Petrichor

Dozer

Ilhia awoke with an arm slung over her chest and slow breathing behind her. She inhaled deeply, stretched out her arms, and rested her hand on top of Jake's. 

Neytiri was going to kill her for staying out overnight, but she'd deal with it. 

She sighed happily as she thought over what had happened last night. She felt utterly content. She knew all of him, and he knew all of her. The good, the bad, everything. 

She'd saw flashes of his old life, back on Earth. The war he'd been in. How he'd lost the use of his human body's legs. He'd never mentioned that to her. Injuries like that almost never happened to the Na'vi because of how strong their bodies were. 

Earth was ugly. She understood why they were trying to live on Pandora.

A loud snapping sound made her ears twitch, and it was followed by the unnatural sound of machinery. She quickly got up out of her mate's embrace and crouched low behind his sleeping body and the log behind him, observing. 

Humans.

Big bulldozers. Humans in their mechanical suits. They drew nearer, the noise getting louder. 

They were not going to stop.

"Jake!" 

He wasn't waking. Why wasn't he awake?

"Jake! Wake up!" She shook him, but it was no good. They were gaining ground fast, ripping up the sacred trees. 

With a cry of desperation, she grabbed his hands and began pulling him away. 

"Jake!" She grabbed his face, trying to stun him awake. "Wake up! Ma Jake!"

The sacred trees began to fall around them. 

Where was her spear? She looked around frantically. If she had it she could stop them from coming any further forward. 

Instinctually, she crouched over Jake's unconscious body as she desperately searched for it. 

Skxawng, she left it at home! 

Desperation turned to anger as she hopped back to Jake's upper torso and began dragging, over a branch on the floor. "Jake! Jake, please!"

The bulldozer was about ten metres away. 

She stifled a sob as she tried to heave Jake further away, but it was no use. He was too heavy. 

"Jake!"

She made one last futile effort to shake him awake. She gasped when finally, he opened his eyes. "Jake! Ma Jake!"

"You okay?" he asked quickly. She nodded, her hand going to her mouth in an effort to stop her crying. He looked around, anger clear on his face as he took in the situation. "Stay here."

She caught his arm. "I will not leave you."

The bulldozer was a mere five metres away from them. It was bound to have seen them. Jake saw them, and began to wave his arms in what Ilhia understood to be a stopping gesture.

"Stop! Stop!" he shouted. Finally, the bulldozer slowed to a stop. Her relief was short lived, however, because it started up again and seemed to move faster towards them than it had before. "Go! Go!"

They ran through the trees out of the way of the bulldozer. Jake placed a quick kiss to her forehead. "Stay here," he demanded. Then he was gone. 

Her tears quickly dried. She had her knife. 

She stayed low, out of sight of the demons. She was almost parallel with them now. They were too focused watching the bulldozers that they hadn't saw her.