He immediately felt guilty when she returned his raised hackles, but wasn't it normal to react in kind? Katsu theorized his startle reflex could be mistaken for aggression, but he also knew it would be foolish to say: hey! I'm not going to hurt you! That's exactly what someone who was planning on hurting her would say, probably. Even though she seemed amused at his poor attempt at fishing, it helped him feel slightly more relaxed. If she was already unimpressed by him, how much further could he really embarrass himself?
"Trying to fish," he amended, relieved by her amusement. It diffused the tension between them at least. When she spoke of the north and the waters here, he visibly relaxed and nodded along patiently. He was an excellent student, if nothing else. The water had been bracingly cold, he couldn't deny that at all. He should take it from the local expert here how to proceed. "I suppose I haven't fished as much as anything else," he admitted, watching her face closely for any further hint of judgment. "Really, I'm more used to the twitch reflexes of larger game, but I can see how that would be a major hindrance for this sort of prey." Katsu adjusted where he stood as Tethys came closer, orbiting around her at what he hoped she thought was a safe distance. He followed her gaze into the depths of the water below, tracking the fish she'd identified clearly. It was a monster of a fish, bigger than plenty he'd seen in Auster. Likely they had few predators in these cold waters.
He bided his time, waiting until the fish came closer and closer to the surface. There was a piece of vegetation floating along the top of the water, some lichen or moss that had dislodged from a rock below. When the fish's wide mouth came into view to suck it in, he dove in and snapped his jaws tight around its head. The thing was much stronger than he anticipated, and it took bracing himself on the slippery rocks below and whipping his head back as hard as he could to throw the fish on to the marble shore behind him. Water flew up in a sparkling arc, the splash back covering them both. The fish hit the ground with a thunk and he turned to Tethys with a wide grin, soaked from his head to his middle. The smile fell off his face when he saw that she was soaked, too. "Oh! Oh, my deepest apologies," he stammered, then gestured to the fish he'd landed with her help. "Please, enjoy. It's too much for just me." Which was a patent lie, as the boy was huge and could wolf down three of those fish in as much time it took him to catch them. Luckily, his stomach stayed quiet and bolstered his lie.
"speech"
