Kaeyla te Kathan Saeyla'ite

by Fanficteller

Kaeyla, a young huntress of Omatikaya clan, lives a happy and peaceful life in the forest with her beloved family. Until one day, the peace is shattered when an ancient enemy returns from their 14-year exile, more powerful than ever and launches a full-scale invasion on the planet Pandora, forcing Kaeyla to face challenges and tragedies while trying to keep all her loved ones safe.

4. Blood in the knife, Part 1

KAEYLA TE KATHAN SAEYLA'ITE.

PART 4.

BLOOD IN THE KNIFE.
PART 1.

The entire Sully family just stood there, still in shock over Punkun's mutilated condition and Tha'non's and Athera's harsh accusations of Spider for supposedly severely wounding their son with the knife during the earlier fight, while both distressed and angered parents glared down at the human boy.

Spider, still in shock of such of accusations made against him, turned to the Sully family to meet their gazes.

Both Jake and Neytiri looked down at Spider in disbelief, also considering that neither he nor their sons told them anything about this, which caused Neytiri's face to shape into an angry frown and she narrowed her eyes into harsh glare, which greatly matched the look on Athera's face. Lo'ak and Neteyam, who were still tending unconscious Kaeyla inside the Marui, glanced at each other in dismay and then at Spider, worried for their friend.

Before Jake could recover from his own shock over this and say something in return, his attention was quickly caught by the movement on the branch leading to his Marui and he turned his head to see what it was. He was rather surprised to see more people coming this way, heading towards his home.

Spider, Lo'ak and Neteyam too were surprised when they recognized some of the newcomers: They were Palree, Baldang, Li'mane and Koward, Punkun's friends, along with their own parents who neither didn't look happy.

Like Punkun, each one of his friends were covered with countless dark-blue and slightly bleeding bruises all oner their bodies from the fight, though each one of them had their own individual injuries.

Palree apparently had a broken nose and heavy nosebleed, as his nose and the area around of his mouth was covered in blood, and his left eye was swollen to shut and his right cheek was left swollen too. Baldang had at least two or three noticeable dark blue bumps in the areas of his head where his hair had been shaved off. As he grimaced in pain and dizziness, he bared his teeth and revealed to everyone that he was missing two teeth from his mouth, including his right canine tooth from the upper corner.

Li'mane appeared to have slightly trouble with walking, probably because he was still in pain from Neteyam's whack right into his groins with the bow, and his faces were still stained with his own vomit into which he had been knocked face first by Neteyam. Koward appeared to be holding from his stomach, which was probably still sore after Spider had whacked him there with the bow. The left corner of his mouth was bruised and bleeding and his right eye swollen and black.

Their parents immediately vented their anger over the incident and their children's conditions by explaining to Jake and Neytiri how Spider and their own sons had attacked and beaten up their children with no apparent reason.

However, their accusations towards Lo'ak and especially Neteyam were somewhat much milder, while each and every one of them told the same story how Spider had brutally mutilated Punkun and viciously threatened their children with the knife, which made the situation even worse for Spider.

"How can you even allow that thing to walk amongst us when he has no respect towards the people?!" Athera questiond as she turned her disgusted glare at Spider for a short moment before she turned back to Jake. "He'll definitely try the same thing again as soon as the eye averts!"

"Why do you even allow his kind to even visit in our village occasionally, Jakesully?" one of the boys' mothers beside Athera questioned.

"Because they stood up against their own kind for our people's sake and remained loyal to the Na'vi unlike all the other Sky People." Jake explained, though sounding a bit bored by this subject as if he has had to explain this very same thing to some members of his people time and time again. "They are friends and allies of the people, and thus are allowed to visit us as long as they abide by the terms of peace between our peoples."

"Some friends and allies indeed!" one of the boys' fathers scoffed in disbelief and disgust. "That's very hard to believe after what that boy did to Punkun and to our sons!"

"And that troublemaker obviously has a bad influence to your own children that they would just follow him into doing something like this! You should protect your children from this, Jakesully!" Tha'non urged. "Think of your sons and protect them from this boy's evil influence!"

As all of this went on, Punkun kept his head low and gaze to the ground. But when he quickly glanced at Spider's direction, the corners of his mouth curved into small smirk... knowing that Spider was in trouble.

Having heard enough, Neytiri handed Tuktirey into Jake's arms, before she turned to Spider and grabbed him roughly by his arm.

"Is that what you claim to be your "respect to the people"?!" Neytiri hissed accusingly at Spider, pointing her finger at Punkun. "You walk amongst us and yet you dare to go far enough to do THAT to one of us?!"

"Wow, hey! No! That's not how that all happened! I swear it!" Spider protested immediately as he tried to pull his arm free from Neytiri's grasp, but in vain. "You have to believe me, Mrs. Sully!"

"Your actions speaks louder than words, boy." Neytiri replied distrustfully and in the form of the old human saying, which was something she remembered being told about by the late Grace Augustine back in those old school days in the past.

"No, mom! That is not true! You have to believe him!" Lo'ak protested as he immediately jumped up from Kaeyla's side to defend Spider. "Spider would never do that to any Na'vi! Never! Not even to such of rotten skxawng like Punkun here!" he added, paying a dirty look at Punkun and his friends.

Still not letting go of Spider's arm, Neytiri turned to her youngest son, quirked her eyebrow (even if she hasn't one) in confusion for him standing up for Spider despite him being severely accused by Punkun's and his friends' parents for supposedly mutilating Punkun with the knife.

"You're defending him even after what he did?!" Neytiri questioned.

"But he has done nothing wrong, mom." Lo'ak insisted. "If you don't believe him, can you believe me?"

After Lo'ak had said that, Neteyam stood up from Kaeyla's side to his brother's side to back him up in Spider's defense. "That's true, mom. Spider didn't do anything. Me and Lo'ak were both there and we saw everything."

All the adults looked at the two Sully boys with the mixed looks and thoughts over their claims for Spider's innocence over the incident, until Tha'non turned back to Jake.

"See, Jakesully? This is exactly what I told you about?" Tha'non said as he gestured at Lo'ak and Neteyam with his hand to make his point clear. "Your sons are caught up by this thing's evil influence that they would do and say anything to defend him."

This time Jake opened his mouth to speak.

"For starters, I'm sorry for what my sons and Spider did to your son, Tha'non, and I am sorry for your sons as well." Jake said, turning briefly from Tha'non to address to Punkun's friends parents before he turned back to Tha'non. "But I can't help but notice that you all are making pretty harsh accusations against Spider, who's just the boy, unless you have clear evidence to prove that he actually did this."

Tha'non, Athera and the other boys parents turned to exchange a perplexed looks with each other over Jake's words, especially the one word they have never heard before.

"What is "evidence"?" Tha'non inquired as he turned back to Jake.

"Something or anything that can either prove or disprove the charges for the crime the accused may have either committed or not." Jake explained simply. "So let's start with one special condition of peace: as friends and allies of the Omatikaya people, the humans are allowed to visit us on the condition that they do not carry the weapons of the Sky People in our village or territory. And all those who visit us occasionally know this."

"Do they?" Tha'non questioned suspiciously. "I know they are forbidden to bring their Sky People weapons into our village, and yet this boy walks amongst us with one of their knives, AND GOES TO DO THIS TO OUR SON! THAT BOY DELIBERATELY BROKE THAT AGREEMENT, AND HE HAS TO PAY FOR IT!"

Tha'non then took step closer to Jake until they were almost face to face with each other, leaving a few inches of space between the beaks of their flat noses, and looked at him fiercely in the eyes. Jake, however, maintained his composure and, holding his ground, calmly met Tha'non's angered gaze.

"I may not be Olo'eyktan of Omatikaya, Jakesully, but I say that because of this, we should exile him and all the humans from our village for good!" Tha'non insisted.

The other parents of the boys agreed to this suggestion with firm supported, though it horrified both Lo'ak and Neteyam, and put Jake in uneasy position.

Unlike his mate and several other Na'vi who still objected the presence of humans, Jake never had any problem with Spider's presence either in the village or in his home. He was always very accepting and welcoming towards the boy due to knowing very well what it is like to be human amongst Na'vi and how difficult it is to keep up with the Na'vi both physically and culturally. Due to knowing that both his sons were the best friends with Spider, along with the fact that Spider always felt like a Na'vi at heart and preferred to spend his time in the Pandoran jungle with them rather than with his foster family at Hell's Gate, McCoskers, he gladly tried to make the boy to feel welcome around his family and treated as a close family friend like Norm, Max and few other humans he considered to be fully trustworthy.

However, despite that, Jake knew very well his duty as the Olo'eyktan of Omatikaya and that he had to put his clan's needs and safety before anything else, even the humans after he'd abandoned his old life as one of them for the life amongst the Na'vi as one of them, but that same thing didn't apply his family, which he put before everything else without any hesitation. But still, Jake felt that there was more in this incident that meets the eye, and thus silently vowed to defend Spider from the boys' parents' harsh accusations against him until proven otherwise.

However, he was beaten in that when Lo'ak quickly stood up to confront Punkun's parents. "Well, those claims only prove that you obviously have no evidence against Spider! All you got are just fabrications made up by these skxanwgs, although none of you weren't even there to see what really happened during the fight!"

"Lo'ak!" Jake said firmly as he held his hand in front of his sone to stop him. "Stay out of this, son."

"Besides, unlike them, none of us never even used the knives in the fight! Only our bows! Spider too used his own bow only." Lo'ak stated, ignoring his father.

"Lo'ak has a point, dad." Neteyam said as he walked beside his brother again. "Besides, Spider doesn't even carry knives. At least I haven't seen him with one while he has been here with us."

Neteyam then looked down and patted with his hand a small one-handed and short-bladed knife resting in its leather sheat on hus rught hip, before gesturing with his hand at Lo'ak's own knife on right hip.

"And while me and Lo'ak have our own knives..." Neteyam said as he turned back to Jake. "We know better than to hand them over to him because of that rule. And besides, he has never even requested us to borrow them to him."

Jake looked down at his oldest son, taking his words into consideration.

"That's true. Even I know that humans aren't allowed into village while bearing the Sky People's weapons. And I honor it because of my deepest respect for Na'vi." Spider said, making everybody turn back to the boy.

"Besides, even Nash and Mary McCosker back at Hell's Gate won't let me hold one because of their "no knives for the little boys" rule." Spider added the last words with the mockery voice. "But I don't think that carrying bow and arrows, which I made myself according to Na'vi's traditional customs, would come even close of breaking the agreement, wouldn't it?"

Jake and Neytiri exchanged the glances with each other as they both, even Neytiri, realized that Spider had a point, despite the latter's obvious distrust on him.

That particular condition for maintaining peace and good relations between the two people only applied to Sky People weapons, guns and knives alike, but the bow and arrows which Spider had made himself and carried with him all of time were made in full Na'vi fashion. And so the fact that he carried the self-made bow and arrows when visiting their village wasn't technically against the agreement.

"And besides, if Spider had really done this to Punkun, he could only have done it with either mine or Lo'ak's knife, what he didn't have, and thus he could not have done this without it." Neteyam reasoned. "Otherwise me and Lo'ak would be just as guilty of this as Spider for letting him to borrow our knives against Punkun." Neteyam added.

Jake and Neytiri then began to reflect on everything they had heard so far, though Punkun's parents and and the other boys' parents looked to be not even close of being convinced by Spider's words.

Tha'non then turned to stare at the boys with the cold narrow-eyed glare.

"Well, how do we know if you two really are as guilty? How do we know if one of you didn't "accidentally" drop the knife which that demon then picked up from the ground and used to mutilate our son? How do we know if you two saw it happening but refuse to admit it for this boy's sake?" Tha'non countered angrily, until his angry and accusing look quickly switched into what looked like he had realized something, and then quickly to the look of disgust.

"But of course. Of course you two might say anything in defense of this demon child because you see him as your friend." Tha'non said with the calm yet still coldly accusing tone.

Tha'non then began to walk towards Lo'ak and Neteyam with slow pace, never taking his narrowed eyes away from the Sully boys

"I can see it in your eyes that you two are too caught up with his evil influence that you have turned your back to your own kind." Tha'non suggested, getting to both Lo'ak's and Neteyam's faces.

He then turned to and raised an accusing finger at Neteyam's face.

"Especially you, Neteyam, the son of Toruk Makto and Olo'eyktan and the golden child in this family favored by the whole clan and your parents." Tha'non hissed, before he turned to Lo'ak, and this time he wore a look on his face that looked like the grimace in disgust.

"But even especially you, Lo'ak. The son who has demon blood in your veins and isn't even full Na'vi. So it's no wonder if you're too prone to that little demon's evil influence."

Lo'ak's ears folded backwards as his face formed into the look of disgust for being reminded of this fact. He lowered his head slightly down, but glared defiantly back up at Tha'non. Neteyam quickly pushed Lo'ak behind him and stood up to Tha'non, glaring defiantly at the adult Na'vi in front of him for such of outrageous words no matter how true they were.

In the background, both Jake and Neytiri glared at Tha'non with disapproval frowns for his outrageous words against their sons.

"Alright, that's enough, Tha'non...!" Jake tried to interfere to his sons' defense, but Tha'non ignored him.

"So how do we know if one of you, or actually even both of you, are not as much to blame for our son's injuries as that thing? How do we even know if you both didn't use your knives to inflict those injuries on my son as well, just like that demon?!" Tha'non questioned.

"WOW! HEY! NOW YOU'RE GOING TOO FAR!" Spider exclaimed aloud in outrage, hating to see his best friends get blamed for something they haven't done.

Glaring daggers at Tha'non, Spider forcibly pulled his hand free from distracted Neytiri's grasp and walked fearlessly and defiantly towards Tha'non, standing up to him for Lo'ak and Neteyam on his turn, despite the obvious size difference between nine year old human boy and full grown Na'vi warrior. Tha'non quickly stepped back from him as if he was the carrier of some disease.

"You have no right to accuse Lo'ak and Neteyam for something they haven't done, nor you have any right to accuse me either for something I haven't done without any proof against me!" Spider exclaimed, pointing an accusing finger at Tha'non, who glared down at the boy for his defiant stant against him. "Well, yes! While Lo'ak, Neteyam and I DID beat your son's and his friends' sorry asses, we had every right and reason to teach them all a lesson they deserved!"

"You dare to speak up LIKE THIS TO ME, DEMON!" Tha'non snarlerd, looking like he was about to hit Spider. "You hurted him! You hurted my son! He told us that you attacked him with Jakesully's sons right after he left the village with his friends to hunt this morning, only to return home almost immediately looking like THIS! You hurted my son without the reason besides of wanting to hurt Na'vi on purpose! That's what all of your kind does! You hurt our people and the forest out of your pure evilness! You have even poisoned Jakesully's sons with your evil!"

"No he hasn't!" Lo'ak protested. "It's you whose mind has been clouded by Punkun's lies!"

"Watch your mouth, boy!" Tha'non hissed harshly at Lo'ak, prompting both Neteyam and Spider to stand protectively in front of Lo'ak, with the latter resuming confronting Tha'non.

"You leave Lo'ak and Neteyam out of this, Tha'non! And leave the other humans out of this as well, because they have nothing to do with this either! But that doesn't matter right now!" Spider countered. "What really matters here is discussing about Punkun, and that is he really that innocent as he claims to be!"

"Enough!" Neytiri hissed behind Spider's back and grabbed him from his shoulder, a pretty hard enough to make the boy wince slightly, and then pulled him away from Tha'non. "Stay out of this, boy! You've caused enough of trouble here!"

Spider, however, shook Neytiri's arm off his shoulder.

"No way, Mrs. Sully!" Spider said as he turned to Neytiri. "If I have to pay for something I haven't even done, then I'll make sure that I'll bring Punkun down with me as well!"

With that, Spider turned back to Tha'non.

"I have no idea where Punkun's got his injuries, but I bet he apparently left out some juicy details from his version of the incident... which includes her!" Spider said as he pointed his finger towards Kaeyla's lying motionless form in the floor of Sully's Marui, prompting Tha'non, Athera, Punkun and his friends' own parents to turn to look at her.

All of them blinked their eyes in surprise and confusion at the sight of badly beaten Na'vi girl lying motionless in the Sullys' Marui, while Punkun and his friends eyes went wide from the shocking surprise to soo her here, which obviously was what the gang hadn't expected.

Tha'non then immediately turned from the girl back to Spider with the look of angry disbelief on his face. "Is there no end to your evil, demon?! Not only you have mutilated my son, but now you've attacked an innocent girl!" he accused impulsively, though Spider held his ground.

"She is the innocent one here, yes. But I have to correct you, because it wasn't me who attacked her... but Punkun and his friends." Spider countered. "And we have an eyewitness. Her little brother, Kai'ani, whom we sent to fetch their parents here. They should be here at any moment now."

Palree, Baldang, Li'mane and Koward's parents, as well as Athera, exchanged glances with each other in mild-surprise upon this revelation that their sons and Punkun were the ones who had truly attacked on Kaeyla, though all of remained still skeptical of this, believing it to be another lie from Spider's mouth. Tha'non particularly appeared to be fuelled with rage upon hearing Spider accusing his son for attack against ther fellow Na'vi.

However, before he could've said anything to accuse Spider for pinning the blame of his "crimes" on his son, he was cut short when everyone heard the frantic shouting from behind the boys' parents back.

"Kaeyla! Kaeyla!" the frantic voice called. "Where is Ma Kaeyla?!"

Everyone turned in the direction of the sound and noticed that three Na'vi, two adults and one child, were running along the branch towards Sully's Marui.

Lo'ak and Neteyam immediately recognized the child. It was Kai'ani.

The little boy was followed closely behind by his and Kaeyla's parents and Sullys good family friends, Ka'ani and Saeyla.

They were both a few years older (than what they were seen in Tsu'Tey's Path and The Next Shadow comics). Ka'ani sported few old scar over his body, two of them ran down his left temple while, while he had many more in his right shoulder and right side of his chest, his left arm, right thigh and left shin. He had many more in his back. Some of them were possibly from the hunts, while others looked like the apparent clawmarks. Like Jake's, his own braided hair had grown longer and some of the braids fell over his own shoulders. He wore around his neck a red beaded choker, stylished to the one Tsu'Tey wore when he was still alive, with the line of bluish beads running in the middle of it, as well as having some feathers hanging in behind of his right ear.

Saeyla still wore her old long necklace with the large light brown and red-tipped feathers hanging from it to cover her breasts, though her hair had grown slightly longer and her two large braids, that fell over her shoulders, had grown thicker. She had tied them together near from their tips, similiarly how Omatikaya's Tsahik, Mo'at, had done with her own. She was also wearing a beaded headband around her head.

"Neteyam! Lo'ak! Spider! I'm here, and I brought my parents here!" Kai'ani called as he hopped onto Sullys Marui's floor, until he stopped still upon noticing Punkun - and was taken aback by his injuries made by the knife - and his friends with their parents being there already, much to his surprise and confusion.

"What is this?" Kai'ani asked, turning to Lo'ak and Neteyam. "What is this skxawng doing in here in the first place?!"

"He and his parents are here to wrongly accuse Spider for attacking and injuring Punkun with the knife, which ain't true for a one bit." Lo'ak explained, shooting another dirty glare at Punkun. Kai'ani too turned glare daggers at the mean bully after listening Lo'ak's explaining the reason of he bullies and their parents presence here.

Seeing Lo'ak and Kai'ani glaring at him. Punkun turned quickly away from the two boys. He looked now quite nervous than what he was just a moment ago. Apparently he didn't expect to see Kai'ani or his parents here too.

Then Ka'ani and Saeyla hopped onto Sully family's Marui, pushing past of Tha'non, Athera and the other boys' parents, until they noticed Kaeyla's motionless bosy lying inside Sully's Marui, much to the two's shock.

"KAEYLA! MA KAEYLA!" Saeyla cried and rushed to her daughter and dropped on her knees Kaeyla's left side. She let out a soft but horrified gasp at sight of her daughter's condition.

"What they have done to you, my sweet child?" Saela whispered softly, as she cupped Kaeyla's cheeks with her hands.

Ka'ani followed his mate inside the Marui, but not before stopping next to Jake and turning to meet his Olo'eyktan.

"Jakesully, I see you." Ka'ani greeted, though he sounded to be a bit out of the breath.

Ka'ani had just returned back to the village from a long hunt and had walked the long and tiring way back to the village with his catch, but after hearing from Kai'ani about the incident and that his daughter was in Sully's Marui recovering, he had run all the way up the branches to get to Sullys' Marui and his daughter together with his mate.

"I see you, brother." Jake greeted, while still holding Tuktirey in his arms.

Afterwards, without another word, Ka'ani entered the Sullys' Marui and sat down to Kaeyla's right side, with little Kai'ani walking beside his father.

Ka'ani looked at his daughters' face, which were left heavily bruised, swollen and stained by dried blood after the brutal beating she had received. After the moment, his concern for Kaeyla slowly but surely turned into restrained fury when Kai'ani whispered something into his right ear and pointed at the still bleeding cut in his big sister's right shoulder, to which Ka'ani fixed his eyes.

Jake, Neytiri, Spider, Lo'ak, Neteyam and Punkun and his friends with their families watched the family gathered in Sullys' Marui from outside in silence for a moment, until Jake opened his mouth to speak directly to Ka'ani.

"I was expecting you and Saeyla paying us a visit here, Ka'ani, which I take is due to an incident that happened outside the village earlier today, right?" Jake asked.

Hearing his Olo'eyktan speaking to him, Ka'ani stood up from his daughter's side and turned to Jake Sully, making at the same time Kai'ani to turn to Sully family and the others as well, while Saeyla remained on Kaeyla's side.

"Indeed." Ka'ani said through of the narrow gap between his bared teeth, sounding and looking like pissed off.

"Olo'eyktan! Kai'ani told us he and Kaeyla came under attack." Saeyla told Jake frantically over her left shoulder.

"By this little skxawng and his band of rascals! All five of them banded together against of my son and my little girl for no reason!" Ka'ani finished for his mate, as he angrily pointed an accusing finger towards Punkun and his friends.

"Kai'ani also told us that your sons, including that human boy..." Ka'ani added, briefly pointing his finger at Spider before turning back to Jake. "... came to his and Kaeyla's aid."

The boys' parents and Athera immediately let out the utterly surprised gasps when their heard this version of the incident, which they couldn't believe to be completely opposite to the version their sons and Punkun have told them.

"Yes, I know." Jake told him. "Neteyam, Lo'ak and Spider already told me what happened just a moment ago."

Apparently convinced by Spider's revelation after it was backed up by both Ka'ani and Jake Sully's confirmation, Palree, Baldang, Li'mane and Koward's the parents immediately looked down at their sons questioningly, pondering if their sons had been completely honest and truthful with them or if they had lied in their faces. After all, all of them used to be the students in late Grace Augustine's school, so they should've known that the lying to be rude.

Even Athera turned to look questioningly at Punkun, remembering her son telling her only about the attack on him and his friends by Sully boys and Spider, but never about them attacking Ka'ani's and Saeyla's children. Under his mother's frowning gaze, Punkun nervously lowered his head between of his hunched shoulders.

"You didn't tell us anything about this, Punkun." Athera hissed, as she tightened her grip on his son's shoulders, making Punkun wince a bit. "Is that true?"

Punkun didn't answer to his mother's question immediately, just kept his head low and his averted gaze fixed to the floor or Sullys' Marui's floor.

Eventually, his father spared him from answring to the question... for now at least.

"That cannot be true, Ka'ani!" Tha'non exclaimed in protest, refusing to believe that the fault of the incident lies on his son. "Punkun told us that Sully's sons and that demon child attacked him and his friends when they were going to hunt this morning! And look at what that devil child did to my son! He injured Punkun with the knife!"

Ka'ani glanced at Punkun, seeing his condition but didn't seem to be disturbed by the boy's injured appearance. More likely satisfied. Neither he did pay any attention towards Spider... at least not with suspicion.

"That's true. We haven't done anything." Punkun said, at long last, with meek and sheepish voice, trying to both look and sound like a victim and to back up his father's claim. "They attacked us. And that demon just viciously attacked me with the knife! I was only defending myself." he added pointing accusingly at Sully boys and Spider.

Neteyam, Lo'ak and Spider hissed back in protest and irritation with Punkun, knowing that he was just trying to cover up his own misdeeds.

"That's a lie!" Kai'ani let out in protest. "Punkun and his friends attacked us!"

"And what about that cut in her shoulder?! Did your son do that too?!" Ka'ani questioned angrily. "How is your son going to explain my daughter's injuries, Tha'non?!"

"How do you even know that was my son who did that to your daughter, Ka'ani?!" Tha'non countered. "It could've been that demon boy who hurted your daughter, as he had earlier hurted my son!"

"No! It was Punkun who did it! Not Spider!" Kai'ani said in confirmation. "Punkun cut Kaeyla's shoulder open with his knife! I saw it with my own eyes!"

"And so did we all." Neteyam added calmly.

"So keep denying it all you want, but that's the truth." Lo'ak added defiantly.

"You heard them, Tha'non?!" Ka'ani questioned as he got to Tha'non's face. "At least Jakesully's sons... and, I can't believe I'm saying this, even that human boy... have some sense to discipline your reckless son for his misdeeds unlike you have!"

Like Tha'non, Neytiri and possibly many more in Omatikaya, Ka'ani too wasn't quite fond towards the remaining humans at the Hell's Gate and had the hard time to accept as their people's friends and allies, even after years since the Great War, as he didn't like it how the humans still used their giant machines (bulldozers, excavators, slash cutters and logging excavators) clearing the forest and mess the ground beneath it. And the memories of the war and all the losses Na'vi had suffered ran still deep within their minds.

However, Ka'ani paid a quick glance at Spider's direction after Jake's sons and gave the boy a small nod and a shortly-lasting smile nonetheless. Even if he didn't like the humans in general, this was possibly his way to show Spider some gratitude and appreciation for his role in standing up for his son and daughter against Punkun and his friends.

Spider noticed this and gave a quick nod in response.

"I see that this demon's evil influence has already spread into you and your family too, Ka'ani, if you believe his venomous lies he has already spread around here!" Tha'non snarled angrily at the hunter.

"What about you then? Are you that blind that you see the fault in anyone else but your own skxawng son?" Ka'ani countered.

Punkun looked to be quite anxious and trapped when things didn't seem to be in his favor anymore, that his forehead went instantly wet from the sweat that ran down the sides of his faces (while trying his best to ignore the stinging pain the drops of weat caused when running over or into his wounds), while Ka'ani and Tha'non challenged each other with the narrow-eyed glares, both of them refusing to back down from what they had heard and thought about the incident. Athera and the other boys' mothers and fathers looked at each other, literally torn between the variating stories over the incident, while Neteyam, Lo'ak, Kai'ani and Spider looked at all of this happening before them with an anxious anticipation of the outcome. Even Jake and Neytiri exchanges the looks with each other as they listened everybody's versions over the incident.

"I already said, Ka'ani! I didn't do anything! I swear it!" Punkun protested.

"LIAR!" Kai'ani shouted, walking angrily towards Punkun, pointing an accusing finger at him, until Spider had to restrain him. "LIAR! LIAR! LIAR! LIAR! LIAR! FILTHY LIAR!"

"Calm down." Spider told him as he held the boy back, though Kai'ani didn't calm down.

"YOU'RE A LIAR, PUNKUN! IT WAS YOU! YOU ATTACKED US! YOU BEAT UP MY SISTER AND CUT HER WITH YOUR KNIFE! KEEP HIDING FROM IT AND KEEP DENYING IT ALL YOU WANT, BUT YOU KNOW IT WAS YOU!"

Jake then stepped forward before the things could escalate even worse.

"Alright, now. Calm down, everybody!" Jake demanded with an authoritative voice, making everybody in the presence to turn to him.

"So far, according to everything we've heard today, we have two different versions over the incident." Jake announced as he turned to Tha'non, Athera and other boys parents.

"Tha'non? You, Athera, and the rest of you claim that my sons and Spider attacked your sons for no reason, and that Spider had wounded Punkun severely with the knife. And thus you claim your son's injuries as evidence of the course of events. And yet, my sons, Spider, Kai'ani, and even Ka'ani claim that it was your son and his friends who attacked Kaeyla and Kai'ani for no reason, while my sons and Spider only stood up to defended them, and that Spider never attacked Punkun with the knife." Jake said as he went over everything they have heard so far.

Jake then nodded his head towards Kaeyla and her mother in his Marui while keeping his eyes fixed on the boys' familiies, prompting their parents to take another look at Kaeyla's motionless and heavily bruised body to see his point.

"Well, look over there so that you can see their very clear evidence to prove their own claims of the course of the events: Ka'ani's and Saeyla's daughter and oldest child, Kaeyla, severely bruised and brutally beaten unconscious, along with her shoulder cut open with the knife. And if you all see her, then I must remind all of you that your version about the incident lacks any mention about the attack on Kaeyla and Kai'ani, let alone Punkun deliberately cutting Kaeyla's shoulder with the knife." Jake said. "So tell me: how do you know that your sons are all innocent while my sons and Spider are the real culprits here... even if right in front of you lies a clear demonstration of the potential fact that your own sons may not have told you the whole story or at least the truth about the course of the events?"

Tha'non narrowed his eyes into another glare, aimed at Jake Sully for his conclusion that his son is the one to blame here, while Athera and the other parents seemed to take Jake's words much seriously.

"You didn't answer to me, son!" Athera hissed again as she turned back to Punkun, who tried to desperately cover into himself. "Is this all true?"

"It isn't." Tha'non insisted, still refusing to believe the fault to be in his son. "Even though you are our Olo'eyktam, Jakesully, tell me this: What do you think gives you the right to brand my son so blatantly guilty of all this, if you or anyone standing by your side in this case neither has anything to prove that my son did this to that girl?"

The silence fell over the other boys' parents when the truth behind Tha'non's words about Sullys and Ka'ani's family's lack of evidence to prove their sons as the real culprits to the incident hit them. Upon realizing this, they began almost immediately support Tha'non with this matter, though Athera was the only one left to ponder Jake's quite sensible theorization about the differences of the variating versions about the incident.

Jake neither said a word after Tha'non, as the truth in his words hit him too that just like the opposite side, he, his sons, friends and their family too lacked what they could prove their point about the incident regarding the attack on Kaeyla and her suffered injuries.

"I think he is right, husband." Neytiri told Jake as she turned to her husband, snapping him out of his thoughts. "We neither have nothing to prove against their sons."

Jake gave her mate a silent nod to acknowledge this.

In the background, Punkun let out a soft sigh of relief as he thought he might have a chance to get away with this due to the lack of evidence against him and his friends.

"I don't care if we have nothing to prove anything! Their sons are still to blame for what they did to my daughter!" Ka'ani snarled, finding it outrageous and iniquitous that Punkun and his friends were going to get away with everything what what have done. Neteyam and Lo'ak, equally annoyed by this potential outcome, nodded their heads in agreement.

"Easy, Ka'ani." Jake told his friend and put his right hand over Ka'ani's left shoulder to calm him down and prevent him from doing something he might regret later.

"Well... maybe none of you have. But I have!" Spider then spoke aloud.

Everybody turned to look at the human boy with the puzzled looks on their faces, until Spider pulled from behind his back something that caught their eyes.

It was the hunting knife... Na'vi-made hunting knife, which looked rather over-sized in ten years old human boy's hands.

Knife had 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 the knife had the stain of clotted blood in its curved tip.

Punkun's eyes shot wide open from the shock and horror when he both noticed and recognized the knife!

It was indeed his own!

After the brawl, Punkun had noticed his knife to be missing from its sheath but he had been unable to go back to retrieve it due to Spider, Lo'ak and Neteyam being still in the area after they had driven him and his friends off. He also didn't know where exactly his knife had gone during the fight, but he couldn't believe that it had somehow ended up in Spider's possession.

And now that the opposite side had his knife as an evidence for his misdeeds, including the blood in the blade's tip to prove that he'd cut with it Kaeyla's right shoulder, Punkun knew that he was caught! Trapped! With no excuses to get out of this now!

"Missing something, Punkun?" Spider asked teasingly, as if he had noticed Punkun's reaction almost immediately after revealing his knife.

Neteyam, Lo'ak, Kai'ani, Tha'non and Athera took a closer look at the knife in Spider's hand and immediately recognized its shape and design.

"Hey! I recognize that knife!" Kai'ani let out. "That's what Punkun used to cut my sister's shoulder open! See?! See?! It even still has blood on the blade!"

"And as you can see, there's blood only in the tip of the blade and nowhere else. A clear sign of one-time usage. So let the blood in the knife prove mine, as well as my friends innocence." Spider added as he pointed at the blade's bloodies tip with his finger.

"That explains the wound in my daughter's shoulder." Ka'ani said, hardening his fiery glare at Punkun, who was now standing petrified from horror and anxiousness, waiting for what's coming for him.

To be continued...

NEXT PART: BLOOD IN THE KNIFE, P2.