Avatar - Me and the Devil.

VI

"If you hit this thing it's gonna be complicated."

I stand leaned up against a desk behind Jake. He's really doing this and for what, a couple minutes of fame?

"Your scan doesn't show the internal structure." Jake explains leaning into the hologram of Home Tree, using hand gestures to explain what it looks like.

"There's an outer row of columns. Real heavy duty. There's a secondary ring here, and an inner ring." He shows their exact placement,

"There's a core structure like a spiral. That's how they move up and down."

"We're gonna need accurate scans on every column." Miles explains staring at the hologram like everyone else.

"Roger that." I look behind me as Max runs up the main stairs,

"What else can you tell us about the main structure?"

A look of confusion hit his face when he looks at me. I just shrugged. There wasn't much to say, defend, or really anything.

"I'm guessing this secondary ring, that's also load-bearing."

#

I stand beside Norm as we pack up our equipment,

"So, where we going?" Jake wheels in and asks as he stops in front of a tote.

"Gettin' out of dodge. I'm not about to let Selfridge and Quaritch micro-manage this thing. There's a mobile link up at site 26, we can work out of, way up in the mountains." Jake throws his pack onto his lap from over his back. Grace explains this all as she walks to him to grab something.

Norm steps away from my side and toward Grace in disbelief, "The hallelujah mountains?"

Grace smiles and turns to him, "That's right."

it wasn't hard to tell he was about to geek out, "Are you serious?"

"Yeah."

He balls a fist and pumps it in excitement, "Yes!"

He laughs looking up at Jake, I walk over and place a resting arm on the tall lanky scientist.

"Big floaty mountains Sully, huge thing in Pandora." He chuckles at the way I said it to him like he was a baby.

"Yeah, thanks I got it." I smile at him and pat his shoulder before Norm drags me to continue helping.

#

I sat across from Jake looking out the helicopter door at all the passing trees and life.

"We're getting close." Grace told Jake as he looked the same way as me.

"Yeah, look at my instruments."

I focus back in on them and look behind me at Trudy, her screens and such glitching.

"Yep, we're in the flux vortex." Grace says as the sky darkens from clouds,

"We're VFR from here on." Norm looks at Trudy,

"What's VFR?"

"Means you gotta see where you're going."

Norm gestures out the windshield, "You can't see anything,"

Trudy chuckles, turning the helicopter. "Exactly, ain't that a bitch."

Not long after we break from the foggy clouds and see the very mountains Norm's obsessed with. I look out the window with my jaw open, it was absolutely gorgeous.

"Oh. My. God." Norm breathes out, in a state of awe.

Trudy laughed, "You should see your faces."

I lean forward more pushing Jake's face out of my view as he scoffs and smacks my arm. I roll my eyes and focus back on the beautiful scape in front of us as we land. It was a little site, one that clearly hasn't been used in years.

"Thank you for flying Pandora." Trudy jokes as she shuts it off. We all put our masks on as we leave the helicopter.

I walk behind Grace as she opens the first door, taking her mask off and opening the second. I follow her movements, taking my own off and setting it on the metal table with a clank. I look around jumping when the power turns on.

I look at Grace as she gives me a smile, "Ta-da,"

I roll my eyes as she walks back to the main door as the others come in.

"Welcome to camp." She greets walking past Jake and grabs her bag,

"So, this is my bunk."

I look at Jake and see him staring at something, I follow his gaze to a few photos of Grace's old students from when she ran the school. Neytiri was in a few of them. I smile at the happiness on the girl's face,

"Alright Jake, Nasrine, hang a left. You two will be in the links at the end. Unit one, and two, the least glitchy." She says, patting the butt of the machine. I smile as I leave Jake to go to my own, I lift it open and get ready to go in.

#

With my ankle much better, I manage to keep up with them, hopping over the open bits of the spiral tree. Neytiri leads us to an outer limb of home tree. I smile at the open vastness of life around us. It'd be a long and painful drop down.

I look at Neytiri as she mimics a bird call of sorts, I move to stand by Jake as she does so. I widen my eyes as tails and wings present themselves as these dragon-esk looking creatures lift their heads at her calling, these were what we call Banshees what they call Ikran, and they were gorgeous yet terrifying.

"Holy shit." I mutter under my breath, I get pulled back by Jake when one flies down hissing, snarling and chuffing at Neytiri. Jake looks at me with wide set eyes before the creature again as Neytiri keeps a steady stance.

"Do not look in her eye." She warns,

Doing as told he averts his eyes to the floor; I keep mine on her wings and structure. She was a stunning light teal color with such a magnificent design. Neytiri coos to her in Na'vi offering food, she smiles when it's taken and eaten.

"Ikran is not horse. When shahaylu is made," she closes her eyes for a moment when they connect before moving to get on her,

"Ikran will fly with only one hunter in whole life." She explains as she hops onto her ikran. The banshee squawks and flaps her wings.

"To become Taronyu, hunter, you must choose your own ikran and he must choose you."

Jake nods, growing excited, "When?"

"When you are ready." She lowers the protectors for her eyes and lets out a call as she flies down off the tree. Flying around the tree Jake follows her as best he can while staying on the body of the tree. She swoops over us with a grin, Jake ducks with a grunt and I crouch to the ground watching her flowing and smooth movements.