Blue Desert / Avatar

2

My head was pounding, there was a heavy force hitting me again and again but I didn't know what it was.. Was I truly overthinking, had my worries seeped into my dreams?

No, it felt more real than something in a dream could ever feel.

I felt a sharp strike on my face and was scared. I sat up quickly to see Abioye and a handful of my warriors standing around me, their orange eyes glowed fiercely in the darkness of my sleeping quarters and it was almost haunting.

"I'll be upset if you awoke me for a foolish reason.." I rubbed my eyes, and glowered at the women, my cheeks still stinging from the strike.

"No, sister, we wouldn't wake you if it was not serious." Asiaq was my most trusted fighter, her usually smiling, dimpled face watched me with a look of concern and fear painted over her face.

I followed them silently to the mouth of the cave, the storm had lightened but the whooshing of the sand was now replaced with the familiar shrieks of we'hupahu, the blood winged birds I so hated. Innocent at first glance, but angry, fang filled creatures we'd try our very best to strike down quickly when hunting late in the night.

"Has an animal died outside our cave? There shouldn't be a circling of we'hupahu at this time." In the mid-season the we'hupahu migrated with the warm sun, they shouldn't be in the desert this late in the year, it was beyond odd.

"I was told by an awakened villager that they were attacking an animal. I haven't seen the animal but it's making a racket."

I heard the animal cries, it was a higher pitch than the we'hupahu, it sounded like nothing I'd heard before. I turned to my warriors, "Please wear any protective clothing you may have, we'll see what is happening out there but only for a little time, I don't want anyone hurt."

I dressed quickly in my quarters, wrapping cloth around my mouth and ears to keep them warm, leather around my legs so I did not injure myself of Chuuluna, and a long, beaded antelope hide skirt that would keep any warmth close to my body. I handed my chosen warriors their bows and freshly sharpened blades,

"Be very careful and only use aggression towards them if you are being attacked, I don't want them attacking the village."

The antelope hide boots we wore crunched against the sand but the animal cries were loud enough that the sound would not be heard. The glow of the planets were eclipsed by the circling we'hupahu, they flew up and down, occasionally striking another winged animal.

"I can't tell what the animal is, it doesn't look like an animal from our desert." I moved closer, squinting my eyes to see but only catching streaks of turquoise.

"It's putting up a good fight but its loud cries aren't making it's fight with the we'hupahu any easier, it's simply drawing more attention."

Our eyes followed the blue animal as it ducked the we'hupahu attacks. Its cries were louder than the desert wind, it sounded desperate, frightened but I couldn't help it. It would dodge the sharp-toothed mouth of the we'hupahu, let out a strange shout almost and try to lower to safety but ultimately would be pushed back up the more we'hupahu.

Asiaq looked at me, her lips pursed, "Sister.. I may be mistaken but do I hear yelling? Not animal, but.. Na'vi?"

I shake my head, "Is it not just a strange animal sound?"

I paused, tilting my ears upward, there were odd noises but nothing I thought sounded Na'vi. The animal ducked again, steeper than before as a we'hupahu flew just above it's oddly shaped head and then there was a sharp scream, not an animal's noise or cry.

A warrior raised her bow toward the blue animal, "I won't help if a human had come to invade our home again, I won't let it happen, sister."

I place a hand in front of her arrow, "No.. I can hear remnants of our language. They are Na'vi."