"Cut it down, we're going to be here awhile." Sha'tira said through the mic on her necklace. She leaped out of the gunship and pulled on her pack. Cassi cut the engine of the Scorpion while her doorman, Jackal hopped out with his weapon at the ready. She shoved it down to the ground with her foot and hissed at him.
"If that gun goes off, I will castrate you." She smirked. "Unless the thanators do it for me." He frowned but wisely kept any smart retorts to himself. She lead the way into the forest, passing prolemuris and fan lizards and all of the beautiful pandoran flora.
"So Doc, what are we looking for?"
"We'll be looking for your head among the Thanator shit if you don't shut up." She growled. "We're looking for a flower, if you must know."
"All of this for a goddamn flower." Jackal scoffed.
"All of this is for science." Sha'tira said. They continued to traverse the wilds of Pandora before she finally found the object of her quest. It was high in the trees, attached to to bundle of vines, a large purple flower with tendrils that radiated with bioluminescence despite it being broad daylight. Panopyra as the humans had named it. But was Tawtsngal to the People. She looked at Jackal. "Stay here. Don't move and don't shoot unless you see a big ass purple thing with sharp teeth and its trying to kill you." He snorted in reply as she grabbed onto the first few vines that curled around the tree. She easily began climbing upward. Before her transfer to the avatar program during her training, she did a lot of freerunning and parkour and continued to stay in great physical shape. She was at the top without really breaking a sweat and sat down on a branch to begin taking samples and clippings. The process took about 20 minutes altogether, but she was in no hurry to leave, so she took her time.
She was interrupted by the firing of gunshots below, and looked down just in time to see Jackal disappear down a thanator's throat. "Dammit." She quickly packed and rose to a crouch. The snap of a branch behind her alerted her to the presence of another thanator behind her. She remained as still as possible, judging when the creature would attack, and just as it did, she leaped forward onto another branch, scrabbling back to her feet and began to run.
They were close behind her as Sha'tira raced back to the scorpion. "Cassi, start her up, we've got company." She creamed into the speaker around her neck. The whirring of an engine greeted her close by. She had just broken through the foliage and spotted the gunship about to take off when a thanator landed on her back. It wrapped its jaws around her pack and swung its head from side to side, shaking her like a ragdoll. She struck out blindly with her knife and managed to catch a part of its tongue. It roared in pain and threw her halfway across the clearing. Another quickly took its place, but she was on her feet to face this one. with her knife suspended, ready to attack, she unbuckled her pack as she saw another thanator about to attack the chopper. Without warning, she turned and ran in its direction. The thanator barreled after her and grabbed her pack, just as the first one had, but this time, she slipped free of the straps as it pulled. Cassi was firing at the thanator as it tried to tear up her rotors. Sha'tira leaped onto its back and stabbed at the back of its neck with her knife, but it broke off on the first hit to its armored hide.
"How the hell do we kill this thing?" Cassi screamed, struggling to keep the gunship aloft and fire the gun at the same time.
Sha'tira saw only one thing to do. She grabbed her braid and reached for the thanator's queue. The connection took only a second and the sensation that came with it, nearly made her fall off the thanator's back. She laughed and closed her eyes, just feeling the creature beneath her, that had frozen as they bonded.
"Back away." She said, and the beast obeyed. It slowly stepped backwards and paused, turning to roar at the other thanators as they tried to tear up her equipment in her pack. They backed away as well. "This is amazing."
"I'm sure it is." Cassi said, now can we go?"
Sha'tira disconnected her queue, immediately feeling the sense of loss at the contact. She climbed down and retrieved her stuff. The thanators remained docile as she did so. She climbed into the scorpion and Cassi quickly lifted them above the trees.
"Jackal's dead?" Cassi asked.
"Yea-" Sha'tira could hardly get the word out when the craft was suddenly wrenched sideways and she was thrown out of the side door. She managed to catch a seat belt before plummeting to her death when she spotted the creature that had attacked them. It was a Great Leonopteryx, but it wasn't the large red one that she was used to seeing. This one was larger and bright yellow with black and blue markings. It roared and again tried to savagely tear the plane in half.
"Goddamn!" Cassi exclaimed as she struggled to keep the scorpion aloft. An explosion on the tail confirmed that the rotors had been destroyed and... that they were going to crash. Sha'tira reached into the plane and retrieved her pack and managed to put it back on before looking down. They were near a large waterfall and a thick canopy trees, but she did recognize one of the surrounding landmarks. The tree of the Omaticaya could be seen in the distance.
"Jump, Cassi! Land in the water." She instructed.
"What?! You're cra-" The Leonopteryx attacked again, this time practically crushing the cockpit with his hind claws and stabbing at the cockpit with its maw. Sha'tira was forced to let go and plummet to the ground.
The cold water stung like hell when she crashed into the river. She scrambled to break the surface and breathe in the Pandoran air. She gasped and crashed into rocks and stones on the riverbed and was pushed by the fierce current for what felt like hours but was only about 10 minutes, before she finally summoned enough strength to grab onto the banks and pull herself to safety. There, she collapsed and vomited a gutful of water onto the grass. She groaned and laid down for a while.
A whirring noise interrupted her much needed rest and she reached into her pack, thanking Eywa that it was waterproof and pulled out her small holopad. Grace immediately appeared on the screen. "Sha'tira! Are you alright? Quaritch lost the signal of your plane."
"I'm fine Grace." Sha'tira panted. "Cassi and Jackal are dead. We were attacked by another Leonopteryx. Not the red one."
"Can you get the Avatar to a safe place so we can pull you back?"
"I don't know. I'll try to find the People. Perhaps they'll help."
"Be safe and be on the lookout for that jarhead marine."
"Jake's still here? I thought you guys went back hours ago. The sun is nearly set."
"He pissed off some Titanotheres and a Thanator and dove off a cliff. We lost him after that. Please be careful."
Sha'tira nodded and put the holopad away before getting up with another groan and setting off in the direction of Hometree. It must have been hours before she reached familiar forests and was walking along the broad branches of the trees when she heard a whipping noise. "Shit!" The Navi weapon slammed into her legs and she slipped off the branch and crashed to the ground. She quickly used her knife to cut it off but it took her a moment longer to get to her feet. Her worst nightmare emerged from the trees. Tsu'tey.
"You fucking asshole!" She growled as he smirked at her with his knife suspended. "That was so unnecessary."
"You should not be here." He said in his accented english.
"Where is Neytiri?" She demanded. "I need to speak with her."
"You are a demon in a false body. I should kill you now."
She hissed at him and drew her own knife. "Fuck. You."
They ran at each other with weapons drawn. She immediately dove beneath him, hooking his leg and knocking him down. His fist collided with her face with massive force as she rose to straddle him. She spat blood into his face and returned the fist. He raised his knife but she wisely rolled out of his reach. They faced each other again. He charged this time, spearing her through the abdomen before she could move. The wind was knocked out of her and her knife slipped from her grasp. With a triumphant roar, he raised his knife to strike the final blow… but stopped..when he froze.
A floating seed descended through the air, slowly and bewitchingly to land on her chest. Both of them stared at it for a full minute before it slowly began to ascend.
Tsu'tey suddenly turned her over and, using the remains of the weapon he'd used to hit her, tied her hands and feet.
"Again, unnecessary." Sha'tira said with an exasperated sigh. He only grunted in reply and dragged her back to his dire horse.
"Tsahik will decide how you will die." He grinned evilly and threw over the back of the animal.