Wildflower

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2152

Sunlight filters through the thick leaves of Na'ring, dapples highlighting Liza's golden hair as she crouches. Her hands move swiftly through the foliage, parting velveteen petals and smooth, strong stems to reach what she's looking for. She tries not to look at her watch as she works, choosing to ignore how late she was— her adventure wasn't supposed to take more than fifteen minutes, but she should have known it would be harder to find a zo'tan than she'd thought. Neytiri had told her they liked to hide, but she'd figured that it was because they liked to hide from her. Although Neytiri was a fantastic hunter, plants and scavenging had always been Liza's forté between the pair.

Finally, her fingers brushed something firm and grooved. She latched on, shoving her other hand in and tugging quickly— if you hesitated, the plant would sense you, and strengthen its stem so it couldn't be picked. The fruit snapped free, nearly hitting Liza in the face as it released. Glancing around, she stood, arms encircling her prize.

As she started her trek back to school, Liza's mind whirled. Tomorrow was possibly going to be the biggest day of her entire life. Her eighteenth birthday, which was massive in and of itself, would be spent celebrating, but she would also no longer be limited to her human form. For Liza's twelfth birthday, René Harper and Grace Augustine (scientists at Hell's Gate, the "home base" for the Sky People, and owners of the school) had surprised her with an Avatar embryo, made with a combination of Na'vi and Liza's DNA. Over the past six years, the fetus had developed in its tank, warranting visits from Liza to check its progress. When she was about fifteen, Grace had barred her from viewing it until completion-- its final form was meant to be a surprise. Tomorrow, though, the mystery would be revealed, and Liza would finally be able to live the life that she'd always dreamed of.

Her pace quickened as she dodged the bushes. Her journey back to school was short, but more than a little treacherous, especially given the gigantic gourd blocking most of her view. She tried to peek around the edge of it, the polarized plastic of her oxygen mask serving as a sun-blocking filter so she could make out the trail in front of her. Around the boulder. Across the log, but carefully, so the glow-lichen doesn't make you slip into the valley beneath. Don't get tangled in the curtain of vines, or it'll take hours to get out. Make sure your hair stays clear of errant flower petals, or a baby syaksyuk (a curious, six-limbed monkey-like creature) might mistake you for a tree and try to nest on your head. Although Liza had been living on Pandora since birth, Eywa's subjects continued to respond poorly to her kind. It did not matter that she was as native in spirit as her Na'vi friends, only that her body was small, pink, and indisputably other.

But all of that would change tomorrow.

Finally, she stumbled into the clearing where the school was located. The structure was more like a hut, elevated a couple meters off the ground and surrounded by a rickety porch. As Liza climbed the steps, they creaked beneath her feet, prompting her to roll her eyes. Yes, this project had been approved, but it was obnoxiously clear to everyone she knew that the Research Development Association (RDA) didn't take it seriously. Their repair requests had been denied time and time again, to the point where everyone had basically given up on any further support from the humans' side. Luckily, the Na'vi had begun to pour some love into the facility-- something Liza was reminded of as she wiped her boots on the woven welcome mat Mo'at, the Tsahik of the Omatikaya clan, had dropped off a few weeks earlier.