Kaeyla te Kathan Saeyla'ite

by Fanficteller

Kaeyla, a young huntress of Omatikaya clan, lives a happy and peaceful life in the forest of Pandora. But one day in the year 2169, an old enemy, Sky People, returns after their 14-year exile, more powerful than ever and launches a full-scale invasion on the moon. Kaeyla and her loved ones are forced to fight for their lives against the aliens while facing challenges and tragedies.

7. Knife on the Throat, Part 1

KAEYLA TE KATHAN SAEYLA'ITE.

PART 7.

KNIFE ON THE THROAT, PART 1.

"KOWARD!" Punkun cried as he snapped, before he violently broke free from his surprised mother's grasp and, letting out an angry cry, charged towards Koward... his eyes narrowed, teeth bared into furious snarl and his grapping hands reached out towards Koward

Koward let out the frightened cry when he saw Punkun charging towards him. But before he could've react, Punkun was already upon him and roughly tackled him on his back to the floor of the Sully's Marui.

Everybody around were surprised by this shocking and unexpected act, especially Punkun's parents.

"PUNKUN! NO!" Athera cried after her son.

"SON?! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Tha'non exclaimed, confused of his son's behavior.

Neytiri, Ka'ani and the other parents moved quickly to shield their sons from this, while Spider moved Kiri behind his back in order to shield her from this, despite the size error.

As he had Koward pinned down to the Marui's floor, Punkun angrily shouted at the downed boy's face of what they had agreed in secret after the fight and before all of this.

"YOU'RE A TREACHEROUS WEAKLING, KOWARD! WE HAD AGREED THAT NO ONE SHALL TO KNOW! NONE OF US WASN'T SUPPOSED TO TELL! NO ONE WAS SUPPOSED TO KNOW THAT IT WAS I WHO ATTACKED THOSE BRATS! WE HAD AGREED ON THAT! I TRUSTED YOU, AND YOU BETRAYED ME! YOU SOLD ME OUT! I'LL CUT YOUR TREACHEROUS TONGUE OUT!"

Punkun then grabbed roughly from Koward's jaw and forcibly pried his mouth open, before the deranged teenager lifted up his knife over Koward's head to do something horrible to him, almost not caring about the bystanders around him. Koward's eyes went wide from horror as he looked up at Punkun's knife that was pointed down on him.

"NO!" Koward gasped, scared for his life.

However, before Punkun could've done what he was planning to do to poor Koward...

Spider sprinted to the scene!

While he had earlier taken part of Punkun's ambush and bullying on Kaeyla and Kai'ani, which led him getting his tailed ass beaten up by Spider along with Punkun and the rest of the Na'vi teens after he and Sully boys had came to even the odds, but Koward's eventual honesty, humbleness and sincerity had impressed Spider greatly after he had given in to either his guilt over the incident, or maybe just his fear of being rejected by Eywa for supporting Punkun's lies, thus leading him to tell everybody the truth of the whole course of events, and thus proving Spider's innocence of Punkun's staged attack on him.

And so, with the feeling that whatever Punkun was about to do to Koward, he did not deserve it for just being truthful, Spider had pushed Kiri back before he had rushed towards Punkun to somehow prevent him from harming Koward.

"SPIDER!" Kiri cried after him, fearing for his safety.

Jake, who was just about to step into to prevent Punkun from hurting Koward, spotted Spider sprinting into action in the corner of his right eye.

"SPIDER, STOP!" Jake shouted and tried to reach out to the boy to prevent him from getting himself involved, but Spider shook his hand off and kept going.

Not caring about if Punkun was way bigger and possibly stronger than him, Spider quickly wrapped his left arm around of Punkun's neck and grabbed with his right hand from Punkun's right wrist, holding him from whatever he had planned to do to Koward with his knife.

Spider then displayed an impressive level of strength in him, for the human and even someone in his age, by bodily pulling Punkun backwards and off Koward, though him catching Punkun off guard and him being ill-prepared to Spider's interfering may have played the major part in it.

"PUNKUN! GET OFF OF HIM!" Spider demanded as he kept holding Punkun back from Koward.

"OFF ME, YOU VILE ABOMINATION!" Punkun hissed, before he ripped his right arm off from Spider's grip and then grabbed from his arm with his left hand and forcibly pried it off from his neck. Punkun then turned to Spider and violently pushed the boy away from him... before he shockingly to everyone swung his knife at him in an attempt to gut him!

However, Spider bowed his head down and somersaulted under of Punkun's swing, landing on his feet before the teen boy's back. And at the same time, angered for having missed his target, Punkun turned around and hissed aggressively at the human boy, before he advanced towards him quickly.

In outside of the ring, Neteyam tried to move forward for Spider's defense and aid, though Jake held his elder son back, not wanting him to get involved into this.

Lo'ak, however, fearing for his friend now that his back was turned to Punkun while Punkun was advancing towards him with his knife held up, took the matters into his own hands and quickly removed his own bow from his back, since Spider had left his own bow next to Kaeyla and Lo'ak felt that he had no time to go back to fetch it now.

"SPIDER!" Lo'ak called, getting Spider's attention, before he tossed his bow at the boy. "CATCH!"

Spider quickly caught Lo'ak's bow, even though in his hands it was like the small spear rather than bow due to its bigger size compared to his own, and then turned towards Punkun, swinging the bow at Punkun's left leg and knocked it from under him, catching Punkun by surprise and causing him to fall onto his knee right in front of Spider.

Punkun then looked up at Spider, growling through of his gritted teeth at the boy, before he was met with another whack that landed across his face, as Spider had swung Lo'ak's borrowed bow to behind his back before he had pulled it back towards Punkun.

The impact sent Punkun flying with the flip over his stomach, leaving him lying there, momentarily stunned from the blow across his face.

"EY-EY-EY-EY-EY-EY-EY-EEEYYY! Yeah, Spider!" Lo'ak whooped in Spider's favor.

"Oooooh! That gotta hurt!" Kai'ani cringed, enjoying of Punkun getting his ass kicked by Spider.

Glaring down at downed Punkun, Spider held Lo'ak's bow up and ready for another round, while shielding still downed Koward, who looked up at the human boy with awe and disbelief for his willingness to stand up for him despite what had happened between them earlier.

Punkun got up and glared at Spider, the hatred in his eyes never wavering, as he held his knife up.

Glaring down at downed Punkun, Spider held his ground while shielding still downed Koward, who looked up at the human boy with awe for his willingness to stand up for him despite what happened earlier.

However, Jake quickly sprinted to between of the boys, hoping to stop this fight before it could escalate.

"PUNKUN! SPIDER! STOP THIS AT ONCE!" he ordered, holding his hands on both boys' chests, trying to keep them away from each other. "STAND DOWN! BOTH OF YOU!"

Both Spider and Punkun turned their eyes from each other to Jake, as he alternately stared at both of them with a stern look on his face

"Shame on both of you! Not only this is stupid but sheer madness! Now attack each other, and especially your own, like this just because of one trivial matter that should have been settled down and left behind by now!" Jake reprimanded both boys.

However, most of his stern glare was aimed at Punkun, as Jake knew that it was Punkun who started this whole fight out of sheer frustration - and driven by his own wounded pride and oversized ego - while Spider only got caught into it by coming to Koward's defense. However, by giving Spider too some stern glared, Jake hoped that he could get the boy to stand down in order to save him from giving any further negative view of himself in front of everybody.

Out of two of them, Spider got Jake's message behind of his stern face rather quickly, before the boy stood down and tossed Lo'ak's bow aside.

"You better listen to him, Punkun! Stop this madness if you still want to save your face and tail." Spider suggested, fishing to stop this unnecessary fight, as they have already fought enough for one day. "It's no good to turn against your own!"

However, Punkun showed no signs of standing down as being ordered. Instead, he kept his from hatred burning yellow eyes locked in Spider, with his knife-holding hand shaking from impatient waiting, until he suddenly swapped Jake's hand off his chest and pushed him out of his way.

"Very well, then I'll turn on you instead, insect!" Punkun growled, before he charged towards Spider.

Punkun tried to grab on Spider and then plunge his knife down on his neck or chest, but Spider grabbed from both of his wrists and held him back with great effort, preventing him from both grabbing him and harming him with his knife.

Spider managed to hold his ground and hold bigger and obviously stronger Na'vi teen back for impressively long, before Punkun lifted his arms high up, and lifted Spider in the air with them, before he tackled the human boy and pinned him down to Sullys' Marui's floor.

"SPIDER!" Kiri yelped in horror and worry before rushing forward, despite Neytiri's vain efforts to reach out to her and pull her back in order to prevent her daughter from getting involved into the fight. She was quickly followed by Lo'ak, and even Kai'ani, though Neteyam was quickly held back by both Jake and Neytiri.

With both hands, Punkun tried to thrust his knife down at Spider's throat, but Spider caught him by both of his wrists with his both hands and held the Na'vi teen's knife back, gritting his teeth due to strained effort as he put all his strength into it.

Puffing and grunting through of his gritted teeth from uncontrolled rage and great effort, Punkun pressed his knife harder downwards towards Spider by leaning over it and using his own weight to overwhelm Spider's effort to hold him back

Slowly but certainly, Spider's strength began to waver under Punkun's weight and pressure, as his knife's tip approached inch by inch closer of the left side of Spider's throat.

Spider tried to lean his head away from Punkun's approaching knife, but it was no use, and the knife just kept getting closer that it almost touched his skin.

However, before the knife could even touch Spider's skin Kiri literally threw herself onto Punkun's back and started to panickedly pull the adolescent Na'vi off her friend, with Lo'ak wrapping his both arms around of Punkun's left arm to pull both Na'vi teen and his knife away from Spider, while Kai'ani picked Lo'ak's disgarded bow and began banging with it Punkun's head over and over again.

"LEAVE HIM ALONE!" Kiri demanded as she kept pulling.

"SPIDER! GO!" Lo'ak yelled.

"OFF ME!" Punkun roared and swatted Sully kids off him, even backhanding Kiri across the left side of her face, and making her and Lo'ak to fly over their backs to Marui's floor, while ignoring Kai'ani completely.

However, this distraction had allowed Spider to crawl slightly away from under Punkun... but the sight of the adolescent Na'vi backhanding his best friend filled the boy with rage.

And so, when Punkun turned back to Spider, the boy lifted up his foot and kicked the crazed Na'vi in the face, knocking it back.

As Punkun turned back to Spider, his nose was completely covered in blood due to the kick.

The adolescent Na'vi hissed savagely at the boy before he advanced towards him again.

"You filthy insect! I'll tear that mask off your face!" Punkun swore and reached out at Spider's mask to rip it off from the boy's face, intenting to let the boy to suffocate to Pandora's air and suffer the slow and painful death.

Suddenly...

"No you won't!" Koward's voice immediately shouted as the boy unexpectedly to both Spider and Punkun lunged at latter from his right and grabbed from his outstretched arm, preventing him from bringing any harm on Spider.

What surprised Punkun even further was that not just Koward, but Palree, Baldang and Li'mane too moved behind their crazed friend and grabbed on him by his shoulders and arms, before they began all together to pull him back - while Koward and Palree pushed him back by his chest - and away from Spider, who was in turn amazed that those former bullies were now standing up to Punkun for him.

You'd think that all four of them, Koward in particular, were left shocked by Punkun's sudden outburst and his attack on him and then Spider in blind rage. They had all felt pretty much equally uncomfortable and even disturbed when Punkun had earlier deliberately started threatening and even cutting Kaeyla with his knife, though they hadn't had the guts to protest his actions or stop him from doing so at the time... until now.

Upon witnessing Koward going in to prevent Punkun from harming Spider, Palree, Baldang and Li'mane had finally come to realize that their longtime friend was out of control and going too far, so they had decided to join Koward in his effort to protect Spider and to restrain Punkun, despite their earlier scuffle with the human boy and Sully kids.

"TRAITORS! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" Punkun snapped, snarled and hissed at his obviously former friends as he struggled against their hold on him, before the foursome finally pushed him back and stood as a protective shield between of the human boy and their former leader.

Punkun glared at all of them and was about to charge at all of them with his knife, until...

"THAT'S ENOUGH, GODDAMNIT!" Jake's voice thundered as he grabbed from Punkun's knife-wielding hand and took forcibly the knife from Punkun's hand, before he threw it aside and then knocked crazed Na'vi teen over to his Marui's floor, though he tried not to use too much force on the boy due to him being still a teenager.

Punkun looked up at Jake and hissed in aggressive protest as if to challenge him, but Jake hissed back at the crazed teenager to demonstrate his authority over him as Olo'eyktan, daring him to stand up and forward if he was in fact challenging him.

Both Punkun's crazed and Jake's strict eyes were locked with each other to fight for the domination, while everybody else watched this in silent anticipation.

Neytiri and Mo'at watched this calmly and with patient expressions on their faces, almost already anticipating how this was going to end.

After all, this is not the first time when someone from their clan, although usually an adult and prominent member of the clan, but sometimes even an ordinary member, has risen to challenge Jake for his position as Olo'eyktan. Their reasons for the challenges were usually the same: their unhappiness of being led by the one who used to be once the Skyperson, and that the body he now permanently possessed was both unreal and unnatural, even if Jake possessed both titles of Olo'eyktan and before everything, the title of Toruk Makto.

So far, Jake had managed to maintain his position as Olo'eyktan via various methods. He initially has tried to disuase the issues via diplomacy, which he had learned to use more during of his time as Olo'eyktan, while using also an eye-contact (with the help of his marine's mentality) to show authority and to subdue the challengers without the fight. Only few times he had ended up accepting the challenge in the form of physical fight when diplomacy and eye-contact weren't enough, and using his marine close-combat skills to overcome even the clan's most toughest warriors, he has emerged as victorious.

Neteyam looked up at his father with great admiration, hoping to be just like him when he grows up: a great and indomitable mighty warrior.

Kiri had immediately rushed to Spider's side once he had been freed from Punkun, along with Lo'ak and Kai'ani. As they watched Jake's and Punkun's fight for dominance via eye-contact, Kiri and Lo'ak held protectively from each other while Lo'ak stood protectively in front of his sister and brother-like friend, while Kai'ani watched with hopeful look on his face that their Olo'eyktan shows that skxawng his rightful place.

Ka'ani glared at downed Punkun, with his eyes piercing like arrows and cold from anger he felt towards that boy for what he did to his children. As one of Jake Sully's most trusted Na'vi supporters, he had faith that Jake would dominate over this little skxawng.

Saeyla only glanced occasionally what was happening from inside of Sullys' Marui while taking care of Kaeyla.

Koward, Palree, Baldang and Li'mane watched with uneasy tension while their parents watched this over their sons' heads.

Athera, still in speechless shock of her son's actions, held her hands in front of her mouth as she watched this, while going over what had just happened and what was happening in her head over and over again.

Tha'non had rather neutral look on his face, though they were hardened as hard as rock from disappointment he had for his teenager son, who had foolishly disgraced himself in front of his parents and Olo'eyktan out of his stubborness, dishonesty, pride and rage.

However, Jake's sharp and piercing gaze, which was empowered by his marine mentality and his firm sense of authority started to turn this confrontation to Jake's favor, as Punkun's mental strength began to waver and he started to struggle to hold his gaze up without blinking his eyes.

Eventually, Jake's gaze proved to be too much for Punkun and, lowering his ears against the sides of his head and closing his eyes, he turned away from the Olo'eyktan and lowered his head down in defeat.

And furthermore, when Punkun had calmed down and come to his senses, he refused to look at his parents, his former friends and their parents, Sully family and everyone else present, for the bitter realization dawned on him that by his actions he had disgraced himself in front of everyone... and he couldn't bear the looks on everybody's faces.

Jake then crouched down next to Punkun and grabbed him roughly by the arm, before heaving him up to his feet. Punkun kept his gaze down and offered no resistance as Jake walked him to his parents and almost shoved him into Athera's and Tha'non's arms.

The two parents took their disgraced son into their arms - though not-so-warm-and-we-coming manner - before they looked silently up at Jake, whose faces were still hardened with the seethed rage. The worry crept on their faces when they noticed Jake's blazing eyes that were fixed on their son, as if he was trying to come up with the proper punishment for the boy for his actions.

Despite Punkun's actions, Athera clunged almost protectively to her son, and even Tha'non dared to partially step in between his son and Jake to shield his son from Olo'eyktan's wrath, but only partially, as he silently acknowledged his son's wrongdoings and that he deserved to be punished for them... but from his heart, he clinged on the faint hope that the punishment wouldn't be too harsh.

However, Jake quickly turned his head to his left and gazed upon Spider, protectively surrounded by his children and Kai'ani. Then Koward and his friends, as they nervously clutched to their arms when the Olo'eyktan's eyes landed on them. And then finally to Kaeyla, who was still lying in his Marui under the care of her mother Saeyla.

Taking a deep breath to calm himself, Jake then turned back to Tha'non, Athera and Punkun.

"We'll talk about this later. Now get your son out of my Marui!" Jake insisted with harsh tone, waving his hand towards the branch that led to his Marui.

Tha'non nodded his head silently, before he grabbed from Punkun's left arm - with Athera clunging to her son's right arm - and began to lead him out of Sully's Marui and towards their own in other side of the village. And as they stepped off the Marui's hammock floor and onto the branch, Jake turned to the other four boys and their parents.

"Return to your Maruis. All of you! We are finished here."

Immediately obeying their Olo'eyktan, the parents grabbed from Palree, Baldang and Li'mane's shoulders and began to lead them out of Sullys' Marui. Each boy held their heads down in some degree of shame over their actions while resigning themselves to their upcoming punishments by their parents.

However, before he was led away by his own parents, Koward turned towards Spider and placed his large hand over the boy's shoulder, catching his, as well as Kiri's, Lo'ak's and Kai'ani's attentions. Wary of him, Both Lo'ak and Kai'ani fixed their piercing eyes on him and slightly bared their canines as a warning, with their ears lowered against the sides of their heads and their tails swinging agitated from side to another.

However, Kowards ignored the two boys, as his own yellow eyes were fixed on Spider's own.

Koward then offered him a small yet grateful smile for what he did for him, even though he had no absolutely no reason to do that in the first place.

"Thank you." was all he said, before his own parents grabbed from his shoulders and left him away.

"Likewise." Spider said, grateful for Koward for stepping in to stand up for him against Punkun.

As the boys and their parents were gone, Jake turned back to his family and friends, before fixing his eyes with Mo'at's.

"Please, resume with your duty, Mo'at." Jake said calmly.

Mo'at nodded her head, before she turned to walk inside her family's Marui and knelt beside Kaeyla's still unconscious form. Mo'at put her basket of medical equipment down next to her and began to pick up the equipment she needed to tend to the injured girl, while Neteyam, Lo'ak, Ka'ani and Kai'ani knelt around of Kaeyla to watch their Tsahik at work.

Jake then walked towards Spider, who was still standing in the corner of their Marui with Kiri, still clinging to each other. Jake then knelt in front of them both, but when he opened his mouth, he first turned to look at Kiri before nodding his head towards the Marui and the crowd inside.

"You better go to assist your grandmother, Kiri?" he said gently. "I want to speak with Spider for a moment."

Kiri immediately shook her head in protest, wanting to stay with Spider. "No, dad! I want to stay with Spider."

"I know." Jake said. "But I need to talk with him two alone. And besides, your impressive knowledge about the medical skills are more needed in there to tend that girl."

"But dad...!" Kiri tried to protest.

However, Neytiri's voice then spoke next.

"Kiri? Do as your father says." she called, gesturing with her right hand for Kiri to come while cuddling the baby Tuk in her arms.

Both Kiri, Spider and Jake turned to look at Neytiri. Both Kiri and Spider gave the small frown as if seeing through of Neytiri's facade and realizing the reason why she sided with Jake about asking Kiri to attend to helping Mo'at to tend Kaeyla.

Which wasn't the first time, though.

Kiri gave her father a side-eyed glance, before Jake turned back to his oldest daughter and wordlessly gestured her to go with the reassuring smile.

Though reluctantly, Kiri finally gave in and nodded to her father, But before she left, she turned around and leaned her head down towards Spider, until their faces were in the same level of height. Both good friends smiles dearingly to each other.

"I'll see you again, Monkey-boy." Kiri said with the endearing smile, gently caressing Spider's cheek with the tips of her fingers - only if she could have due to Spider's cracked mask that covered his face from the Pandora's to humans toxic air.

"Sooner than you think." Spider added with the wink as he rested his right hand over Kiri's outstretched arm.

Kiri chuckled at her friend, before she turned around to leave, though mischieviously grinning Spider quickly pulled the harmless prank on her by gently yanking from her tail.

"Oh!" Kiri let out surprised yelp, before she turned around and hissed at Spider in playful retaliation. And with the wide grin, Spider hissed back, lifting his hands with hooked fingers up as if trying to look bigger and scarier.

With the laugh at her friends antics, Kiri resumed to making her way pass her mother and towards her grandmother. Neytiri smiled lovingly down at Kiri, while placing her hand on her shoulder and gently nudged her forward.

However, as soon as Kiri had walked past her, Neytiri lifted her gaze up and fixed her eyes on Spider. Her eyes narrowed into territorial and coldly indifferent look the longer she stared at the boy. Noticing this, Spider simply gave her in return rather annoyed frown and brief shrug with his hands in "What gives?" manner.

Ignoring this, Neytiri turned to walk after her daughter and in her Marui, leaving Jake outside with Spider.

Feeling rejected, again, Spider let out a deep sight in disappointment and disbelief.

"When Mrs. Sully's going to come around?" he asked particularly from nobody, even if Jake was kneeling right next to him.

Jake, feeling sorry for Spider for the treatment his mate is giving to him, placed a comforting hand over Spider's shoulder.

"Don't mind about her, kid." Jake said, before he turned to look at Spider.

"So, you okay, kid? I bet that Punkun's blind attack on you must've come as a quite shock." Jake said, regarding Spider's recent fight with Punkun in defense of Koward.

"Well, not as much of the shock like being attacked by Nantang, Mr. Sully." Spider said with confidence, though secretly hiding the fact that Punkun's murderous attack on him did in fact left him a little shaken behind the confident facade of his own.

Jake chuckled at this, until his voice and face turned serious.

"You know, Spider..." Jake started, pointing with his finger at Spider's cracked mask he was still wearing. "If I were you, I'd go back to replace that with another one."

Spider tilted his head a little to the right, with his eyebrow raised slightly up in confusion of Jake's words, until he quickly remembered his cracked mask.

"Oh, this!" Spider said when it dawned to him what Jake had meant. However, the boy scoffed at the thought. "Nah! It's just slightly cracked but not broken. I can handle that."

However, Jake gave Spider a narrow and hard look to shut him up, because he was having none of that from him...especially if the cracked mask would put the boy's life in jeopardy on his watch. And above of all, it wouldn't suit well to certain McCosker.

Jake felt it in his guts that there was a heated confrontation coming from Nash McCosker the moment he finds out what had happened to Spider, to his mask, and after he had found out about the incident Spider had gotten involved while being here.

"No dice, Spider." Jake said strictly. "I will not wait until some other incident that will most likely cost you your life, until you go to fetch a new mask for yourself."

Jake then softened his expression, before he rested his both hands over Spider's shoulders in fatherly manner.

"And maybe to get some rest. This has been quite long and hard day for all of us." Jake added gently. "And I guess it will get even worse if Nash wants to directly confront me for your current shape."

Spider rolled his eyes. "The moment he sees me like this, he will definitely ban me from ever going even outside again!"

Spider then leaned closer to Jake to whisper something to him, covering his mouth with his right palm. "That old sourpuss just doesn't like you, guys. And he's making my life out there a living hell due to his ceaseless interest and blabbling about the Sky People stuff he's trying to force into my head against my will."

Jake grinned widely at Spider's words, even though the boy had just expressed his negative feelings about the fact that he was being adopted into family who shows nothing but contempt towards Na'vi's culture and preferring more of the human culture.

"C'mon, kid. It's not nice to talk a bad things behind the loved ones back. After all, McCoskers are your family, and you need them." Jake said, stroking fatherly Spider's head.

Spider gave him a frown for his words. "But I don't even feel like I belong to McCosker family at all despite the adoption. I feel like trapped there, with them and their own boring interests which I don't care. But here, out here I can feel myself like at home and free than in the Hell's Gate. And Neteyam, Lo'ak and Kiri are more like a true family to me than McCoskers can ever be."

Jake sighed at Spider's headstrong attitude and his slight contempt towards his life with McCoskers, his only true albeit foster family ever since they adopted him as a baby after he lost his parents in the Great Battle. The family Spider found not being happy with, mostly because he was unable to form any kind of connection with any member of McCosker family - unlike what he did with his kids, especially with Kiri and Lo'ak - due to their differing views over things and devotions to them.

Jake couldn't help but feel great deal of sympathy for Spider for him trying his hardest to find his true place and the true family on his own instead of trying to live such of family life the others had arranged for him.

However, Jake also couldn't help but smile proudly at the boy's sincere words about his feelings of feeling more like at home in the forest instead of Hell's Gate, and that he innocently considered his and Neytiri's children, his best friends and almost like brother- and sister-figures, as his true family rather than McCoskers.

He also found Spider's endless interest and his steadfast devotion to Na'vi's ways of life and culture, which had led to the point where the boy even considered himself as a Na'vi and wanted so badly to be one that he dressed up like them and began to move like them, behave like them and even speak Na'vi fluently, very admirable.

It greatly reflected to his own time with the people when he first came to Omatikaya Clan as a "warrior of the Jarhead Clan" and began to learning their ways, their culture and their language to the point of eventually becoming one of them, part of the People, and thus firmly loyal and devoted to their cause.

And so, from Jake proudly acknowledged the fact that despite him being human and his origins, and despite both Nash's and his mate's efforts to keep him with his own kind, Spider was truly Na'vi at heart...

While trying his hardest to not just fulfill the high, demanding and even challenging expectations on him to be true Na'vi, but also trying to just fit in, as there were still some who highly doubted him just because of him being human, his mate being sadly one of those skeptical onlookers.

However, right now, Jake just wanted Spider to go back to Hell's Gate to get a new mask and get some rest after everything that's happened today.

"Well, you're technically right, Spider. Regardless of how things are, and no matter if you're human or Na'vi, this planet, Pandora, is your home as well as ours. This forest is where you truly belong. Always remember this, and never doubt it that it isn't." Jake said reassuringly.

Spider looked up at Jake and smiled at him, grateful for his words.

However, his smile switched immediately into one of the frown when Jake spoke his next words.

"But gaining both a home and freedom here comes at a high price for all the unwary people who have a little care for their own safety and lives. And I'm certain that it won't suit well for Kiri in particular if it turns out to be you who ends up paying that price." Jake said. "So I highly advice you to go back to the Hell's Gate to fetch a new mask... and to get some rest for the rest of the day."

Spider rolled his eyes and shook his head at Jake.

"Oh, come on, Mr. Sully." Spider whined, but was immediately shutted by Jake.

"No buts, young man. Remember, that I am Olo'eyktan here and I have all the authority. So if you really are as devoted to the ways of the people as you portray yourself to be, you'd obey the Olo'eyktan without the question." Jake said, mixting his authoritative attitude and voice with some defree of gentlessness.

Spider, hoping to still convince Jake to allow him to stay, glanced towards Kaeyla's still form as she was tended to by Mo'at and Kiri while being surrounded by Sully family and her own family inside Sullys' Marui.

"What about her? Ka'ani's daughter?" Spider questioned, nodding his head towards Kaeyla. "I'd like to know if she's going to be okay."

"She is in the good hands with Mo'at and Kiri. They'll be taking good care for her..." Jake reassured. "And you too should be taking care of yourself by changing your broken mask, so you don't have to inhale Pandora's air and suffocate on it. You can then come back later to see how she is doing as soon as you have rested overnight."

Jake then put his hand against Spider's back and gently nudged him towards the tree branch leading down to the jungle floor.

"No off you go, kid." Jake said.

Spider turned around and casted at Jake rather annoyed narrowed glare, but upon realizing of being unable to otherwise sway Jake into letting him stay to witness Mo'at tending to Kaeyla and see her recovering just because of his cracked mask, Spider reluctantly gave in.

"Yes, sir." Spider said, before he turned to say quick goodbyes to his friends.

"See ya later, guys!" he called to Neteyam, Kiri and Lo'ak.

"Bye, Spider!" Neteyam and Lo'ak said in unison, giving their departing friend quick waves of goodbyes with their hands, before they turned back to watching their grandmother tending to Kaeyla.

However, Spider didn't see Kiri nor heard her saying her goodbyes to, as she was kneeling beside Mo'at in her left side, this covering her from the sight.

Kiri would've wanted to say her goodbyes to Spider too, but Mo'at had instructed her to pay attention, so she was saddened that she couldn't.

However, with the quickly developed backup plan in his mind, Spider shrugged his shoulders and then hopped from the Marui's hammock floor onto the tree branch, before the boy began to follow the same way he, Lo'ak and Neyetam had climbed up while carrying Kaeyla to Sully's Marui, heading down to the jungle floor.

However, he hadn't gotten far before Jake walked to the edge of his Marui's floor and called down to him.

"And Spider?!"

Jake calling his name got Spider to turn around to face him, curious of what else he wanted to say to him.

"Tell Nash that this situation regarding your condition has already been resolved here. But if he still wants to confront me over it, just tell me immediately when you next visit by, so that I can relieve these new heated relations between our peoples."

"You'll get to know it first, Mr. Sully! Quicker than you even think!" Spider responded, before resuming his journey back to Hell's Gate.

Jake followed Spider's going for a moment, before he turned around and joined his family and friends to tend to Kaeyla.

To Be Continued...

NEXT PART: KNIFE ON THE THROAT, PART 2