Cheer Up

Walk | Talk | Think

She should have been paying attention to what she was trying to do. She was never going to catch a fish if she kept talking like she was, but Lior was not yet old enough to carry on conversations the same way Anais could with her brothers, and honestly she could not say everything that she had on her mind to them. She needed others her age, friends that she could confide in and hang around with and learn from. Here with Jian, almost without realizing, she had gained that, and it was as if all that time she had stayed silent was coming out of her all at once, making it near impossible for her to be still or quiet enough to complete the task she had assigned herself. She just hoped the creepy crawlers of the lake would stay away long enough for them to keep talking and for her to catch the fish she was after.

The black and white girl posed a new question from the shoreline, and though she was already able to spy the shiny reflection of fish scales well out of reach Anais responded, "Well now I have four. It was just Nako and Jakart for a while. My brothers," she hastily added for clarification, "but Mom's had two more, so I'm officially a big sister now." There was no hiding the smile that stretched across her muzzle in the telling. She was very much proud of this fact and was constantly at her mother's side pestering her about how big the younger pups were getting and wondering aloud when they would be big enough to go off exploring with her. And hopefully they would want to; Anais was far too excited about it to settle for them saying no.

But had her mother tried teaching her brothers too? She supposed she had, though her own training sessions had been with them absent. It was probably her mother's way of trying to optimize her ability to concentrate and actually learn something from what she was trying to teach her, knowing how energetic and excitable Anais could be at times. "I dunno. She's only tried teaching me alone." Her ears perked as another fish drifted closer, more daring than the others that she had spied from afar. If it would only get a little closer...