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( the wrath of the na'vi )
SHAKY INHALES OF breath were your only available means of action as the blade against your neck grew closer with each trembling movement of your throat.
the colonel menacingly towered over you from behind, his grip still tightly attached to the knife by your neck and your queue as he held you behind a wall stationed away from your sisters.
they let out panicked shouts of your name as he was dragging you away, instantly silenced at the glare he had tossed at them as he moved his dagger closer toward your flesh.
now you stood still in the avatar's arms while your sisters frantically attempted to free themselves from their restraints, grunts and breaths of struggle escaping them as you held back the urge to fight against your captor and make it to their aid.
just as you pieced together what the colonel was really after— the cause of all the destruction rampaging pandora— the hushed voices of your sisters began to ring out from their spots ahead of you.
another quiet, deeper voice accompanied them, your eyes widening as you realized your father had made it to the younger girls and managed to free them from their containment.
"where is your sister?" he sternly questioned, your jaw clenching at the sudden tug on your braid that came from the smug man behind you. "where is she?"
"that way- that way," tuk answered breathily, and you assumed that your father had started to run off before kiri's voice followed after.
"dad, it's a trap—!"
her sentence was quickly cut off by the thick silence that plagued the air as the colonel stepped out from hiding with you still tight in his grasp, the knife pressed even closer to your throat as you met your father's gaze with panicked eyes.
tuk let out a frightened shout of your name from jake's side, quickly being ushered back behind him by kiri as your father held out a restrictive arm in front of them.
"runnin' out of time here, corporal," quaritch spat, your father's gaze shifting to rest on the cruel man. "you already lost one kid today, you really wanna lose another?"
at the merciless taunt, jake ferociously charged forward, only to be halted by the movement of the avatar's knife digging deeper toward your throat. you let out a pained grunt, feeling the blade shaving off a layer of skin to expose a drop of blood to your weary family.
"do not test me!" the colonel growled.
your father let out a snarl, prompting a thick gulp of air to travel down your throat as you decided that something needed to happen to mend the situation, and it needed to happen soon.
"do not worry about me, just kill him!" you exclaimed, releasing a breath of anguish as your comment resulted in the weapon sliding deeper into your skin.
from behind your father, your youngest sister let out another fearful call of your name, the eldest of the two lifting a hand to hover over her mouth in distress as she held tuk by the shoulders with her free hand.
"weapons down," the avatar ordered, your eyes widening at the command.
"don't! don't do it!" you opposed, quaritch repeating his order a lot more forcefully a second time.
much to your frightful dismay, jake hesitantly moved to drop his blades to the floor of the ship, kicking them away as the colonel ordered.
"no," you breathed out. "dad, no."
with a simple flick of his wrist, the avatar had tossed a bright orange restraint item toward your father, the object landing between the two of you as it hit the ground with a clack.
"cuff yourself," came yet another command from quaritch, and again, it was an ordered that you openly opposed.
as you opened your mouth to fight against the ruthless direction, a sudden voice piped up from a little ways ahead of you as the sound of feet snapping against the deck met your ears.
"no!" you moved your pupils to cast a glance toward the figure bounding toward you, and felt your heart rate panically speed up at the sight of your defenseless human friend panically bolting over. "no, don't hurt her, okay? don't—"
"stand there!"
spider's pleads seemed to do nothing for the colonel's lack of empathy, and immediately recoiled at the belligerent responses to stop moving.
"cuffs, on, now!" the soldier repeated, his grip still as tight as ever on your queue while his knife continued to dig against your flesh.
"stop it!" you argued. "dad, don't!"
"you son of a bitch!" your father shakily retorted as he moved to pick up the handcuffs from the ground, unwillingly attaching one side of the object to his wrist.
spider's pleadings continued to fall upon the colonel's deaf ears as he watched your father with sharp eyes, his gaze steadily glued to the man that he thought he once knew.
in the middle of the sky boy's sentence, a guttural snarl sounded out from behind him, and you whipped your head around as much as you could from your containment to spot your mother forcefully grab onto the blonde teenager.
"release," she breathily rasped, her dagger drawn and pressed tightly against the neck of the human in her arms to mirror quaritch's position with you. "or i cut."
"mom," you whispered, your eyes wide at her fierce glare settled on the cruel man behind you.
"what, you think i care about some kid?" the avatar retorted. "he's not mine."
lifting his shoulder up in a light shrug that caused your head to shift backwards slightly, quaritch's eyes traveled between the woman and the apprehensive boy in her grasp. "we're not even the same species."
"just- please, just... just don't hurt her," spider shakily choked out from behind neytiri's blade, kiri and tuk's pleadings following after him. "let her go— don't hurt her."
"mom, don't do this," you added through a breath; though you knew your words wouldn't do much for the situation, you wouldn't forgive yourself if you didn't at least try.
"a son for a son," your mother continued through bared teeth, her arm moving to the other end of spider's torso in a quick motion.
without warning, she mercilessly sliced across the skin of his tattooed chest with a grunt, eliciting a yelp of pain to spring from your friend as a slight gasp pushed past your lips.
"spider!" kiri called out from her position behind your father, trying her best to keep tuk from witnessing the situation.
"i cut," the na'vi voiced, tauntingly waving her weapon around the boy's midsection in a sly threat.
"please, just let her go, okay?" the teenager continued. "just let her go."
in a tense moment of noiseless eye contact, your mother fiercely raised her arm above her head, aiming to strike your friend in his chest once again with a loud shriek before the colonel released a protesting yell.
"no!" he exclaimed, freeing your neck of its containment against his blade as he thrusted you forward by the braid of your queue.
he still tightly held onto the extension of your lower half, wearily eyeing the knife your mother kept angled above the motionless figure of your friend.
hesitantly, the avatar let out a strained scoff, shoving you forward onto the deck of the ship where you landed knees-first, releasing a soft grunt as your palms and torso connected with the cooled steel.
your younger sisters let out calls of your name, tuk aiming to free herself from kiri's hold as she attempted to run toward your stumbling figure. quickly pushing yourself off of the ground, you pivoted on your back foot to face the colonel. drawing the dagger attached to your knee, one you weren't able to reach due to quaritch's grip on your arms, you bared your teeth and let out a violent hiss directed toward his towering silhouette.
as your mother watched the man release you, she loosened her group on your friend, quickly tossing him toward the edge of the deck once she knew you were secure and out of harms way.
"tsumke!" came the voice of your sister, your name following after as she rushed toward your guarded figure and placed an urging hand on your shoulder. "come on!"
your gaze never wavered from the man ahead of you, your eyes tightly narrowed into a sharp glare as the avatar released heavy pants while looking back and forth between you and your parents standing at your side.
"spider!" kiri called as her hand left your skin, traveling to help the human stand just as your father called out to him.
"spider, get 'em outta here," he ordered, a dagger held out toward the soldier as his eyes stayed fixated on the man.
"hey, come on," spider beckoned, moving to grip your wrist before you suddenly snatched it back from his grasp.
he flinched slightly, watching with alarmed eyes as your stare stayed glued to quaritch, a cast of something the boy had yet to see in your eyes lacing your irsises.
"oeyä'ite," your mother slowly spoke, causing your glare to travel from the avatar to the side of her face. "go."
"po tspang oeyä tsmukan," you lowly replied, your weapon still drawn as spider and your sisters eyed you wearily. "po kin 'aw syay ʼeʼal to kxitx."
the words you spoke seemed to strike a nerve within her heart, a guttural hiss pushing past her throat as she flashed her teeth toward the man who indirectly murdered her son.
"neytiri," your father warningly spoke, moving to step away from the avatar as he ushered your family on to the sea.
with another growl leaving her opposing figure, she let out a final huff, pondering the direction once she registered your sentence.
"i owe you a death," the colonel menacingly taunted through his teeth, a finger pointed toward your mother before a fierce snarl erupted from her throat.
as she took a threatening step forward, the clammed warmth of a small hand met the skin of your wrist, your gaze moving to spot tuk in between you and neytiri as she gently tugged on the two of you.
"tsumke, please," tuk gently beckoned on, managing to bring you closer toward the ocean as spider and kiri made their way into the water. "mama, come on."
"you're not leaving, are you, jake?" quaritch provoked, attempting to sway your father's anger back onto him. "knowin' i'm out there, knowin' that i'll never stop."
your father halted at the cruel gibe, tensing as he turned to watch the flames brightly flicker in the background of the avatar's shadow. "i'm coming for you, and when i do, i'll kill your whole family."
any sense of direction that your father was following to lead you all back into the ocean instantly dissipated from his mind, and you could see it, even by the dimly-lit side view of his face that something furious had snapped within him.
as you finally submerged yourself in the sea, swimming a few paces out to join your sister and friend while your mother trailed behind you, you watched with furrowed brows as your father's grip on his blades aggressively tensed.
"dad..." kiri called out from her place behind you, her eyes gently watering around the edges as jake made no further movement to make it out to the ocean.
and with a final breath and clench of his jaw, he jeeringly tilted his head. "then let's get it done."
༄
WORD BANK—
tsumke: sister
oeyä'ite: my daughter
po tspang oeyä tsmukan,
po kin 'aw syay ʼeʼal to
kxitx: he killed my brother,
he deserves a faith worse than death.