2. Pandorian tickle chicken

The waves of the sea washed over a beautiful but seemingly desert beach while a practically naked human could be seen running around, exploring his surroundings. 

All was alien, and not in a good way, being beautiful doesn't make things comforting.

Liam took whatever he could find, which was seashells and stones, which was all there was, certainly the presence of seashells indicated life, and as such potential food but the problem was he knew nothing about what was in the sea. 

The lack of cover was also a problem, as the lack of resources, and not forgetting also the lack of drinkable water, he wasn't going to try seawater. That's just suicidal. Adding to that the sea level was higher than before, indicating a rising tide.

He will need to move, the only way being walking up the giant hills of sand behind him. In this kind of situation, anything he could do came with great risk, the only good choice was the one with the most optimal balance between risk and reward.

And moving away from an unknown sea filled with unknown creatures and the currents was the best choice.

Liam walked up the hills, stumbling more than once but he arrived at the top and was met with an otherworldly sight.

At the top of this hill from all directions a strange dead plant shaped like the horn of a goat grew out of the sand by millions, all glistening in the sunlight, all growing not past his ankle in height. 

Their complex and deep roots network was the only thing maintaining the billions of tons of sand in place.

He stopped mid-step, halting himself from stomping on one of those strange plants. They were covered in small, sharp thorns made of salt crystals, and the reason why the area was sparkling. 

This instantly sparked his interest and he plucked one, from the base avoiding the thorn before putting it in his inventory.

'Huh, plenty of salt in those herbs, like a good third of the plant is that… Useful. Very useful...', Liam remarked. 

Salt was useful not only as a condiment but also to preserve food it can even be used to disinfect wounds and it was only a small part of its use. If he could efficiently extract the salt from them, that is, but he already had ideas for that.

He dubbed those plants Goat Horns, for their shape and the fact that goats loved salt. Then a realization hit him. He will need to walk past them to arrive more inland.

"Fuck.", he swore, walking barefoot on them for at least 200 meters (218 yds) was not going to cut it, salt plus sand on wounds, and risk of infection. That was a big no. His first obstacle on Pandora, traversing the plain of Goat Horns, which was more of an annoyance for him.

A good 30 minutes later Liam could be seen on the other side, a trail left behind of him plucking his way through. In his inventory was 154kg (340 lb) of it, the more he collected the faster his movement and precision got. 

The weight of objects in his inventory affected his weight outside, but only by half of theirs. And the weight was more spread on his trunk, such as the chest. It was something to take into account.

But it was a pretty unique feeling to know you are currently capable of carrying something this heavy with such ease. The fact he was this strong didn't quite register just yet.

'Scabs already falling off?', Liam noticed with pleasant surprise that the superficial cuts he got from the razor-sharp salt crystal on his hands were healing at an increased rate. 

That by the way hurt way too much for the size of the wounds, similar to paper cuts but worse. Literally adding salt to the injury. 

Looking behind him his eyes widened as he saw the straight line he left behind, it made into perspective what he just did. Then he saw the plant already growing back, it was a surreal sight, he wasn't going to go to this beach any time soon.

He breathed in and out, the base of his feet planted on a mix of sand and dirt. He advanced more inland, the harsh terrain of the seashore letting place to a lowland-savanna hybrid mix composed of plains with flora progressively taking in size, color, and variety. 

Liam walked along the tall grass, noticing a lack of animals but putting on it is normal, what does he know of the fauna here?

He didn't stop himself from picking up dead wood, and plants of all kinds, most being blades of grass, some even we're similar to bamboo. Making them extremely useful.

The grass in most areas was taller than him, greatly reducing his line of sight. He stopped in front of a plant with a familiar shape but it didn't look out of place in the middle of the alien flora. It looked like an aloe vera, so he took a leaf from the stem of the plant. He scanned it with his inventory and he got that there was a surprising amount of water inside.

If it was safe for human consumption or not, he didn't know. The implant didn't have the precision, not the computing power to tell him if the complex and unknown compounds found in an alien plant are hazardous to humans or not. 

That didn't stop him from taking a good portion of the leaves from the plant, it was the only source of water he found and could use. He continued to walk, staying at a safe distance from the taller bush and tall grass, careful of where he stepped. But apparently, that wasn't enough.

*Squawk?*

Liam froze at this sound, hesitantly turning around; he was met face-to-face with an odd-looking bird standing out of a large bush a dozen of meters away from his location.

The 'bird' was 5 meters (16ft4) tall and possessed two pairs of horizontally slitted eyes that were gazing at him with clear aggressiveness, he didn't know what he specifically did to piss it off but it sure was looking mighty pissed. 

It was featherless, its skin was gray and blue, its beak was similar to that of a duck or a swan, indicating it probably was herbivorous, its head attached at the top of a long and flexible neck had an orange crest, it possessed a pair of flamboyant membranous wings on its back too small for flight, it was menacingly flaring them out. 

The thing that was taking all of his attention was the claws had the end on its third pair of limbs, its arms. Each of the 'hands' possessed three black claws, the one on the middle digit being bigger than himself. The bird was clacking them together and the sound was that of two pieces of metal hitting each other.

Liam faced the unholy spawn of a therizinosaur, a cassowary,  a swan, and a bat, his eyes dilated to their utmost limit while his heart started hammering in his chest, pumping blood and adrenalin throughout his body. 

He put his hand in the air and slowly walked backward, while always keeping eye contact with the alien beast.

The great austrapede glared with its two pairs of eyes at the strange hairless small bipedal creature that dared to walk into its territory. 

These animals were territorial and rather aggressive, the fact that it was a young male in the middle of the mating season, and that the small bipedal creature in front of it felt… 

Not wrong per se, but out of place, out of sync, completely disconnected from the Great and All-Encompassing Mother, and this only amplified the raging instinct that commended it to kill this pesky intruder. And the strange glowing prism was weird and shiny, it would be good to attract a mate.

'Shit!', Liam internally swore. He could instinctively feel it, the palpable tension in the air, what it was going to do next, what it wanted. He was in extreme danger, he needed to run away, and find a place safe from this titanic bird, and fast.

His grey eyes rapidly scanned his surroundings but he never let go of eye contact for more than a second. In the distance amid the small to medium-sized trees was one tree that seemed tall and strong enough for him to climb up and that the bird couldn't simply unroot, however, it was quite far.

A stone materialized above the palm of his left hand, he prepared himself to run hoping that he would outrun the beast.

Hurling the stone the alien bird focused on it for half a second, a time Liam used to sprint as if his life depended on it. Which it did.

Right after he passed next to the confused bird he heard it squawk, a squawk that promised blood. This spurred him to run even faster, pushing even more strength he didn't know he had into each of his steps. 

He rapidly arrived at the human-known limit speed and right after he broke through it, only the dense atmosphere of Pandora limited his speed to around 45 km/h (29 mi/h), and his lungs could not function at their full capacity. 

Running at such speed would have felt incredible if the claws that barely missed to cleave his head off didn't exist.

Liam heard the snap of a beak behind him, and felt the wind produced by the swing of the massive claws along his back, he could die, and he would if he didn't do something. 

He had never felt this close to death, it was visceral, both terrifying and oddly exhilarating, at the same time there was this feeling from a part deep within him that told him it wasn't the first time a situation like this happened.

He took a sudden turn surprising the great austrapede, this made the distance between the two greater. Alas, it was but a temporary solution as it soon was back behind him.

And so the chase continued for only Eywa or any other deity knew how long, Liam never looking back his mind hyper-focused, zigzagging, weaving between the tall grass, moving around bushes, he was starting to feel the ache and burn in his muscles.

Hope was in sight as he rapidly approached the tree, its trunk rivaled giant redwood, it was tall as a six-story building, its branches covered in small green oval-shaped leaves with bell-shaped red flowers growing all around its light beige and smooth bark. 

'I need to slow down.', Liam thought, a very risky and rushed plan was forming in his mind. Running at such speed while not being particularly lightweight made he couldn't simply stop not like it would have changed if he was lighter, he needed to decelerate or he would smash into the tree. 

And that's what he did, his heart somehow beat faster as he felt each of the steps of the great austrapede. 

Right at the moment he arrived at the tree he stopped moving and at the last second crouched down. His eyes wide open, shivers running down his spine, above him was the long middle claw of the bird half embedded into the trunk. It could have been him.

'It worked.', Liam thought but didn't let himself be distracted. He wasted no time and got hold of a branch and pulled himself up passing in the middle of the claw that was above him. 

The branch barely holding on to his weight he took another on instincts and the next second was him climbing as fast as he could while from below a cry close to one of that of frustration could be heard and its vibration resonated through the tree.

Liam's movements were far from precise, or optimal, he was really starting to feel weary, his lung burned but he continued, adrenaline coursing through his body. Then he felt something cold touch his upper back, time slowed down in his mind.

He let out a muffled scream of agony as the two-meter-long claw cut diagonally all along his back from his left shoulder to his right lower back, missing his spine by a mere few centimeters. 

But Liam didn't stop climbing, he couldn't. Even with the white-hot pain vibrating in waves from his blood-covered back. He only clenched his jaws as hard as he could and focused on climbing. It was the only thing that mattered. He will survive.