Chapter 1.A: Strange Sights

AN: I hope you enjoy this story, it ended up being way longer than I'd expected :S please review and give me tips on how to improve :*

also, I recommend you go to my profile and read the "note" section since it gives some important information on the Pandora-universe in this series. You could probably do without reading it, but I really recommend that you at least skim through it to avoid confusion. I used to have it as my first chapter but I could see that a lot of people opened the first chapter and then stopped reading so I thought it would be best to move it to my profile.

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I own nothing but my OC's

updated: 21st of September 2010

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.

I used my machette to chop off some small branches that were in my way, or rather: i tried. The attempt was an utter failure and not only did I manage to leave the branches completely unharmed, I also fell on my butt. I did my best to ignore the 5 chuckling soldiers behind me, but even so I could feel my cheecks growing a scarlet red with embarrasment. I muttered curses under my breath and got back up. "Sure ya don't want me ta help ya out Clarissa Baby? Them sticks are damn strong" mocked Jason. I turned around and stuck my tongue out at him which caused the soldiers to laugh even harder. Ah well, I thought, I've tried worse. I tried once again to chop off the branches and this time I even succeeded, it wasn't executed with grace or anything like that but I got the job done. I walked into the clearing we'd had been heading for and heard the soldiers follow.

When we were in the clearing the soldiers spread out, holding their guns ready and looking warily around with tense shoulders, ready for combat. I just barely resisted the urge to roll my eyes at the picture, I knew precaution was necessary. Just yesterday Camp 761-Omega - our camp - had received a memo from the headquaters informing us that a soldier had gone missing from one of the other camps and that he was believed to be dead. It was probably true, after studying the nature here on Pandora for nearly 6 months I was more convinced than ever that this planet held no mercy for the weak - a heaven for darwinists. And I loved every second of it. I have always been into biology, and there wasn't much nature left on Earth to study so Pandora was like my own personal heaven - only problem was that it seemed to be out to kill me.

While the soldiers were busy checking the area for danger I looked around. The clearing was quite big, perhaps 500 metres in diameter. At the end opposite of where we were currently standing I spotted a small stream of water coming from the upper FLR - the 309 U-Alpha, which was approximately 300 meters above us - forming a small lake.

As I watched, two direhorses who had been drinking from the water caught sight of us and ran away. The clearing really was beautiful; huge colorful flowers bloomed everywhere and butterfly-like insects filled the air - only problem was that those butterfly-like insects really weren't that similar to the butterflies we know from Earth, these were more like mosquitoes. Very big and bloodthirsty mosquitoes, they were called "Pandorian blood-butterflies" and though they weren't all that dangerous it hurt like hell if they stung you. I pocked the nearest soldier - Nelson - and pointed to the pbb's to make sure he knew they were there. Sometimes soldiers do the stupidest things, like ignoring the pbb's even though they're perfectly aware that they're there, but they're all so busy looking for thanators. He nodded at me to signal that he understood that I wanted them gone. Nelson was new like me, he probably had no clue what they were.

John, the leader of the soldiers (don't ask me about his rank, I don't get any of that) yelled "Clear!" and the other soldiers followed his example. I'd been on enough excursions to understand that I was now free to conduct my research, and so I walked forward aiming for a big blue huilo grandious, one of my favorite Pandorian flowers. I was so focused on this task that I completely forgotten about the pbb's so when Nelson fired his gun at them to scare them off I was caught of guard and gave of a big yielp, enticing yet another round of loud laugther from the soldiers. I huffed and set to redoing my braid while I waited for my heart to slow down and for my cheeks to return to their normal color, which was unfortunately quite pale. My hand removed the hair elastic that held my braid in place and I quickly undid the braid. My long red hair swayed gently in the soft Pandorian wind before I redid the braid again. I usually kept my hair in a braid when I was out in the forrests otherwise it tended to get caught in branches and slow me down, not to mention all that trekking and marching through this humid air wreacked havoc on my hair. I'd tried keeping my hair in a pony tail but it still but caught on virtually every plant I came near so I kept it in braid. I could of course have cut my hair like the soldiers in my camp so often suggested, but I was much too fond of my hair to cut it. Besides, it'd take years for it to grow to it's normal length again, it reached the small of my back.

When I was done with my braiding - something that never failed to calm me down - the soldiers had taken found places to sit down while 2 of them remained standing in case something should happen, they were all ready for me to start my research. Normally we'd be at least two scientists out in the field together and usually I went with my mentor and foster-father Dr. Kirkegaard but today I was supposed to have gone with dr. Green, a physicist who was supposed to teach me more about the electrical impulses travelling between the roots of the plants, but unfortunately he'd fallen ill and all the others scientists were busy. There'd been talk of cancelling the trip but since all the soldiers had been ready to go it'd seemed to be a waste and so I'd been allowed to go alone - or as alone as you could ever be with 5 soldiers watching your every move.

I started gathering samples of different plants in the clearing and I persuaded Nelson to take pictures for me, he wasn't eager to do it but when I told him we'd be done faster if he helped he really got a move on. Sometimes I wondered why Nelson was even here, he didn't seem to like it. I soon reached the end of the clearing, I intended to take some samples from the small lake there so we could analyze the microbes in the water. However when I got there I saw something dark blue move in the bushes on the opposite site of the lake, behind the waterfall. I thought it might be a aquais canine , or in common words: a water fox. They were absolutely stunning, my favorite animal on Pandora. I stepped, slowly, into the small lake and waded across it. Behind me I could heard the John yelling after me "Don't go to far! And you should stay away from the bushes!"

John was a real sweetheart, but a bit overprotective, especially with me. But I suppose that was normal, most people have an urge to cuddle me because I'm so small and clumsy, i'm only 160 cm tall, that's 15 centimeters bellow the average height for women, I keep hoping I'll grow just a little bit taller but it seems pretty unlikely. Anyways, I liked John so there was no reason to make him worried, besides he was probably right. "Sure thing, I'll just take a peak" I answered and walked the rest of the distance to the opposite shores. I grabbed hold of a couple of branches and pulled myself halfway into the bushes .

Boy, was I in for a surprise. What I saw wasn't a water fox,it was a full grown Na'vi male lying on his side - and he was huge! This guy was definitly above 2 meters. His golden eyes were staring right at me, and though I'm no Na'vi expert even I could see that this guy hated the sight of me, his face was drawn in hatred. I was frozen in shock. I saw his hand move slowly to his thigh where I could see a knife, I gasped. And immediately Jason yelled:"Sugar, u okay in there? Not that I'm complaining about the view, you got one fine booty" I knew all I had to do was call out to the soldiers behind me and they'd come to my rescue.

I was just about to do so when I caught sight of some golden liquid on the ground, it was stragely distrating. I stared at it, trying to figure out where it was coming from when my eyes returned to the Na'vi and I finally saw the connection. It was his blood! He had a huge gaping hole in his chest, it was all I could do not to gasp loudly when I saw it. "Hey sugar? I'm coming in!" Jason sounded stragely distressed, but I guessed that was natural seeing as a hostile na'vi male was less than 50 cm from me, though of course Jason didn't know that. What do to?

Suddenly it seemed wrong to yell for the soldiers, they'd surely kill him. I didn't feel too good about getting a wounded person killed. I looked at his hand, it was resting on top of his knife, ready to draw. He hadn't attacked me though he'd certainly had the chance. That settled it. I looked at the Na'vi and slowly lifted my finger to my lips, he almost drew his knife but luckily he stopped the motion when I shook my head at him, God I hoped he understood what I was doing and didn't go for my throat.

"Oh that's nice Jason, now you chased the water fox away. Stay back will you? Maybe I can get it to come back. " I was surprised that I managed to keep my voice this even. I head Jason come to a stand muttering about how ungrateful all women were. The Na'vi looked at me, his eyes clouded. It seemed as though he might faint, but with the soldiers at my back there was nothing I could do, even if the Na'vi didn't put up a fight against the soldiers it was common knowledge that soldiers despised Na'vi - too many of their comrades had died fighting them – they might kill him just because he was a Na'vi. I backed out slowly, and went back to the soldiers. They looked at me suspiciously "It got away. Let's get back to the camp, i'm wet to the bone" I shivered, and it had nothing to do with the water, but it seemed to convince the soldiers and we headed back to the camp without any questions asked.