fish!
aw welcome, dont feel the need to post mirror but i'd enjoy more then one paragraph
The way his stomach is caught in a fuel of desperation, for the food that he can smell in its moments. (The elk, the hog, the very berry bushes that have once held food upon the summer months.) It’s an honest thing, how the transparent touch of the spring and summer. The warmth that crosses into the wet soil and springs growth, that same warmth that promotes growth to the lands. The trees that will bloom with buds, the flowers that are suddenly bright and ever-lasting in a meadow of the heavens. (He is sure to find one here, just as there was a garden of Gaia herself at his home.) He thinks of it now, how that garden was loose in its frenzy. How healers, how Miya had come from great lands to spot an eye on a bloom that he prays would help her mother. He had always spoke to her in her simple pickings, for her cleansing of weeds in the rows of gardens for her payment of taking such a white bloom. In her time there he had learned various things, of the herbs that were placed within soil and mastered for their growth. The various collections he had grown to enjoy, to learn, to record and keep a collection within his own fair sat den. The idea was of a duel to his father, when he had rather pick flowers then spar with the fellow neighbor boys and feel his skin tear under their touch.
A deep moment, his eyes that suddenly trace the distance shore and for a hushed moment he is found with that depth in his stomach once more. The growling, the pit of it all that is demanding to bed fed as if a child was screaming for a touch of food. To be nurse and cradled and for a moment as his eyes trace, his body is struck with movement and the cold salt that is whipped into his fibers as if he is simply to roll in it. How it is, without doubt an unreasonable thing. For how he missed to be burnt under the summer sun and feel how the water is not freezing but of relief, as the cold would work his burnt skin as if an Aloe Vera. The small things, perhaps, that the ginger boy missed. (The sun wasn’t all that small, in the long scheme of things)
His toes are a work of squishing the sand within them, how the cold water is suddenly burning his legs just as the sun may do but oh this is far worse. The way his awaited eyes are a match for the sea , for the fish that hover in gentle pools that are dug and played by the demanding prayer of high tide and for them, he is after. For them, the pieties cutlery of aquatic divinity. Sea food he had not had since but a child, (and oh had he hated it then, how a child refuses broccoli but he is that of the creatures of the sea) It is now then, how his jaws are suddenly encased into the water. His paws that are laced in his pounce. The splashing of water and the sudden jerking of his head that is fought with that six inch fish that hung between his jaws as a prize as his teeth cradle the scales in a movement. How his tongue glides over the scales, how natures seasoning is slid over it like a prime touch of a chest and it is that in the moment does he take it from the water and settle among the sandy beach for a feast.
Scraps fed survivors and Brandr was grateful for every mouthful he could scavenge from the kills of others but he longed for the taste of fresh meat. He thirsted for something warm and moist not the half frozen remnants of other mighty hunters that had more to their name than the pelts on their backs. He was getting better though. With each failed hunt he was learning. Sooner or later he was going to sink his fangs into some hapless, wriggling creature and as he gazed about the delta, maneuvering from miniature isle to miniature isle he wondered how hard it was to fish. Truth be told he'd never tried. Well… not really. Splashing about like a spastic with his siblings certainly didn't count as any form of effective fishing unless the flailing limbs accidentally stunning the scaly creatures was the secret of fishing.
Brandr sighed as he stared at the rippling mosiac reflection of himself in the water. It looked like memory. Fractured, just like his. Had he ever really been a pup that played with siblings or was he simply courting ghosts in his day dreams of what life should have been like before the plague?
Skimming around the delta, he ducked down in the swaying grass. Splashing? Someone else was here! Golden eyes narrowed as he slunk through the grass to watch an older man in the water. Was he fishing? Brandr watched the other man, taking in his lithe movements, the way his body shifted in the water and his fangs sunk into his prey. Brandr stuck his head up above the grass but was too wary to approach the stranger. "Um… hey! Hey, excuse me! How'd you do that! Catch that fish I mean. Is it uh… hard to do?"
thank you for threading with me <3
and for a moment he settles, how his tongue is caught in the scales of the creature that now hangs lifeless in his jaws. for how he can feel the water shifting down his chin and neck, matting down the dark russet colors and slowly trailing down his legs to where his joints merge with a water and freeze to the ice cold spring stream. the winter shedding man found himself slowly wading out of the water, his toes but a numb sensation now as he slid through the gravel mix. sand and stones that lined the shore and where the waters gently lapped at the sides with the sprouting of tall grass blades in the mark of spring.
um... hey!
and for one to say he didn't jump would be a lying fool, how his body tensed up at the sudden sharp tones of a child and his ears that tugged to the curve of his head. wide eyes searching, scanning, left and right for an face, eyes perhaps as he let the fish settle to his feet. perhaps later then expected, a smile is suddenly upon his cream lips as he sees nothing but the broad ears if a young boy inquiring about his fishing skills;which in frank the nimble boy knew nothing truly about. "You have to be fast, and quiet." He ponders on his words for a moment, his head nodding slightly before becoming stuck on a spiceland looking around as if to expect to see the childs den-mother come surging through the wet grass for him. (The water was never a safe place to be at such a young age.) "Happen to be hungry?" Its a question that swerves his eyes back to the boy, and then the fish that lay at his toes with a soft touch of those burrowed brows. (How they are thick yet groomed, beyond a different of the wet curls that are unkempt and untamed upon his head)
Madness, what the hell was he doing? Sparks of adrenaline shivered down his limbs. Brandr knew the dangers of speaking to strangers but he no longer had his family, it wasn't like he could go through life never speaking to anyone. Everyone started out a stranger. However, he had to be ready to bolt should the other man turn out to be aggressive or touchy about his food. Brandr took steady breaths, slow and calculated as the stranger turned to him with a kind and welcoming look. Brandr started to breathe easier. The stranger certainly seemed nice! He took a few cautious and careful steps forward as the man as the other told him that he needed to be fast and quiet. Brandr nodded eagerly, his head bobbing up and down like an excited songbird. "Oh, oh I can be quiet! I can do that. I'm not sure I'm that fast though…" He had to be quiet when the raids occurred and he'd managed to hide from a bear earlier that spring but he wasn't sure if he was all that fast. He'd never really had anyone else to compare himself to.
"Happen to be hungry?"
Brandr bit his lower lip and looked away, ashamed to admit the gnawing rumbles that were clawing at his stomach. He willed them to be still. He was strong and he could take care of himself… but he also didn't want to lie. With a sigh his amber gaze turned up to the man. "Yea… but if you show me how you caught that then I won't be hungry any more right? I'll give you some of my catch for the lessons uhh…. is half ok?" He was sure he could get this fishing thing down.
there was a sharp exhale that left the cut of his lip, how it sagged his shoulders for a moment as he felt his stomach tie in a knot of fueled hunger. (How his tongue drug across his lips as if that would satisfy the moment of scavenging he had hoped to do to the creature between his toes) though, even in this it is eyes that consume the small boy in a welcoming fixation. to allow him his full attention, or so it would seem in that time of youth. only fools kept their eyes on one thing at a time, and those were the fools that got sieged. "With those legs? I'm sure you are a pretty fast lad." Zacharia raises his brow, his head dipping as if he was developing the motion of observing the kid for an placed emphasis. Though the ginger man couldn't entirely relate, granted as a child he was gifted with a speed that he was often scolded for. No running, and no stealing. (Cookies, beverages)
Zacharia watched the boy, how he seemed to be caught in a mild fix of a mood. How his eyes wandered off in a direction and there was an hint of a bit lip to the child's pearl tooth peeking from the fold of his gum. and with his words that followed, a smile was caught again and the ginger boy moved to greet the boy. (Kneeling down, his long, wiry fingers brushing through the child's hair as he spoke) "Let's have you eat what I just caught, and then after I can catch another for myself, Deal?" It's a compromise perhaps, as the young man had no intentions of taking the young boys food and he wasn't entirely fond of the idea of letting the kid into the cold river water.
Golden ears flicked forward at the man's exhale. Brandr's head would tilt to the side curiously as he gazed up at the stranger. He could feel the man looking him over as if trying to decide what to do with the younger wolf but Brandr would remain silent and hopeful. His mother would have a fit if she'd seen him talking so easily with a stranger but then… well she'd gone and left him so she didn't really get to boss him around any more.
"With those legs? I'm sure you are a pretty fast lad."
A soft smile cracked Brandr's attempt at being impassive. Really? The man thought he was fast! He could feel a warmth stirring in his gut at the compliment and felt a sudden desire to prove the man right, to show him that he could be fast! Brandr tensed sub-consciously as the man started to move but when he shifted to Brandr's level the boy felt more at ease.
"Let's have you eat what I just caught, and then after I can catch another for myself, Deal?"
Shock blossomed across his face. The man was… giving him the fish? Just… giving it away? He blinked stupidly for a moment before golden eyes narrowed. Was there some sort of catch? He'd never met a wolf that would give anything away for free except his parents. "Really? You mean it?" He continued to gaze at the man and then looked away shyly, embarrassed by the generous offer. "I… thank you. My name is Brandr Scylding, by the way." His gaze shifted from the fish and back to the man as if he still couldn't quite comprehend what was happening. "When you fish, can I watch you?" Maybe he could pick up some tips so he could fish on his own without having to bother anyone.