I would be very grateful if you could let me know if there are any errors in my work.
Thank you all for reading, and I hope you enjoy. It's a long one, but a certain Na'vi makes an appearance.
-~-
"So, Hazel, what's the update with your eyes? Any complications?"
They were currently having breakfast in the main food hall. Avoiding Norm, Hazel had decided to sit next to Grace and Max.
"No, no complications." Hazel nodded to Max. "Max's hypothesis is that just a little too much data on my pigmentation, OCA2 and GERCs genes were transferred during the avatar development. But it should have no ill-effect on anything else." As Hazel had expected, they had found their own reasons for her eye colour. She let them be. Better this than anything connected to magic.
Looking back at Grace who had nodded in acceptance at the theory, Hazel decides to query what she had noticed in the past day. Discreetly, Hazel looks around at potential ears and decided to switch the conversation to Na'vi. "What's this about increasing the mining to the West? I thought we were leaving the Na'vi boundary alone."
Grace looks at her with a considering frown. The only time Hazel had seen Grace smile was when she was in her avatar, but she had begun understanding her different human frowns. "You're an insightful one. Good. You need to be switched on here." Grace gave a quick scan of the room. Seemingly satisfied, she continued her answer. "Careful, a few of Quaritch's jarheads with more than one brain cell can understand some Na'vi words. But yes, Selfridge who is Quaritch's puppet in disguise, has decided that they aren't mining enough unobtanium to the North, East, or South."
Max interrupts looking disgusted. "More like Quaritch isn't getting enough blood on his hands to satisfy his needs."
Nodding in understanding, Hazel glances around again. "Is there anything we can do? Surely more people don-." Hazel cut off as she tuned into the conversation beginning next to her and the pilot approaching their table.
"Sully, Colonel wants to see you in the Armor Bay." Jake glances towards then giving a puzzled glance before following the pilot. Hazel, Grace, Max and Norm watch them leave.
Looking back to Grace with her eyebrows raised in question, Hazel queries: "Is that something we need to worry about?" Grace just scrolled in response.
-~-
By the time they had walked back to the lab, Grace seemed to have come up with some form of plan. Hazel let her strategize, not knowing the dynamics of the base and Na'vi conflict to feel confident she would be able to help. They were about to link up again and escape the concrete base, so Hazel was for the plan either way.
"That son of a- has screwed up this program enough. All this exists so we can go out there and build a bridge of trust to these people who could teach us so much. But thanks so Quaritch and his thugs the Na'vi won't even talk to us anymore." Grace was clearly going for the honest, valiantly angry approach with Jake.
"Then how's this supposed to work?" Hazel questioned the same thing, but about Grace's approach to Jake, not of the current link plan. Jake was an honest guy, yes, but he had clearly been craving to feel useful again, and following Quaritch's orders would give him that sense of purpose.
"We have new faces." Grace turned to Hazel and Norm. "You are both fluent, you've studied the culture. You're non-threatening, especially you Hazel as a female." Hazel smirked internally, if only she knew. "The ones we know best, the Omaticaya clan, may give you a chance. Maybe having new faces can get us back to the table before things go heads-up for good."
Norm looked doubtful. "This is failing as a prep talk." Jake agreed with him, and by the looks of it just to wind up Grace.
"How are we contacting them? I thought we didn't have contact anymore." Hazel asked, although excited with the concept of meeting the Na'vi.
Grace looked resigned. "We don't. They contact us. If they see us taking our samples, treating the forest with respect." She looked pointedly at Jake. "Not trampling everything in sight, they may reach out to us."
Nodding, Hazel settles into her link. Hopefully her long history of Potter-luck would pull them in the right direction.
-~-
It didn't take long for Hazel to regret that. Her Potter-luck was clearly broken. The sight of a thanator launching itself over her and Jake's head was enough for Hazel to start swearing internally at her two-hour-ago self.
"Run! Definitely RUN!"
Hazel was way ahead of her, and was already bolting in the opposite direction of the thanator. With a swear, she heard Jake stumble into a run, chasing after her. Hazel launches herself to the side between two large trunks, grabbing onto Jakes arm and heaving him after her. Millisecond after, the beast's great paw pounded into where Jake's head would had been.
Hazel climbs, up and around a tangle of roots, planning on heading up to where the thanator should be too heavy to climb. She hears a ripping of bark below her and- CRASH! Sharply, Hazel pauses her climbing and looks down towards the sound. She looks just in time to see Jake rolling and crawling away into a tangle of roots. Having seen what it did to whole trunks, Hazel knows the roots won't last long against the power of the thanator.
It takes until Jake's rifle is somehow snatched out of his hands for Hazel to act. With a battle cry, Hazel leaps down from her position halfway up the tree, pulling out her knife on the way down, and lands on top of the thanator. The creature, currently shaking Jake around like a rabbit in a rabid dog's jaws, howls as Hazel jams her knife down into its back with another yell. Luckily, it released Jake enough for him to unlatch his backpack and hurl himself out of distance from its claws. Unluckily, Hazel how had the thanator's full enraged attention.
With a hideous bellow, the creature buckles like a bull, crashing to the side and into a trunk to attempt to dislodge Hazel from its back. Its efforts bear fruit as Hazel has to push off its bowed head and dive to the ground to escape being crushed between its mass and the thick trunk.
Landing in a role and entering a wide low stance, Hazel furiously hisses at the creature, baring her teeth in a snarl. However angry she was, Hazel knew she stood no chance against a thanator and turns into a run, once again pulling a stunned Jake with her. She didn't wait for the beast to reply with a horrendous bellow.
"How the Hell!-"
"Not the time!" Hazel yells back. Jake, moving much quicker than her on the flat ground, was the one to pull her arm this time. They weave in and out of trunks as the beast's ever closer howls became louder and louder.
They were only meters away from the waterfall when she heard it. "Jake!" She attempts to pull them to a stop.
"We have to!" And they do. They have no other option now, the thanator's jaws snap shut inches behind her as they hurdle into the open space below.
-~-
Spluttering and coughing, Hazel felt like she had swallowed most of the river. She climbed up out onto a shallow back, still wondering how they had escaped that beast. 'They?' Jake! Pulling herself to her feet she pulled her hair from her face, twisting around for any sight of him.
There was none, and Hazel had no idea who had pulled themself out the river first either. If Jake ever did. Hazel thought to herself. But no, he was strong, she didn't doubt that he would have survived the fall into the river.
Without the knowledge of which of them left the river first she didn't see the point in sticking by it. Even if Jake stayed in exactly the same place, it would be a slim change they would decide to head towards each other. Besides, Hazel had never been afraid of being alone.
At the back of her head a voice told her that she could simply use her magic to find him, but another voice patted it on its head will a no. Why just give away her chance to explore this wondrous forest in all its glory!
Muttering to herself: "You've outdone yourself this time, Hazel", she headed away from the river back. Not that it would have fooled anyone, the smile pulling at her cheeks said all anyone needed to know.
-~-
For hours and hours, Hazel acted like a loving and attentive tourist in the forest. Enjoying how the lights changed with the different hours of the afternoon and into the evening. She brushed against bark after bark, giggled at ring-tailed winged lemurs and admired glimpses of the mountain banshee that flew ahead above the trees.
Her tour guide was a playful atokirina who she assumed the moon had sent to help her. It led her though the forest with seemingly no destination in mind except for Hazel to view the best views and play with the cutest animals.
"Oooo! So cute!" The moon's magic cooed in delight. Hazel giggled again. She had been doing it a lot lately, but how could you not? She was being wooed by a moon and led along on a tour by a delightful atokirina.
Meters above from the forest floor on a giant trunk, the atokirina was showing Hazel a viper wolf pack from afar. She could see tiny babies jumping and playing together over the watchful gaze of their parents. Knowing that up close they wouldn't be so friendly; Hazel was content to lay on her stomach in the tree and watch them play.
From her perch, Hazel had felt with her magic that she had gained a watcher about half an hour ago. She knew exactly where they were and they were keeping a safe distance, so Hazel wasn't too bothered by it.
Her atokirina bounced on her head and started to move away with a bit more urgency that it previously had. Slightly confused, Hazel questioned it "Do you want me to follow?" The moon's magic pulled at her skin and pushed her from behind in a positive. "Okay, lead the way." And it did. Fast.
Hazel had to make some impressive manoeuvres to keep up with her atokirina. She felt like the moon was testing her agility slightly, but knew there was also a level of urgency that had not been there before.
She was led even higher, up and up until she was close to the forest canopy.
It wasn't long until she knew why she was brought here. A mountain banshee was uncomfortably crumpled into itself in a fork of a tree. Her atokirina floated gently above it, making it clear what the moon wanted her to do. Moving carefully closer, Hazel soon saw what was wrong with the creature. It was small, clearly not yet in adulthood, and it had countless bloody holes in one wing. There was only one thing that could have done this, someone had shot it.
It was awake, Hazel noted, and was watching her with tired, anxious eyes. "I will not harm you. Let me help you." The banshee let her approach, or it was in too much pain to move. It would be her first time using healing magic in her avatar, but Hazel was confident she could heal them successfully. She had healed too many bullet holes in her lifetime to fail now.
Focusing on her magic and the wounds she could see; Hazel carefully began knitting the skin together. Having not healed a banshee before, she paused at each step for the skin to tell her what needed rebuilding. After a time, Hazel has successfully healed all wounds she could see and the banshee had began fidgeting, much more alert now.
Looking into its eyes, Hazel could see fear and the need to flee in its eyes. It was still so young and was most likely wanting to escape to its mother. "I need to see where you are still hurt." Leaning towards the creature slowly, Hazel gently pushed its wing further away from its body so she could see the remining wounds. There were more wounds that had been concealed, and Hazel knew why it still hadn't flown away. Now being able to see them, she continued her healing of the creature, making every hole, scrape and tear slowly knit itself and disappear.
Done, she leaned back away from the banshee just in time for it to shake itself and test its strength. With one last look at Hazel, it stretched its winds and pushed off, eager to return to its awaiting mother. Pleased with the success, Hazel began to climb back down to the forest floor and return to her admiration of the moon. She could feel the moon's magic a joyful presence at the back of her mind, thrilled that Hazel had helped its creature, and elated to have her on its crust where Hazel could help in the times where the moon couldn't.
Landing in a graceful stance, Hazel studied where she had settled once again on the forest floor. It was alight now, filled with glowing organisms in what should have been a dark forest. Her atokirina seemed to have floated off somewhere, but Hazel hasn't worried. She could almost feel that it was needed elsewhere at the moment.
"You are not welcome here sky-demon." Ah. Her watcher had spoken. Hazel had lost track of him chasing through the forest earlier to the mountain banshee.
Slowly, from her crouch she had taken to study a beautiful flowering plant, she turned and stood. Hazel had expected a male Na'vi from her earlier tracking and his voice, but she had not expected the Na'vi to be completely and utterly gorgeous. He was tall, even for a Na'vi, and had powerful lean muscles. His currently sneering face was sharp and masculine, with shaved sides to his carefully braided hair decorated with different beads. Shocked by her own thought process and this literally stunning Na'vi in front of her she didn't reply.
"Look at you. Even your eyes are freakish! Go back to your people, sky-demon" Well that broke her out of her stupor.
Ignoring the insults that she had heard countless times before, Hazel huffed. "I am not one of them." Looking away, she continued her admiring of the flowering plant. She wouldn't let this Na'vi ruin the wonderful day she had.
"And now you lie. You came with the sky-people, full of ignorance. I should kill you now. Eywa would thank me."
Whirling around Hazel heatedly responded. "I do not lie! Yes, I came with them, but I am not one of them. And if you attempt to kill me, you will not like the end result."
He approached closer now, standing meters away with a proud stance and arms in a come-at-me position. Smirking. "You think you stand a chance against me, freak? You are ignorant like a child. Here let me teach you a lesson about your betters." Stalking towards her in confidence, he jerked forwards to push Hazel over, but Hazel hasn't there. Stumbling, he pushed air instead of a Na'vi. "What?" He looked down at his hands in confusion and hearing her behind him turned sharply.
Hazel was the one smirking now. "I told you I am not one of them." Whether it was the use of her magic in front of another for the first time in over a century, or her enjoying the teasing of this handsome Na'vi, she didn't know.
Straightening, he considered her words with an added air of urgency. "What did you do? Are there more of you?" He was a leader then, Hazel thought. He was looking to protect his people. She understood how he would feel about a hated sky-person being able to hurt his people more easily than ever.
"No. There aren't more of me. I am the last one." Making a decision that would either help her or ruin her plans she continued. "The sky-people killed them long ago. They don't know what I am. If they did, they would try to kill me too."
Looking at her in contemplation, he took a step towards her again. "Why would they kill your people. Are you wicked, worse than the sky-people?"
"No, never!" Hazel looked at him in righteous anger. "We kept to ourselves, we hid for centuries. But the muggles found us. They don't like it when they couldn't have our power for themselves. We tried for peace, but the most of the muggles wouldn't accept it. They hunted us down, burned our schools to the ground, slaughtered our sacred animals. Some of us are born from them, but they made sensors to find us. They killed newborns in their cribs." Feeling tears of frustration Hazel stopped, breathing out a deep breath. To talk about this was bringing memories of the purges flowing into her vision. She wiped her eyes angrily.
He considered her deeply for a few moments before taking another step. They were only a few meters apart now. More moments pasted while Hazel tried to clear her blurry eyes, and the Na'vi watched her.
"Tsu'tey". Hazel looked at him in confusion. He paused again. "My name is Tsu'tey". Hazel smiled softly.
"Tsu'tey. My name is Hazel."