22. Diving into the abyss

A few hours later within the night of Pandora was a lit campfire, above it was a thin, flat, and large stone. On it was deboned slinth ribs slowly cooking, bones here tended to give an aftertaste of ash, something Liam wasn't a fan of.

<Question, can I ask about why you are here? The Anurai do not reside in those plains right?… Why are you here alone?>, Liam asked in broken yet nigh perfectly pronounced Na'vi to Tsu'mong who was sitting in front of him carving one of the slinth's bones with a knife with a pensive expression. 

<Hmmm…  You are correct, friend. My clan resides in distant lands, arider than those plains during drought, close to it is a sanctuary of the dead where animals in their old age migrate for their last time.>, the Na'vi answered, speaking slowly for Liam to understand.

Even if the human had extreme ease to learn the language, it simply clicked in his brain, and words he didn't know in sentences were instinctively given meaning within the context of what was said. Something not impossible by how his brain is now and the implant capacity to translate any spoken language known to man.

The word 'friend' pleasantly surprised Liam, apparently having an aerial eye on the creature of someone as you knew something will go wrong and saving it out of your own volution will bring amity to yourself from the owner. 

Maybe the fact the owner was sane, rational, and benevolent helped too. And simply being civilized worked when faced with such individuals. 

And now that Liam paid attention the Na'vi seemed more relaxed even if he knew of his abnormal physical capabilities and didn't speak about it. A fact about him that wasn't hidden and went simply unsaid, no one is forced to tell everything about themselves when meeting strangers.

<It is indeed unusual that I'm this far… I'm on a pilgrimage in search of materials that will allow me to create half of the heirloom that will immortalize my bond with my mate, Pänu. She is doing the same as me in another faraway land…>, his voice got lower and longing could be seen, indicating he was completely head over heels for the Na'vi woman, a sight that caused the human to snort in amusement. 

'A sort of spiritual journey? Seems a bit of a chore though… An awfully dangerous one at that...', Liam internally remarked but didn't voice it out as Tsu'mong and his mate surely were aware of that and it must be part of this action in the first place. 

But it didn't change the point of it being needlessly dangerous to the extreme, Na'vi are very much not exempt from not being considered prey.

<Can I ask a question to you too?>, Liam nodded positively at the query of the Na'vi, <What is the glowing object within your left arm?> 

<Not within, it is integral of my body part just as tail is for you… I can do this.>, Liam explained vaguely before pointing his implant at the wall behind him, a soft but quite strong beam of white light was emitted, not surprising the Na'vi as Liam had done so a few times before. 

Yet there still was a flinch and rapid blinking of eyes with the sudden light, a detail that didn't go unnoticed by Liam. A reaction to sudden light? Possibly due to a more nocturnally adapted sight 

Then a caw was heard, the light cut off from atop the wall Meri, the red tetrapteron landed on his bare wrist, the sharp talons grazing against his skin but there was no reaction from the human. One of the young flier neural queues moved and the white furry tendrils connected to the implant. 

The human eyes dilated to an impossible degree, one that would have disturbed humans and made them think he was extremely high and could hear inanimate objects speak. 

<This too.>, Liam said, his tone indicating he will not tell further and how Meri was proper to fly away being an indicator.

Tsu'mong understood, there was more to it evidently but it didn't mean he was entitled to know it, at the moment he was too focused on the fact the Lost Child could do something akin to Tsaheylu and connect to the life of Pandora, it explained why four tetrapteron and a great austrapede lived with him in peaceful coexistence.

Dreamwalkers or Avatars as the Sky People called them let them connect to the flora and fauna yet never a human in the flesh to his knowledge did, but again this was a strange and unique individual here, one that by all means broke commonsense.

Why these animals were with the human he didn't know and didn't truly care. What mattered was the harmony between them. And Liam showed a lot of care, more than the average Na'vi toward their 'pets', not only that but also a degree of respect toward life, if of a drastically different nature, and also the People. The man knew a lot and was carrying even more, that was obvious from the last few days.

After this, a silence took place with only the sound of insects chirping, meat cooking, and of the fire crackling.

The occasional time when the meat was flipped by Liam until it was cooked then two porcelain plates were brought up from the side with each a pair of bone knives and forks. 

Tsu'mong was quite confused at first with what was given to him to eat, the material of the plate was the one the human spoke to him but the object itself was bizarre, then the few creatures painted on it, were all completely alien. 

At first, it was a little dot, then strangely shaped but simple creatures, followed by more complex ones more varied in shape and size, then more and more as from the branch of a tree they exploded out in number. The Na'vi noticed multiple ones next to the Sky People looked vaguely like them, some even having tails.

"It's just a sketch of the tree of life.", Liam clarified, which only amplified the Na'vi's confusion as it wasn't a tree but now that it was mentioned it looked like the branch or root system of one spreading farther, and more diverse from the trunk, the point of origin. A fascinating and new concept to explore.

As the night continued and everything was eaten with the humans eating at the bare minimum two times more than the Na'vi. Tsu'mong threw something at Liam who caught it mid-air, it was an eye with a slitted pupil, carved on a cleanly cut-off bone. 

'So it was what he was carving…', Liam thought while studying it, it was simple yet many aspects with details told the contrary. The eye was similar to the eyes of the creature carved in the first bone he found. 

It was even more impressive considering from what he noticed Na'vi have less fine motor control of their hands, not forgetting that they have marginally larger hands in the first place.

<It was very insightful to be able to discuss and learn, friend. But I will need to go. When the first sun rises I will continue on my journey…>, the Na'vi spoke and Liam nodded, it was good, as much as talking to someone was positive and learning a must having someone close he couldn't fully trust was limiting.

<What I just give you might not have any real value to most of the People but for the Anurai, Craftsmen, and Craftswomen of the Bone Sanctuary this is a token.>, the Na'vi finished pointing with his four-fingered hands at the carved piece of bone.

Far away at the same time in the Resource Development Administration Extra-Solar Colony 01, otherwise known as Hell's Gate, more precisely in the quarter of the person in charge of the Avatar Program. Dr. Grace Augustine is a tall woman with short Auburn hair and brown eyes.

Said person was on a chair currently drinking Lost Abbey Cable Car Kriek poured in a mug, her eyes trailed on the new report from one of her team. 

Placing her mug she massaged her forehead as she looked around a big holoscreen giving video of Pandora's wild and untamed passage with her soothing music playlist. 

One of her ideas, getting clips from the Samsons used for scientific missions and one of the reasons she discovered so much of this moon's flora.

An idea that was also exploited by the RDA to her displeasure because those videos were pricey back on Earth. But again both gained so she didn't complain even if she was pretty open with how much she loathed the RDA.

Her eyes bulged out and she spat her drink as on the corner of the screen she saw something that by all means shouldn't be possible. It was one frame. One that should be utterly impossible by all known metric of humanity.

In fact, she refused to believe it even as she paused the video with a tap of her finger, moved back by a few milliseconds, and zoomed in. Even then she still couldn't believe what was on it. She didn't drink enough to be the effect of alcohol.

"What in the actual fuck is that! How is that possible!?", Grace screamed, her eyes locked onto the armored, clearly human figure, the eyes behind the helmet of a grey-silvery shade naturally impossible to occur in humans. And in the middle of a plain with no breathing mask.

She turned off the holoscreen, then turned it on again, then off then on. It was real footage, she knew as it was given to her first. It was impossible yet it was real. 

'This needs to be kept under wrap… As long as possible. I need information on who and what this is. As if I didn't have already enough shit to deal with, just a few months and new members will arrive.', she thought, her expression hardening while her eyes locked on the coordinate shown on the holoscreen.

The next morning, it was day 111, and Liam did his usual breakfast rich in protein, quick but intense workout, and overall aerial check in a twenty-kilometer radius from his base with his four tetrapterons confirming that the Na'vi of the Anurai was indeed not here anymore, or anyone else for that matter. 

Progression was back on the menus.

Liam munched on a piece of spicy jerky as he finished his two hundredth lead shotgun slug one bigger than advised above his bastardized fabricator. 

Gunpowder meant firearms, and firearms he did make with adapted bullets, of course, he wasn't exactly familiar with firearms as where he was from it needed a permit and there were multiple legal factors involved to get one. He did go to shooting ranges a bit when he was a teen but it evidently didn't make him an expert marksman or a firearms expert in general.

That in no case stopped him here from crafting them, and no small little thing either as that would be useless against whatever was big enough to pose a threat to his continual existence. So he made shotgun, multiple shotguns to be exact. 

Not modern ones as he couldn't do them but antiques ones if put ut to date with his current resources available. Something close to a sawed-off shotgun to be precise.

Each with only two shots before needing to manually reload, their only purpose being to kill or mortally injure whoever enters a fifteen-meter (~50ft) radius of him. 

A regular or even trained human firing with one of his revamped boomsticks would risk the barrel caving their skull at worst and at best breaking their wrist or knocking them out cold with the recoil which is logical as he wasn't as limited in that itty bitty tiny detail that is the recoil of a firearm, thought it was very, VERY loud. 

"Occiden, come to me girl.", the man said as he saw the bird arrive from its flight to the cave, connecting he smiled as there was no one, giving the tetraperon its due in the form of a prime piece of meat.

The next half an hour consisted of Liam checking if everything was in place from the traps still in place to the food for everything and once he decided it was good he straight up ran to the only 'safe' access to the underground of the great plain.

This led to the present, Liam dressed in a light armor of majorly bronze, steel present in more vital areas, a helmet that let him have most of his sight, and his inventory had all that he thought was necessary. 

Such as food, water, his war scythe Cleaver, various throwable and not throwable weapons, tools such as pickaxes, climbing pikes, ropes and more, bandages, papers, makeshift pens, a first aid kit that consisted of bandages, sewing needles with thin disinfected string, and bottles of saline solution.

A small bundle of bloody red thread made of this latex-like substance he found weeks ago attached to his waist, his own Ariadne's thread but less magical sadly. He fastened it around a root before pushing the deep blue bioluminescent Portuguese man-of-war-like vines aside with his right gauntleted hand and immediately the plant latched onto his limb.

'We will see who drags who.', Liam thought with a lifted eyebrow instead of panicking, he wasn't even surprised as the vine tried to drag him up, probably to eat him or something, he took a fist full of it, and dragged it down with one good yank. Tearing half offending vines that blocked the entrance with it.

"More of it?", he mumbled, it was more of a jungle than a cave, he took out a scimitar, the blade made of great austrapede claws reason why it was this kind of weapon, was it didn't have a name as of yet.

With it in his right hand carefully treated as he hacked at the vines blocking his pace, his boots stepping over the short blue grass dotted with the occasional fern or alien flowers as he did so. 

Those vines were everywhere, the place was very spacious, and only the area being inclined downward indicated a sense of direction as vines obstructed sight. He continued forward, moving carefully, tapping the ground with the curved tip of his scimitar to avoid potential accidents.

"Pitcher plants… Giant fucking pitcher plant.", he mumbled in disbelief as in the distance he noticed a dozen of on average five meters (~16ft4) tall purple pitcher-shaped leaves.

From their bioluminescence he could see the shadow of small animals within, one was even humanoid, a Na'vi, a young one from the size. And wasn't that an unpleasant and tragic sight?

His head snapped in another direction as squeals of agony and terror resonated, they originated from a creature the size of a big dog that looked like the hybrid of a goat and a hedgehog if they had copulated. It was completely ensnared by the vines and getting dragged to one of such pitcher plants.

Not only that but above within the crevice of the moss-covered stone above dozens of dark blue hellfire wasps flew out and repeatedly stung, scratched, and bit the poor creature until its movement and squeals came to a definitive stop. 

What followed was the unconscious or very likely creature being dragged up within the giant pitcher plant, after this beautiful flower-like structure blossomed all around the thin roots of the carnivorous plant and the alien wasp dug in their nectar.

All of this happened in less than ten seconds. Ten seconds was all it took. And it indicated that the fate of the Na'vi within one was sealed long ago, it set the theme of this place was an extremely dangerous one, a fact that wasn't hidden.

*

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