Na'vi...A Tsu'tey FF

Log Entry: 4

Nyami takes point as they enter the jungle. The forest engulfs Nyami, Jake, Grace and Norm in cyan gloom. The shadows are alive with the chittering sounds of unseen alien wildlife. Tracking with Nyami as she moves through the foliage, hyperalert, looking around like a tourist in Hell. A monkey-like Prolemuris leaping from limb to limb overhead, flashing through the sunlight streaming down in shafts. A plant with swaying tendrils, which reach toward Nyami as she passes. This forest is more alive than anything on Earth, with plants that react and move like animals.

Nyami smiled in pride that she's one of the only people able to see this beautiful planet. She mentally thanks Tom. Jake white-knuckles his rifle as if every shadow conceals razor-fanged death.
"Relax, Marine. You're making me nervous." Grace told Jake. Nyami looked at the squad.
"Stand down Sully." Her authoritative voice revealed. Jake listened automatically. She pushes ahead of him on the trail, forcing him to lower his muzzle as he follows her. Grace moves nimbly on the path, seemingly unconcerned. Nyami wasn't phased by Grace's trust in the Na'vi, in the forest. After all, she spent that last however many years on the planet. Nyami observed the forests closely as the party moved between the huge trees, the avatars looking as tiny as ants. The trail has gotten steeper, the going tougher. They enter a clearing with an overgrown building made of timbers cut from the local trees, with a thatch roof. It is covered with vines as the jungle reclaims it.
"How will they know we're here?" Norm asked. "I'm sure they're watching us right now." Grace enlightened. Norm gulped as Jake looked behind him as they approached the school, feeling unseen eyes.
"Can't blame 'em. We are kinda trespassing." Nyami shrugged, not feeling a threat.

Crumpling sounds echo as Nyami steps among dried leaves and a few moldering children's books. The Floorboards creak beneath their weight.
"The kids were so bright, so eager to learn... they picked up English faster than I could teach it to them." Grace told the group.
Jake explores the room. Grace and Norm are selecting instruments from storage cases on a wooden table.
"Bring the soil probe, right there, yellow case." Grace orders.
Jake looks up at a rustling among the dark rafters. Roosting stingbats eye him warily, fluttering their wings. Grace picks up a moldering copy of "The Lorax" by Dr. Seuss from the floor and puts it back on a shelf.
"The stingbats knock them off. I guess I always hope somebody will come back and read them." Grace lightly confessed.
"Why don't they come back?" Nyami asked.
"The Na'vi learned as much about us as they needed to know." Grace told her.
"There's always more to learn." Nyami said, looking at the books. Grace looked at her thoughtfully. Nyami sees something, and approaches the blackboard and reaches out to touch a pattern of holes blasted into the slate. Unmistakably bullet holes. Jake noticed the holes too after seeing Nyami stop. Jake turned to Grace.
"What happened here?" He asked as Grace inhaled sharply.
"Are you going to help with this gear? We've got a lot to do." Grace shut him down sternly. She turned away. Jake watches her as he jams equipment into his pack. The group moved back outside. They walked a bit away from the abandoned school. Grace's blue hand gently brushes away soil, exposing a tangle of root tendrils.
"See, right here where the roots of the two trees interact." Grace said. Grace and Norm crouch among enormous octopoidal roots. She takes a tiny sample using a needle-like probe. Norm uses a digital device to scan the roots. Jake, bored, scouts ahead a few meters. Nyami followed after him. He comes to a glade filled with shoulder-high spiral plants called Helicoradians. He brushed one. It made a SHTOONK sound as it sucked down into a tube in the ground so quickly it seemed to simply vanish. Curious, Jake touches another -- SHTOONK! And another like popping balloons after a party. SHTOONK! SHTOONK! SHTOONK!