Phantom Hollow Testing? Testing One Two?

@Kesuk @Kesuk @Kesuk

He was not a master fisher. Kerosene was a lot of things, but fishing was not one of his strongest skill sets. The little buggers were way too fast for his liking and he was a combination of too impatient and too slow. Either way, he'd been at it for a while and he wasn't having any of it. All he'd ended up as was wet and miserable, something that etched a permanent frown upon his muzzle and a mild droop to his ears. "Fucking fish," he hissed at the water, staring into the depths of the river. One of these days he'd figure it out. Maybe after he was dead. 

Kero was ready to give up. There was far easier game out there and none of it would require this moist of a mess that had come upon him. He was soaked up to his belly and his head was a little worse for wear. The fiery red hues of his coat were dampened into a sleek brown rivaled only by the burning intensity of his heated stare. The only plus side was that he was mostly clean. He'd watched a cloud of dirt from his travels float down the river the second he'd gotten in the water. Perhaps he needed to pay a little more attention to his hygiene. 

Another time. He was a bachelor at heart and could do what he wanted. There ain't no one telling him no thing and that was the way he liked it. What he didn't like was that silver fish that taunted him, staring back at him with evil eyes as it neared where he waded in the water. "Steady... steady..." he tried again, willing himself to be patient this go round. He stared intently into the water. Watching. Waiting. He was going to get the little fucker this time.

Thanks for starting! @Koda feel free to jump in :P

Kesuk and Koda had been traveling for a while, and being that cooped up with him was driving her the tiniest bit mad. It was early in the morning when she snuck out of their little makeshift bed of leaves and traveled through the thick maples of the heart wood to the sound of the river near by. She didn't like rivers, actually, she hated them, but she felt the need for a bath. Just because the pair were traveling didn't mean they had put the hot and heavy on hold.

When she finally came to the river, she padded along the bank for some ways before she came to a bend that was sheltered by a bunch of trees where the water was shallow enough for her to feel comfortable. She padded down a small game trail till she came to the pebbly shore, unaware of the irritated male just a few yards up the bend from her.

She splashed quietly into the water, its icy depths relaxing her sore muscles as she lay down in it, moving around to get the dirt and sweat out of her normally glossy brown fur.

Just a little bit more... That's it. Closer... Closer...

Kero watched as the silver fish grew bolder. It neared him, swimming dangerously close to his paws, but still out of reach. He held his breath as he waited, willing the fish to swim nearer to him so that he might spring on it and quite possibly catch it this time. Releasing his breath, he lingered, reminding himself over and over again that if he would just be a little more patient, his efforts would be rewarded.

That was, until a splashing down stream startled the thing and caused it to run off. Kerosene growled, the sound escaping his muzzle before he could do anything about it. "The fuck was that?" He turned his head towards the splash and found nothing, realizing that whatever had startled his fish was cleverly concealed by a turn in the river and the associated trees. He frowned. Now he'd have to leave this spot if he was ever going to discover what it was. 

He left it, marching down the shoreline to catch a glimpse of this intruder. What he found was a female, bathing in the shallows. From the steady stream of dirt and the cloud of brown floating down the river, he immediately noticed that she was filthy. Fine. Good excuse to splash around down here. Still didn't make him any less upset. 

"You scared off my fish," he announced, still lingering on the shore. 

Kesuk looked up from the icy water and into the glaring golden eyes of a male standing on the shore. He mentioned something about scaring off his fish. What was it with males and their fish? So pushy. Now that the dirt had been washed out of her fur almost completely, she figured it was time to get out anyways. She slowly stood up and walked out of the water towards him, her face expressionless, even slightly bored.

"Or maybe it was just your shitty fishing skills." she shot back, turning to him with a smirk, walking away from him a safe distance before giving her fur a quick shake, sending sparkling droplets to cover the grassy bank around her.

She was ignoring him? What? He watched as she took forever removing herself from the water and took her sweet ass time hauling herself onto the shore. What'd she do in there? Gain a hundred pounds in water weight? He grumbled to himself, nursing that gravel of an infant growl within his chest as she shook herself mostly dry and finally decided to give him the time of day.

Bitch.

His fishing skills were fine.

Okay. They did suck. 

Whatever. 

"You don't know!" he asserted, bristling a bit. "Pretty sure your stink scared them all away." She was clean now. Kudos for her. He was still fishless. Without a fish. Ugh. He had ZERO fish on him. Zero. "I think you owe me one, princess."

She looked at him with a smirk, his anger making her laugh a bit. It was funny how easily she had gotten to him. "Well based on the fact that you have no fish, I think I do know."

She was used to people insulting her. It came with being a bitch. When people don't like you, they try to put you down to make themselves feel better. His words bounced off her like leaves.

"And I don't owe you shit. Don't you know that it's every wolf for themselves out here? Maybe you should try harder." she said with a wink.

Oh. Okay. Now he was laughable. He narrowed his eyes at her, tail flicking behind him as he cocked a brow in her direction and dared her to say something sassy. She delivered. Her assumption, though correct, was not something he was gonna let fly so long as he still had an ounce of loner pride within him. Could his fishing skills use a little work? Yup. Was he still alive? Also, yup. Meant he excelled in the art of survival with hunting occupations more suited for creatures of the land.

"I just started," he covered, thinking that an acceptable excuse for as to why he was currently without a fish. And, since she was around the river bend, unless she was some kind of stalker she'd have no idea how long he'd been at it. Then again, the water was loud enough to make his ears nearly useless and it killed his nose. She could have been creeping all along. The creeper.

She said something else and winked at him. A challenge, followed by that flirty little eye thing. "I think there is something wrong with your eye," he blurted out without thinking. Then he did think for a moment and he set off towards her, closing the distance between them. "Maybe you should fetch me a fish." Stepping past her, Kero went for her tail and attempted to drag her back towards the water.

Her jaw dropped and her eyes widened at his rude arrogance, pulling her back to the river by her tail. Who in the hell did he think he was?! She closed her mouth with a snap and narrowed her eyes at him before yanking her tail out of his grasp and spinning to face him with her ears back in anger.

"And I think there is something wrong with your brain if you think I'm going to do anything for you. It's not my fault you're a lonely fuck with no friends." she shot back with a glare.

But before she could walk away, no harm done, a plan hatched in her mind. She causually shook off the anger and walked towards him with a suggestive glint in her eyes. "But maybe there's something else you want?" she said slowly, going to rub her shoulder against his.

Whoops. The lady doth protest too much. A little tail grab and she was all in a huff, ears flat and ready to pluck his eyeballs out for such insolence. Kero stared at her, mostly unphased by the little stunt as clearly she was the one in the wrong here and just didn't want to admit it. Some wolves were just like that. Wanted to blame the world for everything and never take responsibility for their own actions.

He braced himself as she spat at him, yelling out a scramble of words that went in one ear and out the other. Something about him not having friends... Hmm... He thought they'd been over this once before when he'd said something to the extent of, "You don't know!" which meant it would be a waste of breath to repeat himself since she just proved she wasn't listening to a word he said.

Two could play at that game.

Saying nothing, he watched her visibly shift. Her body language quieted as she sauntered towards him and put on a flirty little show. Well now. Bitch of a lady could be quite the fox if she wanted to. And want to, she did. The wolf pressed her shoulder against him as she asked him what he might possibly want. Kero leaned closer, running his nose along her nape to whisper upon her ear. "You know what I want," he said his light and airy. "A fish." He turned his head to her shoulder and nudged her back towards the river. "Have at it river marm."

Stupid wolf. He was ruining her fun! She pulled back from him with a dull look. If he wasn't going to cooperate, then she would just leave him with his lonely self. His loss. In a last ditch effort to finish her plan, she pulled her body up next to his and with a hearty shove, attempted to push him into the river.

"Then go get it yourself, stupid." she said in a sickly sweet voice, hoping to irritate him even further.

She gave him a shove. Whoops. Guess that wasn't what she'd been after. Kero stumbled back into the shallows of the river, letting the water soak up to his ankles. "Hey now," he returned, keeping his cool. "We already decided I suck at this whole fish thing."

He looked at her, running a paw through the water to splash her down and cool her off a bit. "You want a hard on? You know how that works." Give a man a meal! "Woman, fetch me a fish."

At his command Kesuk narrowed her eyes, a deadly glint sparkling in their icy depths. First he had the arrogance to splash water at her, and now to tell her to do something for him! How dare he. She walked towards him, only putting two paws in the water, her hind paws still secure on shore as she gave him the coldest glare she could muster.

"Too bad you suck, if you want a fish. Get. It. Yourself." she said slowly, she was rather sick of his shit, and if he thought she was still joking, he was in for a big surprise.

She seemed adamant and likely didn't realize she was being so back and forth on every topic of conversation they'd had since they arrived. Kero'd stated plain and simple he was looking for a fish right from the get go. She? Well, she was a hot mess of confusion and he wasn't sure what she was looking to have out of this encounter. To prove a point? Maybe. She stormed up towards him and made a nuisance of herself. He grinned anyway because her fuse was short and far too easy to light.

"Hey now. You asked me what I wanted. I told you." He'd seen those flirty little eyes. That sass in her swagger. He had no idea what she was getting at, but she was being a bit of a sour puss having not gotten it. "What? Am I supposed to read your mind and ask for something else? I ain't no fortune teller."

He wasn't getting the message. Was the tone of her voice not strong enough? Or maybe he was just an ignorant idiot. Either way, she was fed up with his crap. Even though she wanted to rip his ears off, she figured she should probably get out of there before she did something she would regret.

Oh but she wanted to teach him lesson so bad! To teach him not to treat women like servants. She was probably stronger then him and could probably easily kick his ass. But that was not a good idea, since she already had one injured wolf to deal with and she didn't need anything to worry about on herself.

She huffed and stepped out of the water, still glaring at him, but with less intensity. "I'm gonna leave before I rip your face off. Bye." she barked, eyes narrowed, before turning away from him all together and attempting to walk away.

Archive here? Unless she decides to come back?

She was getting more and more flustered. Kero simply looked at her, blinking as he had no idea where this rage of hers was coming from. She certainly wasn't explaining herself in a way that he could understand which meant they were left at an impasse with her angry and him staring back at her somewhat passively while ankle deep in water.

"Later babe," he said, watching as she stormed off. He was just twisting the knife a bit, but at this point, he figured why not? He was a lone wolf. She was a lone wolf. It was just a passing between strangers that had gone south before it'd even started. Oh well.

Yeah, I'll archive it :) Till they meet again

She turned her head to give him one last glare before disappearing into the brush, her hips swaying without her consent. She paused and looked back at him.

"Do not call me babe." with that, she was gone.