KAEYLA TE KATHAN SAEYLA'ITE.
PART 17.
LEAVING FOR TREKKING
Meanwhile, while Neteyam and Kaeyla were making their way to the Hell's Gate, Satka and Spider had already made their way to Omatikaya village.
And when they arrived there, they could see that the whole Sully family was waiting at the entrance of the village.
Prepared and with all of their necessary things packed, Jake and Neytiri were leading a couple of pa'li out of the village and towards a group of hunters who had already mounted on their pa'li and were standing nearby, waiting for Jake and Neytiri to join them for today's hunting trip.
And next to their parents, Lo'ak and Kiri led a couple of young Pa'li out of the village as well, while Kiri held Tuk's hand and Kai'ani walked by Lo'ak's side. It was obvious that due to the two's young age, Tuk would be riding with Kiri and Kai'ani would be riding with Lo'ak.
The family had not yet seen Satka and Spider's arrival as they had just stepped out of the forest, not until Spider decided to let them know about their presence with his own "Na'vi" cry.
"WOOOOYIIIIP!-HOOOOYIIIIP!" Spider cried aloud, while banging with his left fist against his chest.
Spider's quite "unique" battle cry instantly caught the Sully family's attention, as they all turned from their doings to look at his and Satka's direction.
"Well, well, well. Look who it is." Lo'ak said with the smile upon noticing Satka's and Spider's arrival.
"About time, though. I thought they'd never get here." Kai'ani said with the annoyed frown.
However, when his eyes met Satka's, and Satka's met his own, Kai'ani couldn't help but smile shyly yet fondly at his childhood friend. But it lasted only for a moment before his shyness got better of him after Satka smiled fondly back at him and he quickly turned away, much to Satka's amusement.
Satka directed her pa'li in front of the village's entrance (even if there technically wasn't any entrance in the village), but Spider suddenly hopped off pa'li's back before she could've even stopped her horse.
As Spider landed on his feet, the human boy dramatically threw his arms in the air and smiled broadly at Kiri, Lo'ak, Kai'ani and Tuktirey.
"I see you! Spider's here again!" Spider announced loudly and dramatically.
"Spider!" Kiri cried happily and rushed from her pa'li's side towards her dear human friend, followed by Lo'ak, Kai'ani and Tuktirey, who too eagerly rushed from their own pa"li's side to meet their recently arrived friends.
Due to the obvious size-differences between the two, Kiri immediately fell on her knees before Spider and wrapped her arms around of the boy, pulling him into a hug, to which Spider all too gladly returned by wrapping his own arms around of Kiri's neck and hugged her tightly. Both of them smiled happily in each other's warm embrace.
"Spider!" Tuktirey squaled as she ran from Kiri's left side to meet him. Kiri and Spider then broke their hug before the latter turned to the youngest of Sully kids.
"Hello, Tuk!" Spider greeted, before letting a light gasp at the sight of her. "Look at you! By the Great Mother, how have you grown! You're bigger than I last remembered!"
That was largely true, as the last-born child, Tuktirey had spent her last few years mostly in the custody of her mother Neytiri, and due to her being the youngest, she had been confined and therefore not been allowed to leave Marui alone without the supervision of either obe parent or at least the older child... which usually has always been either Neteyam or Kiri.
And because of that, Spider's only got to see Neteyam, Kiri, and Lo'ak more than Tuktirey (save for the occassional situatios when he was allowed to visit Sullys' Marui), since all three of them were old enough to leave Marui, even though they too were confined within Omatikaya's territory.
And even now, Spider was pretty surprised to ser that little Tuk had grown from the little infant to roughly 3/4 of his own size in the few years, even if he knew well the differences in growing and maturity progress between human and Na'vi.
Tuktirey giggled sweetly as both she and Spider pulled each other into a warm hug.
And as the two friends broke their hug, Spider turned to Lo'ak, who came from Kiri's right side to greet him.
"Hi, bro!" Spider greeted his friend.
"Hi, cuz." Lo'ak greeted back as he smiled at the boy, before he raised his right hand and held it out to Spider. "High-five!"
"High-five!" Spider said as he high-fived with Lo'ak.
Although Lo'ak generally didn't like things that negatively related to his five-fingered hands, the everyday reminded of how different he was from the rest of his kind, there were some things he did like about it, such as making high-fives with Spider, who too had five fingers equal to his own.
Lo'ak then put his hands on his hips and gave Spider a partial frown.
"What?" Spider said, noticing the look Lo'ak was giving him before he shrugged his shoulders.
"You're late, cuz. What gives?" Lo'ak said, lightly chiding Spider and indirectly Satka for not coming earlier as they had agreed.
Spider snorted as "that" thought came back to his mind. "That's because Nash wanted to keep me from coming here today. Even threatened to lock me up in my room like the animal in the cage and cancel my lunch as punishment if I even try so much and sneak away." Spider told them.
Both Lo'ak's and Kiri's ears folded back and agaist the sides of their head in annoyance with Spider's foster father not allowing their friend to come here to the forest and to the village to see them by his own free will.
"Like I said, whatta sourpuss!" Lo'ak hissed.
"More likely a controlling freak!" Kiri corrected her brother with the clear disdain. "Sometimes I cannot understand why Uncle Norm couldn't take Spider under his wing like he did with Satka instead of Nash. Or why we couldn't...?"
However, Kiri quickly cut herself short before she paid a sideays glance towards their mother, knowing that while knowing herself what she had been about to say, that wouldn't have pleased especially her, which she had seen too often everytime she has questioned her parents that why Spider couldn't be with them instead of Nash and his family.
Lo'ak pursed his lips uncomfortably before paying a quick sideways glance towards their mother, knowing what Kiri meant.
"Well, look on the bright side, because dad was right..." Tuk then spoke in. "Spider's here now, with us! This means that, like dad said, nothing can hold him back from coming to us! Absolutely Nothing! The Great Mother takes care of that because she watched after him too like she does with all of us."
Spider chuckled, feeling flattered by Tuk's words for him - though he dared to doubt if Eywa was really looking after him as well as she does for all the other Na'vi just because he is human, and alien, and can't link with her in any way due to the lack of kuru of his own, even if Spider held utmost respect for the Great Mother the best way he could nonetheless via the forest and nature of Pandora.
"Aww... thanks, Tuk." Spider said gratefully, though blushing lightly.
While watching from aside their children's happy association with Spider, both Jake and Neytiri were giving it a discordant looks.
Jake gave them a rather relaxed and a happy smile - and he was glad to see the boy again even if his mate did not share his opinion - and was certain that their children and Spider were gonna have a lots of fun with each other in the forest today while they were gone hunting.
Neytiri, however, eyed Spider warily and with discomfort of leaving their children, her children, with Spider all day - even if Jake had dispatched several hunters to watch over them - and was still highly of the opinion that her children should spend more time with the other children of their own kind instead with that boy.
Satka's view of Spider interracting with the Sully kids wasn't any different from Jake's own. She smiled happily at the four of them while still sitting on the back of pa'li.
Then, Satka's gaze shifted to Kai'ani, who was the last one to come to greet Spider.
"Hi, Spider. You little skxawng!" Kai'ani said, brushing Spider's head with his hand.
"Hey! Watch my braids, will you!" Spider complained, shooing Kai'ani's hand away. "And just for you to know, Kai'ani, that I might be a little but at least I'm not such of big skxawng around here as you are." He joked.
"Ouch. That hurt more than zize's sting. Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!" Kai'ani replied sarcastically in mock hurt.
Lo'ak, Kiri, Tuktirey and Satka laughed at this, to which Spider and Kai'ani joined in moments later.
"You're both such of skxawng!" Kiri laughed, shaking her head.
As this was happening, Satka gave Kai'ani a slight scowl behind the boy's back, annoyed and a bit offended that Kai'ani seemed to be more interested in interracting with Spider instead of greeting her in person (even if she didn't hold any grudges towards Spider because of that), totally ignoring her like she wasn't even there.
To both remind Kai'ani about that and at the same time to tease him in his expense, knowing that he had developed a secret crush on her from their earlier childhood but was just too shy to confess them in her presence which didn't bother her at all - except just a little bit - Satka teasingly flicked the tip of her tail against his left temple as she got down from her pa'li's back.
"Ow! Hey!" Kai'ani complained after getting caught off guard by Satka's tail flicking his temple.
Letting out the hiss in annoyance at this, Kai'ani turned around to to give some piece of his mind to the one who had done that as Satka simultaneously dropped down from her pa'li in front of her.
Kai'ani was immediately taken aback when he realized that he was literally face to face with Satka, who gave him a flirting look from under her wide-brimmed hat.
"Satka!" Kai'ani gasped in surprise.
"I see you, Kai'ani." Satka greeted her with the gesture.
Kai'ani, however, didn't return to the greeting in kind, only stood there in silence while staring at Satka, who gave him a mildly annoyed look for him not greeting her.
"But I can also see that you are more interested in interacting with Spider and Sully kids than you are in interacting with your best friend. How rude, you know? How rude, indeed!" she said both sarcastically and with the mock hurt voice.
"Uhhh..." Kai'ani stuttered while he frantically gazed to the left and right to find the way out of here, though he never broke the eye-contact with Satka more than five seconds before returning to it immediately for som reason.
"Nonononono! No! It isn't... you got all... I'm not... It's not... I... I was... What I meant was... uhh... what I'm saying..." Kai'ani stuttered, trying to find the right words to explain himself but couldn't find them.
Satka waited patiently for some sort of response from Kai'ani, though the left corner of her mouth curved into a small smirk, as she was amused by Kai'ani's attempts to explain himself, as well as his tail swinging out of nervousness rapidly and uncontrollably left and right behind his back.
"Yes?" Satka said, waiting.
Not wanting to leave Satka to wait for his answer for any longer, thinking in his hurry that Satka was getting impatient with him prolonging his answer, so Kai'ani quickly just said what first came into his mind.
"All I'm trying to say is... I am as much interested in interacting with YOU as I am with Spider. I was just... uh... waiting for your turn, you know." Kai'ani finally managed to say, albeit a bit clumsily, letting out a chuckle afterwards along with the nervous smile on his lips.
However, from within after thinking over what he had just told to Satka, Kai'ani was left a bit embarrassed with his hasty and pretty awkward explanation.
Satka folded his arms and gave Kai'ani a mildy unimpressed look, but nodded her head nonetheless as if somewhat accepting the explanation.
"Okay..." she simply said. "So I guess that now that you've got your interaction with Spider and Sully kids, I guess it is my turn to interract with you now, isn't it?" Satka questioned with the raised brow and sly smirk, as she lifted her hand and slowly pointed her forefinger at herself to make her point.
Kai'ani was again taken aback, this time by Satka taking his clumsy explanation coolly and even playing along with it in order not to make it too awkward for him.
"Uhh... Y-Yeah! I guess so." Kai'ani said quickly.
Spider and the Sully kids watched Kai'ani's awkward interaction with Satka from the sidelines.
Both Lo'ak and Spider were both clearly amused by Kai'ani's clumsy attempts to explain himself to his friend and secret crush, though they at least held back their chuckles behind his back for their friend's sake, while Kiri and Tuk remained mostly neutral, with the former rolling his eyes at the boys for laughing at Kai'ani and the latter watching on with innocent curiosity.
Spider then stepped forward and moved behind Kai'ani's back.
"Guess so nothing, buddy! Just go ahead!" Spider said before he put his hands against Kai'ani's back and shoved him forward.
Because of Spider shoving him forward, Kai'ani stumpled a little bit until he managed to maintain his balance almost immediately afterwards, and then got upright... only to notice that he was very close of Satka's face again.
Kai'ani turned to look at Spider over his shoulder and scowled at him with the soft hiss, annoyed of him shoving him towards Satka without asking permission to do it and against his own will, making Spider to give him an innocent smile and shrug his shoulders at him.
"Skxawng!" Kai'ani swore at the boy.
"Pay no attention to boy, Kai'ani..." Satka said, as she put her hand over Kai'ani's right cheek and gently turned his head back to face her. "Pay attention to me. After all, it was my turn, remember?"
The scowl on Kai'ani's face faded away when his eyes met Satka's own.
"Uhh... okay." Kai'ani said shyly, and the light smile appeared on his lips.
"Good." Satka said softly, before she gave the young boy another flirting look, making Kai'ani blush with darker shade of blue and purplish tone.
The world around the two friends and secret crushes went silent in their ears, but not outside of their common ring.
Jake then stepped forward to greet Spider personally. Seeing the Olo'eyktan coming towards him, Spider turned to him and straightened up to meet him formally.
"I see you, Spider. It's good to see you again." Jake said as he stood in front of Spider and greeted with the greeting gesture.
"I see you, Jake the Olo'eyktan. And it's good to see you again too." Spider said back and returned to the Olo'eyktan's greeting gesture in kind.
Out of the two of his closest friends' parents, greeting Jake was an easy part for Spider as they both shared a mutual understanding and respect towards each other. But the harder part of it came afterwards.
Unlike Jake had done, Neytiri hadn't come to greet him, instead choosing to stay by her pa'li, still loading up on the supplies she needed for the hunting trip. However, she had at least turned to look in the direction of her husband, her children, and even Spider... and her gaze was not so pleasant when it was directed at the Spider.
Looking back at her, Spider frowned slightly at the wary and suspicious look Neytiri was giving him...once again, like every other time he came to visit them. But the boy decided to at least greet her too, albeit out of grudging respect for his friends' mother, and if not for that, then at least out of politeness even if he won't get any response from it.
"Mrs. Sully." Spider said casually with the greeting gesture to Neytiri.
Neytiri of course didn't respond to Spider's polite greeting in kind. With the slightly hardened frown on her face, she only sighed disapprovally at the boy before she dully turned her back to him and resumed loading her supplies on her pa'li's back.
Her family gave her slight frowns of disapproval of her treatment of Spider, especially Jake but especially Kiri. Spider's only unchangeable reaction to this was the eye-roll, because he hadn't expected anything more or less than that from Neytiri.
"Has she again woken up on wrong foot?" Spider asked from Jake in whisper.
There was no sarcasm in his voice but the mutual animosity she held for Neytiri for her mistreatment of him, though it was largerly reduced to the minimal for the sake of his respect for Jake and his friendship with his children.
"Don't mind about her, Spider." Jake gently adviced. "Mind rather about the lots of fun you're gonna have with the kids today while we're on the hunting trip. Leave Neytiri to my concern."
Spider didn't respond to that. He only shrugged his shoulders in 'whatever' manner, with full knowledge that it won't change anything.
"Can you also tell her to be at least a little bit nicer to her children's best friend next time?" Spider questioned quietly, this time with the clear hint of sarcasm.
Jake raised his eyebrow at Spider disapprovally at the tone of his voice, but let out the soft sigh out of sympathy for the boy as he understood the deeper meaning behind of Spider's words.
Knowing her mate and her well-known resentment against Spider for the "good" reason from her point of view, that'll be a tough order, which both he and Spidet knew very well.
"I can at least try." was all Jake could say to him, because making him a promise that his mate could treat Spider even a little bit better in the future was such of distand dream that there was no point of even making such of empty promises.
Of course, Jake has repeatedly asked or even tried to get Neytiri to treat Spider better, albeit with poor results, but he hasn't stopped from trying so for the sake of the boy feeling himself being both welcomed, accepted and respected.
Spider was grateful towards Jake at least for that, hence his respect for him, even if anything he had tried hadn't changed anything in his sour relationship with Neytiri.
"Just give her a little more time, Spider." Kiri told him gently, touching his shoulder with her hand encouragingly. "She'll come around eventually. Even now she cares about you deep down. She just doesn't know it yet."
Spider smiled at his best friend for her encouragement, but he also frowned a bit at her choice of words. Of course, Kiri wished so badly that Neytiri would both see Spider in a better light and treat him better - and by Kiri's wish like her own, as a part of their family, for from her point of view, Spider deserved the best and a lot of better people around him with the mutual respect and interest over the common things - such as the forest, Omatikaya clan and their culture - instead of that nasty McCosker family back at Hell's Gate. Though Spider was grateful that Kiri at least tried to make her mother to do that just like Jake was trying, but Spider couldn't understand why Kiri couldn't see that Neytiri didn't even care about him, even though it was all too obvious. Maybe it was because Kiri was firmly following some of her own teachings about "seeing" people as who they were like she saw Jake as who he truly were... or then she just didn't want to see the truth.
"If ever " Spider mumbled quietly, before he nodded to Kiri in acknowledgement of her words, which made her smile sweetly at him.
"Alright! Everyone are here! Can we go now?!" Tuktirey then asked, sounding pretty impatient.
"Soon, Tuk. We'll be on our way soon." Kiri calmly promised to her little sister, who let out the squeal in excitment.
Tuk had already been quite energetic all morning, because today happened to be not only the children's common day together, but also her first day when she would be allowed to go to outside of the village's safe grounds to explore the forest outside - which she has been able to watch only from the safety of her family's home for all her life until now - though under of her older siblings' supervision, which is why she's been so excited and impatient for them to go on their way.
"FINALLY!" Tuk squealed, throwing her arms up and jumping with joy.
"Everything is already packed and loaded." Lo'ak told to Spider, gesturing towards the packages he and Kiri had already loadrd on the backs of their pa'li. "Hopefully you and Satka too have your own things packed and loaded as well."
"Sure we have." Spider said and pointed his hand towards his and Satka's pa'li they had come with, and the two packages, his and Satka's, resting on her back.
"Good." Kiri said as she stood up, still looking at Spider. "Spider? You can ride with my pa'li, if you like. While Tuk can ride in Lo'ak's. if you don't mind about that Tuk?" Kiri said, looking at Tuk.
"Not at all." Tuk said, shaking her head.
Lo'ak, however, wasn't as pleased to hear that her had to share the ride with Tukl instead of Kai'ani as they had originally planned.
"What?!" he gasped, perplexed and thus annoyed. "Why Tuk has to ride with my Pali and not yours instead of Kai'ani?!"
Kiri, however, gave her brother a sly look. "Because while Neteyam is gone, I'm the oldest one in here and thus in charge. That's why I'l lsay that Spider will ride with me and Tuk will ride with you." she told her little brother.
Lo'ak groaned. "AWWWW! But you know, Kiri, that whenever Tuk is with me, she tends to be even forcefully the backseat rider even if I tell her not to." he told her as he turned to Tuk. "She's like, "Lo'ak? You're riding too fast.", "Lo'ak? Slow down!", "Lo'ak? You know you're not supposed to ride recklessly!", "Lo'ak? Stop the pa'li! I'm slipping off his back!", "Lo'ak? I will tell mom and dad if you keep riding like this or if I get hurt because of you!"." Lo'ak said by teasingly mimicking Tuk's voice.
Tuk, irritated by her older brother teasing her by mimicking her, stuck her tongue at him as a retaliation, while Kiri gave him a scolding scowl.
"Don't mock her, you skxawng!" Kiri chided.
Then Kai'ani spoke in. "But if Spider rides with Kiri, and I won't be riding with Lo'ak because of Tuk, then with whom I'm suppoed to ride?" Kai'ani asked from everyone.
Lo'ak, Kiri, Spider and Tuk all pointed almost immediately their fingers over Kai'ani's shoulder and behind his back.
"Her, of course." everybody answered to Kai'ani's question simultaneously.
"Me, of course." Satka said at the same time as they did.
Kai'ani, both following the others' pointing fingers and reacting to Satka's voice as it was speaking directly to him, turned around to see Satka there, staring right at him.
"Hmph!" Kai'ani groaned and lifted his hand on his temple in frustration. "I knew it." he muttered under his breath.
Kai'ani then turned to Lo'ak, Kiri, Tuktirey and Spider and, scowling at them with narrowed eyes, shook his fist at them vengefully.
"I'll get you four skxawng for this!" Kai'ani vowed to his friends.
Afterwards, Kai'ani then changed his mannerism before - making a broadly smiling facade to hide his nervousness at the thought of riding the same pa'li with his secret crush - he turned back to Satka, who had once again folded her arms over her chest while giving Kai'ani a flirting sly look.
"Okay, with you it is." Kai'ani then said before quickly adding in his next words. "You think your pa'li can possibly carry us both, Satka?" he asked nicely.
A little too nicely for Satka's liking though.
"Even three of my size at once if she has to." Satka replied slyly.
As a smart girl, Satka had detected from Kai'ani's question a hidden - though not very well hidden - attempt to make up an excuse so that he doesn't need to ride with her, again out of his own nervousness of being so close of her, though Satka didn't let it to bother her... at least not that much.
Kai'ani rolled his eyes lightly at this, realizing that Satka had probably caught him in the act of trying to make up an excuses to avoid riding with his crush for the same reasons.
Moving on from that, though, Satka then held her hand out towards Kai'ani, beckoning him to come and take her hand.
"Come, Kai'ani." Satka said sweetly. "Let me lead you to our pa'li and we'll ride to our destination together."
Kai'ani was once again almost overcame by his own shyness and he didn't initially move even a single muscle towards Satka's offered hand, but he just kept staring at it and up into his long-time crush's eyes.
However, after a while, as Kai'ani was still silently staring at Satka, he was left mesmerized with her beautiful golden eyes looking back at him from under her wide-brimmed hat, her beautiful and soft blue face and lips curved into a warm and sweet smile, and her shiny black hair, which hung loosely/unbraided on her shoulders, so that the corners of his own lips slowly but certainly began to curve upwards into a smile, and his face morphed into a rather dreamy face.
Although Kai'ani was almost always afraid to be around his crush - both out of shyness and that dreadful nagging thought in the back of his mind that he might not be good enough or even a fitting partner for Satka, and that she might even reject him because of that at some point of his life, which is why he's trying by avoiding to be with her to spare himself from such of crushing and weightening disappointment - there was always something in Satka that got Kai'ani even forcibly under its spell despite his shyness and nervousness of being around her.
Spellbound, smiling fondly at his life-long crush and unable to tear his eyes away from hers, Kai'ani almost immediately accepted Satka's hand and took it into his gentle hold, rubbing her knuckles with his thumb.
"Well, very well, then." Kai'ani said softly, before he allowed Satka to lead him to her pa'li.
Despite Kai'ani's threat to get even with his friends for making/forcing him to go with Satka, Lo'ak, Kiri, Tuktirey and Spider smiled at their friend as they watched him walking away to Satka's mount with her. There, Satka climbed first on her pa'li's back before she held out her hand towards Kai'ani again, which he accepted, and pulled him up to sit behind her.
"Well... are we leaving for trekking or what?" Satka asked as she turned towards the others.
Lo'ak, Kiri, Tuk and Spider all nodded and mumbled in agreement, before the foursome started to make their way to their pa'li.
"Well, kids..." Jake called after them as he watched them go, with his arms folded. "before you go, let me ask one more time: Are both the rules and the instructions clear, or do I need to repeat them one last time?"
The foursome nearly let out an annoyed groan after Jake had said that, as if this wasn't apparently the first and only time he'd repeatedly told them the rules and instructions they needed to follow during of their trip in the forest.
"Yes, dad. We know." Lo'ak, Kiri, Tuk and even Spider all sain in unison.
"Keep an eye on the others." Kiri said, which was her responsibility as the oldest of the group... technically second oldest, due to Spider being a one year older than her.
"Stay together and do not drift too far from each other... or the safety of the village." Tuk said next, because as the youngest, she is the one who is mostly told to stay with her older siblings or close to her parents all of time.
"Do not stray beyond the borders or the nasty animals will get you." Spidet added next. "A certain big bro and his girlfriend happen to have an experience of violating this rule."
This earned Spider a light chuckle from Lo'ak, Tuk and Kai'ani, though Kiri only rolled her eyes at her friend for his choice of words.
"And...?" Jake then said, turning to look at Lo'ak last and silently asking with him to tell him the last and, in his case, the most important rule.
Lo'ak rolled his eyes in irritation due to knowing that that very last rule was mostly meant to him than anyone else, and he frowned at his dad because of that.
When Jake received no answer from Lo'ak for a moment besides his son's annoyed frown, Jake strictened his gaze, not taking kindly of such of insubordination and at the same time warning his son for not making this difficult.
"Well...?" Jake repeated himself.
Lo'ak growled in exasperation, but eventually decided, if only reluctantly, to go along with it just to get out of this.
"Stay out of the trouble." Lo'ak said.
"That's right. Stay out of the trouble." Jake repeated. "You out of most of all, Lo'ak."
"Come on, dad! I can't be the only one who draws all the trouble upon us." Lo'ak complained, throwing his arms in the air in frustration, before he gestured towards Tuk. "Tuk's the one who puts me in the trouble every time."
"Hey!" Tuk complained after hearing her brother trying to put the blame of them ending up into trouble everytime because of him on her.
"Well, you wouldn't be, if you just weren't looking for the trouble to bring them upon yourself and everybody else whenever the eye avoids, son." Jake rebuked, pointing out of Lo'ak's tendency to put his nose into places and things he really shouldn't.
The remindment of that made Lo'ak let out a sigh in annoyance before he turned his gaze away from his father and down to the forest floor.
"So for your own sake, try not to find yourself from another trouble again out there. Can I trust you in that?" Jake questioned half softly and half seriously.
Lo'ak looked up at his father from under his brows, but didn't answer to his question right away.
The others, especially Tuk, were waiting impatiently of Lo'ak's answer, and were left irritated that Lo'ak was delaying their leave to the long-awaited trekking because of his stubborness.
"Come on, Lo'ak!" Kiri hissed at her thick-headed brother.
Spider then stepped forward to express his own opinion, even if he knew fully well that he really shouldn't interfere to the family matters that he was not part of. He fully expected Neytiri to sternly remind him to keep out of this, but he didn't care.
"You do know, Jake, that Lo'ak's just trying his best to show you that he can do it, right?" Spider asked, making Jake and Lo'ak to turn their gazes on him.
As expected, Neytiri finally stepped forward, narrowed and ice-cold eyes fixed on Spider.
"Stay out of this, boy." Neytiri said with the light hiss.
"Mom!" Kiri chided and defensively put her hand over Spider's shoulder.
"Easy, baby. I got this." Jake told soothingly to his mate.
By her husband's words, Neytiri, though reluctantly and her wary narrowed eyes still on Spider, backed down. And with his mate calmed down, Jake turned to look at SSpiderover Lo'ak's shoulder.
"I know that very well, Spider." Jake told him almost dismissively, until he looked at him like he had just got something in his mind for the boy. "But since you believe so much in Lo'ak, and since you're technically the eldest of your group, how about sharing the responsibility with Kiri to watch over the others while being out there?"
Spider, Kiri and Neytiri gave all Jake a different looks at his words. Spider's was taken aback by such of offer he'd never received before until now, Neytiri's was shock and almost an outraged of the idea of leaving her children under Spider's care just because he was older than the others, and Kiri's was excitment beyond measures that her dad gave Spider a chance and that he was established co-responsible with her of the others.
"Wow." Spider awed, before he quickly pulled himself together and, putting his hands behind his back, continued to speak to Jake with respect. "That would be my honor, Olo'eyktan."
"Good. Then Lo'ak will be your main responsibility while Tuk is Kiri's." Jake instructed. "You're to follow Lo'ak's every step, move and act while you're out there, and report to me immediately afterwards of my son's troublesome antics. Can I trust you in that?"
"More than Mrs. Sully can, Olo'eyktan." Spider told him, nodding his head towards Neytiri, earning a hard frown from her even if Spider didn't mean with the disrespect by stating the fact, before he continued. "And yeah. I'll keep an eye on Lo'ak like a hungry nantang on yerik and tell you right away if he does something unwise." the boy affirmed.
However, Kiri happened to catch something behind of Spider's back in the corner of her left eye and leaned slightly back to see what it was. Her eyes went slightly wide when she noticed that Spider was secretly holding two of his crossed!
Kiri then looked at both Spider and Lo'ak and noticed that the two were actually - and hidden from their parents's sight - sharing a sly looks with each other like communicating with one another with eye-contacts.
She mostly could expect Lo'ak to react with great irritation to have someone to babysit him all of time - which has happened many times before and brought the worse part out of him with every babysitter Jake had appointed to watch over his kids, except for Grandma Mo'at and Uncle Norm, the only ones whom Lo'ak respects enough to not to rebel against (most of the time, at least). But to have Spider to actually babysit him, her stubborn and rebellious little brother's reaction was completely contrary. And Spider's crossed fingers behind his back told her the whole story.
Spider was actually feigning to agree to watch after Lo'ak by their father's request only to get her brother out of this situation so that they could finally leave for their trip. Lo'ak knew this and just played along.
Spider was usually a very honest young man, truthful down to the core and very respectful of others, but it seems that his loyalty to Jake and Neytiri's children far outweighed his honesty - and even his loyalty to Jake - enough to innocently trick him into appointing him to watch after his children to save Lo'ak from trouble, even if Neytiri was always there to protest it.
"Very well." Jake said and walked up to Spider, handing to him one of the throat mics to stay in touch with him like he does with his sons. "You do know how this works and that how it is done between of me and my sons?"
"Yes. I've seen it." Spider nodded as he took the throat mic from Jake's hand. "When they have made the contact to you, they have addressed you as the Devil Dog, while Lo'ak addresses himelf as Eagle Eye and Neteyam as Pathfinder."
Spider then put the throat mic around of his own neck and the headphone into his ear.
"I'll be then addressing myself as "Multi-eyed Stalker", if that's fine to you?" Spider told him as he gave himself the code-name based on his own name-sake.
"So be it." Jake told him with the smile and nod, accepting his code-name.
"YAIIIIII!" Kiri squealed and happily pulled Spider into a hug from behind and hugged him tightly, while at the same time covering his innocent deception from his parents.
Jake then turned to Lo'ak and gave him one last serious look. "Remember, Lo'ak. Be good and stay out of the trouble. And if the Spider informs me of one of your mischievous tricks and any trouble you've gotten them into, I'll have you grounded for a couple of weeks. Understand?"
"Yes... Sir." Lo'ak said lowly and slowly, even if he was only pretending - or just partially pretending - to act stubborn and reluctant when saying those words to further keep up Spider's light deception so that his father wouldn't become suspicious.
"Good." Jake said with a smile, somewhat convinced that everything will go as it should either one way or the other, before he put his hand against his youngest son's back and gently shoved him towards Kiri, Tuk and Spider. "Now, go on. And have fun out there."
Lo'ak nodded to his father over his shoulder before he turned away and walked towards his sisters and Spider, with Jake watching him go for a moment before he turned around and walked back to his mate and their pa'li.
When his father wasn't looking, which he made sure by glancing back at him over his shoulder, Lo'ak looked down at Spider, sharing with the boy a sly "well done, bro" looks, before both Lo'ak and Spider fist-bumped each other.
Both of them were left in such of disbelief that Spider's ruse had worked on Jake, they almost let out a chuckle at its success and Spider's smartness, until Kiri lifted her finger against her lips and hussed at both of them to keep quiet, as they weren't out in the woods just yet.
However, little did they know that when their own backs were turned to their father, Jake glanced at his children over his shoulder for one last time to confirm that they weren't looking, before he turned away and lifted up his hand and twirled his index finger in the air a few times while looking away into the particular spot in the forest.
Behind the trees and bushes, visible but still hard to see, Tarsem, young but wise warrior and one of Jake's most trusted allies, was sitting on the back of his pa'li along with a few other warriors. They were an escort team assigned by Jake to watch over his children, Spider, Kai'ani and Satka while they were out in the woods and protect them from danger if necessary. Seeing Jake looking at his way and spinning his finger in the air to signal them to go, Tarserm began to letting out syaksyuk-like sounds to let Jake know that the signal had been received and they will be on their way ahead of his children and their friends before they too left the village.
Despite his mate having Tarsem's team to watch after their children and their friends, Neytiri kept looking at her mate, as he walked to her and his own pa'li, with open dismay of him putting "the boy" in charge of watching after her children.
Neytiri then turned to look at his children as they mounted their pa'li: Lo'ak and Tuk went to their own pa'li they will be sharing with each other, with Lo'ak reluctantly and with the annoyed look on his face turned to Tuk, who was reaching out to him while impatiently begging him to lift her up on his pa'li's back. Lo'ak then scooped Tuk up from the ground and carefully put her to sit on his pa'lis back before he himself jumped on to sit behind Tuk.
Kiri and Spider then went to their own shared pa'li. Unlike with Tuk, Spider attempted to climb onto their pa'li himself without Kiri's help, and although the young pa'li was still quite tall for him, Spider initially managed to climb/crawl - like a spider - up the horse's body. But when he was starting to have a little trouble pulling himself over the pa'li's back, Kiri was happy to give him a bit of a boost to help him fully up before jumping onto the horse herself, positioning in front of Spider.
Neytiri of course wasn't happy about this at all, but reluctantly allowed her husband's decision to stand for her children's sake... though not before she had given her own warning directly to the boy.
"Fine. You may be in charge of the children, boy. But if anything bad happens to them on your watch, I'm gonna..." Neytiri started, but was cut off by Spider who continued for her as if he had heard this many times before.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. "You're going to give me a stern talk, berate me for being irresponsible, and seriously consider about either letting or forbidding me from spending time with Kiri, Tuk, and Lo'ak". Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know how this goes, Mrs. Sully. You've said that same thing to me many times over and the message has already been received. Cut it some slack, will you?" Spider told her, annoyed that Neytiri had to repeat herself with him over and over again.
Even if Neytiri didn't know what Spider meant "Cut it some slack" and neither she cared, she didn't say anything back, only frowned irritably at the boy as Kiri directed her pa'li away.
"Well, we'll be off now." Kiri then said. "Goodbye! See you later, mom, dad!"
"Goodbye, mom and dad! Good luck in hunting!" Tuk called from Lo'ak's pali as Lo'ak directed his pa'li away.
"See you later, kids!" Jake called to them and waved his hand to them as goodbye.
"Have fun out there! And be careful!" Neytiri said as well, momentarily swallowing her irritation with Spider to wave her wish her children goodbye.
With that, Kiri and Lo'ak directed their pa'li to gallop towards the forest, riding past waiting Satka and Kai'ani's shared pa'li, before Satka quickly turned her horse around and galloped after Spider and the Sully children. Quickly the three pa'li and the children disappeared from sight into the thick vegetation of the forest.
With the children out of the sight - and knowing that Tarsem and his warriors will be looking after them from afar - Neytiri turned to look at Jake and gave her husband a strict frown, with her arms folded before her.
"What?" Jake asked with the shrug, not knowing why his mate was giving him such of look.
"You're giving that boy too much of chances, Jake." Neytiri said as if chiding him.
"Well, since he loves spending time with our kids so much, so why not?" Jake said, sounding like it didn't bother him as much as it bothered Neytiri. "However, have you noticed that you're perhaps giving him a little too much restrictions?" Jake told her as he turned to his pa'li to complete the final stages of preparation.
Neytiri stared at Jake with her eyes wide, slightly taken aback by his words to her. But whether he was right or not that she was giving that boy too much restrictions, Neytiri neither accepted that or even cared about it.
"Ma Jake... how many times I have to tell you? Our children belong to their own people, to Omatikaya people, and that boy belongs to his own kind, to the Sky People, therefore they shouldn't be interacting with him so much." Neytiri told him.
"Well..." Jake said as he turned to look at his mate. "In that case, neither you and I should have had interracted with each other so much back then. You know? Human in Avatar-body, alien, and Na'vi of Omatikaya." Jake said, holding out his hand to show Neytiri his four fingers compared to her three-fingered hand.
Neytiri, however, responded to this by raising her own hand and outstretching it towards Jake's, interlocking their mismatched fingers together, before Neytiri turned to look at Jake deep in his eyes.
"That was different then. And so are these times compared to those back then." Neytiri told him.
"And yet there is no difference between Spider and our children, especially Kiri, compared to our own affairs then, Neytiri." Jake told her. "And look where that has led us to: We have peace with the Sky People, a perfect life to live and four children to raise." Jake pointed out.
"Through of war, the death of kelutral, the Great Sorrow, pain and loss." Neytiri reminded him grimly.
Neytiri began to see flashbacks before her eyes of the horrors she and Jake went through to restore peace to Pandora and thus have a happy family life, that still kept haunting her in the darkest corners of her mind: Her sister's Sylwanin's tragic dead back at Graceaugustine's school right before her eyes, the Sky People's giant metal monster trambling down the Tree of Voice's, the Hometree's destruction and the fires that kept consuming his ancient body for a long, long time after it was felled by the Sky People, the wails and cries of her people of losing their home and more than half of their clan, a war that nearly wiped all fifteen clans out of existence, forcing the survivors to be absorbed into other clans, her loss of Seze, Tsu'tey's passing and her and Jake's final fight with the Sky People's colonel that nearly killed them both.
Jake, experiencing the same haunting flashbacks before his own eyes as well, particularly the parts he was indirectly responsible of, let out a deep sigh, knowing what Neytiri meant.
"Yes." Jake said gravely, before he at least tried to lighten the mood a bit. "But those times are behind us, and we should keep them there and look to the future."
"But still, Ma Jake." Neytiri said, returning to their previous subject. "I'm still not comfortable of letting our children to be alone with that boy."
"You worry too much, Neytiri, whilst you don't need or even shouldn't. Spider is not a bad kid and the kids will be just fine with him... and with Tarsem looking after them. Trust me." Jake told her assuredly.
Neytiri let out a sigh as Jake's words did quite little to ease her worries. Of course, this should be one of the many things where she of course trusted Jake, but that didn't mean she had to trust that boy with her children...not easily or not at all if it was up to her.
But with nothing else to say, mostly because of knowing that she cannot get Jake to agree with her point of view of that boy, though she thought that Jake should have as good a reason for that as she does, Neytiri let the matter be - for now at least - and turned back to her own pa'li to finish the last stages of preparation.
To be continued...
NEXT PART: IS IT TOO MUCH TO ASK TO BE A BLUE?