Arrow Lake Gone fishing

@Asterr, @Jolon, @Noctura, @Leo, @Squirrel all welcome to hop in here, as well as any lone wolves in the area. Also, rolled and got 1, so no fishy for me (yet).

She felt great. Qamar had emerged from Sunbeam Lair that morning, langorously stretching her legs and neck as she blinked rested eyes at the bright sunlight. It had been the best sleep she had gotten in days--nestled inside a cavern, not curling out in the open, wary of enemies, really made a difference.

Now she was off to explore her new home in the mountains, and her first destination was to find somewhere to fish. Sure enough, after traversing some treacherous terrain--she would have floundered here without last night's rest--she encountered a beautiful blue lake, with some waterfalls near where she stood on the shore.

The locusts had decimated Teekon's mammal population, but, much to Qamar's delight, she saw sleek, silvery shapes flitting about under the clear surface of the water, tails thrashing slowly as they moved. Eureka.

Her father's advice came automatically to her mind. Stay still, she heard his deep, calm voice murmuring, and could almost feel his presence beside her, watching the water. Wait for them to approach you. And when the time is right. . .strike.

Qamar's eyes caught sight of a particularly large specimen swimming forwards her waiting mouth. Closer and closer it came. . .

She thrust her face down into the water, mouth open wide, and felt a rush of anger and disappointment as her teeth clacked together.

"Damn it!" she cursed when she surfaced, testily shaking the water from her muzzle.

Don't get so despondent after one try, Qamar heard her father's voice say, an aggravating chuckle in his tone. Plenty of fish to go around.

She forgot her anger when another fish caught her eye, about the same size as the one that got away. "Time for Round Two," she growled softly, gaze fixed on the potential piece of prey.

Texi had found herself enjoying life in the tribe despite the famine. She had survived on scraps at her mother's hands before, she could survive on the rodents that roamed these lands just as well.

Fishing had become a primary activity of upmost importance as it was one of the few reliable food sources. Even so, it would not last forever and eventually the fish would dwindle. Texiceia tried not to think too far past that, saving the future for the future. Anything less might destroy her morale.

She was obviously not the only one with this plan as the arctic wolf came upon another perched on the banks. Texi remained quiet so as not to startle the unknown pack member nor did she want to scare off the fish. 

Texiceia crept around where the other could see her, crouching on the opposite side with her eyes locked on the reflective bodies of the fish. She sent the female a friendly smile, indicating her will to help.

rolled a 2; success

Qamar saw a lovely-looking white wolf approach, her eyes kind. She inhaled her scent and recognized her as Texiceia, another member of the tribe, whom she had seen briefly before but never properly met. Qamar gave her a smile in return.

"Hello, Texiceia," she said softly, hoping her voice carried well enough across the water to reach the other wolf's ears. "Come to try your hand at fishing?"

She left the question unanswered as she saw another fish approach--a bit smaller than the one that had escaped, but still a respectable size. Her head bowed low, muzzle barely skimming the surface of the water. The fish was swimming high, ever closer to her jaws.

Qamar gave it another go, thrusting her mouth into the lake, and was rewarded with the glorious sensation of her teeth sinking into scaly flesh. She wrenched the flopping fish out of the water and bit down hard, crushing its spine between her jaws. Gently, she placed it on the ground before her feet and gave Texi a grin, feeling quite relieved.

"First catch of the day," Qamar laughed. "Let's see if we can get you a kill." She bent to begin to enjoy her small feast, but kept her eyes trained on Texiceia, waiting for the other wolf to demonstrate her skills.

Just to clear up any confusion, the first roll was for my thread with Jolon. The second was for this thread. I got a 1 which means fishy for me!

Texi nodded, crouching over the bank with a paw hovering slightly above the water. She waited several long moments as the startled fish seemed to forget the danger and another decent sized fish swam by.

With a well placed slap, the silver body arced through the air and landed on the bank. Texiceia hurried over to the francticly flopping vertebrate and bit into its spine, killing it with a snapping noise.

The fish was tasty, and Qamar was hungry. She gobbled up the creature fairly quickly, crushing the smaller bones between her teeth in her haste to feed and leaving the larger bones to rest beside the lapping water on the shore.

She saw Texi use her paw to slap the fish out of the water--I'm going to have to try that sometime, Qamar noted--and grinned as she saw the wolf give the creature a killing blow. "Nice catch!" she praised, her voice gentle.

Leaving her bones behind, she trotted over to Texi, enjoying the feeling of sun-warmed sand beneath her pads.

"I'm Qamar, by the way--Ryūjin's newest member. I've seen you around, but we haven't had a chance to meet." Qamar nodded at Texi's kill, smiling. "Looks like we make a good fishing pair. The tribe won't go hungry with us around."

If she had been able to blush we would have, instead she smiled bashfully. "Oh, that was just luck. I'm not that good at fishing. Maybe if we had some rabbits or something I could be of more use." Texi gave a shrug as if to say 'What can you do?'

"You may have seen my sister, Ezimette around. We look quite alike. Although, I haven't seen her recently." She frowned, beginning to grow concerned over her youngest sister's disappearance.

"I'm sorry to hear that." Qamar touched her muzzle to Texi's shoulder in sympathy. "I don't believe I've seen her around. I think she left before I arrived."

She truly felt for the other wolf. Qamar had grown up with no siblings--she had been born in a litter of two; the other was a runt and didn't survive--but she could slightly understand what Texiceia was going through.

"Anyway, that was a nice catch, and it takes a little more than luck to catch these things," Qamar complimented, attempting to bring levity back to the conversation. "Where are the best places in this territory? I was thinking about going exploring a little bit later."

Hi. ^__^

Hmm, where were the stars, where were the stars. Noctura had questions for them, and although he did not truly think that they "spoke" to him in a literal sense, they helped him ponder and conclude. But it was daytime, as bright as snow, and the black wolf walked among it all with unanswered questions. So as he headed for water and smelt two creatures of Ryūjin, he was glad for the distraction.

Hm, I know neither of you, the deep-voiced Gamma stated, and his huge form came to a graceful pause. Hello. My name's Noctura. He noted the fishbones. And it seems Ryūjin has found itself a couple of good water-hunters. He approved.

"Thank you, yours was as well." Texi reminded herself that it was okay to accept compliments, she actually had talents. It hadn't been easy breaking the habit of self deprecation, ingrained at her family's hands, but as the woman insisted she remembered.

"I don't quite know, I'm new here and I have as much to learn as you do.." Texiceia's voice faded and her ears perked as a dark male appeared muttering to himself about stars. 

"Hi. I'm Texiceia, or Texi for short." Her introduction was brief but friendly, her smile sweet as she gave them her name.

She took in the appearance of the newcomer that had padded towards them. He was large and handsome, with glossy black fur and eyes silver like stars. Qamar gave him a warm smile in welcome.

"Hello, Noctura, nice to meet you," she said in her husky voice. "My name is Qamar. I'm very new here--just joined the pack yesterday."

Qamar bowed her head in bashful acceptance of his compliment. "The water creatures were good to us today. Can you fish, Noctura?"

Noctura regarded the pair with interest. They were both females in their prime, small and lean. Texi had a curious name and bright blue eyes, and it seemed from a scar on her form that she was no stranger to aggression. Qamar was the colour of a dark moon, and younger than them both.

The question of fishing was one that made him shrug one broad shoulder. A little. He was better at taking down large prey. He paused, then smiled faintly by way of vague apology: I'm sorry, I've probably interrupted something. But I hope you don't mind — I'd like to get to know my new packmates. So tell me... what do you think of the stars?

If Texi had been able to blush she might have, anymore heat from Qamar and the bare forest would light aflame! The arctic wolf glanced around, seeming to find sudden interest in the trees until Noctura's voice free her back in.

"They're beautiful, of course, but I always thought the moon was more interesting. I liked watching it change phases as a child." Texi's voice was small, feeling as if she were intruding on the two who held interest in each other. Shuffling a paw anxiously in the dirt, she fell silent with the notion that her words held little importance.

Qamar shook her head with a smile. "Not interrupting a thing. We were just having a chat."

His query on stars seemed sort of. . .random. . .but Qamar went with it nonetheless. "I like the stars. They helped guide my way on my journey here."

She nodded in concurrence at Texi. "I like the moon, too, Texi," she said. "Nothing beats a golden full moon on a clear night. Perfect view."


 

sorry for short post; almost 1 a.m. here and I'm ready for bed :P

np, I'm prone to short posts myself. ^__^

Had Noctura been considering anything other than their interest in the stars, he might have suspected that there was a spark — just a little one — between Qamar and Texi. It could have been anything, but luckily he didn't spot it consciously... or he would have felt very foolish about interrupting them.

One of his new packmates used the stars for navigation (of which he approved), and the other preferred the moon (which he was fine with too). Indeed. Often it really does just come down to beauty, and how you feel in the light of the heavens, he mused by way of agreement. But then he paused, and decided to explain himself. Forgive me... I confess, the stars are my greatest means of relating to people. My very life is guided by them. Hence the abrupt question. It was only now he was realising quite how abrupt it had been.

Texi is straight btws, she's my only straight character except for maybe Liri

Texi definetly didn't have any feelings for Qamar past the platonic ones, she didn't swing that way. The arctic wolf would have been surprised had she known Noctura believed so, it seemed to her that Qamar was infatuated with the dark male.

"It's okay. How is your life guided by them, are you an astronomer?" Texi felt her head cock to the side in question, self consciously straightening up. Maybe he was and could teach her about the stars. What fun that would be!

Qamar is also straight, hehe

Qamar gazed at Noctura in interest as he explained himself. An astrology-wolf, eh? No one she had ever known had shown more than a casual interest in the skies, though her old home had featured the gorgeous aurora borealis. That would be one of the things she would miss the most here in the south--those green and blue lights, dancing in the night.

Texi had gone on to press him further about his interest in the stars, and she nodded along, smiling. "What she said," Qamar added. "I've never met anyone with a strong interest in stars."

Noc ships them. >:3

His dark plume of a tail gave a light swish upon the ground, for he felt comfortable at the pair's friendly demeanours. He was glad to get to know them, and frankly rather grateful for their tolerance of his... abrupt launch into a conversation about the stars.

Noctura nodded. Yes, I'm a stargazer, he replied. Qamar, you mentioned you were guided here by the stars... he blinked down at the green-eyed girl. Why don't you tell our sister here how that was done? For that's certainly the foundation of my own knowledge on the night's sky.

Texi settled down with wide, innocent blue eyes filled with childlike wonder. While she was mature physically her personality was playful, exuberant once accustomed to the people around her. It shone through in this moment as she waited to learn about the stars.

Texiceia had never heard of anyone using stars for navigation, it piqued her interest. Was it all stars? Certain stars? She had thought for sure the stars changed postion, how could one navigate if they changed with the seasons?

"Well, I'm certainly no expert," Qamar chuckled, her mouth tugging upwards in a wry smile. "But there was this one star to the south, brighter than the others, that stuck out to me each night. I kept my nose pointed towards it while I traveled in the dark, and it led me here."

It seemed a star of fate, then, for if she hadn't followed it she may very well be somewhere else at this moment. Qamar had heard other wolves howling in these Wilds; she knew Ryujin was not the only pack here. But it was her pack now, and likely in large part due to that star.

She looked at Noctura, intrigued. "Do you know if that star has a name? I'll point it out to you, one night. It's very hard to miss."

Noctura was glad enough that this pair was interested, and that Qamar, apparently their newest recruit, had some knowledge of the skies. While he was fine to teach, he had little desire to just sit here and lecture them. So he nodded at the explanation, and flicked one dark ear curiously. I'd be very interested to know what that star would have been. The south lacks a bright navigational body like the North Star... though I wonder if it might be Sirius, which is associated very much with wolves. Sounds rather fateful, doesn't it, he mused to both Qamar and Texi, wondering what both thought of the concept that the former may have been led to Ryūjin — quite literally — by the wolf star.

Texi had nothing to contribute to the conversation for she knew nothing about stars. Back home there had been no one to teach her about the stars but it seemed the two with her knew something about them at least. 

Texiceia gave Qamar a cursory glance, wondering how she knew to follow the wolf star as Noctura called it.

short, crap post is crap

"So perhaps the wolf star led me here. Very. . .interesting, indeed." Her voice was quiet, abstracted, for she had sighted another fish approaching the bank.

Padding softly toward the water, she hovered her muzzle above the surface and, when inches away, shoved her head into the water and surfaced with a wriggling fish in her jaws. A killing bite stopped its frantic movements.

Qamar set the fish at her paws to speak once more to Noctura and Texi. "I'm planning on exploring the rest of this territory," she said. "You two are welcome to join me, if you'd like. I was thinking of heading towards that gorgeous Northstar Vale I've heard talk about."

She bent to retrieve her kill, nodded in farewell to her new tribemates, then trotted off with fish in mouth, keen on reaching the valley and enjoying her kill there.

 

Fading here. I'll start a Vale thread in a bit; y'all are welcome to join me there!

Exit Noctura. :) Thanks for the thread, both!

The dark wolf gave a nod, agreeing and appreciative of the two females' interest in his passion. A small part of him thought that perhaps they were just being polite... but it was possible, he realised, to be polite and to have a genuine interest in the stars.

As Qamar went back to the river for a fish (a talented hunter indeed), Noctura watched her only for a moment before turning his gaze to the other. I'd best be on my way. It was nice to meet you, Texi. One ebony ear tilted with interest at Qamar's proposition, but he declined. I shan't right now, but perhaps I'll see you there later. He offered them both a faint smile, then dipped his head courteously, and then the stargazer was off, content that he had learned of two other wolves of Ryūjin.

Texi stood and nodded to the both of them. "Nice to meet the both of you, I think I'm gonna go patrol." And hopefully find a trail of Bird's scent. The arctic wolf turned and loped away, happy to have made some new friends.

lame post but oh well. Thanks for the thread, I'll archive!