Posture: behave in a way that is intended to impress or mislead

Their search for their missing teammates was leading to very little results, much to the annoyance of all three of them. Spider was annoyed that he was separated from everyone he knew and was being treated like a child. Lopez was annoyed that nothing was going to plan and he had to now deal with a kid that wouldn't leave them Pile was annoyed that he had to basically play peacekeeper between the two, which also meant babysitting the human teen that thought he was a Na'vi.

"Do you even know where to look for him?" Spider asked. "I can help you navigate the land, find him-"

"We've been navigating the land and following his trail just fine," Lopez said, dismissing the boy and keeping the fact that after a while they had started following the kid's group a secret.

"Look what I found," their attention was drawn away by Pile, who pulled out what looked to be one of the Na'vi bows out from a pile of rubble.

"Give me that," Spider said as he quickly jumped around on the rocks to Pile's location and snatched the bow from his hands.

"Woah there!" Pile exclaimed as he was pushed back by the boy. "Is that the thing you were shooting at us with?" he asked.

"No," Spider said as he ran his hands up and down the wood. It was broken, a large splinter crack going up the length of the bow. While technically fixable, it would be a pain to do so. "It's Lo'ak's," Spider mumbled. Lo'ak would be upset to learn that it had broken. It was one of the few things he had left from when they left the Omaticaya.

"One of those two guys you were with?" Pile asked softly.

"Yeah," Spider said after a couple seconds. He didn't want to know what finding the bow underneath this rubble meant. He shifted his gaze to the pile of rubble the Marine had pulled the bow from. If Lo'ak was buried underneath it, there would be no way that the three humans would be able to dig it all up to find them.

"I'm sure they're okay," Pile interrupted Spider's thoughts, trying to reassure the younger man.

"Why are you acting like this?" Spider asked, turning to look the man in the eye. The man's eyes were a bright green color, SPider noted. He always saw it as strange, how many shades of color human eyes could come in. He was pretty sure he had never seen eyes with that sort of color though. "We tried attacking you earlier."

Pile chuckled. "You guys are kids," he said, as if that explained everything. It didn't explain anything to Spider. "It's not like you hurt us."

Spider's eyebrows scrunched up in confusion. "We caused the landslide," he said. "It led to the death of two of your guys."

Pile shrugged his shoulders. "I'm just trying to be nice to you kid, you don't have to question everything," he said as he turned to look up to where Lopez was standing.

The Lieutenant had been standing about thirty yards away from them, standing on top of a rock and looking at something neither of them could see. Whatever it was had caught the man's attention. "Hey LT, see anything interesting up there?" Pile called out to him, asking.

Xx?xXx?xXx?xX

"So what do we have here?" Quaritch asked as Wainfleet came down to him.

"I found friends," Wainfleet said, smiling at his boss. "Friends that even the General won't be mad about."

Quaritch ran his eyes over the group. They looked like Na'vi, but a tribe he hadn't seen before. Their skin wasn't the deep blue of the forest tribe's, nor the teal of the sea people's. It was still blue, but with a much grayer tint. It almost looked like they were covered in the chalky remains of some broken rocks.

The weapons they were holding peeked Quaritch's interest the most however. "Are those swords?" he asked. He tried to recall if he had ever seen any Na'vi using swords, but couldn't.

Arrows? Yes.

Spears? Yes.

Knives? Sometimes, but more as tools and less as combat weapons.

Swords? He couldn't think of a time.

"Swords and lances," Wainfleet said. "They don't have them with them right now, but back at their base camp they even have some rifles. The ones the RDA left behind fifteen years ago."

"Since when do Na'vi use rifles?" Quaritch asked. He didn't remember ever seeing one, other than Sully, using one to fight. They all used bow and arrows, other such primitive weaponry.

"That's what I thought when I first saw them," Wainfleet said. "It's not like their rifles are much use anyways. Half of them are broken, and they've ran out of bullets."

"That why they didn't bring them with them?" Quaritch asked.

"Yep," Wainfleet said, then motioned to the rifle strapped across his chest. "I still have mine though."

"So just who are these people?" Quaritch asked, wanting to know just who they were dealing with now.

"Well, you know my Na'vi isn't the best," Wainfleet started, and Quaricth had to agree with him there, the Recom's Na'vi skills were what he could only call atrocious. "And they didn't seem the most fluent in English," Wainfleet continued. "But from what I gathered, they call themselves the Stone people. They have some sort of beef with those water Na'vi we fought two weeks ago and are looking to ally with us in fighting against them."

Quaritch thought over that information. "Us as in…?"

"Humanity," Wainfleet answered his unfinished question. "They want to ally with the RDA."

"Really?" Quaritch asked, smiling. This group was interesting, really interesting indeed. "And they want to be our allies?"

"That's what they told me," Wainfleet said. "They have some sort of history with those sea people. Didn't get any specifics really, but…" he shrugged. "They said they wanted to speak to you about that though."

"Fine then," Quaritch nodded and smiled. "Take me to them, let's see what they have."

Xx?xXx?xXx?xX

The ropes made out of vine and other forest materials dug into the skin on his wrists and arms as he struggled to break free. How the fuck did this happen to him?

Actually, what the fuck happened to him? One moment those Na'vi kids were shooting arrows at them, the next he woke up to a pounding pain in his skull and ropes tied around his arms, keeping him bound to some trees.

"Hey Morrow," he looked over at Blatchford, tied up next to him. The guy looked a little worse for wear, dirt covering all his exposed skin, bruises forming on his arms. Lucky for him, for both of them, his mask was still on and looked like it hadn't fallen off. "What do you think they're going to do to us?"

Morrow turned his vision back to the group of tall Na'vi standing above them, speaking in a language he couldn't understand, and glared at them. God, he wished Pile was here with them. Even though the kid was annoying as all hell, if there was one thing the kid could do, that was speak whatever weird words the Na'vi used.

"Hell if I know," Morrow grumbled. "Did you see any sign of where the others are?" he asked the other Marine.

"No," Blatchford shook his head in the negative. "Woke up tied up against this rock, same as you."

"Shit," Morrow sighed. The damn Na'vi stripped them of all their weapons and supplies, even their protective gear. The only things they had on them were their clothes and their gas masks. Somehow those things hadn't broken in the giant rockslide. "Fucking shit."

Morrow didn't know what their captors wanted, but he supposed since they still had the masks on that they were going to be kept alive for now. That meant they had time to make their escape. Not that he knew where they would or could go, but he figured anywhere was better than here.

Xx?xXx?xXx?xX

"Oh let me go you damn bastards!" A yelling voice broke through Lo'ak's consciousness, waking him up.

At first he was greatly disorientated, not sure where he was or why his muscles were so sore. It felt like a ton of rocks had just been dumped all over him. Just what happened?

Then a series of images flashed through his mind. A cliff. A group of small humans. A rock. A bunch of rocks.

Oh, that's right. A ton of rocks were dumped all over them. He opened his eyes and slowly sat up and took a look around him. He was laying on a stone, a group of older Na'vi from the Metakayina were around them, with another group a little bit aways off, standing in a group. They seemed to be talking about something important over there.

He heard another groan beside him and looked to his right. Aonung. A sense of relief passed over him. If he was here and breathing and everything, that meant he was alive, that whatever hairbrained idea he had come up with didn't get them all killed. But that left-

Spider. Where was Spider?

"Spider," Lo'ak mumbled, catching the attention of one of the adult Metakayina standing nearby. "Where's Spider?" he asked them as they came over to him.

"What?" the man asked and kneeled down next to him. "You're Jake Sully's kid, right?" he asked.

"Yeah," Lo'ak nodded. "Where's Spider? The little human that was with us?"

"Spider?" the Na'vi repeated, his face one of confusion shifting to slight recognition. "Oh, you mean that little Sky Person that was running around the village with you?" At Lo'ak's eager nod, he continued. "I haven't seen him, don't think any of the others have as well. Was he with you guys?"

Lo'ak's face fell when he heard that. Spider wasn't with them? Then where was he?

"Lo'ak!" he heard someone then shout out his name. He turned his head in the direction of where the shout came from, and saw his father storming over to him.

Oh shit, he looked pissed.

"What were you thinking?" Jake yelled out as soon as he got over to him.

Yeah, he definitely was pissed.

But never mind that-

"Dad! Wait! Whe-" he started.

"No, that's it! You weren't thinking! What were you two doing out here anyways!" Jake cut him off.

"Dad! Where- Where's Spider?" Lo'ak asked.

That made Jake stop short in the next segment of his tirade. "Spider was with you?" he asked.

Lo'ak tentatively nodded.

"Shit," he cursed. "Fucking shit."

Xx?xXx?xXx?xX

As the next eclipse cycle started up again, with the sky growing dark, it became apparent to the three that they weren't going to be finding anymore members of their group, at least not soon.

Which meant decisions would have to be made. What would the three humans do now?

"I know you don't want the kid to be following us," Pile said quietly to Lopez, the two looking over a Spider from a distance away. "But it would be good to have another person traveling with us, right? I don't think he wants to kill us, not while he's by himself at least."

Lopez let out a long breath. How did he get into this mess? On his first mission too? He didn't even have the comms anymore to call back to command and ask for assistance. How did this become his life?

It was all quite overwhelming, if he was honest.

But then what did his father always tell him? 'Never show your indecision. Never get overwhelmed. Decide what to do, make everyone listen to you, and move on. That's what being an officer meant.'

If only making decisions was so easy. Ever since he was first accepted into OCS it felt like he could never make the right one.

"Fucking fine then," Lopez cursed. The kid can come with us, but only till we find someone else out here."