This bounty from the sea.
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Word Count :: 900+ Crabcrabcrab. For Pescador co-rank duties. =)


Things were going rather well for the Russian. In the months since she came here she accepted her fate as a Salsoan and quickly began to embrace the pack. At first she thought she might resent them forever; her mother was a slave and they blocked her from finding her family. But things weren’t all quite like that. At least Verusha was so mad that she didn’t really know she was enslaved. And, well, she had met with a few Russos since her time in Salsola. Now she saw Salsola itself as her family, and wanted to be a part of it. Blood for blood.

There was much she had done for Salsola, and much Salsola had done for her. Once she could have listed them on her fingers, now the list was becoming more of an entity rather than ‘points’ for either side. She liked that, it had become part of her life; much like the sea… the sea in which she now swam.

It was early morning and the waters were ice cold. She had set a fire on the shore to return to so she could warm quickly. Hypothermia would not suit her, and she was well aware of the affects of the extreme temperatures on the body. She had used a small raft to return to a place in the bay where she had set baited nets the morning before. If her calculations had been correct there would be a bounty here.

There was nothing to fashion into a buoy, so in order to retrieve her net she needed to bite the bullet and dive down into the frigid bay waters. She needed to swim strong and she needed to be quick. If she was down there for too long she might lose her breath, or fatigue, or freeze.

She had eyeballed the spot for a moment before diving in, ensuring she was at the right spot. Sleek and fast, she made her body straight as an arrow and kicked with powerful legs to dive to the bottom. She needn’t make it all the way down… just until she found… there! A floating tether line! Her fingers clutched it, but her grip wasn’t what she expected and at the first tug it slipped from her grasp. She reached for it again, this time wrapping it around her wrist a few times before pulling again. The net and its bounty was heavy and the exertion had her quickly low on oxygen. She kicked her legs furiously, but with a beat, and soon hoisted herself and the net to the surface.

Her head bobbed above the water and then back down for a second. When she came up again she inelegantly sputtered, coughing out a bit of seawater. She tread for a moment, floating towards her raft. It was grueling work staying afloat and keeping the net in her hands, but somehow she managed. As she reached her raft she threw one arm onto it and let it hold her for a few minutes while she caught her breath, gathering her strength for her next move.

Instead of trying to haul the net and its contents onto the raft – a feat that would be difficult from her position and would surely just make her sink – she did the next best thing. There was a hitch on the raft, so she tied up the tether and then hauled herself on board.

“I am not pullingk all of you out yet,” she said breathily to the water, a chortle in her voice. “No, you vhill be pinchingk me like no tomorrow.” She laughed as she began to paddle back to shore.

The trek to shore was made harder by the bounty in tow, but at least the tide aided her a bit. Eventually her raft floundered in shallow water and she leaped off to drag it ashore. As she did so she also pulled the net from the water, a glut of shellfish trapped within. They squirmed and writhed like great sea spiders, but thanks to the long tether she was far enough from their ruthless claws. She dragged the net to a safe spot on the shore, near to the fire that was now starting to dwindle.

The bite of the cold was really starting to get to her now, and the breeze was no help. Her body shuddered violently despite her best mind-over-matter efforts. The flames consumed the wood and grew more intense, and she settled down just inches from the blaze. Please dry quickly, she thought to herself. Or this may be your last fishing trip. She felt tired but knew better than to let herself fall asleep until she was warm again.

Her gray eyes focused on the writhing catch near her. The animals were growing lethargic now, being out of the water so long. A half smile cocked her face as she picked one crab out of the bunch. “You, I vhill call you Bisque. You, Soup. You, Legs. Oh, and you… you…” She crawled closer to the catch, looking at the largest animal in her bounty. “You vhill be reserved for someone very special…” she whispered as the visage of her striking Boss came to mind.

A chill wracked her and she moved back to the fire. “A plentiful catch you are. Of course, I could do better next time, ja,” she traced a figure in the sand at her side. “But this not bad for winter’s Last Supper.” As she finished her crude version of the Hand of Eris she dreamed of what delight this rare bounty might bring to their feast.

Image courtesy of 24730945@Flickr; table by the Mentors!

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