This one-shot fanfiction is alternate version of Neytiri meeting Thanator. It was inspired by two things: one of the concept arts of 2009 film where Neytiri encounters Thanator standing over the downed AMP suit in the burning forest and the deleted scene "Neytiri kills Wainfleet".
My earlier Avatar fanfiction, "Revenge of Taro'Nyu the Queue Hunter", is in a small pause, because I'm trying to reconsider the plot and make some edits to it... not to mention about keeping an eye on the progress of the other fanfictions nor all these busy times in trying to find for myself a job. I try to update it as soon as I can.
Anyway, enjoy this one.
"Ma Jake!" Neytiri cried to her throat microphone as the Omaticayan princess rushed to cover behind of the tree, as the flying bullets from the advancing RDA ground troopers flew past of her and hit to the tree behind of which she was hiding.
All around of her, the Na'vi warriors from almost totally exterminated Direhorse cavalry rushed past her deeper into the jungle to get away from the humans firing range. Many of them fell before Neytiri's eyes after getting a fatal hit to their backs from the bullets before they could reach far.
About two dozen of those survived ones, who knew that they could not get out of the enemy's fire without getting hit, desperately sought the cover behind the trees.
"Ma Jake! Can you hear me! Ma Jake!" Neytiri cried again to her microphone, hoping Jake to copy.
Neytiri was also afraid of what has become to Jake. She had got separated from him during the bloody battle between Ikran Makto and RDA air force. She had only seen a glimpse of Jake trying to escape in the back of Toruk when the Sky People's bigger and monstrous metal machine, the same one who had brought down the Hometree a days ago, had gave the chase to Jake and was firing its "big flashing arrows" at him. Neytiri had wanted to go to Jake's aid, but one of Sky People's flying metal beasts had started to relentlessly chase her and her Ikran Seze and fire their "invisible but yellow arrows" at them, forcing her to fly under the canopy of the forest in desperate attempt to lose it, only to end up flying over of the humans ground forces and got shot down by "Shield that walks". Seze had died in mourning Neytiri's arms and her death had left the princess herself stranded in middle of the death and fire.
While Neytiri waited for Jake's respond, she peeked from behind of the tree and saw hundreds of Sky People warriors and several of their "Shields that walks" approaching with the slow but unstoppable pace. Some of them kept firing at the direction of the escaped Na'vi, letting out a round of bullets past of behind of the trees hiding Na'vi, and a few of them burned the forest with the weapons that breath the fire!
Their slow but unstoppable advancing and vast numbers made Neytiri to realize that she and the survivors were surrounded with no hope to escape without getting killed.
"I read you!" came Jake's voice from the headphone in her left ear. His voice sounded relieved that at least there was somebody still alive, most importantly the one he had fallen in love.
"Ma Jake!" Neytiri gasped, deeply relieved that Jake was still alive.
However, her relief was short-lived when the another round of bullets flew past her, scratching the tree's side right next to her right shoulder, startling her badly.
"Neytiri?!" Jake exclaimed, nearly panicking after hearing Neytiri's startled yelp. "Neytiri! Are you alright?! Where are you?!"
In the other end of the line, Neytiri panted rapidly in shock while clenching from her chest with her free hand. Even though she didn't looked like it from outside, she was relieved that those three gunshots that barely missed her right hand and shoulder didn't cause any physical damage.
Neytiri then forced herself to pull herself together to respond.
"I'm okay, Ma Jake! I'm with a few survivors but were surrounded!" Neytiri responded, her voice still choking from shock. "Seze is dead! They are very close to us and there are many of them."
After responding to Jake, Neytiri turned to look at the survived warriors behind of the trees. The princess of Omaticaya saw in their eyes the desperation and that they were unaware of what to do now when they were pinned down. Many of them even looked like they were losing or had already lost all hope.
With their numbers dangerously thinned, there was no way for them to stop RDA from destroying the Tree of Souls, their direct line to Eywa and their ancestors.
The war was lost.
Now Eywa was gonna die at the hands of the Sky People... and with her, all of them after.
"Do not attack. Do you read me, Neytiri?" Jake ordered, while trying to desperately to come up with something to prevent
Neytiri then, while inhaling uneasily, lifted her late father's bow on her lap and stared down at it.
She remembered her father's dying wish before he passed away after the old Treehouse's destruction... the dying wish which he had tearfully promised to him.
Omatikayaru tìhawnu sivi*.
And she was fpi Eywa* gonna keep her word to her father's memory, even though the battle was lost and the defeat and death inevitable, the instincts told Neytiri to keep fighting to the death.
Omaticayan princess then started slowly to place the arrow through the string of her bow. The warriors around of her, one by one, followed the suit and started to slowly place their own arrows through the strings of their own bows... preparing for their last stand and die protecting their land from the Sky People.
"Do not attack! Fall back now! Get out of there! That's an order!" Jake ordered, or more likely pleaded.
However, Neytiri wasn't a Na'vi to follow the orders... even though they came from her love.
Neytiri closed her eyes tightly and gritted her teeth, before she took a deep but tensed breath, opened her eyes and leaned her head against the tree behind of her.
She knew that if she and the warriors unleash their arrows from the close distant upon the RDA soldiers and would successfully kill some of them, that act would sell out their hiding spots and they would be killed instantly without hesitation or mercy.
However, with their lands and people in a grave danger, they were left with no choice but to keep protecting it with body and soul, even though it will be all for nothing and would lead them to their deaths.
Believing this to be her fate, Neytiri contacted to Jake for one last time.
"Jake. We can't get out of here." she started with sad but determined voice. "I'm sorry, but we do not have a choice but to keep fighting."
A single tear escaped from corner of her eye and ran down of her cheek as she prepared herself to say the next words. Certain of the fact this was the very last time she spoke with her yawnetu* Jake before...
"Ngatsyìp yawne. Eywa ngahu, ma Jake.*"
"NEYTIRI! KEHE*!" Jake cried, desperately pleading her to fall back and not to do something very reckless.
Neytiri, however, ignored his pleas and peeked over her shoulder and from behind of the tree to seek her next and last target among the Sky People, whom kept approaching her and the other survivors.
The tension rose high within her and she breathed even more rapidly as she moved slightly from behind of the tree and lifted her bow up, pulling slowly the string backwards and get ready to release her arrow upon of the Sky People, to kill at least one of her and her people's tormentors, before she herself would be finished off by their guns.
The warriors behind her peeked cautiously from behind of their own trees while lifting up their own bows, pulled back their strings and prepared to bring down a few carefully targeted Sky People before they themselves would die.
However, before Neytiri or anyone of the warriors could release their arrows, the Sky People troopers suddenly halted, much to their surprise and confusion.
One of them in the AMP suits, Lyle Wainfleet, noticed the movement in the screen in front of him and signaled the troops to halt.
"All troops! Hold position! Something's coming. We got movement in 200 meters." Wainfleet reported and eyed the screen.
There was suddenly a deep but louder thunder-like rumble, which sounded the similar to the one they had heard when Na'vi cavalry had attacked them.
Wainfleet was stunned by the readings on the screen. There was a second wave on the screen coming towards them, but this one was at least five times larger or even bigger than the first wave and it was moving fast.
"Get ready!" Wainfleet ordered, assuming it to be a new cavalry of Direhorse riders. By his command, RDA foot soldiers quickly formed another firing line and level their weapons to the distance behind of Neytiri and the warrior's hiding places.
Neytiri and the warriors also heard the thunder-like rumble coming from the ground. Immediately afterwards, they felt the earth starting to shake under their bare feet. This prompted the confused Neytiri and the warriors to withdraw from their attack and move back behind the trees, turning their eyes and attentions to the distance, from where the rumble came from.
The earth began to shake even more every second, while the thunder-like rumble grew even louder. It was then added by the distant but quickly approaching sound of violently cracking wood and falling trees, which caused both Na'vi and RDA soldiers to become nervous, as they didn't know what to expect.
Suddenly, much to Neytiri's and the warrior's shocking surprise, the stampeding herd of hammerheads pushed their way through of the jungle's flora and the trees, revealing themselves to RDA troops and Na'vi.
Neytiri and Na'vi gasped in shock and braced themselves, believing to be trampled to the ground by the giant animals that effortlessly knocked down the trees and trampled the flora under of their six large foot as their charged towards both the parties.
However, much Neytiri's and the others' their surprise, the giant animals passed them without harming them and kept charging at the RDA troopers.
"What?" Neytiri exclaimed as she peeked from behind the tree she was hiding to see that what's going on.
RDA troops were caught off guard by the sudden stampede of the giant animals. The soldiers in AMP suits unleashed the heavy gunfire upon the charging animals, but the animals' immensely thick frontal armor made their even best efforts futile.
They were more accustomed to fighting Na'vi by using the information Jake gave them while working for RDA. However, fighting against the wild life, which was completely late Grace Augustine's territory and she was a very reluctant to express her knowledge, was a totally new to them. With a 100% clueless of hammerheads' anatomy, the soldiers had become in turn a sitting ducks.
The animals then lowered their hammer-shaped heads down as they charged into RDA ranks. One by one, the hammerheads either knocked the AMP suits aside or ramming them to the ground, while some of them lifted their heads up and made the men in AMP suits to fly. AMP unit didn't stand a chance against the stampeding armored animals, which were aided by the herd of sturmbeests which charged at the AMP suits and skewered the drivers with their horns. Many foot soldiers lost their fighting spirit after seeing the total annihilation of AMP unit and ran for their lives. Still, many of the RDA foot-soldiers were trampled to death by the massive animals during of the hasty retreat out of the stampede's way. And those ones whom weren't caught by the stampede, they were instead attacked by the smaller yet as deadly animals: the packs of the viperwolves emerged from the bushes and started to hunt down retreating and in panic screaming RAD soldiers, lunging at them, pinning them to the ground and tearing them apart limb by limb. The swarms of Hellfire Wasps, Stingbats and Forest Banshees swarmed aggressively over and around of the screaming soldiers, whom either fired at them or shooed them away but to no avail. The small aerial predators kept tormenting and attacking the soldiers, killing them one by one in swarms.
"FALL BACK! FALL BACK!" Wainfleet cried, after realizing that the tide had turned against them and attempted to provide the cover fire for the retreating troops, though his rapid haste gunfire did little to no arm to charging hammerhead, which simply rammed Wainfleet's AMP suit violently to the ground.
Neytiri watched this in awe. She couldn't believe her own eyes that the entire wild life of this part of the jungle had suddenly sided with them against RDA and quickly turned the battle to Na'vi's favor.
Neytiri them remembered something. That night at the Tree of Souls before the battle, she had found Jake making tsaheylu with the Tree of Souls and desperately praying Eywa to help them in the upcoming battle, knowing that their odds were dangerously low and their even best efforts noticeably futile when they go against the highly advanced gunships and mechanical suits with spears, bows, arrows, knives and melee weapons. She had told Jake that the Great Mother only assists in the balance of life on Pandora and was unlikely to intervene.
However, after seeing the sudden turn of the tide of the battle, Neytiri assumed that Eywa had heard Jake's prayer after all and has been observing the battle from the very beginning, before the Great Mother had relented to Jake's desperate request and summoned the help for Na'vi at the most darkest moment when the defeat and death was inevitable.
With that realization, Neytiri immediately tapped her intercom to make contact with Jake.
"Jake. Eywa has heard you." Neytiri said breathlessly, still in awe and disbelief of the sudden turn of the tide.
The Na'vi princess' spirit, that was a moment ago consumed by the misery and desperation, was now filled by the fresh wind, restored fighting spirit, reignited hope and joy.
"EYWA HAS HEARD YOU!" Neytiri roared into the intercom as she raised her father's bow to the air.
The Na'vi alongside of her erupted into a loud cheer with a restored hope, shaking their into fists squeezed hands in the air.
However, Neytiri knew that the battle wasn't over yet. Even though their unexpected but welcomed animals allies had managed to destroy major part of the RDA's ground forces, there was a chance that the survivors could regroup and resume their advance against the Tree of Souls.
"COME ON!" Neytiri rallied the survived warriors to join her.
With a new boost of energy, Neytiri and the warriors joined the animals charge, and they were joined by even more survived Na'vi on foot or mounted on Direhorses.
These were those ones whom had survived from the earlier onslaught against the RDA's ground forces, whose will to fight was restored right after seeing the animals taking down the major part of their enemy.
Na'vi unleashed the many arrows upon the fleeing human soldiers, hitting many of them to the back and making them flying violently forward from the hit. They also impaled them to the back with their spears or bashed their heads in with their male weapons, clubs and axes and so on.
Neytiri halted her charge while others kept pressing on, but she quickly leveled up her bow and took the aim at one fleeing Sky People soldier, before she quickly pulled the string backwards and released the arrow. The arrow impaled the soldier she was targeting right at the moment when the soldier turned around and was about to open the fire at her. The force in the arrow's flight and speed knocked the soldier violently backwards and left him lie in the ground lifeless.
Neytiri was about to keep moving, until she heard the mechanical steps next to her and turned her head to the direction of the sounds.
Neytiri then realized that she was face to face with Wainfleet in his AMP suit. Wainfleet's suit was somewhat damaged from hammerhead's attack and the glass shield slightly cracked but it was still functional enough to keep fighting.
Neytiri hissed aggressively at the soldier inside of the "Shied that walks" as she placed her next arrow through of the string of her bow.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here? Isn't that that traitorous asshole Jake's savage bitch." Wainfleet taunted Neytiri from inside of the suit. "You like to take scalps, do you? How about I take your scalp as a trophy in turn?"
Neytiri hissed at Wainfleet in respond of his taunting words.
Wainfleet lifted up his gun to open fire at Neytiri, but Neytiri moved faster by lifting up her bow, aiming with haste her arrow at the human inside of the cracked glass, pulled the string backwards and quickly released the arrow, which flew directly at Wainfleet, who attempted to hurriedly avoid the arrow by turning AMP suit's back to Neytiri so that he himself wouldn't get hit from the arrow.
However, he had reacted too late.
Thanks to the Hammerhead earlier, the arrow forced its way through of the cracked glass and and flew inside. Neytiri heard Wainfleet screaming in pain inside of the "Shield that walks". However, the machine was still walking, moving and fit to the fight, hinting to the fact that Neytiri's aim had failed to claim its target properly.
Yes. Neytiri's arrow had narrowly missed Wainfleet and passed with a mere inches the left side of his head. And when the poisonous arrow head came out through the suit's back window, it remained stuck there, limiting greatly Wainfleet's ability to move his head to the left when he needed to see clearly through of the cracks in the glass. The only reason why Wainfleet had screamed in pain was that through of the cracked glass flying arrow had rocketed some shards of the glass at Wainfleet's face, leaving a clean cuts to his cheeks and forehead.
Enraged by this, Wainfleet leveled his gun up and was about to gun down Neytiri, only to see that she wasn't there where he had seen her.
However, before Wainfleet could ask from himself, "Where did she go?", Neytiri suddenly appeared in front of the suit's cockpit glass, startling Wainfleet and causing him to drop his gun and step back a few steps, while Neytiri remained hanging on him.
The Na'vi princess had used the distraction caused by her last arrow as her advantage to get to Wainfleet before he could recover and gun her down. Neytiri had thus jumped onto the suit and climbed to the level of the cockpit and now was face to face with Wainfleet once again.
Hissing aggressively at surprised Wainfleet's face, Neytiri took out her knife and started to stab repeatedly with her knife against the cracked glass to break it in the hope to break it so that she could get to Wainfleet. Though the glass was weakened from the damage both the hammerhead and the arrow had caused, it still withstood against a several Neytiri's furious attempts to stab through the glass.
However, the portion of the glass under of the heavy pressure of the repeating blows of Neytiri's knife started to give up.
After pulling himself together from the surprise, Wainfleet lifted up his right mechanical arm and violently knocked Neytiri off him, slamming the Omaticayan princess to the ground.
Hissing from the pain and knowing that she had a disadvantage, Neytiri attempted to crawl away from Wainfleet, but Wainfleet proceed by snatching with his left mechanical hand from Neytiri's tail and pulled her roughly back, making Neytiri hiss even louder in pain in her tail.
"Bad, kitty! Bad!" Wainfleet taunted Neytiri, After that, he used his suit's left mechanical hand to lift Neytiri by her tail roughly and painfully over his head before Wainfleet flung her violently into the ground. Neytiri rolled roughly along the ground and away from Wainfleet, 'till she stopped to the next of the tree.
Ignoring the pain in her tail as best as she could, Neytiri hurriedly sat up and noticed that her dagger and her father's bow were lying a small distance away from her and started to crawl towards them to reclaim her weapons and keep fighting. However, Wainfleet had already managed to reclaim his gun before Neytiri could reach to her dagger and her father's bow.
Wainfleet then turned back to Neytiri and leveled his gun up, taking the aim at her.
Though Neytiri was a very, very reluctant to abandon her father's bow, she chose not to try anything foolish and suicidal. And so, the princess of Omaticaya withdraw from her attempt to reclaim her weapons and turned around to run for her life as Wainfleet opened the fire.
Wainfleet almost got a clean shot to Neytiri, but the Omaticayan princess managed to just barely avoid getting gunned down - though there was two-three a very close call when Wainfleet's bullets would have blasted their way through of Neytiri's right thigh and side, her torso and eventually her head - before she dove behind of the tree that was thick enough to provide her some sort of cover against the human's gunfire.
Wainfleet kept nonstop shooting at Neytiri's cover.
The rapidly repeating gunfire's flames that came out of his cannon's barrel flashed against his faces.
As a yellow lines through the air flying bullets from AMP suit's cannon tore through of Neytiri's tree's sides and the Wainfleet's side of the tree was totally torn into shreds under of the heavy gunfire, leaving a large torn damages on it.
Wainfleet grinned remorselessly and even cheered while sending the round after round upon Neytiri.
Neytiri leaned herself harder against the tree when Wainfleet targeted all the gunfire he had at the tree behind of which she was hiding. Omaticayan princess did her best to avoid both sides of the tree in order to avoid getting shot, and closed her eyes tightly to protect them from the wooden debris that the high speed flying bullets forcefully tore off the tree's sides and sent them flying everywhere.
Neytiri gritted her teeth and snarled even louder, as if she was feeling the same destructively tearing pressure of Wainfleet's gunfire against the other side of the tree in her back. She could feel all those sharp snap-like thuds and the sharp-sounding scratches when the bullets hit against the tree.
Neytiri also knew that she couldn't move nor exit from behind of the tree because if she does so Wainfleet would kill her.
She was trapped.
Pinned down.
Defenseless and unable to fight back.
And... what the humans called that phrase... "sitting duck".
"WHAT'S THE MATTER, PUSSY CAT?! TOO AFRAID TO COME OUT AND FIGHT LIKE A MAN?! HUH?!" Wainfleet taunted as he kept firing.
However, either getting tired of Neytiri hiding from him or seeing no point to fire upon a tree (which is most likely the former), Wainfleet started to walk closer to Neytiri's tree but he still kept firing at the tree's sides to keep Neytiri pinned down and preventing her from escaping from his grasp.
And then, Wainfleet ceased his fire.
Save for the distant sounds of the battle and the echo of the loud gunfire, everything was quiet.
And then, Wainfleet's AMP suit started to slowly walk towards the tree behind of which Neytiri was hiding.
"Come out, come out, wherever you are." Wainfleet taunted as he came closer and closer of the tree step by step, until the human began to circle the tree from its right side to get a better view... and aim... of hiding Neytiri.
Panting rapidly after the gunfire ceased, as if to tauntingly giving Neytiri a time to catch her breath, Omaticayan princess didn't know whether she should move out from her hiding spot and run for her life or not. With that human stalking her behind the tree with the gun ready to fire at the sight of her, both alternatives would lead to the same result: death. Besides, her father's bow was still in the other side of the tree, and she was not going to abandon it.
And while doing so, Wainfleet couldn't help but mock pinned down Omaticayan princess of RDA's supposed victory over Na'vi... despite the animals sudden and in the humans' ignorant eyes impossible-sounding interference.
"Did you really think that a little stampede of your zoo would make any difference? The ground forces' destruction means nothing! You haven't won anything here! Valkyrie is still intact and will continue its mission nonetheless! You cannot stop it! Not by the long shot! And thanks for the information that traitorous asshole Jake Sully gave us when he was working for us, that tree will be destroyed, just like that big tree of yours! But this time, when that tree is gone, all you savages will be gone with it too! Here ends you filthy blue monkeys little resistance once and for all! Best to pray for the miracle while you still have a chance." Wainfleet, caring nothing of it if Neytiri did understand him or not, callously and confidently said as he kept approaching Neytiri's hiding spot.
While listening and even understanding some of Wainfleet's words, Neytiri hissed in anger when the human dared to relentlessly taunt her with the Hometree's destruction and the human's victory even though they had not yet even won... She snarled even louder and like a feral animal when Wainfleet mentioned Jake's earlier reckless and later reluctant involvement in Sky People's plans against her people, which had been already forgiven when Jake became Toruk Makto and returned to save the people from peril at RDA's hands.
"Kawkrr ngenga vrrtep! Ulte ngenga txìng ma Jake ftumfa fìkem*" Neytiri hissed!
"Language!" Wainfleet chuckled, not understanding a word what Neytiri was saying but assuming Omaticayan princess addressing him with the foul language.
And then, Wainfleet got Neytiri on the view.
"There you are." Wainfleet snarled as he leveled his gun at Neytiri, preparing to fire and kill Omaticayan princess.
Neytiri hissed and locked her narrowed golden eyes with Wainfleet's own, refusing to show to human any sight of fear or desperation in the face of the death.
However, when Neytiri saw something in the corner of her left eye and turned her head to look at it, her eyes shot wide and expression quickly switched from the hatred to surprise and alarmed, as if there was something that had frightened her.
Wainfleet almost scoffed at this, not buying Neytiri's reaction and merely assumed it to be that good old "Look! Behind you!" trick.
However, when Wainfleet saw the movement in the cab mirror and paid a quick look at it, his eyes shot wide and face went pale when he realized (too late though) that Neytiri wasn't kidding with the sudden switch of expressions.
After all, they weren't in Kansas anymore.
Before Wainfleet could even react, a large six-legged Thanator lunged roaring(T-Rex roar) at him from behind. Wainfleet attempted to run for, having recognized the beast and realizing that it was now his turn to be the prey than hunter, but the large panther-like predator landed onto the AMP suit and the predator's weight and force of its jump violently knocked the suit off its feet and head-first to the ground.
The beast pinned the suit to the ground and locked its jaws around of the suit's left mechanical arm and started forcefully and violently tear it off from the suit. Wainfleet attempted to shoo the beast off him, but Thanator pinned the suit even harder against the ground and doubled its efforts in ripping the arm off its prey.
Thanator's sudden appearance and interference had allowed Neytiri time to come out from her hiding spot and hurry to fetch her dagger and her father's bow.
Thanator finally managed to rip the left arm off from Wainfleet's suit and let go off Wainfleet's suit temporarily.
The beast shook its head from side to another, still holding the torn mechanical arm in between of its jaws and fangs, while Wainfleet slowly climbed back to the suit's feet.
Thanator immediately lost its interest in "tasteless and stone-hard" arm and turned back to recovering Wainfleet, hissing aggressively at the man.
Wainfleet managed to get to his suit's feet just in time as the Thanator charged at him again. The battered soldier leveled his suit's gun and opened the fire at the charging beast.
The beast let out the pissed off roar(Thanator roar) when it was caught under of the gunfire from Wainfleet's AMP suit's cannon. Thanator halted for a moment when the bullets started to fly, before it let out another irritated roar(Thanator roar) and kept charging nonetheless, shocking Wainfleet totally. The soldier had not a clue (nor a time to think) that how could this beast too withstand the round of bullets. Either he was firing too hastily and without the aim or Thanator's skin happened to be almost bullet-proof, just like the previous hammerheads.
As an desperate attempt as the beast was getting too close for comfortable, Wainfleet swung with his suit's remaining hand his cannon laterally at Thanator's head and stroke the beast down temporarily. The strike caused Thanator to fall onto its left side before it rolled back to its feet.
Now the beast was more pissed off than ever and let out even louder roar(Thanator roar) before it lunged at Wainfleet's suit when he attempted to make a break for it.
Neytiri meanwhile had managed to retrieve her beloved father's precious bow 'til she lifted her head up and witnessed Thanator lunging mercilessly at desperately fleeing Wainfleet. The human realized running to be pointless and attempted to raise his weapon to open the fire at the beast for one more time, even though he had already tried and witnessed that it was futile, but he got never the chance when Thanator reached to him the first.
The beast knocked AMP suit off its feet and roughly stroke it over to the ground. Growling hungrily, the beast attacked the cockpit's glass. Thanator struck the glass with all four of its fore legs. Thanator's attacks exacerbated the condition of AMP suit's already damaged glass and its claws caused far more worse damage than what Neytiri's knife. Wainfleet made a many attempts to get back up or at least to rise his gun at Thanator, but the beast's weight kept him in the ground and one of the beast's left fore legs kept the suit's gun-wielding arm pinned to the ground.
Much to Wainfleet's horror, the glass of the cockpit started to give up under of the heavy pressure of the attacks.
"No, no, no, no! Dear GOD! NO! NO! NO! NO!" Wainfleet let out in panic and fear.
At last, Thanator's front limb smashed through of the glass, forcing Wainfleet to cover his face with his arms to protect them from the sharp shards of the glass.
Thanator looked down at defenseless Wainfleet, growling mockingly at the human just like he himself had mocked Neytiri a moment ago when he had got Neytiri at his mercy.
"AH! AH! AHHHH!" Wainfleet screamed as Thanator let out the roar at terrified human's face and moved its head inside the cockpit.
Thanator snapped its jaws around of Wainfleet's torso and forcefully yanked him out of the suit's cockpit. The human screamed in horror in the beast mouth as the king of the Pandora jungle violently shook its head from side to another, tearing his bones apart and killing him. Such of violent shaking caused one of Wainfleet's legs go off and fly aside.
However, instead of eating what's left of Wainfleet, the beast instead released his jaws' grip from around of already dead Wainfleet's body and tossed him away.
Thanator then proceed to stand majestically atop of the downed AMP suit, lifted its head up and let out the mighty roar(T-rex roar) of victory.
Thanator then lowered its head down but almost immediately snapped its attention to Neytiri, who was instantly alarmed by this. The beast snarled down at hear as it jumped off the mechanical carcass of AMP suit and landed before Neytiri, staring at the Omaticayan princess.
It's flaps over its mouth had rolled up and the plates and quills behind of its skull were lifted up, meaning that the predator had no good intentions.
Neytiri backed away from the large predator and by instinct her hand reached for her knife in case if she needed to defend herself against this ferocious predator.
The princess of Omaticaya was extremely uneasy and breathed tensely before this mighty predator. And no wonder. Every Na'vi, even those who are renowned for their courage, is instantly frightened by the approach of unpredictable Thanator.
Hammerheads, sturmbeests, viperwolves, hellfire wasps, stingbats and forest banshees might be summoned into battle by Eywa but the sudden appearance of Thanator could be just a coincidence. Even though it saved Neytiri from being gunned down by Wainfleet, that doesn't mean that the predator could not turn on Neytiri out of natural hunger.
However, to Neytiri's confusion, Thanator suddenly withdrew from its apparent attempt to lunge at Neytiri and let out the roar that didn't sound frustrated at all. more likely... greeting, though it still startled Neytiri.
And then, much to Neytiri's surprise, Thanator unrolled its flaps over its mouth and lowered its plates and quills down as a sign that the beast had no any hostile intentions towards Omaticayan princess. And then, even more surprisingly, the beast lowered its front down as if bowing to Neytiri and extended its left foreleg forward... as if it was offering itself as a mount for Omaticayan princess.
It's a very rare when the mighty and fierce beast of the ground offers itself willingly as a mount to the one it has chosen as its rider... just like Toruk as a top predator of the skies. Anurai clan, to whom Thanator was a Totem animal, were known to have a sufficiently close and respectful relationship with Thanators to convince them sometimes to offer themselves willingly to the chosen members of Anurai clan.
Neytiri eyed the mighty beast with surprise, a light hesitation yet with delight. Never in her life she had imagined herself to be chosen by Thanator to ride with it, but now when Seze was gone and she herself was much of left out from the fight, she indeed needed the mount so that she could rejoin the battle.
Neytiri released her grip from the handle of her knife and slowly, cautiously yet respectfully approached Thanator and extended her hand towards its head. The mighty predator did nothing to attack her but allowed her to come closer, until Neytiri was able to land her hand on top of its snout and caressed it.
"Irayo, ma tsmukan.*" Neytiri thanked the mighty predator for saving her life just in time, before she made tsaheylu with it and climbed onto its back.
Thanator growled at her in acceptance, and once the princess of Omaticaya was on its back, the mighty predator jumped back up and let out the mighty roar(Thanator's roar) to the air of the jungle.
The sight was what you don't see every day: the princess of Omaticaya had became Palulukan Makto. Very rare yet glorious opportunity in the clan's history.
Neytiri was just about to mentally direct Thanator to the direction where the fleeing humans, charging animals and Na'vi warriors had gone to join the fight. But before she could, Omaticayan princess suddenly spotted something that caught her attention.
A single Atokirina was floating through of the air towards her.
It gently landed over of the white five-fingered hand print in her chest, which Jake had given to her as an other sign of his love for her before the war.
Atokirina started then switch is color from white-blue to the lifeless gray before it returned back to white-blue, but almost immediately returned to the lifeless gray before it returned back to white-blue.
That didn't promise anything good if it had something to do about Jake.
"Ma Nawma Sa'nok? Kempe may' nga larmawk? Ma Jake lu mì hrrap?*" Neytiri questioned, starting to get worried.
Atokirina repeated this color switch for a few times more over Jake's hand print, before it began to float away and instantly headed towards another direction that lead away from the fight. Neytiri followed its going with her eyes for a moment.
It was then when Neytiri gasped as she immediately recognized the direction where Atokirina was going. It was going towards the area where Jake Sully's and his human allies, Normspellman, Trudychacon and late Graceaugustine's temporary camp was located.
Neytiri remembered having visited there once when Jake had took her with him on Toruk's back to fetch critically wounded and dying Grace for the ritual to save her life by Jake's request, after he had returned back to her and the clan as Toruk Makto to prove his strong connection to Eywa, earn back his place among Omaticaya and to swear his loyalty, alliance and help for the clan in exchange for their help for Grace.
It was painful to Neytiri see her old teacher and friend in such of condition and slowly dying... and her sorrow only grew when Omaticaya failed to save Grace on time.
While they were fetching Grace for the ritual, Jake had told Neytiri why they had relocated their camp to hide close to the Tree of Soul's location. Jake had told her that his broken human body was inside of the shack and in the machine, which enabled him to walk among the people in the form she saw him. Jake had also told her that the original location of their camp was known to the bad Sky People and that now when he and his friends were declared as "traitors to their own race", they were definitely in Quaritch's death list. And when he was in his Dreamwalker-body, his human body was a vulnerable, which is why they had relocated their camp to somewhere where they could be safe from humans' tracker systems. And thus the Tree of Souls was their best choice, due to the Flux Vortex protecting its location.
The unstoppable advancing of the Sky People's ground troops had put the location of their camp and the safety of his vulnerable human body, till Eywa had summoned his children from all around of the forest to stop the ground forces of RDA and drive them back.
However, if that had Atokirina switched its color from white-blue to lifeless gray and back before it headed towards Jake's and their other human allies camp's location, that could mean only one thing which alarmed Neytiri instantly.
Their human allies' camp was in a grave danger, meaning that Jake was in danger as well, and he didn't know that.
Neytiri instantly got the Great Mother's message for her: rush to their human allies camp and defend it at all cost.
"Tolel Ma Nawma Sa'nok.*" Neytiri replied, before she turned to Thanator on back of which she was sitting.
"Makto ko, ma tsmukan*. We have work to do." Neytiri told to Thanator through of their bond and directed the beast to the direction Atokirina had just gone.
"Run, ma tsmukan. Run faster than what you have ever run before." Neytiri urged.
With that, the mighty king of the Pandora jungle plunged forward, quickly reaching to its maximum speed and beyond as it rushed through of the jungle's flora to take Neytiri on its back to her destination as quickly as possible. Neytiri leaned forward and clutched with her free hand from Thanator as it took her towards their human allies camp... and she hoped he wouldn't arrive too late.
"Hang on, make Jake, I'm coming for you."
Translations (Not certain if everything is correct. Free to correct me.)
- Omatikayaru tìhawnu sivi. = Protect the people.
- Fpi Eywa = For the sake of Eywa.
- Ngatsyìp yawne. Eywa ngahu ma Jake. = I love you. Goodbye, Jake.
- Neytiri! Kehe! = Neytiri! No!
- Kawkrr ngenga vrrtep! Ulte ngenga txìng ma Jake ftumfa fìkem! = Never, you demon! And you leave Jake out of this!
- Irayo, ma tsmukan. = Thank you, my brother.
- Ma Nawma Sa'nok? Kempe may' nga larmawk? Ma Jake lu mì hrrap? = Great Mother? What are you trying to say? Is Jake in danger?
- Tolel Ma Nawma Sa'nok. = I understand, Great Mother.
- Makto ko, ma tsmukan. = Let's ride, brother.