Swiftcurrent Creek yesterday's news · pack activity

Anybody from the creek is welcome to participate!

Round 1: Gather around and listen to the rules, kiddies.
Round 2 (04/22): Fish your heart out!
Round 3 (04/25): Winners announced.

@Ferdie von Pelt - You're more than welcome to do the honors for the "prettiest fish" award. :)

The weather was balmy this afternoon, and an idea that had been floating around in Fox's head for a couple of weeks resurfaced again today. She was presently lazing by the side of the creek, less worried about the borders and more focused on relaxing in the warm spring afternoon. Sitting upright, and jumping atop a stump, she suddenly called out for her fellow comrades to join her in a bit of a friendly contest. Each and every one of them was an asset to the creek, and she wanted to celebrate the warmth with them. They were becoming a family, even if the process was slow, and Fox wanted them to realize that.

When they arrived and gathered around, Fox began to speak. “So lovely to see all of you. I know the recent split has been a bit jarring, but I do hope that those of you who remain will continue to do so. Each and every one of you,” she paused, allowing her gaze to sweep those who had gathered, “is a huge asset to the creek, and I am happy to have you all here.” Her voice rang true, and Fox meant every word that she spoke.

“I thought we might have a bit of a contest. Since fishing is an important skill to have, I want to see who can catch the most. Let's see who can catch the biggest.” That way, there would be two winners. “Maybe we’ll see who can catch the prettiest one, too.” That made three winners, although no real prizes would be had. “The winners get bragging rights, and we’ll all be well-fed in the end.” The fireball paused, her gaze once more falling upon the crowd. “Any questions?” she asked.

Jace was one of the first to arrive he noticed and when the alpha began to speak about fishing he got excited and he wagged his tail. He loved fishing and he was relatively good at it, at least he thought he was anyway, so far he had done well. He knew though of course that sometimes you had a bad run and might not do as good as you usually did. He smiled at Fox and dipped his head in respect to her.

Oh dis mah jam Bazi most definitely did not think, but a feeling not unlike it filled her at the mention of fishing.

The Creek Gamma arrived shortly after Jace - the guy to beat, as far as she was concerned - and offered her rival a gentle nudge to the cheek in greeting before sitting down right next to him. Ferdie would be hot on her heels, but had no doubt stopped to cough up his eight hairball of the day (her adoptive father-figure was a fervent groomer and paid the price often, especially when Bazi came back dirty and tangled).

At Fox she smiled, dipped her head, then raised it again with a shake to indicate that no, she had no questions. Next to the gathering of wolves, the creek twinkled invitingly - it was all Bazi could do to stop herself from lunging into the water before the customary 'Go!'.

The split between Jinx's wayward faction and their home base had been a surprise to Njal, but he had accepted the situation wholly. As much as he respected the warrior woman Njal had held an inkling of suspicion towards her; finding her upon the mountain in his travels did not sit well within him. That was behind him now - forgotten as soon as Tuwawi had entered his mind.

He was not quick to resume his duties, as the mated pair were too busy consummating their union. No doubt being overheard by anyone passing within earshot, for the pair were obnoxious in their love-making, and unafraid.

When Fox deigned to summon the pack together, Njal had been napping.

The brute was slow to rise and greet the afternoon, but was made more alert when he realized just how late in the day it was. Clouds swam in the sky but they were not so thick as to block the sun fully, and his grizzled countenance was smack-dab in a patch of emanating tangerine; vivacious enough to blind him for a moment or two as he adjusted, and in the process attempt to rouse Tuwawi.

Njal arrived at the gathering about ten minutes after Bazi, who was greeting a dark-furred stranger. He gave a pleased smile to their leader as she rambled off the reason for the summons - and his smile boasted something deeper. Almost a, guess what I was doing last night sort of look.

Bones was largely unaffected by the pack's splintering. Then again, not much could get under Bones's skin. She loved life and all parts of it, even the least expected and/or less pleasant bits. She hadn't lost anyone close to her in the move and she was still in touch with the one wolf she did consider a friend (Ira). Everybody else she liked was still here at the creek.

That included Bazi, whom young Bones tracked today, incidentally leading her to an impromptu, informal pack gathering. Looking around a bit sheepishly, the silvery youth sat down next to the pack's Gamma, facing Cap'n Fox with an easygoing smile on her face. She listened as the leader gave a brief speech, then announced her reasoning for the assembly: a fishing contest.

Bones immediately leaped to her feet, her excitement bordering on overbearing. "Fishing's me favorite sport!" she said so loudly and forcefully that spittle sprayed from her muzzle. "You're all gonna sink like ships against me skills!" she crowed, eyeballing the competition and complementing this boastful threat with an open-mouthed grin to show that she was being playfully competitive.

Ferdie did arrive a few moments after Bazi, he drew up before Fox began to speak and let out a silent sigh, Bazi's tail was full of twigs and things already. Ferdie noticed Bazi sitting right next to Jace and frowned for just a moment, it was not his place to say anything but he was starting to worry.

The brute wandered just a bit closer to fox and stood before her keen on hearing her voice again. However he cringed inwardly when she began to speak of fishing, Sure he had watched Jace fish and even Njal had tried to teach him, but his long running past with water did not bode well for this tournament.

I have a question, May I be judge or help be judge? I'd love to measure the fish, up here.... on dry land! He grinned sheepishly

Fish caught: 1
Biggest fish: 6 inches
Prettiness factor: 5

Fox grinned at Bones, who seemed particularly enthused about this little team-building activity. Ferdie seemed keen on being the judge, and Fox gave him a nod. “As long as you’re a fair and just judge, I think we can make that work,” she said, knowing he would do perfectly fine. Now that everybody had heard the rules, there was only one thing left to do: fish!

Once everybody had taken their places at the creek, Fox lifted her head and shouted to them. “On your marks… get set… FISH!” And with that, even Fox dove into the creek and began snatching as many fish as she could catch. There were plenty to be had, for it was apparently some kind of fish party, but catching them was a whole different story.

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You guys can use this code for the rolls, but remember to remove the asterisks! I'm just going on the honors system, so no cheating. :B

Code:

[ooc] Fish caught: /*roll 1d8
Biggest fish: /*roll 1d8 inches
Prettiness factor: /*roll 1d8 [/ooc]

Fish caught: 6
Biggest fish: 4 inches
Prettiness factor: 5 I always seem to get 6 must be my lucky number :)

Jace jumped into the fray of water immediately spraying it up around him. He smiled as he began to fish. His paw went in the water and out again as fast as he could get it to work. BY the end of the contest he had caught 6 fish the largest being 4 inches long there was even a pretty one with rainbow colored scales it seemed when the light hit it. He smiled in enjoyment wondering how his friend Bazi did and anyone else that was enjoying the contest he did not know everyone as of yet. He chuckled to himself as he finished up the fishing.

Six grown wolves flung themselves into the Creek - Bazi did so flinching, wondering what strange and masochistic fish would remain after such a disturbance. She shot a sidelong glance at Jace, who had somehow scooped two little fish out of the water already and was poised, watching, over the water. Ferdie declined to participate, which his little sort-of-daughter found a little bit perplexing - she had shot him a funny look when he visibly cringed at the mere mention of the glorious sport. Perhaps Jace had been right to be so pushy about it a few days prior. They lived next to a creek, and many of the wolves here subsisted on fish when larger prey was scarce.

Bazi pushed the thought into a queue, ready to bring up on the walk home. This moment was for fishing, not brooding, and she set to it with fervent gusto - Jace had already beaten her at fishing once, and she was loathe to let it happen again so soon.

Fish caught: 7
Biggest fish: 4 inches
Prettiness factor: 3

Fish caught: 3
Biggest fish: 1 inches
Prettiness factor: 5

Quivering with excitement, young Bones awaited the leader's cue, then shot into the water with the rest of them. She went after the fish enthusiastically at first, though she soon discovered the difficulty of fishing in such a melee. Every time she came close to catching a fish, someone bumped into her or splashed her in the face or, hell, even snatched the fish before she could. She tried to be a good sport about it but, before long, it took all the muscles in her face to maintain her smile.

Eventually, they fished the waters clean; plenty of them were flopping on the bank and the rest had scattered to safety elsewhere in the small river. Bones leaped onto the shore, gave herself a shake, then looked down at her disappointingly meager catch with a slight frown. She quickly mustered back her smile, though, and sat beside her catch while waiting for everyone else to finish. Maybe she'd only caught minnows and she'd hardly had a chance to display her true skills, yet at least she hadn't come up totally empty-handed or anything, Bones reminded herself.

Fish caught: 6
Biggest fish: 2 inches
Prettiness factor: 4

At first Njal just watched as the youth bound in to the water; he was thrilled to see them so enthusiastic about fishing. The dark wolf - who he had yet to meet - pulled up a few shining bundles; Bazi catching more and more, which reminded him of their little competition (she was a seasoned veteran despite her age, and Njal swelled with pride upon seeing such skills in a fellow creek-wolf). His attention shifted to the river before he recognized what the other two had grabbed. With his stocky limbs quickly soaking in the creek waters, the aged fisherman began to work.

And when it was all over, he too crawled from the depths. Njal shook the water from his soaking pelt as he lurched to dry land, and trailed along after the others. When they flopped to the grass he simply posed nearby with his rear end planted firmly down; watching their panting faces, and eyeing Ferdie - wondering who had won, but finding that the competition was not that important today.

Ferdie stared at the water and the wolves, the creek was still teeming with fish and he frowned, he may make a fool of himself yet but he made his way to the waters edge. With a sidelong glance to Bazi he carefully waded into the water and started pensively at the surface. He drew a deep breath and watched the fish scatter around him, He bared his teeth squinted his eyes shut and then dunked his whole head below the water snapping his jaws. Surfacing with a gasp he stared down at his maw, did he have something??

Fish caught: 0
Biggest fish: 5 inches
Prettiness factor: 8

changed it the roll to 0d4 since he cant really fish looks like he failed again,

Poor guy would have caught the prettiest fish too ahhhh

Edit from Fox: I moved your OOC post up here. :)

Sorry for the delay... but yay, final round! There will be a bonus round at the end. :)

Fox managed only to catch one lousy fish, although it was a fairly big one. She wrestled it out of the water, then dropped it on the ground. Eyeballing what everybody else had achieved, Fox called them off. “Okay, everybody! Time for judging!” The splashes slowly died down, and Fox looked to Ferdie to count, measure, and judge the prettiest fish.

With her single decent-sized fish on the ground beside her, Fox sat and awaited Ferdie's judgements. In the meantime, she silently congratulated herself for a pack get-together well-done. Their last one had been a bit of a disaster, but she felt like she was getting the hang of things a little bit better now.

Jace arrayed his fish around him and looked down shuffling them about. He was nervous around all these other wolves. He normally held his own company or his families. Pack meetings had always made him feel awkward and strange. Though he had a lot of fun he was still nervous.

He had managed to catch 6 fish, though they were not large his largest being 4 inches he would help to feed his pack and that is all that mattered to him.

Bazi made squinty eyes at Jace's pile. There were six that she could see, quite possibly seven - maybe, maybe eight. He was the one to beat today. Her own catch wasn't the prettiest, but they were fat and many. Njal had caught a similar amount, and Bazi flashed him a wide smile - this was a game they had played together before.

Bones had managed to catch the smallest fish in the Creek - which, come to think of it, was almost more impressive than what Bazi herself had managed. Ferdie, predictably, hadn't caught a single fish. Bazi wondered if he had even tried, but supposed he was adept enough at small game that it didn't really matter. Nearly every other Creek wolf was a dab hand at fishing. Still panting lightly from the thrill of the hunt, Bazi arranged her fish into size order and sat by the fattest one to await judgment.

Like a happy, lazy cat, Bones sprawled next to her catch, aware that it would impress no one. She decided that, just as soon as Ferdie was done judging, she would eat all three of her fish. In fact, her mouth began to water as she waited and she found herself hardly caring about the contest's results. Reminding herself to be a good sport, she licked her lips and awaited judgment.

When the festivities ended, Njal took his time to peruse the other wolves' catches. He noted how small the fish were - ranging from one to six inches, hardly any bigger than developing fry - and at first he was discouraged. These morsels were tiny things, enough for a heron or some kind of bird to keep themselves satiated, but nothing near what a wolf pack required. Still, it had been enjoyable. The man shuffled to his pile of small fish and scrutinized it, distracted for a moment. When he looked up he caught Bazi's eye and they exchanged a look, although Njal did not seem all that happy about the results. With a huff he rolled on to his side, ignoring the chill as the end of his tail dipped in to the river's edgewater; his long legs sprawled across the rocks as he waited for the judgement to proceed.

Ferdie dejectedly climbed out of the water his fish having escaped with it’s life, walking up the bank he gave himself a mighty shake trying to dislodge as much water as wolfly possible, oh he had hoped to catch at least one. To show he had been paying attention to his teachers, both of which were here and watched him fail miserably.
Ferdie sighed then picked himself up and put on a smile because now he got to do what he had promised to do his best at, and in this task he could not fail.

Ferdie marched along the row of wolfs taking a look at each pile. without taking a single one then he started going down the row of wolfs Stopping infront of Fox’s pile he carefully eyed her biggest fish and picked it up. Bringing it to the middle he set it aside gingerly.

He nodded at himself proudly, it would not do to have the alpha not win an honor.

Ferdie turn and stared at the piles again, not yet having said a word for he took this job with way more seriousness then he should. He then paced a smile whine escaped him, he just couldn’t decide on the prettiest fish the winner was not going to be unanimous it would fall on him to pick Jaces and Foxs fish was larger with this pretty rainbow scales pattern maybe a little leopard printing on the under belly. Bones fish were so small but they were cute and with those same rainbow scales and printing on the bottom, he turned hers over then he moved onto Jaces and then Foxs. By now the others must have been getting annoyed with him, but he couldn’t help it.

he wished he had managed to snag the one that got away from him, for it had this pretty red head on it and would have trumped them all. but alias he didn’t and so it would not count. Ferdie cleared his through and trotted over to Bones cute 1 inch fish and picked it up carrying it over to Foxs 6 inch fish and setting it beside it.

Sitting behind the winners he spoke in his best annunciating voice I declare Foxs catch to be the biggest and Bones catch to not only be the prettiest but the cutest.

And there he sat as proud as a peacock for his hand erhem Paw in the tourney

“And it looks like Bazi caught the most!” Fox added, giving a nod to the white, fluffy yearling. Now that the fish were (literally) out of the water and judged, the yearling dove into her one large fish and gobbled up the cold, slimy meat as quickly as she could. She was not sure she would ever get used to the texture, but it did taste good, and she knew that it was food that would keep them going.

The leader then stretched out on the ground a few dozen feet away from the creek, nodding off due to all the excitement. Fox would stick around for anybody who wanted to mingle after the event, although she was not sure how much longer she would be able to stay awake.

I'm fading this out! Feel free to respond one more time if you'd like. I'll close out the thread on Saturday the 3rd.

Jace nodded at all the winners happy for them at least. He stretched his large body and picking up the fish he decided to deposit them in the nearest cache he wasn't all that hungry. He dipped his head to the leader and then loped away intent on putting this away and then maybe a nap was in the wind.

When Ferdie called her name and named her fish the prettiest and the cutest, her nose wrinkled but she laughed. "Thanks, Ferdie," she said, then pushed herself to her feet and bowed playfully to the other wolves gathered around. "Thank-you, thank-you..."

The youngster tended to take her cue from the leader at these gatherings, so when Fox ate, then moved off a ways and made herself comfy, the youth followed suit. She gobbled up her catch, then tried her best to sneak a few fish off the others' piles. Grinning happily, she then bobbed to a spot upstream, circled a few times and lay back with a full stomach and a happy sigh.

Bazi yipped happily. She was especially pleased to have beaten Jace, however petty that was. She made sure to catch the darker male's eyes before he loped off, and gave him a (now perfected) wink - until next time, my nemesis.

The meeting dissolved then, each wolf moving away to finish their meal or attend to other business. Bazi gathered the tails of her fish into an awkward bundle, and dragged the whole lot to where Bones had settled down. She planted a wolfish kiss on the juvenile's head and settled down beside her, spreading the fish out for both of them to nibble at.