LOG-019.“Opal you come out right this instant.”“Absolutely not.”“Opal, you’re our one Na’vi expert and liaison and the fucking trees have been spelling out your name in morse code. Get out of that storage closet right god damn now!”The hiss that escaped me as I poked open one of the doors just enough to peek my head out was an instinctual thing, an antithesis to all of my carefully controlled mannerisms and attempts at looking ‘cute’ and ‘friendly’ in the face of the RDA.Quaritch stared me down like I was a feral kitten, before grunting at me like the asshole jarhead that he was.“So, ready to talk to the forest, oh great Tsahìk?” Glaring at him for a long moment, I finally let out a sigh, biting out my response even as he smirked up at me.“Ugh, yes. You old asshole.”—The ‘siege’ of Hell’s Gate had been maintained for three hours, seventeen minutes, and sixteen seconds in the time that I had retreated from the perimeter fences and hidden myself away within the deepest parts of the facility.Within the first hour, a small army of native wildlife had surrounded the base, all utterly stock still, and unnerving anyone watching them by somehow perfectly managing to keep their attention trained to a single point, deeper inside humanity’s bastion.Within the second hour, that army had been bolstered enough that whispers of evacuation had apparently spread amongst the troops, doubts and fears of being able to repel so many seemingly coordinated creatures overtaking the Gate’s defenders.And within the third hour, the very trees themselves had begun flickering, bioluminescent bulbs glowing in a pattern that was quickly spelled out into a single name by a number of the RDA’s operatives.Opal.Somehow, for some reason, the great intelligence that dominated the vast majority of Pandora wanted me personally, and regardless of my connections and new shareholder status within the company, that status meant exceedingly little in the face of men with guns who were absolutely willing to toss me to the metaphorical and literal viper wolves if it meant they weren’t devoured in turn.Oh sure, Parker argued against it, bless his silly little self, before promptly being overruled by Quaritch. Grace theorised that it was more than likely a good thing, considering that the swarm were showing an impressive level of restraint in not just flooding the base. And naturally, even my own fellow Na’vi sang songs of hope that the pale mutant child of the star clan had somehow gained the direct attention of Eywa, which could surely only be a good thing.Certainly didn’t make me feel any better about slowly walking outside of the perimeter gate though, bare feet digging into the ground beneath me and spotlights practically burning a tan onto my back as I progressed forward, the comforting concrete walls and metal fences being steadily replaced by trees and flora that still occasionally felt alien to my old sensibilities.I could hear it now. The breathing. The inhales and exhales of countless creatures, predator and prey alike, all simply…existing within my general vicinity. Watching me move deeper into the forest.It was within that oddly primeval environment that I found myself falling back on an old habit, when that I’d performed a lot as a child whenever I found myself nervous, and one that had earned me no small amount of mockery and bullying from my fellow children.One kuru rose, writhing in place for a moment, before it met with its counterpart, the two interlocking with each other beneath my chin, tendrils ensuring a strong connection.It did nothing in practice, of course. I was merely connecting with myself after all. But the mere sensation of it was enough to reassure me that I wasn’t entirely alone in all this, even when I was.My long walk ended when I finally found myself faced with a pair of eyes watching me from atop a tall rock, slit pupils tracking my movements with an intelligence behind them that felt anything but natural.The thanator and I stared at each other for a long moment, before the fact that it hadn’t blinked once finally got to me, and I snapped at the apex predator.“What?! What do you want?!”More staring, leaving me to angrily pace back and forth in front of a being that could probably snap my spine in half with a single bite, wildly gesticulating with my arms as I did so.“I’ve done nothing but try to be helpful! I’ve kept the Na’vi and the RDA from killing each other! I’ve kept those corporate asshats from having any reason to go full pyro and burn everything around Hell’s Gate to a fucking crisp! I’m trying to secure some kind of future in which we aren’t all fucked!”Whipping around to level a seething glare at the creature, I froze at the fact that it had stepped closer at some point, a low rumble that wasn’t quite a growl vibrating the air around its chest.What held my attention however was the unmistakable form of its kuru, extended towards me.Naturally, I hesitated. Bonding with random Ikran for riding purposes was one thing, but the last time I had supposedly connected myself to anything that could truly be considered Eywa related was…Well, the people that had brought me into this world had still been alive, for one. My parents had told me about how I’d looked so very peaceful while connected to the spirit reef, before they’d finally succumbed to the shakes like every other casualty the clan had suffered in that year.By the time I’d been old enough to choose to do it for myself, I’d refrained from linking to anything more complicated than a beach skimmer. The Ikran pack I’d assembled for myself, which had been squawking and shrieking at the presence of so many perceived rivals beyond the gates of what they’d finally recognised as their nest, had simply been the natural next step to that.And now a thanator was extending its kuru toward me, with the implicit feeling in my mind that whatever was dwelling within its head, it was significantly more complex than a mere animal.I watched it for another moment, waiting to see if it would do anything else.It continued to wait, looking for all the world like a cat that was waiting for the canary to walk into its mouth, practically loafing in place, the bloody thing.And so with a soft breath that felt far too casual considering the circumstances, I reached towards my makeshift ‘necklace’ and disconnected my own kuru, leaving one to dangle alone while the other was brought towards the hunter’s offering.From there…well.Things got weird, to say the absolute very least.