Avatar: {Hybrid and Alien]

{39}

The journey was long, but the hardest part was the climb towards he place.

Iknimaya, or "Stairway to Heaven", was a difficult yet interesting climb to the floating mountains through boulders connected in a pathway upwards. The climb was treacherous, there was no doubt about it, though Asim kind of started to like it. Challenging himself to the limits as he was trained to do in his previous life, he climbed the boulders connected by solid grown vines that latched onto the floating boulders firmly. Layontsin followed him from behind, making sure that he was doing fine and would catch him if he were to slip and fall. At least, that's what Asim thought as he looked down at the anthro thanator following below. Her eyes never got taken away from his small shape that was above her, except when she was making sure she secured her four hands on something stable so that she too wouldn't fall. At such height now, it would easily make the best soldier in the world wuss out and go home in regret of taking this rite of passage. Not for Asim though, as he held on tightly to solid ledges and sturdy vines to continue to climb up. Sometimes the path would level to a normal plain in which they only had to leap across platforms. Other times they had to avoid diagonal climbs by jumping and latching onto vines that hung from the next arrival point. At some points the two would stop at a platform for a quick rest, to catch their breaths and let their muscles rest before resuming their climb.

Eventually, they reached the place. The nesting grounds of the banshees.

The whole place was more higher than expected, as Layontsin was scanning the ground and the ledge to check the ground below. From up here, the air was thinner than the ground level as the wind picked up slightly, and here the view of the whole forest and the land was more majestic than ever expected. The entire sight, and everything in it, just took Asim's breath away. "Wow...it never gets old, does it?" Asim said to himself before he was interrupted by a banshee flying up from below and soaring towards the nesting grounds, making him flinch and almost be prepared for combat. The flying beasts crowded many places all around the two, giving their calls and noises to their partners or others that annoyed them. Layontsin moved to a place where she crouched and hid, Asim noticing her and moving to where she was hiding. From where the two hid, Asim could see a more concentrated group of banshees that were congregated. Some banshees looked passive and rather uninterested when they noticed their presence, while others were aggressive and were occupied in fighting others that were assumed to be rivals.

"Okay. What do I do?" Asim asked Layontsin as he hid with her. "Go. Let them choose you." Layontsin said, head moving to watch him before going back to the banshees. "How?" Asim asked in response in na'vi. "They kill you" she said, making Asim's heart drop and muscles tense up. He assumed that she meant 'they will try to kill you', but he realized that this was now a matter of survival as he had signed up for this in the spot. "No turning back now." Asim said to himself as he watched the banshees. Then he felt Layontsin nudge him with one hand on his back, gesturing him to step forwards and approach the banshees. Asim nodded and began to come out from the hiding spot, and then Layontsin tugged on the rifle that was strapped on his back. "Keh!" she hissed, gesturing to his weapons as to say "don't bring any weapons". In no circumstances was Asim going out without a weapon, as he was taught, but he obeyed the anthro thanator and set them on the ground. He started moving slowly again and a bit hunched down to attract the least attention as he continued. Of course, it didn't work out as the banshees soon spotted him and began to become altered by his presence.

Layontsin then came behind him, having taken out her spear and swinging it at nearby banshees that seemed like they were going to attack Asim. The anthro thanator snarled and hissed at them, showing her teeth and flaring her quills and crest plates in intimidation to the banshees in an attempt to stop them from interfering. Asim watched behind him with a small amount of awe because of how Layontsin was protecting him. Later he focused back on the task at hand, continuing his approach to the fling beasts. For a normal na'vi it would be like handling a medium sized animal. But for Asim, it looked like he was about to face so many fierce dragons that were bigger than him. "Calm yourself." Asim muttered to himself repeatedly as his heart was beating rapidly and his senses were in high alert, moving around to see which one of the banshees "chose" him. The majority of the creatures made sounds of aggressiveness at Asim, but either did that and backed away or simply flew off. He tried to get them to strike back as he gave slight growls at them, yet none of them seemed interested in his display. "Welp, I guess that's that." Asim said with a shrug and sigh sometime later as he turned around to face Layontsin, who was at a distance away from him. The anthro thanator's eyes then widened and she roared at Asim in alert, pointing behind him as his senses prickled his skin in warning.

That's when something big and heavy whooshed past him and knocked Asim to the ground with force.

His body slammed flat on the hard stone ground, making him groan in pain as he slowly regained himself and quickly stood up. The flapping of wings made him look up and spot a large banshee, with a violet and red color pattern, hovering in front of him before landing and giving a roar. Layontsin took a few steps back from the banshee and Asim, the look on her eyes telling him that this was the definitive moment. "Okay. Do or die." Asim said to himself as he rapidly took the vine ball and unrolled it, having it at the ready. The purple banshee hissed and snapped it's jaws at Asim, who in turn mimicked a cat-like hiss towards the flying creature. Now that it was provoked enough, the banshee screeched and dove to attack Asim. He moved out of the way just in time to avoid getting bit by the creature as it rushed past him. Immediately when it was distracted, he rushed over at the banshee and leapt at it's back. Latching on to it, he immediately tightened his grip as he aimed for the mouth and moved his hand to tie the vine around its snout. The vine did its job as it immediately wrapped around and closed the banshee's mouth shut, restraining it from biting at him as he he'd on to the base of one of its two antennae. Though, this didn't stop the banshee from trying to take off the pesky human off from its back as it flapped its wings and shook its body. Asim held on to the creature's mouth with all the strength he had while being careful not to accidentally harm the creature and avoiding its wing claws that tried to scratch him off from the creature's back. It seemed like the banshee was going to tire itself out and let Asim become its rider, but it had other plans as it didn't give up easily.

It flapped its wings and growled furiously before it moved to a wall and then slammed itself against it, bringing Asim against it. He yelped in pain as the impact injured him and weakened his muscles, air blown out from his lungs once again as his mind clouded and his ears rung. Then the banshee moved its head forwards and literally flung Asim off from its neck to the ground. Asim felt the impact of his body onto the moss-covered stone ground, pain flaring across his body as he went limp for a moment. Some of his hearing returned, as he heard the roar of the banshee and that of Layontsin as she came to his aid. However, he saw that the banshee had freed its mouth from the vine wrapping and was charging at Asim with jaws open. Realizing that Layontsin wouldn't get there in time to save him, Asim summoned all of his strength to recover and start standing up as he saw the banshee closing in on him.

What happened next could only be described as a gut instinct, something inside of him that told him to do something unexpected. That something unexpected, calling to his mind and making his adrenaline rush all across his nerves, was raising up his hand quickly in a halt gesture as he shouted "STOP!!!" as loud as he could. Whatever happened right after would be considered as something unbelievable, as the banshee heard Asim's loud command and obeyed as it stopped to a halt. Asim stared at the banshee in utter shock, even when he had a stern and unwavering look, as he saw its snout huts inches from the palm of his hand. And the behavior of the banshee had abruptly changed, from aggressive to calm. Layontsin too saw this and was shocked by what was happening, having stopped from running at Asim and pulling him away from certain death. The anthro thanator began to whisper some words to herself, as if saying that she didn't believe this like Asim did too. After a few moments of watching this, Asim realized that this was really happening even if he couldn't explain how. So, gently approaching the banshee once more, he stretched his hand towards the creature's snout...

...and the banshee accepted the gesture by pressing its nose into his hand.