KAEYLA TE KATHAN SAEYLA'ITE.
PART 6.
EYWA'S JUDGEMENT
Author's note: Like the previous chapter, this chapter was supposed to be part of the chapter, Blood in the Knife, too, until I made this another completely separated chapter with the same plot.
"But there is only one who can judge your son. Only one who is far beyond the reach of human influence, but who has learned to coexist in peace and harmony with their presence. It's Eywa herself!" Mo'at declared, as she pointed her finger up to the sky to make her point clear.
Everybody turned to look where Mo'at's finger was pointing at, before the silence fell over the Sully's Marui once more, when they realized that a huge swarm of Atokirina were gently floating through the air towards the scene.
Everybody, even Spider, just stood there staring at the floating woodsprites with the silent respect.
"Atokirina." Neytiri let out in soft whisper.
Jake stared at the woodsprites with a fond smile as they slowly descended over everyone's heads, remembering all the times he had encountered them - right after when he and Neytiri first met, when they had chosen each others as mates under the Tree of Voices with Eywa's blessing, when hehad asked for Eywa's help in the battle against the Sky People, and when he had his consciousness transferred to his Avatar body years ago - and been himself the closest to the Great Mother herself.
Much to the adults' surprise, save for Mo'at, the majority of the woodsprites seemed to gather around and over the kids: Kaeyla, Kai'ani, Lo'ak, Neteyam, Kiri, Spider and even Punkun, Palree, Baldang, Li'mane and Koward.
Several woodsprites floated into Marui and landed gently onto Kaeyla's body while Saeyla watched this happening from her daughter's side.
Kai'ani, Lo'ak and Neteyam smiled happily as they watched a large number of forest sprites floating in the air around them, with several of them landing gently on their heads, shoulders and arms. The three boys even outstretched their cupped hands towards them to let an individual woodsprits to land on their palms.
Punkun, Palree, Baldang, Li'mane and Koward, however, reacted quite partially neutrally and partially respectively to the presence of the woodsprites that surrounded them.
Seeing their children, Kai'ani, Kaeyla, and even Spider surrounded by a large number of woodsprites made both Jake and Neytiri recall back to the night they first met, when the woodsprites had behaved the same way by gathering around Jake as a sign that Eywa had chosen Jake to lead the Na'vi to victory over the Sky People.
If this was Eywa herself, which was strongly probable, about to solve this situation so that the peace, harmony and the balance could be maintained, everybody were waiting anxiously for the Great Mother's judgement.
Spider held his hands up and cupped them in front of him, as few woodsprites gently landed on his cupped hands, shining brightly, which made Spider to smile. Even if he was a human, his more Na'vi-like heart and his devotion to the Na'vi culture allowed him to feel the slight glimpse of "her" presence, even if it wasn't as strong as it was with the Na'vi. However, when Kiri stood next to him, who seemed to be drawning the woodsprites to her as they floated more densely around her, Spider could feel the Great Mother's presence a little closer and stronger. Spider and Kiri, with the latter having cupped her own hands in front of her to allow the swarm of woodsprites to land on her, exchanged a joy-filled looks with each other.
This, however, drew the attentions from both Neytiri and Tha'non. Neytiri gave both Kiri and Spider a very disapproving look - though she kept it hidden from everybody else - because she wasn't exactly pleased that her daughter, as well as her sons, liked to spend so much time with that human boy. Tha'non, however, looked at Spider covered with the brightly shining woodsprites with open scorn, though he couldn't believe his eyes that even the Great Mother - the most purest presence and influence in the forest and the whole Pandora - seemed to be this accepting towards the boy despite his belief of his "evil and poisonous presence and influence".
Then something happened that caught the attention of all the adults in the presence.
All those woodsprites that had gathered around Kaeyla, Kai'ani, Lo'ak, Neteyam, Kiri, and Spider began to glow with a soft bright light like they always do at night. Even in daylight, their glow was three times brighter compared to their nighttime glow, and in a large group around the children, it was up to six times brighter.
Both children and adults stared at this with keen curiosity and interest.
Until suddenly, the woodsprites' bright light began to dim and quickly turned into just a small faint glow in front of everybody's eyes, much to the confusion of the children and adults. Even Mo'at observed this change with curiosity, wondering what the Great Mother was about to say.
However, after a short while, the Woodsprites' light returned quickly back, even brighter than before.
And that wasn't even all. The woodsprites started to dim down again until the light returned shortly afterwards. And this repeated over and over again, as if following the steady rythm of the heartbeat of the Great Mother herself. And as this kept going, the dimness of the Woodsprites decreased and the brightness rose to almost blinding, as if all the gathered Woodsprites were one and the same light.
However, this was not the same in the case of Punkun, Palree, Baldang, Li'mane and Koward.
Almost immediately, all the light from the woodsprites floating around the five teenager boys began to fade away, leaving not even the slightest glow in them, reducing all of them into nothing more than a withered, dark-gray colored husks without any trace of light or Eywa's force of life. The boys' parents stared at this change with confusion.
To make matters worse for the boys, some of the woodsprites began even to rot beyond healing and even die in everyone's eyes, until some of them even lost their ability to float in the air and began to fall to the Marui's floor like the dead leaves during the fall back in Earth.
Seeing the difference in the woodsprites behavior and knowing what it meant, Mo'at, walked forward to address to everybody in front of her the one simple meaning of this sign.
"Eywa has spoken... Her light shines brightly in favor for the honesty and truth... but fades away and dies in the face of dishonesty and lie." Mo'at informed. "Meaning that in Eywa's eyes, Spider, Kiri, Neteyam, Lo'ak and Kai'ani have all spoken the truth, and that the boy is innocent... while your son isn't, Tha'non, and that applies the other boys too."
"But..." Tha'non tried to say in protest. "But-but-but... it-it can't be! Punkun has never lied to me before! It can't be! That demon boy is the one who has been spreading his venomous lies around here! The Great Mother has made the great mistake here! That demon's presence has poisoned her!"
"How dare you?!" Mo'at exclaimed with the stern frown. The Tsahik was angered by such of insolence towards Eywa. "How dare you question the Great Mother? Have you no shame, Tha'non? Even in the face of Eywa's judgment, you still deny the fault in your son?"
"If I were you, Tha'non, I wouldn't question her or Eywa." Jake said. "And before you say something like "Eywa has sided with Spider against you and your son", know this that Eywa doesn't take sides. She's only to maintain the peace, harmony and balance in life. And if Eywa had intervened in this, as she just did, she would have done it much earlier, because we were not making any progress on our own at all... mainly thanks to you."
Tha'non scowled at Jake, though he said not a word.
"And you also said that you believe your son over everyone else, a Great Mother included, apparently. So why don't you turn your accusing finger away from everyone else but go to ask your son again about the course of the events of the incident? After all, he's supposed to know better what happened." Jake suggested as he gestured his left hand towards Punkun.
Upon hearing of being mentioned by Jake, a nervous Punkun struggled hard to maintain his composure and look as much innocent as possible, even though the dead and dying woodsprites floating and falling around him didn't make his pretense any more believable than his wounds did.
Tha'non, however, made no move towards his son to ask him about the incident. Instead, he held his ground and his scowl fixed on Jake.
"But..." Jake continued, holding up his finger strictly. "Since your son apparently isn't too keen to confess that he has been lying right to your face to cover up his own misdeeds, that means that even after Eywa has made it quite obvious that Punkun and his friends are the real culprits around here, not Spider or my sons, we're gonna be stuck in this whole thing all day without making any progress in this, again."
"I think that it is you, who is not making any progress in here, Jakesully." Tha'non shot back in counter.
"And here we go again!" Jake exclaimed in frustration, though he quickly pulled himself together. "Look, Tha'non. I don't like this any more than you do, but we have to face facts: The rule that forbids humans to bear Sky People weapons in our village, Ka'ani's daughter's injuries indicating the attack of which your son mentioned nothing to you, the cut wound in her shoulder and the blood in your son's knife's tip, my sons' clean knives and their claim of never borrowing them to Spider to use against your son, Koward's blood-stained knife and my daughter's claim of having seen Punkung slashing himself with it and atokirina's behavior here... They all point towards your son."
Tha'non's frown and scowl hardened even more and he clenched his hand into a fist angrily. Jake, however, didn't mind about that.
"So I suggest you ask your son about all this again, or accept the truth right here and right now and stand down, and we are finished here." Jake suggested outright.
"I won't stand down until that demon boy is punished for what he has done." Tha'non snarled.
"And he hasn't done anything, so I have no any reasonable reason to punish him for anything." Jake countered.
"You taking his side over the people you're supposed to lead, Jakesully, makes you more like them than us! A demon-born!" Tha'non spat.
"It took me this long to pick a side because I wanted to hear and see which side had the evidence to support their claims... and this side had them al while you had nothing but your son's made-up version of the incident that wasn't even true." Jake snarled back.
Meanwhile, as he watched Olo'eyktan and his friend's father quarreling, Koward took a notice of the woodsprites in front of him. He watched as they continued to wither, rot and eventually slowly die and fall to Sully's Marui's floor around him and his friends.
Koward started to feel very uncomfortable about this sight, as if the sacred seed dying before his eyes symbolized in his mind that he was losing Eywa's favor. The Great Mother is said to hold all of her children in her heart, but could there be such of exceptions where she will forsake the several Na'vi for them being dishonest and selfish, thus forbid their access to her when their time was up... and that were he and his friends suppose to be one of those exceptions.
Koward then glanced at his friends and Punkun to see their reactions to this and if they matched to his own. Palree, Baldang and Li'mane seemed to be struggling to keep their cool - and they appeared to od it better than what he did - even if they did briefly glance down at the dying woodsprites with slight uncertainity. Punkun, however, remained mostly indifferent towards it as he kept wearing that neutral or unreadable look on his face.
Koward couldn't believe his eyes that his friends would be willing to choose their souls to be doomed to oblivion, wether out of willingness or indifference or just out of fear of the punishment from the Olo'eyktan and their parents, instead of them living forever within Eywa.
That sounded so uncomfortable to him that Koward personally didn't want to experience it.
However, as Koward began to fall into depression and desperation over this thought, he did notice something what the others did.
One of the dying woodsprites began to glow weakly in the steady rythm of the hearbeat. The glow was too small for everybody else except for him to see, because it floated closest of his face.
And as it kept glowing, the withered condition of the woodsprite began to slowly heal by itself in the boy's eyes as Eywa's life force flowed into every part of it. The color of the lifeless gray faded away and was replaced by the living bluish-white colors.
One by one, several more woodsprites began to follow this individual's suit by slowly but certainly healing themselves, regaining their healthy appearances and their living colors. This seemed to affect to the ones lying dying in his feet in the Marui's floor too, as many of them regained their floating ability and slowly rose around of the boy.
Koward was uncertain of what this could possibly mean, that why the woodsprites would all of the sudden began to heal themselves around of him. But when he glanced at his friends, who hadn't yet noticed this change, Koward noticed that unlike the woodsprites around him, their own kept still withering and dying.
However, Koward soon noticed that only two person - three actually - seemed to have taken notice of this as well while the others didn't.
Kiri, Spider (possibly after following Kiri's gaze on him) and Mo'at.
Seeing the Tsahik staring at him with interested and observing look on her face, Koward started to wonder if this was some sort of message from Eywa to him, as if she had sensed his conflicted feelings and uncomfortable thoughts about the consequences of losing the Great Mother's favor and thus access to her when his time was up.
Though the message was still unclear to the uncertain boy, Koward assumedly figured out the meaning of Eywa's message to be something like this.
Do what you know from your heart is the right thing to do.
Koward glanced back at Mo'at, who seemed to be fully aware of the message given to him by the Great Mother, as she slowly nodded her head in encouragement to him.
Koward even noticed by glacing back at Kiri and Spider, that even those two appeared to get Eywa's message - even Spider, despite him being the human, or otherwise he just assumed what Kiri and Mo'at were thinking and chose to follow their suit by encouraging Koward to do the right thing.
Koward turned away from them, not out of spite though, but rather out of the realization of what he must do next, even with the risk of whatever might come to him afterwards. However, the thought, knowledge or assumption that the Great Mother was there for him to encourage him to do the right thing, thus possibly maintaining her favor in him, brought him at least a small amount of comfort.
Koward closed his eyes and let out the deep sigh, before he reluctantly nodded his head in determination, opened his eyes and turned towards quarreling Jake and Tha'non.
"Um... Olo'eyktan?" Koward called with loud voice enough for Jake to hear him.
Jake's ear twitched at hearing Koward's voice calling for him from behind, so he ceased his fighting with Tha'non and turned to face Koward over his left shoulder. Tha'non too ceased the fighting and turned to look at his son's friend with quirked brow.
"Yes?" Jake asked with soft but still stern-toned voice.
"I..." Koward stuttered, trying to muster his courage to tell to awaiting Olo'eyktan that what he had to say. "I... I... I have something to tell you. No... actually to confess something... in behalf of my friends."
"Go on, then." Jake said, turning to face Koward completely and folded his arms, waiting patiently to hear what Koward has to confess.
Punkun, Palree, Baldang and Li'mane were alarmed by their friends words. And when they realized what Koward was about to "confess" to Olo'eyktan and everybody else in presence, they tried to silence him by shooting a warning, fierce and dirty looks at him.
Punkun scowled at Koward with the most threatening and dark scowl he could muster to scare him into silence.
"Don't you dare to say anything against me, Koward, or I promise that you will regret it dearly." Koward snarled threateningly in whisper.
However, Koward ignored his friends dirty looks, though with some effort out of nervousness for what they will do to him afterwards, before he straightened up and fixed his gaze back on Jake and opened his mouth to speak.
"Everything... everything what they have said, that human child, your children, Kai'ani, his father, it's all true. Every single word." Koward began.
Tha'non blinked his eyes in surprise, while Jake nodded his head, not too surprised to hear this as he had already knew that what his children, Spider and his friend's son have said so far were true.
"No it isn't!" Punkun hastily claimed in self-defense. "None of that isn't true!"
"HUSH, SON! Let Koward speak!" Athera hissed with the strong grib on her son's shoulders, making Punkun to wince slightly.
With Punkun silenced, Jake nodded to Koward in affirmitation, allowing him to continue.
"Me and my friends were indeed heading to the forest to hunt this morning, but we never made it there when we saw Kaeyla and Kai'ani heading back towards the village. Punkun... Punkun suggested that we'd pay to them a little "welcome" party, and so we set an ambush for them in the river when they were racing back to the village and took them by surprise. We started to make fun of them, even poked them with our bows for fun, and we did not allowed them to leave, until Kaeyla fought back by attacking Punkun. And so Punkun switched from the teasing into beating her up to teach her a lesson about respecting him in the future and demanded an apology for standing up to him. And when Kaeyla refused, Punkun broke her bow and kept beating her up. And when that didn't work, Punkun took his knife and lightly cut Kaeyla's shoulder with it." Koward explained before taking the short break.
Jake nodded his head while he kept listening, while Ka'ani shot another dirty scowl at Punkun. Athera, while holding her hands over her son's shoulders, listened keenly with the eyes wide and the frown on her face in disbelief of what she was hearing, while Tha'non scowled at the boy with the angry frown.
Koward then continued. "That was then when your sons and that human boy appeared in Kaeyla's and Kai'ani's defense and attacked us with bows only, beating up Punkun, me and the rest of us up, driving us away in defeat. This of course took its toll on Punkun, as he took his defeat in the hands of the children younger than him and especially in the hands of that human boy as a great insult to him and his pride, so he hatched a payback plan to frame the boy as evil and violent demon in the clan's eyes and the threat to the clan. And because he has lost his knife in the fight and did not bothered to go back for it, he forcibly borrowed my own knife and began slashing himself all over with it before making up an story where your sons and the boy had attacked them for not reason, with the human boy mutilating him with the knife into this condition, before ordering the rest of us to tell the same story to our own parents while pretenting to be the victims of the whole incident... Punkun also cleaned up my knife on his own to cover up his tracks."
"Was that all?" Jake questioned after Koward had finished.
"Yes... that was pretty much all, Olo'eyktan." Koward affirmed.
With that, all the self-healing and weakly glowing woodsprites around Koward returned instantly to their fully recovered healthy forms and began to glow even more brightly, covering Koward's with their together gathered light just like they did with Spider, Kiri, Neteyam, Lo'ak and Kai'ani, while the woodsprites around Punkun and other boys remained mostly as same: withered husks with not sign of the life force.
Everybody knew what this meant.
"He's speaking the truth." Mo'at confirmed as she turned to Jake. "Every single word Koward has just said is true. There's no lie in them."
Hearing this, fully convinced by Jake's sons', Kai'ani's, Kiri's, Koward's and even Spider's versions of the incident, and now fully trusting to Mo'at's words of Eywa's judgement, Athera scowled down at her son, deeply disappointed what Punkun had done and how dishonest he has been with them... while Tha'non slightly shook his head in disbelief, even though he wore a rather defeated-looking look on his face instead of defiant one.
The other boys' mothers and fathers casted a disappointed looks down on their own sons for their dishonesty and their participation to Punkun's misdeeds.
Even Koward's own parents looked to be equally disappointed with their son, though their scowls and frowns on their faces were somewhat softer out of the slight well-hidden pride they had in their son for him choosing to be honest before Eywa's presence and tell the truth about the course of events... though they were still displeased with Koward for his own part in Punkun's mess.
Jake nodded in affirmation to Mo'at, before he turned to look back at Koward.
"Thank you, Koward." Jake said, nodding his head to the boy, who humbly bowed his head down to Jake. Jake then turned to look at Spider with the smile on his lips. "You heard that, kid? "You're innocent, alright. You are free to go."
"YES! THE JUSTICE WINS!" Spider let out, so overjoyed of having his name cleared amongst Na'vi that he jumped in the air and punched his fist upwards.
Kiri was so happy and deeply relieved for her human friend that she let a happy laughter out of her mouth as she turned to Spider. The two best friends then wasted no time to quickly pull each other into a hug, clinging to each other like for their very dear lives, never wanting to let go of each other.
Overjoyed of that Spider was proved innocent against the false charges against him, Lo'ak threw his arms up with the wide grin. "YEEEEEE! GROUP HUG!" he suggested joyfully as he, Neteyam and even Kai'ani made their way to Spider and Kiri and wrapped their long arms around Kiri and the human boy.
Spider laughed and squirmed in middle of the group hug. "Hey! Hey, guys! Carefully! If it's not the air that is suffocating me here, then you are!" Spider cried jokingly with the fake strained voice.
Though knowing that Spider was just joking, the Sully children and Kai'ani let go of their friend nonetheless. Neteyam put his hands on Spider's shoulders, congratulating him for being both brave and truthful in front of the false accusations against him while Kiri pressed her hand over Spider's heart and gave him a heartfelt smile, to which Spider responded with one of his own. Lo'ak laughed as he gave Spider a playful noogie on the boy's head. Kai'ani, though he hadn't know Spider more than just the few hours, gave him a friendly and playful punch in the shoulder and deeply thanked him - as well as Neteyam and Lo'ak - for coming to his and his sister's aid and defending them against Punkun and his friends.
Jake and Mo'at, and even Ka'ani, smiled as their children playfully swarmed around of Spider... all except Neytiri, who found herself unable to smile at her children interracting with Spider after he was proven innocent. All she could muster was the deep frown of mid disapproval on her face.
She wasn't the only one, as Punkun glared at Spider, Sully children and Kai'ani angrily, and made no efforts to hide his scowl. However, Punkun soon turned to Koward and fixed a rather sinister scowl at the boy for ratting him out.
Koward was taken aback by such of dark look in Punkun's eyes fixed on him that he fearfully stepped back and away from him. Koward tried to even escape Punkun's glare by turning around so that he didn't need to look at his eyes, but he was met by Palree's, Baldang's and Li'mane's own piercing glares that were fixed on him.
All four of them had suddenly turned on Koward for him telling the truth and thus exposing all of them as a real culprits of the whole incident, making anxious Koward to feel himself not just betrayed by his seemingly ex-friends, but also surrounded/trapped by their piercing glares and suddenly all alone in middle of the friends-turned-enemies.
Jake then turned back to Punkun, Koward and the other boys with the smug grin on his face. However, all the smugness immediately vanished from his face when he saw that Punkun and the other boys had Koward surrounded with their angry scowls, which were all menacingly aimed at him... just because he had the guts to tell the truth.
"Hey, boys! Don't you dare to give Koward those looks!" Jake bellowed after deciding to stand up for Koward, gaining his, Punkun's and the other three boys attentions as they turned to him. "You all knew exactly what you were getting yourself into from the start and then decided to cover up your mischief and blame it on others. And despite his involvement in it, Koward at least had both wits and guts to choose to be honest here, unlike anyone of you four! Especially you, Punkun, as you were the mastermind of this whole mess from the beginning."
All the five boys, even Koward, hung their heads down in shame under the piercing glare Jake was giving to them - though even he was slightly more lenient towards Koward for his honest confession.
"Now, to your punishments." Jake started. "I'd be happy to leave your punishment up to your parents to decide, but I'd like to punish you all myself with something that will surely remind you of this mess you've caused and which you five brought upon yourself."
Hearing this, Athera turned her gaze from Punkun to Jake, looking rather worried about what the Olo'eyktan had in mind for her son and the others. The other mothers were as equally worried as well for what Jake was about to do.
"What are you going to do, Olo'eyktan?" one of the boys' mothers asked in mid worry.
"You're not going to send our boys away?" another mother, who was Baldang's mother, asked as she placed her hands over his son's shoulders.
"Please, be lenient with my son, Olo'Eyktan. He at least told you the truth of the whole incident." Koward's mother pleaded as she knelt next to her son, wrapping her arms around him protectively while looking pleadingly up at Jake.
"Despite what Punkun had done and with our sons being part of it, sure this cannot be as severe as the previous incident long ago, which resulted in the perpetrators being sent into exile. You know that, right, Olo'eyktan?" Koward's father reasoned with Jake, worry in his sturdy voice as well.
Jake knew what the boys' parents were implying, recalling the events that took place about nine years back and two weeks after the Battle of the Hallelujah Mountains and the forced exile of the RDA, the late Tsu'Tey's deceitful parents, Ateyo and Artsut were plotting coup d'etat against him by tricking their remaining son and Tsu'Tey's younger, unexperienced but overall good-hearted brother, Arvok, to challenge him in the First Blood combat over the title of Olo'eyktan, and as a result, Arvok had unknowingly and unintentionally poisoned him with a knife his parents had secretly poisoned. And even though Jake had survived from the ordeal, thanks to Eywa and the antidote Mo'at was able to make from the flower of the sacred place with the retrieval help of the human allies, both Ateyo, Artsut and Arvok, despite not knowing that he was unwittingly part of his parents' plot, were to face the punishment for the attempt on Olo'eyktan's life. However, following Tsu'Tey's spirit's advice while being in coma, Jake had mercifully sentected Ateyo, Artsut and Arvok into exile for their motivation being what they believed to be the best for the people.
However, unlike them, Punkun and his friends were just local bullies with no intention of trying to kill anyone, although Punkun did pick on Ka'ani's children... though out of his own ego rather than for the interest for the best of the clan.
However, while that issue could've been easily settled via talking, Punkun did wound Kaeyla, a fellow member of Omatikaya clan, with his knife on purpose... And along with that, Punkun lied about his actions, feigened his innocence and attempted both frame up and incriminate his sons and Spider for "attack on him without reason" to cover up his own misdeeds couldn't be settled merely by talking.
Jake wanted to teach Punkun and his friends a lesson for their misdeeds.
At first, he lifted up his hand towards the boys and Koward's parents, gesturing them to calm down.
"Calm down." he said, before lowering his hand and turning to Koward's father. "You're right. Their misdeeds weren't that severe that sending them away would be the case... but attacking a fellow clan member like that for the selfish reasons... I can't watch that through of my fingers. Your boys will be punished, all of them. And while you, as their parents, are free to punish them however you wish, there is something with which I want to punish them as a reminder for their misdeeds today."
The people around fell silent, all eyes fixed on Jake as he turned to the boys, who braced themselves for the punishment to come, except Punkun who stood defiantly straight. Everybody were anxious to see what kind of punishment Jake had for the boys. Mo'at had her piercing eyes fixed on Jake too, waiting patiently for what their Olo'eyktan had to say. And whatever it was, she will accept it.
Jake then turned first to Koward. "Koward? You know that you were a part of this whole mess from the beginning, maybe even by your own will rather than being forced being involved to this by the others... right?"
Koward nodded his head humbly. "Yes."
"And yet you chose to tell the truth of what really happened... eventually, after withholding it for some time. Why?" Jake questioned.
"It was because..." Koward stuttered. "Because I was afraid of losing the Great Mother's favor on me after all of this... after she gave her favor to them, your children, Kai'ani and even that human, and apparent to take it away from us... from me. And I... I don't want to be rejected by her when my time comes to go to her."
"Great Mother, boy..." Mo'at spoke. "... does not cast any of her children away, no matter what. She doesn't take sides. She only protects the balance and of life. But while Eywa would overlook such of minor details in her children's characters, it doesn't mean we will."
"That's right." Jake said, keeping his gaze on Koward. "Koward? As your punishment... the next Great Hunt will be skipped from you."
The Great Hunt of talioang takes place every time when the herd moves into the Omatikaya territory, allowing the clan's hunters and huntresses to hunt them for meat, hides, and bones. This event did not happen very often. Mostly once or sometimes even twice a year. Though the Great Hunt is only held for the clan's survival and that the clan will only take what is necessary, the hunters sometimes held the competitions of who can make the first sucessful kill first or who will bring down the highest number of talioang. Such of competitions are usually limited in order not to upset the Great Mother - depending on the size of the herd, which are usually vast, and the clan's necessary need. And after the successful hunt, the clan will hold the Hunting Festival to have fun, dance in colorful animal costumes around the fire, eating meat and drinking kava. The hunters and huntresses who have been successful in bringing down one or couple talioang during the Great Hunt are well honored for being the best hunters and huntresses of the clan during the Festivals.
Palree, Baldang and Li'mane went wide-eyed and gasped with dread upon hearing the punishment Jake revealed having in mind for them.
Even Punkun flinched with worry at the thought of him not being allowed to participate the next Great Hunt, as he himself has been considered as the clan's best hunter for the past three Great Hunts. He even had taken down three-four Talioang with ease in the last Great Hunt, for which the clan had feasted in his honor. Punkun had really taken a great enjoyment of that honor, as he was both complimented by the young hunters and admired by many young huntresses. He had shared the dance with several of the young huntresses, eaten the best meal meant for him and drunk himself asleep.
However, as today proved, Punkun had unfortunately let that honor to go into his head, making him to believe himself to be better than anyone in anything, causing his personal ego to become oversized.
Koward sighed miserably for the punishment Olo'eyktan had chosen for him, but he didn't protest against it. Instead, he humbly nodded to Jake in acceptance of his punishment before lowering his head down in shame, before he was being embraced by his parents.
Simultaneously, Kai'ani, Lo'ak, Neteyam, Kiri and Spider looked at miserable teen boy with the neutral expressions on their faces... though Spider was the only one who actually felt some degree of pity for Koward for this, even though he was part of Punkun's group of bullies and against both him, his friends, Kai'ani and Kaeyla.
Jake then turned to Palree, Baldang and Li'mane, who all braced themselves for the upcoming punishment.
"Boys? Because you three willingly took part in this whole thing and none of you were even remotely willing to tell the truth unlike Koward here…. The three of you will be banned from participating in the next two or even three Great Hunts." Jake declared.
All three boys groaned and whined at not being allowed to participating to the next two or three Great Hunts.
"Oh, no! Two or three skipped Great Hunts?!" Palree moaned, looking miserable with the miserable look on his face.
"Not this! Anything but this!" Baldang groaned, slapping his hands over his eyes in misery.
"Help me out of here, Great Mother!" Li'mane whined, his straight posture literally collapsing together.
And finally, Jake turned towards Punkun, who looked at the Olo'eyktan with the wary look, awaiting anxiously the form of his punishment.
"And Punkun..." Jake said with the sturdy voice as he crossed his arms. "For attacking and deliberately wounding a fellow member of the Omatikaya clan... as well as for lying about the true course of the events and for trying to put the blame on my sons and Spider to cover your own misdeeds... You are hereby banned from participating the next five or six Great Hunts."
Even Athera and Tha'non flinched at the nature of the punishment Jake had given to their son, while Punkun looked at Jake with shocked wide-eyed and slack-jawed expression... unable to believe that his own punishment is doubled compared to his friends and Koward's own.
"Five or six hunts?!" he exclaimed in protest.
"Five of six hunts." Jake confirmed, saying no more after this, thus sealing the punishment.
Jake then turned to his family and friends, as if seeking for their approval for the punishment he had just given to the boys for their misdeeds. While his children, including Kai'ani and Spider, smiled proudly at him, Neytiri, Ka'ani, and Saeyla all gave him looks that told Jake that they weren't objecting his decision even if it was not usual to ban the hunters from participating the Great Hunt to hunt for the clan's survival. Ka'ani even gave Jake a satisfied smile for the punishment he gave to Punkun in particular, while Mo'at's expression remained mostly neutral, though even she nodded her head at Jake in approval of his decision.
"But this isn't fair! They started the whole thing! That demon boy started it!" Punkun kept protesting, putting the blame on everybody else even after he has bee nexposed as the true culprit on many occasions. "Mother! Father! You have to believe me! I haven't done anything! I swear I haven't!" Punkun said, pathetically turning to his parents for support.
"NOT A WORD, SON!" Tha'non snapped sharply, silencing Punkun immediately and making the boy to look at his father with shocked wide-eyed expression on his face.
It was hard to say which affected Tha'non the most: Being proven wrong, or the revelation that Punkun, not Spider or Sully's boys, was the real culprit in the whole mess, thanks to the evidence pointing at his son, Koward's confession and the little help from Eywa.
However, whatever the reason was, Tha'non was in the very foul mood - either from his defeated in the argument or his disappointment in his son for his actions - to even look at his son in the eyes. Without the any word, Tha'non turned around and prepared to leave Sully's Marui and head towards their own Marui.
"Come along, son." Athera said strictly as she turned Punkun towards the branch leading away from Sully's Marui. "Olo'eyktan may have punished you already, but I haven't done with you yet." she added, intenting to punish Punkun herself once they get back home.
However, before they could leave, Spider quickly cleared his throat and whistled at Punkun and his parent's direction.
"Ahem! Punkun?!" Spider called, catching both Athera's, Tha'non's and Punkun's attentions as they turned to look at the human boy.
The defeated look on Punkun's face turned quickly into irritation as he saw Spider heading his way.
"What? What do you want, parasite?" Punkun asked rudely.
Everybody watched as Spider walked from his friends towards Punkun, holding his oversized knife in his hands. Neteyam, Lo'ak, Kiri, Kai'ani, Jake, Mo'at and Ka'ani looked at curiously what Spider had in mind, though Neytiri watched him warily and Punkun's parents with skeptical frowns.
Spider then stopped next to Punkun, before the little human boy and tall adolescent Na'vi locking their eyes for a moment as their glared fiercely/darkly at each other.
There was clear hate in Punkun's eyes while there was a courage in Spider's eyes as he refused to back down under the bully's glare... possibly due to him attempting to frame him for attacking him with the knife which he didn't even do. Spider also seriously considered whether or not he should really even do this, while pondering the old saying "better safe than sorry" and its meaning in Punkun's case.
However, not really wanting to be stuck in this situation any longer than he has to, the boy lifted up his arm holding on Punkun's knife and held the blade's handle towards Punkun.
"I think you forgot something." Spider said, not taking his narrowed eyes off Punkun's while handing him his knife back.
Punkun was slightly taken aback by Spider unceremoniously offering him his knife back, though his expression didn't change much between the fierce glare and baffled look.
Unlike their son, both Athera and even Tha'non were baffled by Spider's otherwise kind though reluctant action.
Punkun, almost unwilling to accept Spider giving peacefully his knife back as if as the sign of truce, was seriously tempted by the strong urge to just knock his own knife out of the boy's hands - as the form of disarming him - before lunging at him to seriously hurt him.
However, he held himself back from doing so with great effort after glancing to his right and seeing Lo'ak, Neteyam, Kiri and Kai'ani giving him a warning glares... Neteyam and Lo'ak even had their hands over their knives' handles as an additional warning that if Punkun tried something, they will be immediately at Spider's side to defend htheir friend from him.
Letting out the sigh, Punkun reluctantly reached out his hand and took his knife from Spider, though he didn't put it back to its sheath.
"Thanks." Punkun said curtly, earning a slight nod from Spider, before he turned away from the boy to leave with his parents.
However, before he could get far...
"And one more thing." Spider said as he quickly reached out his hand and grapped from Punkun's tail and yanked it back, making Punkun to wince and grit his teeth in slight pain in his tail, before he stopped and turned around to glare at Spider for what he did.
Spider, however, glared back at him, making it clear that what he just did wasn't out of being mischievious with Punkun.
No, it was out of the boy's determination to give him his own final warning.
"Consider yourself lucky that Mr. Sully only skipped your chances to the Great Hunt for what you did, Punkun, but that would be the least compared to the humiliating punishment I have for the ones like you. So if I catch you ever again doing something like this to someone else, whether Na'vi or human, then I'll tie you up to the tree outside of the village by your tail with the knot which only I know how to open it... and I won't let you free until you have learned some manners, unless you cut off your own tail to escape before that." Spider declared.
"Yeah! Take that, soon-to-be tailess Punkun!" Lo'ak taunted with the cheer.
"He ain't kidding. He does know some things what we don't." Kiri added, smirking proudly at Spider.
"Really? Then go ahead! Tie up that skxawng to the tree by his tail NOW!" Kai'ani encouraged, still quite pissed off for what Punkun did to his big sister.
"Easy there." Neteyam said, calming Kai'ani down, before he turned back to Spider and Punkun with his arms folded and wearing neutral expression on his face.
"And if it is up to me, I'd demonstrate myself by tying your tail into one such of knot right here and right now. But now I'll let you go with this warning. So don't test your luck in the future." Spider warned before he let go of Punkun's tail right at the moment when the latter was about to yank his tail back from Spider's hands.
"See ya, penis-face." Spider added with the mocking salute, before he turned his back to Punkun and walked back to his friends.
Punkun glared after Spider as Neteyam, Lo'ak, Kiri and Kai'ani welcomed him back with open arms withs laughs and "wows" towards his used language, while his mother resumed of leading him away from Sully's marui.
Punkun turned around and was about to put his knife back into his sheath and head back home with his parents to face his next punishment. However, he quickly held himself back from doing so when his eyes caught the blood in its tip. The time appeared to stop - or at least slow down its pace - around him as Punkun lifted his knife up in front of him and kept his gaze fixed on the bloody blade, which caused him to recall the recent past events in his mind.
Him and his gang ambushing and attacking Kaeyla and Kai'ani outside of the village, with him cutting Kaeyla's right shoulder open with his knife as a retaliation for her attacking him and for her defiant attitude against him.
Him getting ambushed by Spider, who dropped down from the tree next to him and starting to fiercely whack him with his tiny bow.
The fight with Spider and Sully boys, which he and his gang lost miserably.
Him and his friends hiding to the corner of the village, where he, out of fury for his humiliation defeat in the hands of the children and human boy, plotted his revenge against them.
Him cutting himself with the knife from all over, then coming up with the fake story to explain his injured state, as well as to cover up his own actions.
Him presenting his fresh wounds to his parents and claiming that it was Spider who did this to him without the reason while playing a victim, thus convincing his parents and his other friends' parents to confront the Sully family over the incident.
The heated argument between his father and Jakesully over Spider's innocense and his misdeeds and vice versa, as well as the humans' general presence in their village.
Spider presenting his bloodied knife and Kaeyla's battered body, something he hadn't expected, to everyone as the partial evidence of the course of the events.
Jakesully's daughter claiming having witnessed him cutting himself with the knife as part of his conspiracy against Spider as a revenge for his defeat in his hands.
Jakesully exposing his ruse by finding Koward's bloodied knife, the one knife he had used to cut himself, to prove his daughter's claims to be correct, as well as further proving Spider's innocense of pointing out the rule of their human allies not being allowed to enter the village armed with Sky People's weapons and discovering his sons' knives clear, thus eliminating any accusations of Spider using their knives against him.
The flock of atokirina, and Eywa herself, descending down on all of them, and shining her light in favor for truthful people (Spider, Lo'ak, Neteyam, Kiri and Kai'ani) while making the woodsprites to die in his and his friends presence for their dishonesty.
And then Koward telling the truth of the whole incident, resulting him and his friends being banned from the following next Great Hunts.
Koward.
Punkun's face formed into an uncontrolable rage as he turned his head to his left and fixed his dark scowl at Koward, obviously blaming him of being disgraced in front of his parents and getting him banned from the Great Hunts as punishment by telling the truth, even though he had strictly ordered him and his other friends to tell their parents and everyone else only the particular story he had made up to cover up their wrongdoing and avoid punishment by placing the blame on others instead of them.
His eyes were ablaze as he stared at the knife in his hand, which was shaking with rage.
And as Punkun's rage over his situation increased, he clutched his hand around his knife's handle so tight that his hand - as well as his face - turned into dark blue/purplish color and the handle of his knife partially snapped in half under his squeezing hold.
And then, something happened all of the sudden, that no one present couldn't have expected or anticipated.
And then, all of the sudden, something happened that no one present could have expected, which caught everybody by surprise.
Punkun snapped!
To be continued...
NEXT PART: KNIFE ON THE THROAT, PART 1.