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.

8. Knife on the Throat, Part 2

KAEYLA TE KATHAN SAEYLA'ITE.

PART 8.

KNIFE ON THE THROAT, PART 2.

A little later, during of which Jake and Neytiri had bandaged the injuries Lo'ak and Neteyam had suffered from the fight...

Everybody had still gathered around of still motionless Kaeyla in Sullys Marui, whose body Mo'at had cleaned up and bandagaed her wounds with the healing leaves, all the while Ka'ani was kneeling beside his little girl's head, with Saeyla touching her daughter's shoulder and stomach, and Kai'ani cuddling his big sister's hand in his own.

Everybody else just stood there and looked over Kaeyla's still body with concern, even though both Jake and Mo'at had reassured them that Kaeyla was just passed out, and that there was no worry for her.

All the while, Neteyam crept next to Mo'at and closer to Kaeyla, looking at her and her faces closely and with such of keen interest as if he was a spellbound.

"Eywa, help her... Eywa, help her... Eywa, help her..." Mo'at chanted with the deep and concentrated voice, invoking Eywa's help to revive Kaeyla, and at the same time briefly waving her hands in the air before placing them gently over Kaeyla's heart and then repeated the same.

"Eywa, help her... "Eywa, help her..." Kiri chanted in unision with her grandmother.

"Eywa, help her... "Eywa, help her..." even Saeyla chanted.

The others couldn't do much anything, except giving both Mo'at, Kaeyla and her family some space - for Mo'at to work, Kaeyla to recover and her family to just be with her - and just wait patiently for something to happen.

"Excuse me? Sorry? Let me through, please?" said the voice, which was lowered low enough so that it wouldn't disturb Mo'at's concentration.

Almost everybody, except for Mo'at, Neteyam and Saeyla, turned to the unexpected yet familiar voice, revealing it to be Spider - with a new and intact mask and his bruises bandaged - as the human boy crouched down in between of Kai'ani and Lo'ak, who willingly moved aside to give their human friend some space to join in.

"Spider? Back so soon?" Jake said, surprised upon realizing that it only took from Spider less than an hour to go to get a new mask, get himself patched up and then come back... but he was glad he made it back nonetheless.

"Monkey boy!" Kiri exclaimed softly, but with the low voice to not to disturb Mo'at's work, happy to see her friend.

Both Lo'ak and Kai'ani, with the latter still holding from Kaeyla's hand, smiled at their friend. Lo'ak even lifted up his right fist, to which Spider bumped in greeting.

Neytiri, however, as always, casted at Spider rather territorial glare, not so happy to see the boy back in her Marui so soon. She nonetheless didn't say anything about it, just kept suspiciously an eye on the boy.

Ka'ani too glanced at Spider, but rather than wearing a territorial glare on his face like Neytiri did - after all, they might live in the same village but this was Sullys' Marui, not his - there was a hint of gratitude for the human boy for his part in saving his daughter in his hardened and somehow indifferent face.

"Yep. I'm back. After getting an intact mask in the place of my broken one, and getting my bruises treated, I came back as speedily as I could." Spider told to Jake, Lo'ak, Kai'ani and Kiri, not minding about Neytiri's suspicious glare or Ka'ani's indifferent-looking expression.

Spider then turned to Kaeyla, and his joyful expression turned into pity and worry.

"How is she?" Spider asked.

"Still unconscious." Jake said. "As you can see, kid, Mo'at is doing everything she can to revive the girl."

Spider glanced up at Mo'at, following her as she kept chanting and asking Eywa's help while repeatedly waving her hands in the air for the moment and then repeatedly placing them down over Kaeyla's heart.

"Sure this will revive her, right? She will be okay, right?" Spider asked, trying not to sound too doubtful towards Mo'at's methods, believing that to be disrespectful towards Tsahik, the most important Na'vi around here, alongside Jake due to his title as the Olo'eyktan.

"Well, if one day Eywa stops hearing and above all answering our prayers, then I'll realize that we are really in big trouble without her." Jake said, with little dry humor in his voice.

"Ma Jake." Neytiri said with the gentle yet reprimanting hiss, as if she had heard her husband - which wasn't a wonder, as she was crouched down right next to him - and turned her head to give Jake a reprimanding sideways look for ever even coming up with such of joke, which sounded a bit disrespectful towards the people's faith in Eywa.

Turning to his mate and seeing the look on her face, Jake quickly cleared his throat before saying something more approval.

"But Mo'at knows what she's doing. And Eywa is probably already thinking about how to answer to her prayers. It may take her some time to figure it out and see how her answer might play out in the future, but the answer will come...sooner or later." Jake said.

"Like when you did ask her help to help the people against the Sky People." Lo'ak said as his father's words brought back the story of the Great Battle. "It took for a while, but Eywa responded to dad's prayer by sending entire jungle to smite the enemy with mightier force when our people was on the verge of defeat, and drove them on the run!." Lo'ak added as he turned to Spider with the wide grin.

"That's the best part of the story." Spider said with the smile, enthusiastic of the memory when he had heard the story about the Great Battle.

However, his enthusiastic attitude quickly faded away and the smile on his lips turned into a deep and saddened frown, as the said story about the battle between the Sky People and united Na'vi just happened to stir once again one particular memory of one - no, two - parts of the story about the battle, which both applied and affected him heavily, but of which he really did not wanted to talk about with anyone... save for those who already knew about it, and not much even with them.

Kai'ani was the first to notice this unexpeted change in Spider's attitude.

"Hey? What's wrong." Kai'ani innocently asked from he human boy.

Spider turned to Kai'ani, seeing him looking at him with innocent concern for him, even though he had only known him for a few hours. However, Spider quickly took a reassuring smile and assured Kai'ani that he was fine.

"It's nothing. I'm fine." Spider softly assured. "It's just, after all, you know, the war, and even that story in general... sometimes they just bring some awful memories the one wishes to forget. After all, the wars do thend to and ruin many people's lives."

"How do you know?" Kai'ani asked, tilting his head. "You were hardly even there then, although neither was I." Kai'ani added, regarding to Spider's size and age and noticing that he was older than what he was... older than what even the rest of the Sully children were.

That fact aroused in Kai'ani's mind one particular question, and he couldn't help himself to be not asking it.

"Did you lost someone so close to you then?"

With their ears twitching at the Question Kai'ani has just brought up, Kiri, Lo'ak, Jake and Neteyam and even Neytiri turned towards Spider and Kai'ani - though Neytiri just slightly tilted her head to the right and looked at the two sideways - with rather alarmed expressions on their faces, knowing that the said subject was a very sensitive spot for Spider.

Behind his friend's back, Lo'ak even tried to gesture with hands Kai'ani to stop before he unknowingly and unintentionally goes too far.

However, the said method was more human-like than Na'vi like, so when Kai'ani looked over Spider at Lo'ak, he only tilted his eyebrow in confusion - not understanding why Lo'ak was doing what he was doing - before turning back to Spider, waiting for his answer.

However, Kai'ani was little disappointed after Spider spoke the next words in gentle but firm refusal to answer to that question.

"If it is okay to you, I really do not wish to talk about it. It's too personal."

"Aww, come on! Please, tell me! I want to know." Kai'ani begged, with his yellow eyes wide and big as if he was unknowingly doing some sort of puppy-dog-eyes act to persuade Spider to open up to him.

"Kai'ani!" Ka'ani's voice sounded, making Kai'ani, Spider, Lo'ak, Jake, Neytiri, Neteyam and Kiri to turn towards the warrior. "Leave the boy be, son. If he doesn't want to tell you anything, then you should not press him to it. Otherwise his losses do not apply us, and for the reasons which I believe he knows well but may keep with himself."

Spider snorted with the deep frown, slightly offended by the warrior's words, even if they hit clear home. He knew very well the reason why, but wished that nobody would bring them up and aim them at him as if to accusing him for something he hadn't done.

"Which..." Mo'at suddenly said while keeping waving her arms in the air and then placing her hands over Kaeyla's heart, making everybody turn to her. "Is exactly why we shouldn't press on him with any further burden than what he is already carrying on his shoulders, while he shouldn't, as the burden is like the water a'o collects. If the amount of water gets too large, the heavy burden will forcefully press a'o's leaves down."

Everybody, even Spider, sat quietly still in silence with their eyes fixed on Mo'at, while listening and taking in her words of wisdom.

Spider smiled slightly at Mo'at for her words and sympathy - to an extent - and support for him and his struggle with this particular 'burden' he really carried on his shoulders. But even Mo'at's wise words could not completely lift the heavy burden off his shoulders, which physically seemed to be like a heavy log strapped to his shoulders, and mentally as if it was forcibly imprinted upon his soul... against his will.

Jake then decided to change the subject, for Spider's sake, because he suspected that there might be another reason too for Spider's sudden return here than that he came back to check Kaeyla.

"Well then, I bet that there is another reason why you came back so soon, isn't there, Spider?" Jake asked, turning to the boy.

The frown on Spider's face hardened even more into angry one, before the boy turned back to Jake.

"Yeah. It's MacCosker, Jake." Spider said bitterly.

Jake didn't mind the boy's negative feelings towards his foster family. "Well, did you tell him what I asked you to tell him?"

Turning back to Jake, Spider recalled his earlier request for him to tell to McCosker about today's incident, and that it was already resolved and send the message to him if he wanted to confront him to discuss with him about it.

With that in mind, to Jake's mild surprise, Spider briefly averted his gaze from Jake and looked to be slightly hesitating to give him the answer right now, as if the things didn't go the way Jake had expected. The Olo'eyktan tilted his head to the left, looking directly at Spider with the raised eyebrow.

"Well? Did you tell him or not?" Jake asked again.

"Well..." Spider started as he turned to Jake. "Yes, but not in the way you'd wished. You see, Mr. Sully, instead of telling him about the incident, I tried to tell McCosker that I only tripped into something while being on the woods and fell to the ground face-first, hence the crack and my bruises."

Jake let out the sigh, as he had not expected this from Spider, who who usually preferred to be honest in anything.

"So you lied to him?" Jake reprimanted strictly, though just gently. "And what has been told about lying and its consequences? I thought you to be honest one here, who'd never lie to the people around you."

Spider looked at Jake firmly back. "Not if the truth would bring harm on the people I care most about and vice versa. I just told him the simple white lie just because I didn't want to burden you further with today's incident by telling the truth to McCosker." Spider defended.

"Well, did he bought it?" Jake asked, though his question sounded more rhetorical, as if he already guessed what the answer would be when it came to that man named Nash McCosker.

His thoughts were proven correct when Spider shook his head as if "No".

"No, he didn't. That old sourpuss somehow saw through of my ruse." the boy added.

"Are we in trouble again, bro?" Lo'ak asked.

"Not you, Lo'ak. McCosker never mentioned about you, or Neteyam or Kiri, as he doesn't even care about you guys." Spider assured, before he looked up at Jake as if to warn him. "But it's really both me and Jake who are in trouble here."

Neytiri's ears twitched when she heard Spider mentioning that Jake is in trouble with this NashmcCosker Sky Person. With her protective instincts over her husband kicking in, she turned towards Spider.

Even though she wasn't quite fond with the boy, she was even more distrustful towards McCosker because of this man's very cynical, disrespectful, indifferent and rather hostile attitude towards all Na'vi in general and his noticeable interest towards the "bad" Sky People's unsatisfiable desire to destroy their land, unlike some other to some extend trustful humans, who either equally respected her people and the forest or were just wise enough to leave it be and mind their own things. And otherwise it was fine to her, as long if those "things" do not involve the destruction.

"What does NashmcCosker wants from Ma Jake? Speak, boy!" she demanded with the low yet strict hissing voice, though the territorial and suspicious look on her face didn't change any better.

"Nothing, what you might think, Mrs. Sully." Spider said, holding his hands up to calm her down. "But he just went all berserk when he found out about the incident, not from me, of course, and rained a lots of angry outbursts and curses towards the Omaticaya people... and of course towards the family. He was all like..."

Spider then took a rather odd expression on his face and deepened his voice, before the boy started to mockingly repeat what he had heard McCosker saying before returning to the village.

""Can't Sully and his woman look after my son if he's so keen to spend time with them?! Can't Sully keep his unruly savage monkeys in line, and they go so far under his watch and do this to my boy?! When I get my hands on Sully, I'm so going to kill him!" That's what he said." Spider said.

This, however, set Neytiri off as she let out an aggressive hiss through of her bared teeth and looked over to the direction of the Hell's Gate.

Her free hand instinctively reached towards the handle of her knife, but Jake was quick enough to take her hand into his to stop her from drawing out her knife.

This caused Neytiri to look down at her husband, who much to her confusion didn't look at all worried over something that sounded in her ears very closely like the death treath or the declaration of war.

"That's just the saying among them, baby." Jake said assuringly. "People tend to say many things in the fit of anger, that aren't always even true. Trust me."

Neytiri narrowed her eyes as she glanced suspiciously at the direction of the Hell's Gate... and NashmcCosker's location... before she then glaced at Spider with the same look.

Before long, she reluctantly decided to trust her husband's words, calmed down to a certain extent, though restlessness still remained upon her and sat back down, and pulled her hand away from her knife once Jake had let go of her hand after making sure that his mate had calmed down.

Jake then turned back to Spider. "Did Nash say where he wants to meet me?"

Spider scoffed and waved his hand forward as if to say "forget about it!".

"He didn't, because that sourpuss doesn't even dare to come anywhere near this village without heavy weaponry to defend himself from the "horrors" of the forest. And besides, Sky People's weapons are forbidden here, which is another reason why he doesn't dare to come here." Spider said.

"He and his family won't be welcomed here anyway." Neytiri stated firmly, earning a disapproving/offended look from Spider, because he knew that Neytiri's words could apply him as well, albeit indirectly, because he was adopted into that family he disliked to be.

However, shaking that off, Spider continued.

"Anyway, he even tried to stop me from coming back here, saying that he never wanted me to leave the base again and be here. He also said that he's daring you, Mr. Sully, to come to meet him at the base and speak with him about today's incident... if you got the guts in this new ugly blue monkey vessel of yours to meet him face to face like the man."

Neytir let out another hiss for such of disrespectful words towards her husband.

"He said so, not me!" Spider quickly said, holding his hands up.

However, such of words appeared to ammuse Jake rather than offend him, as he let his head to drop down from his shoulders while quietly chuckling with himself.

Neytiri turned to her mate in confusion of his behavior.

"Ma Jake?" she said, wanting to know what had got into him.

Ka'ani, who had listened the conversation too, gave Jake rather incredulous look. "That pinkskin, who thinks he has any real warrior spirit yet he cowardly hides behind of those weapons of metal of theirs, just insulted you so disrespectfully, Olo'eyktan, and you're laughing about it?"

Jake lifted his head up and looked at his mate and friend. "Nash just has a big mouth and a lot of big words. Then let him have it. So what. It doesn't really matter after all what does he say. I got more than just my guts to meet him face to face at the Hell's Gate, as I have a lots of faithful friends and trustworthy allies in there to back me up, while Nash himself doesn't have much of friends - save for the few guys like him - to back him up, no there or here. And besides, he's not the one who's in charge in that base, but Katherine Hale, and even she's backing me up... to the extent of maintaining peace and friendship between our peoples."

Ka'ani frowned at the mention of the human Katherine Hale, because he and she still haven't been on very friendly terms, apart from peaceful negotiations, even after all these years Na'vi and humans have lived in co-existence.

Sure, she didn't wish any harm on Omatikaya or the Na'vi in general, and that she was just trying to keep the Hell's Gate running and take care of the people still living there, just like Ka'ani had to take care of his own clan. But even so, Ka'ani showed great distaste for that woman for using the "necessary" destructive methods to establish a new mining site... even after one such has already been established few years ago to the opposite direction, far away from Omatikaya's village and from any place sacred to the Na'vi.

"Just as long as they do not break it first." Ka'ani said bitterly, not hiding his distrust towards the humans.

"Calm yourself, Ka'ani. I'll take care of this, like I always do." Jake assured.

"HUSH, EVERYONE!" Mo'at hissed, catching everybody's attention. "She's awake."

With those words, everybody, especially Ka'ani, Kai'ani and Saeyla, huddled around, eyes fixed on Kaeyla.

As Kaeyla woke up from her unconsciousness, she slowly moved her head to the left and then to the right, before she opened her lips and her mouth and let out a soft moan after every deep breath she took, though her eyes were still clamped shut.

"Kaeyla? Daughter?" Ka'ani softly called, lowering his hand over Kaeyla's heart and over her forehead.

"My sweet daughter? Can you hear us?" Saeyla called, caressing her daughter's right cheek.

"Sister? It's us, Mom, dad and me, Kai'ani. You still remember me, right?" Kai'ani called with slight humor, while still cuddling to his big sister's arm.

However, in Kaeyla's dizzined state and blank mind, her family's words were only heard in unclear echoes.

Kaeyla then slowly opened her eyelids and looked both upwards and around her the best she could, seeing everything over her and around her - including all the people around her - as nothing more but a heavily blur figures.

In her blur eyesight, the figures above her looked alternately down at her with unclear expressions and then the others, speaking with the echoing hums.

However, in the corner of her right eye, she saw someone coming closer and slowly turned to it. The figure came closer, much closer than anyone else around of her did that his head was almost over hers, looking down at her.

"Hi there?" the echoing voice said down to her.

Kaeyla stared up at the figure blankly, not recognizing his face or his voice. But as her eyesight began to slowly but certainly inprove, she started to see this stranger's face a little bit clearer though still blurry.

However, all the bruises on this figure's faces seemed to stir some memory in Kaeyla's mind.

Memory of her and Kai'ani being on their little adventure outside of the village.

Memory of them having a playful race back to the home.

Memory of her and her little brother getting ambushed at the borders of the village.

Memory of the fight that broke outside of the villagte.

Memory of her little brother being assaulted by the mean boys right in front of her eyes.

Memory of the cruel laughter in the background.

Memory of many brutal punches in her face and stomach.

Memory of the freezing cold and stinging pain in her right shoulder. caused the blade of the knife.

The latter memories flashed before her eyes so tormentively that Kaeyla's faces morphed into the look of deep frown and pained grimace that led the others to erroneously assume her to be in terrible pain or in the nightmare she was seeing at wake. Her head flew from left to right and back and her arms, body and legs trempled near-violently.

Kaeyla also opened her mouth wide open and began to let out the pained sobs out!

"Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! AHH! AH! AH! AH!"

"Kaeyla?" Ka'ani said, growing worried after seeing his daughter's pained grimace and violent trempling.

"My daughter? It's okay! You're safe! We're here!" Saeyla said soothingly.

"Kaeyla?" Kai'ani said worriedly, almost panickedly.

"Kaeyla?" Neteyam said, growing worried as well, before the boy turned to his father.

"Dad!" Neteyam yelled.

Jake immediately moved next to Mo'at to see himself what was the matter, before turning to his mother-in-law.

"Mo'at? What's happening? What's wrong with her?" Jake asked hurriedly.

As his father was speaking with Mo'at, Neteyam moved once again closer of Kaeyla and looked worriedly down at her pained faces, while Kaeyla's own eyes - which were narrowed to nearly shut - remained fixed on Neteyam.

"Why is she shaking like that? What is wrong with my daughter?! Tell me, Mo'at." Ka'ani demanded, turning to Mo'at and Jake for answers, all the while gently holding Kaeyla still with his mate and son.

"The poor little one must be in shock after experiencing such of cowardly attack from Punkun. She needs something soothing." Mo'at stated, before she turned back to her medicine basket, which Kiri was still holding for her, and went through of her medicine stuff to find something fitting.

As the adults kept talking, and Mo'at searching through her medicines, Neteyam moved even closer of Kaeyla until he was sitting next to her right shoulder, before he leaned forward a bit until he was right above her.

"Kaeyla?" Neteyam called, as he carefully reached out his hands and gently laid the tips of his fingers over Kaeyla's cheeks. "It's okay. You're safe. Punkun and his friends..."

However, the mention of Punkun's name set the hell on the loose.

"Punkun?" Kaeyla said softly.

The very image of Punkun and his band of no-good vandals deliberately ambushing, harassing and Punkun even physically assaulting her forcibly filled her mind, as well as the memory of the feeling of Punkun's many brutal punches in her face and stomach and his knife's cold blade cutting her in her right shoulder.

But more than that, the memory of Punkun going so far of hurting her little brother right in front of her eyes while he and his friends laughed cruelly at them sparked the burning fury in her heart for the treatment his little brother had received.

The pained look on Kaeyla's face quickly hardened and turned into stone-hard frown and the grimace of anger and burning hatred.

And then, Kaeyla's eyes shot wide open, still fixed on Neteyam!

"PUNKUN!" Kaeyla let out from the top of her lungs the furious cry.

Before anyone could react to Kaeyla's sudden outburst, the girl shook her father and mother's hands off - and even unknowingly shoved Kai'ani over to the Marui's floor, much to his surprise and shock - before Kaeyla leapt from her seat and pounced on the ill-prepared Neteyam, grabbing him firmly by the throat with her hands, knocking the boy off his feet and pinning him roughly to the floor, with her standing on her knees over him.

The others around of Neteyam and Kaeyla were both shocked and surprised by this sudden turn of the events.

Kaeyla's attack on Neteyam had got both Lo'ak and Spider by surprise that they fell from their crouched sitting poses onto their butts to the Marui's floor, while both Mo'at and Kiri turned away from the former's search for the soothing medicine to stare at this in wide-eyed shock.

Jake, Ka'ani, Saeyla and Kai'ani all stared at Kaeyla attacking Neteyam bewildered.

"Kaeyla!" Jake called, moving quickly towards Kaeyla and his son.

"Kaeyla, no! Don't!" Ka'ani called, as he respectively moved towards his daughter and Jake's son.

"Kaeyla, no! Stop!" Saeyla cried.

"Kaeyla!" Kai'ani cried as well.

Neytiri swiftly jumped back when this happened - even though she remained in a crouched position - totally aghast that Ka'ani's daughter had all of the sudden attacked her older son like this. Even though her motherly instincts tried to kick her into going to her son's aid, she still had little Tuk cuddled in her arms, and she didn't want to put her little baby unnecessarily in the harm's way.

However, she didn't even need to, because Jake was already on his way to help their son, leaving her to take care of little Tuk.

Glaring down at Neteyam with her narrowed burning eyes, thinking the boy she had pinned down was Punkun, Kaeyla bared her teeth and fangs and hissed aggressively at his face, while squeezing tightly her hands around the boy's throat, making Neteyam to cough and let out the hoarse groans as he tried to get the breath.

"AH! AHH! ARGH! ARGH! UGH! WA-WAIT! ARGH! WAIT!" Neteyam groaned.

Blinded by her dizziness and fury, Kaeyla hissed again in response and didn't loose her hold from Neteyam's throat. Instead, she kept strangling him.

However, she did loose her hold from her right hand, but only to quickly reach for the knife in Neteyam's sheath and drew it out.

Thinking Jake and her own father to be Punkun's friends trying to defend him, Kaeyla began to wildly swing the knife she had taken from Neteyam at them to keep them at bay and keep them from interfering her from getting her revenge against Punkun. Jake and Ka'ani immediately jumped back to avoid Kaeyla's mad swinging with the knife.

"Kaeyla! It is me! Your father!" Ka'ani said desperately.

"Calm down, kid! We're not going to hurt you!" Jake said.

"BACK OFF!" Kaeyla snapped at them under his blindness with rage.

Kaeyla then turned back to Neteyam and, much to Sully family's horror, placed Neteyam's knife on his throat, ready to slit it!

"Or I'll slit hit throat!" Kaeyla threatened. "I will do it!"

"NO!" Neytiri gasped with horror.

"DON'T!" Jake gasped, scared for his son.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! Take it easy, Kaeyla! I'm not who you think I am!" Neteyam shouted with the hoarse voice, as Kaeyla's other hand was still tightly wrapped around of his throat while his own knife's blade's cold edge was pressed hard against his throat... though even then, Neteyam managed to keep his cool impressively long.

"Daughter, don't do it! Don't harm the Olo'eyktan's son!" Ka'ani cried.

"Kaeyla, please! Don't!" Kai'ani begged with sobbing voice, looking at his maddened big sister with teary eyes.

"No, don't!" Lo'ak begged.

"Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey! Don't Don't do it! Don't harm him!" Spider yelled as he got in front of Kaeyla, yelling from the top of his lungs in an desperate attempt to get Kaeyla's attention from Neteyam towards him in order to save Neteyam's neck from being slit in Kaeyla's crazed state. "Listen to me! Let him go! Let Neteyam go! You're barking at the wrong guy, Kaeyla!"

With another vicious hiss, Kaeyla snapped her head towards Spider, fixing her burning eyes on the human boy while Spider held his hands up to show her that he meant no harm.

Kaeyla took a notice that Spider was standing a pretty close of her and Neteyam she thought to be Punkun. And so, viewing him too as one of Punkun's friends, she pressed the knife even harder against Neteyam's throat - accidentally slitting it slightly and making him bleed, causing Neteyam to let out the small hiss as his own knife's blade cut through his skin and causing the line of blood to run down from the cut - while hissing at Spider, warning him to stay back.

Spider, despite knowing that he was now a potential target of Kaeyla's crazed wrath, held bravely his ground and kept speaking calmly to Kaeyla.

"My name is Spider, and I'm one of those guys who rescued you and your little brother, Kai'ani, from Punkun and his friends outside of the village." Spider continued, before he turned to look at Lo'ak and nodded his head towards him. "That's my friend, Lo'ak, one of the guys as well."

Spider then lowered his left hand and pointed his finger down at Neteyam. "And He is Neteyam, Lo'ak's brother and the son of Jake Sully, the Olo'eyktan of Omaticaya."

Kaeyla appeared to be not listening, as she kept hissing warningly at Spider while pressing the knife on Neteyam's throat.

"Look! Trust me when I'm telling you. You definitely don't want to do this. You're holding a wrong guy at the knifepoint." Spider cautioned. "So heed my words and don't do what you might regret much later... and cannot make undone. Besides, your true enemy, Punkun and his friends, have already got what's coming for them. You're safe here. Your brother is here and safe as well. It's over. So don't make the innocent skxawng to pay for that real culprit skxawng's ill deeds."

"Skxawng?!" Neteyam gasped hoarsely in mock offense, as he looked up at Spider. "Did you just call me "skxawng", Spider?"

Spider paid no mind to him but kept trying to talk Kaeyla out of this, with his eyes fixed with hers.

"So, please, Kaeyla. Calm down. Put the knife away. Let him go." Spider begged.

Jake then came to back Spider up, causing Kaeyla to turn from Spider to him. Jake fixed his eyes on Kaeyla's while holding holding his hands up and keeping the respective distance for his son's safety - though still remained close enough to move in to Neteyam's aid.

"Kaeyla? Listen to Spider. The kid's speaking the truth. Punkun and his friends will be dealt with for what they did to you and your little brother. You're safe here. Your brother too is safe here. So there's no reason to get all aggressive, least to turn now on your own, especially my son, who saved you and Kai'ani." Jake said calmly.

Saeyla, with Kai'ani tugged into her arms, moved to Kaeyla's left side to back up from Jake and Spider. "Kaeyla? Sweetheart?"

With soft and wary hiss, Kaeyla turned from Jake to look at her mother and her little brother.

"It's me. Saeyla, your mother. Listen to my voice. Listen to that boy and Olo'eyktan. There is nothing to fear, sweetie. You're safe here. Your little brother is here, and safe. But don't do this. Please, daughter. Don't harm Olo'eyktan's son. Don't make your little brother to watch this." Saeyla begged soothingly.

"Kaeyla, please." Kai'ani begged. "Don't do this."

Kaeyla looked warily at all of them with narrowed eyes and bared teeth, though her fast, aggressively hissing breaths slowly began to slow down to deeper, more steady breaths, and the hardened, furious grimace on her face began to slowly soften into a frown.

"Kaeyla?" Neteyam called or more likely groaned, making Kaeyla to turn to look down at him. "It's okay... it's okay... everything is going to be okay."

Breathing deeply and steadily in and out, in and out, in and out, while letting everybody's words to sink in, Kaela slowly began to calm down and finally see through of her blurry eyes and cloud of rage.

And when her vision finally returned to normal, Kaeyla realized she was looking down at Neteyam's handsome though still bruised face instead of Punkun's ugly face like she had initially assumed. Neteyam kept his gaze fixed on Kaeyla's own, breathing in and out with calm and steady pace.

Kaeyla blinked her eyes at Neteyam in confusion, because a moment ago she was quite sure that it had been Punkun whom she had attacked instead of the guy the others were saying was one of those three strangers who had rescued her and her little brother from Punkun's ambush.

"Wha... what... what the...?" Kaeyla stuttered as the consufion ran through of her body.

And then, much to her shock, her eyes landed on her left hand that was wrapped tightly around the throat of the handsome boy below into a choke hold... and to add insult to injury, her eyes landed on the knife that was in her right hand and pressed against Neteyam's throat, ready to slice it open... as well as to a couple of superficial cuts on the left side of his neck that bled a little.

"Son of Olo'eyktan?" Kaeyla gasped as the dreadful shock ran through of her.

Almost timidly, she turned her head to the right until her eyes landed on Jake Sully, the former Dreamwalker-turned-Na'vi and Toruk Makto, the Rider of the Last Shadow, and the Olo'eyktan of Omatikaya. Kaeyla recognized him immediately upon seeing him, as she had seen Jake Sully many times before as the center of attention at many clan's ceremonial events, in places reserved for the clan's most important members - Olo'eyktan, Tsahik, their family and the higher-ranked hunters/warriors - in the Great Hunt Festival, or otherwise just occasionally chatting with her father outside of his family's Marui at nights.

And the handsome boy she was thretening with the knife was his eldest son, Neteyam te Suli Tsyeyk'itan, the Olo'eyktan's eldest son and heir, as well as well-known member of the clan, and even well-liked by many.

"No... I... I... I didn't... What have... what have I... what have I done." Kaeyla stuttered, in disbelief, shock and horror over her actions, that she immediately let go of Neteyam - who let out the deep gasp and breathed heavily after Kaeyla let go of his throat and removed the knife from his throat, which she dropped from her shaking hands - and fell onto her butt, allowing Neteyam to stand up.

"I didn't... I... I... I didn't meant... I didn't meant to..." she kept stuttering, as she crawled backwards, far away from Neteyam as possible.

Neteyam, while rubbing his slightly injured neck as his breathing eased bit by bit, looked up at Kaeyla as she crawled away from him as if she was scared of him. Pity and sorrow for her filled Neteyam's eyes as he kept looking at Kaeyla, though the latter only assumed that he was shocked and saddened over her actions rather than feeling sorry for her.

"I... I... I... what did I do? What I... What... What I have become?" Kaeyla kept mumbling, as she looked down at her shaking hands, with her right hand slightly stained with blood from the cuts she had inflicted on Neteyam.

Kiri, Lo'ak, Spider and Kai'ani all looked at Kaeyla in silence, all of them equally sharing Neteyam's feelings of pity and sadness he felt towards the badly distraught girl they had saved, as they all knew that Kaeyla was just disoriented after waking up from her unconsciousness and under the mistaken belief that he was Punkun. Otherwise she would never have meant to do to Neteyam what she had threatened to do had she been in her clear mind.

Jake too shared her son's pity and sadness for his friend's daughter, as he kept his gaze fixed on Kaeyla while moving next to his son and landed his hands comfortably over Neteyam's shoulder, making him know that he was there for him.

"Are you okay, son?" Jake asked as he glanced down at him.

"I am, dad." Neteyam said, not taking his gaze away from Kaeyla. "But what about her?"

The look of horror and distraught over her actions remained on Kaeyla's face as she hung her head low, gaze on her hands, breathing rapidly and almost panickedly in and out, while sitting still on the Marui's floor as if he was petrified from the shock.

Saeyla was quickly at her daughter's side, along with her mate and her son, gently and comfortably stroked her hands down her tensed shoulders and her arms and mumbling quietly some soothing words into her ears to calm her little girl down.

Kai'ani followed his mother's example by gently touching Kaeyla's left shoulder, and slowly and gently moving his left hand over his big sister's heard, while speaking some soft words of his own to comfort Kaeyla.

"Kaeyla? It's okay... it's okay."

Sitting on his family's right side, Ka'ani rested his left hand over his mate's and his son's hands and Kaeyla's shoulder, while pressing his right hand over Kaeyla's heart, next to Kai'ani's hand.

"Stay strong, Kaeyla. Stay strong." he said encouragingly.

"G-guys." Kaeyla whispered, burrying herself into her family's arms. "I... I want to go home."

"Then let's go home to get you some rest. You've already had a rough day anyway." Ka'ani said siftly, as he gently scooped his daughter into his arms and stood up along with his mate and son, with Kaeyla burrying her face into Ka'ani's shoulder.

But before they left, Ka'ani turned to Sullies once more.

"This is where we take our leave, Jakesully. Thank you for what you and your family did for my daughter and son." Ka'ani said to his friend.

"Well, I believe that I barely did even much, save for defusing the aggressions between our families involved into this." Jake said humbly, before he turned to his sons and Spider.

Spider was standing in the middle of the trio, while Neteyam was standing on his right and Lo'ak on his left side... all standing erect, chins lifted, hands resting at sides and chests thrust out like soldiers in line awaiting inspection.

"Your thanks belong rather to these young rascals who stood up for Kaeyla and Kai'ani when they needed the help most, as well as to Mo'at, as it was her hand that healed her." Jake added as he turned to Mo'at, who bowed her head to Jake for giving her a respectful recognition of her healing skills, before she turned to Ka'ani.

Ka'ani smiled at Jake, before he turned to Mo'at and hand signed at her respectfully. "I see you, Mo'at. May the Great Mother bless your healing hands and healing skills forever." he said, as Saeyla and Kai'ani followed his suit and hand signed their gratitude and respect for the Tsahik.

"And may your family be blessed with grace and protection in the future." Mo'at said back.

With that, Ka'ani gave Kaeyla into Saeyla's arms, before he turned to Sully's boys and Spider, crouching down in front of them.

"And thank you to your three, for defending my son and daughter from that Punkun and his friends. I really appreciate that from all of you." Ka'ani said, before he turned to look at Spider, his soft faces filled with gratefulness. "Even from you, boy."

Spider hand signed his respect towards the warrior in front of him. "Thank you, sir. You're welcome."

"Yeah!" Kai'ani said aloud, making his father, Sully boys and Spider to turn to glance at him. "Thank you, guys, for helping me and Kaeyla, and kicking Punkun and his no-good friends in their tails. I appreciate what you did. I really do."

All three boys smiled at Kai'ani and gave him the acknowledging nods.

It was then when Neteyam turned back to Ka'ani, but not before glacing worriedly at Kaeyla in her mother's arms.

"Is she going to be alright, Ka'ani? Is Kaeyla going to be alright?" Neteyam asked worriedly, barely unable to keep his gaze away from Kaeyla for a short moment.

Ka'ani chuckled as he stood up, turning to Neteyam. "Worry not, Neteyam. Kaeyla will be okay. She just needs rest and time to recover properly from today's events. Just like I say, it has been a rough day for all of us already. Even for you, boys."

Ka'ani then smiled broadly at the firstborn Sully son, before walking slightly towards him and reached out to stroke the boy's head. "And most of all, I greatly appreciate your concern for my daughter, as well as what you did for her, and I am grateful for that."

"And so am I." Saeyla said with soft smile. "Thank you, Neteyam."

Ka'ani then turned his smiling face up to Jake, before putting his hand in brotherly manner over Jake's right shoulder. "Mark my words, Jakesully. In my eyes, your son is going to be the mighty warrior and fine Olo'eyktan once he grows up."

Both Jake and Neytiri, who had recently walked next to her mate to see their friends making their leave towards their home in the other part of the village, felt flattered by Ka'ani's words about their son, and felt proud of him because of them.

"He indeed will be." Jake said with the nod.

While most of those present were happy and proud of Neteyam, only one person present did not share their sentiments.

It was Lo'ak. Lo'ak felt a bit left out of the three, even though he was equally involved in helping Kaeyla and Kai'ani in the fight against Punkun and his friends... and yet Neteyam received most of the adults' gratitude and praise for the whole trio's actions.

And why? Was it still because he wasn't good enough or viewed as important like Neteyam all of time, or because he physically didn't look like a Na'vi at all in the clan's eyes... given his four-fingered hands instead of Na'vi's regular three-fingered hands and his eyebrows which the Na'vi lacked, making him more human than true Na'vi.

Lo'ak turned his head slightly to the right to glance sideways at Neteyam, as the deep frown emerged on his face and the glow of jealousy for his older brother flashed in his slightly narrowed eyes.

Spider looked up at Lo'ak to see the scowl on his face and his envy filled gaze fixed on Neteyam. The human boy turned around and looked up at Neteyam and seeing him getting most of their equal work from the adults, he got the picture behind of Lo'ak's scowl at his own brother.

Spider looked up at Lo'ak to see the scowl on his face and his envy filled gaze fixed on Neteyam. The human boy turned around and looked up at Neteyam and seeing him getting most of their equal work from the adults, he got the picture behind of Lo'ak's scowl at his own brother.

Even if he too got at least from Kai'ani some recognation for his own part in rescuing his kids, he totally understood how Lo'ak felt about being left out.

He really did, when it came to him just trying to fit in.

Spider playfully punched Lo'ak in his right arm, which caught him off guard and broke his jealous gaze from Neteyam.

"Ow! What?" he asked, looking down at Spider in slight confusion, while rubbing his arm.

"No hard feelings between of us, right?" Spider said, referring to the fact that out of two of them he was the one who was recognized for his help and not Lo'ak, while hoping that Lo'ak's jealousy towards Neteyam didn't extend into him too because of that.

However, Lo'ak was fully aware of Spider's own struggles to fit in with their family - despite having his own foster family back at Hell's Gate - and his own feelings of exclusion - because of the others and especially his mother's constant wariness and mistrust of him becaue of his human heritage and their actions against the people in the past, which spiritually bothered Spider as much as his physical differences compared to the all Na'vi bothered him. However, these feelings, differences and efforts to fit in were the foundation of the brotherly bond between them, which was why Lo'ak could not extend his jealousy he felt towards Neteyam into Spider.

And so, Lo'ak only gave Spider an assuring smile while shaking his head. "Not at all, bro." he said, before playfully punched Spider in his left shoulder, a little harder than meant to though, as it made Spider to stumble to the right and nearly lose his balance.

As Spider maintained his balance and rubbed his shoulder where Lo'ak had hit him, the two friends shared the warm smile with each other.

Behind them, Kiri was staring at Lo'ak and Spider with the deep frown, a flash of envy glowing in her eyes. It was obvious that Kiri was jealous towards her younger brother because him and Spider are very close. She wishes Spider would spend more time with her than Lo'ak, since Lo'ak tends to get into more trouble and drag Spider into it, causing both to be reprimanded by their parents (and more than once she has seen his mother, Neytiri, directly blaming Spider for the troubles Lo'ak had got them both, even if the boy hadn't done nothing wrong). She believed that with her, Spider would be better protected from their mother's constant accusing eye and finger rather than with Lo'ak.

After saying final farewells to Jake and Neytiri, Ka'ani, Saeyla and their kids turned their tails and started to head towards the branch that led away from their Marui.

And as they went, Neteyam kept worry-filled - and almost longing - his eyes on Kaeyla in Ka'ani's arms. The girl still kept her face burried into her father's shoulders to avoid everybody's eye-contacts.

But before her family departed, she unburied the left side of her face that her left eye became visible and she glanced cautiously back at the Sully family who watched their leave.

However, when her eye caught Neteyam gazing up at her, she quickly turned her head around, evading the eldest Sully kid's eye-contact the most, still haunted by the memory of her almost hurting him severely out of false beliefs.

Kai'ani, however, waved his hand at the Sully boys, Kiri and Spider cheerfully, still grateful for their help and glad to have made a friends with them... sort of.

"Bye, guys! See you around!" Kai'ani called.

"Bye!" Neteyam, Spider, Lo'ak and Kiri wished back.

With Ka'ani's family on their way back to their Marui, Sully family was capable to go back to their own business.

However, Jake had his hands full for the next few days now that this situation was over. First he had to figure out what to do with Punkun after he attacked like crazy both Koward, Spider and his kids in his own Marui, and that he needed to discuss with his parents severely about it. He wasn't going to let that boy to get away with his actions easily because he didn't want this same situation to repeat itself in the future. Secondly, he had to prepare himself for a long and heated discussion with McCosker, as well as Katherine Hale and possibly few others about this same situation, and he was already guessing that the discussion would be long and exhausting. As leaders and allies with a mutual respect for people to care for and a common goal of maintaining peace and friendly relations between nations, Jake was sure things would go smoothly with Katherine, who would surely understand that the things had been taken care of and that they needed to move on, but one could not at all be sure of the same with McCosker. So Jake needed to think the ways to put all of this into McCosker's thick skull to calm him down and to make his to move on from this, instead of holding grudges against his people and his family. And so, Jake turned to Mo'at and Neytiri to discuss with them about this first.

Now that this whole incident with Punkun was both resolved and over, and Ka'ani with his family on their way back home, Lo'ak turned to Spider and was going to suggest the next guy-stuff activity with the human boy now that he was with them again instead of staying at Hell's Gate. However, before he could suggest anything that Spider was more than willing to agree to, Kiri stepped between them believing that Lo'ak was about to do something wild and was going to drag Spider into it again, and that Spider had already had a wild day anyway... fight with Punkun and his buddies in Kaeyla's and Kai'ani's defense and being falsely accused for attacking that mean skxawng.

And so, she was going to ask if Spider would prefer to spend some quieter and more relaxing time with her, like walking together in the woods where they could sing some songs together, to talk about mutual things that personally concerned only the two of them, marvel at the wonders of nature and thus being closer to Eywa. Despite being good friends with Lo'ak and always hungry for another adventure with him, Spider has never before even dared to reject anything proposed by Kiri, as he did enjoy spending a lot of time with her too, as out of all Sully children so far, she was his closest friend. Besides, the foundation of the bond between him and Kiri ran even deeper than his brotherly bond with Lo'ak.

However, Spider could only smile amusedly and roll his eyes at Lo'ak and Kiri, when the two started arguing with each other about who Spider wanted to be with the most. Despite the fact that he faced exclusion in any form almost every single day of his life, it always warmed Spider's heart - and even amused him - whenever his friends were bickering with each other over who he liked most and with whom he wanted to hang out the most.

However, the only one who didn't return to the family's everyday acticity, was Neteyam.

The eldest Sully boy was standing on his family's Marui's edge, looking down after Ka'ani's and his family's going as they were already in the halfway of the trip from their Marui to the forest floor. And all their way down, his eyes were fixed on Kaeyla's motionless form as she lied in her father's arms, her face half-buried in his shoulder and half-turned away from him.

Despite Ka'ani's reassurance that Kaeyla will be fine after getting some time to rest and shake off today's events, Neteyam wasn't so convinced. Kaeyla's deeply distrauct and horrified expression after she had realized that she'd almost severely hurt him with the knife - even very nearly done something what couldn't not be undone had she done it - had been so thoroughly imprinted on his mind that he could already see that face in his wake eyes.

Neteyam felt sincerely sorry for Kaeyla for everything she had gone through today, to the point where he thought if her mistake had left her with mental scars that she might not heal from for a while.

That though remined him about the stories he had heard from his father of many Sky People warriors who, during the wars in their world, had suffered severe mental issues from the things they have done but were never proud of, or things they had either witnessed with their own eyes or done themselves that had left them mentally badly scarred and even traumatized them for life.

He even remembered that particularly disturbing story where his father's human form had suffered in some battle an spinal injury, so severe that it had unfairly deprived him of the ability to walk. That had affected negatively to his father, who was naturally a mighty warrior who fought to protect. And without his legs and nothing to fight for, he was rendered as nothing more than a shell of his former self, a prison hardened by his anxiety and depression around his soul, which was tormented by the everyday consequences of his injury.

Neteyam even wondered if he would've even recognized that human as his father had he met him in person back then, even though he had already seen his father's human faces by watching a few recorded video logs of him when he was still human.

Even if this wasn't as severe with Kaeyla than what it was with his father back then, it still left Neteyam worried for Kaeyla's well-being.

In fact, he would've liked help Kaeyla feel better again and personally reassure her that he didn't hold a grudge against her for mistooking him from the one she really wanted to hurt and for pouncing on him and holding his knife against his throat - and that she didn't need to bother herself with what was and went and should be put behind their backs so that they could move on in their lives

But as much as he lamented that fact, he had to remind himself that this matter was no longer in his hands but Ka'ani's and his family's.

However, if the Great Mother Eywa gives her approval to it, he hoped that one day their paths would cross again, which seemed obvious since Ka'ani was his father's good friend and loyal supporter, so she could tell that to Kaeyla personally.

Until that, all he could do is to move on in his life and wait, not matter how long it could take.

To Be Continued...

NEXT PART: BACK HOME.