Dancing In The Moonlight

3. Average

Bold is Na'vi :)

***

The audacity of him.

Saving his blue ass and then he confronted her about it? Arsehole.

And then he brought up her parents with no fucking knowledge about them? Oh, she was raging.

The longer she thought about it, the angrier she got. And they hadn't been talking, just trekking through the forest, so there had been no distraction from her thoughts. They'd stopped temporarily so Jake could carve a spear, and he'd offered to carry her backpack so she could hold her bow, but that had been it.

He was so wary of everything. He was basically turning into an owl with how often he turned his head to check behind them. Mairi had had to take several calming breaths so that she didn't fucking snap at him. Had to remind herself that this was a completely new environment to him and he was a soldier, not a scientist.

Still didn't make her any less angry, though.

"Jake, I swear to fuck, if you turn around one more fucking time I'm ripping your tail off and hanging you with it!" she barked, turning to glare at him. He stopped in his tracks. His eyes were wide, his grip on the spear tight.

"What's the problem?" he asked hotly. "What's the issue? We're in very foreign country right now, Mairi, and we are totally lost!"

"It's only foreign to you!" she snapped. "Pandora animals can smell you from a mile off with the stink of desperation wafting off you!"

"Oh, sorry that I'm nervous," he said sarcastically. "In case you didn't realise, we'll probably be dead by morning and get our asses handed to us by Grace. Then what are you gonna do, brat? Weightlift every day?"

She narrowed her eyes and took a step towards him. "What did you just call me?"

He took his own step towards her, holding the spear in one hand. He was close, so close to her that she felt the brush of his jacket on her belly. "I called you a brat."

Mairi felt her tail raise, her eye twitching. She took her knife out of its holder in one smooth motion and held it to his throat. Jake swallowed, but his face gave nothing away. "Call me that again," she whispered. "I dare you."

He swallowed again, her blade bobbing against his skin. And then he blinked slowly, and released a breath. "I'm sorry," he muttered. "I wasn't thinking. Sorry."

She withdrew the knife and slipped it back into place. "I'm many things, Jake, but I'm not a brat. Watch your tone."

"Yes ma'am."

She looked between his eyes for a couple of seconds and then dropped her gaze to his lips, and then the collar of his jacket. "We'll be fine, lad. I'm sorry for snapping at you. You're just stressing me right out."

"I'll work on that," he said dryly. She slapped his belly with the back of her palm, but he didn't flinch. "Sorry, Mairi."

"You will be," she mumbled good-naturedly as she turned to walk away from him, her tail hitting his hip. And then she stopped again, head tilted, as she listened to the sounds of the forest.

"What?"

"Shh."

"What?"

"Shut your fucking face, man!"

Jake fell silent behind her as she knelt down to touch the wet mud in front of her. Small tracks. Deadly tracks.

She lifted her head, her beads clacking together as she surveyed the area around her. And then she heard the faint yipping of a viperwolf.