LOG-031.I woke up in the sky. Short of breath. Cold. And with a worried voice buzzing in my ear.“-pal. Opal! Check in damn it! You hearing me at all?”Letting out something between a pained moan and a disgruntled sigh, I lifted a hand and slapped at the earpiece I’d taken to carrying around, even as I felt my cheek pressing against something warm.“M’up. Whu-ergh.”Blinking my eyes enough to finally get some semblance of wakefulness going, I turned my head, and then immediately shut it as the rising sun blinded me.“Oh thank fuck, I wasn’t looking forward to getting my ass put in the mincer by Quaritch. Where the hell are you? It’s been hours!”Shifting slightly, I got my hands beneath me and pushed, lifting myself before stopping as I realised that I could see. Not just with my eyes, but with several others as well. I could feel, not just with my skin, but with the hide of two other beasts melding into my mind.Smiling widely, I inched closer, settling in between my new mount’s necks.In response, the twinmoon let out a soft trill, one head turning slightly to glance at me while the other kept a wary set of eyes searching the skies for anything that might decide it wanted a fight.“S-Sorry Lyle, just…just give me a minute.”“You alright? You sound out of breath.”We weren’t as high as we could go, judging by the fact that I was actually getting air into my lungs, albeit barely.Which meant the bonding had been successful, and the conjoined animal had decided I was worth keeping around.“Yeah-yes. I’m fine. I…went and did something stupid, but it panned out. Remember that request we were trying to pen out for a valkyrie?”A chuckle sounded out over the connection, and I imagined the sec ops marine rubbing his bald head as he spoke.“Shit, course I do. Z-Dog’s still trying to figure out what kind of wording we can use to justify the expenditure of fuel-”“We don’t need it any more.”Silence answered my interrupting statement, before Lyle coughed.“Change of plans?”Feeling the sensation of laughter trying to bubble upwards, I held it down and focused on convincing my twinmoon to turn about, in order to get started on heading back towards the encampment.“Acquired an asset. We’ll talk when I get back.”“Roger that boss, see you soon then?”I grinned, staring down at the distant, almost tiny specks that must have been trees and hills and other such things.“Absolutely.”—As expected, there was no small level of commotion upon my arrival to the camp currently acting as the RDA’s makeshift forward operations base within the region directly adjacent to the ashlands.Guns were raised by nervous soldiers that I could spot moving from a distance, even as a trio of ikran lifted off and moved to intercept the threat they thought I was, only for the lead flyer amongst them to rear her mount backwards, eyes widening as she noticed me atop the twinmoon.Lifting a hand to my earpiece, I pressed down on it, maintaining eye contact with K’seeli, the huntress shooting me a bewildered look while I cycled through channels, eventually settling on the third one.“Hey, Lyle. I’m home.”There was a crackle for a few seconds, possibly interference induced by the surrounding islands, before the man’s voice broke through, bewildered.“Opal? So that’s you on the big two headed fucker?”Leaning down, I pressed myself against the twinmoon’s back, enjoying the subtle vibration it made as both heads let out identical trills, the sensation pressing against my chest and cheek.“Yeah, went and bagged myself a high altitude scout. Flies higher than any banshee you’ve ever seen. Ya like it?”There was something that might have been a snort, then the soldier responded, sounding more bemused than anything else.“If it saves me from the damn paperwork then hell yeah, I like it. HEY! STAND DOWN, IT’S OPAL!”For a second, the connection went silent, before the corporal returned, a grin in his voice.“Alright, got the other guys to relax. Z was gettin’ ready to blow a hole through one of those heads. Uh…try not to knock anything over when you land.”Patting both of the creature’s backs, I encouraged it to begin diving down towards the cluster of vehicles and prefabs hugging one of the mountain edges, humming as I did so.“Mm, I’ll be down in a bit. See if you can get someone to prep a water trough or something. They’re thirsty.”“The big fuck off beastie?”“Yep.”“Got it, I’ll scrounge something up.”As the connection cut off once more, I settled down into a more comfortable position, even as the twinmoon continued to slowly circle the camp.…Names. I needed to give the bonded pair names.—I sat in the sun, garbed in a blanket and with a cup of some nondescript tea blend set in front of me, my big blue butt firmly planted on a metallic bench and my body slowly warming up as the hustle and bustle of an awakening FOB sounded out around me.“So…you went looking for the thing.”“Yes.”“And then you found the thing, but couldn’t catch it in the sky cause you kept passing out.”“Yeah.”“And then you managed to sneak up on it while it was getting a drink, saved it from some evil fuckass tentacle creature, and bonded with it before passing out in the sky.”“Yep that about sums it up.”Lyle stared at me from across his side of the foldout table, Z-Dog sitting next to him with her arms crossed.The silent staring continued for a long moment, before I felt a hand smack the back of my head. Lightly, of course. But the action nonetheless was performed.“Stupid.”Turning to glance at K’seeli out of the corner of my eye, I quirked a brow.“One, I’m your Tsahìk. Don’t do that or I’ll poison you into having a religious experience that’ll leave you waking up in bed with someone you don’t know. And two, is it really stupid if it worked?”The huntress stared at me for a long moment, garbed in a utility harness and wearing a pair of sunglasses, today, before nodding.“Yes.”Dramatically sighing and turning to our human counterparts, I gestured towards my fellow Na’vi with a lopsided smirk, even as the sounds of a small crowd of people trying to manoeuvre around the twinmoon currently dominating the center of the camp filled the air behind me.“You see why I got in bed with the RDA? No respect from these people. None. If I’d gone and banged a local guy he’d probably never listen to me either.”As if having waited for me to finish, the massive bubble of gum that had been forming out from Z-Dog’s mouth finally popped, the woman sucking it back in, giving it a brief chew, before ruefully shaking her head as Lyle broke out into chuckles.Honestly, I didn’t really get what was so funny, but whatever floated their boat I supposed.