KAEYLA TE KATHAN SAEYLA'ITE.
PART 2.
AMBUSH.
It didn't take long from Kaeyla and Kai'ani to arrive to the border of the area in the forest where their village had been re-located after leaving their temporary home near the humans' base, the Hell's Gate. There were various kind of deterrents made by their people to keep the hostile animals at bay, such as plant sap deterrents that scent resembles the scent of the slinger to keep the packs of nantang out of the area.
And after a little more walking, the two saw in the distance the tops of some Marui-huts of their village peeking over the forest's vegetation, as well as several dozen large hammocks (swaynivi) for families, which were tied to the trees (those that either stood inside or around the village) and each hammock was at a different height from the ground.
There was a smoke rising from several parts of the village, possibly from the fire pits and pots, as some families were apparently preparing food. The pleasant aroma of the cooked food that the gentle wind blew out of the village and to Kaeyla and Kai'ani's direction made Kai'ani even more hungry.
"Hmmm... smells delicious." Kai'ani said, licking his chops. "What do you think mom has prepared for today?"
"Was that the question, brother?" Kaeyla asked. "It hasn't been that long yet from the latest Great Talioang Hunt. Mom is probably roasting whatever is still left from what the Great Mother provided us that day."
"I know, and the roasted Talioang is my favorite!" Kai'ani said, rubbing his stomach excitedly. "Along with sweet Teylu."
Kaeyla then stopped and turned to her little brother.
"Well, remember not to eat too much again or... as the Olo'Eyktan said at the last feast... you'll gain some weight." Kaeyla said, before she bent over and started to teasingly poke Kai'ani's stomach with her left hand's finger for couple-three times to make her point clear.
Kai'ani giggled at both the thought and Kaeyla's playful poking, before he swatted her hand away.
"Stop that, Kaeyla! That tickles!" Kai'ani giggled.
Kaeyla laughed as she pulled her had back. It was then when Kaeyla came up with an hilarious idea now that both she and Kai'ani were in the playful mood.
"Hey, Kai'ani? How about a little race back home?" Kaeyla suggested with the smile.
"Are you sure?" Kai'ani asked with the arched eyebrow - only if he had any. "You barely managed to keep up with me back in the forest."
Kaeyla gave her brother a sly look before she knelt down to his level. "Well, wanna bet for it? Here's the stakes. If you win, I'll give you the best parts of my meal. And if I win, you have to give me the best parts of your meal... and that unfortunately happens to be the roasted Talioang, if I remember correctly."
Kai'ani gasped in shock after hearing the stakes Kaeyla suggested and put his hands over his cheeks.
"You wouldn't! But what if these are the lasts of Talioang we got left?! And the next Great Hunt won't be here anytime soon!" the boy said frantically.
"Well, too bad if you end up losing, little brother. But would the double ration of juicy roasted Talioang be worthy of taking the risk?" Kaeyla said, teasingly tempting her little brother into accepting her challenge.
It seemed to work, as the tempting and delicious thought of getting a double ration of his favorite food in the entire world caused Kai'ani's eyes and his toothy smile to go wider than ever, and the boy began to rapidly nod his head in growning excitement while holding both his shaking hands up (like a begging dog).
"Oh... yeah!" Kai'ani said with the water on his tongue.
Kaeyla grinned widely at this.
"Well, baby brother, If that was "yes", then... Get ready! Set! GO-OOOOO!"
Before Kai'ani could've even blinked his eyes, Kaeyla suddenly and unexpectedly jumped up to her feet and sprinted towards the village as fast as she could, leaving Kai'ani behind. Kai'ani was caught by surprise by Kaeyla's quick acting and was left momentarily surprised/baffled by this, until the boy quickly snapped out of it.
"Hey! No fair!" Kai'ani called after his big sister and sprinted after her. "I wasn't even ready for the race yet! YOU CHEATED, KAEYLA!"
"THE MOST IMPORTANT RULE, BABY BROTHER!" Kaeyla called back over her right shoulder. "BE FAST OR FALL BEHIND!"
"WAIT UP!" Kai'ani called after her as he picked up the pace.
Kaeyla put all her strength, speed and other skills she had learned so far in her training to become a huntress into play and ran as fast as she could through the forest vegetation and towards the village.
However, admitting to herself that she had in fact taken a false start in the race and thus gained a good lead that left a quite long distance between herself and Kai'ani, Kaeyla decided to be a little fair with her little brother and slowed down a bit so that Kai'ani could keep up with her.
Whether or not Kai'ani noticed this, he picked up the pace and, surprisingly enough, he was quickly gaining on his big sister, thus prompting Kaeyla to pick up the pace herself to maintain the lead she was still dominating.
However, soon enough, the two racing siblings found themselves running side by side, capable to keep up with each other despite the difference in size, age, strenght and skill between the two.
And even though they had to occasionally watch out, leap over or circle around the several obstacles on their way: such as the trees, roots, branches, rocks, too dense vegetation, messy set of lianas and other individual plants that could slow them down or stop them completely, neither of the two slowed down and didn't want to give the other the lead.
"GIVE UP, KAI'ANI! YOU'RE NO MATCH FOR ME! I'VE GOT FEW YEARS OF TRAINING OF THIS WHILE YOU HAVE JUST A HALF YEAR!" Kaeyla teased.
"YOU GIVE UP, BIG SISTER! I WAS BORN TO RUN LIKE THIS! IT IS IN MY BLOOD!" Kai'ani said back.
Kaeyla paid a quick look at her little brother and noticed that half of Kai'ani's run was running and the other half was leaping forward, whether there was obstacles or not.
"YOU RUN LIKE A SYAKSYUK!" Kaeyla teased.
"OH YEAH?! WELL, YOU DO NOT RUN EVEN CLOSE AS FAST AS YERIK!" Kai'ani teased back.
"YEAH?! TEN TEYLU IF I CAN JUMP OVER THAT CREEK?!" Kaeyla challenged, pointing at the small creek behind the bushes that separated them from the village. "TEN TEYLU ARE FROM ME IF YOU CAN JUMP OVER THE CREEK!"
"YOU'RE ON, SIS!" Kai'ani accepted.
Even though the creek was not big and the current was not strong due to its shallowness, there was still quite a long jump between the opposite banks, so both Kaeyla and Kai'ani picked up the pace to get enough speed to jump over the creek to the other side and beat one another, even though they were still capable to keep up with each other.
"READY?! ON THREE!" Kaeyla let out when they were near the bank on their side of the creek and started to count. "ONE!"
"TWO!" Kai'ani contiuned.
"THREE!" the unexpected third voice suddenly said, which caught Kaeyla and Kai'ani off guard.
"HUH!" both Kaeyla and Kai'ani let out as they turned to each other, confused of who had just said "Three" if it wasn't either of them.
Before either Kaeyla or Kai'ani could've questioned about the owner of the voice or its location, the shaft of a bow suddenly appeared from behind one of the bushes in front of Kaeyla's feet, causing unwary Kaeyla to trip to it and fly face-first into the creek with the splash. Simultaneously another bow appeared from behind another bush in front of Kai'ani's feet, causing the boy to trip over and fall into the creek after his big sister.
Afterwards of falling into the creek, the soaking wet Kaeyla and Kai'ani slowly raised up from the water, coughing and spluttering and slightly stunned by this unexpected incident.
Shaking the water off herself, Kaeyla, with a slight nose bleed and a couple of bruises on her face after hitting face-first to the bottom of the creek, quickly turned to her little brother to see was he alright.
"Kai'ani? Are you alright?" Kaeyla asked as she started to look her brother over for any injuries.
After getting tripped over, Kai'ani had hit on his right side to the bottom of the creek. That's why he had got a few nasty bruises on his right arm and the backside of his right flank, including a couple small bruises to the right side of his cheek. Otherwise he seemed to be fine.
"I'm fine... but I'm soaking wet... and bruised!" Kai'ani groaned between of single cough and spitting the water out of his mouth.
Kaeyla let out the relieved sigh that her little brother was fine despite few scratches he'd received from the falling into the creek.
Afterwards, the two siblings' attentions were soon drawn to the mocking laughter that came from behind their backs, causing Kaeyla and Kai'ani to turn around to face those who dared to laugh at them. Much to the two's annoyance, the laughers were the five 13-15 years old teenager members of the clan, all young hunters who've already gone through their Iknimaya and had chosen already their Ikran.
One of them was leaning on his bent knees during of his laughter. One of them was leaning on his bent knees during of his laughter. This one had long braided hair, which was tied into Earth's palm tree-like tuft above of his head with the headband that was decorated with the set of animal fangs or claws, letting the ends of the braids to fall around of his head, with couple of them falling over his face.
Two others had raised their arms over each other shoulders and leaned against each other while laughing hilariously. One was muscular but unusually balder than other Na'vi but he had small amount of braided hair going over the topside of his head and around the base of his Tswin/Queue. The other one's hair was bigger and thicker and it fell over his shoulders, giving an impression of the Earth's lions' thick mane. He also had a headband tied around of his head, in which was hanging a tip of the Ikran claw, that was resting over his nose.
The fourth was rolling in the ground while holding his stomach and waving his legs in the air, all of them laughing hard at them. This one had an unkept hair with the few braids, while he was wearing the leather armguards and green- and turquoise beaded choker. He was also the youngest of them all.
The fifth one standing in middle of all of them - presumably the leader of this ragtag gang and the oldest of all of them - was pretty tall, muscular and broad-shouldered one compared to the other four. He had tied his braided hair into a large ponytail behind his head while having the small bunch of tied braids hanging in the thick tuft in the left side of his face. This one was wearing the collar with fiery-red beads, reddish-brown cummerbund, arm bands decorated with the fiery red, orange and yellow feathers, and the leather armguards that wrapped around of his arms like snakes. He also had the huge bite mark in his bare right shoulder and two scars in his right cheek. This one stood in the pose that hinted the mixture of the confidence and pride but the toothy grin and the look on his face was clear mixture of both smugness and arrogance.
"Whoops. May the Great Mother forgive you two for being so clumsy!" the hunter said tauntingly, with the same unexpected voice that had caught Kaeyla and Kai'ani by surprise, thus earning other laughs from his companions and himself.
Kaeyla glared at the teenager hunter darkly, as if this wasn't the first time she'd run into this jerk and his gang before. Baring her teeth and pressing her ears against her skull, Kaeyla stood up as high as she could and pulled Kai'ani protectively behind her back, ready to confront this band of skxanwgs.
"Palree." Kaeyla snarled as she glanced at the teen hunter with the palm tree-like hair style, named Palree.
"Baldang" Kaeyla growled as she turned to the heavily balder hunter named Baldang.
"Li'mane" Kaeyla hissed while turning to the thick-haired hunter, named Li'mane.
"Koward." Kaeyla hissed as she turned to the youngest hunter with the green and turquoise choker, named Koward.
Then her glaring eyes fixed back to the... ring leader.
"And Punkun." Kaeyla snarled angrily.
Covering behind his big sister's back, Kai'ani glared up at the big teenager named Punkun as darkly as Kaeyla did, hissing through of his gritted teeth.
"Well, hello Kaeyla." Punkun snidely greeted as he stepped towards Kaeyla and Kai'ani. "I was with my friends about to go to hunt, until I saw you and your little brother heading off the village into the forest on your own earlier, so we decided to set the little welcome home party... just for you."
Punkun then stepped into the creek and walked closer until he was standing right in front of Kaeyla, easily towering over him and Kai'ani.
"Mind to tell me where were you? And it better not be that "no-go-zone", or more likely "big-boys-zone"." Punkun questioned as he lifted his bow up and putting its tip beneath of Kaeyla's chin, lifting her head slightly up.
Disgusted by this, Kaeyla brought up her own bow and knocked Punkun's bow away from her. "None of your business, pervert!"
Punkun gave Kaeyla such of sick grin that would've made her puke as he leaned closer.
"Wow! Such of language. You've spent too much time with the Pink-Skin runts again, haven't you?" Punkun asked, briefly speaking with the Sky People's language, which Kaeyla understood very well.
"I demand you and your friends to leave us alone!" Kaeyla demanded with the hiss, refusing to respond to Punkun's question with the Sky People's language.
"Wow, wow, wow, wow! Easy there! We haven't even touched you yet. And we won't. You have my word." Punkun swore, returning back to use of Na'vi language, though the tone of his voice was enough to convince Kaeyla that wasn't the case.
"Then what do you want from us, Punkun?" Kaeyla demanded to know.
"I already told you, Kaeyla. This is the welcome home party. Nothing more, nothing less." Punkun said.
Kaeyla gave Punkun an unconvinced narrowed look, before she paid the quick look at his friends who had all unexpectedly moved in to form the circle around them: Palree and Li'mane were positioned behind of them while Baldang and Koward were standing by Punkun's side. Their preying eyes were uncomfortably locked on her and Kai'ani while wearing the smug grins on their faces. Kaeyla glanced each one of them alternately with caution and wariness as if expecting one of them to make the first move on them and preparing herself to counter to it.
Kai'ani, however, already made it glear that he had his big sister's back by turning around to face Palree and Li'mane, not caring if they were older, bigger and strongerthan him. Kai'ani bared his teeth and hissed/snarled at them aggressively, though Palree and Li'mane just chuckled at it and exchanged rather amused glances with one another.
Turning back to Punkun, Kaeyla pulled Kai'ani next to him by his shoulders and began to lead him away and back towards the village.
"Well, thanks for your lame "welcome home party", Punkun, but we should really be going now. Bye." Kaeyla wished sarcastically before turning her back to Punkun and turning to leave the scene with Kai'ani.
However, as Kaeyla and Kai'ani moved towards the village, Baldang and Koward suddenly crossed their bows together in front of two siblings' noses, blocking their path. Kaeyla hissed at them, as if he had predicted this would happen the moment she tried to leave with Kai'ani.
"Leaving so soon?" Punkun asked as he moved behind the two siblings.
Kaeyla turned back to Punkun and hissed at him. "Do not play with the fire, Punkun." she warned sharply.
"Oh, yes, Kaeyla, I won't." Punkun said with the sickly smug smile. "I just have to put the fire out first, right?"
With that, Punkun unexpectedly thrusted his bow forward and poked Kai'ani in the stomach, hard enough to make him to step back and away from Kaeyla's arms.
"Ow! hey!" Kai'ani groaned, holding his stomach a little.
"Hey! What are you doing?!" Kaeyla gasped at this.
Kai'ani glared up at Punkun, letting out an aggravated hiss, before the boy bravely took the step and walked towards the big bully as if about to attack him as revenge for poking him in the stomach. However, Punkun merely laughed at Kai'ani's attempt to stand up to him, before he turned to Baldang and Koward behind Kai'ani and nodded his head to them.
Laughing, Baldang and Koward stretched their bows towards Kai'ani and captured his arms between of their bows shafts and strings before pulling the boy back.
"Kai'ani!" Kaeyla gasped and tried to intervene, but Punkun was quick enough to grab Kaeyla by her queue and pulled it and Kaeyla's head back, hard enough to make Kaeyla to let out the snarl-like groan in pain. Punkun then threw Kaeyla by her queue back into the creek with another splash, before letting go of her queue.
"Kaeyla!" Kai'ani cried and tried to move in to help, until Baldang and Koward grabbed from Kai'ani's arms and held him back.
Spluttering and shaking off the water, Kaeyla picked herself up from the creek's water and turned to glare at Punkun, who pointed at her with his bow.
"Now let's get down to business, Kaeyla! Just you and me! Shall we?" Punkun said smugly.
"You arrogant skxawng!" Kaeyla cursed angrily, before she quickly picked her dropped bow up from the creek and swung it at unprepared Punkun's feet, sweeping his right leg off from under and causing the mean bully to fall on one knee.
Surprised by this unexpected move and gritting his teeth in fury for being caught off guard just like that, Punkun looking back up at Kaeyla. But when he did, however, he suddenly found himself once again ill-prepared for inbound attack as Kaeyla swung her bow hard at him again, whacking him in the head and knocking him over into the water.
Punkun's friends watched this in the speechless shock, while Kai'ani smiled proudly at what his big sister had just done to Punkun.
And as spluttering and coughing Punkun tried to get back up, Kaeyla spitefully kicked him in the face with her foot, knocking him back into the water.
Kaeyla then tried to go to help Kai'ani, only for Palree and Li'mane to quickly snap out of their shock and jump in to seize her by her arms. Palree, who was holding Kaeyla by her right arm, then punched her hard in the stomach, causing her to let out the pained groan and bent over, while Li'mane on her left side pulled her bow out of her hands.
"Kaeyla!" Kai'ani cried again and tried to furiously struggle himself free from Baldang and Koward's grasps like nantang trying to get free from the leash it had been tied up. However, they pulled him back while laughing at his vain attempts to get free.
"Let go of me!" Kai'ani demanded.
Once back on his feet, Punkun turned back to Kaeyla, with his nose bleeding similiarly to Kaeyla's, while wearing the infuriated frown on his face.
The hunter then walked to Kaeyla and brutally backhanded her across the face with his left fist, making Kaeyla's head fly to the right. Punkun's strike was strong enough that it would've knocked Kaeyla over to the creek again, but Palree and Li'mane prevented her from falling over, and Li'mane even grapped roughly from Kaeyla's chin and forcibly turned her head back to Punkun.
While this was happening, Kaeyla, Kai'ani, Punkun and his friends were unaware that they were being watched from afrar by four figures hiding in the vegetation of the forest: three boys and one girl. One was nine years old boy, who had a long braided hair pulled behind of his back and he was wearing the small armband with couple blue feathers in his right arm. The second boy was year or two younger than the first boy and had his braided hair slightly into mohawk-style, though he had two stranded braids tangling in the right side of his face and he was wearing the animal claw necklace around his neck. The girl with them appeared to be the same age with the first boy. She had the unkept hair with few braids and was wearing the top in which was hanging leaves, small rocks and feathers. The last one of the group wasn't Na'vi, but ten years old young human boy with the heavily braided dark blond hair, blue stripes painted all over his body and he was wearing one of the Sky People's masks over his face. The foursome watched the scene in front of them from hiding for a moment until all three boys in the group looked at each other. The three then gave each other a quick yet confident nods and then all three split off in three different directions. Only the girl remained where she was.
"You got me off my guard, I'll give you that..." Punkun hissed to Kaeyla as ge got in front of her face, before he handed his bow to Baldang and took Kaeyla's bow from Li'mane's hands. "But now I'm gonna make you to learn to show RESPECT FOR ME!"
Punkun then took Kaeyla's bow in both hands and brought it up in front of her face, before he squeezed her fingers tightly around the bow's shaft and began to slowly bend its ends down from the middle, while his own face became strained from the growing effort.
"Hey! What are you doing?! That's my BOW!" Kaeyla gasped in growing worry as her bow was forcibly bend outwards!
Punkun ignored her and kept bending her bown, groaning from effort through of his bared and gritted teeth, while wearing the prideful smirk on his lips.
Anf after a moment, Kaeyla's bow suddenly/eventually - SNAPS! - snapped in two from the middle.
"MY BOW!" Kaeyla cried in horror as she saw her bow being destroyed by Punkun.
"Not anymore." Punkun said smugly while holding the pieces of Kaeyla's former bow in his hands, before he let them to drop to the creek's water.
Punkun then took back his own bow and turned back to devastated Kaeyla, who looked down at the pieces of her broken bow.
"I'll give you a chance to get out of this easy way, Kaeyla." Punkun said, tapping Kaeyla twice in her shoulder with his own bow's tip to make her to look up at him. "Just apologize for hitting me in the face with your toy and I'll let you go." he demanded.
Kaeyla's devastated look on her face turned into angry glare which she aimed at Punkun, deciding that the apologize to this skxawng was rightfully out of the question.
Instead, Kaeyla spitefully spit him in the face, catching Punkun off guard once more and making the big bully to step back from her. Punkun's friends gasped out loud at what Kaeyla just did to their friend and leader and grew a bit nervous of what was going to happen afterwards.
Punkun wiped the spit off his face and turned back to Kaeyla, now the blazing rage in his golden eyes.
"Fine!" he hissed. "Then we have to do this the HARD WAY!"
With that, Punkun started to whack Kaeyla hard in the face with his bow, and he repeated it over again, again, again, again, again, again, again, again and again. Both saliva and blood flew out of Kaeyla's mouth with each blow and left the bruised stripes across her cheeks. At one point, Punkun even dropped his bow to the ground and started to brutally punch Kaeyla's faces and stomach repeatedly with his bare fists, leaving Kaeyla's faces nearly black from the amount of bruises, bloodied from the nose and the area of her mouth, with her left cheek swollen and right eye blackened.
Kai'ani watched in horror as his big sister was brutally beaten by Punkun, while his friends kept holding her still, preventing Kaeyla from fighting back.
"STOP IT! STOP IT! PLEASE!" Kai'ani begged with tears in his eyes. "LEAVE HER BE!"
"APOLOGIZE ME!" Punkun roared as he kept beating Kaeyla up.
However, despite all of the beating, Kaeyla still refused to apologize to Punkun.
Eventually, huffing from rage and frustration of Kaeyla's refusal to apologize him, Punkun ceased beating Kaeyla anymore, leaving beaten, bruised and bloodied Kaeyla to limply fall on her knees to the ground, with her head hanging limply on her shoulders. However, she was quickly hauled back on her feet by Li'mane and Palree, who forced her to stay up.
Instead of stopping there, much to Kai'ani's horror and even some of his friends' shock, Punkun drew out his hunting knife - a knife with a bone-white narrow blade with a serrated sharp edge and a small hook-like notch just beneath of the curved tip, along with the black, curved and bone-shaped handle - and raised its blade over Kaeyla's shoulder before cutting it open out of spite, causing Kaeyla to wince that her head jumped up and she let the hiss in pain to escape from her mouth. The lines of blood from the fresh cut soon started to run down her blue skin, while some of it was running down Punkun's stained knife.
Punkun then grabbed from Kaeyla's hair and pulled her head back, causing her to grit her teeth in pain, before Punkun raised his knife's blade over her face and pointed its tip at Kaeyla's eye. Kaeyla weakly struggled against Punkun's friends' hold while defiantly hissing at Punkun's face.
"I'm not gonna ask again, girl!" Punkun huffed through his gritted teeth. "Apologize, or else..."
Before Punkun could've either finished his line or do anything else...
SPLATS!
... the hunter was caught by surprise by the purple fruit that was thrown at him from above and which had hit him right in the face. The fruit broke upon impact, knocking Punkun's head back, and caused the stinging fruit juice to fly into Punkun's eyes.
"ARGH! AHH! MY EYES! MY EYES! IT STINGS! WHAT IS THIS?! WHAT HAPPENED?!" Punkun hissed in panic, as he let go of Kaeyla's hair and stepped away from her to wipe the juice off his stinging eyes. In his surprise and panic, Punkun dropped his blood-stained knife to the ground and accidentally kicking it into the bush.
Kai'ani and Punkun's friends were left baffled at what they just saw, wondering that what had just happened.
Then, quicker than what anyone in the scene could've reacted, a young human boy with heavy braids, blue stripes, mask on his face and for the Na'vi children made bow in the hand suddenly dropped down from the branch above and landed next to Punkun, who was still distracted by his stinging eyes.
The human boy used Punkun's distraction as his advantage and swept with his bow Punkun's right leg off from under, causing surprised Punkun to fall onto his knee again. Blinking his eyes, Punkun turned to his assailant in an attempt to see who it was, but he only ended up getting whacked across the face by the human boy and knocked onto his back in the creek's water.
Baldang, Koward and Kai'ani stared at recently arrived human boy with surprised wide eyes.
"You?" Kai'ani gasped as he recognized the boy.
Baldang, who was holding Kai'ani by his right arm, hissed aggressively as he too recognized their friend's and leader's assailant.
"IT'S THAT RUNT AGAIN!" Baldang snarled.
The human boy, offended by being called "runt" by this mean bully, turned around and pointed his bow up at him.
"That's SPIDER to you, dipshit!" the human boy said boldly... and with the perfect Na'vi language instead of Sky People's language.
"AND HE'S OUR RUNT, BUTT-FACE!" younger voice called from above Baldang, until the other boy, the one with mohawk-styled hair with two stranded braids, landed onto his shoulders and pushed him face-first to the dirt of the ground.
"Our?" Palree and Li'mane, who were still holding from Kaeyla, questioned this while turning to each other.
Suddenly, the third boy, the older one with long braided hair and blue-feathered armband, charged from the bushes and towards Palree and Li'mane from behind their backs while their attentions were elsewhere. The boy grabbed from Li'mane's tail and pulled it back hard.
"YEAOW! MY TAIL!" Li'mane yelped in pain, as he partially jumped off the ground to the air and let go of Kaeyla's arm, pulling his hands over the base of his tail.
"Hey! What do you...?!" Li'mane hissed as he turned around to face whoever had dared to pull from his tail, only to earn from the third boy a mischievous smirk before he swung his bow upwards and ended up hitting Li'mane in between of the his legs, really, really hard.
Li'mane's head immediately popped upwards upon the impact of a rather painful blow directed between his legs. His eyes flew wide open and his lips pursed tightly together. The teenager hunter let out the muffled and weak moans in pain as he pulled his hands over his groins before slowly falling onto his knees to the ground. Soon enough, Li'mane's eyes and cheeks then bulged, before he bent over and barfed to the ground.
Seeing Li'mane in perfect position for him to finish him, the boy brought his bow over his head and then swung it down onto the back of Li'mane's head, knocking him down and out cold, causing his head to land with the Splats! to his own vomit.
Elsewhere, the second boy hopped off of Baldang's back and turned to Koward, who was still holding Kai'ani by his left arm, and whacked him in the face with his bow, knocking him back and making him let go of Kai'ani. The human boy than charged forward and thursted his own bow's tip into Koward's stomach, causing him to let out the groan and bent over in pain while clutching his stomach!
"Lo'ak! The legs!" the human boy, Spider, called to the boy named Lo'ak.
"Got it, cuz!" Lo'ak said with the nod.
Both Lo'ak and Spider then swung their bows over their heads and towards Koward's legs, tripping him over and causing him to fly onto his back to the ground. Koward tried afterwards get back up, both Lo'ak and Spider both swung their bows simultaneously hard onto his head, knocking Koward out cold.
After defeating Baldang and Koward, Lo'ak and Spider turned then to Kai'ani, who had moved slightly aside during the brawl in order to avoid of being in the way while Lo'ak and Spider were dealing with these bullies.
"You okay, buddy?" Spider asked.
"Yeah. Thanks for the help, Pink-Skin." Kai'ani said with relieved voice.
Unlike with Punkun or any of his friends, Spider simply rolled his eyes with the amused smile at Kai'ani calling him "Pink-Skin".
"Name's Spider, if you must know." Spider said.
"Whatever." Kai'ani shrugged, as his voice switched into confident/prideful or boastful one. "Though I could've dealed with these skxawngs by myself without the help."
"Well, Here's your chance, little man. There's one left." Lo'ak said, pointing his bow over Kai'ani's head, making Kai'ani to turn to the direction Lo'ak was pointing at.
After defeating Li'mane, Baldang and Koward, the three boys - four, as Kai'ani joined them - then turned towards the remaining bully who was still standing and holding Kaeyla by her arm: Palree. All four boys hissed threateningly at the bully while surrounding him from all sides,
Angered by his comrades defeat in the hands of these two young boys and the human, Palree threw Kaeyla over to the ground and hissed aggressively at the four youngsters, caring nothing of the fact that he was outnumbered four on one.
The older boy confidently made the first move to attack and swung his bow at Palree, only for him to grab from the bow's tip with his hands, before he yanked it off from the boy's hands and threw it aside. Afterwards Palree then tried to advance towards the boy, reaching out his hands to grab to him with the intention to hurt him as a revenge for Li'mane's defeat.
The boy, however, did not give in to the indimitation of the taller, older and stronger mean bully but bravely held his ground while holding his fists up, ready for the fight.
However, with Palree's attention else, Spider, Lo'ak and Kai'ani, quickly rushed to the boy's aid.
"Neteyam!" Spider called out loud as he moved in from Palree's left side and swung his bow hard down onto the back of Palree's left hand's wrist, causing him to wince from pain and pull his hand back. Rubbing his sore wrist, Palree turned to hiss furiously at Spider, who also held his ground against the way more bigger and stronger Na'vi.
The older boy, Neteyam by name, took advantage of this distraction and charged forward, kicking with his foot into Palree's stomach which knocked him back. As Palree stumpled back while trying to regain his balance, Kai'ani seized the opportunity and let out the war-cry as he charged forward and stomped his foot onto Palree's left leg's four toes.
"Take that, big bully!" Kai'ani snarled and stomped his food down onto Palree's toes again.
"AGH!" Palree groaned and grabbed with both hands from his left leg while hopping on his right one.
Lo'ak, who was standing right behind of Palree's back, seized his chance and threw himself to the ground and rolled towards Palree's feet, tripping him over and causing him to fall with the splash into the creek.
After defeating the last of the bullies, Lo'ak walked to downed Palree and put his leg onto his chest, before he threw his arms up and let out the victorious cry.
"EY-EY-EY-EY-EY-EY-EY-EEEYYY!" Lo'ak whooped in triumph while beating his chest with his fists.
"Hah! Way to go, bro!" Spider laughed as he walked up to Lo'ak.
"Thanks! That was actually much easier than I thought!" Lo'ak laughed, turning to Spider, before he raised up his five-fingered hand. "High-five!"
"High-five!" Spider said, as the two slapped their hands together.
As Lo'ak and Spider were celebrating their victory, Neteyam knelt next to Kaeyla, who was still lying on her right side after being thrown to the ground by Palree. Seeing his big sister down, Kai'ani quickly rushed to her side.
"Kaeyla!" Kai'ani called worriedly, as he helped Neteyam to roll his big sister onto her back to look at her.
It didn't take long before Lo'ak and Spider joined the two and knelt beside Kaeyla: Lo'ak went next to Neteyam and Spider went next to Kai'ani.
"Kaeyla! Can you hear me?!" Kai'ani called his sister and Neteyam began to check out her injuries.
KAEYLA'S POV STARTS
Hearing her name being called by the echo of the familiar sounding voice, Kaeyla moaned weakly and turned her head to her right and looked up at Kai'ani kneeling next to her, looking worriedly down at her. However, the brutal beating she had received from Punkun had left her lingering at the border of the consciousness, which she was slowly but certainly losing. This had made her vision fuzzy, so she could only see her little brother as a blurly figure.
Aside of her brother, Kaeyla saw the blurly figures of three strangers whom she didn't recognized. She didn't get a clear picture of them or their faces either because of her fuzzy vision, but she could still distinguish few simple characteristics, such as more pinky-looking figure, possibly one of the Sky People, with long dark blonder hair, who was kneeling next to her behind her brother, and two more Na'vi-like figures kneeling next to her on her left side. One of them was leaning over her to take the closer look at her, with his right hand placed gently over her forehead and his left hand put onto her right shoulder but at the same time being careful of the wound in her shoulder.
"Holy shit! She doesn't look pretty good." the echo of the pinky figure's voice said in apparent worry after seeing her bruised, bleeding and from two placed swollen face.
"No kidding, cuz? You know Punkun, right? That bastard doesn't spare his fists for nothing... and doesn't waste them randomly just for anyone." the echo of the younger voice of Na'vi-like figure on her left said.
"Yeah, but going that far..." the first voice added, pointing at her right shoulder.
"Guys, please!" the echo of the older voice of the Na'vi-like figure closest to her said as he turned to the others. "She just went through a rough beating. Can you two knuckleheads give her a break?" After saying that, he turned back to checking on her.
As she was slowly losing her consciousness, with the sheer willpower she still had, Kaeyla weakly turned her head to the left and fixed her blurly eyes on the closest Na'vi-like figure who was checking on her. She weakly lifted her head up from the ground and tried to speak, but her words... one simple "Who are you?" question unfortunately died and came out only as the weak moans.
"Don't worry, lady. We got you. It's alright. Everything is going to be okay." the echo of the figure's voice said soothingly.
Instead of acknowledging the figure in front of her, Kaeyla could only let another moan out of her mouth before her head fell back to the ground.
She then heard the echoes of the distant voices coming from behind her brother and the pinky figure, which drew theirs and the two Na'vi-like figures's attentions back towards the creek. Then she saw through her slowly darkening vision how all the figures around her, except for her brother, immediately stood up and moved to her right, forming a protective circle around her and her brother.
Moving her head slightly to the right, she was capable to see through of their legs the blurrly figure of Punkun and his two remaining friends: Palree and Baldang, who were still clear-headed and now even more pissed off after being ambushed and beaten up by the boys younger than them.
KAEYLA'S POV ENDS
Punkun and his two friends, Palree and Baldang, had just gotten back to their feet from the ground (water in Punkun's case), bruised, covered in dirt, and humiliated. And so they all glared and hissed angrily at Neteyam, Spider and Lo'ak, who stood protectively around of Kaeyla and Kai'ani. Standing to the left of the trio, Neteyami wore a brave yet calm, patient and observant look on his face, while both Lo'ak, who was standing to the right of the trio, and Spider, who was standing in between of Neteyam and Lo'ak, hissed boldly and defiantly back at Punkun and his friends.
"Who you two skxawng and that little runt think you are to put your tiny noses into others' business?" Punkun asked rudely. "This has nothing to do with you!"
"And who gives you the right to pick on the others who are smaller than you." Spider challenged.
"Not to mention about making them to apologize for your own ass-behavior, Punkun." Lo'ak added.
"Lo'ak! Spider!" Neteyam warned under his breath, worrying where their choice of words might lead to.
"Do you think you three could stand any chance against us?" Punkun challenged. "We are bigger, stronger and more skilled than you, because we're hunters! And you're just two tiny skxawngs with the Pink-Skin runt pet."
"And yet we kicked your sorry carcasses too easily." Lo'ak taunted. "And you never even saw us coming."
"And I already told you. The name is Spider, you deaf-eared punk." Spider added. "You let out the strong words, yet you just got beaten up by the human that is twice smaller and weaker than you. And I didn't even need the Sky People weapons to do it."
"Guys. Shut up!" Neteyam hissed through his gritted teeth.
Punkun snarled at Spider, before he looked up at Neteyam and Lo'ak.
"You two bring the shame to our clan by associating with the Pink-Skins, especially after everything those savage demons did to us, including the filthy demons that spawned that little runt!" Punkun snarled, pointing at Spider with the disgusted and contemptuous frown on his face.
Spider's faces hardened into a deep anger and shame-filled frown, slightly hurt by Punkun's words aimed at him and the fact how partially accurate they actually were.
However, Spider refused to show these bullies that Punkun's words actually got to him and, replacing his hurt and ashamed frown with the angry glare, he was about to say something back, until Lo'ak stepped forward in front of the human boy, glaring angrily at Punkun.
"Say something like that about him again if you dare, Punkun, and I swear I will..." Lo'ak threatened, until Neteyam quickly lifted his bow's tip against Lo'ak's lips to silence him before he could say something that would further escalate an already tense situation.
Lo'ak frowned at Neteyam as the older boy turned to Punkun and his friends.
"Just turn around and walk away, Punkun. We're done here." Neteyam said in an authoritative voice, trying to get the situation under control before it would go worse. "This doesn't have to end up into a needless brawl, or else we're all gonna be in the big trouble, including you."
Punkun wasn't really in the mood to listen Neteyam's reasoning or warning. All he wanted was to teach all of these young children the lesson for disrespecting him.
"And who are you to boss me around?" Punkun taunted. "You're not Olo'eyktan, so I don't have to take orders from you, you little twerp."
Spider took the sly grin on his face, amused by Punkun's unawareness of who he is even talking to, to the point where he let the chuckle to escape from his mouth.
This didn't go unnoticed by Punkun, however. Annoyed/offended by this, Punkun turned his fiery gaze at Spider's direction.
"What are you laughing at, Pink-Skin?!" he snapped, adressing Spider for the first time.
"Do you big skxawng have a slightest clue to whom your're even talking to." Spider asked with the smirk. "I'd watch my tongue with him if I were you, otherwise his dad will be your Last Shadow."
Palree and Baldang gasped immediately in astonishment of whom Spider was actually talking about and backed away with the nervous looks on their faces. Even Punkun's eyes widened by this surprising revelation, though he mostly maintaining the frown on his face. He then turned from Spider back to Neteyam, eyeing him carefully from head to toes.
That was then when Punkun got a hint who this boy was and whose son he actually was.
"Yeah. I think that you do got the clue about that after all." Spider teased, folding his arms with satisfaction.
Neteyam then stepped forward, fixing his stern eyes with Punkun's.
"I'm gonna say this again, and you better heed my words, Punkun. Back off... all of you. Take your friends with you... turn around and walk away... now! And from now on I expect you to show little more respect towards the ones younger and smaller than you." Neteyam said strictly. The seriousness and clear authority in his voice and manner were almost very same as of the Olo'Eyktan's of the clan, despite his young age.
Punkun scowled at Neteyam and his commanding attitude and was very reluctant to step down before the one child younger than himself. Even so, deep down even someone like Punkun knew better than to start a fight with this one, as he really didn't want to get into trouble with Neteyam's famous father, and even least with his own parents.
Reluctantly swallowing his pride, Punkun slowly turned to his friends.
"Whatever. C'mon, guys. Let's get out of here." Punkun said and gestured Parlee and Baldang to pick up the unconscious Li'mane and Koward up from the ground.
Punkun paid the dirty looks with Lo'ak and Spider, but to Neteyam he gave a small nod with the begrudging respect, to which Neteyam responded with the nod of his own.
"Wise choise." Neteyam said, satisfied.
With that done, Punku turned away to leave as Palree lifted Li'mane off the ground and lifted his right arm over his shoulder, while Baldang heaved Koward - who had already woken up after being knocked out by Lo'ak and Splider, though he was left slightly dizzy from the blow he'd received - up from the ground by his arms.
As Punkun and his friends were about to leave, Spider called after them.
"Good riddance, losers! And next time you better have learned to respect the little ones in the future! Starting with addressing me by my name first, if you please!" the boy said.
Neteyam was quick to held his hand up in front of Spider to silence him.
"Spider, enough! The situation has been resolved. There is no need to make it worse." he warned gently
"Well, too bad for Kumpun and his friends. They have to from now on live under the shadow of the fact that he got his sorry skxawng-ass kicked by the trio of half younger and smaller kids." Lo'ak teased.
This comment caused Punkun to stop and turn around to look at the kids over his right shoulder, especially at Lo'ak.
"For someone like Punkun, it seems that licking his physical wounds is one thing. But licking the wounds of his wounded pride is another matter. When this spreads to the whole clan, I bet Punkun won't dare to show up his face again." Lo'ak added.
"Yeah." Spider laughed, before he raised up his hand. "High-five to the memory of that loser skxawng."
Lo'ak laughed as he and Spider gave high-five to each other.
"Guys." Neteyam warned, as he had noticed Punkun overhearing them.
However, it was too late, as Punkun became so fed up with being mocked by Lo'ak and Spider that he furiously turned around, stole the knife from Baldang's sheath, and started to walk towards the two as if intending to attack them with the knife!
"That's it!" Punkun snarled at Lo'ak and Spider. "You and that runt are good as dead!"
Palree and Baldang we're left momentarily surprised by Punkun's actions, and they hesitated for a moment to follow their friend to fight these kids. However, after exchanging the quick glances with one another, the two hunters ended up shrugging their shoulders in 'whatever' manner, before they uncereomonially dropped their unconscious comrades to the ground and followed Punkun, hissing through of their bared and gritted teeth and clutching their hands into the fists, ready to fight.
Seeing this, Lo'ak and Spider immediately turned around and readied themselves for the brawl.
"Alright! About damn time! Let's dance!" Spider said, eager grin on his lips.
"Bring it on, bitch!" Lo'ak taunted, grinning widely. "Be welcome to have your butt kicked by the human again!"
Unlike Spider and Lo'ak, Neteyam was the only one who was less than pleased about the sudden turn of events. Seeing that there was no going back from this anymore, he could only roll his eyes and growl in annoyance at his little brother and human friend for causing this.
"Oh, Great Mother. Do something before someone really gets hurt." he prayed, before he reluctantly joined Lo'ak and Spider and readied himself for the brawl.
Behind them, Kaeyla, still lingering to her consciousness with whatever willpower she had left, watched through her heavy eyelids as her and her brother protecting three figures prepared to fight Punkun, Palree, and Baldang. However, her best efforts to stay awake proved eventually to be too much and her mind was going black at the quicker rate, resulting her falling completely limp and slowly closing her eyes.
The very last blurry image she saw before her vision went dark was Punkun and his friends, as well as her and Kai'ani's rescuers lunging at each other with fists and bows raised in the air while letting out war-cries and howls.
Then she could only hear for the brief moment the echoing and slowly fading sounds of whacking, punching, kicking, cries, howls and groans in pain or strained effort, curses in Na'vi, shaking of the leaves, thuds against the ground and the splashes of the creek's water.
And then, the sounds faded into silence as she totally lost her consciousness.
To be continued...
NEXT PART: AFTERMATH.