Finally alive (Book 1)

VII

I open my eyes again and I'm back to my avatar. Last night I slept like a baby, even though I slept for five hours. I rise up, looking around for a way to climb out. Jake was only now stirring.

I finally put my feet on solid ground, and Neytiri urged us to hurry. We follow her down, meeting natives on our way, laughing and speaking in their native language. I tried to ignore it, but I felt their looks on me, making me slightly uncomfortable.

When we finally at the bottom she leads us out to some sort back yard almost. She turns to me. 'You will go learn with the other young hunters.' as she says that as I feel the ground shake and turn to see several horse-like creatures with riders approach us.

'You two should go away.' the man in the front spat out.

'Naw, you'll miss us.' Jake says, putting hands on his hips. 'I knew you can speak English.' the man rolls his eyes and pinned his gaze on me.

'Get on.' he gestures to one of the six-legged animals behind him. A male Na'vi sat just behind him, looking slightly flabbergasted by the attention. I approach him gingerly and he blinks down to me. Before I react, he jumps off the creature.

'Tung [..] srung nga.' [Allow (me to) help you.] with that, he squats slightly, putting his hands in front of him. I quickly glance at Jake and step forward. With the guy's help, I easily mount the beast. I scoot away from the front and the guy jumps back on, connecting his braid with the sort of appendage. I put my hand behind myself, to maintain some sort of balance as we quickly take off towards the forest. I'm glad there is some sort of path here, making it less bumpy.

I remember how I rode a horse back home. My Dad had a little farm of various animals, so naturally, I grew up around animals. He tried to conserve the animals, but he wasn't successful. Debts, pressure from the government and his health took a swan dive. I tried my best to help him.

We stop and I look around; we were in a sort of clearing. There was a lot of wildlife around us; not to mention the giant, roaring waterfall to our left. I follow everybody's lead, as they get off the horses. As we walk towards the grumpy guy, I quickly do a headcount. Besides me, there were five people.

He starts talking, and everyone shuts up and directs their full attention to him. He gives a little speech, earning a hoot from everyone. Then they disperse into the area, looking around.

The man strides to me, his eyes radiating distrust. 'We are making bows today. Do you know how to?'

'No.'

He scoffs. 'Do sky people know anything? Kelsar.'

'I'm pretty sure others are as clueless as me.' I counter. His tail twitches and I speak up again. 'So, where do I begin?' I put my hands on my hips, holding his gaze.

With much resentment, he explained me step by step what needs to be done. At one point he was muttering something very similar to curses, which I chose to ignore.

His attitude towards me was quite rude. He laughed when my knife slipped and I cut my thumb, and he did nothing to aid me. His snarky comments when I failed to do something the right way were impacting my mood and performance greatly.

I was more than happy when he announced that we were going back. I put the bow over my head, resting it between my shoulder and arm. Climbing on the same rider's horse, I look straight in front of me.

I don't blame the guy for behaving like he is. We were the ones who waltzed into his homeland. But still, that doesn't excuse the rudeness.

We come to a halt and I hop off, waking off without a word. I see Jake talking to some natives.

'Hey.' I say as I come to stand beside him.

He looked unnaturally happy to see me, and dragged me off upstairs, where people were gathering for dinner.

'What's up with you?' I ask as he continues to drag me to a spot closer to one of the fire pits. We sit down near another group of natives, and I put the bow beside me. I turn to his frowning face.

'I nearly got... shivved today.' my mouth opens in surprise and shock. 'And no one here talks English, but everyone wants to talk to me.' he huffs, taking two bowls of the same soup as yesterday. I thank the woman that brought it and focus back on Jake.

'Just before you came, these two ladies wouldn't leave me alone.' he downs the whole bowl in one go, exhaling sharply as I tried to maintain giggles that were becoming more evident. 'How was your day?'

'Probably as shitty as yours.' I smile lightly. 'Say, what happened that your life was at stake?' I give him a half smile as he taps his chin with his index and middle fingers.

'This woman... She kept talking to me. I didn't understand her, so I tried to slip away but these people have no social cues filter. Before I know it I'm tackled by a dude. If it wasn't for Neytiri, I'd be dinner now.' he finishes, faking a pout as I was chuckling at him. 

'Just try not to get into more trouble.'

'Yes, ma'am.' he salutes me and I start laughing out loud. I don't remember when I last laughed like this.