Avatar: {Hybrid and Alien]

{28}

Instead of a peaceful and dreamless sleep, it was a sleep with a nightmare.

The nightmare was about the battle of the mountains, being replayed from Asim's point of view once again. But instead of feeling the same experience of having no fear while the battle ensued, Asim felt more panic than in his entire life. He did his best to get past all this nightmare with the emotions and loud noises of everyone coming from all over the battlefield in the air, but it was no use. He could almost feel and hear every emotion that was being tossed around in his mind. Like anxiousness, terror, despair, horror, loss...and fear. All of these things were starting to overwhelm Asim's senses to the point that he couldn't withstand it anymore, making him clutch his head and shout in pain while also clutching his heart and shutting his eyes. 'Make it stop...Please...MAKE IT STOP!!!' Asim pleaded, hoping that this nightmare of his would quickly be over like all nightmares. But then, as if someone heard his pleading, the mental and physical noise that overwhelmed Asim soon toned out, making Asim look up and open his eyes. He hoped that he would be taken to another place, or that the nightmare would change to a peaceful dream. But it was the same as what he was experiencing, and then he noticed an arrow that was flying across the air and straight towards him. Asim knew that he couldn't dodge it, as it was a memory and he couldn't do anything as he saw that time had slowed down. So he braced himself for the impact of the arrow piercing his body.

And like he experienced before, it was painful.

This time he could feel his insides bleed while a stinging sensation spread across his body. And then he tilted back and fell from where he was standing, down below to the forest surface, where he landed in more gruesome ways than any could experience. With the pain of the wounds and the broken bones inside of his body, Asim knew that he wouldn't recover from this. It was literally impossible for him to recover like this. So, now that he felt that he was slipping into the dark depths of unconsciousness, he accepted the inevitable fate, hoping that this nightmare would be over or that everything that he experienced was only a fleeting dream. Except...as he waited for the time of the end to come...it didn't come. Instead, he felt himself be pulled off and his point of view changed, so that he was the one staring at his own downed body. 'What is this?' Asim thought to himself as he looked around the forest and then stared down at his body, not knowing what was happening. Then he looked up as he noticed that the sky slowly darkened until it was night, the battle of the mountains soon disappearing and the forest being brought to its peaceful and beautiful night view. And then it quickly became day again, and then night, day, night, and so fourth as time sped up.

The ground where Asim's body was also glowing, but he also noticed that some green glowing plant tendrils began to snake around and reach for Asim. These covered Asim's deceased-looking body completely, covering him in a protective casing made from the glowing plant substance. Before Asim could ponder on what this could mean, his mind self was abruptly plucked up into the air away from his body. He was carried high and higher into the air until he hovered in the air, overlooking the vast expanse of the forest. From up here, Asim could see all of the forest and it's trees, their roots spreading across the terrain like glowing veins. This gave Asim a feeling of admiration as he overlooked all of the beauty of the night. But then he looked right below him again, where his small body still laid there lifeless and encased while he stared at it from a high altitude, he noticed something. Something that gave him chills unlike ever felt in his whole life. The roots that made up the forest were grouped in a way that it made a shape on the ground.

An eye, made up of the glowing roots. And it was staring right back at him.

Some words began to whisper in his ears, calling out to him in a way that he couldn't understand. What he did hear was one word, one that he has heard some times before. 'Eywa', along with some other incomprehensible words. 'What is this? Why is this?' Asim thought, but then things abruptly turned. With a rush of wind and him falling back to the ground at break-neck speed, Asim gasped awake from the nightmare and sat up. He was back in the sleeping quarters, Kentaro, Shaka, Mikhail, and Emeralda sleeping in their respective beds. Lily was still where she was, sleeping soundly besides him. Letting out a long relieved exhale, Asim sighed and clutched his head as he wiped the sweat that was a result from the nightmare. "It was just a bad dream..." Asim whispered to himself as he rubbed his eyes. Yet, the experience that he just had in the nightmare, about how he died and the whole forest speaking to him as if it were calling to him...it really had him chilled.

He didn't know what it meant, or why it had happened, but Asim had a feeling that if something similar were to happen again, then he needed to start searching for answers. Right now it was too early, as he looked at the windows and spotted the sun starting to rise from the horizon. The sky became painted with purples, reds, and oranges, lighting up the hills and floating mountains that were elevated over the air far from the outpost. Noticing that it was still early in the morning, he laid back down and rested his head on the pillow to try and get some more minutes of rest. Asim did get some of those minutes to rest a bit more, but he was still awake no matter what he did to think of calming things. Time passed quickly, and soon everyone started to wake up and stretch. "Rise and shine, bed potatoes. It's a brand new day." Emeralda said as she jumped from her bunk bed and swatted each of them with her pillow, earning some groans and grumbling. Lily immediately woke up to get out of bed and go out with Emeralda, the others following along to go to the kitchen and get breakfast. Asim was the last one to get up and walk out, but stopped and peeked outside through the window of the room. The vast forest laid in front of the base of the mountain their outpost was situated, way below them under the slope. The natural world of Pandora was as beautiful as ever, the sights never getting old even from the outside or inside of a place. Even though he knew how dangerous it was, he had a feeling that there was something more that it hid beneath the surface. Whatever it was, at this moment Asim was determined to find what the mysterious tug in his chest was about as it was now more palpable than ever. And he hoped that it was good, so that he could continue living with his family in the new world.

Snapping back into reality, Asim went to join the other for breakfast. Another long day lay ahead of them as they began to do their chores and study.