The Hunter

Baby

Lo'ak's point of view: 

Hunter was getting stronger every day. She ran through the forest now with the speed of a thanator and the confidence of a native-born na'vi. Her hunting was improving. My mother once commented that Hunter's name was fitting as she rarely missed a kill. Even Neteyam remarked on her progress which was abnormal as he was usually reserved with his praise. I tried many times to discuss her progress with my family but was shut down because my father was hesitant around her.

My father trusted the other avatars he knew and even Spider, who was human, but Hunter to him was different. Despite her improvement and easy transition into the clan, all my Dad could see was the potential threat. I had once caught him talking with Norm about how she could be a spy from the RDA. Even Norm, one of Dad's closest friends, disagreed with this theory, as he had done testing on her brain and found issues with her memory post-pandora. But Norm did say that she could be a first attempt at implanting human memories into an avatar body which explained the problems in memory. My father had seemed to concede to that and said they would have to be hesitant of any new avatars seen on Pandora, but since then, he was still uneasy around Hunter. I thought this belief was irrational and hypocritical, especially considering he was once a spy for the humans before trading sides. But there was no arguing with my father. Every time I tried, I was shut down, and if I pushed the issue, it was a chore as punishment. 

Though Hunter never seemed to mind. I thought she took my father's uneasiness as a personal challenge to change. But after a while of her trying to earn praise, I think it was just her wanting to prove she was one of us and not an alien. Kiri even commented that she thought Hunter related to my father's story, and his refusal to relate to and trust her made her feel more alien. After that, I tried to talk with Hunter about it, but she was reserved. She did open up after a while; honestly, we both connected with the inability to please him. I reassured her that she was just as much a part of our clan as I was. No difference in features or past would change that. That seemed to help a little, but she surprised me by encouraging me that I was more than my father saw. That it didn't matter that I was not what my Dad considered to be the perfect soldier like my brother. She smiled and held my hand encouragingly as she preached that I was a great warrior, no matter what my father said. She encouraged me to embrace who I am, not who I was trying to be. It took me a little bit to understand what she meant. I had always wanted to act like Neteyam, and acting like him almost became who I was. But that wasn't me, and after seeing how I would change what I wanted to do to be that way, I was tired of it. 

My shift in disposition became more apparent when the seasons began to change on Pandora. The spring rains approached, and the rainstorms would last for days, and the eclipses, which normally would be once per day, became twice, casting us into more darkness. Norm explained it was because of the planet we rotated and the other moons that rotated the planet with us. I didn't bother to learn all the science, and I just knew that during the rain, we had more darkness. With more cloudy skies and eclipses, Hunter's ability to see better in the dark became an advantage in hunting. Well, it would if we were let out of camp. No young warriors were allowed out. So the three of us were left to do our crafts inside. It didn't take long for Hunter and me to get stir-crazy. Kiri knew we wanted to sneak out, but she politely declined to join on account that she preferred to stay dry. So, we tried to slip out of hometree to hunt on our own, but an annoying someone had alerted my father. 

This resulted in a scolding towards the two of us. What was worse than the yelling from my father was probably Ahurewa's smug expression and disapproving head shake from across the room. Even Hunter was livid at the na'vi girl but held her tongue. Though unexpectedly, halfway through our scolding, Neteyam took the blame for us. I could tell that hadn't been the plan as Ahurewa's face was livid, but Neteyam in his words said that he had suggested some younger warriors should partake in the hunting because of a slow decline in food stores. While my Dad wasn't pleased with this change in story, he seemed to see the sense.