Chapter twelve

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Avatar.

A/N: Hello my readers and merry Christmas! I figured I would post a new chapter today as a sort of Christmas present. The chapter is short, and more of a filler than anything else. I hope you have a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! And that you enjoy the chapter.

The following morning dawned bright and early. The three staying in the cave (not counting the ikran outside) were just starting the day. Harry found that, even tough he was decided to move away from the isolation of the cave, he was still twitchy and nervous. He supposed it was only natural. He had, as he so often reminded himself, lived in isolation for several decades. The thought of living so close to people again made him rather anxious and nervous, and on top if this, he was excited. The strange aura that had seemed to surround him back in England didn't seem to be in effect here on Pandora. He could only hope and pray to Eywa that the whole 'no aging'-thing had gone away as well. Because he could not bear to stay unchanged as new people he would grow to care about grew old and died away from him.

As he packed up his stuff, mostly just food, he couldn't help but stall. He had grown strangely attached to the cave. He had spent months here, he had started a new life here. He had had nice moments there; when he cuddled with Theron and watched the sunset or the sunrise. But the cave had also seen bad times; during horrible storms when Harry was almost certain that they would be washed off of the floating mountain. It had also seen his nightmares. He had woken up quite often, screaming for something or other. They were usually about losing his friends, and those he considered family. But they had also included some of the more horrible moments from the war with Voldemort and his Death Eaters.

Shaking himself out of those memories, Harry made himself move faster. 'No need to stall, it will be done either way. Might as well do it right away. I'm over 100 years for crying out loud! No need to childishly stall the time when it will do me no good.' He thought to himself, using leaves and some subtle magic (he had managed to gain some control over his magic aver the out-of-body-experience not long ago).

Jake and Neytiri was standing outside and talking quietly, gladly giving the child (in appearance) time to gather himself and his belongings. When he finally came out with the last of the food, and the few tools he had managed to make for himself, they took some of the bags on their own ikran and got ready to leave.

"Ready, kid?" Jake asked, looking over at Harry. Harry gazed back at him, then turned his gaze back to the cave again, not answering right away. He seemed to be thinking it over. On one hand he wanted to leave the cave behind, start fresh. A place where no one would fawn over him or avoid him like the plague. A chance of being 'just Harry', like he had always wanted. But on the other hand, the cave represented safety. Nobody else came here (before Neytiri and Jake followed him here), and he could do as he pleased and wanted, not having to think of others, except Theron.

Harry shook his head. He was going in circles, he had already decided what he was going to do and standing here and debating with himself was not going to change his mind. So, he turned back to Jake with a small smile, which didn't really reach his emerald eyes, and nodded.

But as they flew away, he couldn't help looking back at the place he had slowly started considering as home. It wasn't big or fancy, and that was one of the things he liked about it. Harry preferred small and cosy over huge and extravagant. He supposed that the new home he would get now would be small and functional as well, since village life did not give many opportunities for extravagances. Harry thought it might just be what he needed. So, with that thought and a last look backwards, he turned around and followed Jake and Neytiri back towards their village in their forest.

…

The journey back to the village seemed to take no time at all, compared with the journey from it only a few days ago. Though that might have something to do with the fact that last time he left it he was wounded and slowly dying of poisoning. The journey was spent in silence, none of the three travellers seemed to want to break the silence, so Harry just laid back on Theron's back and enjoyed the ride.

After a while Harry noticed that they weren't alone anymore. He felt like someone was watching them, and it was not a nice feeling. Straightening up, he noticed that Theron had noticed it too, since he was looking around and the feeling from their connection seemed to match. Looking around, he noticed that neither Jack nor Neytiri seemed to find anything out of the ordinary. This did not calm him, and he kept looking about. The feeling was getting stronger as they flew, though he couldn't pinpoint where it was coming from. Harry was just about to call out to his traveling companions when he realized that the feeling was very familiar, in fact he could tell exactly where he had felt this feeling of being observed by someone before. It was right before that giant ikran fell from the sky to try and catch him and Theron for its supper.

"Get down!" he yelled as soon as he realized the danger, and not a minute too soon. Just as they dived down to the canopy below them, the beast came down from below, having been hidden by the sun up until now and chased them down. But Harry's warning gave them all time enough to get down to the trees as lad in an area where toruk's giant body would not be able to get to, and safety.

"Damn, that was close!" Harry gasped, his heart racing in his chest as he continued to look about though the feeling of being hunted had dissipated, he was still rather jumpy.

"That's the second encounter with that flying menace I've had! Merlin! What the hell is that beast! I swear, it's worse than a dragon, I tell you!" Harry ranted, continuing to cuss and swear as he paced on the forest floor. Jake and Neytiri just watched, bemused. After a while the perfect English turned to a hissing and spluttering that neither could make heads not tales of. After an impressive amount of time spent in this fashion, he finally seemed to calm down and realize that he had an audience to his rant. He looked back at Jake and Neytiri and blushed furiously.

"Eh, sorry 'bout that. I didn't mean for you to hear all that." He mumbled, turning his gaze to his ikran and started petting him to calm the animal down further after both the chase and the following yelling and cussing.

"Well, we only understood a portion of what you said." Jake said, looking at Harry with interest and understanding. He could understand why one would rant after such an event, it was a way of relieving stress after all. He had used it on several occasions himself after all. Harry looked up when he heard that they had only understood parts of the rant. Both relief and embarrassment in his eyes.

"Oh, well. That might have been just as well. I do not think you would have liked what you heard," he said with a sheepish smile on his face. He did not elaborate on which language he was speaking, but neither Jake nor Neytiri seemed to want to press the matter. They supposed, quite correctly, that they would have to earn his trust before they could start interrogating about that subject. This belief was only strengthened when Harry changed the subject.

"But what was that flying menace. This is the second time in as many months that I've met him. It would be nice to have a name to what is trying to eat me for supper." Harry asked, looking genuinely curious. Seeing no harm in telling him the dangers that inhabited Pandora, Neytiri decided that she would tell him what hunted them.

"That was Toruk, last shadow. He is a great hunter, using the sun to hide its presence before diving for its prey. They do not usually hunt for Na'vi, but for ikran." She told him, while gesturing to both males that they should continue on their way.

"Come, let us go. Toruk should have moved on by now," and with that final saying they took to the air again. End even though they looked about and continued to be on their guard, they saw no trace of Toruk. And the rest of the journey to the village was rather uneventful.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed the chapter. It is rather short and there is little that happen during it or new information coming forth. But I hope you enjoyed!

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