fandomtownies | The Preserve, Sunday Afternoon

"Further in," Firekeeper said. "To the stream, first." She shot a look at Blind Seer, reminding him that there was no hunting today, only seeking.

"Cooooool." Dinah turned on the camcorder, and started filming the woods around her, Blind Seer off to one side, and Firekeeper ahead of her. "Thanks for this. I'm just glad the weather held up so we're not doing it in surprise snow." She zoomed the camcorder in on a bird circling above, then hastily hurried to catch up.

Firekeeper nodded. "Snow make a hunt both easy and hard. Easy, because you can be seeing tracks. Hard, because they can be seeing yours."

Dinah nodded, still recording. "What are we tracking today?" She looked around, checking behind her for her own shoe tracks. "Do shoes leave a scent behind them?"

"They does," Firekeeper nodded, glancing down at Dinah's feet and then her own bare ones. "Made of things not found in forests." Once they reached the stream, she gestured for Dinah to come closer. "First, we try and find the fish. Ones with fur."

Dinah did, careful where she stepped so as not to slip into the creek, and let the recorder dangle from her arm. The stream was running fast, bubbling around the rocks. "Furred fish." She snickered. "Do they even taste good?"

"Not much like fish, but good," Firekeeper confirmed, because of course she'd tried it.

Grinning, Dinah settled in on a rock, and brought the camcorder back up to focus on Blysse. "Okay, so, spear? Line? How do we catch a furry fish?"

"Spear is a good way," Firekeeper nodded. "Arrow can be used as such. You wish to try?"

"Sure," Dinah said, face brightening, looking around for a stick to use. "I've never done this before. Fishing with a rod and reel, but not this." She grinned, adding, "I didn't like cleaning the fish much."

"Wolves not worry too much about cleaning," Firekeeper admitted with a grin. "But I seed Derian or Race do such, when they catch fish." She watched Dinah for a moment before pulling an arrow from the quiver at her back and offering it.

Dinah looked up, then facepalmed. "Thank you! Okay, do I just-- stab this in the water?" She peered in, trying to see fuzzy fish. "Is there a strategy to it?"

"Is it, yes," Firekeeper nodded. "Tahiri maked them stop hiding, but she is not here. So, we move around, and this draw them out."

"She made them stop hiding? Is that a Jedi thing?" Dinah crouched down, then carefully made her way to a rock farther into the stream, arrow up in ready. She pulled the camcorder around to film the water a bit, then blinked, pulling back from what she saw through the lens. "Fish!"

"Is. I not sure how, but it seem like a useful skill," Firekeeper commented. "You find?" she waded closer, not concerned with staying out of the water.

"I saw it through the lens there, but now I'm not seeing it," Dinah said, then peered again, "Ooo! By those rocks!" She pointed a little downstream of Blysse, then let the camcorder dangle again. She gave the stream an uncertain look, dipped her fingers in, then shrugged, since it wasn't as cold as she'd feared, and waded in after Blysse.

Firekeeper grinned encouragingly at Dinah, heading in the direction she'd indicated. "Am seeing," she confirmed. Luckily, they hadn't seen her yet, so she motioned for Dinah to come closer.

Dinah tried not to splash and scare away their prey, then wobbled and waded her way next to Blysse, arrow still in hand.

There they were, darting in and around the rocks and floating moss. Furry fish. Ha!

Firekeeper reached down and with the practiced air of someone who's done this many times, neatly caught one and held it up triumphantly. "Now, you,"

Dinah peered at the sleekly furred fish, poked it with one finger, then turned to grin down at the water. "Come to me, lunch," she intoned. "Maybe that's what Tahiri does."

Stab! Stabbity stab stab... And no fish. "Okay. This is not as easy as you make it look."

"I am having years of doing this to survive," Firekeeper pointed out reasonably. "You only start today."

"True," Dinah agreed reluctantly, then picked up her camcorder again. "Maybe I'll just film you guys doing it for a bit, see if I can figure out what I did wrong." She looked at the fish again. "That is so, so weird."

"Many things in this place are weird," Firekeeper said, catching another fish. "Like blue deer. Perhaps we shall be seeing those later." Probably not hunting them, though.

"I want to!" Dinah grinned, and kept filming, then tried again. Stab. Miss. Stab. Miss. "They are fast. What's your favorite thing to hunt?"

"Elk," she grinned. "Not easy prey, and sometimes taking a whole pack to bring one down, but worth it."

"Wow." Dinah gave her an impressed look over the camera, then tried to spear fish again. Failed again. Oh well. Next time, maybe. "Did you guys hear about the Fight Club that starts tonight?" she asked both of them, looking over to where Blind See was hanging out.

Firekeeper nodded. "Tahiri say she seed posters," she said. "We is thinking maybe we should go."

"I'm definitely going. I spent half the week looking for people to spar with, I can't pass it up." Dinah grinned, then started fake-narration for the video. "'Here in the wild, Blysse and Blind Seer hunt furry fish with a spear. It's a difficult job, but not as difficult as bringing down a honking big elk...'"

"Who is you speaking to?" Firekeeper asked.

"I'm doing the explanation stuff for the video. It's recording whatever we say," Dinah explained. "I can erase or add stuff if I want to when it's done."

"Oh," Firekeeper nodded. "I think we is having enough fish, now," she decided. "You want to look for deer?"

"Definitely!" Dinah waded out of the creek, and stomped her feet to get most of the water out of her shoes. "Do we look for deer hoof prints?"

"Is a good place to start," Firekeeper gave her an approving nod. She didn't have shoes to shake out, such was the advantage of bare feet. "Blind Seer can scent them, but human noses is not so good for that."

Dinah nodded, looking around, because hey, stream. Maybe they came down here to get a drink? "Do you think the herd would be very big here on the island, or kind of little?" She looked over at Blind Seer, and grinned. "Smell anything blue?"

"Would not be too small, or the herd would not be surviving," Firekeeper reasoned, thinking about that. "But, this island is small, so cannot be too big, else they is not surviving either. Not enough food."

"Medium-sized herd," Dinah said, nodding. "Makes sense." She panned the video recorder around, getting a look at the woods and the stream, wondering aloud, "Would they hide near blue things? Blue flowers, you think?"

"Camouflage?" Firekeeper considered. "Is not a bad thought. We find, then."

Dinah grinned, putting the camcorder down. "Lead the way!"

She kept her eyes open for blue flowers or bluegrass, and muttered under her breath, "'We are searching for the elusive blue deer. We don't know what their predators are. Maybe purple foxes...'"

Blind Seer roved ahead, promising to alert his companions if he spotted anything. Firekeeper, meanwhile, used her somewhat more limited human senses to scout the area silently, resisting the urge to string her bow as she normally would for a hunt.

Dinah was being quieter now, not keeping up the running commentary as much, although she *had* to stop every once in a while to mutter something nature documentary-ish, like, "Still no sign of hoofprints," and a little bit later, "We are looking for blue flowers. But it isn't spring yet, so we're kind of screwed," in a very quiet voice.

Unnoticed, a tiny blue deer was trotting behind them, ears pricked up.

Firekeeper was too busy looking ahead to think of checking behind them. It's not like the deer would be drawn towards noise or anything, right?

Right?

To make it more exciting for herself, Dinah started making stuff up, voice still very quiet. "'The blue deer is a product of an experiment to create deer which can not be found underwater. Their blue hides conceal gills. They have shiny platinum hooves and the ability to bring truth and happiness like the bluebird...."

She stopped for a second, and bent down to re-tie her shoe. "Wait up, Blysse."

Four or five of the little guys were behind her now, blinking with big eyes, waiting for the next part of the story.

Firekeeper stopped, and turned, and...

"Dinah?"

Dinah straightened, then blinked at Blysee. "What?"

The teal deer wanted to know 'what' too. They stared at Blysse and Dinah. One of them bent down to graze a bit.

"Turn around."

Dinah slowly turned around, expecting to see something that would eat her, and gasped when she saw the deer, hurriedly bringing the camcorder up. "Blue! They're blue!" she squeaked in a high-pitched whisper. "Ohmigod I didn't think they were real and now they're here and they're tiny and you're seeing these too, right? Right?"

Interested, the teal deer moved forward a little bit, staring up at Dinah and her camera.

"Am seeing, yes," Firekeeper confirmed, smiling a little at Dinah's enthusiasm.

Dinah tried to keep her cool, but barely managed to keep the camcorder steady. "Blue deer. As rumored. And as you can see. They're tiny, they're cute, and they're staring at me. Hi, deer." Dinah waved to them.

The deer kept staring, waiting for her to go on. And on. And hopefully on.

"Okay, I made up the bit about the platinum hooves and the gills, but you can clearly see they exist. Also, they're curious. Didn't know that..."

The Preserve, Sunday Afternoon

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