Petrichor

Mercy?

The tulkuns had returned. It had been a joyous day for everyone. Ilhia had tried to get everyone to enjoy it, but it seemed a cloud had been cast over their illusion of safety. 

They knew the humans wouldn't stop. They had all but declared war with the slaughter of the Omatikaya healers, their Tsahik and their Olo'eyktan. 

It had been a few days since Norm and Max went home. A few days since Ilhia was told that three members of her family had been murdered, and one of them taken. The kids were all out, with the reef kids. Ätopä was still recovering, a lot more taken out of her than she'd let on. Leypa wouldn't leave her side. 

She and Jake were cooking. Well, Jake was cooking, and she was watching him. It had begun raining not long before, and she wanted to stay at least partly dry. They had been joking and laughing, as much as they could anyway. And then Tonowari had came to their hut. 

Jake followed him outside, and Ilhia stood in the doorway, a hand on the wood. 

"What's wrong?" Jake asked. Tonowari was facing away from both of them, looking out towards the sea. 

"Sky People." Tonowari turned, his face blank. "They are looking for you, Jakesully. South." He pointed without looking.

Eywa. They knew it would come. She knew it would come. And now she could do it. Now she could kill him. 

"Did they kill anybody?" 

Tonowari looked back over the sea, bitterness in his voice. "One. The Ta'unui Tsahik. They destroyed the village." 

Jake put his head down, his ears pinned back. Ilhia reached and put a hand on his shoulder. 

"They threaten. But the villagers will not tell them where you are. By my order."

Jake nodded, and Ilhia bowed her head. Tonowari left as quickly as he came, and Ilhia spun, crouching in Jake's spot, cutting up the vegetables that he'd begun. She needed to do something with her hands. 

"We must hunt this demon, Jake. Trap him. Kill him," she said, unable to keep the emotion from her voice as Jake sat down next to her. 

"We gotta be smart, we gotta be smart, Il. If we hit Quaritch, they're gonna know where we are and they're gonna come here with everything they've got," he replied, looking around the hut. 

"Then what is our plan?" she asked, looking back at him. "What is our plan, Jake? I cannot sit here and allow Na'vi to die to protect us."

"We have to wait," he said firmly. "I don't like it. I don't like it any more than you do. But we have to wait, have to see what he's doing." 

"He is getting closer, Jake. We know what he is doing. He is hunting us." She chopped the last vegetable and then slammed the knife into the chopping board, getting up to scoop the food into the cooking pot. Jake's tail brushed the floor, his ears pinning back. 

They discussed it no further. She finished the cooking, put some into a bowl for Jake, handed it to him and then made the trek up to where the ikrans had made their home. The seven ikrans were all laying on the rocks, remnants of birds and fish bones scattered around them. Txi'a stood as soon as she spotted Ilhia, and flapped her wings, cawing. Ilhia made the bond, and they took off, eclipse darkening the sky. 

She still couldn't believe her sister was dead. That Tsu'tey was dead. Oh, how she'd relish in Quaritch's death. 

It was unnatural. It disgusted her. They'd created this monster to take down her husband, but they weren't expecting her. 

She smiled faintly as she imagined cutting the demon's throat, Txi'a squawking softly underneath her. 

It wouldn't be fast. No. He didn't deserve that. The first time she'd put him down, it had been over in a heartbeat. He'd not had time to realise that he was already dead.