~~~Superstes~~~UNDERGOING MAJOR EDITING

Sephora

When he located Feya, she was helping a couple Omaticayan children weave hammocks. She sat with them in a group under some shady tents, making sure each one was doing it right. Neteyam came forward and stood by one of the tent stakes until she eventually noticed him, and she smiled. 

"Looks like we have a visitor," Fey'atsi said, nudging one of the children. In turn, they all began giggling and laughing as they weaved their nets. Two or three started tugging on Neteyam's legs and arms, pulling him to the ground. "Okay, okay," He sat down between the children and admired their work, "These look great, guys." 

The kids looked at one another and laughed even more. The child next to him, a tiny girl, handed him half of her net so that it was resting in both of their laps. She nodded her head at him, so he began working his fingers and interlacing the hammock's threads together. 

"You all know Neteyam," Feya was weaving her own hanging bed, "don't you?"

"The mighty warrior!" One boy exclaimed excitedly, his tail wagging. All the other children followed his steps by making their claims of how they knew Neteyam. Toruk Mato's son, the youngest Omaticayan to make a clean kill on a sturmbeast, the cool older boy that climbed all the way to the top of a beanstalk palm to make his knife. Apparently, he was labeled with many titles. 

"I was not aware I was this impressive," Neteyam commented. But he knew he was very admired by the younger children of the Omaticaya, and he was honored. But he always did his best not to be arrogant or prideful.  

"He's quite modest, children. Don't expect much talk from him."  Fey'atsi gave him a mischievous smirk.    

"It seems your teacher is very observant," he responded, "Be like her, huh? She makes a great role model." 

He sat with the bunch of kids for a long time. They all laughed and spoke with one another--he told stories of his siblings and his parents, including the battle on the demon ship, and more exaggerated versions of the tales from his childhood. I'd been a few years since he'd had the chance to hang out with children--nowadays, he was too busy learning how to be a responsible adult. But this made him look back on his life as a little boy, and that made him smile. Kids were great. 

                                                                                                ~~~

Three more weeks went by where Neteyam didn't get to see his siblings. Three more weeks went by where Neteyam was poked and prodded like a lab rat by Dr. Max and Norm, who were simply trying to speed up the healing process, but the length of time it was taking was dreadful. Since he'd passed out in midair on his ikran, there hadn't been any more complications. He was healing like a champ. 

But nevertheless, he couldn't leave just yet. So, what did he do to pass the time during those weeks? 

He and Feya followed each other around everywhere.  

At the crack of dawn, Neteyam would meet up with Fey'atsi somewhere in High Camp and they would mess about for hours upon hours. When she was playing with the little children, he joined along. When he was getting examined by Dr. Max, she was at his side. They ran around the entire stronghold, chased each other, tagged each other like five-year-olds, ate lunch together, and played games together. 

In other words, Feya quickly became Neteyam's best friend. When they were little, they saw each other from afar and maybe even played together, along with his siblings, but Fe'ya was very protected as a child. She was always being held close by one of the Omaticayan mothers. But now that she was older and had more freedom, she wasn't really watched by anybody anymore. In a way, she was a lot like Spider. That gave her the freedom to do whatever she pleased with Neteyam. She didn't have a curfew. Yes, she had boundaries, and she was encouraged to obey the rules given to her, but Fe'ya didn't need those. She could make her own fun.