AN: This chapter has been edited... a lot.
Neytiri stood up on shaky legs and motioned weakly towards where her friend was lying on the ground. "It was an accident, he didn't mean it"
Most of Awa's unmoving body was covered by Neytiri's shaking one. She had fallen on her side and the animal she killed had rolled over to the side of her after the fall. Its cold and lifeless eyes staring right into Neytiri's frightened and wide open ones. Blood was trickling out of a wound on Awa's forehead like small rivulets of red, staining her natural blue color. Khan had kept sprinting away from Jake even after Awa had fallen off his strong back. The pa'li was too far into his panic fueled sprint to notice anything, least of all that his rider had fallen off. Big, deep marks had been drawn into the ground from the pa'lis rushing around the small plot of earth they called training ground.
Jake had fallen off his pa'li, and into a deep puddle of mudd a short distance away from Awa and was currently brushing off the thick clumps and liquid from his bruised body. All of him had been painted a mud brown from his fall and it hurt everytime he tried to open his eyes. Jake was temporarily blinded and all he could hear was heavy breathing somewhere in the deafening silence that surrounded them. He didn't know what had happened to Awa, in his panic he didn't even recognise her as he on his pa'li had soared past them. He thought it was quiet because of either Neytiri holding in her laughter again or she was very disappointed, little did he know.
Tsu'tey huffed with a glare on his face, not yet realising what had happened with Awa, as he stomped his way over to where his mate was lying with dust flying up into the air after each step. The thick green and light brown contrasted greatly with the blue humanoid Tsu'tey was walking towards, but what contrasted the most was the harsh red against soft blue. He scowled deeply when he heard the huffing and groaning from the dreamwalker he absolutely hated with all he had in him, it was such a burning hate that he sometimes didn't know how he resisted the urge to beat the man to a pulp. This certainly didn't help him gain any bonus points either.
"Move" He growled with tense shoulders and lips pulled into a tight line. When Neytiri didn't move as fast as he wanted her to he squared his shoulders, bared his teeth and pushed her away from his mate by the shoulders. "I said move! Go get that fucking human out of here before I kill him for this!"
"You need to calm down before you do something you'll regret" Neytiri warned, still keeping a submissive posture as to not aggravate the protective male.
"Why were you not keeping a closer eye on him, huh?" He spat with fire in his eyes. "If you had done what you were supposed to do then Awa would never have been hurt."
"You think I wanted this? I don't control what Jake does and you know it!"
"You were supposed to look after him!" He screamed at her, a vein pulsing angrily on his forehead. "What if it was a child, what if it was one of the elders and not a young Na'vi like Awa. What would you do then, what would you do when you had their blood on your hands"
"But it wasn't, how was I supposed to know that Awa was going to come through the forest at that exact moment? Why were you not with her? If you were with her this would never have happened. " Neytiri snarled back, the fire in her eyes burning equally if not more than Tsu'tey when he accused her of being responsible. "Maybe that's it. Maybe you're blaming it on me because you don't want to realise that it's your fault as much as it is mine"
"Just because she's my mate doesn't mean I have to be with her all the time, she doesn't want that and neither do I! She's more than capable of defending herself to whatever she meets in the forest but she had her guard down. She let down her guard because the training grounds are supposed to be safe! How was she supposed to know that you would fail at teaching him?!" Tsu'tey asked, rising to his full height as he stared the other Na'vi down. "This is not my fault so don't even try to pin it on me"
"And neither is it mine, Tsu'tey. He didn't know any better and it went out of control. Calm down and focus on getting Awa to the healers, she's bleeding for Eywa's sake!" The Na'vi whispered with tears welling up in her eyes. "She's fragile and you know it."
"Don't tell me to calm down! You were supposed to teach him our ways, not hurt Awa" Tsu'tey snarled out with furrowed eyebrows. "And I swear to Eywa that if Awa isn't fine then I will kill that human without hesitating."
Neytiri lowered her head but kept her eyes firmly on him, he was dangerous and could attack her at any time. Any sudden movement or move that appeared threatening might set him off, his muscles were visibly tensing and relaxing as he prepared himself to either fight them or run away with Awa to the healers. Neytiri knew that Tsu'tey was running on mostly instincts plus the flaming rage that he usually had inside of him but that was now burning brighter than ever. A fight with him now would be deadly, especially for Jake that could barely even walk without stumbling. Her only hope was that he decided to bring Awa to the healers before seeking them out and before that she would make sure that Jake apologized.
He stared at Awa with furrowed eyebrows and then he glanced to where Jake was still trying to clean himself. He appeared confused, he didn't know if he wanted to attack Jake first or bring Awa to the healers. His eyes flickered between the two people in question before he stood up and with one last snarl directed at the pair he walked away from the scene with long hurried steps.
...
"Is she going to be okay?" Tsu'tey asked with worry shining in his eyes, his shoulders slumped and hands shaking.
He had rushed to the healers after hearing the painful moan she let out when she suddenly shifted in his arms, he knew the yerik must have broken something, probably several ribs, so he wanted to get that fixed as much as possible as soon as possible. Awa had a tendency to get hurt but mostly it was small scrapes or other non serious injuries, though he worried as much each time she was sent there. The Na'vi in his arms had only had serious injuries like this 3 or 4 times since he met her, two of them his fault. There wasn't a day where he didn't beat himself up over his mistakes and her reassuring him it was all fine and in the past. She never blamed him for it and always told him that he shouldn't blame himself either. Them finally bonding made it all the worse because he could both see and feel the pain, the anger, the hurt and the fright she felt. The healers had crowded them as soon as they entered the small entrance in the base of the home tree.
The healers immediately took her from Tsu'tey, making the female Na'vi groan at the sudden movement, and placed her on one of the many wooden tables in the large room. Vines decorated the walls with different kinds of flowers and plants and ground covered the flat floor in different shades of browns, greys and greens.
"She'll be just fine, young warrior. She's got a concussion, two bruised ribs and a broken arm. Nothing that won't be fine in a couple of weeks. You just need to make sure that she takes it easy and that she doesn't strain her arm" The lead healer, Ngeha, told him while cleaning the small wounds that Awa managed to get while hitting the ground. "Tell her that she managed to get one fine yerik and for Eywa's sake, make sure she knows I said it"
"That was one time, Ngeha, will you ever let that go?" He whined, throwing his head back with hands thrown into the air.
"No" The older Na'vi retorted with a glare and a flick of her hand. Her necklace full of stones, pearls, teeth and bones made clicking noises as she gestured around the almost full room. On almost all of the beds an injured Na'vi could be seen, one with a broken bone, one with a broken nose and several others. "You can take her and leave. We have work to do"
"You become ruder and ruder with each passing day" Tsu'tey spat with his tail swishing from side to side, but there was no venom in his voice.
"And you uglier" Ngeha replied with a sarcastic smile, her two braids hitting him in the face when she dramatically turned around. "Now leave before you blind us"
He picked her up in one careful movement, making sure not to put any pressure on her ribs or broken arm. She was not going to be happy about this, and she was definitely not going to be happy if she slept through the feast where they were going to eat the yerik she killed. Awa would for sure be in a very very bad mood for the next days and Tsu'tey had no doubts she would lash out when he told her that she has to take it easy.
He was going to kill that dreamwalker, he swore to himself. Before his dislike was only built on the hate he had against humans but now it was more. Now it was personal, Jake had been given a chance to learn from them, live with them, become one of them, an honor not many humans had been given and one of the first things he does is hurt his mate? He growled at the thought, maybe Awa would beat him to the kill. She hated humans just as much, if not more than him.
"Come on, Awa, wake up" He cooed slightly, with a small purr building in his chest, after making sure there was no one close to him. Awa wouldn't be happy if someone saw him babying her, her pride wouldn't allow it. Personally he wouldn't mind if someone saw him taking care of his mate when she was this injured but he too would prefer to be affectionate behind closed doors.
"Hm?" She moaned slightly after he shook her slightly only to wince in pain when she opened her eyes. "God that hurts, what happened?"
"What do you remember?" He asked with a worried look on his face, maybe she hit her head harder than they thought.
"I remember killing the yerik and then racing back home to beat you and then- then-... That bastard!" She growled loudly, her chest vibrating with the sound. "Let me down! I said let me down Tsu'tey! I'm going to kill him!"