(DISCONTINUED)Emrey- Survive || Avatar: The Way of Water

003 || Demon Dog, I copy, Over

"If you can hear me, squeeze my hand." she called out, hoping that the warrior heard her.

Faintly she felt the hand squeeze hers, she let out a sigh of relief as she called Makita over, the ikran had a pouch filled with first aid supplies her mother had insisted she takes whenever she gets called to be a lookout.

Quickly she removed the pouch and rummaged through it, looking for a long enough bandage to wrap the warrior's wounds. "You're going to be alright, you hear?" she said to the warrior, still laying motionless but thankfully still breathing. "I'm gunna make sure you walk away from this."

It felt like she was having an out-of-body experience as she treated the warrior, hands moving of their own volition as they wrapped the bandage tightly around the warrior's torso.

She repeated this process to whoever she found, conscious or not. She took their hand and reassured them that they were going to live to see the next sunrise.

"Sky flower, do you copy, over."

Jakesully's voice crackled in her ear, it had sounded desperate. Niri'te hurriedly patched the wound of a young warrior, securing the bandage tightly. When she was done and had handed the warrior off to another, she pressed her two fingers to her neckpiece. She tried not to think of the worst as she answered her father's call.

"Demon dog, I copy, over."

She scrunched her nose at the ridiculous names, not understanding why her father insisted on using them, but she did understand that they were a part of Jakesully's job as a Sky Person soldier and that sometimes it was hard to let such things go.

"Good, finish what you're doing then fall back, meet us back at base, over."

"Yes sir, over."

Niri'te looked around, eyes searching for other fallen warriors that were missed. She found none. She then directed her eyes above, seeing Makita still circling. Dusting herself off as best she could, she called Makita down.

Soon she was in the air, making her way through the Hallelujah Mountains to High Camp. The Omatikaya People had taken up residence there in the first year of the war. The Sky People had found their village, waited for the cover of night before they burned it to the ground. Those who could not escape were lost in the blazes, the old and sick, and two children, separated from their parents.

The loss was felt throughout the people, hearts aching for those lost.

They were without a home again, left wandering the jungle. The people were discouraged and afraid, those who had seen the horrors of the first war were trapped in their minds, the smoke and fire sending them back to the time when Home Tree was razed to the ground.

But it was her father who had brought the people together for the second time. He spoke of pain and tragedy, victory and loss. He inspired the Omatikaya People again, uniting them in times of sorrow again.

Some say that the burning of their home was the true cause of the war. That the people were so outraged by the innocent lives lost that they retaliated, bringing down almost half a fleet of Sky People aircraft. And Niri'te couldn't blame them, she remembered that night too well, the smoke filling the air, laying thick in her lungs as she tried to breathe. The fire, unbearable in its ferociousness, burning all that it touched. The screams that would haunt her for years to come, the sorrow and pain flooding them seared in her young mind.

When Niri'te arrived at High Camp, she caught the tail end of Neteyam and Lo'ak's scolding.

"You're supposed to be spotters," she heard her father say, voice furious and rightfully so. "You spot bogies and you call 'em in, from a distance! Does any of this sound familiar to you?"