Only Dead Fish Swim With The Stream

Arcturus pulled the net back onto the shore with his mother, revealing their catch as they opened up the net on the grass away from the water. He examined the fish they caught, some larger than others, along with one rouge turtle that got swept up with its water dwelling brethren. He looked down to Asla as she nudged his shoulder and seeing her grin made one of his own pull at his lips. "Yeah, we did," he agreed with a nod as he looked back to the fish that remained in the net. She started throwing back some of the smaller ones that wouldn't be as good to eat and still had some growing to do, just leaving the larger ones that would make for a good meal for their group. A weird thought crossed his mind of how nice it must be to just get tossed back into the water, left alone to grow at their own pace until they were actually ready for their intended purpose. Fish didn't have any expectations or pressures to do anything but survive and he wondered what that kind of existence was like.

His mother asked him if he wanted something and he blinked, bringing his gaze back to her as he realized how his thoughts had drifted off. He looked down at the turtle at her paws and figured out what she was asking after a moment. "Oh, no, it can go back," he told her with a little shake of his head. He carefully scooped up the turtle with one paw, reaching over to place it at the edge of the water. It quickly shimmied into the water and then disappeared with fast paddles of its feet. Arc watched it go for a moment before he looked back to his mom, feeling like he should say something or ask something, but also not really knowing what to say. "I... Um..." he started to say before quickly abandoning whatever words hung on his lips and looking down at the fish in front of them. "I guess we should get these back to the others, huh? Fish is always better when its fresh I think." He was supposed to protect his mom and his sister—not burden them more. It seemed like that's all he was really able to do these days though and he hated it.

"Arcturus Indarra"