all things between || Avatar Universe

09 - Rainy Lost

Cheek lying on Neteyam's back, Sabrina clung to him not as if her life depended on it but as if her sanity did.

She had agreed to go with Jake, Neytiri and the eldest son to meet the other children in the forest, but then again, what other decision could she have made? They were in an emergency, and she knew Neteyam would hate being cut off from the rescue to take Sabrina away.

Every day was hard as a human on Pandora, but this one would be pretty horrible.

As the light hid behind another of the moons in Pandora's atmosphere, the forest lit up in its fluorescence. The humidity had risen, and Sabrina knew they would be hit by rain even before landing.

She raised a hand to her face to touch her protective breathing mask. Luckily, she had an extra filter tucked away in a purse she carried crosswise, close to her hip. However, she prayed that the mission would not linger and the rescue would go without complications.

"This way, father," Neteyam gave the last instruction through his communicator, fastened around his throat like a collar.

Sabrina looked back, watching the beauty of Jake and Neytiri's ikran as they curved through the trees and finally landed beside Neteyam's.

They jumped out of the animals, but Sabrina wavered, for she got out unhurriedly. She felt dislocated — she had no weapons with her. Neytiri had her bow and arrow, and so did Neteyam. Jake Sully had a gun and a knife, but Sabrina was sure no kinder asking would make that man give one of those items to her (she'd have asked for the gun).

Neteyam went straight to his mother.

"No, no," said Jake, opening his palm in front of his son's face. "You stay with the ikran and Sabrina."

"But, dad," even though they talked in Na'vi, Neteyam was making sure to use it in its most respectable form, "I'm a warrior like you. I'm supposed to fight."

"Neteyam," his mom called him out.

"I'm not going to say it again," Jake Sully said authoritatively.

Sabrina stayed behind Neteyam, almost hidden, for she did not want to cause more trouble. She already worried she was the reason Neteyam had to stay behind.

Jake loaded his gun and tilted his head towards the location Lo'ak had informed. The night sky gave the dad's expression a sense of darkness and danger that Sabrina was unfamiliar with, and it was probably why Neteyam lowered his head and obeyed.

Confounded with pity, Sabrina chose to stay close to the ikrans rather than close to Neteyam. She didn't know if she had the right words of comfort to say and was afraid she would end up making things worse. Neteyam also went over to the animals, more precisely his, but he carried a countenance that Sabrina interpreted as rebellion.

"You're going after them, aren't you?" she asked, but she already knew the answer.

Neteyam did not respond and glanced away.

"Neteyam," she voiced his name almost as a warning; the sound came out in a whisper, for she had several reasons to be terrified of her friend's attitude—the most selfish of which was that he would leave her alone in a part of the forest that wasn't fluorescing so strongly.

Teeth clenched, Neteyam made a strange sound and walked away from his ikran and Sabrina. The girl, swallowing her pride, went to him anyway.

The rain that was already falling on them could not blur Sabrina's vision, but the humidity certainly made the scene of the two much more theatrical.

"I have to go," he said, sounding sad with himself. "I have to go, Brina."

Sabrina closed her eyes and turned her face away from the Na'vi boy. Then, frowning, she reached a hand toward him, and he clasped hers between his hands, and the difference between tones was faint. Still, the touch of four fingers instead of five was weird.