Avatar: They See Me

II.X

May 22, 2154  | Hometree, Pandora

Ariel's avatar, blinking awake, stared up at the Hometree in a daze. Sunlight streamed down through the gaps in the leaves, leaving Ariel with the feeling of warmth in the cold shadows.

He heard shuffling to his left, peeking out of his hammock to see Jake clambering messily out of his, "I never realised how clumsy you were, Jake."

Jake whipped his head around, staring at the ger in disbelief, "Do I look like that Tarzan guy to you?"

Ariel giggled, swiftly lifting himself onto the branch his hammock was hanging on, giving Jake a wink when he caught the man's stupefied gaze, "Of course not, you look nothing like that fairytale hunk. You are way hotter. And blue."

The ger walked over to the stunned man and helped him up the huge branch, "Come on, let's get you up, big guy. We don't have all day."

'He gets bolder and bolder every day. And it's only been around four days...' Jake thought, trying to hide his flustered face from Ariel's prying eyes. They proceeded to make their way down the spiral of the tree, looking around for their teacher.

"We'll never find him." Jake grumbled, he wasn't that thrilled to see the man Ariel was so eager to meet again. The ger seemed to have already forgotten about the women they were warned about.

"We literally just got down here," Ariel rolled his eyes, "He'll turn up eventually. We'll just walk around for a while."

The two avatars walked among the villagers, who went about their daily tasks and occasionally glanced at the smaller. They were curious about him, why was he so different from the Sky People—from them? They had never seen anyone with his colour scheme—not even from the other clans.

Ariel smiled seeing the little children laughing and having fun, running around as they sang songs. He could hear the loud giggles surrounding him and Jake, the children were very curious little beings, it seemed.

One bold little boy ran up to the two from behind, swirling their tails around his arm, laughing as he ran back to his friends. The two avatars looked at each other in amusement, finding the children's curiosity adorable.

The children must have found it funny how two adults were wearing plain loincloths—those were for the children! Adults should have decorated their outfits by now—that must've been their thoughts, Ariel mused. Jake saw Ariel's grin and decided he needed to prank the ger and their mini followers.

Jake spun around quickly, scaring the children with his shout. Ariel, who was beside him flinched in surprise along with the children who shrieked in fright before bursting out laughing. Their happy laughter echoed throughout the Hometree.

Loud galloping was heard from behind them, cutting through their laughter. The two avatars looked back to see Net'tir cantering towards them on a direhorse with a second horse following along. Jake's grin dropped while Ariel's widened in excitement.

"Today I will teach to how to ride the pa'li," Net'tir stated as he jumped off the horse in one fluid motion, "Tsu'tey will be helping me."

"Lead the way!" Ariel couldn't help but squeal in elation. He always wanted to ride a horse back on Earth, but never got the chance—now, he had a chance with a direhorse!

"You are excited?" Net'tir spoke softly with a gentle smile as he watched the shorter fawn over the direhorses.

"Of course! I've never ridden a horse before, so this is new for me." Ariel gave Net'tir a toothy grin, face flushing a light purple—it was hard not to when the man looked at him so gently.