A good time for fishing

A good time for fishing

Postby Dulcie » Tue May 29, 2012 3:21 pm

It was difficult to pin point exactly when the changes in the poisoned lake started to occur, but to those who liked to frequent the area it would seem rather sudden. The change was marked most notably by an increase in fish towards the center of the lake. The fish were healthy, and seemingly unaffected by the water that was still recovering. There were some that would say that even the water level had increased, if by no more than a slight amount, but the whole thing spoke of something that just wasn't quite right. While the fish jumped and swam about the lake they tended to stay only towards the center, and then there was the business of the water to worry about. While once the lake waters had moved easily with the breeze now the waters seemed to churn, sometimes almost violently, and yet still the fish swam, weaving in and out of those waves as if nothing had ever been amiss.
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Re: A good time for fishing

Postby Dulcie » Sun Jun 10, 2012 2:58 pm

Joseph Green was a good little boy. Only about 8 years old, but the single child of a farming family meant that he had been working since about the day he was able to walk by himself. He never seemed to mind it however, he was full of life and vitality and he had survived all of the blights that had taken the children of the neighboring farm families. The Green family felt endlessly blessed.

With times being as they were Joseph was busier than ever, helping his family with the fields and making sure that they had the food and supplies they needed. He was supposed to be on his way to the market this afternoon, to trade for some butter. They had lost their last cow in the winter after all and it would take his father sometime to replace it with another. But little Joseph couldn't resist the urge to stop by the lake. He knew he wasn't supposed to be there of course, his Ma rambling on something fierce about how the water wasn't safe and something about poison and death, but since when did those sorts of things scare off little boys?

When he arrived at the lake he was surprised to see so many fish and he was disappointed that he hadn't brought anything to fish with. Still, it was a pleasant distraction to watch for a moment or two. He'd still get to the market in time. He went over to one of the banks above the lake and he'd peer down into it, when up from the water snaked a giant tentacle. The thing crashed down onto the earth just inches from the young boy, curling about trying to reach an ankle or a wrist that it could use to drag the boy back into the water. Poor Joseph cried out with a shriek that would have had him teased for months if anyone had heard, but he escaped the tentacle, hurriedly pushing away from the bank, forgetting the items he was supposed to be trading, running as fast as his little legs could carry him away from the Lake. Oh he was going to be in such trouble when he got home, but before he'd get there he had to find Cat. Cat would know exactly what to do about this sort of thing.
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Re: A good time for fishing

Postby Jirai » Mon Jun 11, 2012 2:23 am

Cat was not very hard to find at this time of day. The urchin spent a good part of the day working in the tavern's kitchen (sometimes to the dismay of the kitchen staff). The rest of the day - when Cat had either earned breaks for good behavior or been booted out temporarily for bad behavior - the waif either continued to lurk around the tavern or made a beeline for the streets of Myrken. Right now it was the former rather than the latter, which was fortunate for Joseph. The blonde child the boy was looking for would be easy to spot, sitting just out back of the tavern with a bowl full of porridge which was being carefully shared out between Cat's own mouth and a ragged tabby's. The furry cat did not look all too pleased about the meal, in truth!
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Re: A good time for fishing

Postby Dulcie » Mon Jun 11, 2012 5:28 am

"Tentacles! Tentacles Cat! They were big an huge an everywhere and it tried to eat me an' I lost Ma's basket of bakin and now she's surely gonna finish me off instead!"

The boy was out of breath now from his running and hollering as he came upon Cat sitting there on the porch feeding the unhappy cat. He'd rest his hands on his knees, in part doubling over as he tried to breathe, taking time to inhale and exhale before he'd try again.

"It's at the lake, all thrashing around in there with the fish. We've gots to tell everybody before it snatches up some other kid. I think it was bigger than that boy squid thing that hangs round here that everyone's talking about."

And with his good deed done with warning the others he would pause and look up at Cat again. "you wouldn't know what to do about my Ma would you? She's gonna whup me good when she finds out I couldn get her any butter"
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Re: A good time for fishing

Postby Jirai » Mon Jun 11, 2012 6:49 am

Tentacles, hmm? A big bite of porridge was shoved into a small mouth as the boy came running up shouting. The urchin would wait for Joseph to catch his breath and explain a bit more (conveniently allowing Cat to swallow the food as well). "Lake tentacles. Were it silver tentacles, Joseph? Er mayhap when th' squid boy goes in th' water 'e gets bigger?" The bowl was set down for the tabby to finish (pleasing the cat, who much prefered to lick his own food up rather than have it stuffed into his mouth) and Cat hopped up. A glance for the kitchen door, then back to the boy. "C'mon, iffen we move fast they won' miss me. You gotta show me. An' maybe it don' like the taste of th' basket an' we can get it back."
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Re: A good time for fishing

Postby Dulcie » Mon Jun 11, 2012 12:40 pm

Cat was who all the children in town looked up to and Joseph knew the waif of a child would know exactly what to do. For a moment Joseph found himself wondering how Cat managed to know everything like that, but the moment was not one for questioning.

"No, no they weren't silver. They were big an they had these big sucker things on them.". At Cat's instance that they go investigate the boy blanched. He clearly didn't want to go back, but Cat always knew what to do.

"Oh, okay. ". Joseph said nervously but then Cat seemed ready to move and so Joseph picked up as well. He'd lead the other child on at a hurried pace though not as quick as he had when he had ran away from the thing. By the time they got there however the basket had been squashed, and although the water was still churning and the fish were still jumping the tentacles were nowhere to be seen.
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Re: A good time for fishing

Postby Jirai » Mon Jun 11, 2012 1:54 pm

Cat always knew what to do. And when Cat did not know what to do, Cat made it up. And it was sheer audacity that had gained the urchin the job at the tavern, the notice of dragons, and so why shouldn't audacity continue to serve? Smaller than Joseph (though not by too much!), the blonde urchin somehow seemed bigger, and it was all arrogance.

Joseph led Cat back - as Cat had known he'd must - and the blue eyed waif surveyed the scene (crushed basket and all), with tiny hands fisted on hips.

"Well Joseph. Iffen y'momma don't believe you, y'in for a whuppin' right enough."

Sage wisdom thus bestowed, the delicate child grabbed for the squashed basket, aiming to use it to poke at the churning water. "I bet we shoul' fin' th' squid demon." Cat proclaimed. "S'water, he ought to know 'bout water!"
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Re: A good time for fishing

Postby Dulcie » Mon Jun 11, 2012 2:07 pm

"Oh Ma is gonna whup me good..." He moaned when he saw the basket, but as Cat crept nearer to the basket and to the water the youth would become visibly frightened. "Wait! Wait, maybe you shouldn't get so..." And there was no more words than that, because the next breath was stolen by a very unmanly shriek when he saw another giant tentacle lift from the water.

Joseph would make a half hearted grab for Cat's shirt, trying to pull the other child away, though there was a very real chance that he might miss altogether because every part of him was screaming to just run. The tentacle whomped to the ground beside them, writhing and trying to coil about the pair of children as up from the water lifted the horrible squid head, more tentacles seeming to rise and writhe from within the churning water.
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Re: A good time for fishing

Postby Shobits » Mon Jun 11, 2012 2:21 pm

Welp! This morning there had been no fishing for this little squid! Apparently there was a bigger squid in the lake now. So, N`vek was going to stick with the Dagger prepared meals for now. And that was where the kid was tonight, getting some dinner and trying to spend some time with his shut-in of a brother. The latter was sadly, unsuccessful. After a nice dinner he chanced a visit outside by the lake once again. Maybe his mind had been playing tricks on him. Afterall, the squidling did hope on some level that there just might be others like him out there somewhere. So... yes, it had just been wishful thinking on his part. Water... yes a dip in the lake was what he needed to clear his mind, just a nice swim in his element. Catch a few fish on the side. He never did get to go with Kals. N`vek started the walk for the lakeside, and speak of the devil was that Kals?
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Re: A good time for fishing

Postby Suede » Mon Jun 11, 2012 2:31 pm

NO, it wasn't. Well, yes, it actually was. He just hadn't the desire to dress up in his more ostentatious attire today and thus he appeared far more average than he normally did. If one chose to ignore the fact he was skill covered from head to toe in fabric and that he was of a rather significant stature. He was there on the path N'vek was walking, sitting quietly on a rock as he fiddled with a knot in the string of his fishing rod. A small, damp sack sat in the dirt beside him.

Perhaps it was merely happenstance, or perhaps he'd known N'vek would be coming this way, but when the boy approached he grinned behind that veil and raised a hand. "You still owe me a day fishing..." It was a statement light of heart that was punctuated immediately after by thrashing at the lake and a child's scream. Kals turned to look that way with a sharp snap of his head. He'd not been to the lake in a few days, so he didn't even know there was oddness about.

"What in Sa's breath was that?"
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Re: A good time for fishing

Postby Jirai » Tue Jun 12, 2012 2:32 am

Cat's shriek would be added to Joseph's as the tentacle thwumped down beside them. Even as the demon-tentacle writhed around the two children, Cat used the basked as a (probably ineffective) weapon, attempting to beat the tentacle to death with smushed baked goods rather than running away like an intelligent and non-imaginative child would. "Kill it! Kill it!" The tiny child shrieked, devolving into wordless screams of terror as the tentacle wrapped around the urchin's body.
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Re: A good time for fishing

Postby Dulcie » Tue Jun 12, 2012 6:42 am

Poor little Joseph had no weapon and the basket that Cat had commandeered was doing the child little good, the tentacled creature only seeming to be further inspired in capturing it's prey, the tentacle only rippling and writhing more with each fruitless smack that was given to it. Joseph screamed again. "Cat! No!!!"

He tried harder to get to his friend now, trying to grab on to the other child to pull him free, though those tentacles were wrapped tight around Cat and Joseph's tugging did him little good other than to slightly slow down the progress of them both getting thrown into the lake.

"Help! Somebody Help!!". The terrified child screamed as he started to sob, seeing those churning waters getting closer and closer. The boy staring eye to eye with the hideous squid thing in the water.
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Re: A good time for fishing

Postby Shobits » Tue Jun 12, 2012 6:56 am

"Good evening, Kals!" Came the boy's joyful greeting. His skin rippled and flashed with his happy and excited colors and patterns. Mostly soft blues and greens, there were even a few darker splotches that appeared to be throbbing ever so slightly. "I was just thinking that, Ser. Do you think that maybe we could do that now? If the lake is safe of course... I think I saw something there earlier. But it was probably just a trick of the light or a sun dream..." N`vek's train of thought was cut off as he too heard that yell. "I don't know!"

And with that the heroic yet so foolish boy was running towards the scream, skin flashing to the red with the roving bands of black stripes as more screams joined the first. The scene before him... N`vek hissed and that threat color display intensified and the boy jumped in after, prepared to fight the thing tentacle to tentacle. "Let them go!!" Hisssssssssss
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Re: A good time for fishing

Postby Suede » Tue Jun 12, 2012 1:56 pm

There were more shouts, high pitched and frantic. Then N'vek was off, an aquatic leopard bolting down to the lake. Kals watched him dash off and responded with the same vigor a moment later, leaving behind the fishing rod and bag of bait he'd been carrying. The trader was too large to keep up fully with the much sprier squid, but he made it with excellent time for a man his size. He'd been feeling the effort tomorrow but he was too busy now to really focus.

No offense to young Joseph, but as soon as he'd taken the scene in Kals would be all buy knocking the poor boy out of his way so that he could try to drop his body over the tentacle in hopes of pinning it down while trying to dig large fingers around the end grasping Cat, where he could work to pry it free of her enough to scuttle away.
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Re: A good time for fishing

Postby Jirai » Tue Jun 12, 2012 2:02 pm

The basket had been abandoned. It hadn't been effective, anyway, and tiny fists could flail just as well against the tentacle as a smooshed basket. The shrieking was constant - that is, until the tentacle wrapping around the child's body cut off the air and thus stopped the screaming. By then, though, there was a glimmer of hope for N'vek and Kals were both on the scene, the former menacing the giant squid and the latter using his rather large size to try and pry the tentacle around the tiny urchin loose.
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