Easy does it, little one

Walk | Talk | Think

She got enough fish in her system to satiate her hunger, but because she enjoyed it she would have happily continued eating if only her father let her. Rather she was allowed to sample it and get a taste for it before she was nudged away, and as she licked at her lips her attention shifted upward toward Glacier's face to understand why he was stopping her from eating more. Was she not supposed to eat so much of it? There's still some left, she thought, perplexed, as the fish was nudged aside and she was gestured to sit close beside her father again. Maybe there was more she needed to learn or see? Still licking the last taste of her small meal from her muzzle, she did as she was instructed and sat beside her mountain of a dad.

His tail curled around her, and as it did she looked up at him to smile back toothily, happy to have this time with him alone. It was so often her and Seraphiel that she had a hard time remembering when she had done anything with either parent that excluded her more rambunctious sibling. A bit of her attention wondered what it was that her sister and mother were up to, what she was missing out on by not being there, but as Glacier gestured for her to watch the water she soon forgot and became wholly wrapped up in her fishing lesson.

It took some time - and effort on Rory's part not to become disinterested and distracted - but eventually the fish began returning. It took her father to point it out to her, but remembering how easily he had managed to catch the first fish she could not help thinking that it could be just as easy for him to repeat the process again. She stared excitedly between her father and the shadows of the fish that she could see moving, and became expectantly still as they swam closer to where she and Glacier sat. She looked at him again as he nudged her side gently with his, saw the way he mimed the motion he had made when catching his fish, and at first she did not understand. Isn't he going to catch another? Puzzled, she looked from the fish to her father and back again, and at last it clicked. It's my turn.

A quick breath was inhaled and released airily from her lungs as she got to her feet and shifted her weight between her four white-toed paws. Like Daddy did, she told herself, though even with his repeated demonstrations she felt unskilled. Her little brow pinched in concentration as she waited for one of the underwater creatures to come in closer, already lifting her paw and waiting with it poised to drop and pick up a squirming fish. She was nervous, unsure whether she wanted to touch the scaly beings either in the water or out, but Daddy was watching and she did want to make him proud.

Drawing in a breath and holding it, Rory shot a tiny blue leg into the water and pulled it back with a great splash. More concerned with touching the fish, however, she missed the essential step of grabbing one with her paw and all she managed to bring up was water. Realizing her failure after a quick glance around her, Aurora frowned and stared upward into her father's face with open confusion. Why had it not worked?