Whitefish River Flow with the river
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Ooc — Amaguq
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#1
First, he stumbled on Blacktail Plateau, a woodland heavy with the scent of the deer herds that made his mouth water. Amaguq was visibly skinnier than he was on the other side of The Wall, and even his fur had lost its exuberance. Sure the arrival of Spring also triggered the shedding, but he knew malnourishment was the cause of his dull coat.
Without thinking, he set on the trail of the nearest herd: he found it, an hour later, wandering the outskirts of the Plateau. His gaze was quick to pick one of the adolescent's bucks: they were smaller, more reckless. More tender.

The approach was a combination of swift, fast movements with moments of total stillness.
Crouch. Left paw, right paw;
Halt: the deer's ear twisted.
Breathe the air out of the lungs... slowly. Swift steps: one, two, three, four...
Halt: don't move, don't breathe - the deer's wide eyes turned to the bushes. What's that white thing? Snow... maybe...?
Approach. A few more steps. The wolf can feel the scent, can feel the taste!
The wind changes direction. Halt! Deer's nose starts twitching. Adrenaline spikes up.
The wolf lunges himself towards his prey with a leap. The chase is on!

The herd ran erratically, every deer for itself, but Amaguq remained focused on his target. He held onto the belief that success was in his reach and his slim body, fueled with adrenaline, chase down the buck, light and swift as a plume, easily coping with the deer's sudden changes of direction, zigzagging between trees, and any other obstacle between Amaguq and his prey.
And after some time, Amaguq finally had the beast in his reach: the wolf aimed a mouth full of fangs to the deer's groin... Only to be shoved off with ease. His jaws had faltered, the grip wasn't enough, and all they left on the terrified prey was a couple of bloody scratches.
With that, Amaguq realized that the hunt would not reward him: not this time. So he quitted the pursuit and left the deer to cross the nearby river in a very ostentatious and inelegant manner. 

The wolf's golden eye rested upon the river waters. He crouched for a moment to quench his thirst, and the rapid movement of whitefishes, rushing underwater right under his nose, readily picked up his interest.
He tried, even though he was used to hunting the land beasts. Fishing required a certain set of skills that he obviously lacked, like patience and timing. So he failed miserably. Once the frustration and despair kicked in, and the wolf started mouthing the waters blindly, he even managed to snatch small rocks from the riverbed. But no fish.
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#2
@Amaguq

The winds had been particularly brutal on the shoreline that day, so Dashiell had chosen to move his hunt inward. The rivers that ran into the ocean were just as bountiful for fishing, and sometimes other wildlife also made their appearances along the riverbank. Dash was not a picky hunter. As he walked along the riverbed, searching for his perfect fishing spot, the scent of a deer herd met his nose. He sniffed at the air, but he was distracted only briefly. He was terribly unlikely to bring down a deer on his own... fishing was the better bet here. He directed his attention back to the river. 

...

Dash was reclined, lying lazily in the perfect fishing spot when he spotted Old One Eye approaching the river. The other fisherman snapped eagerly at the water-- too eagerly, Dash could already tell-- and began to wind himself up to frustration. Dash felt for him. He too was not a man of much patience, but lucky he also had the perfect laid-back, happy-go-lucky attitude that was required of a true fisher. Fishing was all about relaxing, which was Dash's specialty. 

He frowned. If Old One Eye kept stirring up the water like that, it would scare Dash's fish away too. 

"Hey, bro. Hey!" Dash called out, trying to get the attention of the other fisher. "C'mere. Watch this." Dash dangled a paw into the water and left it submerged, motionless. In the time it took the other man to make his way over, he would likely have lured an unsuspecting fish into his little trap.
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#3
Amaguq's ears were quick to find the source of the barks. His eye took a little longer. A male wolf was fishing nearby and thought to give him a fishing lesson. The white wolf felt a little embarrassed but approached the fisherman for a closer look. There was no way he could hide his inexperience in fishing.
And if you don't know it, you better learn it. The more tools you have to survive this world, the better!

As a wolf from the Northern Lands, Amaguq was used to see white wolves, cream-colored ones at best, since they're the coats that best camouflage in the never-ending winter. Seeing a wolf with tones of brown and grey in his fur was... invigorating! He loves the North with all his heart, but the more he heads South, the more his eye gets to rest from the blinding white and finally gets to know the colors of the world.
As he closed in on the stranger, Amaguq was further surprised: from afar, that wolf's movements and his carefree vibe made Amaguq believe he was but a pup who had barely completed his first year. Only when he got close enough had he realized that the fisherman was older. Not as old as Amaguq... Maybe three-years-old?

"Greetings, traveler!" His plumed tail waved in a greet. Amaguq hasn't seen another wolf in a long time: the only thing that was hiding his excitement was the fact that he was hungry and tired: but his golden eye gleamed with joy!
He then focused on the fisherman's submerged paw, curious to see how it would snatch a fish.
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#4
Yep, Dash almost had it. One unsuspecting whitefish bumped at his submerged pad, testing him. 

Out of the corner of his eye, Dash saw the northerner approach. He seemed like an okay guy, and that impression was pretty much solidified when he called out a friendly greeting. Dash wagged his tail and gave the stranger a quick smile before turning back to his work. He didn't want to speak, in case his voice scared away the fish that was just.. about..

..There! 

Dash ripped his paw out with a sweeping motion, sending the fish flying up onto the shore along with a significant amount of water. It flopped around for a tense couple of seconds, dangerously close to the water's edge, until Dash could hop over to its location. Instead of killing it though, he swatted it over to Old One Eye, offering his new company the pleasure of the kill.
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#5
A whitefish was tossed at his paws. He looked at the fish, then at the wolf, and his eye said it all: is this really for me?!
His tail started wagging vigorously. He was grateful to the fisherman but seeing him catching one of those slippery bastards so effortlessly was what rendered Amaguq!

"That was awesome! You make it look like pup's play!" His gaze dropped to the fish. Amaguq had never been this close to one in his entire life.

He sniffed the fish, without knowing very well where to bite. It looked so delicate...
But then, his stomach reminded him of how much hungry he was: before he knows it, he had already half of the fish inside of his mouth, his fangs smashing it and forcing it down the wolf's throat. 
The feeling of the scales brushing against Amaguq's tongue was quite odd, but nothing compared with the sting of the fish's spine in his gums. Other than that, the meat was delicious!

"Amazing! I had never tasted anything like it! Thank you, friend!" He commented while licking his muzzle. "You know, from where I'm from, wolves generally prey on ox and hares or scavenge for leftovers left by polar bears. Fish is abundant, but the waters are so cold that if you were to dip your paw like that, it would turn into an ice cube!"
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#6
Hardly a moment had gone by since he grabbed up the first fish, and already the school was swarming around his submerged paw once more. They sure were hungry-- they must have just woken up after sleeping all winter. In a flash, Dash landed another fish onshore, a few wolf's lengths away from his new friend. 

"Thanks," Dash replied, beaming at the compliment. The fish were biting at anything that hit the water, so fishing really was little more than pup's play, but the other guy didn't have to know that. Dash rather liked being the expert at something. 

Really, he liked the taste that much? In Dash opinion, fish hardly compared to the taste of a fresh, warm-blooded kill.. maybe his new acquaintance was just being polite..? 

"Glad you like it! Name's Dash," he introduced himself. He listened, stepping forward in curiosity as the man mentioned the foreign creatures from his homeland. "Polar bear? Ox? Never heard of 'em.." Okay, he was hooked. He looked at the man expectantly as he munched on his own fish, waiting for him to explain.
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#7
Amaguq wasn't surprised by the young wolf's ignorance. Only those who've walked the Northern Lands know about its creatures.
"I'll tell you about them, though it'll be your mind to draw their final picture. Polar bears are the biggest carnivores to walk the earth! They are... bears, just like the ones you may find here; only bigger, more aggressive, and covered by white fur. Their appetites are so voracious only the creatures of the sea can sate their hunger. And I do not speak of fish: I speak of sea mammals, huge animals full of blood and fat! The ice turns red every time they hunt!" He couldn't help but feel nostalgic as he spoke. "They are the apex of the North, the kings of that icy wasteland! We are to them what the foxes are to us wolves: small and insignificant." He paused, moving towards the river: he would gladly eat more fish. Why not giving it a try? He dipped his paw in the running water. "And the ox is a very peculiar beast." He tried to look focused on the river waters when actually his mind was busy looking for a reference he could use to describe the creature. "An ox is like... a bison. Smaller, with longer fur, bigger horns, and... their testicles smell like perfume!" He bit his tongue. It was the first word that came to mind to describe the scent of a muskox bull. Hard to believe, he knows. He didn't believe it at first when his cousin told him.
He remembers the first time he participated in an ox hunt: he was starving, but the first thing he did when the beast fell was to sniff its groin.
Good times...

Then, Amaguq's submerged toes began tickling. In a reflex, he pulled his paw out of the water. He almost snatched the fish! "Man, I can't believe it! Is this how it is?!" He turned his gleaming eye to Dash. "These fish must have a death wish! That slippery bastard was sucking my toes!" He laughed and then dipped his paw again. "Ah, next time, I get one!"
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#8
Amaguq would find a very avid listener in Dash. Typically, paying attention to a long-winded speaker was not his particular strong suit, but that was only because such people were so often either lecturing him or bragging on themselves with overblown self-importance. It was rare for Dash to hear such a fascinating depiction of a faraway land, and described with such liveliness to boot. 

"Damn," was all he could murmur when his acquaintance finished speaking on the polar bear. It was almost unbelievable to consider that there was such a place in which the wolf was not the apex predator-- Dash might have been skeptical, if he had not been already been knowledgeable of the regular kind of bear. It was not a terrible stretch, to think that with more aggression and viciousness, the bear could rule over the wolf. 

Finished with his fish, Dash rolled onto his back, letting his imagination run away as his acquaintance described the odoriferous ox. Upside down, he watched the man attempt to fish, and when he pulled his paw back, Dash thought he saw the tail of the fish break the surface. 

"Hey! That was close!" He cried, excited by his new friend's near-success. He rolled back over and approached the bank, to stand beside the fisher. Dash knew the sensation that the man described; fishing like this was certainly a game of cat and mouse. There seemed to be something invisible and unknown on the pad of a wolf that greatly interested a fish, and luckily for hungry wolves, the fish was willing to risk its life in order to investigate. 

"Yeah, go by the feeling, that's the idea," he coached. "Don't ever go by sight-- there's a trick of the light when you look down through the surface of the water-- the fish never appears to be in the exactly right place." Dash didn't have the words to describe the sensation of surface refraction, but he hoped he was conveying the idea at least.
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#9
Amaguq could see the fishes rushing with the waters, but he wasn't paying attention to the turbulence. He was putting to the test both the fish's stupidity and its weird foot fetish.

I've almost killed your first-degree cousin.
So if I dip my paw again, ten seconds later... will you suck my toes again?

Yes.

Just a few minutes were all it took: when his toes began tingling, the wolf resisted the impulse of pulling his paw out of the water: he waited until he felt his claw on the fish's throat. Then, he pulled it with all his might: came the paw... and the fish!

"Yes!" He let out a short howl to celebrate his first successful fishing. It may not look like much, but it will definitely mark a turning point in Amaguq's point of view. Never again shall he look at a watercourse as merely a place to quench his thirst.
And he had Dash to thank for it. Guess you're never too old to learn. He huffed with a smile. "Thank you for the fishing lessons, friend. I think that with the proper time, I could get the hang of it!" A sudden thought crossed his mind: he hadn't got a decent meal for a long time: that young lad might have saved his life... 

I shall sing in your honor for a hundred nights!
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#10
He was going to get one. Dash could just tell.

Dash barked in victory when the man pulled his own fish from the river. From the way he thanked Dash, the survivalist had to assume that it was probably his first one ever. 

"No problem," Dash returned, wagging his tail. "You're a quick learner. I think you already got the hang of it." In fact, he was so good that Dash was of the mind to challenge the man to fishing contest. But... he had things he was supposed to be doing, didn't he? Marking the borders of Ocean's Breath Plateau, and all that? Maybe that cute girl Brook would be around..

"Hey, I'll see you around, okay? Come by and try out those fishing skills in the ocean sometime." He grinned, nodded his head in a westward direction. With a final congenial smile, he turned and set out in the direction of his previous nod. 

He would be almost all the way back to the plateau before he remembered that his main task had been to recruit, and he had let a potential recruit slip through his paws just as that first fish had gotten away from Amaguq.
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#11
The ocean?

Amaguq was completely marveled. "You can fish... in the ocean?" He never thought that would be possible. Sure, the water temperature is okay in these parts, but the sea is just a water body of epic proportions! Its currents and waves make the most turbulent rivers look frail lines of water.

"Oh, man! Sure, I'll pass by to visit you!" He grinned. "I won't miss the opportunity of seeing you tussle against a sea fish without drowning!" He said playfully. Dash had already walked away, but Amaguq knew he could still hear him.

Better to get on his way, too. But not before fishing two or three fishes. The most beautiful part of his journey is also the most dangerous: he strides through the unknown, so he never knows what he may find, if he'd find anything at all. The prospects of food and water are always uncertain.