A New Cycle

Stuck With a Moron *EDITED

   The next day started pretty much the same, except Grace was taking us out to do some field work. I was considerably less grouchy, as my neighbors apparently only needed to be told once before they got the message.

  As one of the few people in the avatar program with any kind of weapons training, I was allowed to bring any that I felt necessary on the trip. I got many looks of confusion at the number of knives in my possession, with several carbon steel throwing knives being added to my duffle bag, two daggers with adequate sheathes for my avatar, a sized up kitana and sheath, and my baby, a glaive that was an almost perfect replica of my standard one, though it was a lot newer and a fair bit bigger.

  "Hey-" their next words were cut off as I whipped my katana out and held it to their neck while staring them down.

  "Think about your next words very carefully," my tone was light but I knew that my eyes were almost black in warning. He gulped, the motion moving his Adam's apple to the edge of the blade and immediately drawing blood. He backed away and nodded, the fear in his eyes obvious. I resheathed it before looking at all the other soldiers that had fallen silent.

  "Anyone else?" I questioned, daring them to say something. The silence answered for them and I made my way out of the armory. Men had a tendency to piss me off a lot more than they should, but after almost 30 years of dealing with male bullshit, I was fed up. The whispers started before I hit the door, but I didn't spare any of them a second glance.

  I left the duffle bag next to the chopper before heading back in to link up and meet the other three. I could see that both Jake and Norm wanted to ask as I put my weapons in place before we loaded up, but a glance was all it took to shut down any questions from them. The same could not be said for the other soldier flying with us. 

  "You sure you won't cut yourself with those, honey?" he smirked and looked to the guys for affirmation, though it fell when they frantically shook their heads at him. He turned back to me and flinched from the force of the glare I was leveling at him.

  "I know enough about anatomy and using these to know exactly where to cut so that it takes you days to bleed out and unable to do anything to stop it," Lifting a brow, I saw him go deathly pale before moving to the other side of the chopper. It pleased me immensely that he refused to speak for the duration of the flight.

  As we landed, Grace motioned for the pilot, Trudy, to cut the engines. Moving towards the trees, I smiled when the soldier asked to stay back.

  "One idiot with a gun is enough," she nodded in confirmation before motioning toward Jake, who was indeed lifting his gun at everything that moved. I shook my head as I moved towards him, pushing it down when he aimed it at what appeared to be a monkey with six arms.

  "Quit being jumpy," I started pulling my hair back, "You're making me nervous," I tied it off with a leather cord before giving him a look of mock judgement. Looking back to see Grace and Norm analyzing the data from the roots of a tree, I decided to follow Jake to make sure he didn't do anything too stupid while he wandered off. Crouching quickly while he walked forward slowly, I tried to scope out any nearby threats with my hand. It always took longer than it did with my feet.

  I sensed Jake messing with some plants up ahead, but it was what was beyond those plants that had me worried. Running to catch up, I arrived in time to see all of the plants retreat and reveal a hammerhead titanothere catching sight of us.

  "Shit, Jake," I moved toward him slowly, "Not even a full day," I shook my head slowly as I pushed the gun down, knowing damn well that it wouldn't do anything. I heard Grace and Norm running towards us and motioned for them to stay back.