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.
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.
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
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."
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 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?"
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.