Kaeyla te Kathan Saeyla'ite

by Fanficteller

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

23. The Great Hunt

KAEYLA TE KATHAN SAEYLA'ITE.

PART 23.

THE GREAT HUNT

Some time later after Kaeyla's iknimaya, life in the Omatikaya village continued as normal, peaceful, hardworking, and amused laughter in the air as the children ran along the village playing with each other.

Kaeyla, meanwhile, was sitting on the tree branch, where she was fixing, adjusting and testing her own bow and its string while at the same time making new arrows for herself, carving the long pieces of bone into the narrow shafts before tying tightly the sharp-tipped arrowheads into one end and the feathers into another.

After finishing with four arrows and in the middle of making the fifth one, Kaeyla's right ear twitched at the sound of the steps coming along the tree branch and heading right towards her.

Kaeyla, pausing in making her fifth and final arrow, put it on her lap and let out the heavy sigh. She knew who it was coming towards her, which made her lips curve up into the smile.

"Son of Olo'eyktan, the best hunter in the clan, and you're doing a terrible job in sneaking stealthily behind of your prey." she joked as she looked up at the newcomer, who was revealed to be Neteyam, who smiled back at her. "And it appears that no matter where I go, I can't have a moment of peace of mine."

"Or is it the other way around?" Neteyam questioned as he crouched down next to Kaeyla. "There were some other matters to attend to here with my dad, but suddenly, either by chance or some other reason, I bumped into you on the very branch I was using to go down."

"More or less." Kaeyla joked.

The two friends shared a laughter at this.

"So, if you knew what tree branch I was gonna use to get down to the village, did you have something you wanted to tell me?" Neteyam asked her out of curiosity.

"Why don't you start first, Neteyam?" Kaeyla suggested. "What business exactly you had with your father today?"

Both Neteyam and Kaeyla then looked down from the tree branch, seeing Jake down there while having entered into the conversation with the Olangi clan's Olo'eyktan, Akwey, and Ka'ani, including some other warriors. They were, however, a pretty far down that they could hardly even hear what they were saying to each other.

"Dad wanted to take me to the forest to have a private conversation with me. He said that it's being about my future... as the future Olo'eyktan of the Omatikaya. He wants to make sure than I will know everything what I need to know about being Olo'eyktan and leading the whole clan when he won't be around anymore." Neteyam explained, looking admirably down at his father. "It's not that we've not taken these kind of trips together in the forest before, and I already know a pretty much about being the Olo'eyktan and his duties. It's just, according to my dad, I still got a lot to learn before I'll be ready."

"Another such of trip in the woods, again?" Kaeyla questioned. "Are you sure your dad knows you still have a lot to learn, or does he keep going over the same things more than once?"

"More or less." Neteyam replied solemnly. "And I don't actually blame him for that. I'm pretty much fine with it if he keeps going over the things I've already both heard and learned from him. Because, in fact, it took some time of him too to get to know all the duties of Olo'eyktan he needed to learn, before they began a routine to him. And he, along with my mom, want me to be fully prepared both with wisdom and full knowledge when it is my time to succeed him as the next Olo'eyktan."

Kaeyla nodded in understantment, even though she herself had no any idea of those kind of duties aside of her being the huntress for the clan.

"I bet that your dad knows what he's doing." Kaeyla assured him. "And I'm sure that your dad will be very proud of you when he sees you wearing his mantle when you become Olo'eyktan to continue his legacy."

"Yeah." Neteyam nodded, turning back to Kaeyla. "Living up to my dad's legacy hasn't been easy the latest times, but it might be a rewarding, for him being proud of me as his son and the heir is all I could ever ask for."

"And you're doing fine, dear Neteyam." Kaeyla said, gently touching his left cheek with her right hand and caressing it assuringly. "And you'll be fine Olo'eyktan when your time comes. And I hope to be there to see it too with my own eyes."

"Well, I'll be looking for you front the front lines of the people to see if you bothered to come, unless you're once again hiding from me behind of one of your parents again." Neteyam told her jokingly.

Both of them shared another laughter with each other.

"So... your turn now. What made you to come to wait for me on this branch?" Neteyam questioned

Kaeyla shrugged her shoulder in "I dunno" style. "Well, because mom is teaching Kai'ani in the woods and my dad is busy with your dad right now, I guess that I just wanted..."

However, she was cut off when all of the sudden Tarsem along with the two hunters, Takuk and Maru, Tsu'tey's former apprentices and now mates, rode in the village in the haste,.

"OLO'EYKTAN! OLO'EYKTAN!" Tarsem called out, before he and his hunters hurriedly dismounted their pa'li and ran up to Olo'eyktan, greeting him first and just then he began to tell him what he needed to tell.

Curious to hear what Tarsem had to say, the people from all over the village put their current activities aside for a moment and either crowded around of Jake, Tarsem, Ka'ani and Akwey, or gathered on the branches above the four of them to hear Tarsem out.

And along with the villagers, Neteyam and Kaeyla, with the latter leaving her bow and arrow to the spot they'd been sitting, descended down to the ground-level of the village and made their way in front of the crowd to hear out Tarsem's news. Even Neytiri, Kiri, Lo'ak and Tuktirey were amongst of those who gathered on the tree branches to listen.

By the time they made it there, Tarsem had already finished, with Jake nodding his head to the young warrior.

And then, Jake turned to the gathered people to address them, holding his arms out in the air.

"My brothers and sisters! Tarsem has just brought us a great news!" Jake announced, beginning his speech. "A massive herd of talioang has once again migrated into our territory, like they have done so many times before. And all of you know what this means. This is the sign... that the Great Hunt is about to begin again!"

The people cheered and whooped in excitment for the upcoming big event they've been waiting for seasons, the Great Hunt of talioang. Even Neteyam and Kaeyla joined to the uproar, the former especially was even more excited, because she had always wanted to join the Great Hunt once she had gone through her Iknimaya.

"A Great Hunt?" Lo'ak gasped, looking at his sisters with excitment. "Did you heard that? There's going to be the great hunt?"

"Yay! That means that there's going to be a Great Feast tonight!" Tuk cheered overjoyed. "And there's going to be dancing, music, a lots of laughter and merriment!"

"I can't wait to tell Spider about this! He'd really much would love to see it with his own eyes!" Kiri said excitedly.

Neytiri, though, upon hearing that, sighed in mild annoyance, wondering that why Kiri had to involve that boy in their people's every activities.

Jake then resumed his speech. "Hunters! Prepare yourself for the Great Hunt! And all those who have gone through their Iknimaya and claimed their own Ikran are welcome to join to their first Great Hunt." Jake announced, earning cheers from the youngest of hunters who have already gone through Iknimaya. "I shall be personally join you to lead the Hunt, along with Akwey, Ka'ani and Tarsem! And tonight... we shall have feast!"

The crowd cheered and hooted once more, throwing their arms in the air, before the hunters hurriedly rushed here and there to their Maruis to fetch their hunting gears and hunting weapons, with Olo'eyktan walking casually past them - to maintain his dignity as Olo'eyktan - towards his Marui to get ready for the hunt.

All those who didn't plan to participate in the Great Hunt had their hands full of preparing for the Great Feast tonight, which shall be held around the bonfire in the heart of the village.

Jake also sent some of the hunters to inform their people at the Hell's Gate, both Na'vi and human alike, about the upcoming event and invited them to join in the Great Feast as friends and guests (at least all those who wished), while also telling them to tell the Dreamwalkers that if anyone of them had gone through their own Iknimaya, were welcomed to join the Great Hunt.

Kiri was so excited to tell Spider about this that she invited herself to join them, or rather smuggled herself with them to get to the Hell's Gate as quickly as possible, with Neytiri being unable to stop her from going, reasoning that she needed her in helping in preparing for the feast.

Amongst the young hunters, Kaeyla and Neteyam hurried up to the spot on the tree branch where they had been just a moment ago, and where Kaeyla had left her bow and arrows. After picking them up, the two made a beeline along the tree branch that led in the direction of their respective Marui, squealing like an overjoyed little children.

"Been waiting for this my whole life! Now I can finally go to the Great Hunt myself! And serve the clan lots of talioang steak tonight hunted by me!" Kaeyla told Neteyam as they ran on the branch. "And who knows, now that Punkun still can't join the Great Hunt due to the ban by your dad, maybe I can get the spot as a best huntress of the clan!"

"Don't get too enthusiastic for that, Kaeyla!" Neteyam cautioned. "Punkun was successful in it because he managed to hit and kill talioang with each arrow he shot without missing the target till he ran out. Not many hunters are able to get four-five successful shots before they run out of arrows. And with him out of the picture, I've successfully managed to claim the title of the best hunter of the Great Hunt thrice!"

"Yes! I've seen it!" Kaeyla confimed with the nod, remembering the times when Neteyam had been named the best hunter after each Great Hunt and before the Great Feast, twice with four and once with even five successful kills without a miss. "But this time will be different, you skxawng! I've been training for this too for my whole life! I will kill five talioang with each shot to claim that spot!"

"We'll see about that! Let the best hunter win!" Neteyam laughed, as if accepting Kaeyla's challenge of the competition.

###

Later, the aforementioned herd of talioang, thousands of them, were found gracing peacefully at the fords of the undulating river in the forest, undisturbed and in peace.

However, they were unaware of that they were being watched.

Over two dozen of Omatikaya hunters and huntresses mounted with ikran were hanging from the trunks or the branches of the trees surrounding the herd, laying low and staying out of side while waiting for the order to attack. Amongst of these riders were Jake. Ka'ani, Tarsem, Takuk, Maru, Neteyam, Kaeyla and even Palree, Baldang, Li'mane and Koward, who were now all five years older and perhaps somewhat matured for the better ever since their incident with Kaeyla, Kai'ani, Spider and Sully children.

And in the ground level, concealed by the foliage of the jungle in the borders of the area of the fords, was waiting the cavalry of over three dozen horse mounted hunters under Akwey's lead, waiting for his and through of him Jake's order of attack.

Along with the ikran-mounted Na'vi was also a few of Dreamwalkers, who had gone through of their Iknimaya and claimed themselves the ikran.

Among them was Norm Spellman, whose own ikran was a female with red, orange, and yellow coloring and black-striped patterns that resembled the hide of the Earth's already-extinct tiger.

Norm had tamed her sometime following the First Pandoran War against the Sky People, when he himself underwent Iknimaya, assisted by Jake Sully using the teachings he himself had learned from Neytiri.

His Ikran given name was also quite unique and important, at least for him.

While the female ikran's coloring and the patterns didn't only remind Norm of the tiger, it in turn reminded him of a tiger painting he had seen a long time ago on the front-right side under the cockpit window of the Samson 16 piloted by his late girlfriend Trudy, which in turn reminded him gravely of her.

That alone brought back many memories that made Norm, who was still very saddened by his loss of her at the time, miss Trudy very greatly and miss the times when he and she would often go on sort of date flights to the Hallelujah Mountains with her Samson in their spare time during their three months stay at Site 26.

It also brought back the memories, even graver memories, where after the battle Norm, with the assist of the surviving Omatikaya warriors, had discovered the destroyed remains of Trudy's Samson burning in the forest, and how shocked, devastated and heartbroken he had beem upon discovering Trudy's badly burned dead body from the cockpit, before he had pulled her out of there, burning himself in the process, and mourned her for hours.

And the memories of the funeral of all those who had fallen in the battle. Back then Norm was permissioned by Mo'at to bury Trudy along with many others within the roots of the Tree of Souls, where he - in his human form - had carried Trudy's body - which had been stripped of her burnt clothes and shoes, leaving her completely naked, washed and cleaned of all the dirt he had sustained in battle, and wrapped in green leaf vines, as had been done with the bodies of Grace and Jake in their consciousness transfer rituals - in bridal style past the Omatikaya people - who had placed their hands over their hearts as a way to both mourn and honor the sacrifice of the brave Sky Person who had given her life for their people, and saved Toruk Makto from the Sky People's "flying metallic beast", to the point of singing songs describing Trudy and her brave deeds, so that she'd be remembered amongst the people - to the roots of the Tree of Souls, where he had placed her to rest in curled up pose in the hole, where she was covered with the flowers. Norm had also been granted the honor to place the atokirina, which had floated from the air into his awaiting open palm, over Trudy's body to ensure that her spirit will be in the safe hands of the Great Mother.

Norm had also given Trudy the last goodbye speech - in which he had been hardly successful to keep it together and suppress his flowing tears

"Oe tìyawn ngenga. Eywa ngahu, ma Trudy/I love you. Eywa be with you/Goodbye, Trudy."

Those words, both in Na'vi and in English, have been echoing in his mind for a while ever since he watched how Trudy disappeared forever into the earth when the hole containing her body was filled up.

And so, for the short but strongly deep romantic link he and Trudy had during of those unforgetable three months, and in honor of her memory, her sacrifice, and their shared enthusiasm for flying, Norm had christined his ikran as Trudy after taming her and flying together for the first time.

Na'vi waited their good time patiently, no one making the move until Olo'eyktan told them to. And in the meanwhile, some of the talioang wandered closer of their hiding spots, but not too close of sensing their presence or anything.

And then, when the right time came, Jake gave his signal to the hunters by letting out his iconic Na'vi call!

"Hooh! Hooh! Hooh!"

Upon hearing that, Akwey's pa'li reared up and Olangi-clan's Olo'eyktan passed Jake's signal with the cry of his own. "LET'S GO!"

And with that, the horse-mounted hunters sprung out of the foliage and rode towards the herd in the long though scattered crescent-shaped line, whooping and waving their bows and spears as they go. Their attack finally alerted the talioang of their presence and the entire herd went crazy.

This was followed by the thundering stampede, with thousands and again thousands of talioang going into a full gallop while trying to get away from the hunters that gave a chase on them. The large animals splashed up the water and mud from the river, kicked up dust and decimated all the years worth of undergrowth on their path as they go, and the ground shook under of the thousands of thundering hooves. And during of their stampede, many of them accidentally bumped into each other everywhere.

The horse-mounted Na'vi plunged fearlessly in amongst the stampeding herd, galloping alongside of the larger beasts while dividing into the smaller groups of six or five, looking for the perfect individuals they could try to separate from the rest of the herd and then kill.

And almost immediately when the stanpede, Jake's ikran, Bob, let go of the spot in the tree trunk they were hanging on and swooped down low after the herd, and he was soon followed by Ka'ani, Tarsem, Norm, Takuk, Maru, Neteyam, Kaeyla, Palree, Baldang, Li'mane, Koward and all the other ikran-mounted hunters.

Flying in a scattered but well-organized formation, zigzagging past the large trees and dodging under or over the twisting tree branches, the ikran-mounted hunters kept up with the herd as they flew above it and their horse-mounted fellow hunters, while keeping an eye on the movements of the talioang individually.

The Great Hunt had began with the breathtaking sight.

A little further away from the stampeding herd and the hunters, not too far but not too close either so that they wouldn't get in the hunters' way, Wu Mingxia was piloting the single Samson, inside of which was several people, scientists, whom Jake had allowed to witness the Great Hunt up close.

The people inside huddled to the door on the right side of the Samson and followed the hunt with enthusiasm, with some of them even taking a footage with their cameras, following both the stampede or both ikran- and horse-mounted Na'vi as they chased after the animals.

And in front of them, in the very best spots to follow the hunt, Spider, Kiri and Satka were standing on one knee next to each other at the edge of the doorway. The three of them watched the hunters chasing the stampeding animals and at the same time tried to spot familiar faces among the hunters.

"Hey! I spot sempul Norm up there!" Satka said, as she spotted a tiger-striped ikran, Trudy, that swooped past the tree with Norm on her back, before Norm pulled her up alongside the Samson and waved at the children, who waved back to him, before Norm dived towards the herd below, catching up to the other hunters.

"And dad is out there, right in front of the hunters." Kiri said as she spotted Jake leading the ikran-mounted hunters. "And there's Neteyam and Kaeyla, flying side by side, like mom and dad used to when they were younger." she added, spotting her brother and Kaeyla flying side by side with Entu and Hawnu, never leaving from each other's side.

"And I can't believe I'm seeing them there." Spider said as he spotted Palree, Baldang, Li'mane and Koward flying in their own formation, although the first three flew together in front, while Koward flew a short distance behind them, and apparently the others didn't even bother to wait for him. "And apparently those three skxawng still haven't forgiven him for confessing their role in that attack on Kaeyla and Kai'ani. Shame on them!"

Down in the ground level, Akwey led the group of five hunters that galloped through the herd, till they picked one individual and surrounded it from all sides, trying to isolate it from the rest of the herd and prevent it from rejoining them, and the other animals from coming to this individual's aid.

The hunters then began shoot the arrows and throw the spears at it, trying to hit it in the weak spot to take it down, though the animal's unpredictable movement and wild thrashing around made it difficult to hit the spot and its thick skin repelled their spears and arrows.

And because of its wild trashing, this talioang ended up to bump into one of the hunter's pa'li galloping next to it, knocking them away from it and making this hunter and his pa'li to collide into another hunter's pa'li that came right behind him. The collision caused both hunters and their pa'li to crash to the ground.

While the three other hunters continued chasing down the talioang, Akwey galloped towards the fallen hunters and picked them up one by one on his pa'li's back and took them to safety, before dropping them to where they would be safe from the stampede - until their own pa'li would return to them - before Akwey resumed the hunt.

Akwey galloped after the three hunters who still had no luck in bringing down the taliong, so the Olangi clan Olo'eyktan picked up the pace and rode right next to the talioang's head, before he put the arrow in his bow and aimed at the weak spot between the armored shoulders.

Then he released the arrow and it found its mark, causing the animal to below before it collapsed to the ground, dead.

All around of the field of the fords, all into the various groups divided horse-mounted hunters kept surrounding the individual galloping talioangs they've picked as their target, forcing them further away from the main herd while jabbing their armor with their spears and arrows.

Some of the hunters managed to get clear shots to the base of the animals' necks and bring them down, but few were as lucky, and although one of them got a clear kill shot, the same thing did not happen twice.

And this was where they get the air support from the ikran-mounted hunters, who felled those talioang who were too difficult and stubborn for the horse-mounted hunters to fell.

Jake targeted the talioang that the hunters had managed to isolate from the rest of the herd, but were falling drastically behind as it ran too fast, too determined to escape, too stubborn to allow the hunters to get the clear shot in its neck. As it tried to rejoin the herd, Jake, taking the arrow in his bow, swooped down low and flew over the beast, taking a quick aim at it and fired. His arrow hit its home and the animal collapsed immediately.

Ka'ani too managed to fell one individual talioang he'd been tracking from the back of his ikran Tisay, after it crashed through the one single gap amidst the trunks of the roots of the big tree in order to loose the horse-mounted hunters who were forced to halt their pa'li in order to not to crash into the trunks. The animal almost got away, only to get hit by Ka'ani's arrow in its neck after it reached the other side.

Tarsem helped the other group of hunters, who had some difficulty with one talioang they had surrounded, but this individual had stopped galloping and turned to defy its hunters, trying to charge each one of them at the time, though the other hunters kept it distracted by shooting arrows and throwing spears at it, making it to turn toward the one who had hit it. Only Tarsem's well-aimed arrow in the animal's neck managed to finally fell it down.

Norm flew with Trudy over the herd, looking for the perfect individuals that he could take down. So far, he has already spent two of his four arrows when trying to take down at least one talioang, but neither of the shots hadn't found their way home and had only bounced off the animals' thick armor.

Even though Norm had honed his archery skills and his flying skills with Trudy for years and was a pretty good at it, he had found it out some time ago that he was more in his element when riding the pa'li than flying with ikran (which was completely other way around with Jake, who spent way more time in adjusting in riding the pa'li while he adjusted a far more quickly in riding with Bob, while Norm himself had adjusted in riding the pa'li only in day before the war, most of it was the thanks to the guidance of the Olangi clan's people).

However, despite the setbacks, the scientist wasn't willing to give up.

He kept following the herd, until he noticed that one of the hunters got hit by one of the talioang's head, which knocked his pa'li down and the threw hunter off his steed's back, making him to crash to the muddy ground.

As the stunned and mud-covered hunter was picking himself up, he failed to notice another talioang coming galloping straight towards him from behind, threatening to trample the hunter to death.

"Come on, Trudy!" Norm said to his ikran, and made her to make U-turn, flying towards the hunter and the talioang that threatened him.

Flying low and straight, Norm took the third arrow and put it into his bow before taking the aim at the galloping talioang, this time concentrating harder with his aim so that his arrow would hit home.

And at the same time, once the hunter was back on his feet, did he turn around to look behind and gasped with horror upon seeing that the talioang was about to crash into him, and it was too close for him to even try to jump out of its way.

The hunter braced for the impact by covering his eyes and shielding himself with his arms, right at the same time when Norm let his arrow fly and swooped over the cowering hunter's head.

This time, Norm's arrow hit in the base of the talioang's neck, causing it to collapse dead on its left side, and not a moment too late before it would've crashed into the hunter with the deadly force.

Seeing Norm's successful kill that also saved the hunter's life, Satka whooped with delight from the side door of the Samson. "WOO-HOO! Go, Sempul Norm!" she squealed happily.

Palree, Baldang and Li'mane, however, weren't quite lucky in their own attempts to bring down talioang, because while their aims were good and hit very close of their targets, they still ended up to miss and bounce off from the talioang's armor.

Those three tried to get far more clear shots by flying even lower above of the herd, almost without caring about the risks they were taking by flying even lower than it was appropriate for the ikran to fly, because flying this close of the forest floor reduced much of the space needed to fly.

But even there they couldn't get the clear shots at the talioang they were targeting.

And the biggest problem with that was that they couldn't focus on their aim for too long, because they also had focus on avoiding trees and tree branches growing this low so they wouldn't crash into them.

Well, Baldang wasn't that lucky, because while he was flying alongside of one talioang he was taking aim at with his bow and arrow - and even in this close range, his arrow, the last arrow even, ended up to bounce off the animal's shoulder - he didn't see the arching tree branch right in front of him, until it was too late.

Startled by this fast coming obstacle, Baldang tried to fly past it from below, but he was too late and ended up getting hit by the branch which knocked him off his ikran.

Palree and Li'mane were meanwhile flying in each side of one talioang they both had picked as their target, and focused only in aiming their arrows at the base of its neck from the very close range that the tips of their ikrans' wings almost touched each other, but even their arrows - with Palree's third and Li'mane's last arrow - ended up only to bounce off the animal.

However, they were forced to break the formation when they realized that they were flying straight towards the large tree, so the two flew around it from both sides in the sharp curves, though they didn't look where they were flying and thus ended up to accidentally bump into each other in the other side of the tree.

The impact caused Palree to lose his balance and footing and he fell off his ikran while Li'mane just barely managed to stay on his own ikran, while both ikrans screeched in discomfort, even nipping at each other in irritation.

"Watch it, you clumsy skxawng!" Li'mane hissed after Palree.

Koward then flew past him after the herd with only two arrows in his hands.

The last one of the former bullies, or at least a former bully in Koward's case, had used two of his arrows already, with one of them having already felled one talioang while other one had missed its target.

Koward then pulled his ikran into the deep dive down towards one talioang that galloped towards another arching tree branch, while he put the third arrow in his bow.

And then, Koward took the aim as both he and talioang he was targeting flew/galloped under of the arching tree branch, with Koward pulling his ikran up at the same time as he released the arrow and flew high up.

His arrow hit its mark in the animal's neck, causing it to flip over and collapse with the heavy thud to the the ground, dead, marking it as his second kill.

The hunting continued, with many more talioang getting felled by the ikran- or horse-mounted hunters, some of them achieved at least 1-2 successful kill shots, while others achieved no more than one or none at all. Only Jake, Tarsem, Akwey and Ka'ani achieved 2-3 successful kills, with both leading Olo'eyktans on the top with three kills per each.

But the most heatest competition was taking a place between of two hunters.

While zigzagging through the trees and ducking their branches while flying side by side, Neteyam and Kaeyla were fiercely competing which one of them gets the whole score of four kills, the highest score of the whole Great Hunt, without missing their target with each shot.

And so, determined to beat each other, the two had put their everything in the game, all of the former's experience and the latter's all of training, to get the highest score.

Neteyam had initially taken the lead with the first two successful kills, which weren't even difficult for an experienced hunter like him. Both of his shots had been done with such of careful aim that missing the target was almost impossible.

Kaeyla, on the other hand, had taken a little more time to work out every detail of the aim of her first shot, as she wanted it to hit straight through the home without missing the target and have her shot bouncing off the animal's armor.

But even though her first kill was successful, she noticed afterward that Neteyam had already taken down a third talioang at the same time, leaving her drastically behind and getting himself closer of getting a higher score before Kaeyla could even catch up with her.

However, Kaeyla did not let this imbalance of their scores, or the hurry and desperation to win to hinder her determination and focus in felling the talioangs.

Her second kill also came as a success when Kaeyla and Hawnu together performed a loop in the air above the targeted talioang, before she shot an arrow down at a 90-degree angle, hitting the talioang in the neck and felling it.

Her third kill, however, almost ended up failure and led to her defeat in this competition, had it not been for a stroke of luck when a talioang galloping next to the third talioang she was aiming at had bumped into this individual and pushed it into the path of her arrow, where it found its way to home and felled the animal.

And so far, she and Neteyam were even... most likely because Neteyam had out of fairness allowed Kaeyla to catch up with him, before they reach the endgame.

Neteyam then prepared himself to shoot his final kill as he swooped with Entu over the fourth individual he had picked as his target, with his fourth and last arrow in his bow, the string pulled back tight, and the shot aimed right at the animal's neck.

And then, with the target in sight, the way clear and upon reaching a perfect angle to shoot, Neteyam released the arrow to flight.

Kaeyla looked on in slightly nervous anticipation when Neteyam's last arrow flew through the air and towards the talioang's neck, with nothing to stop it from hitting its mark and Neteyam from winning their contest.

However, by some strange coincidence, the animal suddenly changed its course from left to right, so that its armored shoulder got in the way of its bare neck, and caused Neteyam's last arrow to bounce off it.

This unexpected coincidence left Neteyam totally dumbstruck, as well as Kaeyla, though the latter smirked with satisfaction, because this gave her the opportunity to grab the fourth kill, gain the highest score and win the contest.

But as she raised her bow up to put her fourth and final arrow in it, ready for the fourth and final kill, she didn't see the narrow branch coming towards her from the front, just above her head.

Kaeyla flew harmlessly from under it, but her bow still got hit by the branch, much to Kaeyla's surprise, and the impact with it happened to knock her bow out of her hand, and snap her arrow in half.

Thinking quickly, Kaeyla leaned as back as she could and reached out her hand to grab ot her bow, but it was already falling far out of her reach, and all she was capable to catch into her hand was the arrowhead end of her ruined arrow... which feathered end was hanging loosely from it.

"Oh, no!" Kaeyla cursed.

Now how she was supposed to get her final kill to surpass Neteyam's score now that she's lost her bow and all she got was what was left of her arrow.

However, Kaeyla began thinking quickly something as she peered down at the galloping talioang beneath her, as well as the vulnerable spots in their necks and the arrowhead in her hand, before an idea began to form in her mind. A crazy one it might be, but it just might work to get her past of Neteyam's score and win the contest.

Kaeyla began to take a deep breaths as she mentally prepared herself to carry out her crazy plan, while directing Hawnu to fly just ahead of one galloping talioang and stay both at this pace and in the same direction as her target.

And then, Kaeyla lifted her left foot out of the stirrup of the saddle and carefully placed it on Hawnu's back between her wings, where it would surely not hinder her flight, while she turned the arrowhead in her hands upside down and turned herself towards the talioang.

And then, she prepared to make a jump for it.

"Kaeyla! What are you doing?!" Neteyam's voice called, making Kaeyla to look up and see Neteyam flying with Entu just above of her target.

Neteyam was looking down at her with the disbelief on his face, as if he had already guessed what she was going to do, which he also thought was completely crazy, if not even dangerous enough, or even close of being a pure suicide move.

"Kaeyla! Whatever you're thinking, stop thinking it!" Neteyam warned, shaking his head disencouragingly at her.

Kaeyla looked from Neteyam down to the talioang below, and then from the animal to the arrowhead in her hand, as if reconsidering this idea one more time.

And then, she looked back up at Neteyam... before her face morphed into the determined smirk she aimed up at Neteyam.

Neteyam's eyes grew wide and his jaw went slack when he saw this, taken aback by the realization that Kaeyla was going to do what she was planning to do regardless of the risk.

"Kaeyla! No! Don't!" Neteyam called, reaching out to her.

But Kaeyla ignored him and fearlessly jumped off Hawnu's back, flying/falling freely down towards the talioang that was galloping towards her.

"AIAIAIAIIIIIEEEEE!" Kaeyla whooped from the top of her lungs.

"KAEYLA!" Neteyam called in wide-eyed shock.

As Kaeyla flew down towards the talioang, she took the arrowhead in both of her hands and raised it high above her head, ready to bring it down into the talioang's neck.

And then, she brought the arrowhead down with all of her strenght, plunging it deep into the plexus in the right side of the animal's neck, afterwards she was left hanging below the animal's underneath on an arrow stuck in it, while the beast dragged her along.

After being stabbed in the vulnerable spot in its neck, the talioang let out a pained bellow before the beast crashed forward and rather violently flipped twice or thrice from the speed of its run, with Kaeyla going with it, before it collapsed with the heavy thud on its right side.

"KAEYLA!" Neteyam cried with shock and dread.

After the last ones in the rear of the stampeding herd had passed the fallen talioang that had taken Kaeyla with it, Neteyam quickly made Entu to land down next to it, before he jumped off his ikran's back and rushed up to the corpse of the animal.

"Kaeyla!" Neteyam called for her worriedly, but his dread increased when he received no answer from her.

Neteyam then looked under of the talioang's corpse from its underneath, dreaded to find Kaeyla partially or almost completely burried/crushed under the beast, with either only her top half, one of her arms or her legs peeking from under.

He couldn't find her on this side, so Neteyam hurriedly climbed onto the talioang's corpse and peeked over it to see if Kaeyla was there in the other side, whether alive and injured or crushed under the beast.

"Kaeyla!" Neteyam called again, hoping for her to answer to him this time.

However, what he found from the other side of the animal's corpse left him somewhat relieved and completely taken aback.

Kaeyla, still alive though bruised, scratched and drenched with water and mud, was sitting there next to the talioang's body while taking support from the ground with her hands, panting breathlessly while looking blankly and wide-eyed into the space.

"Kaeyla?" Neteyam called her softly.

Kaeyla's ear twitched upon hearing him calling her name, and she slowly lifted her head up and looked up at him... before the blank look on her face turned slowly into a triumphant smirk, as if none of this had even happened.

"I won." was all she could say, before she let herself to collapse over to the ground, splashing water and mud as she did and lying in there.

"I pray for the knowledge from the Great Mother of what to do with you before you end up getting yourself killed in one of these days." Neteyam muttered to himself with the shake of his head at Kaeyla's rather crazy stunt move.

The beats of the wings then caught Neteyam's attention and he turned around to see what was it, until he saw his father with Bob, along with Norm with Trudy and Ka'ani with Tisay landing to the ground next to Entu, before all three hopped off and looked on the sight before them.

"Neteyam? Is everything alright here?" Jake asked from his son.

"Everything's fine, dad." Neteyam replied.

Ka'ani paid a good look at the corpse of the talioang on top of which the son of Olo'eyktan was sitting while looking at them. "Was it you who fell this fourth one, Neteyam?" he asked from Neteyam.

"If so, then this would be the fourth time in a row that your son has managed to catch the highest score of successful kills, Jake." Norm told his friend, surprised by such a record.

"But how it can be?" Jake questioned, as he turned to look directly at his son with somewhat of doubtful look on his face. "I happened to see you missing your target with your last shot, son, but not with this one."

Neteyam nervously pursed his lips and felt a little awkward and ashamed with himself upon learning that his father had paid a witness of him failing to make a fourth successful kill. However, the Son of Olo'eyktan quickly regained his composure to address his father properly.

"It wasn't actually me who felled this one, Dad. It was Kaeyla who really felled this one down on her fourth successful kill, though in an extraordinary and a rather crazy way, if you ask me." Neteyam told him, as Kaeyla climbed from behind the talioang's body to sit next to Neteyam on top of it.

Upon seeing the broken arrow in Kaeyla's hand, with both its blood-stained arrowhead and the feathers with Kaeyla's trademark colors, the adults were convinced that Neteyam was speaking the truth about this kill being Kaeyla's fourth.

This left all three of them a pretty surprised that Kaeyla had been capable to surpass Neteyam's already thrice gained highest score of kills during of the Great Hunt.

Both Neteyam and Kaeyla exchanged looks with each other and their respective dads, who as well exchanged the looks with one another, all of them knowing what this means.

Neteyam and Kaeyla then exchanged the smiles with one another, with Neteyam humbly and honorably accepting his defeat and acknowledging Kaeyla's victory in their competition.

Jake and Ka'ani too exchanged the smiles with each other, with Jake silently telling hius old friend that "you should be very proud of having such of daughter like her", to which Ka'ani responded with a nod, acknowledging the Olo'eyktan that "yes. I am very proud of her".

Jake then told everyone that this matter was for later at the tonight's feast, because now they needed to act quickly and take from all of the felled animals all they needed, the meat, hides, bones, everything, before the smell of the blood would attract an unwanted visits from the predators, such as palulukan, nantang, forest ikran or even tsawlyayos.

To be continued...

NEXT PART: THE HUNTING FESTIVAL