Effervescent ||Tsu'tey||

Impostor

If the forest was beautiful during the day, it was beyond breathtaking at night. Polyphemus loomed in the distance, overbearingly large and oh-so striking. Blue anemonoids showered nearby paths in light, and the massive pink panopyras shone as brilliantly as the sun. Almost all things on Pandora shared this bioluminescent trait; even the ground lit up with each of her steps.

Alva had long since lost Jake's trail but for once in her life she was content – at peace. She spent most of the hours after leaving Grace and Norm climbing, she scaled the tallest of trees to gaze upon the lands, she marveled at crystal clear waters in lakes and rivers alike. But best of all, she had watched the last sliver of light leave the sky while curled up on a cliffside. Free. So utterly free.

The rustling of bushes around her prompted her to seek safety in the trees, scaling it with all the ease of an expert climber. A pack of aynantang ran past where she stood. They were smaller predators but no less dangerous, and they hunt in packs so as to easily overwhelm their prey.

Alva rushed ahead to follow them but it proved to be a challenge as they moved with fluid grace and their black skin allowed them to blend in with the shadows. She quickly lost them. Any worry she held about them stalking her vanished as a kenten flew by her, shying away from her touch when she tried to hold the lizard. The underside of it cast a pale pink glow on her face and she inclined her head when it left.

Just as she was about to find shelter for the night, bright light exploded in the distance. Like a moth to a flame, she ran along the massive branches with renewed vigor for who except for Jake would light a fire here? Certainly not the Na'vi.

She was greeted by the hyena-like laughter of the nantang pack, and then she saw him. Jake stood alone with a make-shift torch, surrounded by ravenous viperwolves. They snarled at him, skin pulled back to reveal deathly pale gums and shining black teeth. Their green eyes shone like beacons in the darkness

'What's he done that for?' Alva wondered, pushing some of the larger leaves out of the way so she could see him better. 'Looks like the hungry aynantang are getting fed afterall, Grace'.

The bright fire fooled the plants around him into believing it to be day – casting his surroundings into further darkness where the predators lurked. The aynantang herded Jake into the open where they had ample opportunity to attack him. They hunted him from the ground and trees alike for their opposable thumbs made them capable climbers.

The aynantang surrounded him on all fronts now, not at all deterred by the light he swum at them. Where the palulukan is a stealthy hunter, the nantang is loud and vocal, equal parts smart and cunning. Each move he made made him more predictable to them. They knew that he was scared – a lone doe dumped in a savannah crawling with lions.

Alva moved to reveal herself, beckon him to the tentative safety she enjoyed in the treetops when he spoke-

"I don't have all goddamn night." He growled at them. "Come on! Come on!"

'My brother will never forgive me for this', she winced.

They attack from all sides at once. Jake slams the fire into the front of one attacking from the side, then twirls around to cut at one attacking from above. The spear got stuck in the belly of the viperwolf. He's lost his weapon, but Jake pulled the knife from his thigh just in time to face the nantang leaping at him from the front. They fall to the forest ground. Jake struggled to get the snapping jaws away from his face. It bit his arm. He rolled over but managed little more than a shallow cut to its shoulder before it scampered off.

He jumps to his feet but is felled almost immediately by another viperwolf. Jake fell to the ground with a heavy grunt. The viperwolf ran after him but Jake managed to kick it in the head before getting back up on his feet. But again he is attacked by another viperwolf from above and he falls again. It both snapped its teeth in his face and tried to claw him but Jake held it off. Barely.