The Stars in Your Skin

CHAPTER 13

A.N.: Hello all! Wanted to show the humans' return from a different pov. Hope you enjoy it. Onward!

He's jolted awake, by what he is unsure at first. The ground literally quakes beneath him. A sound like rolling thunderclaps explodes through the air. The acrid scent of fire pierces  his nostrils. Shaking off the disorientation he jumps to his feet and sets about rousing his siblings two of whom are already in the process.

"Come on, we have to go!" He rouses Kiri who gives a fearful cry.

He shakes Tuk. "Tuk! Get up!" The girl wakes, eyes widening at the trembling ground.

"Neteyam? What's going on?"

"We have to go!" He lifts her to her feet and the four of them flee the home.

Thick smoke mixed with ash pervades the air, stinging his eyes and lungs. Tuk whines his name. He tosses her onto his back and then he's bolting through the forest at a ground-swallowing pace, urgent to get his siblings to the safety of higher ground. He grabs Kiri's hand when she falters. His vision, excellent for the night, blurs from the fumes but he keeps moving.

He doesn't know how long he runs at full tilt but soon, higher ground is in sight. He urges them and the other fleeing Omatikaya forward, voice ringing above the screams of terror. He climbs the steep hill, Tuk still clinging to his back. He sets her down once they reach the top, checking them over for any injuries. "Are you okay?" He asks each one of his siblings. "Is everyone okay?" He says louder to his clan.

The only answer he receives are  distraught shouts filling his ears. Finally, he looks behind him. All he sees is devastation. Where once there stood luxuriant forest teeming with life is nothing but an inferno consuming all in its path like some ravenous monster.

Kiri shouts, cries of grief mixed with a prayer tumbling from her lips. Tuk clings to his leg, her wails piercing him more than any knife. He stares dumbly at the scene, barely reacting when Lo'ak quietly shuffles closer.

A profound sense of confusion drills through him. Why would beings destroy life so callously? Could they feel nothing? He wants to cry, but he cannot. He has to be strong for his siblings, for his people. Speaking of his people, he needed to search for any stragglers. He has to call Kiri twice before she looks at him, eyes bloodshot with tears.

"I need you to look after Tuk." She merely gives a nod of acceptance.

He and Lo'ak, who refuses to stay behind, return to the forest to help those who may be injured or unable to get out. His eyes and nostrils burn but he keeps directing the stragglers through the smoke and ash-filled forest.

He turns when someone calls his name. It's Ha'ew. The older Na'vi looks haggard, his eyes red from the smoke. The first thing out of his mouth is. "Have you seen Nawri and Noni?"

"I thought they may have been with you."

"They had to return to the forest to gather berries for dyeing." He turns to the voice. It's Wiua and Eyvir. He notices how he favors his left leg, the freshly bleeding head wound, and how the woman supports him despite her apparent injuries.

Dread ferociously slices through him at those words. Eywa no. She was in that forest. He turns to look in the direction of the village. The forest that had just been destroyed. He has to find her.

"Lo'ak get everyone to safety," is the last thing he says before he bolts towards the village with Eyvir's implore to retrieve them safe and sound in his wake.

The village is in shambles, upended by the ground quakes. He stops to briefly survey what was once his home with sorrow.

"By the Great Mother," he hears Ha'ew whisper.