𐌄𐌋𐌙𐌉𐌍Ᏽ Ꮤ𐌉𐌕𐋅 𐌕𐋅𐌄 𐌍𐌌𐌀𐌕𐌉𐌊𐌀𐌙𐌀 (Aᕓ𐌀𐌕𐌀𐌓𐋄𐌍𐌂𐌔)

\\ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕡𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝟙𝟙//

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The next morning Jake and Nate had off, Na'vi version of weekends if you will, the sisters were out with Mo'at and Tsu'tey was with Eytukan. This meant they could leave their Avatars in Hometree while spending a day in their human bodies. 

Nate and Jake were chatting away as they entered the Bio Lab, Grace had called them up there that morning, saying she had news. When the two Marines arrived, they saw Grace and Norm packing up science equipment. 

"So where we going?" Jake asked, pulling a backpack from his back. 

"Gettin' out of Dodge. I'm not about to let Selfridge and Quaritch micromanage this thing... There's a mobile link up in Site 26 we can work out of, waaay up in the mountains." Grace replies, packing up a microscope. 

"The Hallelujah Mountains?" Norm asks, excitement building in his voice. 

"Yes," Grace replied. 

"Are you serious?" Nate piped in, his eyes also gleaming with excitement. 

"That's right." Grace looks over to him and nods. 

"Mmm!" Nate clenched his fist and pumped it, a pleaded look on his face. 

"Yesssss!" Norm exclaimed following the action. 

Jake, who has a lost look on his face, turns to look at Nate. 

"Where?" He asks. 

But before Nate can answer, Norm pipes in. 

"The legendary Floating Mountains of Pandora... Heard of them?" Norm retorts with a sarcastic tone. 

Nate blinked at his co-worker, not used to seeing jealousy on him. 

A Samson chopper thunders over the rainforest, climbing into the mist-shrouded mountains. In the sealed cockpit, Norm is upfront, sitting left seat so Trudy can talk him through the flight controls. Jake, Nate, and Grace are behind them, in the jump seats. Grace and Norm's unconscious Avatars ride in the open back compartment.

"It only takes tiny inputs. Here, put your hand on the cyclic," She points to the stick between her knees. 

Norm hesitantly reaches over and rests his hand on hers. 

"Feel how small the moves are? You barely have to think it, and the aircraft reacts."  

Reacting to tiny inputs from the hot lady pilot. TSamson is dwarfed by enormous arches of rock.

"See these magnetic formations. We're getting close." Grace comments. 

"Yeah we are. Look at my instruments." Trudy laughs. 

On the dash, many of the displays are fritzing out. 

"Yup. We're in the flux vortex." 

Ahead, a cloud bank parts, revealing the Hallelujah Mountains right in front of them.

"Oh. My. God." Norm awes. 

Jake leans forward between the seatbacks for a good look out the front canopy. Enormous islands of rock are hovering a half mile above the ground. They are overgrown with rainforest, and straggly beards of vines hang down beneath them. Waterfalls stream down the sides and dissolve into spray at the bottom. Nate stares in amazement. It is both awe-inspiring and disturbing. Trudy turns, grinning at them.

"Ha ha, you should see your faces." Trudy laughs at the four drivers. 

The Samson is tiny as it approaches the floating islands of rock. An archipelago among the clouds, they cast great shadows over the forested slopes below. 

A remote research station, two shacks, and a few clusters of instruments perched on a promontory near the Hallelujah Mountains. The shacks are airlift modules the size of buses. The Samson lands, beating the grass with its rotor-wash. The humans hop out, wearing oxygen masks. They move toward the Shack, taking in the spectacular panorama. Norm and Trudy assist Jake with his chair as they cycle in through the airlock, Nate helping carry all of Grace's science equipment. Grace, who is already inside, starting the genny, turns on the lights and equipment. There are 5 bunks, a clutter of science gear, and through a short connecting corridor, four link units in the second module. As Grace powers up the Link equipment, Jake stops to look at stereo still pictures which are taped and tacked up around Grace's workstation. They are of Grace posing at her school with various grinning children. There is one of her with three lanky girls, a younger Neytiri and Ke'Kaya, and an older girl who looks much like her. 

" Nate! Jake! Hang a left, you'll be in number one and two. They are the least glitchy. Norm, I need you to operate Jake's link." Grace instructs her boys. 

Norm glares at Jake as he passes.

"Hey. You got a problem?" Jake asked defensively. 

Nate dropped his bag on his link and turned to look at the two as they had a face-off. Norm turns to Grace, his frustration boiling over.

"I trained three years for this mission. I speak the language fluently!" He then turns to point at Jake. 

"He falls off the frickin' turnip truck and all of a sudden he's cultural ambassador!?" Norm yells. 

"It's not our choice, Norm." Grace bites calmly. 

Norm glowers at Jake.

"Yeah, well I didn't come out here to wash the dishes while you're on some interspecies booty call." He stalks off.

"He can't go far." Grace brushes off. 

She then pints to the links and motions Nate and Jake. 

"Let's go. In," She directs. 

The next morning Nate felt like he was experiencing DejuVu. Every day felt like the one before, and the next was a continuation of the last.

'The language is a bitch... you'd think knowing it already would help, but apparently, there were some imperfections in our interpretations.'

Nate sat kneeling in front of Ke'Kaya out in the forest. The young huntress was going over the structure and the words Nate didn't know of the Na'vi language. Ke'Kaya touches her lips with her fingertips.

"Seyri," Nate replies.

She then touches her nose, her ears, and her eyes in a quick sequence.

"Ontu, mikyun, nnnnnn- nari." Nate calls out.

Weeks after weeks fly by, and Nate follows his teacher out to a clump of trees as his training continues. Ke'Kaya stands next to him, correcting his position as he draws a longbow.

"Here, strong pull," Ke'Kaya breathes in deeply, patting her strong core as she shows Nate what to do.

Nate copies and Ke'Kaya sighs loudly, stepping forward, pulling his right hand, which was holding his bow, down roughly, pushing his drawn back arm up so it sat next to his ear, and stepping back again, folding her arms with a sour look.

'She sighs and rolls her eyes when I get something wrong... But she never says anything, I can't tell if she is genuinely mad, or if she just doesn't care enough to say anything,'

Nate emerges from his link with a sigh. He hops out and walks toward the bunks to see Teudy and Norm caught in the act on Norm's bunk. Norm blushes and Trudy waves, pulling the blanket over their heads.

"God..." Nate shakes his head and averts his eyes, choosing to just head to bed.