~~~Superstes~~~UNDERGOING MAJOR EDITING

Awa'atlu gathering.

Agitation rose up in Neteyam's chest. Sometimes, in the back of his mind, he wondered how Aonung was a candidate to be Olo'eyktan of the Metkiyina. To him, the reef boy was rude, condescending, and arrogant. He'd gotten slightly better after he'd left Lo'ak lost at sea, but he was still Aonung--contrarian to almost everything Neteyam and his siblings said, even if he wasn't being mean. 

Roxto cuffed Aonung and the older boy looked at him like, what did I do? But Roxto just shook his head and Aonung huffed in annoyance. 

The sun's blistering hot day had passed, and now the village was glowing with the bioluminescence of the water, the animals, and the Na'vi. Crowds of people were scattered among the shorelines, drinking drinks that tasted like bitter urine, laughing, talking, and eating platters upon platters of food.

There was a formation of female dancers that swayed in the shallow waves, including Tsireya. The villagers watched on with wonder, smiling, and Lo'ak was practically drooling as he watched his girlfriend. 

There was music, too. The beat of drums and tulkun songs filled the air with their beauty, mixed with the wistful, memorable singing of the older Metkiyina women. 

Neteyam was watching Feya from across the beach. She was dancing with little Tuk, and she'd even got Kiri to get up and move her body. The three girls were dressed in pretty seashell jewelry with flowers in their hair--each of them looked amazing--but to Neteyam, Fey'atsi looked utterly beautiful, and she didn't even know he was watching. 

Neteyam felt a big rough hand on his shoulder. His father appeared next to him, a mottled brown cup in his hand. "So, you do still like her." 

The younger boy chuckled in exasperation. Neteyam assumed he was clever, but Jake clearly still remembered his son's child-like crush for the stray girl all those years ago. When he was eight, Neteyam never felt the need to hide his liking for Feya from his family. They were too close, too bonded to keep something like that tucked away. But as he'd discovered recently, he supposed his puppy-love had never disappeared like he'd thought.  

Neteyam felt no reason to hide it now, either. "Yeah," he admitted, "But it's different now." 

His father seemed thoughtful and swished his drink around. "How so?" 

Neteyam refocused his gaze on Feya. No matter how quickly his infatuation with her had resurfaced, he knew these feelings were real. He would never deny them. But when he was younger, he didn't quite understand the importance of his emotions. He was just a kid--how could he? He just knew that he liked a girl and that was that. But now, as he was older, he understood where serious feelings led you, and he knew what he wanted in life. This was no longer the silly crush he'd once carried, but instead, it was a forming relationship no matter how early the stages. 

"It just is," Neteyam simply explained, "We're older now. We have... ambitions, goals. Responsibilities. But we also have more knowledge," he smiled, "about the world. About relationships and bonds. About life." 

Jake listened to his eldest son's passionate words as he stared off in the distance. "That's pretty smart, boy. When I was your age, that would've taken me three hours to sound out."   

Neteyam laughed. "Well, I still cannot read very good." 

"You don't need to read," his father retorted, sounding scornful at the fact that reading was even a necessity where he came from. "Reading is stupid." When he noticed Neteyam was staring at Feya once more, he added, "You should go dance with her." 

Neteyam's cheeks rose with heat. Back in the rainforest, he was accustomed to Na'vi dancing--everyone did it. Lo'ak would often remind Neteyam that many of the girls his age would kiss a stingbat in order to dance with him, but Neteyam never danced with any females apart from his mother or his sisters. However, asking Feya for a dance seemed like a good idea.