Moonchild | Neteyam

14

CHAPTER 14

"Shit!"

Neteyam opened his eyes and groaned, reaching up to shield his eyes from the sunlight.

Eríhe tried sitting up but was stopped by his arm resting over her stomach. "Let go of me, you pervert," she said and hurried to push him away from her.

"Why is it you always call me a pervert?" Neteyam questioned as he sat up, letting go of her. Then he looked around.

The two of them were still in the forest - only now they were laying on the sand below the tree they had sat atop the previous night.

Neteyam's eyes widened and he sprung to his feet, putting distance between him and Eríhe. "Uh - what?" He scratched his head, looking around in confusion as he tried to make the connections in his head.

Eríhe got to her feet after him and dusted her body from the sand. "It seems we fell asleep."

Neteyam nodded slowly as his eyes searched for their ikran. They were not far. The two animals rested a little distance away from them. Seeing that they were close, he turned back to Erìhe who was looking at him unhappily with her arms crossed.

He tried to think of how they'd gotten there.

Neteyam remembered them talking last night on the branch - they had been holding hands and being uncharacteristically civil with each other. But that was not even the weirdest part.

That would be when Erìhe fell asleep and her head rested on his shoulder. He'd let her be there without even a small snide remark.

Then - a few moments later - he had woken her up, telling her that they should head back. They had managed to get to the ground before Neteyam decided he could not trust her to ride her ikran being as tired as she'd been.

Eríhe had just laid down on the ground and decided to sleep there - not caring that they were in the middle of a forest and that there were wild animals around.

Neteyam had not wanted to wake her up for a second time, so he'd hesitantly laid down some distance away from her and closed his eyes. He'd sworn that he wasn't going to sleep for long - but it was already morning which indicated that he'd slept soundly through the whole night.

Sometime during the night they had probably shifted to be in each others arms. Neteyam could remember the feeling of her head laid on his chest and his arms wrapped around her. Just thinking about it made him embarrassed enough to get flustered.

"We are going to get killed," Erìhe tugged at her hair as she reached to get her riders mask from the sand.

Neteyam stepped closer to her and she stood up straight again to look at him with a frown as he approached.

"What is it?" She asked as Neteyam lifted his hand to her hair. "What are you doing?"

"Calm down - you've got sand in your hair," Neteyam rolled his eyes as he ruffled her hair.

Erìhe shook her head and swatted his hand away to get rid of the sand herself, "No shit. I've been sleeping on sand."

Neteyam snorted as he turned his head to show her his hair, "Do I have sand in my hair?"

"Well obviously," Erìhe said as she returned the favor and ruffled his hair. She watched as the sand rained down from his braids. "That's better - I suppose."

Neteyam grinned, "Thanks."

Erìhe offered him a tight lipped smile before turning her head toward the ikran. "On a scale from one to ten - how big of trouble do you think we'll be in."