Petrichor

War

When he woke, he was on his back, his leg folded underneath him with major cramp in the calf. He sat up, giving his leg a rub, and looked around. 

Grey. Everything was grey. The plants, the sky, the ground. Himself. Hometree had burned, and it had burned for a while. 

He'd been worried about the shape that his avatar would be in when he linked. When he'd first been taken out, he didn't care at all. He'd betrayed her. She'd told him to leave and never come back. Her father was dead, and it was his fault. Her people were dead, and it was his fault. They had no home, and it was his fault. 

He'd had a couple of days to think about it. His mind was churning with ways that he could make it up to her, to make her see him. Every time he'd drawn a blank. He had no fucking clue what to do. 

He, Norm and Grace had been put in a cell together. They'd been in there ever since Norm punched one of the soldiers. Usually Jake would applaud it, but he didn't need to be in a cell. He needed to be out there. He needed to protect her. 

He thought the feeling might've faded in his human body. He'd mated with her in his avatar form, and he didn't have a queue normally. But if anything, the feeling had only gotten stronger. 

He felt as though he knew what she was feeling, even though she was more than likely over twenty klicks away from him. That hadn't faded. It was crazy, and shouldn't have been possible, and he felt insane even thinking it. He couldn't tell Grace, she'd try to explain it in some scientific way that would go straight over his head. He couldn't tell Norm, either, because he'd think that Jake had lost it. 

And now back in his avatar form, the urge to connect with her, find her, didn't dissipate.

He stood, and he walked. 

He had a plan. He needed it to work. Grace was dying. Ilhia would know how to save her. Mo'at. The People. 

She always said the Great Mother will provide. And he hoped that she was right. 

Bob let out a cry and swooped in in front of him, disturbing all the dust and bringing him out of his head. Jake smiled at him. "Hey boy," he said, patting his beak. "You miss me?" He connected queues and hopped onto the saddle. "We gotta do something, and you ain't gonna like it." 

 ***

It had been two days since Hometree had fallen. Two days of praying to Eywa. Of grieving. Of missing her father and missing Jake. 

What he'd done was unforgivable, she knew that. And yet on the second night she'd dreamt that he was holding her, comforting her, telling her that everything was going to be alright in that stupidly optimistic way of his. His solid body providing warmth and his eyes full of tenderness. 

She felt as though she was grieving both her father and her mate. 

It was early in the day, and they were all praying. Mo'at led, with Neytiri next to her and Ilhia next to Neytiri. Tsu'tey was on the other side of her mother. Little Leypa was seated on the end, next to Ilhia. She couldn't seem to shake the poor boy, and she didn't really mind. It provided distraction for her, because she was too busy looking after him to think about anything else. 

She'd never thought about being a mother much. She knew it would happen eventually, but now she'd never get the chance to have children of her own. She'd look after Neytiri's instead, she decided. And maybe little Leypa. 

She and her family were facing away from the People, their backs turned to them, as they all faced the sacred trees and sung. So when a shadow came over her, her first instinct was that someone was standing behind her.