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A Stream in the Preserve, Monday Evening

Firekeeper was hungry. And today, overly-processed human food just wasn't going to cut it. No, today she and Blind Seer were hunting as proper wolves do.

Which meant, currently, wading in the rather cold stream and attempting to snatch fish from the water.

[ooc: expecting one but open like the outdoors!]

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It wasn't hard for Tahiri to find Firekeeper out in the Preserve at all; convincing her to put her feet in the cold water might be a different story.

"So," she asked, dipping one toe in and grimacing, "are we looking for something specifically?"

"Fish," Firekeeper shrugged. "Preferably big. If they is too small, then we have to catch many. And it is very cold."

"Not in the mood for the cafeteria tonight, huh?" Tahiri asked.

"No," Firekeeper shook her head. "They is putting too many not-real things in it."

"I guess you would notice that," Tahiri remarked, and decided now was as good a time as any to practice that whole temperature-regulating thing she was supposed to be able to do. Biting her lip, she stepped into the water and tried to call on the Force to keep her toes from freezing off, with partial success. "Any luck with the fish yet?"

"He find some," she gestured upstream, where Blind Seer was splashing around. "But he take for himself to eat," she rolled her eyes. Pulling an arrow from the quiver at her back, she offered it to Tahiri. "We not have fangs or claws, but I find these work well enough."

Tahiri smiled and declined the offer with a wave of her hand. "Even before I went to the Jedi academy I was always really good at finding things people had lost. I wonder if that works on fish too?"

Firekeeper shrugged and put the arrow back. "I like to see this too," she admitted, studying her friend curiously.

"Let's give it a try, then," Tahiri said, closing her eyes. "I'm not the animal specialist, but . . ."

She couldn't bring herself to say Jacen's name, and shook her head, continuing, "Well, let's see how this goes."

Reaching out with the Force, she extended her senses into the stream to seek out any creatures beneath the surface, and, without moving from her spot, pointed toward a small rock-sheltered eddy a little way off. "I think there's a few over there . . ."

Firekeeper's gaze followed where Tahiri pointed. "Can you bring them here? Or can we be going there, without scaring them?"

Tahiri nodded, sending a tendril of thought out toward the fish -- not a thought so much as a suggestion of Hey, there might be food over this way.

"Give them a second or two," she said quietly.

Firekeeper nodded, adjusting her grip on her arrow as she waited for the fish to come out. She didn't really understand the whole 'Force' thing and so was intrigued to see it at work.

From the stream, there was the soft splash of a fish's tail breaking the surface, and Tahiri opened her eyes and smiled in pleased surprise.

"Hey, it worked," she mouthed silently.

Firekeeper grinned and lunged forward to catch the fish. Were Firekeeper inclined to think like a human, she might feel guilty at the fish being tricked into coming out from hiding like that, but she was a wolf, so not so much.

Her mission accomplished, she held the fish up to get a closer look at her catch... and then nearly dropped in shock.

It had fur.

"It have fur," she commented oh-so-intelligently.

". . . why does a fish need fur?" Tahiri demanded, wading closer.

"Otter have fur," Firekeeper pointed out, only belatedly realizing that Tahiri might not have any idea what an otter was. "Maybe to keep it from being cold?"

Tahiri moved a step or two closer to peer at the fish. "Okay, point. This water isn't exactly a hot tub."

"I was only making jokes when I mention to angry blonde girl that maybe this place have furred fish," Firekeeper mused. "Is a good size," she said with a shrug. "Want to see how it taste?"

Edited 2009-02-10 05:33 (UTC)

"You're sure it's edible?" Tahiri asked dubiously. "And see, this is why we don't joke about these things."

"Blind Seer seem to think so," Firekeeper shrugged. Wolves might not be terribly picky about their food, but they did have limits. Which apparently didn't stop at furred fish.

Tahiri nodded and turned to wade back toward the bank. "It's almost kind of cute. In a really, really weird way."

Firekeeper considered it thoughtfully. "I am not knowing much about cute," she admitted, stepping on to the bank and making her way towards the pile of twigs she'd gathered earlier in preparation for a fire.

"And I don't know very much about how to prepare fish like this, so we're even," Tahiri returned as she picked her way out of the stream.

"Then, being even, we share. If you would like," she added almost as an afterthought, aware that most humans didn't share her idea of good food.

Taking her fire-making tools from the pouch fashioned around her neck, she struck flint against steel until the sparks started to jump. As the fire built itself up, she set to work skinning and otherwise preparing the very strange fish.

"I would," Tahiri confirmed, watching the primitive (to her way of thinking) process with interest. "Is that how you got your name?"

Edited 2009-02-10 22:15 (UTC)

Firekeeper nodded, setting the fish to roasting over the fire. "Wolves is having much respect for fire, but of all wolves, I am being the only one who can tame it. It make up in part for not having claws or fangs."

"Was that ever awkward?" Tahiri settled down on a fallen tree, tucking her knees up under her chin. "Being the only one who could do that?"

"Some," Firekeeper admitted. "Not all of my birth-pack were those I would call friend," she said, thinking of the Whiner. "They mock my slow two-legs and hairless hide, but cringe and hide from my fire."

Tahiri nodded and took a slow breath. "I understand the feeling."

"Your pack do this also?" Firekeeper frowned.

"Did I ever tell you about how I had to survive for a week in the Dune Sea on Tatooine?" Tahiri asked. "My Tusken tribe wanted to strip Sliven -- he's the one who adopted me -- of leadership and throw him out because he took a human child into the tribe. I had to take the challenge or they would have killed him for it."

"That not make sense," Firekeeper admitted with a frown. "Wolves is all the time challenging rights for leadership, but they is not making puppies take the challenge." She took the fish down carefully, setting it aside to let it cool for a few moments.

"I didn't really understand it either," Tahiri said. "But I couldn't let them kill him, could I?"

"Would not be a good way to return his kindness," Firekeeper agreed, dividing up the fish and handing Tahiri her portion.

"Not even close." Tahiri took her share of fish gingerly and sniffed at it -- she couldn't help it -- before taking a tiny, experimental bite. "Well, it's definitely not gross."

Firekeeper politely wasn't going to mention that a typical wolf probably wouldn't have put themselves in danger to save another. Years with humans had changed her perspective a little.

"Am liking it!" she admitted. "It not taste too much like normal fish. But then, normal fish is not having fur."

"I lived in the desert," Tahiri remarked, "so fish was pretty hard to come by, and we didn't have much of it at the academy either."

She'd appreciate the lack of mentioning if she knew.

"I still cannot be picturing a land that is full of sand," Firekeeper admitted. "You say it was so, and I am believing you, but..." she trailed off.

"But hearing me say it isn't anything like actually wrapping your brain around the idea," Tahiri tried to conclude.

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A Stream in the Preserve, Monday Evening

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