Things in the pack were slowly getting back to normal, settling back to how they used to be. Of course, it wouldn't be one hundred percent back as before, but good enough for the negativeness in her heart to start to fade. She wanted to be the pillar where her family could lay on, the emotional strength they needed. And for that she used her enthusiastic nature, smiling and showing a happy face to help with any poisonous emotion around the air. And today, she felt less down as when she spoke to her father, feeling a bit more like herself. She had to smile, to be alright for her family's sake. As the morning started, she got ready to make an small trip. A trip to perhaps catch some fish, she guessed it could be cool to add fish to the pack's stores. The more variety, the better! Smiling brightly, she set her destination to the Aspen Dam, a good place for fishing or that was what she thought being this her first visit to it. Well, it was time to do her best! Noticing the water source she approached with determination in her eyes. Reaching the border, she tried to find any fish. Narrowing her pale blue eyes, she saw a group of catfish near the surface, and now the main question was. How on earth she would catch them? WC-232 "Talk"

Eska had come to the dam to hunt beavers. The fat in their tails could be used for various things. Their pelts repelled water and were quite useful. Plus they didn't taste all that bad. A little muddy tasting, but anything could taste good with the proper seasoning, right? Eska already had a pile of the big rodents amassed. Had she murdered an entire dam of them? Who really cared. Beavers thrived here. A little too much, if you asked the silver streaked fae.

As she was adding another beaver to the pile, Eska spied the approaching form of Jane. The grey girl seemed to have some task in mind and since Eska had sufficiently finished her own, she decided to see what the girl was after and possibly offer her help. It would be nice to spend some time with the child of her lover. Eska wanted to prove to Ulric's family that she was reliable. That she was here to stay. Lillith had been worried that Eska would leave and she'd made a promise to always be here. Not just for Lillith, but for all of them. This would be her first step to showing Jane that she didn't only love her father, but was willing to love them as well.

Silver paws brought the brindle woman near to the girl and Eska offered a nod. "Jane,"  she greeted. Eska then followed the girls gaze to the fat catfish that lazily floated below the surface of the flowing water. "You want to catch some fish?"  Eska began to consider various game plans, but decided to see if the young lady had anything in mind before she jumped in and took the reins.

Words
"Eska"

WC- 284
Total- 516/1500

The young huntress had her eyes and mind into the task she was about to perform. She really wanted to bring back this as she wanted to help the pack as much as she could, she couldn't even think about sitting around and see them work hard. She wanted to work hard too, to give her father help, to use her bad but existing skills to help. But there as she watched the fish swim through the pond, her mind worked to bring out a plan to catch one if not more of the Catfish. They seemed fat and big, which she felt good enough to go for, they wanted to deliver good quality food for her packmates, she didn't know if this would be enough but for now, it was all she could do. But as minutes and almost an hour passed, she still couldn't think of anything away. She wasn't an experienced fisher, and she had a lot to learn still. She closed her eyes, thinking about anything. But then a familiar voice brought her back to reality, it was Eska. "Eska!" She said happily as her tail started to wag euphorically. She really liked Eska, mostly because she was bringing back happiness to her father. "I do! I am hoping to bring some fish to the pack. I want to help contribute, and this is the only thing I could think of. Do you know how to catch them?" She would enjoy some lessons from someone who seemed way more experienced with hunting. Well, she guessed all adults were. WC- 262+516=778/1500 "Talk"

The girl reacted with excitement as she saw Eska approach, calling out her name with her tail wagging frantically. Eska's faint smile lifted the corners of her maw as Jane explained what she was doing. It seemed that the girl was after fish to take back to the pack. It was a different sort of meal than the wolves of The Hallows were accustomed to and she believed that it would be a nice change in the food stores.

Jane had missed the meeting that her father had called previously, so the brindled woman didn't know if the spotted girl knew about the relationship that she and Ulric had forged. Jane could have met with him in the interim, so she decided to find out as they were working to catch the fat catfish that rested under the water.  "Have you spoken to your father lately? He called a meeting for you and your siblings. Everyone came except you and Emile."  Eska broached the topic as she moved towards the edge of the water. Ulric wasn't only their father. He was the alpha. If wolves didn't answer his summons, he was well within his rights to remove them from the pack, family or not. Bright, sulfur eyes scanned the area, putting together a plan.

They could use the beaver dam to wall off the area, making the fish's home smaller and corralling them in. What could they use to walk the fish towards the bank... Eska again looked about, They needed something long and flat that didn't have gaps. Aha! The thick, oiled fur that she was using to stack the beaver carcasses upon would do just fine. "So here's the plan,"  the woman started laying it out for the girl. Essentially, they would collapse the beaver dam to the left which would bring the chopped wooden poles sliding in close to the stony wall of the river. Then, Eska would use the oiled skin by holding it between her teeth  and holding it with her paws under water. Then she would walk forward down the little corridor, herding the catfish forward. Jane would be on the other side to pull them out and throw them into the grass behind her. "Do you understand?"

Eska first climbed on top of the beaver damn. She inspected it and located the chopped trees that were holding the pile in place. These had been some big trees. It was amazing how powerful little beavers were. The silvered fae plucked one pole from the water and the dam collapsed so easily. Too easily. Suddenly Eska's footing was gone and she was plummeted underwater. The trees of the dam closed over top of her and she was forced to swim out the other side and onto the bank, gasping for air as she surfaced. It hadn't been that  close of a call, but being trapped underwater unexpectedly was never a nice feeling.

Shaking the excess water from her coat, Eska moved towards her pile of beavers and pulled the oiled skin out from under them. Looping the harness about her neck, she moved back towards the water. "Ready?"  She asked Jane who should have been waiting on the other side of the bank. With the skin stretching from the top of the water to the bottom, Eska began moving forward. She had to push logs out of the way with her shoulder to make the space wide enough to walk through, but she thought it would work. As she moved, she could see the water begin to get darker and soon panicking, rolling bodies of fish could be seen on the surface. They slammed into the skin and her chest behind it, but the woman kept going. She only hoped that Jane would be able to grab the fish between her teeth and throw them into the bank.

"Eska"

WC- 643
Total- 1421/1500

"Have you spoken to your father lately? He called a meeting for you and your siblings. Everyone came except you and Emile." The question came down to her like a bucket of ice-cold water, she knew that. She was aware of the mistake she had done out lately, but she didn't want to worry her family more, she hasn't been on her normal self, and she from the last time how it could affect his father especially. Her ears pinned as an expression of sorrow formed into her grey features. "I know, I am sorry about what I did. I just didn't want to worry my family again...since my mother left us I had done my best to stay positive, well for my siblings and father's sake...but some weeks ago my father found me in a bad stage and seeing how much that worried him I just couldn't let him see me like that again...he has been happy out lately and the last thing I wanted was to mess with that again. I wanted to collect myself back together to avoid that...I know what I did was wrong, and Ill accept any consequences I deserve from that.." She couldn't look at Eska anymore, not with the shame that now rested in her heart. But having a task between her paws, she had to focus on it. And like that, Eska explained the plan they were going to use in order to bring those fish into their jaws. And after all, was said, Jane nodded. "I do." And like that, she moved to the place previously given to her, and from there she waited patiently. There was a moment when she almost threw herself to help Eska but soon enough the older wolf came out just fine, and with that relief, Jane was back into focus. And when all the operation was done, when the fish now found themselves collected by the shore, she managed to catch one first, throwing it into the shore. More and more fell prey to her fangs, and after a while, two full mouths of them rested into the grass. "Yay, we did it!" "Talk"

Eska noted the way that the bubbly girl cringed when she brought up the summons that had been missed. Jane explained and Eska nodded in acceptance. "I understand," she spoke as she stepped into the water. "Just learn from it. I don't want you to get in trouble over missing a silly meeting. I'll have the same talk with your brother when I see him." They had missed the summons, but they both needed to know that it wasn't the end of the world. If they accepted their mistake and did better next time, then there would be no harm done.

Once Jane began pulling fish out of the water, her spirits seemed to lift. Eska pushed forward with the skin. Some of the fish escaped, but they ended up with a nice haul by the time she was on the opposite bank with the spotted girl. Dropping the skin, the soaked woman shook out her coat, the silver and grey fur sticking out in damp spikes. The girl's enthusiasm made Eska grin and she lightly nosed the top of Jane's head affectionately. "Now we just have to drag everything back home." Spreading out the skin, Eska began placing the fish upon it. With the strap around her neck and across her chest, she pulled it around to the pile of dead beavers and loaded those up as well. With the haul tied up and secure, she motioned with a pull of her head for Jane to walk beside her as they made their way back to The Hallows.

"Eska"

The pleasing sensation of the accomplishment took over her chest and mind, feeling happy to had done it, even if compared to Eska she just watched until the end. She was admiring the blind wolf quite a lot, she since the first day they talked had given her a sense of trust, of being strong. She wished she was like that, to be the pillar for her family, for those in need of a strong shoulder lie on when times weren't easy to them, and now that Eska mentioned Emile, she was worried. She hasn't seen a lot of activity from him, and she wondered if he had been more affected than anyone else from their litter. She let a loud sigh escape her mouth. "Ill like to learn from you, I don't want to make the same mistake,I don't wanna disappoint my father nor you. I don't wanna be a stone in the pack's way." She wanted to be useful and amend her mistake by working hard like she has been doing these days now. "I am worried about Emile, he hasn't been around too much, I hope he is alright.." And she thought on perhaps reaching him and try helping him. After that, she agreed to help bring the fish back to the pack. The amount made it a bit hard, but nothing they couldn't resolve together. And like that she walked by her mother, well she was the closest figure to a mother she ever had. And feeling a bit less bad about things in general she padded with more enthusiasm. "I wanna become a hunter, I want to keep my pack fed. You are very skilled on it!" She complimented again being as honest as always. "Talk"

As they walked, Jane spoke. The girl really seemed to be taking Eska's words to heart and, while she had wanted to stress the severity of the issue, she hadn't wanted to bring down Jane's spirits. "Everyone makes mistakes," she spoke in her firm, but smooth tones. "It's what you do after those mistakes that matters. If you learn from them, then it wasn't all bad." If Jane made a point to come to the alpha's call, to take her place in the pack, then her little mistake would have just been a lesson.

Jane expressed her concern for her brother, Emile. The brindle coated fae nodded. Ulric was worried for the boy as well. He'd distanced himself from the pack and it needed to be addressed. Eska understood that they had lost a mother and a sister, but time moved on. The dead were in the past and the living had to press on into the future. "I'll speak with him if I'm able." She would have to find the boy first. He was making himself scarce.

In time, Jane complimented Eska's hunting prowess and the glittering fae chuckled. "I'd be glad to take you hunting whenever you'd like. It makes me happy to contribute and keep our family fed." Our family. And it was. Eska wanted nothing but the best for all of Ulric's children, Ulric himself, and the entire pack.

"Eska"