The forest truly came to life during the nights. The brown and green are replaced by glowing blues, purples and pinks. There was no need for fires or artificial light to guide your path here as even the lightest of touches to the floor made it light up in the shape of whatever disturbed it. She took great joy in dancing around on it to create all kinds of patterns -- her little imprint in the environment around her.

Loud, echoing growls and hyena-like laughter came from a bit away. Not one to ignore her impulses, Alva followed the sounds. She was an extremely capable climber and if she stumbled across a pack of ravenous nantangs just waiting to gobble her up then she'd flee up the trunks of the tall trees faster than they could react. She knew they could climb but not as fast as she, and they didn't have the opposable thumb and toe like her so they couldn't move along the treetops or leap across as well as she. The trees were safer than the ground, but not always.

A kentan flew by her, lighting up her face in a faint purple glow. She grinned when it spun away to join some other kentans on a branch on a tree on her right. The lizard made a soft greeting sound that broke the silence that had fallen over her.

Family, she thought as she watched them, my brother will throw the fit of the century when I get back.

The sounds grew closer as she crept towards a smaller clearing. Bright orange cast long shadows against the trees, fooling the flora there into believing it to be day. Alva scaled one of the trees overlooking the area, bending some of the larger leaves to get a clear view of what was happening below.

She gasped at what she saw, then furrowed her brows. "What's he done that for?" The bright glow no doubt acted as a beacon to the pack of nantangs currently circling him like a group of sharks around a wounded prey. "Looks like the pack of hungry nantangs are getting fed after all, Grace."

Her bracelets clicked together louder than she wished as she adjusted her stance so that she could properly see Jake. She was just about to reveal that she was there when he swung the torch around, illuminating the many sets of green eyes watching him from the darkness. He scrambled backwards. The nantangs were gaining ground quicker than he could adjust.

To keep up with him she moved through the branches unseen, clambering over a low-hanging root and over a fallen trunk. Jake briefly disappeared from view but was easily found again when Alva jumped over to a short but sturdy tree. She was tempted to snicker at his misfortune -- first the palulukan and now this? She'd told him Eywa was a mean mistress but this was extra even for her.

Jake entered a smaller, more open area but it was too little too late. The nantangs had surrounded him and this was his final stand. He whirls around, swinging the torch like a madman possessed in order to ward them off but they weren't deterred by the light -- if anything it seemed to encourage them as the barking grew louder and more frequent. They were communicating, learning, she wanted to scream at him.

The little creatures had hand-like paws and black, glistening teeth in dead-white gums. And they were not afraid of Jake or his little torch any longer. They were anticipating his strikes now, deliberately allowing themselves to be showered in the light to scare him.

"I don't have all goddamn night." He growled at them. "Come on. Come on!" Jake screams at them.

He turned his back to hit back at a pair of them who had grown more bold than the others when one of the others hissed and leapt at him. Alva holds her breath as Jake turns around and hit the nantang in the side of its skull, knocking it down on the forest floor.

Another one attacked from above but he managed to get that one with the spear end of the torch and it fell just as the other one; whimpering and bleeding. Though the spear was lodged deep in its body it still managed to crawl away with his spear and Jake was forced to brandish his knife instead.

From the darkness to his left emerged another one and it managed to bite his arm before he managed to drive the knife deep into its shoulder. It let go and skulked back into the forest. But it wasn't over yet. Three losses against a dozen or two of viperwolves was a small price to pay for someone like him. He would feed them for a week if not more.

Jake managed to get up from where he had fallen, hurrying towards his fallen torch when he was felled by a nantang latching onto his ankles.

"Motherfucker!" He screamed at it then, lashing at it blindly with his knife. It yelped loudly but didn't let go until he managed to turn on his back and kick it straight in the ribs. It went flying but quickly got back up for more.

Three wolves lunge at him at once, one of them manages to get him back down on the forest floor and the others lunge for his throat. Alva whimpered, hands clenched so tightly blood was spilling from her palms. It's happening again, she thought, and I'm helpless to stop it.

She closed her eyes to pray to Eywa when a loud thunk and a human sounding scream sounded across the clearing. Alva opened them again, only to fall into a crouch as she noticed the female Na'vi moving around Jake. In smooth, graceful movements she shot arrow after arrow with that skillfully crafted neurotoxins into the viperwolves. Suddenly she fell as one of them surprised her from behind, but she rolled and buried her knife in its chest when she came back up. Alva watched on in wonder at the display as she cracked down her bow on the remaining viperwolves, stabbing some and simply hitting others. Still, her chest ached at so much death and she reached up to rub at the spot, a few traitorous tears escaping as the loss seemed to reverberate through her bond with Eywa.

The rest of the viperwolves gave up the chase and retreated into the shadows. The female na'vi crouched down and hissed at them. When the last of the black hides disappear she stands up again, holding up a hand to shield her eyes from the bright light. She muttered something in Na'vi that Alva didn't hear, probably a curse.

The female native was tall and lean, just like all of them, though she wore a decorated top and wore many clasps in her thinly braided hair. The braid covering the neural queue was held in place by a wide, bronze clasp. Two wooden bracelets covered parts of her forearms and a woven band cinched in the top of her bicep.

"Wait don't-" Jake lunged after the torch as the native yanked it from the ground and threw it in the water, letting darkness take its rightful place around them.

Alva allowed herself to move ever so slightly closer to the pair as the two rushed over to a still whimpering nantang. The female na'vi seemed to shrink in on herself when she fell upon her knees next to it, placing one hand over the breathing holes and the other driving her knife into its heart, killing it instantly.

"Forgive me, my brother." She said and stabbed the nantang again. She pulled it back out, wiped off the blood on her loincloth and placed it back in the scabbard. "Forgive me. May your spirit run with the Great Mother."

Jake went over to the waterhole and grabbed the spear, groaning at the scraps of burnt fabric there. The female na'vi was still by the dead nantang when Jake went over to her. "Look, I know you probably don't understand this. But thanks -- thank you. I owe you."

She didn't seem interested in his thanks, nor did she acknowledge her presence when Jake dropped into a crouch just a few meters away. The native kept her eyes firmly on the animal, paying it all the respect it deserved. Alva had seen that posture before -- had held that posture before. She was praying, she realized with a muted gasp.

"I would have been screwed if you hadn't come along. It was..." He trailed off as the native got up from her position above the nantang and walked off without a word. "Hey, wait a second. Hey, where you going?" Jake asked, following the na'vi woman like a lost puppy.

Alva was tempted to follow them, wanting to hear the rest of the conversation and in the worst case scenario try to save Jake and prevent another political headache for her darling brother. A ravenous palulukan and a pack of nantangs wasn't something she could stop but she could babble anyone into admitting insanity. But a flash of silver distracted her from the pair and she had already ran off to find it when the pair left.

The silver that had lured her away turned out to be a big piece of metal that she suspected came from one of the many helicopters they had flying around this area. She would have lost Jake if not for his loud, booming voice.

The shining piece of silver was deceptively far away and if it hadn't been for Jake's loud voice and habit of stumbling around like a drunken fool she'd never have found them again. Unfortunately they were too close to Omaticaya territory for her to intervene as her popping up to say hi from under the big trunk they were traversing on would look as if Jake had been distracting the native so that the other demons could follow him. That would make the natives skin them and make a nice pair of drums.

It was when she was crawling upside down to follow the pair that she caught sight of the lines of glowing dots on her body. She stopped for a few precious seconds to marvel at them -- they seemed to shine so much stronger now compared to the nights at the compound. Alva even found a couple of new ones that her rigorous studying hadn't yet uncovered. A bundle of them hid in between her knuckles in the shape of a badly crooked circle, and some more to the left of her bellybutton that didn't form any shape at all, just a couple of dots scattered against pale blue skin.

She looked into the deep abyss below her, noting the vines hanging there as ones she could catch were she to fall or be discovered. She could make a quick escape using them -- swinging herself back on the opposite side and disappearing into the darkness of the woods.

Alva almost lost her grip on the tree when a handful of woodsprites landed on her stomach and knees, the sudden appearance of the sacred creatures enough to make her choke on the air and a sudden heaviness in her chest.

"Eywa?" She asked when one of them landed on her nose. She laughed, perhaps a bit too loud but she didn't care as more of them landed on her, almost covering her with their white and pinkish tendrils. A warmth engulfed her entire being; soul and all, and she knew that Eywa was with her, showing it the only way she could.

The na'vi woman and Jake moved off the fallen tree and onto solid ground just as the atokirina fluttered away in the soft breeze. Alva released one hand from its death grip around the tree and pressed two fingers first to her forehead, then to her puckered lips and then stretched them in the direction the woodsprites left. Then she hastened her crawling until she was closely behind the pair of them again.

Like a child Alva reached out to touch all of the oddly shaped plants, giggling as they lit up in bright blue. Ahead Jake was on a raised root-trunk, reaching out to the native.

"What's your name?" He asked her, and she twirled around to answer him when Jake suddenly fell off the trunk with a bolo around his ankles.

Jake toppled down onto the glowing foliage below, untangling himself with a familiarity that spoke of previous experience. He got back up on his feet and moved to run into the forest behind him when several na'vi riders atop pa'li thundered into the meadow, all brandishing bows and ululating. He turned again and was met with both spears and bows from more na'vi hunters emerging from the bush.

Alva cursed and ducked behind a large rock. One na'vi she could steal him from but a group of them? No, the only one thing that could save Jake now was dumb luck and no small amount of support from Eywa. But she couldn't help herself and peered down at them from her rock, taking in every little detail about all of them from the many different hairstyles and textures, the different loincloths and decorations, the color of their arrows and even the shapes and designs on their bows. The most elaborately designed was a na'vi man to the far right on the calmest of the pa'li. There were so many different people there it made her head ache; some of them with deep husky voices and some of them as high-pitched as the cartoons of old, while some fell in the between. He didn't have any sort of weapon pointed against Jake but his piercing glare was enough to freeze anyone.

The female na'vi jumped down to join her kin but she didn't seem too happy with them. Her tail flared out behind her and lashed around, ears pressed tight against the sides of her skull. "Calm, be calm." She ordered them.

Alva watched with rapt attention as the na'vi man she had thought in charge of the part dismounted his pa'li. All na'vi were built like warriors; strong and lean, and this one was no different but he looked powerful in a way they didn't. As he walked closer Alva saw more of him, his hair was shaved on the sides as were many of the others -- warrior trait, perhaps? Some of the remaining braids were coated in some red mixture. But it wasn't his braids nor his strong, proud jaw that caught her attention as much as his necklace. She wondered if it was for protection as well as status as it seemed to cover the entirety of his throat and neck while still possessing neat details such as varying colors of stitches or beads sewed onto it.

"Tsu'tey!" The female na'vi exclaimed, pacing in front of Jake. "What are you doing? He is my captive!"

"These demons are forbidden here. I will kill this one as a lesson to the others!" He pointed the sharp tip of his bow in Jake's direction. Though magnificent in build, Tsu'tey was no small amount of dangerous, Alva thought.

Tsu'tey draws his bow and Alva closes her eyes, sure that this is the time Jake will not survive, but she's brought back by the female speaking again. "Stop! There has been a sign. This is a matter for the Tsahìk."

"Bring him." Tsu'tey tells his fellow warriors through a clenched jaw. He remounts his pa'li and rides off without another word, easily riding ahead of the others.

"What's going on?" Jake asked the native woman but is ignored as two other natives came up from behind, one of them grabbing him by the shoulders and the other holding his neural queue hostage with his knife.

They pushed him forward and into a run. The rest of the na'vi on foot point their spears at him as they haul him away and into the forest.