Pandora'a Box

Chapter One

Danger and Beauty Exist here ....

4 years later ....

She crouched upon the branch gazing at the strumbeast herd. Healthy and active. They seemed well off. No signs of injuries or stress related to the mining. Some old scars from hunts partaken by the natives. Expected and perfectly fine. She moved on to study the next sector of the tangled jungle.

She moved with silence. The natives had given her a good scaffold of how to become unnoticed by the residents here. No shoes little clothing and if there were some they needed to be tight instead of loose. The less noise the better. The understanding of how each animal operated helped her know when to travel by the arboreal highways or on the forest floor.

The next stop was the hammerhead herds. She took note of the creatures of the trees and sky as she made her way to the next sector. She noted the viperwolf packs and cubs. She even saw the tell tale signs of a healthy Thanator cub and mother. The more faint signs of the territories resident male Thanator.

She studied the hammerheads herds to see how they were doing. Perfect. She stayed for a few hours. Keeping an eye on them. She carried on to the four remaining sectors. She became more wary near the last sector. It was the one closer to the natives home tree than any other. She saw the dire horses. Then she was gone taking little time to disappear into the jungle.

One last thing before she returned to base. There she checked the perimeter of the mines themselves. She gave plenty of warning to the military personnel. Getting shot wasn't on the menu today. She had recently been finding traps set for poaching purposes. Many military men that wanted to impress those waiting back home for them with their trophies they could buy or capture.

The trip wires that caught on the unsuspecting preys leg and slung them into the air and either crushed the skull when it made impact with the ground. Or starved or dehydrated the animal. She was worried one of the natives would one day get caught by the traps. Some were more complex by using pits dug full of sharpened wooden spikes. The under bellies of the native animal life would be easy game for those spikes.

It was disgustingly pathetic how shameful and unfair these traps would be. She had seen a viperwolf with a nub in place of a paw where it had gnawed off its own paw to escape one of the traps. Only Grace was aware of the traps. The military grade twine used was her first clue. The second was some of the adornments she saw a few of the soil sees display. She was hunting down the culprits a piece at a time.

This would be put to a stop. . .

She checked all the traps seeing no signs of an animal but she knew whoever set them had already checked them. The boot prints were obvious. The smell rank in her heightened na'vi nose. Once that was complete she began heading back to the base. She stopped when she saw a string hanging from a branch to her left.

How had she missed the trap? She saw a blood trail. She followed at times the signs completely disappeared. Her sense of smell and gut instinct guided her to a inconspicuous tree root. She stopped gazing at where the animal lay. Would she really risk this? She steadied herself putting her avatar on the line. Slowly she bent down and moved into the space.

The force that knocked her backwards and pinned her gave her little time to react. The hissing and feel of fingers against her throat made her realize before her eyes processed what was before her. A injured. Pissed off. Full grown. Na'vi male. Warrior. Armed. And pissed. She gripped the wrist that choked her and in a courageous move dug her fingers into the connecting tendons.

When the need for air became too great and her poultry attempt at release didn't work she did what any human female would do. She placed a well aimed knee jerk into his genitals. He groaned and fell away from her. She scrambled away picking up a piece of wood to turn and face the still panting male. She growled low in her throat to warn him against anything stupid.

"Keep away from me!" She snarled in his language as he rose to his ten feet height. His large eyes took her in glaringly obvious he despised her.

She noticed that he had a concussion straight away. His eyes were dilating or contracting at all. He seemed weak and unbalanced. So when he tried to tackle her and stopped mid way to her by passing out she threw the makeshift weapon from her and begrudgingly began making a sling. If she left him here the mine workers or military would capture him or shoot him. Or hell he could get eaten by anything. Or worse stepped on.

She managed to get him in the sling and began her trek to the sector that held home tree. Oh how the neighbors were going to love this. Afternoon became dusk and the night began closing in. Home tree was just ahead. How she had managed to get by the scouts she sensed she had no idea.

Breaking through the last bushes she understood why. . .

'Why me?!'