Frigid Fishing Tales [AW]

He’d headed north on his own, trotting briskly with his gear jostling against his sides over his armor and cloak. In time, he heard the hush of surf over sand ahead, and he rounded the corner to find a beach nestled into a cove. The sand was black, and soft beneath his paws, but his eyes were on the water. He’d brough his usual accoutrements for hunting and fishing with him, but as his eyes trailed the water, he spotted a large shape. Salmon? Sturgeon?

He squinted and padded to the water, gazing out and watching the fish-shape. Definitely a fish. But it was deep out there. Stretching, Ardyn smiled to himself, slipping his armor off and tossing his cloak over it after he pulled a braided leather rope from one of the pouches.

It was thin and flexible, and very long. He didn’t want to be dragged out by the current, so he tied a loop at one end of the rope, looking around until he spotted a palm that was close enough to the water to afford him plenty of range to catch this fish.

He lashed the rope to the tree and tugged several times to be sure it was secure before he rested the coil of the rope on the ground, laid in such a way that it would uncoil smoothly the farther he waded in, then moved a few feet away to give himself enough slack to fashion a harness around his torso. He triple-checked the knots, then squinted out to check the fish was still there.

It was, and so he took a deep breath and stepped into the water, shuddering. Lyr dropped from the sky to circle overhead, keeping watch and helping the Heir track the fish as Ardyn began paddling out, moving strongly to keep his muscles warm as the cold threatened to steal his breath.

Finally, he was in line with the fish, and with a deep breath, Ardyn dove, seriously wishing he’d tried this in summer as the frigid water clawed through his fur to his skin and stung his face. He paddled and kicked, but it was pure luck that had his claws catching the fish. And then the rodeo was on.

The fish was very large, and Ardyn swiftly regretted catching hold of the head and not grabbing the powerful tail. Abruptly, the fish dragged him down, and he fought to remain calm and bared his teeth, feeling the harness tighten around his frame, reassuring him that he wouldn’t be dragged out to sea by a runaway… sturgeon, he thought?

He thrashed, sinking his claws deeper, seeing the fuzzy red drifting from the fish’s wounds. He had to think quickly. Lunging, he wrapped his hind legs around the fish’s body, trying to adjust his front paws to slash under the fish’s gills, or bring it close enough to bite down.

The harness was pulling uncomfortably tight around his body as the fish strained to free itself from the yearling, but he clung doggedly, watching a few bubbles of air escape his teeth and surge to the surface. Which, he thought, sounded like a great place to be right about now.

He wasn’t going to give up until he absolutely had to, though, and he made an effort, slashing through the water with parted jaws. Thankfully, his sabers found the fish’s spine, and he felt the flesh give way, many ribs grating against his teeth. His hands were freed, and he put them to use, jamming numb toes into the creature’s gills and squeezing. The fish stopped thrashing, and gratefully, Ardyn began kicking toward the surface with his back feet.

It felt like it took ages, and he was pretty sure he had overestimated his ability to hold his breath under water, but finally, his nose crested, and then his face and he gagged, releasing the fish long enough to gulp a fresh breath of icy winter air.

Lyr croaked and dropped to circle above the Detsiny’s head, glowing feathers dropping to the water as he stressed about the shivering yearling.

”G-get the fire k-kit out Lyr. I’m c-coming.”

It took effort to spit out the words, but he was glad to see the raven winging shoreward, which give him a direction to follow. The fish was struggling slightly, and now that he’d gotten a breath of air back, he wrestled the fish to the surface and jammed her sabers into it’s skull. It kept twitching, but he knew that was just the death throes. He could safely hold the fish in his jaws now and use his frozen digits to pull himself along the rope to the shore.

Ardyn staggered onto the sand, shivering so violently he was glad for the large fish dragging between his legs as he stumbled to the small fire the raven had managed to kindle. He wasn’t sure how, but he was grateful for the bird’s help. He supposed if birds were able to build intricate nests with just their beaks, maybe Lyr was able to start a small fire, especi¬¬ally when the coal horn had a live coal. He was too cold and tired to think about it.

He dropped the fish on the sand, digging a small hole and rolling it into the hole, patting sand over it enough to keep the twitching it was still doing from rolling it back to the water. Ardyn had gotten enough of water for today, and huddled closer to the fire feeding it the pieces of driftwood Lyr was swooping in with until they had a much larger, hotter blaze.

He, regretfully, had to leave it behind to drag his armor close enough to the fire that he could reach the pouches without leaving it again, and pulled his cloak over his back, letting the fabric stand open to capture the heat and pull it close to his still-shaking frame.

After several minutes, though, he finally felt the cold starting to seep away, gradually replaced by the heat from the fire, especially as he put his front paws out to flex and stretch the long digits over the fire, thawing them out slowly as his frozen brain finally began to fire again and he side eyes the fish, considering the ways of drying it for travel. Later, though. For now, he wanted to soak up the heat, and the vitality of having made it out of this alive. And… did he still have the rope on?

Fumbling, he untied the rope and let it drop, making a note to untie it from the tree and re coil it. Then he stared into the fire and sighed.

Word Count: 1112/800

Walk ---- "Speak" ---- "Labhair an Sean-Teanga." ---- "Hear" ---- Think