On his way to investigate the happenings in the north, Katsu stopped for a moment to catch and eat some food. All of this travelling - much more than he had ever done in his short life - had carved out new, strong planes of muscle across his body. That muscle, he was finding, needed a lot of fuel. With a rumbling stomach, the red-maned wolf picked his way through the dried riverbed and on towards where the once-flowing water had poured into the ocean. There were a few sturdy slabs of ice that extended out into the sea which would make serviceable platform to fish off of.

Kat picked a perch and watched the dark, deep waters carefully for movement. A few flashes caught his eye, but they were far deeper than he could reach and he had no intention of submerging himself. That could only go distrastrously wrong. The boy mulled over his options, inspecting the rocky riverbed for any other signs of life. Smaller tide pools were scattered about, remnants of its once powerful current. Crustaceans skittered carefully between them, and if he looked closely, there were a few small fish as well. I can work with this, he thought, turning his attention towards some of the crabs. A little bit of bait might go far in bringing those fish to the surface.

"speech"

coded by NachoMumma

Cold, cold, cold. The northern world was cold in comparison to the desert plains of his home, but Battery was hardly bothered. Sure, he didn't quite have the coat for it, but Insomnia was often cold at night even in the depths of summer. It was just strange for it to be so cold during the day to the young Mortem. Not that he was really focused on it, however, as the smaller man had never been this far north before. His eyes were all over the place, flicking between the snow and the stones and the waters faster than a hummingbirds wings.

Then he saw someone- white with a fiery mane, peering at the skittering crustaceans. Wasting no time in approaching, he kept his distance as he perched onto a mound of slick stones and smiled a toothy grin at the stranger. A crab skittered by his paws and he caught it swiftly, a paw placed upon its hard shell and he pressed it into the stone quickly. The grab snapped and attempted to grab at him, but with a heavier paw, the shell cracked and the struggle soon ended.

"Stranger hungry? Battery share snack!" he said with a wag of his tail before swiping the crushed crab over to them as if it were a hockey puck.

i am the psycho, the sinner
i am what you can't escape
i am the splinter underneath your skin

ǐ̵̙͎̗̻̳̆̕͝ ̸̨̻͚͙̥̱̍̎̀̓ä̷̫̥́͗͒̄͠ͅm̶̡͒͒̚ ̸̼͖̙̯͔̞͂a̷̱̳̲͇̕ ̶̢͓͍̾̈́͘ṁ̴̨̥̲̦͚͂͋̒̂̐ơ̷͇̤̘̣̜͊̈́̽n̵̢̫̫͕̄s̵̱̥̊͘ͅt̵͖̩͈͍͈̬͗e̷͎͊ṟ̴͘͜
Speech ─ Think

─ by Skelle !

Just when he was about to pounce on one, another yearling bounded up and smashed one to bits before sliding it his way. Katsu started at first, then began to chuckle - the stranger was disarmingly charming, and seemed eager to help. "I'm hungry, but not quite for this... I think if we use the crabs, we can get some quite big fish coming up to the surface," He said eagerly. Katsu dipped his head in gracious thanks for the crab, then he batted the crab back and forth for a moment. It was a bit childish, but he enjoyed watching it skitter back and forth between his paws. It felt nice to play off of the stranger's carefree energy.

"I want to try, anyway," he said more definitively, plucking the dead crab up and giving it a little toss into the water. Katsu crept closer and waited patiently until he saw a bright, big, big flash of scales eclipse the surface. The fish had a pointed face and looked wicked beneath the water. "Aha!" he exclaimed, "Help?!" He hadn't expected anything quite this big, but he stifled his surprise and acted quickly, slamming his head beneath the water to snatch at the fishes spine. His face hitting the water felt like slamming into a mountain face, the water was so jarringly cold. He struggled with the heft of the fish, trying to reel in back on to the shore by himself. Maybe that odd, cheery fellow would lend a helping paw.

"speech"

coded by NachoMumma

the city looks so pretty
do you want to burn it with me?

The stranger caught his smashed crab offering and batted it around a bit, but seemed hungrier for a bigger snack... something beneath the waters surface. Battery glanced over at the frigid water. What would cold fish taste like? He couldn't remember eating such a thing since coming from the cavern, but Insomnia was much too far from the cold waters to enjoy it he imagined. Maybe he could bring some back? If this man would share or they caught more than he could eat, perhaps Medusa would like a treat!

"Battery help catch big fish, yes. Is big fish good?" he asked with a curious tone and a tilt to his head before jumping down from the rock. Just in time to see the fish flash beneath the surface and to watch the larger male throw his head underneath in an attempt to catch it. Shocked for a moment with raised brows, Battery hesitated briefly but quickly did the same.

The water was absolutely freezing, but there was no stopping now. Teeth snapped and reached for the fish and he grazed it's lower spine near the tail before feeling it slip out of his grasp as he thrashed in the others grip. A second snap and he latched onto it, and although he could feel the sheer strength of the fish trying to fight against them, it was little use now. Gripping his toes into the slick rock, he started to heave it up and backwards, helping the other man drag it onto shore.

Speech ─ Think

─ by Skelle !

Luckily, the strange fellow swooped in to help him drag it shore. Katsu's nails had begun to skitter and slip on the wet rock and he was dangerously close to skittering face first into the frigid waters. With Battery's additional leverage, they managed to wrench the huge fish backwards up on to the shore. It flopped with surprising strength, the scales grating against his lips as he tried to tighten his grip. They were sharp, abrading the tender tissue there until he tasted just the barest bit of blood. Finally the fish was fully land locked and Katsu pressed all of his considerable weight on to its tail to hold the thrashing sturgeon still. When he had the fish pinned, he nodded to Battery: "End it. We can split it?" The thing was huge, no way he could eat it all himself. Beneath his dire paws the sturgeon still writhed in anger, gills flaring wide.

"speech"

coded by NachoMumma