𐌄𐌋𐌙𐌉𐌍Ᏽ Ꮤ𐌉𐌕𐋅 𐌕𐋅𐌄 𐌍𐌌𐌀𐌕𐌉𐌊𐌀𐌙𐌀 (Aᕓ𐌀𐌕𐌀𐌓𐋄𐌍𐌂𐌔)

\\ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕡𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝟙𝟜//

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The next morning, Tsu'Tey leads four direhorse riders up the trail, two teenage hunters, Nate and Jake, who are riding well enough to keep up. The horses' hooves clop right next to a sheer drop into a misty canyon, rubble on the edgeway buckling under the weight of Nate and his direhorse.

'Iknimaya translates roughly as 'Stairway to heaven.' It's the test every young hunter has to pass.'

Tsu'Tey signals a stop, and everyone dismounts their horses. Up-slope ahead, is an astounding formation. Thick vine-like trees have trapped large floating boulders of Unobtanium in their gnarled grip. A hundred meters above them more boulders are woven into the twisted vine-trunks. This is some sort of freak natural occurrence, like the mythical beanstalk, going up into the clouds. There is a thundering roar, like an artillery barrage, and the ground shakes. Nate looks around at one of the floating mountains grinding against the flank of a nearby mesa. A huge rockfall is set loose. The mountain is drifting toward them, filling half the sky. The Hunters all make their way to the edge of the rock. Jake looks up at the beanstalk going into the clouds. He turns to Tsu'tey, who is checking the young hunters' gear.

"We doin' this?" Jake leaps to catch up as Tsu'tey, the hunters, and Nate swarm up the base of the beanstalk.

200 meters up the beanstalk, the hunters nimbly climb along the vine trunks, Nate too jumping and running along like a skilled Lemar. They clamber over one of the unobtanium boulders which is lifting this incredible tree. Jake looks down, the massive trunk dwindles to the size of a licorice stick. A chunk breaks off a boulder as he climbs over it, it floats upward. They reach the upper branches of the beanstalk. Above them, the craggy underbelly of Mons Veritatis looms. Spray from one of the waterfalls hits them. Some of the hanging vines are brushing over the upper branches of the beanstalk with a crackling hiss.

"Now what?" Nate asks as the group stands on the lower floating boulder, watching the vines float toward them.

~𝘏𝘰𝘭𝘥...~ Tsu'Tey called out, bending his knees with narrow eyes as he watched a vine closely.

~𝘓𝘦𝘵'𝘴 𝘨𝘰!~ He then exclaims, jumping forward and grabbing a vine.

One by one the hunters grab onto vines as they pass, letting out minor battle cries as they climb.

"God I hate this," Nate took a step back before he too lept forward, grabbing a vine and squeezing it between his fingers hard so he wouldn't fall.

Jake jumped after him, his feet dangling over nothingness. They climb toward the floating islands above. As the party made their way over the Mountains of Truth, the five Na'vi looked like tiny figures running across a causeway of vines connecting a small island of unobtanium to the main mass of Mons Veritatis. Looking down a rock face bigger than Half Dome, the sheer side of the Mountains, Banshees circle next to the cliffs, flashing in shafts of sunlight. Waterfalls dissolve into nothingness below. A waterfall thunders down into the void like a faucet of the gods. Jake looks down the sheer cliff at the world far below, a view from Olympus. A shriek and the thwap flapping of leathery wings, cause all the young hunters to look up, watching as Neytiri's and Ke'Kay's Ikrans swoop in to perch at the edge of the grotto. The two females dismount and greet Tsu'Tey, Nate smiling and making the formal greeting to Ke'Kaya, who smiles in turn.

Neytiri joins Jake and the hunter party. Tsu'tey leads them through the cave until they emerge onto a cliff face. And Jake sees the Ikran Nest. Hundreds of banshees huddle on rock outcroppings as far as the eye can see. They cling to the walls with the fore-claws on their wings, or perch on ledges.