~~~Superstes~~~UNDERGOING MAJOR EDITING

Wonderfully wrong.

"Go eat with the others before Lo'ak eats everything." Neteyam told her, patting her head. She gradually sat up and let out a big yawn before answering, "Then come with me so we both can eat!" she grabbed his arm, her little fingers tightening around the blue cast, as she tugged on him gently. 

"No, Tuk. I can't go with you." He shook his head. "But when you are done, you can come back to visit me. Okay?" 

She pouted and whined. "Why can't you just come with me? It'll be more fun. Besides, you have to eat too!" 

"Tuk-tuk, leave him be." It was Dad speaking this time. He stood at the entrance, holding his arm out. "C'mon, come eat. You can see your brother later." 

Tuk was never one to directly disobey her parents unless it was under the influence of her older siblings--mainly Lo'ak. She wanted to do what her big sister and brothers were doing, obviously, although she never got in as much trouble for it considering she was only seven and was easily persuaded. But often times if Lo'ak or Neteyam didn't want her to come along, she would use the classic "I'm gonna tell on you!" line. Lo'ak would always fall for that, but Neteyam was more persistent and would say "Then none of us are going." 

Unfortunately, that took away all the fun. Neteyam didn't like disobeying, but he also hated seeing Tuk upset even if he knew it was for a stupid reason. So, when he was planning on doing something that was dangerous with his siblings, he made sure to do it under the radar where Tuk didn't find out they'd gone without her. 

Tuk grumbled and hopped out of the hammock, allowing Dad to usher her into the main part of the marui. Then his father asked, "You hungry?" 

Neteyam thought about it for a moment, then shook his head. "No, sir." 

Jake stood there for a long second. "Well, too bad. You're going to eat something." he then turned and left without another word. 

                                                                                 ~~~  

"This is how you do it?" 

Fey'atsi held her halfway finished top in her hands, her expression written with confusion. Her and Tsireya sat peacefully outside on the platform of the Sully's big marui, the sun warming her shoulders and her back. It was late afternoon, and Feya was making an attempt to learn how to weave in the Metkiyina style. 

"Like this." Tsireya leaned forward and redirected the forest girl's fingers to where they needed to be. 

The top had small pearly shells and frilly pieces of fabric woven into it, along with the oceanic coloring of the weaving material itself. The arrangement of the beads and the shells, not to mention the rope, was much different in comparison to Feya's Omaticayan weaving patters and she couldn't seem to get the new way right. Even after Tsireya helped her, she still found her fingers working their way back into the Omaticayan style. 

Inside the marui, Neytiri, Kiri, and Tuk were cooking dinner. Feya could smell the savory aroma of roasting fish over the crackling fire and her insides felt warm at the scent. Most of the day had passed and despite how the sun was still high in its flaming glory, many of the villagers were eating and spending time with their families. Today had been an awkward day—Feya and her teenage counterparts had just piddled around the beach for hours, trying to occupy themselves, but mainly waiting for Neteyam to heal as if he would magically hop out of that hammock and be perfectly fine. 

They hadn't had been allowed to be in the marui when the Tsahik and Linayin were checking up on Neteyam, which was only a few hours ago. At least, Lo'ak, Spider, Feya, and Tuk weren't allowed, but Kiri stayed in there and observed. Feya assumed this was just because she was learning how to preform medicine or something close to that. Back in the forest, Feya always saw Kiri examining her brother's wounds and collecting herbs for her grandmother. She wasn't sure if the girl was third in line to be Tsahik, but she supposed it didn't matter yet. What mattered was that Neteyam seemed comfortable with Kiri's presence when that tube was being taken out of his chest.