Dancing In The Moonlight

9. Hometree

Mairi hadn't even had breakfast when she'd gotten out of bed. She literally just dragged herself from her comfy bed to her link bed, deciding she could wake up properly in her avatar body. 

Her pregnant avatar body. 

Even the thought of it made her want to hurl. 

No, she had to be positive. Mo'at would have some weird fucking way of confirming it. She was thinking she was pregnant, but she needed confirmation. 

She linked through to her body and stretched out, Jake's arm falling onto her head. Fucker wasn't linked. Not that she expected anything else. She could count on one hand how many times he'd been linked before she had in the past three months. 

She lay in silence for a few seconds, just enjoying the warmth of Jake's body behind her. It was gonna get so complicated if there was a baby involved. 

No, they were mated now. Practically married. He loved her, and she loved him. They'd make it work.

A sharp cracking sound made her ears twitch, and the low rumble of machinery had her up on her feet. 

Oh God. 

Bulldozers. She could only see one of them, but the loudness meant there was more. Three or four, maybe. 

And where there was bulldozers, there was soldiers. And right now, she was the enemy.

"Jake." She crouched down, shaking Jake's shoulder. 

It was half past eight. Practically a lie in. Late compared to their usual linking time of half six in the morning. 

The Tree of Souls began to fall in front of her as the dozer pushed closer. 

"Oh fuck!" she yelled. She took hold of Jake's hands and began to drag him backwards. She managed to get maybe two metres before a tree fell dangerously close to his body. "Jake! I swear to fuck, lad!" 

Mairi darted forwards, waving her arms. The cameras didn't seem to pick her up. Either that, or they didn't care. 

"Fuck sake, Jake!" she shouted as she planted her foot at the soles of his own and heaved him up onto her shoulders. 

Jesus wept, he was so much heavier than what he had been three months ago. She made it another five metres before falling branches caught her foot and tripped her up. She landed sprawled on the floor, Jake a foot in front of her. Finally, finally, she saw him shake his head, his eyes flutter open. 

"Wake up, fuckface!" she barked as she got to her feet and whirled. "Hey! Hey! Stop! Stop!" 

This was going to be her fault. Hers and Jake's. 

Neytiri would never forgive her. 

"Stop!" she screamed. Jake ran in front of her and began waving his own arms, shouting too. 

The dozer eased to a stop. 

Jake looked back at her with panic in his eyes as he held a hand up. 

What the fuck were they doing? 

Didn't they realise that bulldozing one of the Omatikaya's sacred spots basically guaranteed war?

Mairi looked at the other dozers still powering on, still ripping up the sacred trees. 

Fuckers. 

She ran to the side with a plan in her head, picking up a big ass rock as the engine of the dozer started rumbling again, pushing forward. Jake fell backwards, but quickly got to his feet, racing after her. "Mairi!"