KAEYLA TE KATHAN SAEYLA'ITE.
PART 14.
FAVOR FOR FAVOR.
Things didn't look a pretty good for Kaeyla and Neteyam.
The entire pack had literally piled on top of them, pinning them to the ground with the weight of the crowd and clawing and biting them from every direction, while at the same time a few other nantang turned their attentions in the direction of yerik Kaeyla had felled with intent to consume it wothout interference.
But as it began to look utterly hopeless for the two...
"HYA-AAAARGH!" Kaeyla roared as she, all of the sudden and with the new burst of energy running through of her, forced herself to jump up from the ground, throwing most of the surprised, yelping and whining nantang off her.
Kaeyla was covered with the nasty wounds she had suffered from nantang's claws and teeth in her limbs, sides, shoulders and her back, but she shook the stinging pain of her injuries off as she turned her full attention to the few nantang that were still clinging on her.
She began to a pretty rough-handledly pick the nantang off of her one by one - two nantang were still clinging to her left arm and one in her right arm, while one was clinging to her right thigh and two were on her shoulders - before she threw them away from her.
After getting those nantang off her, and when they were about to be replaced by a new individuals, Kaeyla picked up her bow from the ground and began to fight the pack off by fiercely and furiously swing her weapon at them.
Many nantang Many nantang were too close of her that they couldn't get away from the way of her swinging and ended up getting whacked in their heads and knocked down and away, and all those who managed to avoid getting hit, backed away from Kaeyla a bit but still kept harasshing her.
Quickly remembering Neteyam being trouble, Kaeyla began to make her way by fighting through the pack towards where Neteyam had been pinned down by the pack leader and swarmed on by nantang.
She got closer and closer to Neteyam and the pack leader step by step and swing by swing, but the progress was too slow and difficult, because she had to push with all her might through the attacking waves of nantang and at the same time guard her rear so that the others wouldn't have the opportunity to attack her from behind.
But the longer she took to fend off the whole pack to get to help Neteyam, the more likely the pack leader would manage to kill him already before she even got to him in time.
Letting out the roar from the top of her lungs, Kaeyla charged forward and through of the remaining pack that still kept standing on her way, swinging her bow to the left and right, swatting a good number of them out of her way and forcing the others to pull back, while ignoring the few ones who managed to get past her defense and clinged on her with their claws and jaws.
And when Kaeyla finally reached to Neteyam and the pack leader, the leader released its hold from Neteyam's wounded and bleeding arm and turned its head around to Kaeyla, before it let out the sharp hiss at her, baring its blood-covered teeth.
"GET AWAY FROM HIM!" Kaeyla demanded and swatted the pack leader in the head with her bow, knocking it back.
Kaeyla then drew out her knife and, almost ignoring Neteyam's earlier instructions to not kill any nantang, slashed the pack leader in its right upper limb, leaving there a gash.
The pack leader growled and whined aloud in pain and, before Kaeyla could get another chance to slash it, limbed quickly away from Neteyam.
Hearing their leader's cry of pain, the rest of the nantang quickly jumped off and backed away from Neteyam, leaving him alone for now.
The son of Olo'eyktan wasn't any better shape than Kaeyla, as he too was covered with the various bleeding bites and claw marks all over his body, and his right arn was in the bad shape due to the bleeding bite wound the pack leader had left in it.
"Ugh... ohh... Ngh!" Neteyam groaned as he slowly and laboriously began to pull himself off the ground, but when he tried to use his injured arm to support himself and push himself up from the ground, he winced and hissed in pain upon putting weight on it and quickly lifted his arm up.
Kaeyla grimaced upon seeing the bite wound in Neteyam's arm.
"That doesn't look good." Kaeyla said worriedly as she crouched to Neteyam's left side.
Putting her bow and knife away away, Kaeyla hooked her right arm under Neteyam's good left arm and lifted him up on his feet, before she lifted with her left Neteyam's good arm over her shoulders and took a good hold of him with her right to support him.
"I need to get you out of here, back to the village to get your arm treated!" Kaeyla said in a rush.
Neteyam smiled weakly that she was finally agreeing to his earlier instructions to return to the falls and within the boundaries of their territory where nantang would be less aggressive towards them and where the help he'd called would drive the rest of the pack away, even if it meant her abandoning the yerik she had painstakingly felled into the hands of the hungry pack.
However, it was a way too late for that, because nantang just kept strengthening their already dense circle around the two, blocking their way back to the falls and their territory, and thus making it already clear that they were not in the mood to allow the two to leave.
"A little too late for that, Kaeyla. They're not gonna let us to leave here." Neteyam told her weakly, before he looked around at their situation with worry and desperation. "We can only hope now that the help will get here in time."
"And how long would that take?!" Kaeyla asked worriedly.
"I do not know. Depending on how far they are from the falls and us." Neteyam said.
That was not a good news, as nantang kept coming closer and closer after seeing that Kaeyla was no longer fighting back.
Even the pack leader, though still limping with its wounded fore limps, seemed to recover enough to take on both of them at once. The pack leader growled angrily at Kaeyla for her slashing at it and wounding it with the knife, that it fixed its eyes on her and advanced towards her for another chance of vengeance against her.
Noticing the pack leader advancing towards her with the desire for vengeance, Kaeyla gulped nervously. Things definitely did not look good for them at all.
"I got my hands full right now! And I can't fight them all and take care of you at the same time, Neteyam!" Kaeyla informed, looking frantically around of her for some, even a tiniest of escape route to use to get out of here.
"Then don't mind about me!" Neteyam said. "Just watch my back, and I'll watch yours!"
"What?!" Kaeyla gasped, turning to look at Neteyam. "Don't be skxawng, Neteyam! You're too worn out and injured to keep fighting!" she pointed out.
"Not enough to break my spirit!" Neteyam said, sounding like he didn't want to appear weak and like a burden to anyone, before he firmly stood his ground and gently made Kaeyla to let go of him, which she reluctantly did.
He tried to stand on his own, but his worn out, weakened and injured state made it a bit difficult, and his legs almost gave out beneath him, if Kaeyla hadn't quickly caught him before he fell over to the ground.
"Told you!" Kaeyla chided him, until Neteyam made her to let go of him again.
"I don't need help! You're the one who needs assistance here!" Neteyam insisted and tried once more to stand on his own.
However, as he tried to stand on his own again, his right leg suddenly gave out and he fell into Kaeyla's arms.
"You're the one here needing assistance, you skxawng!" Kaeyla hissed and half-forcibly lifted Neteyam back on hius feet and supported him.
The pack leader's growl made Kaeyla to turn back to it, as the beast kept advancing towards her, hissing at them while "showing" its bloodied teeth.
"Go away! Can't you see he's hurt?!" Kaeyla hissed at the pack leader out of frustration.
The pack leader was indifferent to that fact.
"Why don't you just keep that yerik if you'd just let us alone?!" Kaeyla said one more time, but the leader was not in the mood of listen (whether it understood Kaeyla or not).
The pack leader growled one more them before it hunched low, preparing to pounce on two of them and finish them for good.
And when the pack leader finally jumped at them, Neteyam unexpectedly moved in between of the beast and Kaeyla.
"Neteyam! What are you...?!" Kaeyla questioned, before Neteyam turned his back on the beast and wrapped his arms around of Kaeyla's body and head and pulled her against him, determined to protect her from the pack leader, even with his own life and body (though this and his failing legs made them both to fall on their kneels to the ground).
"NETEYAM! NO!" Kaeyla cried upon realizing that Neteyam was going to sacrifize himself for her.
The pack leader growled indifferently at this and continued its attack, and was almost upon them.
Both Kaeyla and Neteyam closed their eyes in wait for the attack to come.
However, before it could pounce on them, an arrow flew all of the sudden out of nowhere and landed in between Kaeyla, Neteyam and the pack leader, getting stuck to the ground in the sharp angle, and causing the pack leader to halt in surprise.
Opening their eyes when the attack never came, Neteyam and Kaeyla pulled apart from each other (though they were both still holding onto each other's arms without them noticing) and looked at each other in confusion.
They turned around to see what was going on, and then they both noticed the arrow stuck in the ground between of them and the pack leader, with the latter staring down at it.
Neteyam looked at the feathers of the arrow, which were yellow with the three blue stripes in them.
Neteyam recognized the yellow- and blue-feathered arrow immediately and knew that the help had arrived just in time.
And then, the shadow of ikran swooped over their heads, followed by the air current that blowed into the kids.
Neteyam recognized the ikran that swooped over their heads. It was his mother's ikran, Sylwa, named after his late aunt and his mother's older sister, Sylwanin. His mother had tamed her some time ago after her previous ikran, Seze, had perished during the Great Battle against the Sky People long time ago.
Then, Neteyam saw his mother, Neytiri, arriving to the scene after having jumped off Sylwa's back as soon as she had flew close enough to the ground to jump off. Landing on her feet, Neytiri somersaulted into the three point pose and protectively in front of her son and Kaeyla, sweeping all nearby nantang away from her and the kids with her bow.
"HSSSS!" Neytiri hissed at the pack, warning them to back off.
Many nantang backed away from Neytiri, briefly spooked by her and her ikran, but not the pack leader, who held its ground and growled at her, before it turned its head to the pack and commanded them to attack her.
But even though the pack did attack Neytiri, she began to swing her father's bow at them to the left and right with such of speed, and such of wild and ferocious manner that it superiorily rivalred Kaeyla's own, giving the pack no chance to get past her to get the kids or get even closer of her without getting whacked away. And about over dozen nantang that got too close of her range or tried to pounce on her was sent flying away by the impact of Neytiri's swing, whining as they go.
But while Neytiri was occupied, the pack leader tried to use the distraction as its advantage and sneak on Neteyam and Kaeyla from behind where they had no protection against it or the rest of the nantang pack.
However, two more shadows of ikran swooped over Neteyam's and Kaeyla's heads, one of which Neteyam recognized as his father's ikran, named Bob.
Kaeyla too recognized the second ikran, a female with mostly bluish and purplish colorations, with the black stripes that circled around each other over the yellowish spots on the winhgs, making the patterns of the swirling vortexes that resembled a bit w wrapped fingers of the clenched fist if viewed from above. It was her father's ikran, named Tisay (means loyalty in Na'vi language).
Then, between of them and the pack leader and its pack landed two more Na'vi, whom both Neteyam and Kaeyla recognized immediately.
"DAD!" they both said simultaneously.
It was indeed Jake Sully, wearing his simple mantle of Olo'eyktan of Omatikaya Clan (the similiar one Tsu'tey had worn during his time as Olo'eyktan before him), and by his side was standing Ka'ani. Both of them stood protectively before they respective children against the nantang pack with spear and bow in hands.
Jake swung his long spear at the small predators to keep them way - but he was careful not to harm them beyond of whacking them away.
Though initially surprised by Jake's, Neytiri's and Ka'ani's sudden arrival, the pack leader didn't back off. First it growled at Jake in challenge, catching his attention, to which Jake responded with the sharp hiss of his own.
Seeing its challenge accepted, the pack leader then jumped at Jake, despite its' injury, but Jake managed to stop it with his spear, leaving the pack leader clinging to it while trying to snap its jaws at Jake's faces.
"BACK OFF!" Jake demanded, before he threw the pack leader away.
Ka'ani swung his bow at the incoming nantang to keep them at bay, and whacked away any predator that dared to come too close.
One nantang managed to capture his bow between of his jaws, prompting Ka'ani to lift his bow and the nantang off the ground, before he swung the predator over his head and threw it away, sending it to fly into another nantang that almost attacked Jake from his left when the eye avoided, knocking both nantang away.
Seeing this, Jake turned to Ka'ani and gave him a brotherly nod of gratitude, to which Ka'ani returned with the nod of his own, before the two of them resumed fighting off the pack.
Jake, Neytiri, and Ka'ani continued to fight the pack off for a while, and no matter how hard the pack tried to get past them and get to Neteyam and Kaeyla again, they couldn't break through their defenses.
Even Bob and Tisay and surprisingly Neteyam's own ikran named Eyktan (meaning leader in Na'vi language) who had arrived to the scene unexpectedly after sensing that Neteyam was in trouble, helped out their riders to fend off the nantang by lunging at them, swinging their talons down at them, screeching loudly at them, and simply scaring them with their over the predators' heads swooping shadows.
And since the pack seemed to be already tired from their fighting with Neteyam and Kaeyla, before long more than half of the pack members started to break and retreat whining back into the forests.
Only the toughest ones and the pack leader remained behind.
The pack leader circled around of the adult Na'vi's defense while its underlings were keeping them occupied, carefully observing them for any weak spot it could use to break through and attack either one of the adult Na'vi or the kids. However, the adults just kept swinging their weapons left and right so fast, securing each other's backs, that they left almost no a single open spot for a long time.
At least, not until Jake had swatted one nantang off with his spear did the second nantang jumped onto his shoulders from behind, and the third clinged on his left arm.
"Dad!" Neteyam gasped, seeing his father in trouble, and tried to stand up to help, but his current state made it difficult.
"You stay down, you skxawng!" Kaeyla hissed, pulling Neteyam back down or else he'd hurt himself more.
The pack leader, however, noticed Jake getting distracted by two of its underlings, thus clearing the way to the kids.
The leader of the pack snarled, eager for a last ditch effort to get the kids and took off running towards them.
Kaeyla and Neteyam noticed the pack leader coming towards them and gasped with dread.
However, though Jake's and Ka'ani's attentions where in two nantang on Jake, Neytiri didn't fail to notice the pack leader making the jump on her son and Kaeyla.
With the near lightning fast speed, Neytiri turned around and put another one of her arrows into her bow, before she leveled it horizontally up, pulled back the string, took the aim and released the arrow.
And right at the moment when the pack leader was upon the kids, Neytiri's arrow hit straight and true.
The pack leader, having hit by Neytiri's arrow, let out a cry in pain as the arrow's impact knocked it off mid-jump and made it fall on its left side to the ground.
Seeing their leader downed by Neytiri's arrow, the rest of the remaining nantang pack immediately gave up the fight afterwards and fled into the jungle, including those ones clinging to Jake, though only after Jake had shaken one off of his left hand, throwing it away, and Ka'ani whacked another one off Jake's shoulders.
Jake, Neytiri and Ka'ani briefly chased the pack, snarling ferociously after them, forcing them to flee back to their nesting grounds.
And soon, there was no nantang left in the whole clearing.
But even though things had calmed down now, Jake, Neytiri, and Ka'ani kept hissing into the jungle, still alert in case the pack would regroup and attack them and the kids again.
However, after waiting for a moment, the pack never returned to the clearing, which allowed the parents to turn their attentions to their children.
"Neteyam!" Jake and Neytiri called out as they rushed to their son's side.
"Kaeyla!" Ka'ani called as he too rushed to his daughter's side.
Both parents knelt before their respective children to see if they were okay.
"Neteyam! Are you alright?!" Neytiri asked near frantically, grabbing Neteyam by his shoulders.
"Did you got hurt, son?!" Jake asked, taking a notice of Neteyam's injuries that littered all over his body, while touching his head.
"No, dad, mom. I'm alright. I'm okay, honest." Neteyam assured them, even if he was a little shaken and outright sore from all over, but he shook it all off as he did not wanted to look weak before his parents.
"But Neteyam... your arm! What happened!" Neytiri gasped, seeing the bleeding bite gashes in Neteyam's right arm.
Jake glanced over his shoulder at the pack leader Neytiri had killed, and his eyes went wide when he noticed its jaws covered with blood. He then looked back to Neteyam's arms and the wound in it.
"Did she bit you, son?" Jake questioned firmly.
"Just the scratch." Neteyam simply said in attempt to shook off their worries... as well as the pain he was actually feeling in his arm.
While Jake and Neytiri were checking out their son, Ka'ani too knelt before his daughter.
"Kaeyla! Thank you, Great Mother! Are you alright, daughter?!" Ka'ani asked, grabbing Kaeyla by both her shoulders.
"I'm fine, dad. Really, I'm fine. Little scratched and tired but fine." Kaeyla said, as she, unlike Neteyam, did not hesitate to show some humility and vulnerability before his father.
Relieved that his daughter was safe and sound despite her injuries, Ka'ani immediately pulled Kaeyla into a hug and hugged her tight, to which Kaeyla returned in kind, burrying her face in her father's shoulder.
However, as Ka'ani eventually pulled back but kept her hold on Kaeyla's shoulders, the relieved expression on his face turned into a mixed confusion and anger, and he narrowed his eyes into a frown as he looked at Kaeyla.
"Kaeyla? What in the Great Mother's name are you even doing here? This is beyond of the boundaries of our territory! Why did you even come here?!" Ka'ani questioned sternly while trying to maintain his composure... apparently seeing that Kaeyla had gone through a lot already and tried his best not to yell at her too much.
Kaeyla frowned worriedly when their happy reunion changed its tone, and she knew she got a lot of explaining to do to her father about going outside their territory, even though she knew full well it was forbidden.
It took Kaeyla a while to recall everything that had happened since she and Neteyam had accidentally bumped into each other at the falls during of her first try of hunt, and another while to think about where she could start and how much she could say to give her father a good enough explanation of her actions.
"Dad..." Kaeyla stammered, as she braced herself for an explanation she owed to her father. "I..."
However, before she could get out a single word, her attention was all of the sudden caught by what was happening next to her and her father.
"What the hell, boy, you were thinking about coming in here?! These parts of the woods are off limits. Worse, this place is way too far from our territory's boundaries, which you should've known better than anyone else." Jake's voice said as he was chiding Neteyam for this whole incident.
"And what in the name of Great Mother were you thinking, young man, to go to disturb the peace of nantang?! Did you even know their nesting grounds were nearby not far from here?!" Neytiri's voice said sternly.
Instead of explaining herself to her father, Kaeyla turned to look at Neteyam and his parents. Unfortunately, after they had checked out their son, they had instantly started to scold him for coming here in the first place.
Unlike her father who tried to keep his composure while reprimanding her, both Olo'eyktan and his mate did not even hesitate to raise their voices as they sternly scolded Neteyam for all of this, apparently because of them being both the leaders of the Omatikaya clan and his parents with huge responsibilities for both the clan and Neteyam, from whom, as their first born and both apprentice and future Olo'eyktan of the clan, they were expecting to understand the sense and the burden of the responsibility.
"Dad, mom. I knew there was a nantang's nesting area nearby, and I knew we shouldn't have come here, but I..." Neteyam tried to explain.
"But despite knowing all of that, you came here nonetheless." Jake said disappointedly, cutting his son off.
"And now because of that, son, one of them needlessly died!" Neytiri hissed, pointing at the pack leader nantang she'd killed to save him and Kaeyla.
Of course, Neytiri wouldn't have wanted to kill the pack leader who was, despite it trying to kill her son and Kaeyla just a moment ago, still one of Eywa's children and thus waste a life unnecessarily, though she was still willing to do anything to protect the ones she loved, even if that what she had to do to protect them wouldn't please her or would be against her better judgment. She was just upset over the circumstances that had led her to do that.
"She didn't need to die, Neteyam. Do you understand?" Neytiri repeated, with a bit calmer but still stern voice this time.
"I know, mom, but..." Neteyam tried to say.
"As my son and a future Olo'eyktan of Omatikaya clan, we're putting so much faith in you and except you to obey direct orders and be the responsible one. Is this the way how you think that's done?" Jake questioned.
"No, I didn't." Neteyam said, shaking his head.
"Then what were you thinking to step beyond the boundaries of our territory if you knew you're not allowed to do so without their supervision? And why the hell did you even brought Ka'ani's daughter to the danger with you?!" Jake demanded.
Kaeyla frowned sadly to see Neteyam being reprimanded by his parents for overstepping the boundaries despite knowing the rules, and they weren't even wrong to do this to him, as Neteyam had never even objected to them leaving the falls and going after that yerik herd outside of their territory in the first place.
Even if Neteyam had obediently tried to follow his father's instructions and had actually objected or even tried to stop her from going beyond the borders, Kaeyla thought that in her pride and desire to have her kill, she would have most unlikely listened to him and she would've both insisted and gone beyond the borders to track down that yerik herd nonetheless, even alone if she'd had to. And that by doing that, she would've only dragged Neteyam with her out there, because the responsibility for her safety would've fallen on his shoulders.
But there was never such an argument between of them, and he never even tried to stop her from going, for he himself had said that though he usually obeyed his father, he could not go back on the word of honor he had given her to help her to get her own kill to make up to her for stealing her kill from under her nose... even after he had cautioned her about the nearby nesting grounds of nantang, which marked the woods outside of their borders as their own territory... not to mention that he also wanted to show his father that he could do great things like him and make him proud of him.
And so, he had voluntarily accompanied her on her hunt to keep her safe from any possible attack from nantang pack, while urging her to get her kill quickly so that they could go back to their territory before their absence would be noticed and them be missed.
But she had obstinately refused to listen to him, much less abandon the animal she had felled after going through so much trouble for it, and immediately went to pick a fight with the leader of the pack, thus provoking it and the whole pack to attack them, nearly getting them both killed, and causing Neteyam to call their parents to help, which is why they were both in this mess now.
And so, it was her fault, either partially or completely, she didn't care, that all this had happened to them, and that's why Neteyam received such a severe reprimand from his parents.
And if she had just gone with Neteyam to find another yerik herd from within their territory instead of following that recent herd out of their boundaries, there would've never been attack from nantang, and none of this would've ever happened.
But what was done, was done... and there was nothing they could do about it
However, despite that, it didn't felt right to Kaeyla that Neteyam got way more harsher reprimant for all of this while they were both equally guilty in this.
"Kaeyla...?" Ka'ani called softly, making Kaeyla to turn back to her father.
"The explanation?" Ka'ani asked, reminding Kaeyla that he was still awaiting for her explanation for going outside of their boundaries.
Quickly recalling that, Kaeyla nodded her head to her father and quickly went back to it. But when she opened her mouth and was about to explain herself to her father, her attention turned once again back Olo'eyktan and his mate reprimanding Neteyam in stern manner.
"But, dad. I can explain." Neteyam insisted.
"Indeed. And you better give us a good explanation. And then we'll discuss about your punishment for disobedience once we get back home, young man." Jake said.
"But dad! I just...!" Neteyam tried.
"Neteyam. Explanation. Now." Neytiri demanded, getting her son's attention. "Why did you go outside our boundaries and brought Kaeyla with you?"
"Kaeyla?" Ka'ani called again, raising his voice slightly in impatience when Kaeyla seemed to focus more on the Sully family rather than him. "I demand an explanation now!"
Kaeyla felt a bit conflicted here. She of course wanted to explain herself to her father but she also couldn't look away from Neteyam who was having a harder time to explain himself to his own parents under theior disappointed and stern gazes, than what she had with her own father.
Kaeyla also began to feel a strong desire to tell her side of the story not only to her father but also to Olo'eyktan, even if it meant that she would have to slightly modify the actual course of events in Neteyam's defense and thus earn the ire of both Olo'eyktan and her own father... but she would be fine with that just as long as Neteyam won't be reprimanted too harshly for her mistakes.
"Kaeyla!" Ka'ani said in a louder and stricter voice.
The butterflies of anxiousness were starting to tickle her tummy from inside, and the drops of sweat began to ran down her temples, as Kaeyla looked alternatively to her father and to Neteyam and his parents, wondering in dead seriousness who she should tell her side of the story first while trying to gather enough of mental courage and some confidence in herself to make herself to say it... and face afterwards the consequences.
"Well, as you know, I went to hunt on my own in the forest with my ikran, without supervision as you had earlier promised me, dad, just as long as I promised in return to stay within our borders. And... I followed the herd of yerik there, to the falls near the northern border." Neteyam sais as he began to explain himself.
"And I trusted you to keep your promise, and yet you broke it by going outside nonetheless." Jake scoled, his arms crossed over his chest.
"Yes. I'm sorry, dad." Neteyam apologized, lowering his head down in shame.
More drops of sweat began to ran down the sides of her head and she began to breathe anxiously, still having not decided to which one she should talk first.
"Kaeyla! Look at me! Talk to me!" Ka'ani almost exclaimed sternly.
"And what about Kaeyla?" Neytiri asked, referring to Kaeyla with her hand for a moment before she turned back to Neteyam. "What she's doing here? You never said anything about bringing her or anyone else here 'cause you wanted to hunt on your own."
"Well, I kinda ran into Kaeyla at the falls by the coincidence. I couldn't guess that she was hunting here too." Neteyam explained, turning to his mother.
Kaeyla felt her innards being tied into the tight knot by the two conflicted feelings arousing voices inside of her: one in her head and one in her heart. The voice inside of her head told her to tell her father first, while the voice in her heart told her to do otherwise and tell to Olo'eyktan first in Neteyam's defense.
"And you decided to bring her with you to your little adventure outside of the borders... endangering her too and not just yourself?" Jake questioned with the scowl.
"No! I-I-I..." Neteyam stammered in denial.
"NO!" Kaeyla, finally unable to hold herself back any more and deciding to listen the voice of her heart, cried out loud. "NO! This is not Neteyam's fault!"
Jake, Neytiri, Neteyam and her father turned all to stare at her with the reaised brows.
"Kaeyla, this is between of Sully family, so let Neteyam explain this to us. You can explain your part to your father." Jake said dismissively.
"NO! I will explain this to you myself, Olo'eyktan!" Kaeyla insisted, before she pushed her father's hands off her shoulders and rushed to Neteyam's side... or more likely, between Neteyam and his parents. "And all of this is not Neteyam's fault! None of his fault! It's me! This is my fault! All of it! I myself went across the borders to hunt and dragged Neteyam with me out there! That's the truth! Honestly! I swear it in the Great Mother's name!"
Jake and Neytiri were taken aback by Kaeyla's outburst and they along with Ka'ani were perplexed by her claims of being the one to blame here, not Neteyam.
"Kaeyla?" Neteyam gasped, surprised and confused by this. "What are you...?"
Kaeyla, however, ignored him and kept her gaze in his parents and her father.
Jake and Neytiri exchanged a looks with each other, while Ka'ani, as he walked next to Jake, looked down at his daughter with the frown on his face.
"Daughter? What are you saying?" he questioned. "Are you saying that you went over the border despite knowing you're not allowed to go there by yourself, and that you took son of Jakesully with you against his will?"
"Is this true?" Jake asked, turning directly to Kaeyla.
Kaeyla nodded her head to confirm this. "Yes." she added.
Neteyam stared at Kaeyla wide-eyed, knowing that it didn't go like that at all.
"But I can explain, because I had my reasons." Kaeyla added humbly, and began to tell her side of the story before either Jake or Ka'ani could ask her to explain herself.
"Like Neteyam said, we bumped into each other by coincidence at the falls, where I... unaware of his presence... took Neteyam's kill from under his nose, and performed the mercy kill on the felled yerik that was rightfully his." Kaeyla began.
Neteyam frowned, because that went completely other way around than what Kaeyla was telling them, and in addition of all, she completely left out that how she had ran away from the falls to the river and tried to row away in order to get far away from him as possible in fear of his "wrath" due to her attack on him in his family's Marui in the aftermath of that incident with Punkun four years ago.
Kaeyla then continued. "And, well, due to my earlier attempts to avoid him out of fear of his anger over that incident back in your Marui a while ago, Olo'eyktan, I offered to help him to get his own yerik to make up my teft of his kill, so that he doesn't need to return to you empty handed."
Jake, Neytiri and Ka'ani listened patiently, until Jake spoke up.
"So you two went out of the boundaries for that reason, foolishly putting your own lives at risk?" Jake questioned.
"Like I said, it was me all along, not Neteyam." Kaeyla insisted. "I went beyond the borders to follow that yerik herd at the falls because that was the closest one, and the tracks we found - outside of our territory of course - gave us a hint that the herd hadn't gone too far off."
Kaeyla then turned to refer Neteyam with her hand, while Neteyam still stared at her in puzzlement.
"Neteyam here knew very well that we were not supposed to go outside of our territory and tried to tell me not to go out there, but I wanted to make up to him for me stealing his kill so much that I didn't listen, even after he had warned me that there were pack of nantang nesting nearby." Kaeyla explained.
"Then why he came anyway?" Neytiri questioned.
"Because I convinced him..." Kaeyla said.
However, she quickly realized that she might've just erroneously put Neteyam in the bad light in his parents' eyes if, according to what she'd just said, she had been able to convince Neteyam to come along, even though she had just labelled him strict with the rules and responsible one, so she quickly "corrected" herself.
"No, I mean...! Because I crossed the border on my own and Neteyam, feeling that my safety was in his responsibility, only came along because he had to keep me safe... even if it meant going across the border." Kaeyla quickly explained. "Neteyam of course tried to make me to change my mind and go back, suggesting to find another herd from within our territory instead of coming out here."
Kaeyla then lowered her head down a little in shame, but still looked up at the adults before her.
"But... But I... I was too focused on getting that kill for him that I completely disregarded his advices and the risks altogether. So, it's my fault that we almost got killed here." Kaeyla finished.
Ka'ani frowned in deep disbelief and disappointment at Kaeyla for willingly crossing the border in disregard of the rules, the risks, and even the wiser advice of Jakesully's son, who knows better than to take unnecessary risks.
A baffled Neteyam gently shook his head, as none of that hadn't gone like how Kaeyla had described to their parents.
Jake and Neytiri exchanged thoughtful but quite neutral looks with each other, so it was hard for Kaeyla to tell whether they believed her story or were they suspicious of something she said.
She hoped that she hadn't just inadvertently left any kind of, as the Olo'eyktan and their Sky People allies used to say, loopholes in her story.
After all, she had developed a pretty big fabricated version of the course of events in attempt to put Neteyam in the better light in the eyes of his parents, and that he actually lived up to their expectations, even to a small degree, and not the other way around.
After going through everything she had told them one more time and thinking it over, Jake and Neytiri turned back to Kaeyla.
"Is all of it you've just said true?" Jake questioned.
Neteyam, however, almost ruined everything by trying to step forward to tell his father that Kaeyla's story wasn't true at all, but Kaeyl clamped her hand over his mouth to shut him up before he exposed her lie.
"Yes, Olo'eyktan. Every word is true." Kaeyla confirmed.
Both Jake and Ka'ani exhaled deeply as they looked down at Kaeyla with disappointment, making Kaeyla to avoid their eye-contacts by lowering her eyes to the ground, while Neytiri went over to Neteyam and wrapped her arms around her son, before turning to watch Jake, Ka'ani and Kaeyla with tense anticipation.
Ka'ani then snorted, before he turned to Jake and put his hand over his shoulder, getting his attention.
"I'll take this from here, Jakesully." he said, wanting to handle this with his daughter in his own way.
Jake nodded to his brother-figure understandably.
Ka'ani then turned back to Kaeyla, who didn't look up at him but partially covered under of her father's strict gaze.
Ka'ani stood there for a moment in silence and in seething anger... before he grabbed with his hand not-too-gently but neither not-too-roughly from Kaeyla's head and pulled it back enough to make Kaeyla look up at him.
Cringing with worry, Kaeyla made an awkward eye-contact with her scowling father, and they stared at each other for a moment... before Ka'ani lifted his arm and pointed his finger at the direction of the falls, and the river where her canoe was, and their village.
"Home... now!" Ka'ani ordered strictly. "We'll discuss more about this later."
"Yes, dad." Kaeyla said submissively.
Picking up her bow and arrows, Kaeyla began to make her way back to the falls and the river to get her canoe and row down the river back to their village... with Ka'ani following closely behind to see her leaving for the village, with Tisay flying ahead of them to the river, so that she could pick her rider up there.
Neteyam, however, tried to protest this in Kaeyla's defense.
"No! No wait!" Neteyam cried, before he turned to his father. "Dad! Listen to me! None of that ain't true, or didn't at least go in that way she described! Kaeyla was just trying to back me up, but all of this is truthfully my fault! If I hadn't..."
However, he was cut short when Jake raised his hand to silence him.
"That's enough, son. I've heard enough." Jake said dismissively.
"But, dad...!" Neteyam tried once more, but Jake spoke over his words as he turned to face his son.
"Neteyam. While I don't appreciate that you ventured across the borders to the risk zone, I appreciate that you at least tried to keep up to my orders, and most importantly, to keep her safe out here. And I'm proud of that." Jake said with the small smile on his lips.
Neteyam was immediately dumbstruck by his father's display of appreciation and pride for him, no matter how small... even though a small voice inside him told him that he wasn't even worthy of his father's praise that was earned by the lie, told by Kaeyla, to put him in a good light before his father's eyes, and a part of him might even agree with that voice.
The small smile then faded from Jake's lips, and his strict demeanor came back.
"But see to it that this won't happen ever again in the future. Is that clear?" Jake asked.
However, Neteyam once again wanted to convince his father that he was the guilty one here, not Kaeyla, for not following up to his father's rules about the borders in his desires to make up to Kaeyla his teft of her kill from under her nose back at the falls... but he quickly resigned himself from doing so when he realized that his father's mind was made up and that he won't listen to him.
A little disappointed, and under the gaze of his father waiting for his answer, Neteyam dropped his hands and sighed deeply in defeat.
"Yes, dad." Neteyam said submissively.
"Good." Jake said, satisfied. "Now let's go home so that we can show your grandmother your arm. It needs patching up."
"Yes, Sir." Neteyam said.
They then called Bob, Sylwa and Eyktan to them, who landed to the ground before their respective riders, screeching in greeting. Neteyam, however, was not fit to fly with Eyktan back to the village due to his injuries and busted arm, so Jake took him on Bob's back, while Eyktan screeched softly in worry for its rider's conditon.
Neytiri went to pick up the yerik Kaeyla had felled earlier, believing it being Neteyam's kill - during the battle, the body had been slightly ripped apart from various points by nantang, but it looked still mostly in one piece and thus still usable - and tied it onto Sylwa's back.
And then, all three of them took off and flew back to the village.
###
A day later after the nantang attack, with the healing leaves patched up Kaeyla was sitting in her family's marui all by herself.
After she'd returned to the village and her marui with the yerik Neteyam had felled and brought to her at the river bank, the first thing she ran into was Ka'ani, who had got back home a way before she had, and was talking with Saeyla, apparently having told her mother everything she had told to her father.
And when her arrival had caught their attention from their conversation, neither of them were pleased how "reckless" she had been to venture outside of the northern border of their territory and thus not only endangering her own but also their Olo'eyktan's son's life.
And as a punishment, both Ka'ani and Saeyla agreed that Kaeyla will not leave the village for the solo hunts for the time being until they say so, and that she needed to do twice of the household chores to "learn some responsibility" of her actions.
Even though the very thought of her being grounded and not allowed to leave the village to hunt by her parents sounded very unfair, Kaeyla was then just way too tired to argue with them and protest their decision and just humbly accepted the punishment... at least that would be enough time for her to think about what she did... both for real and unreally.
At the moment, while Ka'ani was away with some hunters, Saeyla was in the forest gathering fruits together with her friends and Kai'ani was playing with his friends, Kaeyla was busy weaving baskets, which was not her favorite task because it took so much time and required a lot of concentration and fine dexterity, and it was so annoying to correct constantly occurring mistakes.
Kaeyla let out a sigh, because even though she knew she'd gotten herself into this, she wished she was somewhere else right now... like hunting in the woods, rowing her canoe on the river, tending a pa'li, or just hanging out with some of her friends.
Suddenly, Kaeyla ceased weaving her current basket as she sensed a presence and turned her head to the branch that led away from her Marui... and saw Neteyam standing there, on the branch outside of the Marui.
The son of Olo'eyktan too was patched up with the healing leaves, and his right arm from where the nantang pack leader had bit him was completely bandaged up with leaves, and it apparently was in the sling. The pack leader had apparently broken his arm lightly that he needed to carry it in the sling for the time being until his arm was completely healed.
"Hi." Neteyam said, giving Kaeyla a Na'vi greeting.
"Hi." Kaeyla said, turning fully to him and greeting him back.
Neteyam looked briefly around and saw Kaeyla all by herself in the Marui. "Where's Ka'ani, and Saeyla and your brother?" he asked.
"Dad is on the hunt, mom is gathering fruits with her friends in the forest, and Kai'ani is playing with his friends." Kaeyla explained. "And I am here all by myself to finish my doubled household chores by weaving these silly baskets." she finished with annoyed voice, showing Neteyam a couple of baskets she had already done.
Neteyam nodded his head.
"How is your arm, by the way?" Kaeyla asked, nodding at Neteyam's arm in the sling.
"I live, but I can't use my arm for a little while for any heavy work, and dad has confined me into our Marui so that I could make a full recovery." Neteyam said with slight frustration. "I almost feel useless now!"
"Tell me about it." Kaeyla said with the light chuckle and she carefully pushed herself up. "I, myself, would gladly do anything else but to stay here weaving baskets from dawn to dusk."
Both Kaeyla and Neteyam shared a light chuckles at this in amusement of their own words.
Neteyam then raised his foot onto Marui's edge, but didn't immediately step inside, not before asking the permission to it. His dad had taught to him that it would be very rude to just go into somebody else's home without asking or being invited first.
"Mind if I come in?" Neteyam asked.
"Sure." Kaeyla nodded. "My family will not be here for a while, so I guess it makes me the head of the Marui now. So come in."
Neteyam nodded his thanks before the son of Olo'eyktan jumped onto Marui and entered, walking straight to Kaeyla. The two preteens were then standing face-to-face in middle of the Marui, looking at each other.
"You probably have some reason to come here, right?" Kaeyla questioned with the raised brow.
"Aside of me checking out if you were doing fine after that scuffle with the nantang pack, yes." Neteyam confirmed. "I kind of came to ask why did you do that?"
"I did what?" Kaeyla asked, lightly confused.
"Well... you taking all the heat from our parents for me by fabricating the course of the events." Neteyam clarified. "I was ready to take it all from my father because it was my fault that we ventured across the borders and almost got ourselves killed out there because I didn't enforce my father's rules about the border areas."
"Oh yeah, that!" Kaeyla recalled. "Well, it was partially my fault too, because I just wanted to get my kill so badly that I disregarded the borders and rules and risks and so on. I also disregarded your advice back in that clearing and, like a real skxanwg, I went to pick a fight with the pack leader in defense of my own kill, which of course got the whole pack to attack us. But you got most of the heat from your dad, way more... maybe even a little too much... than what I got from my own dad."
"Well, that's quite normal for me." Neteyam explained. "After all, I am the son of Olo'eyktan, the firstborn of my family and the future Olo'eyktan. My father expects me to have a sense of responsibility and the understantment of its burden so that one day I can take his place."
"That was still quite harsh tone he was giving to you, if you ask from me." Kaeyla protested.
"As much as I don't like it neither, I've got used to it... at least to some extent." Neteyam added with the shrug. "But that's just who my dad is: a great warrior, who fights to defend the people he loves. And it has always been my dream to be a warrior just like him."
"Yeah, sure." Kaeyla shrugged, unimpressed.
"But anyway... you still didn't answer to my question. Why did you made up that story, that definitely didn't went like it really did, and took the whole blame for me." Neteyam asked.
"Well, for one reason, it didn't sound fair to me that you took most of the blame even though we both share the blame equally, because we were both after our own interests - me my kill and you your promise to help me to get it and to make your dad proud of you - without the regard of the rules." Kaeyla said.
"And the second reason?" Neteyam asked, feeling that there was another reason why Kaeyla took the blame for him.
"Well… I don't know how to explain this…" Kaeyla said. "Maybe because... you were there... with your brothers... to rescue me and my brother from the trouble we had got ourselves into with Punkun and his friends, even if you didn't had to. And because of the circumstances that followed afterwards of that day, I never got a chance to thank you and your brothers properly, and that I never even tried, nor to repay it to you somehow. So I kinda felt like... I owned you a favor."
"Favor for favor." Neteyam concluded. "That's your motivation to stand up for me and take all the blame?"
"Yes." Kaeyla confirmed. "Since you and your brothers saved me and Kai'ani from the trouble, I decided - after I had gathered enough of courage to do it - to save you from the trouble. That's why I told our parents that whole made up story to put you in the better light before your dad's eyes, even if it costed me to be seen in the bad light by my own dad."
"But you really did not had to do it... and get yourself into the trouble because of me." Neteyam said, though he couldn't help but smile at Kaeyla for what she did for him.
"Neither did you and your brothers need to come to my and Kai'ani's aid back then... and neither did you need to help me to get my kill and get yourself into trouble... yet you did anyway." Kaeyla said, she neither failing to hold back her smile. "And for that... thanks, Neteyam."
Now Neteyam smiled broadly, letting out a muffled chuckle.
"You're welcome, Kaeyla." Neteyam said softly and sweetly.
Kaeyla too smiled broadly at him, until she began to feel a tingling feeling within herself that caused her cheeks turning darker tone and almost purplish, before she shyly turned her head away from Neteyam to hide it, chuckling lightly.
There was a moment of silence between the two of them... that is, until Neteyam turned to look outside of the marui to where his family's own Marui was.
"Well, I should be heading back now. Dad will get pretty cranky if he finds out I sneaked away to see you against his orders." Neteyam said, turning back to Kaeyla.
"Wait! You sneaked out?!" Kaeyla gasped.
"Yeah, I did." Neteyam confirmed, rubbing his neck a little sheepishly.
Kaeyla gasped again, this time quite aloud, before she raised her hands over her mouth in mock-shock, as if playing along.
"By the Great Mother! Then what are you still standing here?! You really should go!" Kaeyla said urgently, before she quickly grabbed from Neteyam's shoulders, turned him around and began to push him out of the marui and towards the branch leading away from here, though just playfully and mock-urgently. "Go! Go! Go! Out! Out! Out! Get out of here! Get back there before he notices and you'll be in the bigger trouble than what you already are!"
"Okay, okay! I'm going! I'm going!" Neteyam, playing along, laughed, earning some hilarious giggles from Kaeyla as well.
"Not fast enough!" Kaeyla giggled. "Faster, faster, faster! Faster like there is the pack of nantang or even palulukan after you! You hear me?!"
Neteyam then jumped down onto the branch and began to walk away, while looking back at Kaeyla all of time, as the latter was watching his leave from the edge of the Marui.
"Well, I'm on my way now. See you later!" Neteyam said.
"See you!" Kaeyla called after him with the smile. "And by the way! And by the way, will you say my thanks to your brothers?! This Lo'ak and this... Spider! Spider too! Will you?"
Neteyam chuckled. "Well, just to be clear, Kaeyla. Out of the two of them, Lo'ak's my brother but Spider's not. He's just a friend. But I will tell both of them nonetheless." he promised.
"Oh!" Kaeyla said, realizing her mistake about referring the human boy as Neteyam's brother, but she didn't let it bother her. "Alright! Thanks!"
With that, Neteyam turned around and began to make his way back to his family's Marui, hoping to get there first before his absence will be noticed and thus he'll end up into trouble, while Kaeyla turned around and returned to the baskets before she resumed her rather boring work... though the smile for Neteyam's surprise visit did remain on her lips.
And at the same time while weaving her next baskets, Kaeyla recalled that strange tingling feeling she felt inside of her at that silent moment between of them while she stared deep into Neteyam's eyes. That very same feeling began to build up within her again as she thought about Neteyam, his handsome face, the sweet way how he both treated and spoke to her, his overrall noble nature, his selflessness and gentleness and so on.
Chuckling at herself and her "silliness", Kaeyla shook her head to brush off those thoughts out of her head, before she put her hand on her head and shook it a little more gently, wondering that what's got into her.
Just a few days ago she had been trying to avoid any encounter and presence of Neteyam like the plague in fear of his wrath for the incident back in his family's Marui. And now, after their coincidental re-encounter back back at the falls and their very first wild adventure that followed after, she wasd filling her mind with the endearing and charming thoughts about him as if she had...
Kaeyla was quick to brush off those thoughts out of her head again, because it couldn't have been possible that after four years of running away from him, and only few days together like this, she was beginning to develope such of thoughts about him.
'A common clan member having a crush on the son of Olo'eyktan?' That's a ridiculous! Endearing thought, maybe, but ridiculous!
"Oh Great Mother... I'm truly wondering what the future is holding for us." Kaeyla told to particularly no one, except Eywa the Great Mother, as she resumed to do her task.
To be continued...
NEXT PART: COMMON TIME
TRIVIA
- I decided to name both Neytiri's and Neteyam's ikrans, as well as Ka'ani's own ikran.
- I named Neytiri's new ikran Sylwa after her late sister Sylwanin, to honor her fallen sister.
- I named Neteyam's ikran Eyktan, inspired by his future as the future Olo'eyktan of Omatikaya clan and that he is supposed to be a leading/guiding role model for his younger siblings.
- I named Ka'ani's ikran Tisay to demonstrate his support and loyalty for Jake in The Next Shadow comic series. I also made Ka'ani's ikran female due to her female-sounding name, and that there isn't proof whether each Na'vi bonds with ikran that is the same gender... only that the each ikran bonds with only one rider for life.