Fishing Doggos

As the sun had slowly begun to rise and dawn approached, three best friends had headed out to a nearby lake for a round of fishing. Buttercup, as per usual, was leading the party of canines, the telltale spring in her step and grin on her face giving away to almost anyone who knew a thing about her that she was leading her buddies on another escapade throughout Ulfrheim. Noctis followed suit, making sure that nobody in the party managed to get themselves killed just because Buttercup told them all to jump off a cliff. Miyara was trailing behind them, gazing out in awe at every little distraction the forests had to offer. Despite their differences in personality, the three made a surprisingly good team.

“Let’s go! The lake’s just up ahead!” Of course Buttercup would know that. She knew practically every nook and cranny in the forests, and could recall an incident that happened there weeks ago just from a single detail. It was kind of intimidating. Sure enough, up ahead the land sloped gently downwards, and the incline led to a moderately sized lake. Buttercup trotted up, and Noctis and Miyara both followed. The lakes were especially gorgeous in the morning, and the sunlight made them appear as though they were made of liquid fire. Buttercup headed down the slope, Noctis padded close behind, and a Miyara turned away from watching a family of birds nesting in a sycamore and quickly raced after the two felvargs.

Noctis and Buttercup settled by the water’s edge, preparing for fishing. Miyara circled in the bulrushes and dipped her paw into the shallow lake water. It was surprisingly, yet pleasantly warm, and Miyara kept her paw submerged in the water, letting it lap at her legs. Miyara had actually grown to become quite fond of water, despite hesitating at first. Buttercup stuck her muzzle in, attempting to scour the riverbed for fish, while Noctis was padding out deeper into the lake to hunt down the bigger fish that clustered in the sandbars in the riverbed near the entrance to the lake. Miyara couldn’t spot any fish yet, so she decided to sit and wait it out. It couldn’t be long before somebody snagged something.

Buttercup pulled her head up to the surface, spluttering and spitting out lake water. A water lily was clinging to her head, which she quickly brushed off and dipped her snout under again. Miyara would occasionally glance off to the other side of the lake, watching the cattails sway gently in the breeze. Other times she would swear she saw a fish and swat at it, only to realize it was a drifting piece of moss or other freshwater plant. Buttercup continued snapping at the fish near the bank, however hadn’t caught anything other than peat. Noctis hadn’t had much luck either, however he was the only member of the group to land a catch, that being a relatively small trout. There was a surprising dearth of fish in the lake, especially for this late into spring. She glimpsed another shadow flickering beneath the surface, and assumed it was just another plant and swatted it away.

To her surprise, the shadow dodged away from her paw and  leapt out of the water. To Miyara’s surprise, it was in fact, a fish. The fish, a tiny minnow, arced out of the water and splashed back into the shallows. Miyara snapped and swatted at it, however the minuscule fish proved too slippery to catch, and it wriggled out of her jaws before leaping into the deeper waters of the lake. Glancing up, it appeared Buttercup had also had an encounter with a fish. She had another trout clamped in her maw, however it managed to slip free of her grasp and flop back into the pond. Dismayed, Buttercup followed after it, paddling into the deeper waters before submerging herself completely into the lake. Her shadow was still visible through the water, rippling and dancing in the depths as the wind swept over the water.

With a cataclysmic splash, Buttercup suddenly leapt out of the water, droplets flying in all directions as she broke the surface. The trout was clasped in her paws, and she briskly let it go before snatching it in her jaws. Turning in midair, she fell back into the lake and swam to the shore, dragging her catch with her. She shook the drops of water from her coat, spraying Miyara’s hazel coat. A few more minutes passed, and Miyara still hadn’t managed a catch. Buttercup hadn’t nabbed anything after the trout, and Noctis had caught a perch or two, but nothing much. Noctis had padded over to the centre of the lake, where the water nearly went up to his neck. Buttercup had given up on fishing in the shallows and had headed to the midway depth to hunt the aquatic creatures, and Miyara had stuck to the shoreline. She had actually dozed off a couple of times, just listening to the sound of the breeze winding among the leaves. Tiny ripples danced across the surface of the water, creating intricate patterns as they echoed in the currents. Miyara could swear the whole thing was a dream, just because of how tranquil it was. The lake was nice. All of that was soon disrupted by a bark from Noctis, who was attempting to pin down what seemed to be a very large fish.

It somehow managed to break free of the midnight black titan’s grip, and Buttercup plunged into the water, darting through the currents after the fish. She had begun to drive the fish towards the shore, and Miyara hadn’t noticed until the last second that Buttercup was attempting to drive it towards her. Getting the hint in the nick of time, Miyara pounced, pinning the fish down and biting down on its neck. It appeared to be a carp, and not a badly sized one at that. “Nice catch you two!” Noctis called out, wading up to the bank and shaking out his pelt. Buttercup sputtered as the water drops splashed her scruff, and playfully flicked up some water with her tail. Miyara picked up the carp and placed it in the grass, so it wouldn’t be disturbed by the pair of scuffling felvargs.

After that, the three had caught a few more fish. Miyara had caught two perch, Buttercup had caught a walleye, and Noctis hadn’t caught anything else, except for a shard of driftwood. The three were basking in the sunbeams, enjoying their kills and warming themselves up. Miyara stretched out her legs, rolling over onto her side to grab another bite of fish. Fish had an odd taste, but it was one of her favourite things to eat, strangely enough. Buttercup was curled into Noctis’ chest fluff, because it was group-wide knowledge that Noctis’ chest fluff was one of the easiest ways to warm oneself up. Noctis didn’t mind. Actually, he quite enjoyed the snuggling. Despite his size and intimidating appearance, Noctis was a complete sweetheart who wouldn’t dare hurt a fly. Unless said fly was an active threat to him or his friends. Miyara sighed and rolled over, settling herself in the grass and letting the sunbeams warm her underbelly. Sunbeams and fish were some of the best things life had to offer, at least that she knew of.