Avatar: What if you were there?

5: Thanator

You were on a helicopter. You sat next to Grace and looked out the window, a random sketchbook in hand. You drew quick little drawings of any creature you saw with little notes on the side.

You landed in the dense Jungle. The helicopter was shut down, Grace said we'd stay a while. I looked around curiously. Jake and the other marine held out their guns. You rolled your eyes. Norm got out and left his pack so you tossed it over to him. Grace told the marine, "Stay with the ship. One idiot with a gun is enough."

"You're the man doc," he said and stayed with Trudy; she was nice.

The three of you followed Jake, who was cautiously looking at his surroundings. He pointed his gun at some passing Prolemuris. You quickly sketched they're outline. "They're not aggressive," said Grace. She lowered his gun. "Relax, Marine. You're making me nervous."

The trees were huge and you touched the bark. "So, how will they know we're here?" asked Norm.

"I'm sure they're watching us right now," answered Grace.

"But how?" you asked.

"They just know," said Grace. You were not satisfied but had to accept the answer. You stopped to look at something and started falling behind. "Keep up guys."

Grace stopped and stuck an instrument into the root of a tree. You watched the scan light up and drew what you saw. Your sketch was a mess.

"Oh wow!" said Norm. "It's that fast?" You wrote a note: fast. You were so clever.

"Amazing, isn't it?" said Grace. "So that is signal transduction from this root to the root of the tree next to it." Note: roots are connected.

They were going to take some samples and you were going to watch but a pretty bird thing caught your attention. You followed it and Jake followed you, he was uninterested in Grace and Norm.

You followed the bird and heard Grace tell Norm that he had contaminated the sample with his saliva. Oh, Norm. Well, the bird flew out of sight and you sighed. Then you looked down at some funny looking plants. Jake touched it and it shrunk. You both grinned and touched two at the same time. This time they all shrunk, revealing a hammerhead titanotheres. He held up his gun.

"Lower it," you told him. He hesitates.

"What is it?" he asked.

"A hammerhead," you answered. Then you heard Grace.

"Don't shoot," she said. "Don't shoot, you'll only piss him off."

It trumpeted and hit two trees. "It's already pissed off," said Jake.

"Well, you don't want to piss him off more, do you?" you shouted.

"Jake," said Grace calmly. "That armor's too thick. Trust me." Jake looked at you and you nodded. Hepulled back the gun. "It's a territorial threat display. Do not run, or he'll charge."

"So what do I do, dance with it?" said Jake.

"I believe they react to tango," you said sarcastically. He frowned.

"Just," intervened Grace. "Hold your ground." You looked at Norm and he was nervous too. The Hammerhead charged and growled. Jake ran up and started yelling at it. The hammerhead started backing up, which confused you.

Jake laughed nervously. "Yeah? Come on! What you got? Oh, yeah. Who's bad?"

"Michael Jackson," you said.

He laughed, "That's right." Then you turned around but Jake didn't. "Yeah, that's what I'm talking about, bitch." you started tapping him frantically but he ignored you. "That's right, get your punk ass back to mommy."

"Jake..." you said.

"Yeah?" he turned to you. The thanator snarled and Jake looked at it. "Oh shit." The thanator jumped over you, scaring away the hammerheads. Norm tried to run to you but Grace held him back. "So what about this one?"

"Run!" you yelled and you sprinted away with Jake. The thanator chased you, causing a bunch of destruction on the way. You and Jake were in tune, running simultaneously and jumping at the same times. At one point he shot the gun at him but that only annoyed the thanator.

You were running when you saw that Jake wasn't there. You turned around to see the thanator holding him by his backpack. He was smart enough to untie it and catch up to you. You made it to the edge of a cliff. No time to hesitate. You took Jake's hand and jumped in.

You felt weightless and then plunged into the water. You swam up, fighting the current, for air. You held onto a branch with Jake and looked up at the roaring Thanator. He helped you up and you tried to walk around. "Are you hurt?" you asked.

"No, you?" he answered. You shook your head.

"Hell of a day," you said. He nodded. You still had your pack and you handed him a knife to sharpen some wood into a spear. You walked around cautiously until nightfall.