Titania Blake

Chapter 4

Early the next morning, I met up with the others in the link room, feeling my way over to my link bed. "Okay, let's get a move on. We've got some samples to take." Grace seemed excited by the tone of her voice, and I had to wonder if it was just about the science or she wanted to record proof of Eywa. I waited for a scientist to come over to the controls and set me up before I climbed into the link bed and allowed my consciousness to travel to my Avatar. We were all given tan clothes to wear - Jake and I wore them over camouflage shirts - and loaded into Trudy's Scorpion. I didn't even look out the side until we passed over a large body of water and saw what looked like four-winged purple flamingos. 'This is incredible.' We passed towering trees heading into the forest. "Sturmbeast ahead coming up on your right." Trudy called through the radio. I leaned out to see them with Grace, making sure not to get too close to Weinfleet.

"Got it! Thanks! Looks like a bull, a dozen cows, and some juveniles!" Graced commented, pointing towards the creatures. We passed them and flew over a waterfall which I was tempted to jump into and swim in. Jake was whooping on the other side of the Scorpion. We finally landed in a clearing in the forest. Jake and I were the first ones to jump off, followed by Weinfleet, and then Grace, and finally Norm. While Jake and Weinfleet were pointing their guns at the foliage, I was keeping an eye on Grace and Norm. Grace made a motion at her neck for Trudy to cut the engine and told her, "Shut it down. We're gonna stay awhile. Norm! Your pack," Grace reminded before turning her attention to Weinfleet, "Stay with the ship. One idiot and assassin with a gun is enough."

"You the man, Doc." The small - from my perspective - man replied.

"I'm a retired assassin, and every time I killed someone I had no choice in the matter." I muttered to myself. Jake led the group, followed by Grace, then Norm. I held up the back, making sure nothing came from the sides to get the two scientists. The forest was beautiful, with plants I'd never seen before. Four armed, blue and green, monkey-like creatures passed by us in the trees, seeming to make cooing sounds as they did. Of course, Jake aimed his gun at them like an idiot.

"Prolemuris. They're not aggressive." Grace informed him, "Relax, Marine. You're making me nervous." Grace pushed Jake's gun down before she walked on ahead. I went with her while Norm dawdled with Jake.

"So how will they know we're here?" Norm asked as he finally caught up.

Jake did a sweep of the surrounding area when Grace replied with, "I'm sure they're watching us right now." 'Cool. I can't wait to meet a Na'vi.' We came up on a rundown shack, with toys and books strewn across the floor. "This was our school. Now it's just... storage. The kids were so bright. Eager to learn. They picked up English faster than I could teach it." 'Sounds like me when I was learning Na'vi.' I zoned out Grace's voice when she started talking to Norm and took a look around the shack. The sting bats Grace had mentioned were kind of cute in a tiny predator way. They were hanging upside down from the roof of the shack. One seemed to do a mix between a cry and a hiss at Jake. 'They look like tiny ikran.' Jake found bullet holes in one of the walls. When he asked about them, Grace deflected the question. We found ourselves back out in the forest, going further in. Norm kept falling behind to look at the scenery while I walked ahead of Grace. As soon as we stopped, Norma and Grace started geeking out over what happened when she stuck a needle into a root. I stepped away in the opposite direction that Jake had, and started exploring on my own. 'I'll stay close enough that I can still hear them talking. But I want to check out Pandora without a scientist to babysit for a minute.' I came upon a bunch of spiral like plants that closed themselves off and hid away in the ground as my body brushed against them. When I heard something seem to howl - probably at Jake being a moron - it caused me to jump back from being startled and all the plants hid away to reveal a six-legged, cat-like creature with leathery skin. 'Aw shit. It's a freaking palulukan.' I bolted from the area, making sure to go around the clearing where Grace and Norm were and ramming into Jake as he taunted a family of defensive hammerhead titanathores.