Kestrel
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Icon by @ArtByRue on Twitter!
Posts: 319
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Post by Kestrel on Mar 22, 2019 5:58:38 GMT
Fishing was hard! Fishing was really frickin hard!
Echo panted as she sat and watched the line bob in front of her. She was hot, she was tired, and she was covered in enough scales and slime that she could probably pass off as some weird, short sahuagin. She had been at it for hours. Maybe days! Maybe weeks. By now the sun had begun to dip beneath the blue horizon, its rays causing the sheet of dark ice around the boat to glitter with shadows of red, purple, and gold, but for all Echo knew time in this place worked differently. Maybe when she got back it would be like…a year in the future? Ten years? A hundred years??? Would she even still have a room at the Notch? Oh, Cat Lord, what if they got a new, better tabaxi performer with some stuck-up name like “Light of the Moon”? Or, stars forbid, “Sun Dancer”? Yuck.
All in all, it had not taken long for the treasure hunter to get her first catch. When she first spotted the dip in the end of her fishing pole, felt the slight pull of something tugging at the line, and then reeled in a cute, little squirming fish…it had been exciting! Not only was it one step closer to maybe getting out of this place, but it had reminded Echo a bit more of those evenings with Fish in the River. Good evenings. So, for a time, Echo had reclined back on the boat, feet kicked up, hook in the water, and a grin on her face. One fish. Then two fish. Then three. Soon enough she had a small gray pile of flipping, flopping, and flubbing creatures at the bottom of the witch’s bag and, for a moment, the tabaxi had decided that fishing was actually kinda fun!
But then came the bigger fish. The real fish.
A real pain in the butt! The first time one of them had bitten her hook it nearly threw her out of the boat, the sudden pull of the critter as it zipped away ripping the entire fishing pole from Echo’s grasp. Good thing the boat had more than one. Still, it was the beginning of the…not so fun part of fishing. When the big fish were not snapping her line or ripping off the hook or breaking the pole itself, when her noodle arms actually managed to pull the dang things in, they would just…escape. Flop right out of her hands. The tabaxi had tried everything. She had tried holding them in one hand, grabbing them by the tail, grabbing them by the head, hooking a finger in their mouth (that one kinda hurt), grabbing them tightly with two hands…nothing seemed to work! They were just so gross and slimy and wriggly and awful! But experience was, well, experience, and as the sun wore on and the big bucket of blueberries around her ripened, she had managed to catch one. And then a second. Two big lads which she had dug her claws into, hoisted into the boat, and slammed into the messenger bag, lifting her head up teeth barred and with a graceful caterwaul like she had just caught and disemboweled her father’s murderer.
It had been a really long day.
The real prize had been the shiny fish, though. Something had nibbled at Echo’s line for a good part of her entire trip, teasing the tabaxi and forcing her to pull out an empty hook, no worm to be seen, a good many times. It had been a liiiiittle frustrating. Especially with, like, everything else that was going on. But halfway through she had finally hooked the thing, fought with it for several minutes, and then pulled in a huge, beautiful fish covered in iridescent scales that sparkled in the sunlight. She had spent a good while afterwards just looking at the thing as it gasped at the bottom of the boat. Who knew fish could be so pretty! And big. But even with those few good catches, there was still no sign of the teenage witch, a portal, or any means of leaving.
And so, Echo sat on the boat, panting, covered in slime and scales and probably a hook or two lodged in her fur, and watched her line bob up and down as the wind swept over the field of odd blue grass. The tabaxi reached a hand over and grabbed a cracker from one of the bait…she put the worm back and grabbed an actual cracker from one of the bait bins, munching on it as she hummed to herself. Maybe living here would not be so bad? There was plenty of food and enough w-w-wiquid stuff to keep her alive for a long time. Did it rain here? Were there other creatures? The end of the pole dipped down. Maybe she could go exploring! It could actually be kinda fun! The end of the pole dipped a second time. There could be so many cool places and people and things to discover! Maybe she did not even want to go home at this point, maybe…the line dipped a third time and Echo leapt to her feet, standing straight as the boat tipped back and forth, and she heaved the fishing pole with all her strength. Something big splashed in the distance and she felt the pull of her line. It was a strong pull. A big pull. Echo narrowed her eyes.
Oh, it was on.
The treasure hunter slackened the line and allowed the fish to swim away from the boat and then, clamping her hand back down on it, pulled the pole back a moment later and began to reel. She repeated the motion several times, letting the fish tire itself out. Every so often a loud slap would accompany a tail bursting out. Then, the fish jumped. Echo gasped as the setting sun was reflected by the big creature’s multicolored scales into a display of lights that made the portal from earlier look like a cheap decoration. But then the tabaxi planted a foot on the edge of the boat, squared her shoulders, and pulled the line again. And again. And again. And again. And then one final time as she near threw the fish over the entirety of the boat, catching the creature mid leap and spiking it into the messenger bag.
Yes!
As Echo admired her collection of prizes, four big, squirming pretty fish surrounded by a heap of smaller ones, she saw something shimmer in the air at the corner of her eye. A portal. It shone black and white and purple and red, much like the portal from earli-
Echo dove through.
Echo grabbed the messenger bag and dove so fast through the portal that she could feel the boat behind her tip over, but the tabaxi could hardly care. When she next opened her eyes, she was standing in a familiar shop. She felt the firm scratch of wood against her pads. She could hear the muffled din of street vendors outside. She could not feel the wind or sun on her fur. Tears welled up in the corner of her eyes. The treasure hunter saw not a speck of water, and she was near to kissing the ground. But then she saw the witch; bemused expression, that damned piece of chalk in her hand, and asking about the fish she had caught. Echo tossed the messenger bag at her (maybe a little too hard), snarled, and jabbed a finger at her chest.
“You! What in the Nine Hells was that? I nearly died! Do you even know how much water was there? Like, everything was water! Everything!”
The tabaxi stepped up and grabbed two handfuls of the witch’s dress, pressing her forehead against the teenager's so that their eyes were mere distances away.
“I. Hate. Water.”
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Arikarka
Approved
Linked Characters: Citrine, Gigi, and Rhia
Posts: 316
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Post by Arikarka on Mar 23, 2019 0:10:14 GMT
Catching the bag Susie made an 'ooph' sound as it thudded against her chest, looking up in time to see the tabaxi get right in her face, snarling. Behind Echo, at the fireplace, Puppers the dog started growling - standing, hackles raised - the closer and more aggressive she got towards Susie.
Susie, the teenage witch, scowled back, nose crinkling and her eyes narrowing. The large witch hat she wore had the brim shoved back and nearly toppling the whole thing over. "Like… of course it was all water… it's like… a lake. A Great Lake even. Superior to all the others." She shoved at her shoulders as Pupper growled and stalked closer. "Now like, let go before I sic Puppers on you." The messenger bag of fish had slid to the floor in the assault, flap opening and spilling some of the contents to the ground.
"It's not my fault you were too stupid to ask how you'd get back. I could have just left you there, so like, bippity boppity, back the Nine Hells up." The smell of fish cut into the air now that a few had gotten loose from confinement. Some flopped around, still somehow alive. Others had the dead sheen in their eyes of some of Echo's first catches.
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Kestrel
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Icon by @ArtByRue on Twitter!
Posts: 319
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Post by Kestrel on Mar 23, 2019 0:46:36 GMT
Echo hissed under her breath and whipped her tail, but she let go of the witch. As pissed as she was, as terrifying as the whole ordeal had really been, even the tabaxi could tell she had unfairly lost her cool. She had…a lot of hard feelings about what water represented to her. It was a lot more than just a fear. But, well, none of that was the teenager’s fault! Not like the girl had forced her to dive through that portal either. Echo rubbed her own shoulder, stepped back, and looked away, her voice muffled through gritted teeth.
“Sorry.”
The treasure hunter kicked one of the floppers back into the messenger bag and exhaled.
“Like, I mean it. It was my own damn fault I forgot and agreed to this whole mess. Just-“
Echo flicked her tail at the bag and the smelly pile of gasping, squirming, and bouncing creatures trying in vain to escape and sliming up the floor in the process. Cat Lord, they really were gross.
“-just count the stupid things or whatever so I can leave. I need to lie down.”
All the water, fighting with fish for the better part of the day, coming up with so many blue-themed mental excuses, and now her outburst…it was starting to make her head swim. She really needed to just stick with treasure hunting in the future.
Good old underground, waterless, straightforward death-inducing treasure hunting.
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Arikarka
Approved
Linked Characters: Citrine, Gigi, and Rhia
Posts: 316
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Post by Arikarka on Mar 23, 2019 1:20:13 GMT
Brushing off her dress robes and readjusting her hat Susie made a sort of 'hrmp' upturn of her nose and mage hand picked up the bag of fish. Puppers, who had stalked up to the duo, reached down and picked up one of the fallen fish in his mouth and trotted after his mistress. In the backroom there was a lot of sounds. Knives. Metal clanking metal. Some swearing. A heavy cold breeze billowing out of the door frigid enough to frost the doorframe and send a wave of cold for a moment or three into the main room. But soon Susie was back, a small thin case tucked under her arm and a coin purse bobbing behind her in a purple mage hand. Stepping back up behind the counter Susie cleared her throat and set both items down on the counter. "You like, only got 15 boring fish, 2 alright fish, and 2 okay fish. Like… nothing to exciting… but, eyeballs are eyeballs. So here. Coin should be to your satisfaction, and this? This is for your troubles. I did say you'd get something neat if you succeed."Her pale hands with dark purple nail polish opened the wand case to show a hybrid conductors baton and arcane tool. It was silver with three waves - one at the pommel, and two making the guard. "It's a wand of conducting. I get the feeling you might like it, so like, don't say I never reward my quest goers." She said that in a short blunt tone, still miffed and insulted as to how she was treated earlier. "And your fish meat will be delivered within three day's time."((The gold is the gold earned from word count fyi))
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