Verdant Basin culture weaves and summer smacks

title from "Venezia" by CK Baker

It was rather chilly for summer that day, and cloudy here and there. Not a great day for swimming. Instead, Ellis lay down in the grass a ways back from the lake and observed the animals on the other side coming in for a drink here and there. Mostly deer. Lots of birds, like ducks. If it were warmer and the sun were shining a little more, it would have been a great day. As it was, Ellis was content enough.

ooc: I meant for this to be short and then I got caught up in it. My next one will be short I swear! P.s. I made the last part ambiguous in case you didn't want my character to stumble into Ellis like that. For all we know she could be trying to befriend a grumpy porcupine.

ic: After two days of reveling in the deep woods of Silver Creek, Whim finally made it to the other side, where there sat an expanse of deep-blue water. The sight of it melted her heart, for it promised better luck with fishing than the tricky creeks behind her. For nearly a week she had eaten nothing but bugs, berries, and a bit of an old dried up squirrel carcass she found. The latter had been mostly bones anyway, but her efficient stomach made the most of it.

The she-wolf made her way towards the lake's edge but kept her eyes trained on the ground as she hunted for insects. Eventually, her paw steps caused a grasshopper to stir and she rushed forward to capture it in her jaws before it could hop away. Once secured, she galloped to the water next to a tree whose branches made for a nice leafy overhang on the lake's surface. 

She knew fish were likely to gather here where they would ambush unlucky insects who fell from the branches above. She quietly crept in close and spat the now half-dead insect into the water with a delicacy unusual for her character. She crouched and watched the spot intensely, every muscle in her body poised to spring.

It didn't take long for a rather juicy fish to lunge for the lure, and Whim reacted with catlike quickness. She dove mouth wide-open at the spot where the fish had just been, and her head disappeared under the water with a splash. When she popped back up she had a flailing fish between her jaws. Its silvery body slapped her face with its desperate attempts to free itself, so she quickly returned to dry land and once she was several feet away from the lake she dropped it on the ground. Using her front paws she held it in place and bit down on the head for instant death. 

She picked it back up and began to hum and prance as she made her way to a particular spot of grass with a good view of the picturesque scenery. That's when she noticed someone else was already sitting there. She stopped in her tracks and perked up with a wag on her tail and a fish in her mouth and garbled an unintelligible greeting at the resting creature.

’Gdjkgbjdgdfg,’ said someone behind Ellis.

He jerked up, having been dozing off just now, and spun around. There stood a wolf with a fish in her jaws.

“H-hello,” he said hesitantly, glancing toward her wagging tail. Well, that indicated friendliness, at least. He relaxed a little and set his own tail wagging. “Did-did you need something?”

She shrugged apologetically for startling the stranger even though he recovered quickly enough, though she noticed the edge of uncertainty in his voice. Upon hearing his question her smile grew wider and she dropped the fish which landed with a heavy, sopping splat on the dirt, or as she liked to call it, the seasoning. Her voice rang out like a cheerful chime, "Just a companion to share this poor fella with!" She poked the lifeless shimmering body and it squelched appealingly. She licked away a tendril of seafood-flavored drool from her mouth and resisted gulping it down whole in the similar dining manner of a Great Blue Heron. Whim's instinctual need to fulfill a long hunger was easily overridden by an undying love for sharing with others. Nothing like bringing joy to a stranger with a random act of kindness.