It was late afternoon and Odie found herself wondering around the Fen.  She was thinking about her old life at Silvertip.  None of the bad times, but the good times.  The day that she had gone swimming with Stoic, Adeline and her Mother.  That was a day that she would never forget.  Slowly she found herself starting to come around.  Solemn, her Mother and her Father were never coming back, but she would always remember them.  They would always be with her in her heart and one day she hoped that her whole family could be reunited after death.

The thought of death no longer scared her as much as it used to.  Death was many things, such as, unpredictable, sad and cruel.  Yet it was a part of life.  You lived and you died, it was as clear as the blue sky.  Still sometimes she wished that death had left her family alone.  Maybe it would have been better that way.  Maybe all of her littermates, her Mother, her Father, June and Mason, possibly even Steady could have all had a happily ever after together.  She was not naive though and stopped her thoughts as soon as she thought that.  That had happened in the past and although she would still mourn for ever single one of them, she had to focus on the present and future.  She had to learn the basics of survival.

Odette howled for Sebastian.

It was the first time that the pup had tried to howl, for she had never really had a good chance to try it before.  Her howl was wobbly at first, but as she contiuned it grew stronger, more powerful.  It surprised her.  Slowly her howl ceased to an end and she waited.  She wanted to know how to hunt and how to survive for her pack and some of her own personal reasons, that she was not entirely sure if she wanted to go through with.  She wanted to find her family.  Her siblings.  Although she was unsure if Adeline was still alive, it was a possibility.  Addy had been a fighter from the very beginning, so had Stoic.  They had to still be alive, just had to be.  Who knew though... maybe they weren't.  Only time could truelly tell.

Odie's tail gave a little excited wag as Sebastian came into view.  Soon though Uncle Seb started to speak and Odette watched him curiously as he spoke.  She smiled at his praise for her howl, but found herself wondering why he had been looking for her.  Had sometime happened that he needed to tell her?  Had she done something wrong?  Odette didn't push that topic any further, because she was actually a little nervous to find out what Uncle Seb had to tell her.

Instead Odie asked her own question.

"Uncle Seb... do you think you could...."  Odette trailed off nervous, a little unsure of if she really wanted to learn this know, beause it did scare her to think that she might have to defend herself someday.  Life was life though.  Unpredictable and always changing.  "Do you think that you could teach me how to fight and hunt?"  She finally asked, then looked up at her father figure with bright and hopeful eyes.

Sebastian began to speak and she listened eagerly to hear what he had to say, absorbing every single word that escaped his mouth.  Uncle Seb claimed not to be the best fighter and he seemed really into teaching her fishing above any other prey, so fishing it was that she would try out first.  It would have to be fun afterall, since she loved water and all.  She shot Sebastian a huge glowing grin.

"Can I learn fishing first?"  She asked him in an excited tone with enthusiastic body language, tail wagging back and forth as she waited for Sebastian's response.  As she waited Odette cast a long glance over Broken Antler Fen.  Who knew that a place like this could hold such greatness.

Odette listened intently to Sebastian, deeply intrigued by the learning session.  Everything seemed to make perfect sense to her, but then Uncle Seb told her that she had to aim next to the fish though, Odie was deeply confused.  If you aimed next to the fish wouldn't you miss?  It made no sense, no sense at all.  So with reluctance to follow that one part of what Sebastian had told her, she began to speak.

"Uncle Seb... I don't understand.  Why would you aim next to the fish?  Wouldn't you miss?"  She asked her Father figure with confusion alight in her voice and a sweet little cock of her head.  "It just makes no sense to me."  Odette finished, hoping that either Uncle Seb would make sense of it all or tell her that she was right about this statement that it was illogical to aim next to the fish.

Slowly things began to make sense as Sebastian spoke.  She looked down at Uncle Seb's legs and did notice that wierd kink in fact.  She nodded once.  "That makes much more sense."  She told him, happy to gain more knowledge about the subject.  Odie's tail gave a little wag and she thought a little further about the water situation.

The pups head cocked.  "So does this mean that water is magical?"  She asked innocently, with a touch of sweetness mixed in.  She supposed that the water just had to be magical.  How else could someone explain all it could do, especially when it came to manipulating images.

Odette was amazed when Uncle Seb told her that all water was like this and that it had nothing to do with magic. How did it work then?  The question ran through her mind over and over, but finally she decided that the question could wait for another time.  For now she would go look for fish in the fen like Sebastian had encouraged her to do.

The fluffy pup stood stone still, eyes searching the water, with curious hope.  For the longest time, she didn't see anything, but suddenly a silver flash caught her eye from a few feet away.  The puppies tail gave a small wag.  It was a fish.  Expectant eyes soon turned on Sebastian, as she motioned to the fish with her head.

Odie enjoyed Uncle Seb's nod of praise and found her paws tingling with excitement when he encouraged her to go into the water instead of sticking at the edge.  Right after he said that though he walk right into the Fen, scaring the fish that she had found away.  Although Odette was disapointed, she knew that everyone made mistakes and that she could find another fish, so without complaning, Odette walked into the water, right after Sebastian, listening all the while to him  talk about how the fish sometimes would swim between your paws or that you could dive to see them.  It sounded pretty cool.

For a brief moment, Odie's eyes swam over the surface of the water.  "Do you see any fish Uncle Seb?"  She asked her father figure curiously, before sliding her gaze once more over the water.  No fish or silvery glint caught her eye though like last time, so instead she waited for Uncle Seb to respond, to see if he could see any fish in this fen.

After her question, Uncle Seb responded with a no, telling her to have patience and that it would probably take a few more minutes before the fish would come out to show them selves.  Odie frowned at first, disapointed, but then nodded, her frown disapearing.

Soon after that Sebastian continued on to tell her that the trick was to look into the water and not scan the surface.  She then watched her father figure scan the water himself and then exclaim that he noticed one, right by her right paw, then asked if she saw it.  "Yes, I do!"  She exclaimed excitedly, her tail beginning to wag happily.  Then with that Odette slammed down her paw on the water, next to the fish.

She caught it... for a few seconds.

It was under her paw.  Wiggling, squirming.  Now she just had to finish it off, but how would she do that?  Fear and uncertainity flashed through her features and through all this she lost her focus and the fish shot away like a bullet.  Instantly disappointment slammed down upon her features.  "I lost it...."  She whispered quietly, upset with herself.

Uncle Seb made the catch look so easy... was she really so terrible at this?  Still after seeing how Uncle Seb caught the fish, she felt much better about catching the fish.  Maybe know that she knew that using her mouth made this so mcuh easier she could do it.

It was worth a shot.

So carefully, the pup's eyes slide through tthe water, searching for a fish.  She needed it to be close though so that she didnt have to go to far to get it, because if she had to go too far that could cause to much movement and she would probably end up missing the fish.

Then she saw one.

It was a decent sized fish and swimming towards her.  She waited for the moment.  3, 2, 1.  Then she stabbed her muzzle into the water, jaws aiming for the fish... and then she caught it.  It was in her mouth.  With the sudden realization of this her head shot up, with bulging, excited eyes.  Then she quickly raced back to shore, a small distance away from the water and finished off the fish.  As soon as it was dead, she carefully put it on the ground and turned her excited gaze back to Sebastian.  "I caught one Uncle Seb!"

Odette's tail wagged happily with Uncle Seb's praise.  She to felt proud that she had actually caught a fish.  Sebastian was such a great teacher though, so good at explaining things do it wasn't really a huge surprise to her that she had done it under Sebastian's watch.

"You're an awesome teacher Uncle Seb."  Odie praised her Father figure before digging into the fish.  She only ate half though before she stopped, glancing up at Sevastian with adoring eyes.  "You deserve some fish to Uncle Seb.  You can have the rest."  She told Sebastian then proceeded to nudge the fish towards him.