Inspirated by the recently released incredible, fantastic, family-drama-, action- and emotion-filled Avatar the Way of Water, I decided to create the story that follows my OC Na'vi character(s), with one of them being a member and huntress of Omaticaya Clan named Kaeyla, who is the eldest child and daughter of two my favorite Na'vi characters (who are background characters in James Cameron's Avatar 2009 film but supporting/major characters in the comics Tsu'Tey's Path and The Next Shadow) Ka'ani and Saeyla. This story follows first for several chapters of Kaeyla's life before the Sky People's return, before the following chapters will include some events from Avatar the High Ground comic book before continuing to Avatar the Way of Water film.
I own only my own OC characters.
KAEYLA TE KATHAN SAEYLA'ITE.
PART 1
LITTLE BROTHER AND BIG SISTER.
The Planet Pandora.
It's mysterious and dangerous, yet beautiful and flourishing forest and ecosystem.
All of this has been living in peace and harmony for the past nine years ever since the Great Battle of the Hallelujah Mountains and the defeat and forced exile of the Sky People.
The peace was evident in the vast depths of Pandora's jungle, where anyone who wandered there, either stealthy Na'vi or slightly louder Dreamwalker, could hear the distant and echoing sounds of the various forest animals mixtured with each other, as well as the low deep humming that ran across the land, trees and plants like the giant steady heardbeat.
Today, there was two other sounds too, which sounded more of the laughter and calling somebody's name.
"Come on, Kaeyla! Come on!" said the young male-like voice - in Na'vi language - from nearby, just behind of some big flowers and leaves of the jungle's vegetation, and the owner of the voice sounded to be in the apparent rush.
The male owner of the voice soon pushed his way through of the vegetation, revealing him to be 6-7 years old Na'vi boy with the highly energetic attitude.
The boy had his hair braided into short braids and he was wearing the brown necklace with large wooden bead in it. He had the round dark blue spot in middle of his forehead and four-six wave-like stripes moving from beneath and above the spot to the opposite sides of the forehead, making it to look like an eye.
"Hurry up, Kaeyla! Move your tail, you slowpoke!" the boy called to someone behind him named Kaeyla as he kept running forward.
"Kai'ani! Wait up!" a distant voice, which sounded to be a young female this time, called after the boy, who was called Kai'ani.
Not long after that, a young 8-9 years old Na'vi girl, Kaeyla, came rushing through of the vegetation.
Her own longer hair was braided into longer braids than Kai'ani's own and she was wearing the brown leather headband over her forehead, in which was three lines of light brown wooden beads. She had several thin stranded braids hanging from the sides of her head, in the ends of which she had several yellowish brown hair beads. She was also wearing two necklaces around her neck, one of which was wider and in which was hanging alternately tied short and long yellow feathers with blue stripes in middle of them, while the other one was smaller with the small yet beautiful glowing blue opal-like rocks tied in it. Kaeyla was also carrying in her right hand a small wooden bow made and designed for the Na'vi children in her age, along with few arrows with black-striped flaming feathers, as well as a small knife that was resting in the leather sheath strapped to Kaeyla's right hip.
She also had three small triangular-shaped stripes on her forehead, each pointing in three different directions: two of them were pointing in opposite directions above the forehead and the third one was pointing down, forming the one big big triangular-like marking with cuts in the middle of each three sides. And finally, in middle of the triangle was the smaller triangle-shaped dark marking.
Kai'ani was for his age quite fast runner and strong leaper, running, hopping and swinging along the curving tree branches like some sort of Syaksyuk, so Kaeyla had to keep up the pace in order to keep the distance between her and the boy as short as possible.
"Kai'ani! Come back! It is not safe for you to run into jungle like that!" Kaeyla called after the boy. "Mom and dad are so gonna kill us if they find out that you've sneaked out of the village to the old battlefield all alone!"
"I'm not sneaking out of the village to the old battlefield all alone, Kaeyla! You're here with me too, remember?" Kai'ani called back from the distance.
"Only to bring you back home before something bad happens to you out there, you little skxawng!" Kaeyla called after him.
"I just want to see those ancient Sky People war machines... at least for once! There's a lots of them lying around here since the great battle, just like dad told us!" Kai'ani said as he kept running without looking behind him.
"Yeah! Before he told us to never go in there!" Kaeyla reminded. "The old battlefield isn't quite safe place, which you should know, Kai'ani. But your head is just so tight to get anything inside! I wonder if even Nantang can crush it with one bite!"
"Oh, please!" Kai'ani said with slightly annoyed voice. "If that's supposed to scare me, you better try better than that!"
"Alright!" Kaeyla agreed as if this was the challenge.
"How about you getting trampled by Angtsìk? Maybe the big guy's foot is enough to crack your skull open to get my point in, eh?! Or maybe you should get stung by the swarm of Zize instead? Last I heard, you're not quite fond with them, right?! Or what if you'll get even pounced on by Palulukan itself? Maybe Palulukan brother might prove to be helpful to me to get the message into your skull somehow! Or perhaps I should let you to get snatched off by Toruk itself. Maybe Toruk might knock some sense into that tight skull of yours if I can't!" Kaeyla listed.
"Still not scared." Kai'ani teased before briefly looking back at his big sister. "No come on! We're never gonna get to the battlefield at this rate!"
As Kai'ani picked up his pace to get faster to the battlefield as possible, Kaeyla could only watch as her little brother swiftly and carefreely disappeared behind of some vegetation... again, before she rolled her golden eyes and let out the sigh out of annoyance with Kai'ani's careless attitude and stubborness.
"Why he always must be such of splinter in my skin?" Kaeyla mumbled to herself.
###
The two eventually got to the part of the battlefield near the mountains that protected the sacred place of the clan, right to the spot where RDA's AMP-suit squad and the ground forces had faced off Olangi clan's cavalry in the bloody battle before Eywa's interference, where the two walked together among the mess of wreckages.
Na'vi had long time ago taken away all the found bodies of their fallen warriors - though some bodies were sadly never found - away to be buried properly according to the various clans' own traditions so that their spirits could be sent to Eywa's arms, while they had left behind the bodies of the fallen Pali and Ikran - though not without their surviving riders, which weren't many after the battle, paying their respects for their fallen mounts and wishing their spirits luck to their final journey to Eywa's embrace.
Over these past years, the vegetation of the forest had mostly covered the bodies of Ikran and Pali. In Na'vi terms, they, as well as the bodies of the warriors who were never found, have been embraced by Eywa as she had healed the forest from the destruction of the war.
However, the only things still visible there were all of RDA's wrecked and rusty war machines, which even the forest vegetation had not completely covered: These included the countless AMP-suits and the wreckages of the fallen Samsons and Scorpion gunships, some of which had got tangled in the lianas after falling from the sky and thus remained hanging from the trees above the ground.
While walking amongst the wreckages, wary Kaeyla kept constantly an watchful eye on their surroundings, just in case if there was any sort of danger lurking here, while Kai'ani was carefreely and excitedly exploring around the battlefield.
Kaeyla really did not liked to come to the ancient battlefield, because despite Eywa having healed majority of the damages left by the war, the severely damaged and rusty vegetation-covered wreckages of the Sky People's war machines were awful sight amongst the beauty of the forest. And the place also smelled like the death, thanks to the rotten corpses of the dead human soldiers. Her restlessness was even furthered by the fact that the predators use to often wander to the battlefield looking for the corpses of the dead humans to feed on.
She was also further displeased by the idea of being discovered from here by their worried and possibly angry parents, if they had by this point noticed their absense and left to look for them. That could mean that both she and Kai'ani could be grounded in their home maori for the long time, and she really hated to be ordered to stay inside their home for days by their angry parents before they were allowed to go outside again with the warning of not doing that and that ever again.
And all of that would be thanks to Kai'ani... once again, as his adventurous and impulsive attitude often led the two of them into trouble.
Speaking of Kai'ani, while looking around for any possible dangers, Kaeyla had to occasionally keep an eye on her little brother, who was excitedly checking out almost every wreckage they came across out of curiosity... and if there was anything interesting to discover.
"This is all amazing! It is all here, just like father said they would!" Kai'ani let out, running amongst the wrecked gunships.
"Keep your voice low, Kai'ani!" Kaeyla hissed, before she resumed to keep the watch.
Kai'ani then ran to the wrecked Samsons aircraft he came across next, which still had the big RDA-gun (MBS-9M .50 Caliber Hydra) attached to its door frame, which was hanging downwards in the sharp angle. Kai'ani quickly checked if his big sister was looking at him and his doings. And once making sure that she wasn't Kai'ani began to finger the big gun's star-shaped barrel-side out of curiosity.
"These Sky People weapons are quite weird? How does these things even work?" Kai'ani wondered.
Kai'ani then pushed the gun's barrel up with his hands, and then quickly and cautiously stepped back when the barrel fell back down to its original position.
However, nothing bad or unexpected didn't happen.
Letting the curiosity take over his cautiousness, Kai'ani carefully walked back to the gun and took its barrel into his hands. Kai'ani looked over at the gun for the brief moment before the boy pushed the barrel up with his hands like before. However, this time Kai'ani didn't step away from the gun but remained where he was standing and allowed the gun's barrel to fall back to his awaiting hands.
With his playful interesting growing, Kai'ani chuckled as he began to play with the gun by pushing the its barrel upwards with his hands over and over again (similiarly to how the person would throw the beach ball in his hands on the beach).
However, this didn't go unnoticed by Kaeyla, who gasped in horror at the sight of Kai'ani playing with the guns.
"KAI'ANI! YOU SKXAWNG! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" Kaeyla shrieked. "DON'T TOUCH THAT THING!"
Kaeyla quickly came by and picked up her little brother into her arms and half-forcibly pulled him away from the big gun before he would do something else stupid with it.
"Hey...!" Kai'ani complained. "Kaeyla! Let me go!"
Kaeyla then put her brother down and made him to look at her in the eyes, which she had narrowed into the scowl.
"Don't touch anything, Kai'ani! These things aren't toys but a dangerous killing machines and they should not be tampered with!" Kaeyla said firmly while holding from his little brother's shoulders. "Have you totally forgotten what mom and dad have told us about these Sky People weapons and what they are capable of, or that how many of our people they have killed during the war with the Sky People?"
Kai'ani, however, quickly swatted his sister's hands off his shoulders and put his own hands over his ears, refusing to listen to that particular one.
"Don't remind me of that story, Kaeyla! You know I don't like to hear that story. It's too awful and depressing!" Kai'ani demanded.
"Well, that's good that I don't have to." Kaeyla hissed before she took Kai'ani's hands off his ears. "And you better remember from now on, little brother: Don't... Touch... Any... Sky People... Weapons. Is that clear?" she said strictly.
Kai'ani rolled his eyes at his big sister but nonetheless he raised his hands up in mock-surrender.
"Fine, fine, fine. I won't touch any Sky People weapons anymore. Happy?" Kai'ani asked.
"Good. Now come on. Lets go back to the village." Kaeyla said and was about to take from her brother's hand so that she could lead him away from here and back to home, but Kai'ani surprised her by quickly jumping back from her and out of her reach.
"No. I don't want to go back yet." Kai'ani protested, shaking his head.
"Come on, baby brother! We need to go back to the village." Kaeyla said and walked to Kai'ani and reached out for her brother's arm again.
However, Kai'ani quickly slapped his big sister's hand away with his own, making Kaeyla to pull her hand back and let out the slight hiss of pain, while rubbing the backside of her hand with her other one. Afterwards, Kaeyla scowled at her little brother for what he'd just done.
"Not yet! There's still so much to explore!" Kai'ani protested again.
"Kai'ani! I bet our absense has already been discovered by now, and mom and dad are probably looking for us already. And when they do find us... from here in middle of the battlefield where we were not supposed to come, we're so in trouble again!" Kaeyla hissed, before she reached out her hand for her little brother again.
However, Kai'ani crossed his arms while giving a stubborn frown at his big sister, refusing to take her hand.
"Come on, Kai'ani!" Kaeyla said little impatiently.
"No!" Kai'ani snapped and stuck out his tongue at her.
"None of that, you little skxawng!" Kaeyla hissed angrily, holding up his finger in front of Kai'ani's face. "You're making me almost to wish that we end up running into the pack of hungry nantang while we're here, so do not test my temptation to offer you as a snack for them if it comes to that!"
"You're worrying too much, big sister." Kai'ani said before the young kid turned around and ran away.
"Hey! Where you'te going?! Come back here!" Kaeyla called before he rushed after his brother.
Kai'ani headed next towards a lone AMP-suit lying on its back against a tree not too far away from them. The boy then climbed on top of the suit and peered into the cockpit through of the massive hole in its protective windshield (This AMP-suit happened to be the same one that the Sturmbeest pinned against the tree during of the stampede caused by Eywa during the battle, before the Sturmbeest had pierced its horn through the suit's windshield dome and skewered the driver at the same time). Kai'ani eyed curiously the suit's driver's decomposed remains, before the boy climbed inside the suit through the hole to have a closer look of it.
"Kai'ani! What are you doing?! Come out of there!" Kaeyla hissed as she climbed to the hole of the suit's windshield.
Kai'ani eyed curiously at the driver's body, which still had the large hole in middle of the rib cage he'd received from Sturmbeest's horn. Kai'ani also looked at the driver's rotten skull, which was partially covered with the vegetation, such as leaves and lianas while it was hanging limply on the body's shoulders. Kai'ani then started to explore the cockpit a little closer, and the first thing he discovered was the exopack mask, that was slightly cracked and was quite dirty after years of neglect, just like the whole thing.
"What is this thing?" Kai'ani asked while looking down at the mask in his hands, before he listed it up to show it to Kaeyla.
"Well, if you really want to know..." Kaeyla sighed. "They say that the Sky People use those... what they were called again... "mask" thingies to walk amongst us in the forest, as they can't survive here in our air without it. Haven't you noticed some of them wearing them on their tiny faces while visiting in our village?"
"Not quite. Never actually paid closer attention to their faces before." Kai'ani said as he still kept looking at the mask.
Then his curious look slowly melted away and was replaced by the new one, that was the mixture sadness and slight anger. This didn't go unnoticed by Kaeyla.
"Now what's got into your mind, Kai'ani?" she asked.
Kai'ani then dropped the mask to the cockpit's floor and turned back to his sister.
"You know? Sometimes it sucks to share our home with those Pink-Skins." Kai'ani said slightly bitterly, as he reached out to his sister with his arms.
"What do you mean, baby brother?" Keyla asked as she partially moved inside the cockpit through the suit's windshield's hole and reached out to her little brother with her free arm, which she wrapped around Kai'ani and then gently picked him up.
"Well, because we have to live in the forest, and be in the constant alert for the dangers lurking in here. Living every day of our lives by being bound by the strict rules, being concealed in the restricted areas outside of which we are not ever allowed to go, and stay constantly under the watchful eye of the adults, instead of living freely in the safety of the Hometree like our ancestors did before." Kai'ani lamented as Kaeyla pulled him out of the cockpit.
"Yeah, I know. It sucks, baby brother." Kaeyla said with the sad sigh. She fully agreed with her little brother's lament, as she herself felt the sorrow in her heart over the stories of the past events that had led to their people's homeless situation and which had forced them to live in the forest for years without the permanent home of their own. "But what does that have to do with the humans?"
With her little brother in her arms, Kaeyla climbed off the top of the suit, back to more comfortable and soft ground, before putting her little brother down.
"We've been living this homeless life for years now and it's all because of them! The humans!" Kai'ani let out, shaking his fists angrily. "I would've wanted to see our clan's Hometree in his glory, and all we got to see is his burned ruins, felled down by the mean Sky People! Why did they had to fell him down in the first place?!"
"Hey, hey, hey! Calm down, Kai'ani." Kaeyla said as she knelt down and touched her emotional brother's left shoulder, before shaking her head in disagreement.
"I know it bothers you, little brother. In fact, it still emotionally plagues both our parents and many others in the clan, even though it's been years since it happened. Truth to be told, I too would have liked to see our clan's old home in his former glory. But that's how the things just are now, and we cannot help it but to go on with it until Eywa provides us a new home if it is her will." Kaeyla said sympathetically
"Well, if it weren't for the Pink-Skins, we would never have had to live like this." Kai'ani spat bitterly.
"True, but remember, Kai'ani, that if it hadn't been for the few ones who turned against their own people for ours, even though they were Sky People themselves, we wouldn't have peace right now." she reminded. "Not all of them were like others who wished us harm. And don't forget that one of them, this Dreamwalker Normspellman... that was his name was if I'm not mistaken, he's been taking care of Satka, your best friend."
Kai'ani looked up at his sister and smiled shyly at the mention of the name Satka, a girl, one year older than him, who was his best friend. She had become one of the clan's war orphans after losing both her parents at the Battle of the Hallelujah Mountains: her father was found shot in the woods, while her mother's body was never found, and she had previously lost her grandparents and other relatives during the destruction of the Hometree, leaving Satka with no guardian, and she was just the baby back then.
Fortunately, Satka and many other war-orphaned Na'vi children with no living relatives or friends to care for them were taken in by a Dreamwalker named Norm Spellman, who was running the orphanage near their village for all the Na'vi children who had lost their parents and other relatives in the war. Many children liked Norm very much and even called him ma sempul(father), but Satka was out of all of them the most closest to him and Norm treated her well like his own daughter.
"That Bluish Pink-Skin?" Kai'ani asked. "The friend of our Olo'Eyktan, who also used to be Sky Person once?" Kai'ani asked.
"Yes! And if I remember correctly, Satka keeps saying that Normspellman is the nicest and kindest Sky Person she's ever met." Kaeyla reminded again. "Even though the older war orphans are still that mind that Normspellman's friend, this Graceaugustine, was even nicer of all of them."
"I know. But I think that Satka should not let this Norseman... Norseliman... Norselman... Norsuman... or whatever that weird name was..." Kai'ani said, as he couldn't remember Norm Spellman's name correctly, before he let the matter go. "Well, anyway, I at least hope for Satka's sake that she won't let that Bluish Pink-Skin's kindness and care to go into her head, or else she'll mistakes to take others for such as well. After all, she was still a baby when there was war so she hasn't seen and doesn't know what the others are like."
"Well, neither we have seen what those others are like 'cause both of us weren't even born then, little brother, but we at least know what they were like... and our clan's Hometree's ruins and these war machines here are the proof of what we have been told by our parents about them." Kaeyla reminded.
The look on Kaeyla's face then turned into serious one. "But I wish things would stay the way they are. You see, little brother, father and mother have said that Olo'eyktan fears the day when the Great Star appears in the sky, which the people used to call as a bad omen: the return of the Sky People, they say."
As she was expressing her deepest concerns, Kaeyla lifted her head up and looked up to the sky through of the trees foliage. Kai'ani looked up to the sky as well, imagining of seeing that said "star" in the sky even though it was still bright daylight. The idea of the Sky People's rumored return to their forest did not please him at all.
"You think that they might come back one day?" Kai'ani asked innocently.
"I don't know, but after seeing all the damage and mess the Sky People left behind, I pray to Great Mother that it never comes to pass so that we never have to worry about the Sky People ever again." Kaeyla said with the restless frown on her face.
"But we still have those Pink-Skins here with us." Kai'ani reminded. "So we are not completely rid of them."
"Well, I could say that they are the exception from the others that left. They have shown to us that not all the Sky People are evil, and that there is still some good in them. The ones who fought for us and stayed here with us are the proof of it, just as long as we keep respecting each other." Kaeyla told her brother with the words of wisdom.
"Well, except that one in the suit." Kai'ani reminded with the shrug of his shoulders, pointing at the suit with his thump. "He wasn't a good Sky Person and he didn't respect us, and look what became to him. Even Eywa seems not wanting him into her embrace."
Both brother and sister bursted out into laughter at this little joke.
"If he was a Na'vi, which he wasn't, that would've been quite disrespectful, baby brother." Kaeyla giggled, shaking her head.
Kai'ani nodded his head while chuckling, until his stomach started to growl like a hungry Palulukan.
"Oh, I'm hungry." Kai'ani complained as he touched his growling stomach. "Maybe we should've taken something to eat."
Kaeyla chuckled at this. "Nah, little brother. Better to eat back in the safety of the village than in middle of these Sky People machines."
Kaeyla then grabbed from her little brother's hand. And this time, Kai'ani accepted it gladly without stepping back or trying to swat his big sister's hand away.
"Come on, little brother. Let's go gome." Kaeyla said and started to lead her brother away from the battlefield and back towards their home village.
to be continued...
NEXT PART: AMBUSH.
TRIVIA
- First few chapters are set to year 2163, about nine years after the Battle of the Halellujah Mountains and the forced exile of the RDA.
- My first introduced OC characters, Kaeyla (8 years old) was born in the year 2155 and her little brother Kai'ani (6 years old) was born in 2157.