𝐴𝑛𝑑 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑚𝑎𝑦 𝑐ℎ𝑜𝑜𝑠𝑒 𝑎 𝑤𝑜𝑚𝑎𝑛...~ She spoke, hugging herself, continuing to walk around and play with the grass and pick a flower.
~𝑊𝑒 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑦 𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑒 𝑤𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑛 𝑖𝑛 𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑐𝑙𝑎𝑛,~ She added, her voice flat but gentl...
Day after day, flying in the sun, Jake, Neytiri, Ke'Kaya, and Nate fly in close formation with Tsu'Tey and the young hunters, 7 banshees flashing through scarves of mist. On one particularly sunny morning, Nate and Ke' Kaya were out flying on their own, showing off by performing dives and tricks. Nate pushes high into the air, straightening out in a sea of white and blue. He looked over his shoulder, diving to disappear once he spotted Ke'Kaya flying toward him. The two young hunters were playing a form of hide and seek among the clouds. They are wild and free in a wild world. Ke'Kaya grins and banks hard, diving.
"Catch me if you can!" She calls over her shoulder.
"Hahaha," Nate dives after her.
That night was a warm one, and the group of hunters had settled down in a grotto for the night. By firelight, Nate's banshee snaps at a piece of meat which he playfully pulls back. He's trying to teach it to take the food more slowly. Finally letting it have the chunk, he strokes its long head with a few scratches, smiling as he banshee cooed. Ke'Kaya walked up beside him, gently tracing her hand over his shoulder blade, causing the Avatar to look back at her.
"Hi," She smiles.
"Hey," Nate returns with his own toothy grin.
Ke'Kaya turned her eyes to Ro'in, Nate's banshee, bringing her hand up to stroke its head. Nate admired how the light of the fire danced on her skin and the wind moved her braided hair. Tsu'Tey, who is nearby, with the young hunters, eyes Nate with frustrated hostility. He hated the fact that Ke'Kaya rejected his offer to take Nate off her hands when she was first assigned the task of training him. He wished all the Avatars and Humans would just leave. Tsu'Tey watched as Ke'Kaya pulled Nate toward Jake and Neytiri who were sitting by the fire and sat him down in front of her, beginning to braid his loose hair. The four sat laughing, passing food around as they chatted.
The following morning Ke'Kaya flies alongside Nate as she teaches him to hunt from his Ikran. Seeing Pandora's forests and rivers from the sky was an entirely different and breathtaking experience. Nate, now suited up with a flight eye guard and his own saddle, sat astride his Ikran, climbing over trees and diving down mountainsides with Ke'Kaya by his side. He turned his head, his newly braided hair flapping against his skin as the wind forced it back. Nate's golden eyes met the sight of his mentor as she hovered on her Ikran, her body close to it as they dived.
"Uuh uuh!" She called out, and her Ikran began to level out.
Nate too, gave a series of deep clicks with his tongue, his Ikran spreading his wings and bringing himself to level. They fly along a forested ridge, over the tree tops. They carry their bows at the ready, scanning below them for prey. A huge shadow suddenly blocks the sun shining on Nate, and Ke'Kaya looks up, her eyes going wide before she shouts out to Nate.
"Dive!" She calls and Nate instantly gets his Ikran to head for the tree.
A Leonopteryx in a delta-dive, whistling straight at Nate. Like a banshee, only several times larger, it is the king predator of the air: The Great Leonopteryx. Striped black, and bright blue, with hints of yellow and red, with a cyan-blue crested head, it is both gorgeous and terrifying.
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Nate pulls his Ikran into overs and under rolls and dives as he moves toward the forest canopy. He plummets into the gloom as, crash! The Leonopteryx tears through the foliage, following him down. Ke'Kaya and her Ikran pause, hovering in the air as the young huntress watches both Nate and the giant dive like missiles. She looks around frantically before seeing a cave off the ledge with vines hanging over it. She heads for it, looking up at Nate, giving out a call causing Nate to look at her.
"Natey! This way!" She waves over before she and her Ikran fly through the vines.
Ke'Kaya and her Ikran perch on the cave wall, both panting heavily. Ke'Kaya stared at the opening, unknowingly leaning forward as she waited for Nate. Ke'Kaya gasped when Nate burst through the vines and scraped to a halt on the rocky interior, forcing the leonopteryx to break outside the cave. Nate drops his head, breathing like he is choking, the large creature gives a frustrated shriek, landing on the rocky exterior and furiously scraping at the entrance trying to get inside. As its fanged mouth opens in a bloodcurdling screech that echoes among the mountains, Ke'Kaya releases a high-pitched whine and buries her face in her Ikran's neck. The Ikran in turn hissed a shriek, baring its fangs as it began to walk along the wall deeper into the cave. Nate dismounted his Ikran and stepped forward to watch the leonopteryx snap its jaws inside the cave, growling before withdrawing and flying away. Two flaps of its mighty wings and it is gone, back above the canopy.
Nate pants hard, his expression, the Na'vi equivalent of 'Oh my God'. He then turns to Ke'Kaya as she dismounts her Ikran, walking over to Nate with shaky legs. The hair on the end of her tail is standing frizzled and her eyes shimmer with tears. Nate looked over at her while she stared at him, there was a pause, a second of hanging thought before he opened his arms just as she hurled herself into his chest.
"Shhhhhh shh shh shh..." Nate closed his eyes and placed his hand on the back of her head, hugging her smaller body to him as she cried.
When he reopened them, he pulled away and placed both hands on her cheeks, pulling her chin up so her eyes met him.
"Are you okay~ Are you hurt~?" He asked quickly as he looked over every inch of her.
Ke'Kaya shook her head weakly.
~𝘈𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘶𝘳𝘵!?~ Nate asked a little louder, moving his hands to sit on Ke'Kaya's shoulders as his worry began to get the better of him.
~𝘕𝘰~ 𝘯𝘰 𝘐'𝘮 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘦,~ Ke'Kaya shook her head more fiercely, crying.
~𝘏𝘢𝘢𝘢~ 𝘎𝘰𝘰𝘥...~ Nate pulled her back into a hug, placing his chin on her head with Ke'Kaya wrapping her arms around his chest.
"Good,"
That night, back in the shack, in their human bodies, Jake ponders images Grace has called up at her workstation, science graphics of the Leonopteryx. Trudy and Norm are crowded around as well.
"The Great Leonopteryx is the apex aerial predator. Not only rare, but the sightings tend not to get reported."
Trudy makes a clicking motion with her thumb.
"There usually isn't time to key the mike."
"The People call it Toruk," Jake states, staring at the image.
"Last Shadow." Norm translates.
"Last one you ever see." Jake jokes.
"I saw one take out a gunship once... WHAM! Total frickin' yard sale. Ate the crew like peanuts." Trudy commented.
