[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

turn away, she's laughing so much. Finally Josh nails a
fish about four inches long, and holds it up proudly.
JOSH
Anybody can hit the big ones.
TSU TE and another young hunter, TRI COOCHYESTEWA, come
out of the forest leading TWO DOMESTICATED DIREHORSES.
They control the huge animals with a leather nose-ring,
but there is no sign of bridle, reins or saddle... only a
woven grass surcingle around the animal's chest. The
direhorses drink from the edge of the pool.
Tsu Te disdainfully watches Josh slogging out of the pool
with his tiny prize.
ZULEIKA
This is Tsu Te.
JOSH
 Gezundheit. Pleased to meet ya.
TSU
When are you going away?
JOSH
Direct. I like that. It's fresh.
Actually, I hoped to stay awhile.
Pick up a few hunting tips from
Zuleika.
Zuleika speaks to Tsu Te in their language. In subtitles
we learn that the Matriarch has instructed her to teach
the alien the ways of the forest, to see if it can be
done. Tsu Te sneers at that, and says something which
needs no translation.
Tsu Te flips his head and catches the end of his long
queue in one hand. With the other hand he gently takes
one moth-like antennae of his direhorse, and bends it down
toward him. Next, he does an amazing thing... he touches
the end of his hair to the end of the antenna, which looks
like a feather. The "hair" comes alive, rapidly
interweaving with the feather-like tendrils. They knit
together, forming what Josh realizes is a neural
interface, a direct plug-in to the horse's nervous system.
In one fluid move, Tsu Te hooks his bare foot into the
bottom of the surcingle and vaults up onto the back of his
direhorse. He grips the horse's flanks with his legs, and
guides it with direct motor commands from the neural
hookup. The animal has become an extension of his own
body. And his hands are free to fire a bow.
The two hunters wheel around and ride into the woods along
a game trail. Josh realizes how much he has to learn.
MONTAGE OF ZULEIKA TEACHING:
We see a sequence of vignettes over the next few days, of
Josh and Zuleika together, in the village and the forest.
She is teaching him their ways.
We see her pointing out different plants, and how they can
be used. Which juices or saps or leaves can be used to
attract, or repel certain animals. Which plant poisons
are good for the arrows. What to avoid. How to walk.
How to be invisible.
ZULEIKA stands behind him, correcting his position as he
draws a longbow. Her hands move on his arm, his
shoulders, correcting his stance. Aware of her touch,
Josh finds it hard to concentrate.
NEAR A TRAIL we see them crouching behind concealing
foliage as a herd of Hammerhead Titanotheres walk past.
We see only the legs, huge as treetrunks. In the middle
of the herd, a couple of babies walk, sheltered from
predators among their parents legs.
ZULEIKA whirls a bolo round and round above her head. She
hurls it and the two balls, connected by a leather thong,
whistle through the air. They wrap around a sapling being
used as a target. Josh tries it.
The bolo winds up wrapped around his head, with one of the
balls hitting him painfully in the nose. Zuleika has to
lean against a tree she's laughing so hard.
NIGHT SHOT, from overhead... we see Josh and Zuleika
bowfishing from a dugout canoe over the glowing anemones
at the bottom of a pool. A large fish swims silhouetted
against the glow. ZAP! Josh spears it.
SHOT OF ZULEIKA backlit by the sun. She is talking a mile
a minute, gesturing rapidly, explaining something. We
don't hear the words. Like Josh, we are just spellbound
watching her.
JOSH nervously grips the woven surcingle on the back of an
old, swaybacked direhorse. Zuleika holds its nose ring,
keeping it steady, while she instructs Josh to bend its
antenna, strong and shiny as a garden hose, down to him.
He hesitantly touches the tip of his queue to the antenna.
The tendrils interweave. Josh's eyes get big and his
mouth drops open. Wow!! He feels the power of the
massive legs under him. The horse's eyes also go wide.
Zuleika strokes its muzzle, calming it. It twitches and
stumbles as Josh learns how to control it.
IN THE VILLAGE Josh and Zuleika feed a direhorse foal with
a gourd shaped like a nipple. It is the survivor of Lyle
Wainfleet's casual slaughter, picked up by Zuleika's
people when N'deh signaled them with the bullroarer. The
foal gulps its meal.
SOME OF THE VILLAGE KIDS squeal with delight as Josh shows
them how to play baseball. He pitches a leather bolo ball
to a kid with a hand-carved bat. The kid makes a strong
hit but when Josh yells "run!" in Na'vi, the kid bolts
into the forest. Everyone cheers, thinking this is the
game.
IN THE FOREST, ZULEIKA gently reaches up and bends a large
flower toward her. From the pitcher-like flower she sips
the nectar, which is sweet and thick as honey. An
incredibly sensuous image.
JOSH, ZULEIKA AND N'DEH have come upon the body of a
slinger killed by a powersuit trooper. The flying dart is
hovering around the parent body like a hummingbird,
whimpering pitifully. Zuleika gently captures the
starving dart. N'deh chews up some food from his pouch
and feeds it from his mouth to the dart's beak. It
swallows hungrily, crying for more. We will see what a
captive dart is used for later.
A STREAMBED completely overgrown by a tightly woven
thicket. Josh and Zuleika hear a thundering sound and
around the bend ahead of them comes a solid wall of
stampeding STURMBEEST. Visualize an indigo and orange
wildebeest five meters tall, weighing ten tons and moving
like a locomotive. Then multiply it by several dozen.
Josh and Zuleika sprint down the overgrown tunnel as fast
as they can, with the thundering wall of Sturmbeest
overtaking them. He leaps to an overhanging limb and
scrambles up. She leaps, grabs it, and he pulls her up
just as the sturmbeest thunder underneath them like a
train.
Zuleika laughs breathlessly. So does he, giving her a
mock push. Off balance, she grabs him... and he likes
that just fine.
NIGHT HUNTING.
Zuleika and Josh run through the forest by moonlight like
two human panthers. He is more surefooted, now. As agile
as she is. Galaxies of bioluminescence surround them.
The foliage is a blur, whipping past. They move
gracefully, soundlessly, and in perfect unison... two
forest spirits. Above them, mighty Polyphemis is a
crescent half-filling the sky, casting its special light
over the landscape.
Zuleika takes him up a fallen trunk, and soon they are
running along branches that are 30 meters above the
ground. Josh can't think. He has to trust his body. He
sprints with her through the trees, occasionally climbing
and leaping as she does with the ease of a spidermonkey.
Now creeping stealthily, Josh stalks a large male
hexapede. He is at one with the night forest, with its
thousand bio-sources glowing like the milkyway through the
dark branches, its strange sounds and smells, water
dripping off the unfamiliar leaves. The danger and
excitement of the primeval world suffuses his soul.
Zuleika flushes the prey, from nearby, and the hexapede
bolts. Josh rapidly nocks an arrow and tracks it. THWAP!
It tumbles and lies still, with the shaft of Josh's arrow
sticking up out of its chest. A clean kill.
Josh and Zuleika kneel over the body. She cuts its
throat, and daubs the blood on her finger tip. She draws
a line under each of his eyes, symbolizing that he "sees"
the hexapede, or honors its reason for existence. He is a
hunter now. Just in time for... [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]