Things here were going well- much better than he expected.
The people were fascinated by their array of weaponry and showed especial interest in the plethora of human tech they'd brought with them. Not only that, but most all of them were willing to be taught to wield guns- something the other Na'vi clans had adamantly refused.
Of course, like any negotiation, the other side requested a price for their agreement- something in return for their cooperation in the RDA's affairs.
Now it was time for the colonel to do something he hadn't done in a long time.
"No- no, it's okay, its okay,"
Time for a little show and tell
"See, nothing to be afraid of" he said, waving his hand through the hologram image of the snarling, growling beast- his blue fingers poked and impaled through the mighty beast's lean body. The Na'vi surrounding him gawped at him like he'd just grown a second head, their eyes pulled wide and hairless brows hiked up their foreheads- both amazed and disbelieving.
Which was pretty understandable- if he saw someone stick their hands through a solid brick wall he'd probably go get his eyesight checked.
The warriors lowered their daggers and relaxed their shoulders, their slanting ears flicking back up as they stared with intrigue at the hyper-realistic floating 3D model. It was of one of the forest's many fauna- a terrifyingly large, triangular spear-headed behemoth creature.
Kiwalukan, they called it. Standing fifteen feet tall on three powerful pairs of legs, it was a menacing sight to behold. Its head thrashed and snapped in multiple directions, its huge mouth gaping in a soundless roar. Yellowed teeth flashed a warning and its broad, fan-like tail spread out like a flag behind it. A wordless cry for battle. No wonder the villagers were in a frenzy over it.
The crowd was still wary of the aggressive beast, glancing at it as if it would jump out of the screen and raze through their settlement. One brave young man pushed forward through the mass, eyes hardened with determination. Miles gave an encouraging nod to the teen, goading him to touch it.
Fear flashed over the teen's gaze, but he pursed his lips and continued forward. Crouching down to be level with the tablet, he reached out a lightly trembling hand and poked a single finger through the skull of the kiwalukan. He seemed surprised when nothing happened- but relieved all the same.
And with that, the dam broke and the rest came pouring forwards.
"Hey, easy now. Don't want it to break, do we" The villagers eagerly padded forwards, chattering in awe as they poked blue-grey fingers through the hologram- collaging together Na'vi and animal parts into a peculiar looking, blue-speckled creature. Miles stood from his crouch, a little amused smirk playing out onto his face as he watched them play with the holo-tablet. It was probably gonna break with all those hands on it at once. Oh well, he thought.
Not many feet away, Lyle was busy enamoring a hustle of Txepiva youngsters with his speaker. The man grinned wide as he prized the cylindrical device in his hands, clearly enjoying all the wonderment-wide gazes trailing after it. Then he pressed his finger to the little round button on its side.
The sudden sound caused the adolescents to flinch back a little, pointy ears ticking in the direction of the curious noise. Then the lyrics kicked in. The Txepiva picked up English faster than the teachers could teach it- though it was a little clunky and rough around the edges, it still made the cut.
Rapid-paced sentences, though, were still a work in progress. The teenagers tilted their heads, flickering their ears in hopes of weeding out words and phrases they understood, their faces hardened with concentration.
Miles rolled his eyes at Lyle's choice of song. A few 2010s hits, more than a damn century old. "Old is gold" the marine would playfully insist and the colonel was still yet to agree with him.
"Don't think they're quite ready for rap songs yet" he chipped in, walking over to the speaker-wielding marine. Lyle appeared to be frustrated as he fiddled with the speaker, pressing the skip button over and over again, the whip of his tail getting more agitated with each click.
The era of the songs began to switch up a little the more Lyle skipped over, turning from pop, to hip-hop and finally to a slew of slow songs from the late nineteenth century.
After what Miles guessed was the 20th song skipped, Lyle threw his hands up in frustration.
"Goddammit Scoresby. This is my speaker, don't put your 1980s shit on here"
The suspect in question gave an indifferent flick of his tail, stuffing his hands in the pockets of his cargo pants.
"Not my fault you left your stuff lying around" he breezed, taking a drag from his cigarette and puffing out a cloud of smoke. "Its good music, though- the 80s brought out some good stuff"
The marine rolled his eyes and muttered under his breath at the ex tulkun whaler's back. "Yeah, cuz those were your good old days" He fished around in his pockets until he brought out a small flash drive, pushing it into the slot on the speaker.
Miles watched this interaction go down with mild amusement, tail curling slowly from side to side. Normally he wouldn't tolerate petty spats between his marines, but he let this one slide for a reason all the three surviving recombinant soldiers collectively agreed on- Mick Scoresby was a pain in the ass.
Sometimes Miles regretted requesting all the core personnel involved in this operation. Scoresby had been one of the many fatalities in the aftermath of the whole SeaDragon fiasco. Though he was found and recovered from the ocean fairly quickly, but his body went into shock and they were too far from the necessary healthcare facilities and staff to do anything- he died out at sea. Having his arm sheared clean off then being flung into the cold ocean had taken its toll.
"Luckily", Scoresby's avatar had been in the works on Earth and had been on route to Pandora at the time of his death. Took only about a few months to arrive, along with a few more science pukes for the labs. Something about helping research the Ash tribe- he hadn't really cared to listen.
The fisherman had only been in his avatar body for 3 months and was already doing quite the job wrecking it. He'd learned the hard way that the cliffs of txepram were treacherously steep and jagged, and trying to climb them whilst high as a kite wasn't really a good idea.
If it weren't for these carbon fiber reinforced bones and escalated healing rates the man would probably be wheelchair bound and shipped off back to bridgehead.
The smooth R&B seemed easier to understand for the young Na'vi as their befuddled expressions relaxed and their gazes lit up with interest. One of the crowd – a girl with beads strung through her wavy hair - piped up with a question, still looking confused;
"He is singing about… being broken? Can one be in pieces and still sing?"
Miles paused at this for a second, sharing a sideways look with Lyle before answering the girl.
"Yeah, he's… he's singing about love"
This did little to quell her confusion as her brow bone only furrowed further. "Is sky people love always that sad?"
That, Miles didn't have a response to. He opened his mouth to respond, then shut it and looked away, pondering. Love could be sad, yes, but that didn't mean it was always that way- how would he know anyways; his last serious relationship was decades ago. People these days only sung about the lows of loving someone, so it'd be understandable to think that's all it was cracked up to be- that's all people really saw of it.
But was it really all that bad?
Thankfully, Lyle put in a response so he didn't have to.
"It's not sad all the time, but- yeah, it can be sad"
Satisfied with the answer, the girl turned back to the speaker. A new song had begun to play, capturing their interest once again.
A flash of red and grey in the corner of his eye made him turn his head. There, standing a few feet from the gaggle of adolescents, was Varang- the olo'eykte. Her flashy headdress of spines seated proudly atop her head- the usual fierce and fiery-determined look in her eyes was gone. Instead replaced by a kind of fondness laced through her amber gaze as she watched the children interact with the human object.
He met eyes with her and she nodded his way, gesturing the traditional Ash Na'vi greeting- raising her fist to her chest before holding out her palm in his direction. He returned it with a small smile, his tail starting to waver a little behind him.
His ears twitched at the jingle jangle of the beads on her top and loincloth as she approached. The Ash Na'vi tribe's attire was quite different from the other tribes- having more strings of beads than cloth. Her top was made of a long string of beads wrapped a couple of times over her arms so that it crisscrossed over her chest.
The recoms were also integrated into dressing like the natives- much later in. Miles found the choker he'd been given to be tight and restricting at first, but he got used to it eventually- it perfectly matched the bands on his wrists.
"I see you have brought more sky people trinkets, Miles" the olo'eykte remarked, walking up to stand beside him. He nodded in response, reverting his eyes back to the scene a few feet in front of him- the youngsters had managed to part Lyle from his beloved speaker and were now engaged in a game of keep-away, with poor Lyle struggling in the midst of it to get his device back. He seemed to be having fun though, grinning and laughing as the kids tossed and caught the small speaker with skill and ease.
"Your people have adapted well" his left ear flickered at Varang's words, his gaze ticking sideways in her direction. She looked relaxed, he noticed- her shoulders weren't tensed and the perpetual hardness to her expression was gone from her visage.
A rare sight in these last few days.
She looked different when she wasn't leading hunting parties or heading meetings with the warrior troops. She was pale in contrast to him; her skin being a light greyish blue that reminded him of the moon back on Earth. The darker stripes on her forehead curved and curled inwards, cocooning around a small diamond shaped marking above her brow bone.
Then she turned her face to look up at him.
Miles never thought he'd find himself startled by something so mundane as looking into someone's eyes. But startled wasn't the right word for it, he didn't think he'd ever find the right word for what he felt at that moment.
It was like staring into the sun itself. Bright, fierce, fiery- all things he'd seen in her, all things that made the sun harder to look away from. And like Polyphemus, her gaze held warmth- it pulsated within the deep amber of her eyes, like a siren's song, calling out to-
"Olo'eykte Varang" the spell was quickly broken when a man came trotting up to the pair, the beads of his anklets making a tinkling sound as he advanced. Varang's attention snapped to the matter at hand and she reviewed the man over with a stern but anger-free gaze.
He bowed low to her, letting his short curls fall into his face before raising his head again.
"I bring to you one the captives; he wishes to speak with you"
Miles had been in such a daze that he didn't notice the man held a rope in his fist that also looped round his wrist; and tied to that rope, like a dog on a leash, was none other than Jake Sully. The war leader was bound with thick chords of rope- going round his neck, binding his wrists and ankles together.
The moment he locked gazes with the war leader he felt his body go tense, his tail stilled behind him and the points of his ears slanted backwards. Sully's jaw locked and his glare turned hard, shackled fists clenching in their restraints.
The air between the two men churned with crackling electricity- the tension was making it hard to breathe easy.
"Toruk Makto" the woman spoke, lifting her chin when she met the war leader's gaze. The way she used his title felt less like an honor or recognition of his achievements. In fact, it was more akin to mockery, like she was making fun of him.
Her tone of voice made him perk up with interest.
She circled him slowly, her gaze raking viciously over him, mouth pulled into a sneer. "Rider of the last shadow"
Jake Sully was clearly already agitated by Miles' presence in that area, the woman staring him down only fueled the tension in his shoulders.
"I see you, olo'eykte Varang-" He greeted with a dip of his head. This didn't seem to resonate well with the chieftess as a scowl painted its way onto her face.
"We do not say that here" she barked sharply, quickly silencing the Sully man. The flickering flames in her eyes turned icy cold as an arctic breeze and she looked down her nose at him with a distasteful flick of her ears.
Miles grimaced as the war leader lowered his head, his expression scrunching up in slight discomfort. That phrase, oel ngati kame, or whatever. It wasn't well liked here- nobody ever used it.
He had heard stories from the villagers, tales about those who tested her patience, tales of those who disobeyed- they did not end well. He felt a chill run up his spine whenever he walked past it, concealed behind a hanging curtain of ferns. The tang of blood and rot that clung to that place through the seasons despite there not having been an execution in years. The villagers called it kxitutral- the tree of death.
Where one could be sent if their offense was great enough. Verbal or physical.
He was glad not to be on the receiving end of her anger.
"State your business"
The man was silent for a millisecond, seemingly thinking over how to start what he wanted to say. Then he spoke.
"We mean you no harm to you" he began, speaking in a low, humbled tone to try and appease the chieftess. For a moment, he almost felt pity for his sworn enemy- but then he rethunk his emotions and withdrew that from himself, tossing it far over his shoulder into the ocean. He ridiculed himself for letting his thoughts slip- geez, marine, you're going soft. Gotta toughen up.
"We just wanted our son back- if you let us go with him we'll be out of your hair. I promise"
She still looked indifferent, not giving so much as a twitch of her tail in response to his earnest request. She looked frozen in time for a few moments, poised like a statue, the only mobile part on her being her eyes which studied her captive over.
When she gave no response, Jake Sully continued.
"So if you'd just let us go, we'll be on our way back to Awa'atlu- you won't see us again"
Varang's tail peaked at the mention of Awa'atlu- the residence of the sea Na'vi, if Miles remembered correctly. The beachside village seemed to amuse her as she gave a mirth-filled huff, amber eyes brightening slightly.
Miles' ears slanted back further and he looked upon the olo'eykte with confusion. The glint in her eyes... she knew something. Something he didn't.
"Awa'atlu" she breezed, her tone of voice unusually calm and casual. A warning sign.
"I doubt you would wish to be there, JakeSuli"
_-8-_
It was quiet… too quiet.
A frown was squiggled across Lo'ak's face as he dismounted his ilu in the shallow surf. He turned back to give her a parting pat on the head and whisper words of thanks before whirling around to face the village.
It looked normal. The marui pods were intact, villagers were strewn about minding their business, the children were splashing about in the water. The usual day-to-day. So why did he feel this way? Foreboding and ominous as if someone hung a boulder over his head and was waiting to drop it.
He made his way up the beach- the sky was darkening in preparation for the midday eclipse and villagers were setting up and lighting torches. A scene he'd seen so many hundreds of times before. But why did he feel so unsafe? So tense.
Biting back a sigh, he ambled over to the one place he thought could get him to let loose. He nodded to a few of the villagers as he walked past them- up the path and into the marui.
"Hey guys" Lo'ak droned, walking over and plopping down next to the group of boys. They looked surprised to see him there, glancing between each other before turning to him.
"Did you get caught?" One of them – Sroi – asked, fixing him with his curious blue stare. Lo'ak shook his head in response.
He'd gone out with plans to visit Payakan, his tulkun brother, when they intercepted him and asked where he was going. After a bit of coercing and teasing he let it out that he was going to visit his whale friend. His plan was perfectly executed; he'd gone out with Aonung and his friends, come up with some shifty excuse to branch off from the group, then gone out into deeper waters where the outcast tulkun resided.
Except Payakan wasn't there
Lo'ak had stayed out and waited for as long as he could, but he eventually had to go home- he didn't want anyone suspecting things.
"He didn't show up" he replied simply, albeit a little dejectedly. This was weird. Payakan never strayed far from that stretch of water. Not once in the year and a half he'd known his whale brother. He should've been able to hear his calls, or something. He was starting to get worried.
He looked up when a hand was placed on his shoulder "Relax bro" it was Mika'yo. The Metkayina boy grinned a toothy grin and gave his shoulder a light shove, earning a tiny amused smile from Lo'ak.
"I'm sure he will show up soon"
While his friends went back to the heated board game they were knee-deep in, Lo'ak's thoughts began to drift, once again, to Payakan. It was just so strange. Why would he just disappear like that? The two usually told each other everything- he basically turned into a pane of glass around his friend. So why didn't he tell him that he wasn't going to show?
Maybe something came up and he had to leave?
The voice of reasoning in his head did little to comfort him. Somewhere, deep down in his gut, he felt it. Like a storm brewing on the horizon. Something's about to change- and not for the better.
As the minutes turtled on, the mundane sounds of the board game were beginning to agitate him.
Tap, tap, went the smooth pebbles as they were placed in specific boxes on the driftwood board. Creak, went the "decider stick" as they slid it from end to end of the board.
The next agonizingly torturous minutes went like so;
Tap
Creaaaaak
Tap, tap
Creaaak
"Ha! How about that"
Tappety tap
Creaaaaak
"I saw you hide that piece under your ass, Kxuey, bring it back!"
Creak
Tap, tap, tap
"Dammit, Xolo, I was gonna play there"
It was so utterly excruciating that he almost wanted to scream. He sat with his shoulders tensed and his tail twitching, switching between watching his friends duke it out and bicker and gazing outside. This feeling, it was eating him up from the inside out. Screaming at him to get his ass out of there quick. But why?
With one final slam of his pebble onto the board, Xolo stood pumped his fists in the air, a triumphantly smug grin plastered onto his face. "I win!"
Sroi rolled his eyes at the curly headed boy, reaching over Lo'ak's lap to poke him in the side. "Yeah right, its because you ate the pebble when no one was looking"
Xolo laughed and lunged over to poke him back, "You're just jealous because Kxuey got you out"
"He cheated!"
Amidst the jokey bickering, Lo'ak's ears flicked up on alert. Is that a-
"You owe me, remember, all of your fishcakes for a week if you lost"
He thought he heard something
"Oooh, Mik's not going to last- a whole week without stuffing his face wit- Ow!"
It sounded like a-
"Can you skxawngs shut up! They're going to hear us and take away the-"
BOOM!
. . .
"What is happening?! It is-…"
. . .
"Get out! Get-… The fi-… it is spreading!"
. . .
"Help! Help me! He is dying, he is bleeding!"
What… what's happening…?
"Lo'a-…"
. . .
"Lo-… Lo'ak, wa-…"
He could voices calling to him. They were distant- miles away. He couldn't really recognize them; he just knew they were there. Echoing off the black walls.
"Lo'ak! Lo'ak, pleas-… -up, get up!"
It was all blurry and bleary. Bright orange and red smudges. They were moving; why were they moving?
"Lo'ak!"
Things began to clear. The big blue blob turned into something. A Na'vi.
Xolo.
He looked scared. Why?
"C'mon, c'mon, I can't-… you too!"
The voices… they were getting clearer now. Those orange and red blobs… they're not blobs- its- its fire!
With a gasp Lo'ak shot up to a seated position. His head whipped around in all directions- oh no. Everything was in tatters. The fire licked up the walls, engulfing everything in its path. Oh, no, no, no.
The walls of the marui were torn and full of holes. Pots and jars strewn about, crushed to fragments. The whole room was tilted on its side, like a giant pair of hands toppled it sideways. What in the hell happened?!
But all the nightmarishly ruined scenery would fade into the background when he saw it. Something blue. He rushed over, stumbling a little on still-sleepy legs. Oh no… oh Eywa no! He dropped to his knees, grasping at the boy's arm to turn him over onto his back. No…
Mika'yo
He stared up at Lo'ak through dazed, lifeless eyes. Blood matted his curly black hair, littered in spatters where his head rested. He was dead.
A hand roughly shook his shoulder, wrenching his attention away from the horrifying sight. "Come on, we have to get out now!" Before he knew it he was yanked to his feet, fleeing the wrecked marui with Xolo.
Outside, however… how unprepared he was to see it.
Fire swallowed up everything. Maruis were detached from their support poled, strewn about the ground in tatters. Villagers were running and screaming. Dragging the limp bodies of loved ones caught in the blast. The stench and tang of blood permeated everywhere.
Then he stiffened.
Tuk. She was resting in the Tsahik's marui, too weak to move. Horror turned the blood in his veins to ice. She wouldn't be strong enough to get away. He ripped his arm from Xolo's grasp, turning round and sprinting through the smoke and debris. His friend yelled out a protest- he didn't hear him. The only noise in his ears being an endless white-noise ring.
His only thoughts, as he ran, were on his little sister. Laying supine in the pod- helpless, defenseless against the arsenal of the flames. He could see it as he ran up the steps. He didn't want to, but his mind forced him.
It was nightmarishly clear. His little sister. Gazing up at the ceiling, eyes glazed over with death. Flames scorching and eating away at her flesh, blackening it to ashes. He charged up the singed ramp walkway, a scream rising in his throat.
"Tuk!"
Nothing. Nobody was there.
"Tuk! Tuk where are you?!"
He tore the place apart searching for her- flipping over mats, pieces of wall, slabs of wood. He still couldn't find her. Panic frayed at his nerves. His search became more frantic, borderline flinging things over his shoulder.
He was so busy looking for her, he didn't notice the support beam creaking and cracking above his head. Sagging under its own weight, weakened by the fire.
Luckily a hand yanked him back by the ankle, just in time as the wooden beam fell, causing the floor to cave in.
"You skxawng" hissed a furious but exhausted voice behind him "What the fuck do you think you're doing?!"
His rescuer was none other than Kiri. Standing over him with a glare that could burn through a vault. She was spattered and speckled with dark red blood, more than a few cuts littering her arms and legs. He did not answer her question, though, retaliating with one of his own.
"Where's Tuk?" he asked breathlessly.
Another ear-shattering explosion rocked the earth beneath their feet and Lo'ak stumbled, but didn't fall.
"She's with Ronal and the other's" Kiri replied before shoving him down the pathway "Now move! We gotta get out of here before more explosives go off"
The sibling pair ran down the sand, away from the flaming wreckage, towards the ocean where groups of people gathered. All semblance was lost. People screamed and cried out as they watched on, audibly grieving their smoldering village. He caught sight of Tsireya among the others- and his heart shattered.
She was swamped in her brother's embrace, Aonung strategically keeping her back to the ruin. He couldn't let her see it. Tsireya, however, struggled valiantly against Aonung's protective embrace.
"Let me go, Aonung! I want to see-" she was cut off with a soft, but firm "Kehe tsmuke" from her brother.
He was about to go over to her when he was crowded by Sroi and Xolo.
"Bro, why'd you run back, you could have been killed!" Xolo scolded, worry and terror evident in his bulging wide eyes. They both had blood on their faces, he noticed- both their own and of others they tried to rescue. Subconsciously, he reached up to rub his throbbing temple, his hand came back bloodied.
Sroi leaned over to the side, looking past Lo'ak's bac, as if looking for something- or someone. "Where is Mik? Did you guys see him?"
At that he paused. He and Xolo exchanged grave glances, the latter giving a stiff nod of his head- a nonverbal way of saying "We gotta tell him"
"I'm sorry Sroi" He began, his voice wavering as he placed a gentle hand on his friend's bleeding shoulder. Sroi's expression went from concern to terror and his ears folded back "He didn't make it- he's… he's gone"
Sroi's face fell and he looked down, swallowing down the hard lump in his throat. He croaked out a dejected "oh" as a single tear cascaded down his face. Mika'yo was his brother.
A screeching roar drew all their attentions. Standing atop a pile of debris was a warrior and their ikran mount. Their skin was pale, stark against the smoked sky. They're eyes burned with a fierce arrogance and they held their head high, chin tilted up as they sneered at the on looking crowd.
"Behold, Metkayina Na'vi," They boomed, their voice ringing clear even over the deafening roar of the flames. "See what you bring upon yourselves" Their hand swept over the flame-ridden landscape, clenching into a fist once is crescented back to their chest.
"You disrespect our boundaries; you pay with your lives – tsamti kllza'u ngati!"
Na'vi Dictionary
Kiwalukan – close related cousin to the palulukan / Tulkun – sentient whale-like sea creatures / Txepram – volcano / Olo'eykte – female clan leader / Kxitutral – death tree (kxitx – death, utral – tree) / Kehe – no / Tsmuke – sister / Ikran – mountain banshee /
Phrases
Tsamti kllza'u ngati – War has come upon you (Tsam – war, kllza'u – come down, nga – you")