Kintla Flatlands Gone Fishin'

Open to all, but I'd prefer someone from BDP that Koda hasn't yet met. Also, the setting is the segment of the whitefish river that runs right by the plateau.

His talk with Dante had broken him out of his little funk, and Koda decided he would spend the rest of the day doing something fun and productive instead of haunting the plateau like a lonely ghost. With the pack's recent hunting failures, the caches were starting to run dry. Koda knew some good ol' fishing would fill the emptiness in the food stores, as well as the hole in his heart.

As he reached the river, he remembered the fishing spot he'd found with Peregrine and decided to head there first. It wasn't too far out of the way for him, and more importantly he'd had great luck in that spot. Koda was a little superstitious when it came to luck in fishing.

The midday sun warmed his back as he walked, but Koda could still feel a crisp chill in the air. Soon, snow would blanket the lands and the river would freeze over. Fishing would be out until the ice thawed next spring. Koda'd always had mixed feelings about the winter season. He loved to play in the snow and slide around on the ice, but he missed going fishing. This would probably be one of the last opportunities he'd have, and he planned to make the most of it.

He reached the spot and dipped a toe in to test the shallow water. It was cold, but not unbearable. A white flash caught his eye as a fish, startled by his approach, darted behind a rock to hide. Where there was one, there was bound to be others. Koda suddenly found himself wishing he'd brought some company along to share in the fun. He wasn't too far from the plateau, maybe one of his packmates would be willing to kill some time with him. Lifting his muzzle, he sent up a long howl, inviting anyone in earshot to come join him.

Kaihra moved through the land, alone once again. Over the past few weeks she had grown increasingly comfortable with her lowly position among the Plateau wolves. There had been a point in time when she had risen in rank, when she had put her best efforts forth to come to know her packmates and be known by them. But half of those she had taken to had left for one reason or another, and half she'd not had the social finesse to come to know beyond mere acquaintance. A part of her argued to involve herself deeper, but logic told her that there was no point in getting attached to others when those wolves would just leave you in the end.

The disconnect had developed days after the change brought by Peregrine's departure. Strangely enough, she'd found herself drawn to the land beyond the Plateau, and it was here she wandered now, though she did not leave the Plateau's shadow. Her travels were not aimless, nor for pleasure's sake: she sought to hunt and provide for the pack, acutely aware of the winter that fast approached and all that had yet to be done.

When a howl lighted the air, Kaihra slowed to a stop, her spine prickling at the closeness of the source. The masculine voice rose from the riverbank rushing mere pawsteps from her place behind a small copse of trees. Though the howl sounded far from threatening, she flattened her ears and scanned through the spaces between the boughs until her eyes lighted upon a youthful form, dabbling his toe tips in the fast flowing waterbed. She made no movement toward him and merely watched through calculating eyes as she assessed the formidable boy - and caught a whiff of the Plateau's unmistakable scent on his mottled coat.

Hey there, thanks for joining :)

Koda sat on the bank as he waited to see if anyone would answer his call. He let a few minutes pass in silence before he concluded no one was coming to join him. "Aw well," he said to himself with a shrug. He would just have to enjoy this beautiful autumn day on his own.

He rose from his spot and started turning over rocks with his nose, searching for worms or bugs that might be hiding underneath. Koda had picked up a new trick; he'd learned that throwing bait in the water attracted more fish. He pushed aside a piece of drift wood to reveal a wriggling earth worm. Carefully, he picked it up in his teeth, then waded into the river. He let the worm fall in, and watched as it sank to the bottom, still squirming. Then, he simply waited.

A few minnows were attracted by the movement of the writhing worm, but they were too small for Koda to bother with. He watched as they took turns taking little nibbles out of the bait. One of them tried to make off with the whole thing, but spit it out when he realized it was too big for him to swallow whole.

Suddenly, a large fish came out of nowhere and charged into the cloud of minnows, catching one of the stragglers and swallowing it in one gulp. The distinctive pink band along it's side made it easy to identify as a rainbow trout. Koda was astonished; he'd had no idea rainbows could grow to be so large.

Still hungry, the trout went for Koda's bait, and that's when the fisherwolf made his move. He lunged forward and plunged his head in the cold water, grabbing the fish just behind it's head. He bit down hard, severing the spinal cord and rendering the fish paralyzed. He lifted his catch out of the river and carried it to dry land, placing it on a rock so he could admire it.

After the excitement of the catch subsided, Koda was left feeling hollow. It was one of the best catches he'd made in his young life, but no one was there to celebrate with him.

My pleasure! :D

The boy did not seem to notice her, but Kaihra did not take confidence in this. Confidence brought foolhardiness, and foolhardiness was something she could not afford in the presence of strangers. The dark woman made no movement toward or away from the river, instead lowering herself in place. The less chance the boy could see her, the better. She hoped to draw away when he began to busy himself again.

But if one thing brought more trouble than overconfidence, it was curiosity. And as much as Kaihra struggled to destroy her questioning nature, it surged as strong as ever. Her natural inclination to question held her now as she watched the boy overturn rocks and wood, only to withdraw with something in his mouth - she still stood at a healthy distance from him, and couldn't see what he carried so delicately in his jaws - and move to stand in the river, waiting in a held climax, as if something more was supposed to happen.

His actions perplexed the woman and she watched on, confused more than worried by the boy's strange antics. She considered he could be insane and she made a small movement away from where he stood. But she froze when he plunged his head into the water, sending river spray flying high into the air before he reemerged with a slick fish wriggling between his jaws. Her eyes lighted on the slippery creature and felt a gentle surprise at the boy's catch.

Kaihra would have lied if she said she wasn't impressed. She considered herself a decent fisher, but worked far better on land than in water. Intrigued by his tactics, and not entirely sure how he'd lured a trout to come so close, Kaihra waited to see if the boy would move again. But he remained by the rock, eyes simply boring into the fish he'd placed so proudly on the stone. She waited a moment longer before slipping from the tree cover into the visibility of the river bank. The lack of cover unnerved her and she retained her distance, studying him through a skeptical gaze. "Impressive catch."

The rustle of movement in the trees caught Koda's eye, and he glanced up to see a dark she-wolf emerge from the undergrowth. He recognized her from Peregrine's meeting, but they'd never been properly introduced. Between the upheaval in the pack and in his own personal life, he hadn't yet had the opportunity to meet many members of the plateau.

"Thanks," he replied, a little embarrassed that she'd been able to sneak up on him so easily. Koda was totally oblivious to the world around him when he got into his little zone. He wondered how long the she-wolf had been watching him. He looked back down at his fish. "She's a beauty ain't she," he said proudly, admiring how the iridescent scales shimmered in the sunlight. He could see shades of pink, blue, even yellow. It was easy to see how the fish earned it's name.

"My name's Koda, by the way," he said with a friendly smile. "May I know yours?"

Though his friendly voice confirmed he posed no threat to her, she did not let her guard lower far. Kaihra thought she recognized the boy: his voice, at least, sounded familiar. She took a small shuffle forward, then craned her neck to catch a better view of the boy's prize. But unlike him, Kaihra found little interest in the fish itself, and as she scanned her gaze along the creature's length, she saw none of the beauty he saw in the stillness of its corpse.

She flashed her eyes back on the boy and let her attention take him in. Koda. Committing his name to memory, she bobbed her head in response to his greeting. "Kaihra." came her short response. She did not return his smile, finding they still did not come easy to her face. Instead, she lighted her eyes back on the fish, turning her head ever so slightly as she considered his fishing techniques. "Think you can catch another?" The woman wanted to watch and see his tactics again: primarily, why he'd dug around in the dirt and what he'd found to make the kill with such ease.

Koda was flattered by Kaihra's interest in his fishing tactics. At the same time, he was nervous that he wouldn't be able to duplicate his results now that he had an audience. "I'll give it a try," he replied. "Just let me find some more bait."

He turned over more rocks, but came up empty every time. After searching a small area of the bank, he decided to try his luck elsewhere and moved into the trees. He started digging up the soft soil, soon unearthing a few plump white beetle grubs. "Awesome," He said upon his discovery. He turned to Kaihra. "Fish really love these little guys." He explained.

He gently picked one up in his teeth and returned to the river, choosing a different spot than last time. He plunked the grub into the water, watching the gentle current carry it to the bottom. Then the waiting game began.

Several minutes passed, but no fish showed up to eat the drowned grub. Koda started to think about moving to another spot when a second, much smaller, rainbow trout swam into view and cautiously nibbled on the grub. The fish seemed to sense the danger looming above, for it retreated a bit each time it came in for a bite. Koda's bait would soon be gone, he decided he had to make a move.

The next time the fish came in for a bite, he lunged forward and plunged his head into the water. The fish wasn't quite quick enough, and the wolf managed to grab it by the tail. He didn't have a good grip, however, and the prey managed to squirm free. Koda chased after the wounded fish, driving it toward the river bank to trap it. It didn't get far, however, it's injury slowing it greatly. Koda plucked it out of the water and held on tight.

The gray wolf carried his catch back to shore, adding it to his previous catch. He turned to Kaihra. "That was close," he said, puffing his chest up proudly. "The bait draws them in nice and close, but sometimes they still get away."

"Hey, do you wanna give it a try?" He asked with an encouraging smile.

Congrats on the rank promotion! :D

Kaihra soon found the answers to her questions: Koda had been scrounging for bait. The dark woman found herself impressed by the boy's ingenuity, and a little jealous she hadn't thought of it herself. She followed at a distance while he searched for the best grub to offer the unassuming fish, ensuring her gaze always remained on the boy and her back never turned to him.

Her watch turned idle when Koda searched the rocks with little success, but found her attention captured again when he turned his focus on the soft soil by the trees. The time he spent there clued the woman he'd found the object of his search and she drew up on his opposite side to peer into the overturned soil. Squirming bodies met her, but she committed their appearance to memory, forcing back the squirm in her stomach as he picked up their wriggling bodies in his mouth.

Then, bait in tow, he entered the river. And they waited. And waited. She did not join him in the water, instead sitting on the bank, watching his concentration never waver. He seemed to have mastered the technique of standing still, and Kaihra found herself mimicking his form from the water's edge. Time dragged on, but the woman found silence come with ease. After all, her parents had settled for nothing less.

Finally, he dove. But the boy did not peel a clean kill from the water as he had done before. Instead he splashed around the stream, and Kaihra flinched as a spray of water splattered against her fur. The drops stung her eyes and she scowled, but by the time she blinked the final residue away, the boy had emerged from the river himself - with fish in tow. The dark woman blinked with a start and took a second take before raising her brows, again impressed. The boy was young, but obviously skilled. If he kept it up, they'd need more than the two of them to carry the kill back up the Plateau's crest.

She considered his offer in silence. In different circumstance, she would have sought a solo spot somewhere further down stream, away from her packmate's watching eyes. But this boy knew much, and what she could glean from him would prove invaluable in further hunts. "I will try." She drew to her paws and moved toward the soil he'd found the grubs in a way that let her see the boy from the corner of her eye. She lowered her head to push at the dirt, drawing back when a tiny white body poked through the particles. Her stomach flipped again but she did not let her face betray her disgust at the thought of its wriggling body pressing against her lips. Turning her head this way and that, she lighted her eyes on Koda again with a questioning look. "So is there a way to grab this thing without it squirming against my mouth?"

Thankies :)

Koda shook his head. "Nah, you just gotta get in there and grab it," he replied. Digging for bait was a dirty job, not for the dainty or the faint of heart. Koda noticed her hesitation, and wondered if Kaihra was starting to feel queasy. He knew most women weren't too fond of either dirt nor bugs.

"Be careful not to smush it. Live bait attracts fish better," he advised. "Plus, you don't wanna get bug guts in your mouth." He chuckled as he added that last bit.

His reply did not satisfy her, but Kaihra refused to let the boy think her too dainty to pick up a couple of squirming bugs. Her mind set, the woman rolled her shoulders and ducked her head until the smell of dirt billowed up her nose. Kaihra furrowed her brows and pushed around until she felt her snout brush against a slimy form. A tremor churned her gut, but she pinched the grub with long teeth and drew back, lips recoiling as the tiny body squirmed at the edge of her mouth.

The thought of bug guts spilling in her mouth did well to stop her from pressing too hard against the grub's fragile body. She took tentative steps past Koda, eyeing him cautiously before drawing into a different stretch of river. As the icy waves splashed the dirt from her paws, she turned to face him with a silent question, raising her brows in readiness for what to do next. She hoped his response was to simply let the bug drop far far away from her lips.

100th post!

Koda watched as Kaihra gingerly nosed the dirt, drawing back with a wriggling grub in her teeth. "Don't worry, they don't bite," he teased. Despite the teasing, he was impressed that the woman wasn't afraid to get a little dirty. His sister would have drowned herself in the river before she'd go near a bug. The females of the plateau pack continued to surprise him.

His eyes met hers as she brushed past him on her way to the water. He had noticed that she always seemed to be keeping an eye on him, as if she didn't trust him enough to let him out of her sight. He wondered why, but he didn't probe. He would just have to prove himself trustworthy.

He followed her to the river's edge, but didn't go in after her, deciding instead to coach from the sidelines. She shot him a questioning glance, as if waiting for further direction. "Now drop him in and wait for something to come along," he instructed. "And make sure to keep quiet and still, or you'll scare everything off."

:D

The way she treated him wasn't abnormal, with cautionary glances and an aversion to letting the boy out of her sight. She'd always erred on the side of caution when it came to strangers, and even though Koda seemed a harmless being, Kaihra did not trust first impressions enough to override her need to step lightly around him now.

His instructions finally pleased the woman and Kaihra wasted no time in throwing the critter into its watery grave. The bug's plump body gave a gentle gurgle and she traced its drifting path to the bottom of the river, where it sunk into the silty floor.

Then came the waiting. She stood still as possible, as Koda had done before, and willed her legs to hold her like a statue, like one of the rocks that broke the river's ebb and flow. At first, she beheld little activity around the grub, but soon puny fish took to swimming back and forth along its fattened body, as if sizing up the grub with their greedy little eyes. She furrowed her brows when it seemed they'd try to take a bite, and silently urged them to go find another wolf's grub to eat.

Her gaze so intense upon the water, she started at the sight of a shimmering motion and jerked back her paw. Realizing her vital flaw, Kaihra flashed forward in a wave of desperation, snapping at the area where the fish should have been. But she knew before her jaws even hit the water that she hadn't a chance.

Useless. Kaihra cursed herself as she drew up from the river, her soggy fur prickling with the burn of having lost the kill so miserably, and in front of her packmate, at that. The fish had been right there, and she'd missed because of her foolish mistake. Lips twitching in frustration, she shot Koda a warning glance before slogging her way back to the river bank, humiliation piercing every step she took toward shore.

sorry about the late and crappy reply

Koda waited at the edge of the river, observing his student. He was impressed by her patience and concentration. It was obvious that the woman had some fishing experience under her belt. Soon enough, a decent target drifted in close and eyed the bait. A successful catch seemed unavoidable. "She's got this," he said to himself.

Something caused the shy girl to twitch, startling the fish. Kaihra went in for the kill, but too late. Koda shook his head, wondering what had happened to break her seemingly unwavering concentration. He wouldn't have missed such a clear shot.

His eyes met hers as she waded back to shore. Koda was an imposing wolf, but he shrank back a little under her laser-like glare. She looked as if she wanted to bite his head off.

"That was really close," he assured the bitter woman. He was being honest, but his uneasy tone probably didn't sound very convincing.

It's all good (:

Kaihra's ears fell sideways when Koda shrank before her. She had feared he would mock her mistake, but the words he had spoken, though ones of feigned confidence, were not hostile in the least. Her gaze faltered and she looked away, lowering her hackles despite the embarrassed frustration that still raged within her.

"Really close feeds no mouths." She said quietly. But Kaihra knew her shame came less from failing to provide for the pack and more from her packmate witnessing her folly. By all means she should have caught that fish, and how she'd managed to let herself get so startled confused even her. Her nerves had never gotten in the way of hunting before, so why now? "At least you've caught a decent amount to bring back." She tried to sound positive, but the dark woman remained unsettled. Still, she felt eager to shift Koda's attention away from her. She'd messed up, and she didn't want his pity.

Wanna wrap this up? Let's have another some time :)

"Yeah, I did pretty good, huh," said Koda, with a grin. He didn't mean to gloat, but he was pretty darn proud of his catch. He couldn't wait to get back and tell everyone about the monster rainbow he'd landed. The man zoned out for a moment as he fantasized about the ladies swooning over his massive fish.

The gray wolf shook out his wet fur. "Welp, I'm gonna call it a day," he said. "See ya back at the plateau." With a nod to Kaihra, he collected his catch and departed for the plateau.

Sorry for how late this is! We should do another soon, though maybe once school is over for the semester xD School definitely kills all aspirations for good activity here xD

She merely nodded at his agreement, though she perceived his mind had since ventured somewhere else. Well enough for her. She wouldn't be lost so easily, but he seemed pleased enough to lose himself in his private fantasy.

A spray of water flew from Koda's fur and Kaihra refrained from flinching when a myriad of droplets soared her way - though she made sure to close her eyes this time. When she blinked them open again, Koda had since moved to pick up his catch. For a heartbeat she considered helping, but thought against it. Without a word she returned his nod, sure the gesture of agreement spoke enough. In truth she did not know how much more she would see of the boy: Kaihra did not make a habit of actively seeking out any of her packmates these days.

The dark woman watched the boy until he disappeared from sight. Then, she turned, sweeping her gaze across the bank of water before splashing through to the copse of trees on the other side.