Petrichor

Ngulpin

Ilhia glared at the demons as they passed her, the non-warriors with their masks on. One of them glanced up at Jake, who just jerked his head towards the demon ship. 

There wasn't many of them left. Maybe a couple hundred. But they weren't warriors, and they couldn't get to the ship fast enough, with Na'vi lined up on either side of the walkway and scattered around the base. 

It was so ... ngulpin. The forest surrounded the base, but there was no green. No colour anywhere. It seemed a far distance to her. And the massive fence that kept things both out and in seemed to separate it even more. 

She hated it. But she was also intrigued. 

She silently slipped away from Jake's side as the last of the demons boarded the ship, ignoring the momentary dizziness that the sudden movement brought her. 

She wanted to see. 

There were some humans still left. Tsu'tey and Jake had agreed to let the scientists stay, if they wanted to. And they did. There was thirty or forty of them left. They were going to stay in the base. 

Some of them had Na'vi bodies, so she imagined that she'd see a couple of them from time to time. 

The place wasn't meant for someone her size, the human part anyway. Most of the lights in some of the rooms were off, meant for the soldiers and not the scientists. 

It was huge, like a maze. All of the walls and corridors seemed exactly the same to her. She had to stay bent as she looked around, and in some places it was easier to use her hands for momentum, but she finally got away from the soldier parts and heard the voices of humans left behind. 

Her bow was strapped across her chest, the string digging in awkwardly as she ducked into the entrance of another grey room. This one was slightly different though, with rows of the same odd looking beds like there was in Jake's hut. There was a few humans dotted around, but she paid them no attention, instead crouching between the beds, fascinated to see human faces on little screens. 

Her ears twitched as she heard a loud cry, and she turned slowly, not particularly wanting to startle the scientists. 

A dark haired woman held a small infant in her arms, gently bouncing it and shushing it. Ilhia's tail flicked slightly as she thought about Leypa. The poor baby hadn't wanted either of them to leave after he'd fallen asleep on Jake's chest, but she'd left him with her sa'nok. He would be fine. 

It was time to rebuild. They could, and would, do it. She, Jake and Leypa. Neytiri and Tsu'tey and Mo'at. 

She had visited her sister briefly before they had left. She was in a comatose state, her skin torn and bruised. But Ilhia was confident that Eywa was not done with her, the same way Eywa had not been finished with herself. 

The baby cried out again, and one of the scientists called out from across the room. "He hungry, Trudy?" 

"I ain't got the slightest clue, man," the woman complained. Trudy. Jake's Trudy? The one who saved her tsmuke? "I know nothing about babies. Only reason I even knew he was here was 'cause I knew Socorro."

Ilhia had edged closer to the humans without even realising, her gaze on Trudy. And the baby. 

The scientist that had spoken to Trudy looked slightly nervous when he realised that she was now less than three foot away from them as they clustered at their desks. She saw him out of the corner of her eye exhale heavily and then put a smile on his face, and slid her gaze to him.

"Hello! I'm not sure if you speak English, but my name's Max, I'm one of the lead scientists here," he said slowly. Ilhia nodded, and glanced back at Trudy, who had turned to face her, the baby in her arms now in an upright position with its head on her shoulder.