Chapter 627: Hometree
"Prepare to scatter!" Asuka yelled, raising her crossbow.
"Do not attack!" Rei Ayanami suddenly commanded. Stepping forward instead of retreating, she faced the charging Direhorse and closed her eyes.
Her short hair seemed to sway without any wind as an extraordinarily faint yet distinctly clear, serene, and resolute wave of emotion rippled outward from her.
It was not spoken language, but a consciousness signal acting directly upon biological instinct: No malice. No threat. Please leave.
Miraculously, the aggressive Direhorse dug its massive hooves into the earth and ground to a sudden halt a dozen meters from the camp, carving deep furrows into the soil. It shook its massive hammer-like head, its eyes staring in confusion at the girl standing before it.
What it perceived was no longer provocation or fear, but a strange, inviolable stillness.
After a standoff of a dozen seconds, the beast snorted a burst of white vapor, turned its massive frame around, and lumbered away into the depths of the jungle.
The camp fell dead silent.
Asuka slowly lowered her crossbow, disbelief written across her face.
Shinji Ikari exhaled a breath of relief, looking at Rei with profound surprise.
David and Lucy exchanged a glance, having just witnessed a scene that defied conventional understanding.
Rei Ayanami slowly opened her eyes, her complexion slightly paler than usual.
She turned to Asuka and repeated her previous words: "Here, excessive vigilance is just as dangerous as recklessness."
This time, Asuka did not argue back.
For the first time, she truly realized that in this alien forest, Rei's seemingly mystical perception and communication abilities were perhaps more crucial than any weapon.
Within this first crisis, the internal dynamic of the five-person unit underwent an unexpected adjustment.
The Trek to the Heart
Following the encounter with the Direhorse, the atmosphere among the five shifted subtly.
Though Asuka remained sharp-tongued, she noticeably stopped questioning Rei's route choices, beginning to observe and learn how she interfaced with the environment.
Shinji Ikari relaxed somewhat, attempting to sense the flow of the consciousness field Rei spoke of.
David and Lucy diligently logged everything: environmental telemetry, biological behavioral patterns, and every nuanced detail of Rei's perceptual interactions.
Guided by Rei, they followed a path that seemed haphazard on the surface but strictly tracked the confluence of the bio-consciousness field, trekking deep into the jungle for several days.
Along the route, they carefully bypassed several obvious Viperwolf dens, observing from afar herds of Hexapedes bounding through the woods and the fleeting silhouettes of small Na'vi hunting parties moving silently through the canopy.
At dusk on the third day, after crossing an exceptionally dense expanse of glowing blue fungal woods, their field of view opened dramatically.
A tree of unfathomable proportions stood in the distance.
Its scale dwarfed any flora they had encountered before. Its trunk rose like a mountain range, massive buttress roots spreading out like fortified city walls, while its canopy pierced high into the heavens, vanishing into swirling mists.
Countless bioluminescent vines cascaded like waterfalls from its branches, illuminating the colossus like something out of myth.
Within the upper canopy, numerous dwellings crafted from hollowed boughs and built platforms hung in the air like a suspended village.
That was the Hometree of the Omaticaya clan.
Even from a distance, the surging vital force and concentrated waves of the consciousness field were palpable. It served as the central node of the regional biological network.
"Have we... arrived?" Shinji Ikari murmured to himself, staring at the distant behemoth.
"That place... is where their Eywa is concentrated most densely," Rei Ayanami said, her red eyes reflecting the magnificent sight as her senses resonated faintly with the vast presence.
"We finally found it!" Asuka remarked with evident excitement, the target directly ahead.
However, Lucy's scanner chimed with a warning: "High-density biosignatures detected, along with strong hostile telemetry. The perimeter around Hometree is heavily guarded by Na'vi patrols and sentries. We cannot get any closer."
Indeed, even at this range, they could see Na'vi warriors patrolling on mounts around the roots, while Ikran riders circled in the sky. The entire clan was on high alert.
"A direct approach is out of the question," David analyzed the defenses. "We need a method that makes them receptive to us."
"Or find an isolated Na'vi willing to communicate," Lucy added.
Just then, Rei Ayanami turned toward another direction—a shaded hollow near the entrance of a subterranean cavern.
"Over there... there is sorrow. A very strong sorrow," she whispered softly.
A Mother's Grief
The squad followed Rei's intuition.
Moving cautiously toward the hollow, they concealed themselves behind a massive cluster of luminescent mushrooms.
Beneath the shadow cast by Hometree's colossal buttress roots, a Na'vi woman knelt on the ground before a small, crude cairn of stones.
The long neural queue behind her head lay limp on the soil. Her shoulders shook gently as she let out a muffled, song-like wail of mourning.
Beside her lay several crude toys belonging to a Na'vi child.
She was mourning her lost child.
This was an opening—an opportunity to make contact with a lone Na'vi immersed in grief whose guard was lowered.
Yet initiating contact remained a perilous task. Appearing directly could easily panic her and alert the surrounding patrols.
Rei Ayanami watched the grieving mother in silence for a moment. Then, with an exceedingly gentle cadence that blended into the breeze, she began to hum.
It was no known melody, but rather a soothing harmony mimicking the ambient sounds of the forest and the rhythmic cadence of the Na'vi language.
Simultaneously, she projected that serene, compassionate consciousness wave once more.
In the distance, the Na'vi mother seemed to perceive something. Her weeping slowed, and she raised her head, looking warily toward the mushroom cluster where the squad was hidden.
Tears still lined her face, her eyes filled with profound grief and a flicker of bewilderment.
She seemed to sense a presence distinct from the forest, yet entirely unlike other Na'vi.
The five held their breath, waiting for her reaction.
This was their first attempt at close-range, non-hostile engagement with an indigenous inhabitant lost in raw emotion.
Success or failure rested entirely on this moment.