I See You (N. Sully)

Chapter 10

Ahurewa didn't notice when Neteyam had drifted from her, she only realised when she was as close to the avatars as possible, hidden just in the tree line. Her heart hurt at the unfortunate situation they were in, knowing what could happen to them – what would happen if they didn't get them all home safely. It made her shudder. The avatar who the others called 'Colonel', was walking up and down like there was no threat to his life. Ahurewa had heard the things that were said about Toruk Makto's wife, and how she was a silent and lethal adversary. To have her family restrained and in pain was a promise of death Ahurewa was glad she wasn't on the receiving end of. Behind the faint murmuring between the soldiers, she assessed the situation, her hands curling over the blades when she saw a hand tighten around Tuk's neck. It wasn't long after Kiri had started winding up the soldier behind her that Ahurewa realised what she was doing. They all knew Neytiri was waiting for the right moment, her calls were only recognisable to those that knew the Na'vi culture. To the Colonel, he probably assumed it was another creature of the forest. It would be any moment, not long until she would take the shot.

When Neytiri fired her arrow, the soldiers began dropping like flies, and the moment they all caught on... all hell broke loose. Lo'ak and Kiri fought back, hoping for a chance to get away safely while their parents dealt with the aftermath, but one of the soldiers was dragging Tuk away, everyone else unable to reach her, engaged in their own battles.

Ahurewa meandered through the trees, remaining unseen but with an urgent pace, eventually reaching the back of the battle and right behind Tuk's captor. With a slow, satisfying slip of the knife, he was dead in seconds, blood seeping into his alien clothing, painting it a rewarding shade of red. Grabbing Tuk's hand, Ahurewa tried to ignore the moral battle going on in her head, focussing on the current one in front of them. Lo'ak was making his way over to them, scooping Tuk out of her grasp and into his arms as he started running with her in the opposite direction to the fight. He startled when a body thudded in front of his feet, making him stop for a second. The knife protruding from the avatar's back, was the same one she'd used to slice the other's throat. And with a merciless huff she yanked it out of his back, one foot stood on his body to steady her. Lo'ak only had a second to nod in thanks before she was shoving him off into the tree line again, hopefully making it away safely this time.

Loud gun shots suddenly rang through the air and, mid-turn, Ahurewa swung her head back to see what was going on, only to watch Neteyam stood in an avatars line of fire. All thoughts of following Lo'ak and Tuk left as her frightful eyes widened with unsuspecting panic. Without even thinking, she sprinted over to the gunman, stepping over the bodies littering the forest floor. Neteyam had been thrown to the ground by Jake and Kiri had ran off with Spider, hopefully safe. With a loud cry, Ahurewa slashed the knife with great force, down his back, immediately turning at the sound of heavy footfalls coming from her left, flinging her remaining weapon into their skull, sending them straight to the floor with a resounding thud.

Harsh breaths forced their way out of her lungs as she heard the action move further from her position. Her heart was beating a million miles a minute, not calming even when she saw Neteyam stand up uninjured. He glanced at her then, an unreadable expression on his face – disbelief or fear? She couldn't tell.

Jake didn't wait for his son before taking off after the rest of his family, only taking one look back at Neteyam to see him reaching for Ahurewa's hand. Dragging her along with him, they said nothing. Just the sound of their heavy, laboured breathing, and heavy footfalls, followed them. They both understood what they wanted to say but didn't. They were glad they were okay, but there was no time to express it with words.

At some point they had lost track of his family, only catching back on to their trail in time to see Spider leave with them. Jake and Neytiri were quick to usher them all back to the ikran after checking for injuries.