KAEYLA TE KATHAN SAEYLA'ITE.
PART 26.
THE DREAM HUNT
One year later
One night, Kaeyla, now thirteen years old, was sitting on her knees in middle of the marui while facing her mother, her eyes closed, as Saeyla, who had a bowl of white pain lying next to her, tipped her finger tips in the bowl and gently painted her daughter's face and body with the ceremonial paint.
And while waiting for her mother to be finished, Kaeyla was quiet and quite tense, but she refused to show any fear and the second thoughts and did her best to hide it with a calm yet stoic and serious demeanor, breathing calmly in and out while mentally preparing herself for what was to come.
For tonight, it was time for Kaeyla's uniltaron - the Dream Hunt.
Ka'ani sat nearby with his his son Kai'ani, who was now eleven years old, as they watched together Saeyla preparing Kaeyla for the Dream Hunt.
"So, Kaeyla is really going to do it, dad?" Kai'ani asked as he looked up at his father. "The Dream Hunt?"
Ka'ani nodded his head with the serious. "Yes, son. Saeyla is soon going through uniltaron, and be reborn as a young woman."
"Just like you and mom went?" Kai'ani asked.
As a response to this, Kai'ani gestured at his cummerbund around his torso. "Indeed. And every hunter who goes successfully through the Dream Hunt, is rewarded with this cummerbund, which one day you too shall wear around your torso when you go through yours."
"Then why doesn't mom wear one?" Kai'ani asked curiously.
"While the huntresses do not wear the cummerbund like the male hunters do, they do have their own reward after successfully completing the Dream Hunt, which your sister will have after her own Dream Hunt." Ka'ani assured him.
Kai'ani nodded in understantment before he and his father turned to look back at Saeyla and Kaeyla.
They sat there a moment in silence, without saying a word to one another. Even if Kaeyla was coming to an age to be considered as a young woman, a thing which should be considered a joyful event for the family, the upcoming ceremony seemed to rob all the joy of life and replace it with the tension and dead seriousness.
With this silence and tension, Kai'ani turned to look up at his father again to ask something more.
"So... how does this ceremony goes again, dad?" he asked curiously.
"Well, when the hunter or huntress is going through the Dream Hunter, he or she'll be injected with kali'weya's venom and then the hunter or huntress has to swallow eltungawng." Ka'ani explained.
"Eww! Gross!" Kai'ani gagged, cringing with the disgust at the thought.
"Yet it is part of the ritual, son." Ka'ani reminded him. "And as the Clan members, who have gathered around the hunter for the ritual, express themselves musically as the spirit moves, the two combined venom will surrender the hunter into a psychoactive trance and he will experience the vision-like dream that shows the hunter his or her spirit animal. The vision that is believed to involve prophetic wisdom by Eywa."
"Wow." Kai'ani said in awe."
Ka'ani then turned into dead serious. "However, there is also a high risk involved in this ritual." he revealed solemnly.
"A risk?" Ka'ani repeated, bot confused but also worried to hear what his father was going to say about this "risk".
"The combined venom of both animals also tend to cause to the initiate a great amount of pain, and the seeing of the vision requires the near-death experience, and sometimes even Na'vi can suddenly die in the vision quests." Ka'ani explained.
Wide-eyed from the shock at the revelation of the risk of the possible death being involved in such of ritual, Kai'ani gulped around nervously.
Knowing now that why Kaeyla has been so oddly quiet all day, Kai'ani turned to look at her with the fear for her well-being in his eyes.
"Can that happen to Kaeyla too?" Kai'ani asked while dreading the thought that his big sister might very possibly perish in the Dream Hunt if she isn't strong enough to endure the ritual both mentally and physically.
Ka'ani let out the deep sigh, because he too shared his son's fear for his daughter, but he had to stay strong for her. "Unless your sister is strong both mentally and physically enough to endure the pain and the experience."
There was a moment of silence between the father and son for a moment before Ka'ani continued.
"But remember that your sister is strong only as long as you will remain strong for her throughout the ritual, Kai'ani. She needs it, as well as she needs your support, now more than ever before." Ka'ani encouraged him.
Kai'ani nodded his head. "Okay. I'll be strong for my sister." he said, mostly to himself.
Ka'ani glanced down at his son, and Kai'ani glanced back up at his father, nodding his head to him with serious affirmation, making the father to smile proudly to his son, before the two turned back to Saeyla and Kaeyla.
Saeyla was almost finished, having painted the ceremonial circular white lines around her eyes and chest and straight or slightly curved lines to her forehead, between her eyes, cheeks, shoulders, arms, stomach and sides, before the mother finished her work by drawing three lines over the daughter's mouth with her three fingers.
"You're ready, daughter." Saeyla said with serious voice. "Are you ready?"
Kaeyla looked at her mother deep in the eyes in dead silence, before she nodded her head seriously, bracing herself to a challenging ritual. Saeyla gave her the look mixed with pride and worry, before she stood up and, taking her daughter by the hands, gently pulled her up.
Then the women of the family turned to the men of the family.
"Let's go. They're waiting." Saeyla told her mate and son.
Both Ka'ani and Kai'ani nodded before the family left to escort Kaeyla to the place where the ritual was going to be hold.
Usually the rituals such as the Dream Hunts were held in the most holy places that was located deep within the roots of the Hometree, where the Eywa's presence was the closest aside of the Tree of Souls or the Tree of Voices. But now that the Omatikaya Hometree was gone, and with the the holy place, the Omatikaya had to find another holy place to hold these rituals, somewhere where they could feel the Great Mother's presence the most closest.
The Omatikaya had some years ago discovered the underground cavern wuth the underground pool deep within the roots of the tall tree (even if it wasn't even half of the size of the Hometree, which implied that the tree wasn't that old like the fullgrown Hometree) just in between of their village and the Tree of Souls.
With the combined efforts of both Mo'at and Norm and several of the scientist in their Dreamwalker bodies, who had gone to investigate the cavern after its discovery, they were able to detect the presence of the Great Mother. Not as strong as it had been back at the Omatikaya's Hometree, but present nonetheless, enough for Mo'at to pick the place as the temporary holy place until the clan could find a new Hometree.
It was there where the clan had already held several Dream Hunt rituals for less than a decade since its discovery.
And tonight, was Kaeyla's turn.
After they finally arrived to the said tree and the entrance beneath it, Saeyla led Kaeyla, Ka'ani and Kai'ani down the tunnel that led deep into underground.
It took some time for Kaeyla and her family to reach the end of the tunnel, during of which he fought with herself to keep her nervousness and tension under control of her stoic and serious exterior, until the new entrance at the end of the tunnel opened into a huge cave, supported by the roots of the tree above that peeked or protruded out from the walls, and the thickest root served as a spiraling walkway that led from the tunnel down to the bottom of the cave to the bank of an underground pool.
The selected number of clan's elders and the seasoned hunters were already there waiting for her, gathered in the circle in middle of the cave, where the root of the tree circled around within the circle like a spiral until its head reached the center of the circle... making it to look like the womb of the earth.
Mo'at, Jake Sully, Neytiri and Tarsem were amongst of those in present there, with Mo'at wearing her ceremonial Tsahik outfit while Jake wore his Olo'eyktan garb for the ritual.
After a moment of looking around of the cave and down at every clan elder, hunter, and authoritative member present, Kaeyla's gaze fell on Neteyam, who was surprisingly also present, even though he wasn't even none of the three ranks.
And as Kaeyla made her presence known with the first step she took into the holy cave and began to walk down along the root to the bottom of the cave with her family, one of the elders slowly began to tap a large water drum, each beat creating a soft blue glow that reflected off the cave's walls and the surface of the pool, as well as the soft rhythmic beats that echoed in the cave like heartbeats in the chest.
And as they neared the bottom of the cave, Kaeyla felt her own heart pounding in her chest to the rhythm of the water drum, though it really didn't sooth her harboured nervousness or tension.
At the bottom of the walkway, the first one to receive Kaeyla and her family was none other than Neteyam.
"Unless you're part of this ritual, Neteyam te Suli Tsyeyk'itan, you're not really supposed to be down here." Ka'ani told to the son of Olo'eyktan.
"I know." Neteyam agreed. "And I wouldn't have been if I hadn't convinced my dad to let me to be here just as long as I won't disrupt the ritual."
Ka'ani eyed Neteyam up and down, knowing full well that under no any other circumstances but his daughter's well-being the son of Olo'eyktan would be down here.
"My daughter is strong and she will be fine, Neteyam." Ka'ani continued, before he gate a somewhat of grateful nod to him. "But I'm glad that you're here too to give her your support."
Neteyam nodded his head to Ka'ani. "As well as to make sure that she'll be okay, since this ritual can be a really challenging one to our age. Trust me, Kai'ani. I know how this feels like." he said, recalling the time when he himself went through the same ritual.
Ka'ani nodded before he went to take his place in the circle.
This allowed Neteyam to turn to Kaeyla, who, despite being so glad that he was here for her as well, didn't change the serious and stoic look on her face even for his sake. For her needed to remain strong and prepared for the ritual, while the time of expressing her happiness for his presence here would come after this.
"How are you feeling, Kaeyla?" Neteyam asked.
Kaeyla inhaled and then exhaled, as she looked Neteyam deep in his eyes. "Ready." was all she could say without changing the look on her face.
However, Neteyam knew that Kaeyla was lying because, due to being there where she was right now, he could tell from the look of her eyes that deep down in this exterior she indeed was really tensed and nervous about this.
But not wanting her dad, grandmother or the other elders seasoned hunters or her own family to know about this, for it could make her look unprepared in front of everyone at the very beginning of the ritual and blow the whole thing, so he kept it with himself.
"Then, good luck." Neteyam told her, to which Kaeyla responded with the single nod.
But before Kaeyla could move on towards the ring, Neteyam reached out his hand, placing it over Kaeyla's shoulder to prevent her from going - just yet - before he gently pulled her closer, until his mouth was next to her right ear, while hers was next to his left own.
"I'll be there for you to the very end, Kaeyla." Neteyam whispered into her ear. "You'll be doing great. I know you will. And is something goes awry, just call me, and I'll be immediately there for you."
Upon hearing these encouraging and reassuring words that he would be there for her if anything went wrong, Kaeyla turned her head a bit to the left to peer at everyone in the ring to see if anyone of them was paying attention to them for now.
After making sure than none of them did, Kaeyla turned back to Neteyam's ear and, after having maintained a stoic and dead serious face throughout today's preparations for this ritual, allowed her face to soften up a bit, thus revealing her being tensed and nervous about this ritual.
However, she needed to remain strong for her own sake, for her family's sake, even for Neteyam's sake, so she quickly reassumed her serious face, but not before whispering one thing in Neteyam's ear.
"I'll be thinking of you if something goes wrong." she said, assuring, believing, hoping that the thought of her best friend could snap her out of the trance of the vision quest is something doesn't go as supposed to.
With that, Kaeyla turned away from Neteyam and continued towards the circle of elders and hunters.
Saeyla followed after her daughter, but not before she took Kai'ani to Neteyam before turning to the son of Olo'eyktan.
"I'm needed out there, so I'll leave my son with you during the whole Dream Hunt, Neteyam. If you don't mind about that." Saeyla said.
"Not at all." Neteyam said, shaking his head.
After all, as the oldest and firstborn of Sully's children, it was almost a daily routine for him to be given the responsibility of watching over his younger siblings whenever his parents were too busy to do so.
And thus, he didn't mind of watching over Kai'ani for a moment even if he wasn't his brother.
But hey, at least they were both here for the same reason: to support Kaeyla during the ritual with their presence.
Saeyla nodded his thanks to Neteyam and, after telling her son that she needed him to stay here with the son of Olo'eyktan while she was helping the others in performing the ritual to Kaeyla, she left Kai'ani with Neteyam and turned to join with the others.
Being left alone together, Neteyam and Kai'ani walked a little bit closer to get the better view of the ceremony, but stayed obediently a some distance away from it so that they wouldn't disturb the ritual.
Neteyam then heard Kai'ani breathing in and out hard out of anxiousness and fear for his big sister despite having promised to his father that he will stay strong for Kaeyla, but still he couldn't get the thought out of his mind that she could possibly even die if she isn't strong enough to fight the effect of the venom during her visions.
To comfort him, Neteyam wrapped his left hand around his back and gently layed it over the younger boy's left shoulder, making Kai'ani to look up at Neteyam.
"Your sister is going to be okay. She will be okay. She'll make it through of this." Neteyam told him reassuringly.
Kai'ani nodded his head frantically in order to reassure himself that Kaeyla will pull this througfh.
Back with the circle, as both Ka'ani and Saeyla assume their places, Kaeyla walks slowly and solemnly inside of the ring, standing in middle of the circle of the seated Na'vi, who close the circle so that there was almost no gap between anyone.
And there Kaeyla stood, facing both Mo'at and the Olo'eyktan.
"Kaeyla te Kathan Saeyla'ite, are you ready?" Jake asked, eyeing the young Na'vi with the serious gleam in his eyes.
Swallowing whatever tension and nervousness she still had in her system, Kaeyla nodded her head dead seriously and without the second thought.
"Yes, Olo'eyktan. I am ready." Kaeyla said before she squatted down.
Jake nodded his head solemnly before he turned to Mo'at. "Let us begin." he said, to which Mo'at nodded before Jake walked past Kaeyla to the other side of the circle.
Locking her eyes with the Tsahik, Kaeyla saw how Mo'at picked up some burning herbs and blows the smoke out of them at Kaeyla's face to "purify" her while chanting in a low monotone. Kaeyla fanned the smoke closer of her face and maneuvered it over and around fo her head as she inhaled deeply to take as much of it in her lungs.
After purifying the young girl, Mo'at then put the herbs away for now for the later use and squatted to pick up a piece of wood riddled with holes.
As the Tsahik unwraps it, she reaches inside with her fingers, catches and pulls out of the wood a twisty and glowing purple worm and hangs it in the air with the other end between her fingers.
"Eww! Gross!" Kai'ani gagged with quiet voice at the sight of the worm.
"Shh!" Neteyam shushed at him, without looking at him, for his eyes were locked on Kaeyla, who leaned her head back so that her mouth was pointing upwards.
Mo'at then turned to Kaeyla and walked slowly towards her, till she was standing right in front of her, holding the worm above of the girl's head.
"Oh wise worm, eater of the Sacred Tree. Bless this worthy Huntress with a true vision." Mo'at chanted, repeating the last line "with the true vision" again and again.
Kaeyla opens her mouth and stretches out her tongue, allowing Mo'at to place it on her tongue. On her tongue, the worm twists on itself, lightning Kaeyla's mouth as she pulls it in before she closes it. Kaeyla then chews the worm in her mouth before swallowing.
Kaeyla grimaced slightly at the rather slimy taste of the worm.
"Grant true vision. Grant true vision. In the plants, grant true vision to her." Mo'at, along with Ka'ani, Saeyla, Neytiri and Tarsum began to chant in unison.
Jake then opens an stone jar and puts his hand inside, picking a writhing black kali'weya into his hand before pulling the arachnid out. As the small arachnid crawls around in Jake's arm, with him maneuvering its movements by constantly changing his own hand's/arm's angles, Jake moved behind of Kaeyla, who braces herself for being stung by it.
Jaken then places the arachnid against the back of Kaeyla's neck and gently pressed it down, waiting for it to raise its thorax so that its venom could sac to empty into the stinger canals.
And when it did, it immediately plunged its stinger into Kaeyla's skin, injecting her with its venom.
"AGH!" Kaeyla gasped, grimacing in pain as she reflexively bent her back and her head backwards, fighting back the instincts to reach out to the injection site with her hand, while hissing through of her gritted teeth as she breathed heavily.
At the background, Kai'ani flinched at Kaeyla's gasp of pain after being stung and was driven by the instinct to go to her side to see if she was okay, but Neteyam held him still.
Mo'at and Jake then stepped back, leaving Kaeyla alone in the circle.
Both Saeyla and Ka'ani watched intently as they joined in the low chant.
It took some time from Kaeyla to adjust to the immense pain from the sting, even if it didn't go completely way. But almost immediately afterwards, Kaeyla began to feel a pretty funny.
The sounds around her, both the chanting and the drumbeats, began to be heard only as a distant echoes that ring in her head. Her eyesight became disoriented and blurry, and her ability to focus on anything around her was slowly but certainly fading away. She also began to have an awful, dizzy feeling, which caused her to sway weakly from side to side, and her thoughts became blurry and her eyelids began to feel heavy, while she was nearly overcome by an overwhelming, obsessive desire to just close her eyes and settle down to sleep. Kaeyla tried to put up the fight to keep her mind clear and eyes open, but those were merely a rather weak attempts which were quickly pushed back by the force twice much stronger than her own willpower. Kaeyla also felt how her breathing became more heavy and labored.
With the few remaining thoughts she had left and fought for, Kaeyla realized that both the combined venoms of the worm and the kali'weya were starting affecting her already.
Kaeyla looked blankly around, first at the Na'vi who beat the water drum. The gentle beating on the drum rang in her ears as loud as a thunder, and the gentle light has become more bright, nearly blindingly so, causing Kaeyla to wince and close her eyes to shield them from the light.
And when Kaeyla looked up at the people around her, her parents. Neytiri, Tarsem, Jake and Mo'at - who blew the smoke out of the burning herbs at Kaeyla's face again, the inhalation of which only strengthened the dizziness in her head - whose voices became more and more muffled echoes, and whose movements slowed down rapidly in her eyes.
The Na'vi of the ring then leaned forward towards her and hissed at her face through of their bared teeth, as part of the traditional ritual, before they pulled back to their spots.
While struggling with the strong effect of the venom, Kaeyla looked at them as the Na'vi of the ring leaned towards her again and hissed at her... with her disoriented vision apparently making their faces to transform into a... a way more wild, fierce, scary and threatening, which made Kaeyla to lean back away from them.
Another fierce-sounding hiss from behind her right shoulder made her to turn around, startled and paranoid, before she backed away from the fierce face.
Another sharp hissing behind of her left shoulder made her turn around and back away again from the one who had made that hissing sound.
With another powerful wave of illness and dizziness rushing through of her system, Kaeyla nearly collapsed to the ground, but absentmindedly took the support from the ground with her hands.
And then, the colors of the surroundings - the ground, the roots, the walls and the lake - began to slowly switch their colors in her eyes, from the dark blue and green into the mix of sickly toned colors of green brown, orange and sickly yellow. And the onlookers turned from blue to dark brown. Even her own skin color switched from blue to brown.
The tension, anxiety and even the fear grew with fast rate within Kaeyla as she looked how the world changed rapidly before her and around her.
Despite that, with the sheer willpower she still had left, Kaeyla forced herself to keep it together and stay calm despite these frightening changes.
The world around her changed again.
The Na'vi around her, including herself, turned into a yellow transparent figures with the blue-colored nervous systems visible inside of their spectral bodies.
The cave's floor, walls, ceiling and the lake also disappeared from her sight, leaving her and everybody else in the ring floating in the air of the vast empty black space filled with the thousands of glowing yellow spectral shapes of the trees' roots.
There was a rhythmic sound in this spectral world that echoed loudly like a thunder.
BOOM!
And at each sound that followed it, the whole world flashed with the bright blue energy, like a pulse, which briefly revealing the network of billions of dendrites, which spread outward across the ground and miles deep to the earth beneath of them.
Then, suddenly, Kaeyla felt herself falling through an invisible floor into the void below, which completely caught her by surprise. She screamed at the top of her lungs, but her screams faded to a low, distant echo as she plummeted at breakneck speed down a glowing yellow tunnel into darkness, seemingly passing hundreds or even thousands of miles in a matter of seconds.
After falling for at least almost a minute, although from Kaeyla's perspective it felt like almost an eternity, Kaeyla fell out of the yellow tunnel into another dark space, where the network's color chamged from blue into brown, then red, then orange, then bright yellow.
And in middle of the whole network was something that made Kaeyla's eyes go wide from amazement.
In the middle of all this was a bright concentration of energy that sent with a rhythmic pace waves of energy waves to flow along the network.
And to her greater astonishment, she saw amidst that energy the silhouette of a bright golden figure, which shape resembled somewhat of the Na'vi, but its brightness made its form too hazy to be recognized. At least all the neural network around her were either linked to it, or then they were producing out of it like trendils and spreading all over this space instead.
The figure, who so far had its eyes closed, opened them, revealing them to be bright white eyes. And as it became aware of Kaeyla's presence, it looked down at her.
But instead of fearing this thing or feeling threatened by it, Kaeyla instead felt completely safe and relieved... and the gaze this thing had on her was actually filled with an ancient wisdom that easily surpassed even the most wisest Tsahik's like Mo'at's, and even so much motherly love for her that surpassed even her own mother's own immense love for her.
It didn't take long from Kaeyla to realize that who or what this thing is.
"Eywa?"
The figure, who was likely the Great Mother of all life on Pandora, Eywa, or at least the manifestation of her sentience of selfhood, gently nodded her head at Kaeyla to confirm her suspicions.
Eywa then silently spread out her hands towards her, before the blinding bright light emerged out of her chest and illuminated the whole space both around and between of them, forcing Kaeyla to shield her eyes from the light with her arms before she was engulfed completely by the light.
In the reality:
The elders and the seasoned hunters, along with Jake, Neytiri, Mo'at, Tarsem, Ka'ani, Saeyla, as well as from the sidelines anxiously awaiting Neteyam and Kai'ani watched as Kaeyla, during of her out-of-body experience, was writhing, contorting and trashing in agony the center of the ring as the venom was working in her system.
Her body could feel her muscles seizing, making her gasp, groan and scream in immense pain. Her mouth was foaming, eyes rolled back in her head and the awful illness in her head caused her to puke terribly to the ground.
Saeyla looked at her daughter worriedly, fearing that this might be too much for Kaeyla to bear and the combinet venoms' effects might kill her before the ritual is even finished... only for Ka'ani to put a comforting hand on her shoulder, nodding to his mate reassuringly that Kaeyla will make it through of this... even if he had to hide his own fears for Kaeyla possibly dying in the process.
Meanwhile, Neteyam shared the same worries and fears about Kaeyla as her parents did as he watched her in the ring under the agonizing effects of the venom, and most of the time he was unable to hide them like Ka'ani did, but still managed to keep himself from rushing into the ring to get to her side, though with absolute difficulty.
Neteyam had also knelt next to anxious Kai'ani and wrapped his arms around of him, both to comfort him and to keep him restrained, for Kai'ani wasn't as able to keep himself back from rushing to his big sister's side.
Within Eywa:
When the light of the Great Mother that had engulfed Kaeyla finally faded away, allowing Kaeyla to lower her arms from her eyes, she looked around but didn't see Eywa anywhere anymore.
While wondering where Eywa had gone, or that where she herself was right now, Kaeyla let out a loud gasp, her eyes wide from austonishment as she looked on forward.
Kaeyla realized that she was no longer in the spectral realm, but was actually standing on some rocks somewhere in the Eastern Sea, far, far away from the forests of the mainland. Next to her on her right was towering a three gigantic karst-like rock structures in a rounded formation and close proximity to one another.
And to her left was a beautiful sunset, with the sun coloring the seascape sky in shades of brown, red, orange, and yellow as it slowly but surely sank behind the horizon.
Kaeyla had never seen the ocean in her life, let alone these three giant rock structures in such of formations. The cool blow of the salty sea wind against her face felt good and the rock formation looked beautiful and majestic from the first-hand perspective, and the magnificent sunset even topped off this breathtaking sight.
No. Wrong. She was actually wrong to think that it was the sunset that crowned this whole thing.
Out of the water emerged all of the sudden against the setting sun a huge water creature with dark grey/blue skin with areas of white coloration on its underbelly and colorful, stripe-like markings across its body. Like all the life forms in the forest, this one too had four orange-colored eyes, two on each side of the head, that are orange in color, and the shapes of irises are different between larger and smaller eyes. It had six flippers, although the last two have apparently merged to become part of its tail. It had six blowholes on its back and highly durable-looking armor plating across it's body. It also had two tswins protruding from the bottom of its snouts. And finally, the most striking part of the creature was its pair of large, brightly colored head crests that protrude from the front of its snout.
Kaeyla held her breath at the sight of such of beautiful magnificent sea beast and its majestic burst out of the water against the light of the sunset, before it was about to crash back in the water.
As she kept staring at this magnificent creature and its impressive jumping show, Kaeyla began to wonder for a moment that could this animal, whatever it was, actually be her spirit animal she was meant to discover, and was it coming for her to confirm this.
If so, then Kaeyla was left both intrigued, hopeful, excited and rather impatient to wait for it to come to her and be her spirit animal... which could seal her Dream Hunt as a complete success.
Just everybody back in the reality wait till she tells them about her encounter with her "spirit animal".
However, Kaeyla was so wooed by the beautiful and magnificent sight of the animal that Kaeyla failed to notice - mostly thanks to the setting sun's light silhouetting its form - that the left side of the beast's face was heavily scarred, with something nasty spear-like metal thing having pierced through its right fin and was left stuck in there, and that its left fin had become a stumb, but not from natural causes but rather deliberate and rather violent ones.
Then at the moment the sea creature crashed back into water...
KA-BOOOOOOOOOOM!
There was a tremendous sound in the air, like thunder, even though the sea sky was clear, breezy and sunny, and there was not a single thundercloud. Which was followed by the seconds afterwards a blinding bright light like a lightning that came out of nowhere.
The lightning caused the entire sea world to turn completely milky white in Kaeyla's eyes, reducing her being unable yto see anything but white, which surprised her so badly that she instinctively threw her arms in front of her to protect both her face and eyes from the light.
After the moment, the bright light faded away enough for Kaeyla to dare to unshield her eyes.
However, this time as she opened her eyes, Kaeyla was left once again surprised and confused to find herself standing in middle of nothing: In the middle of the pitch-black darkness, a void with no life or light.
Looking around, Kaeyla tried to make the sense of her whereabouts, but she couldn't see anything but blackness wherever she looked.
In fact, she was also confused that which direction was which, for she wasn't sure where she should go and if this was either a right or wrong direction... or whether she should turn to the left or right or turn back or continue onwards... and to where exactly.
Not to mention that she didn't know if she was going in a circle or in the same direction she was just recently going.
This endless blackness, the lack of knowledge of where she was and the total confusion of and the lack of sense of direction caused Kaeyla's breathing to go frantic as all of this began to increase her uneasiness and anxiousness over this, because this whole Dream Hunt didn't seem to be going at all like her mother and father had described theirs going.
It actually started to feel more like a fever dream, though only all too real one.
So, not knowing what else she should do, she ended up calling out to someone from the darkness, even if not knowing if anyone was even here or who could answer to her cries for help, while being absentminded of the fact that no sound or cry couldn't come out of her mouth in this dream world.
But she didn't care, though, but kept calling out into the darkness and waiting for someone to answer to her, hoping beyond hope that someone like Neteyam, Kai'ani, her father, her mother, Mo'at, Olo'eyktan, Neytiri or Tarsem, or whoever, anybody, could just answer.
"Hee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee!"
The sudden, and uncomfortably rather sinister-sounding chuckle that came from behind her made Kaeyla to turn around to see who had laughed.
To her surprise, all she could see was in middle of the dark void standing silhouette of the figure, whose whole body was lined by the white/blue light shining behind him.
The figure was apparently a few distance away from her, though it was hard to tell how far or how close, though Kaeyla saw thatthe figure was coming towards her.
If Kaeyla just could've, she would've asked this strange figure that who he was and what did he want? Or, where they were and if he could help her to get out of here?
But when the figure came close enough for Kaeyla to recognize, she realized that this figure was a completely black silhouette except for the lines of light around him, meaning that she couldn't see his nonexistent face.
However, Kaeyla could still see that this figure was shorter than her, exactly the same size as the adult Sky Person.
What's more, when the figure got even closer of her, Caseyla could see something else in him. Even though the figure lacked face, he still got the pair of glowing eyes. However, unlike with Eywa's eyes, this figure's eyes were burning red, and looked to be filled with the burning malice, hatred and obsessive desire for destruction.
And not the mention that this figure appeared to have a three huge scars in his right temple!
"Hee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee!"
The fugure's another sinister chuckle, which was most obviously aimed at her while he was glaring at her with his fiery eyes, made Kaeyla feel even more uncomfortable and she began to back away from him.
The bluish-white light that lined up this figure's silhouette then changed its color into the dark blue and almost purplish... but before the figure began to change his shape right in front of Kaeyla's eyes, to her bewilderment, and not to a good one.
The figure began to grow from the normal size for a Sky Person to twice of his size, reaching swiftly to the height of a full-grown Na'vi... and his silhouette shape began to experience the methamorphosis as well, as it turned from more Sky Person-like into more... well... into more like Na'vi, with the tail, pointed ears, flat nose, the twsin hanging from the back of his head and everything, though still maintaining the five fingers in each hand just like their Olo'eyktan did.
This was way beyond of Kaeyla's understanding... and it frightened her down to the core very much.
The figure then took something out from his waist before he held it up and "extended" it towards her.
Kaeyla didn't know what this new-formed figure was extending, offering, or aiming at her, because it was completely merged with his silhouetted chest, without showing anything that could've help her to identify this thing the figure was holding.
BLAM!
Suddenly, from that thing the figure was holding and apparently aiming at her, created something what her father had once described to her based on his and mother's experiences during the fights with the Sky People.
"The spit of fire coming out of the Sky People's weapons of metal before the immediate death comes for anyone standing in front of it."
Too bad for Kaeyla, because upon recalling this and thus upon realizing what this figure was holding in his hand, Kaeyla realized that she was standing RIGHT in front of the spit of fire of the Sky People's weapon of metal, wielded by this figure.
And the moment the shot was fired at her, the figure was immediately swallowed by the darkness... whether because Kaeyla flinched and reflexively/instinctively closed her eyes or because she had faced immediate death.
However, after the moment, the darkness began to recede and the world before her eyes lit up once again.
And before long, Kaeyla found herself standing on those same rocks again, where she was just the moment ago looking out at the beautiful seascape, along with the three gigantic stone structures, and a majestic sea creature leaping out of the water against the setting sun.
However, much to Kaeyla's surprise, then shock and then outright horror, the vision of the seascape had drastically changed to something very unpleasant that it had just been the moment ago!
The sea air, once so clear and pure, was covered and polluted by thick smoke, and the strong burning stench. The sea around the three giant rocks was on fire, heavily on fire - which Kaeyla thought to be impossible, because unlike the wood, the water cannot burn. The sea itself had turned from the beautiful color of blue into the grotesque color of red... like the blood, which also had stained the nearby rocks with blood! The sea was filled with dozens of dead corpses staining the sea with their blood, both Na'vi - though not exactly like the Na'vi from the forest - the Sky People, and the two new types of sea creatures Kaeyla had never seen before. Here and there were wrecked and burning Sky People's vehicles. And far in the horizon, amongst the fire and smoke, was floating a gigantic monstrous Sky People's beast made of metal! It appeared to be badly damaged, on fire in many places and it tilted from the right side below the surface of the water as if it were sinking.
Kaeyla stared in wide-eyed horror at this apocalyptic vision and the apparent massacre before her, unable to understand what had happened here - wherever she was.
Then something caught her eye from below, and she lowered her gaze to the rocks near the water's edge, where there was yet another terrifying sight.
There was a body - a body of the Na'vi!
And even just the boy, because he looked too young to be just an adult.
He was lying there on his back on the rocks, looking blankly up at the smoke-filled sky while staying as still as the rock as if he was dead. And his chest was stained with the fresh blood coming out of the wound/hole in his chest.
But something else too caught Kaeyla's eye when she looked at the Na'vi's faces.
That face looked strangely familiar to her, as if she had seen it somewhere before, which confused Kaeyla greatly.
Taken over by the curiosity, but not the good one though, Kaeyla stepped cautiously towards the body to inspect him closer, though every step she took closer of the body only increased her growing anxiety of the identifying the body.
However, that recognition ended up to stab her in the heart like the thousand knives, and left her to stare wide-eyed down at the boy's faces in heartbeat-skipping shock and absolute horror!
And if she just could've, she would've screamed from the top of her lungs like she had ever screamed before!
The body of the Na'vi boy - whose open eyes staring blankly in the sky lacked that tiny gleam of life - was NETEYAM! JAKE SULLY'S SON!
In the reality:
Everybody in and outside of the ring were still staring down at Kaeyla, and were starting to grow worried and anxious, since the Dream Hunt had gone too long than usually.
Kaeyla had rolled onto her back and had fallen completely limp and semi-conscious state. Her eyes closed tight shut, her face twisted into a agonized expression, her body was twitching violently, the foam was coming out of her mouth, while she let out the chocking and gurgling sounds out of her mouth as well.
"Mo'at?" Jake said as he squatted next to her. "What is happening?"
Jake knew from what Grace had told him once and from his own experience - twice - that the Dream Hunt was a dangerous ritual and that many Na'vi could die from the venom that brought you to the brink of death. But he had never been in the situations like this before since his own Dream Hunt and during of his own time as Olo'eyktan, since many other Dream Hunt rituals he had performed along with Mo'at have been so far successful, until now.
"Something has gone wrong, Jakesully." Mo'at told him. "The effect of the venom is taking a stronger hold over her body, and her strength to fight it back was fading away."
"You mean...?" Jake said, dreading for the answer. "She's dying?!"
Mo'at gave him a grave nod, confirming this.
"Can you do something about it?" Jake asked, knowing how much it would affect to both Ka'ani and Saeyla, Kai'ani, and his son Neteyam, if Kaeyla just ends up dropping dead.
Mo'at, however, shook her head. "It's up to Eywa to decide whether she lives or dies. I am not allowed to interfere it. None of us can." she told him. "Kaeyla is on her own. As hard as it is to accept it, this is our people's way, which you know well, Jakesully."
Jake turned to his mate, Tarsem, Ka'ani and all the other Elders and hunters, seeing that none of them, not even Ka'ani, were even moving a limb to go to help Kaeyla.
Saeyla, on the other hand, had a great difficulty to stay put and watch her daughter suffering a slow and painful death, until her protective motherly instincts proved to be too great to hold back and made her nearly break out of the ring to go to Kaeyla's side, only to be held back by Ka'ani... even though Jake could see that he too very reluctant to just stay put and do nothing.
Against his better judgement, while knowing that this would have occurred anyway if his own Dream Hunt had gone awry, Jake let out the defeated sigh and nodded his head, reluctantly deciding not to disturb his people's traditions by interfering this.
"She's my son's best friend." Jake told her under his breath. "How I'm going to tell him that Kaeyla didn't make it?"
"He'll understand." Mo'at told him with confidence. "Your son knew the risks, so did Kaeyla. And so do you."
Suddenly, just as Jake was about to respond to this, Kaeyla's eyes shot wide open and he let out a sharp yet hoarse gasp out of her mouth!
"AGH! GHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Kaeyla's sudden awakening and her high-pitched scream caught the attention of everyone present and they turned to look down at her.
Kaeyla rolled up to her stomach, trembling violently while frantically gasping for the air and clawing the dirt with her fingers, all the while she kept screaming panickedly for one thing that first came in her mind upon waking up.
"NETEYAM! NETEYAM! NETEYAM! NETEYAM! NETEYAM! NETEYAM! NETEYAM! NETEYAM! NETEYAM! NETEYAM!" she screamed repeatedly.
Neteyam's ears twitched upon hearing Kaeyla screaming for his name, and forgetting all the tradition, the son of Olo'eyktan jumped up to his feet and hurriedly sprinted towards the ring, with worried Kai'ani following in his wake.
"Neteyam!" Jake called, noticing Neteytam coming towards them. "Son! Wait!"
"Kai'ani! Stand back!" Ka'ani told his son.
However, both Neteyam and Kai'ani ignored their respective father as they ran through the gap of the ring.
"KAEYLA! KAEYLA!" Kai'ani cried worriedly as he fell down on his knees to Kaeyla's right side while Neteyam squatted beside her on her left side.
Kaeyla was still calling Neteyam by his name while lying on the ground, without even realizing in her panick that he, or her little brother, were there already.
"NETEYAM! NETEYAM! NETEYAM! NETEYAM! NETEYAM! NETEYAM! NETEYAM! NETEYAM! NETEYAM! NETEYAM!"
"KAEYLA?!" Neteyam said as he pulled Kaeyla up from the ground and into his arms, wrapping his arms around of her and putting her head against his chest.
"Kaeyla! Kaeyla! Calm down! Calm down! Shhh! Shhh! Shhh! It's alright. It's alright, Kaeyla. It's over. It's done. You're safe now. You're safe. You did well. You did well." Neteyam said soothingly.
Kaeyla's ears twitched upwards at the sound of Neteyam's voice calling her, although she did not look up to look at him but continued to stare wide-eyed somewhere else.
And as Neteyam pressed her left ear against his chest, allowing her to hear and even feel his heart beating rhythmically in his chest, Kaeyla slowly began to calm down from her panic-like state, no doubt out of relief from deep within that this Neteyam who was gently holding her in his arms at the moment was the one still alive, although she was still breathing heavily from the shock she had felt upon witessing Neteyam's dead body in her visions.
And upon feeling Neteyam's gentle and warm arms wrapped around her - as well as Kai'ani's hands as he gently placed them on his sister's right shoulder to offer her his own comfort - Kaeyla wrapped her own arms around Neteyam's waist, holding him tightly as if he were the most precious thing on the entire planet that she didn't want to let go of.
"Neteyam. Neteyam. Neteyam. Neteyam. Neteyam. Neteyam. Neteyam. Neteyam. Neteyam. Neteyam." Kaeyla kept repeating his name while resting her head against his chest.
"Shhh. I'm here. I'm here." Neteyam told her comfortingly, hugging her closer to himself.
A worried Saeyla finally left from her position of the ring - after Ka'ani allowed her to - and walked up to her children and son of Olo'eyktan, where she squatted next to Neteyam and in front of Kaeyla, before she gently took her daughter's head in her hands to inspect her well-being after the Dream Hunt.
Mo'at, Jake and Ka'ani, however, exchanged a thoughtful looks with one another while taking all of this in.
All three agreed that Kaeyla's Dream Hunt was quite special compared to others'.
Usually, Na'vi only regain their consciousness from the effects of the venom after they encounter their spirit animal in the Dream World, but Kaeyla had regained her consciousness for a very different reason, something involving Neteyam, which had led to her violent panic attack.
But what exactly had happened - to Netetam - in the end of her Dream Hunt that had set her in such of fit of panic?
All three agreed with one another that they needed to find that out.
To be continued...
NEXT PART: AFTERMATH OF THE DREAM HUNT
TRIVIA
The following chapters of this one are set to year 2168, the very year when RDA is about to return to Pandora.