Blacktail Deer Plateau Cattin Catfish

Catfish pond and the streams connected to it that ran through the plateau, were a daily obsticle for Pema. Not ones that were difficult to cross, but noticable as she either had to jump over it, or walk through the more shallow sections. 

But as the weather began to get colder and the seasons came closer to winter, she could notice the change in water tempurature as she walked through it today. It sent a shiver down her back as her paws began submerged in the water. Only a few moments after she entered her paws ajusted, no longer able to feel the discomfort of the change in tempurature.

She wasn't very hungry, but this was more for the cache and the pack rather then for her own satisfaction. Though there was a level of satisfaction she felt doing something souly for the good of the pack. After finding a decent place to wade in the water to wait, and about a half hour had passed, Pema already had a small pile of fish on the bank of the pond. It was only two high at the moment, but with much of fishing involving waiting, it allowed her plenty of time to regain her stamina from her previous catches. 

he spent a lot of time by the waters that ran through blacktail deer plateau. having recovered from his trauma at sea, he found he missed the ocean, the constant rushing of waves and the smell of salt. while the salt was missing, at least catfish pond and its stream were water, a small reminder of from where he came. it was a comfort in a time when he was still trying to get used to everything new.

it turned out that he wasn't alone on this chilly day in the wilds. pema sat on the pond's banks, a respectable pile of fish at her paws. he approached the healer with a wag of his tail, giving a low bark to make sure she knew he was coming, so as not to startle her.

"hi, pema," aditya greeted gently, eyes warm. he nodded at her catch with a grin. "nice job! your fishing skills look a lot better than mine."

it seemed silly, for a coastal wolf to be so terrible at fishing. but his paws were clumsy in water, his jaws not fast enough for the slippery things. he supposed that living on a deer plateau would suit him much better than the coast had.

She had been staring into the water when she heard a familiar but startling bark. Not too frightening she mearly looked upa at him quickly and her legs twitched causing the small in edible fish around her to swim away for the time being. 

It was Adi one of the newer members to the pack. She smiled his way as he approached and complimented her fishing skills. "Thanks Adi, it's really just a game of patience and percision." she remarked. Fishing was the first kind of hunting skill Pema knew, and unlike hunting for deer and other animals, fish were something she found she could do without needing the help or guildance from others. She was getting better, but fishing was by far her best hunting skill. 

"How have things been settling in?" she asked, wanting to try and keep up to date with all the member of the pack.

he saw her jump slightly at his call and smirked a little, suppressing laughter; he truly had not meant to startle her, though in deep concentration it was hard for one not to get startled. but his face fell back into a genuine smile as she spoke again, and he answered, "oh, quite well. everyone has been kind and the hunting is excellent."

aditya gestured at the fish again, out of curiosity. "tell me your secret," he chuckled. "do you lure them with magic, or are you just very quick?" his stomach rumbled a little at the sight of the prey; if a fishing lesson turned into a snack, then so be it.

he remembered the first time someone had tried to teach him to fish. a girl named isabel, who lived among the giant sequoias. pretty lady, a muted gray-brown with sparkling green eyes. he grinned in remembrance. trying to impress her, he had instead made an ass of himself by falling headlong into the stream--it had been deeper than he thought, and the fish too fast.

With a smile he went on to say that he was settling in well and that he especially like the hunting in the area. After all it was called blacktail deer plateau for a reason, but other then that there was plenty of squirrels, turkeys and other wildlife they could use as sustinence. "We have quite the selection here. So are you planning on becomming a hunter then?" she asked wondering what skills he would end up placing himself into. Every able member of the pack was titled a hunter, but that didn't mean that all of them were working towards their hunting trades. 

She laughed when he remarked about how the art of fishing could be magic. "No, no magic. Quick and patient are the key things." she said as she caught a glimps of a fish swimming down stream in their direction. "Some of it is luck too. You can't move, so you just have to hope they swim close enough to you." she said as she lowered her head closer to the water. The fish was swimming widly around her, but she wanted to demonstrate a bit in the moment. When she thought it was close enough she went forward and lunged for it, caughting it just bairly by the tail. 

Normally she would have let that one swim by and waited for a better chance, but on well. She quickly made her way out of the water, worried that her weak grip might give and send the fish back into the water. She dropped it out of her jaws and grabbed hold again, this time around the main part of the bady and bit down until it seased to flip around. "See. No magic needed."

he found himself confused at her question, cocking his head to one side with a polite smile. "becoming a hunter?" he asked. "well. . .i am a hunter. but like i said. . .better with the land prey." (he had no way of knowing she was referring to trades. trades had not existed in his life, so far.)

adi listened carefully as she explained the art of fishing, watching as she drew herself close to the water. her head shot forward and popped back up, a flopping, dripping specimen hanging from her jaws by the tail. pema killed it quickly, showing mercy.

"fantastic catch!" he called out, voice full of impressed laughter. "i know you said it's not magic, but it sure looks like it to me." adi padded down to the water to stand beside her, looking down himself. "let me see if i can give it a shot, though."

with great concentration, he stared into the water, looking at all the wriggly creatures on display. opening his jaws, he said a quick, wordless prayer to hari and thrust his head into the icy water, closing his jaws on. . .flesh! he wrenched his head up, sending a cool spray in a halo round his head, and bit down harder, giving a killing blow to the spine.

he dropped the fish at his feet, eyes wide with amazement. "well, i'll be damned," adi said, smiling at pema. "you've taught me how to fish. no one's ever done it successfully before."

rolled in disco tabletop

Already a hunter? Pema didn't think that he was a hunter, but perhaps he had obtained the trade prior to joining Morningside. She didn't think to ask any further before she showed him how to fish. After her demonstration it seemed she had inspired him and he too caught a fish from the pond. 

"I'm sure you had it in you all along. That looks like a pretty good one." she said when he spoke about his past failed attempts to be taught. She walked back into the stream and positioned herself to caught some more fish. It might have been a bit rude to continue a conversation when her focus was somewhat taken by another activity, but her main goal of the day was to help stock up the cache. 

"I've been wondering. Do you speak another language?" she had heard him at times speak something before his sentences and wondered what it was he was speaking. After her question she saw another fish between her legs that she reached down for up unfortunatly only came up with a mouthful of water that trickled down her muzzle.  

he smirked. "you can be modest, but i'm being serious, yaar," he laughed, giving her a wink. "i was hopeless before this." she was right about the size, though; he gazed down at the fish at his feet and gave a nod, slightly impressed with himself. still, everyone got lucky once in a while.

her next question reached his ears and adi grinned, mostly because he had just dropped a foreign word a few moments before. "i do. my mother's tongue," he explained. "my uncle and a few others i've met spoke it as well. no one here, though." sadly.

"aasmaan," he said, pointing his nose to the sky. "zameen," he continued, and pointed back down to the ground. he picked up the fish before dropping it back down, saying, "machhli." he shrugged. "it's a pretty language. i'd be happy to teach you a few words."

So he did in fact speak another language. One that his mother and a few other family members spoke around him, but no one in Teekon, or at least not in Morningside other then him. As he began to speak a few words in this language her gestured towards things around them. Upward which she thought must mean the sky. Downward meaning earth, down or ground. And as he gestured to the fish she thought that was the most easy to understand out of all of them. When he offered to teach her some her tail began to wag.

Pema hadn't gotten the chance to learn another language and she was very intreged by the thought, even if it seemed that Adi and her would be the only other ones to understand it. They could speak to one another in private whilst in the company of others or simply just for fun. "I would love the chance to learn another language." she said, so excited that she missed the perfect opportunity to snatch the fish that just swam through her paws.

She thought of what words she might want to learn first. "Well... How do you say hello?" she asked wanting to get the basic greetings down first. 

he noticed that she let a fish get away in her rapt attention elsewhere--namely, his speaking of his own language--and grinned. the day was young; they had plenty of time to catch fish, and the river was well-stocked.

"namaskaar," he said, with a small downwards incline of his head, in answer to her question, "though sometimes you'll hear me say shubh prabhat, which means 'good morning.' alvida means goodbye," adi added; naturally she needed to know a parting phrase as well as a greeting.

he quirked his mouth to one side, thinking. "aap kaise hain is 'how are you'--though if you're talking to a girl, it's kaisi--and achha means 'good' and boora means 'bad.' achhi aur boori for you, since you're a woman." he stopped there, not wanting to bog her down just yet with all the intricacies and quirks of the language. keep it simple, for now.

switching gears quite abruptly, he lunged back into the water and emerged with another fish in his jaws, killing it swiftly and setting it next to the one he had already caught. adi was starting to feel as though he was getting the hang of this fishing thing.

She listened as he went through a few greeting and a goodbye, mouthing the words and repeating a few of the sounds as he did. Trying to take note of all the little changes that would happen if she were speaking to someone else, or if someone else were speaking to her. She thought she would try it out, not too afraid that if she got it terribly wrong that Adi would make fun of her. "Ok, so... Namaskaar Adi. Shubh probhat. Aap kaise hain. 'Hello Adi. Good Morning. How are you?' Is that how it goes?" he said trying to duplicate the accents on the correct sylables and vowels, but was enevitably off a bit. 

After hearing his response she turned her head to the side as he jumped into the water and splashed her a bit as a result. But alittle splash was worth it seeing as how when he emerged a large fish was within his jaws. "Nice." she said simply in responce. The water took a few moments to settle and the fish took a few moments to become less skiddish, allowing Pema to get another chance at catching another fish. She quite liked how Adi chose to dive right into the water rather then wait as she had done. Thinking about trying it out she stepped out of the water and watched as the fish swam by. Waiting for the right one that was close enough to be pounced on. Once one was in her sights she lunged into the water, making a rather large splash and ending up with the fish locked in her jaws. 

she gave him a fairly well-strung together sentence, and he grinned in appreciation, nodding his head. "you've got the gist of it," he responded, excited to hear another speak his language after not hearing it from anyone but himself for so long. "i'll teach you some more tomorrow. you have to take languages slow, let it all sink in."

pema added another fish to their growing pile; adi tried for another, but came up empty, shrugging his shoulders in amiable defeat as he shook the water from his pelt. he was beginning to grow cold from repeated exposure to the icy stream, muscles taut from the subterranean shivers that ran under his pelt.

"what brought you to morningside, pema?" aditya asked, switching topics as he rested from fishing for a bit. "what's your story?"

Pema was eager to learn more words and phrased, but never having had to learn or teach another how to speak another language, she took Adi's word for it and would wait in anticipation for another lesson tomorrow. It would take quite some time, but assuming Adi was up for it, Pema was ready to learn Adi's language, maybe even fluently given enough time. 

She looked over to the pile of fish that they had accumulated. Thier pile was roughly 6 high now and seemed to be a decent amout. Decent enough that Pema though she could use a break from the cool water. As she walked out her paws her cold from the tempurature change. That shortly after began to match the remained of her body tempurature.

When he asked for her story she proceeded to say "Nothing too major. I was recruited by an older member named Howl. I don't think you had a chance to meet him." she said feeling a bit bad about how things had turned out for Howl and subsequently Heartha.

eeeek sorry this reply has taken so long. wanna fade this out with a couple more posts?

he nodded along as she spoke, though he was still curious as to her life before coming to the pack. a story for another day, perhaps. "i did not get to meet howl," he responded, with a shrug. "he left before i came, i'm guessing?"

adi's eyes floated back to the pile of fish they had acquired. perhaps he'd bring a couple to grayday for his kids, to further form the bond between the two of them. the rest, however, could go to a cache, the location of which he had no clue.

"i think i'm all fished out for the day," he told pema. "let's take these to the cache? if you don't mind showing me where it is," he added, with a smile.

That's ok. Life is busy. I'll fade after this one.

---

Perhaps it was best that Adi hadn't known Howl or Heartha. It wasn't one of Morningside's best stories after all and it was still a sore spot for some of those within the pack. Especially those that were there when it all happened. 

But the day had been long and they now had a large bounty of fish sitting on the bank. Adi purposed that they bring them to the cache, which was Pema's plan all along and so she nodded and smiled in agreement. But Adi didn't know where the cache was and asked if Pema would be willing to show him. Besides being absolutely willing to help guild him to the cache, the large sum of fish didn't appear as though they could all be carried at the same time by the same wolf. "Of course. It's this way." she said grabbing three of the fish by the tails and leading Adi towards the cache. He picked up the remaining number of fish and they went on their way.