Slim shapes idle in place under the cool water of the bank, seeking shelter from the hot sun in the shade of a rock overhanging the river. Their sleek piscine forms thresh back and forth against the flow of the current.
Slowly, the shadow of the rock grows the shadow of an arm, holding the shadow of a short spear. The fish twitch, but don't seem to notice.
Just as the patient hunter is about to strike, a loud splashing from just upriver sends ripples down the water; the fish scatter.
"Dreamer Windwalker! You idiot!!", the hunter yells.
Dreamer tromps along through the water, her clothes rapidly dampening under the splashing water. She's quietly mumbling to herself, her eyes vaguely unfocused as though she were looking at something that wasn't there. She's in one of .those. states again, paying little attention to the hunter. Or anything else, for that matter.
Mackerel looks up to the sky with her feline eyes and asks "Why me?" ash she growls, "Dreamwalker! You can't catch fish by trying to step on them."
Mackerel notes Dreamwalker's condition and knows it would make more sense to talk to the fish right now. In the back of her mind, she shudders at the thought of being so..distant from her surroundings, and pities Dreamwalker slightly, glad she was not so "gifted".
Dreamer abruptly stoops over to pluck a rather colorful reed. Turning, she pads over towards Mackerel and holds it out towards her.
Mackerel Notchear, the tawny panther huntress, accepts the reed solemnly, having gotten her patience back. She wonders why the (insert proper religious deity info here) have chosen to do this to someone like Dreamwalker. And does Dreamwalker just see differently than others? Does she enjoy this?
Mackerel sighs at the muddied water, "Maybe some reed traps downstream will work."
Dreamer smiles at Mackerel rather abruptly as she takes the reed, then turns and continues tromping downstream.
Mackerel watches Dreamer destroy the fishing downstream too, . o O (I guess my hunt will have to be on land this day. Sigh.)
Downstream and around the bend, Sunrises has gotten herself into trouble; she just doesn't know it yet. Some fifteen feet up in an apple tree, she's busily gathering apples in her skirt, and munching on the second best of the bunch (the first reserved for the chieftain, of course.)
The raccoon licks her short muzzle. "Good. Very.", she says to herself in halting Indian. She looks at the skirtful of apples, and the number of them. Surely nobody'd notice if she had another?
Mackerel stalks through the water quietly behind Dreamer, hoping to come upon one fish that was disturbed by the walking and not paying attention. If not, it's time to hunt on land.
Dreamer turns a little bit, her eyes scanning through the nearby trees, then raises an arm to point towards Sunrises.
In the shallows, a mudskipper lurks within a semi-concealing cloud of silt stirred by Dreamer's passage. They don't taste so great, but it's better than coming back empty handed.
Mackerel snarls with distaste, but notes food is food. Her paws move with no ripples through the water, till she gets close enough and throws the spear in one fluid motion at the mudskipper.
Sunrises casually drops the apple core, and decides on a choice apple from her skirt, munching into it with gusto. "Mmmm." She completely fails to notice the large hulking shadow detaching itself from the copse of bushes, downwind from Dreamer and Mackerel.
Dreamer gently nudges at Mackerel's shoulder, still looking at the child in the tree, though with some degree of detachment. "Sun-sets.."
-shhh-thoop!- A splash as the spear hits the water, and the mudskipper bangs into Mackerel's feet as it flees for its life between her leggings. (The more sensible wear to hunt with.)
Mackerel curses quietly. Eventually every fish in the land will know her name personally, and they will all trade stories about how they got away.
Beneath the tree, the feral bear creeps silently across the glade, following its nose towards the sweet scent of apples. Sunrises is utterly oblivious, Mackerel is too busy watching dinner scoot upstream, and Dreamer is, well, Dreamer.
Dreamer edges over and tugs at Mackerel's shoulder more urgently, pointing at Sunrises. "Can't bear Apples..."
Mackerel looks up at Sunrises and nods to Dreamer, "'I'll help her get them down in a minute. I'm hoping to catch us some meat for our dinner."
Sunrises finishes the second apple with great relish, and drops the core....
...which promptly hits the bear on the head.
With a snarl, the bear looks up, and for the first time Sunrises looks down and sees the pear. "Brownfur!", she yells. "G'way!"
Dreamer shakes her head several times. "Sun goes down... Meat catch dinner."
Mackerel's eyes go wide and doesn't have time to respond to Dreamer's comments. She only has time to ready her fishing spear.
The fishing spear comes loose of the creek bed.. without the head. Must've snapped on the rocks.
Sunrises has a handy supply of bear-warding missiles right in her lap. "G'way! Home you go!" -whizz- *thunk*
*SNARL...*
Mackerel sighs, . o O (The gods (or appropriate term) must be testing me. Though I think a bear will take a larger chunk than that cursed fish did.) "Sunrise, stop it, you will only make it more upset."
Dreamer nudgenudgenudges at Mackerel. "Will fall.. bear will eat.." Her eyes, perhaps, are beginning to focus a bit more as she comes nearer and nearer to objective reality.
The bear knows how to get things out of trees. It saunters over and starts shoving at the tree trunk.
Mackerel growls but turns her attentions toward the bear instead. Not sure what to do with a blunt spear. She reaches for a short cleaning knife at her waist.
Mackerel gets the short knife ready and whirls the blunt spear right at the back of the bear's head.
Dreamer looks from Mackerel to the bear and back again as she finally reaches one of those brief lucid periods that seem to always arrive precisely when they're needed.. She emits a loud call, hoping to distract the attentions of the bear. "Hurry, Warrior," she murmurs, as she waves her arms over her head to gather the bear's view.
While not very aerodynamic, the spear shaft hits its mark, thunking off the side of the bear with a hollow -thunk-. The bear pauses, and then looks over, seeing not one, but two good looking meals. Easier to catch, to boot.
Mackerel waits for the bear to lunge, trying to decide if the eyes or the throat is best.
The bear turns and lumbers towards Dreamer and Mackerel, trying to decide which one looks tastier. The one who smells like fish, or the one waving its arms?
Dreamer bounds off towards the nearest underbrush, hoping the bear will stay to deal with Mackerel, giving her enough time to reach and rescue Sunrises...
The bear's chase instinct is triggered, and it starts loping after Dreamer. Until Sunrises hits it in the back of the head with another apple. "Leave alone! Eat apple instead!", she yells.
Mackerel blinks . o O (A tribe of fools.)
The bear turns, looking quite angry now, and resolves a meal in the tree is worth two on the land (one in the bush), and circles around underneath Sunrise's branch.
Mackerel shouts, "Sunrise, stop throwing apples at it, we want it to go AWAY from you."
The panthress growls and pulls a large stone from the river and tosses it at the bear's head again.
Sunrises doesn't listen. Sometimes folks wonder if she's hard of hearing. Seeing the bear underneath her, she upends the entire skirtful of apples onto it. -thunk-tha-thunk-thunk-thunk-thunk-thunk-. "Here! Ya take all!"
Between the hail of apples and the big rock -oomph-, the bear decides that dinner that doesn't fly might be better fare, and lumbers off into the underbrush.
Sunrises points after it. "B'ar none." she announces gleefully.
Mackerel blinks as the bear gives up easily and just shakes her head confusedly. With a sigh she pads over and pushes Dreamer into the river and walks off, muttering.
The 'coon looks down solemnly at all the apples on the ground, and starts making her way down to them.
Dreamer sits quietly in the river, beginning to mumbling to herself again for several moments, before stopping to hold a very serious conversation with a mudskipper as it ventures back into the area.
Sunrises starts gathering up the less smashed of the apples, and wonders if Mama will be interested in lots of applesauce this evening.
Mackerel looks over at Dreamer as she tries to decide what to hunt. . o O (Maybe she protects the fish? For all I know, they are best friends)
Copernicus purrs, "I can just picture a panthress huntress. A female who has more patience for hunting, who knows the results are more important than the bragging.""