Fishing
4/15/10
Including:
Lin
Tyree
Straight ahead, the mighty River Moss flows out into the vast expanse of the ocean. At the same time, riverbank and the surrounding wood fade into a long strip of bare, sandy beach. The current of the river is faster than it is upriver.
Exits: [P]ath, [O]ut to [S]ea[S]hore, [U]p[R]iver
It's been quite a walk, but fortunately, Tyree is uniquely conditioned to a lot of walking, being a Patroller. He has also chivalrously decided to carry most of their fishing equipment to the river, bearing the (admittedly not too heavy) load in fairly stoic silence most of the way. He's let Lin do a lot of the talking, if any has indeed gone on, mostly out of a wonderment that he's actually going on a fishing trip. Nobody ordered, nobody said 'Tyree, this is of utmost importance, now hop to it.' It was for no real reason at all except that he would like to time with Lin, and knowing that makes him feel a little nervous. Tongue tied, even. But when they reach the river he finds his voice again. "This looks perfectly suitable to our needs," he assesses primly.
Lin has been doing most of the talking- she doesn't find it insulting that Tyree mostly grunts and nods in reply, that's just his way. So she ends up laughing at his appraisal of the river, looking down into it. "What a stark evaluation," she answers. "It's so nice this time of year." Lin raises her delicate nose up into the warm and and takes a lungful of breath, letting it sigh out with a smile. "So fresh, don't you think?"
"Yes, quite fresh. I should hope so, spring has only barely begun," Tyree answers, peering down the bank to see if there's any appropriate place to settle in. The problem with spring is that everything is... growing. So many seeds and pollens and bugs and dirt and eck! That can get all over his nice tunics. "It is, at least, much more colorful. Even I get a little tired of looking at sand, rock, and sea every waking moment."
Lin quirks a smile at the buck. "Sand, rock, sea and hares, you mean? At least we're all colorful." Lin seems to have taken the spot-choosing task as well, and has turned her head the opposite way. "Over here, Ty," she says, venturing a few feet down the riverside. A sandy bank has created a nice spot, complete with a beached log to sit on. "You've got the poles, yes?" she says, turning her eyes up to Ty.
"Of course," Tyree almost huffs, shifting the equipment on his shoulders. "That'd be right absent minded, goin' fishin' without poles. 'Less you wanted ta' try an' tackle the blighters." He plops it all down nearby and opens one of the bait boxes to reveal... cheese and other tidbits. No disgusting worms here. Ironically, Tyree is the one who has a weaker constitution about such little wrigglies. He next holds both poles out before the doe. "Choose your weapon, m'gel."
"I'll have th'shorter one," she says, reaching out to take the pole into her white paw. It's no longer as white as it was, of course, now being shot-through with blue.. winter's over, and so is her winter coat. The doe lets out a bit of line and picks a hook from the box, threading it through and tying it. "Just like stitching," she says, with a little giggle. "You got yours okay?"
"Er... yes," Tyree says after a bit of hesitation, having had to work his a bit to get it through. These things really should come with the hooks already attached. "I've never really... done this before," he murmurs nervously, shifting his weight about on the log, fidgeting as he prepares to cast off. "As far as I know, we just... sit here, do we? Like... sentry duty," he says, proud to connect leisure time to his career.
Lin figures he can manage. He's a solja and all, he can thread his own hook. And look, he does so. Lin smiles a little at the comparison to their job. "Y' fish to get away from work, not to augment it," she says, making a little laugh. "Well, first, you gotta pick a piece of bait." Lin reaches in and selects a piece of cheese, baiting it on her hook. "Then you cast off, like this." She lets out a bit of line and swings it out into the middle of the river. Plunk!
"Well. I knew that part..." Tyree says, abashed as he selects his ammunition for the first cast. He picks out the most perfectly cube-ish piece he can find, and settles it onto the hook as primly as possible, then follows suit. Ker-splash! "You seem much more well versed in the arts of leisure," he notes.
"I'm my father's child," she replies. "Leisure is what we do. Y'know, as a family." She crosses her legs, sitting on the mossy log, holding her pole in both paws. The butt of it rests in the loop created by her legs, down against the log. "But flippin' things around, you don't seem versed in them at all. But that's what we're trying to change, right?" Fishing, it's a Big Step for the buck.
"Well, no..." Tyree mutters. "But. I'm glad it's... you doin' the teachin'," he says quietly, giving her a sincere glance out the corner of his eye. "I mean... you need ta' be introduced ta' all these crazy things with a gentle paw, correct?"
"I'm not suggstin' we go and do somethin' /real/ crazy. That's why we're fishing." Lin turns her head to him, taking her eyes off the water, and smiles. "I'll letcha in on a secret- it's not about the fishin', for the most part. It's about the talking, and having a relaxing time." She reaches over and pats him on the back, corners of her mouth turned up.
Tyree nods in assent, looking a little abashed for some reason when she touches him. "Well... yes. I mean, talkin' isn't somethin' I do often either, or too well," he says, rubbing at the bruise that's still smarting from his fight with Tameus. "Though as a Lieutenant I 'spect I'll 'ave ta' learn at some point."
Lin folds her paw back into the hold on her pole. She tips it up a little then back down, watching the line move minutely in the flowing water. "Sometimes a quiet companion is what you need," she jokes. The doe is quiet for a bit, then shrugs. "You're learnin' well enough."
"Thank you," Tyree says sincerely, quietly, to match the atmosphere and the mood. "I don't remember the last time someone just... took some time off ta'... well. Actually just spend time with me." He tugs the line a bit. "Sometimes it gets to ya'. The stress, an' all... I dunno why, though. Sometimes I just... feel like I need ta' worry."
"Well you just gotta ask, silly! Plenty of people would rather do something than work. Like me, shock horror." Lin's laugh rings out again and she brings her line back in, the bit having drifted far too downshore for her. She casts it back out, a bit upstream from her, skillfully avoiding tangling with Ty's line. "Why do you have to worry?"
"Because I do," Tyree says earnestly, leaning forward and putting a paw on his knee. "I just... I'm used ta' it," he mutters, twitching his black tipped ears. "Used ta'... makin' a fuss. You know, when I first came 'ere? I was a mess, wasn't I? Even before Da died, I was the one thinkin', I gotta make the decisions, run the household an' all that! Keep up tradition. Father impressed on me so many things, an' when 'e was gone, an' the family moved south..." He shrugs haplessly, tugging his line further up to copy Lin. He accidentally trawls it into a patch of reeds, and grumbles. "Never learned about... all the rest. About life."
"Ah," Lin mumbles, taking in Tyree's little gut-spillage. She watches him trail his bait into the patch of reeds, and mms. "It's good I'm teaching you to unwind, then." Again her mouth turns up, a little hopeful. "Teaching you about life, hmm?"
"Need ta' unwind this confounded string..." Tyree grumbles, giving the line a great tug that probably just makes it worse. He sighs slumps his shoulders. "Don't even know what ta' ask about," he admits. "I've been doin' better. Little Nimue is... doin' 'er best ta' worm her way in," he says with a sheepish grin. "You might 'ave 'eard about our... 'date.' At the Feast." He lets the line settle, watching it drift slowly back out into the water, patiently, instead of demanding it come back to him. And then, gently, he begins to draw it back around. See, he's learning! "What do you know about life then, Lin?"
Lin knows Nimue, at least a little. They've talked a couple times. "Worm her way in, eh?" Lin asks, with a little grin of her own now. "Didn't know you had a date. How'd it go?" She nods with approval as Ty retrieves his line, then her eyes move from the water tot he buck. "I've just been living for awhile."
"As well as it could. I can be quite charming when I want ta' be," Tyree says with a proud little sniff, puffing his chest out just slightly as he retrieves the line. Pompous buck. "Swept her off her feet, I expect." He casts out again. Fwish! He rather enjoys hearing that noise; it makes his ears quiver humorously. "Just been livin', eh? I'm startin' ta' understand what that means more an' more." He settles down and lets out a deep breath, perking his ears to listen to the sounds of the river flowing by. "'Course, havin' a chum ta' speak with helps. Eh, my silent companion?"
Lin's smile breaks out again and she laughs. "That's good. I expect you quite dazzled her." She'll have to speak with Nimue, see how it went. Girls and their gossip, right? She grins at the quivering of Ty's ears, then shifts her spot. She slides down to sit on the warm sand and recrosses her legs, using the mossy log as a backrest. "Definitely silent. Almost silent. Mostly."
Tyree just so happens to scoot a little closer to Lin. One little scootch. He's just avoiding a pointy spot on the log. Yes. That's it exactly. His ears are quite still when she laughs, one turned towards her, him sneaking an inconspicuous look while she's distracted. He reaches around to fiddle with the bait box to pick out better cheese, looking away. "You're lovely, silence or no," he whispers to himself, twisting his ears back around to hide the blush. "Um... not much bitin' today, is there?" he says as he turns around again in his louder, normal voice. "Or does it just take longer?"
He is tricky, isn't he! Lin barely notices much in the way of his change of proximity and posture, watching intently at her line as it moves ever-so-slowly down the flowing current. It's probably just drifting and bobbing against the bottom, arresting its course. She smiles a little sincerely at the compliment. "Thanks, Ty," she whispers, and then shrugs her shoulders. "Doesn't seem t'be, does it?"
Oh. did she hear that? She couldn't have. Must have been the wind. Thanking him and saying his name. Either way he's glad she's not looking back at his face, hot under the collar as he is. Suddenly he feels very awkward and silly. He tugs on his line. "Well. As ye say. More about the talkin'. The... companions. Than anythin' else." Gently, gently, he slides off the log and settles in next to her. Enjoying the togetherness. His eyes narrow severely as his line bobs. Hey. Fish. Back off. He's trying to have a moment here.
Awkward and silly comes with these things. Ha, it's like being a couple teenagers. Lin doesn't seem to mind when the buck settles in next to him, her paws on her line. She looks to him with a little smile, then looks back out to the water. "Looks like you got a nibble," she mentions, tone amused.
Tyree doesn't want to agree, suddenly feeling virulently against the idea of fishing and more in favor of sitting with Her Silent Loveliness. He continues watching the line, and there it goes again. "Seems so," he says, resigned, and then jerks on the pole. The quarry tugs back, and Tyree seems flabbergasted as he pulls harder. What, you mean you /don't/ just pull it out of the water? "It's, um, bein' stubborn."
He can do both! In fact that is what he is doing right now, is it not? And Lin leans against his big warm bulk, her paws still wrapped loosely around the base of her own pole, which is emphatically /not/ bobbing. Her eyes are in his. "Don't jerk it," she cautions at his erratic movement. "You'll snap the line. You just have to bring it closer a bit at a time.. the fish will get tired."
"Haaaookay," Tyree breathes steadily. She is leaning upon him, not helping concentration! But instead of panicking, he decides to draw a bit of confidence and calm from the comfortable warmth found in two bodies up against each other. He slows his movements like he did with the reed problem, drawing back slowly, giving here and there when the strain gets to be too much. She watches his eyes, and his eyes watch the line. Bit by bit, he's learning how to coax, and be coaxed.
Learning all kinds of things today! Isn't he. Lin's eyes fall back down to his paws, watching as the muscles there bunch and move minutely, then moving along the pole as it bends and flexes, then down to the taut string and the water, the little ripples. "If y' feel him tiring, just start to pull, bring it in.." She is intent upon the struggle, brow slightly furrowed over her eyes.
"Got it... I got it," Tyree says, almost breathless. He's about to share in the ultimate triumph of slaying a might beast of the river! But as he finally manages to bring it in closer, the mighty beast is really just quite average as fish go. But Tyree's got a genuine smile on his face as he yanks the flopping, nigh mindless bundle of fin and scale onto the beach. "Ah ha! Ha! Look at that!" he crows, and might have hugged Lin if he didn't have both paws on the pole. "Uh, wait, what do we do now?"
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