Fishing for lunch

Astraios was still trying to work on his hunting skills. Feeding himself was a skill too vital to ignore. He had known too many hungry nights as a pup to ever dismiss the necessity of hunting. He was much better fed these days, pack life had somehow turned out almost agreeable to him. He shared a den with Delphi in the shrine, had regular meals and had a territory where he was relatively safe in. if only he could have his dagger back…

It was late morning by the time he made his way down towards the stream at the edgy of the stone steppe territory. It wasn’t far from where they denned, and it wasn't long before he reached the cool waters edge. He looked down into the water and wrinkled his nose at the fish. At least he could see that they did indeed exist inside its depths. Capturing them was no doubt going to be another matter entirely.

Placing himself so that his shadow from the midday sun did not reflect down upon the water, he seated himself quietly, and watched and waited. He could be a patient hunter when it came down to it. He took his time watching the way they swam, the areas they slipped over the most. What caught their attention. They shied easily away from shadows, and he knew the moment his paw reached over he would have to be fast.

He waited until a moment presented itself, and then slapped at the water as hard as he could. The flat paw struck the tension of the surface and created a large splash which slowed him down as his paw reached into the water. The fish of course was long gone before his paw could arrive where it had been.

Scowling at the water, he settled himself down to wait again. Waiting longer this time for the fish to once again be brave enough to come near his edge. Once they had done so, his eyes lit upon a particularly large fish. He could almost taste its salty flesh. He tensed his body, coiling it as he waited for it to brush across his chosen spot. The moment it did so, his paw swiped into the water. Cutting into it this time with the full swiftness of the strike. His paw battered against the fish. As it was, if it wasn’t for his retractable claws he still would have failed. But they dug in, and he was able to yank the fish out of the water, tossing it onto the dry land beside him.


"Speech"