Fishing / Treasure Diving

[Katzaniel]

A yellow-toothed carnie smiled crookedly in his booth by the water's edge. Long wooden poles sat leaning against the wall of the booth, with thread all wound around them. Pails of squirming pink worms sat out on every ledge. Colourful canoes lined the shore. And strange silver body-suits were piled in the back. It didn't take long after the carnival's official opening for a curious crowd to gather. The man waited for all the interested onlookers to arrive before saying even a word, and the people grew more and more curious. Finally, he began.

 

"See here," the carnie stated with a grin. "This pole, and this thread, it's called a fishing pole. If you're clever, you can use it to catch a fish." The man went on to describe standard methods for rowing a canoe and fishing, activities uncommon among the folk of the Pen.

 

When he finished, some of the crowd began to dissipate. The carnie's smile spread across his face; he wouldn't be the first to talk, but he knew the people would be back. Finally someone asked, "Then what are those suits for?"

 

"Well well, I'm glad you asked. What are the suits for?" he reiterated, raising his voice for the retreating people to hear. "They are for treasure!" He grew more obviously satisfied as the crowd swelled again. He clearly liked to entertain.

 

"How so?" asked one onlooker, impatient for the explanation.

 

"It's called Deep Sea Diving," the carnie boasted. "You put on the suit, and you get a can of air strapped to your back. And you go under water in search of the many treasures that sometimes sink to the bottom." A murmur went up.

 

"Prizes for the biggest fish, and cash payment for any antique items or gold found on the bottom. Anyone interested?" The man grinned, knowing full well that the answer was yes.

 

OOC: Prizes won't actually go to the biggest fish, but rather the best telling of either the fishing or the diving experience, regardless of your character's luck or lack or it. 5 for participation, additional 20 and 10 for 1st and second place respectively.

[Quincunx]

Rydia unfolded a small hibachi and set its legs into sand at the lake shore, a respectable but visible distance away from the rental booth. After setting up a card table and clipping a quilted table-cover to its top, she hammered a pre-lettered wooden sign into the sand:

 

Paying 5 gold per earlength of fish!

Buffet later - one shiny per plate!

 

She turned to the first picnic basket and unloaded melamine plates and mugs onto part of the table, piled plain steel flatware nearby, then removed a heat-resistant glass serving dish from the bottom of the basket. From the other basket she unpacked spatulas, knives, and sealed boxes and jars of spices and condiments before uncovering a flat cast-iron pan that went promptly onto the hibachi.

[YanYanGanaffi]

Jason Kent walked up to the edge of the tank, looking into the murky water that seemed to ripple with a shadowy malevolence. Picking up one of the suits, he examined the quality; noticing a bit of dry rot here and there. The scuba gear was just functional enough to get you into trouble. He had never been much of a fisherman, but he was a decent enough diver. The carnie walked over, smelling slightly of cheap cigars. "Everything okay, sir," the 'gentleman' asked.

 

"You're equipment leaves a bit to be desired," Jason answered as he dropped the slightly damaged suit at the man's feet. Smirking, the God-seed turning and dived into the ominous dark water. As his body passed through the water's surface, he shifted to wraith form which neutralized his need for air and negated the coldness of the chilly water. Pausing for a moment, he summoned ambient energy to form a 'ghostlight'; a small pulsing orb that only those that could use death energy could see. The green light expanded and contracted, bathing the area in an eire greenish glow.

 

In a swimming motion, Jason decended deeper into the lake. Soon, he noticed that the water had an unusual shimmer to it, as little specks and flecks of silver and gold energy swayed and floated about. A subtle rise of power brushed by Jason's form, causing him to be forced back a little. 'What the hell?' he thought. Finally, he saw the bottom of the lake, with a huge forest of aquatic plants and weeds. small fish darted in and out of the broad green stalks and leaves. A gleam of eyes, a disturbing shade of yellow, shown out of the underwater overgrowth. A moment later, the dark, slick form of a giant eel slinked out of the seaweed like an ink-colored ribbon. Jason watched as the eel darted around for a few moments before disappearing again into the underwater forest.

 

Skimming the top of the weeds, he came upon a large ship resting on it's side. The form of the ship was limed over, giving it an almost 'fluffy' appearence. Pieces of nautical debris were scattered all around, including the skeleton of a human. Sending his will into the bones of the skeleton, the long dead form began to stir. It's muscles, ligaments, and tendons long decayed, the undead creature was held together by sheer magical will. Small puffs of sand and particules arose and stirred about. Streamers of sand fell from the eye sockets and nasal cavity of the skeleton. At Jason's mental command, the undead lumbered around picking up various objects so it's 'master' (Jason hated using that word) could inspect it's worth.

 

They approached the hull of the ship, which has sustained what looked like a large bite from a beak. Jason had the skeleton; named 'Bones', brush the side of the ship's hull around the two large pierce-marks, both of them as long as Jason's arm and as wide as his two fists side by side. The lime brushed away in a dull green cloud to reveal several large circular marks along the hull in a line pattern. The marks were as large as dinner plates. It was pretty obvious that this ship had been the victim of a giant squid attack.

 

Continuing their salvaging, the pair come upon a steel box about a foot and a half long and a foot wide with a keylock on it. Jason ordered Bones to take it with them.

 

An hour later, Jason floated out of the water and onto the dock. He shifted back to his mortal form. The carnie walked up to him in quiet wonder. "How did you do that?"

 

Jason looked at him and smiled," This place reeks of magic and you're suprised at that trick?" He laughed a little when he saw an algea covered skeleton carrying a steel book, a captain's sailing hat, and a large wooden steering wheel from the ship's pilot house. The carnie gasped horror as the undead crept up out of the shallows. The creature placed the items at the Carnie's feet. Jason picked up the iron box before the carnie could reach for it. "Sorry," he explained," But I'm keeping this. How much do I get for the rest?"

[Wyvern]

The fishing line extends from deep beneath the water, surfacing upon reaching the wall of the fishing booth. The white cord coils along the ground, passing the other fishing poles and gathered pennites. It coils past the Deep Sea Diving outfit rack, across the sandy beaches, around one of the legs of Rydia's hibachi stand, and across more beaches until it reaches the front door of the Mighty Pen Keep. From there, the cord continues it's path through the corridors of the Pen until it arrives at the Recruitment Office, at which point it slips through a crack in the door and finds it's finishing point at Wyvern's pole.

 

"I tell ya, Bravery." Wyvern kicks his feet back onto his desktop and tips a pointless sun hat over his horns. "Fishing has never been so easssy. This Almost Dragonic Brand Debt Circumfrance Length Fishing Cable™ makes it a snap."

 

"I dunno, Wyv." Bravery shakes his head, causing his fish bait trinkets to jingle. "I still say that fishing from the comfort of your Office takes all the fun out of it, though I must admit that your mission to stay dry has been a success so far. I still don't get why we have to dress up like fisherman when sitting in here, though-"

 

"Listen, I already explained it to you, girls really go for this fishing stuff. Plus, it's close enough to Hawaiin to keep me-"

 

Wyvern pauses as he feels a tug on his pole. Perking up and gripping the device with his claws, the lizard begins struggling with the reel.

 

"Errrrrrrk. Help me out here, Bravery, looks like we caught a doozy!"

 

Wyvern jumps up as he almost loses his grip. Bravery rushes to the pole and grabs it, only to have his eyes widen as he feels the pull at the other end.

 

"Wow, it is strong."

 

"Don't let go." Wyvern skids forward by the pull of the cord, almost stumbling across his desktop. "I bet if we pull this one in, Rydia will count it as three fish!"

 

"It sure is strong, you sure about this Wyv?"

 

"Sure? Am I sure? Repeat after me: 'Fifteen geld.'" The lizard pulls. "Fifteen geld!"

 

Wyvern and Bravery continue to pull in short intervals to the sound of Wyvern's chanted mantra, but soon become exhausted. They are about to give up when suddenly, the line begins moving towards them with the greatest of ease.

 

"We got it now, Brav'ry." Wyvern grits his teeth. "Fifteen geld. Fifteen gel-"

 

"What is the meaning of this?!"

 

Wyvern and Bravery both stare in shock and horror as Melba barges into the Recruiter's Office in a swimsuite, the hook of the line attached to the front of the suite. The two "fishermen" shut their eyes at the horrendous sight.

 

"Oy, I should've known it was you!" Melba glares angrily, then reaches into her bosom and pulls out an enormous Super Soaker 10,000 Professional Firefighter Edition™. The enraged Almost Secretary hoses down Wyvern and his dwarven assistant, then unhooks the line from her swimsuite and storms out of the Office.

 

"Well." Bravery sits in a puddle, massaging his eyes. "So much for dry, eh Wyv?"

 

*gurgle*

[Quincunx]

Tzimfemme dithered between the suits and canoes for awhile, but finally selected a boat, then trotted back to the booth for supplies. The carnie had his elbows on the counter and his chin in his hand. He eyeballed the naked mage. "Lady, you are going to burn," he remarked, and tossed a bottle of sunscreen onto the counter. Tzimfemme, already making practice casts with one of the shorter fishing poles, harrumphed and tuned out the rest of his chatter. She left her deposit and loaded the pole, bucket o' bait, and mesh bag into her royal blue canoe, then looked at the lake shore, back at the canoe, out at the lake shore. . . .With the canoe barely afloat, and standing knee-high in water on one side of the canoe, she flung her leg over it and at the far side of the boat, and successfully tumbled into the canoe. The naked mage unclipped the paddle and pushed the canoe further away from shore.

 

Sunscreen be damned, the glitter of sun showed minuscule waves that Tzimfemme had never seen on the lake before, and they were a sight worth frying for. They did burn her retinas though, so she turned her eyes towards the far shore, where half-fallen tree trunks leaned out over the lake and forest undergrowth spilled over eroding banks. The other edges of the lake were like the first, gentle slopes edged by sand and cat-tail reeds; the far bank was a curiosity, and Tzimfemme dipped her paddle deep and kept splashing to a minimum as she approached it, aided by the breeze. She brought her paddle horizontal and pushed against the high bank, letting momentum turn the canoe perpendicular to the paddle, and looked out over the lake again. From here, the other banks spread like an ampitheater, and the naked mage pictured the lake in wetter eras, deeper then gradually draining, all the while with that light breeze pushing imperceptible waves against the hill which had formed the lake.

 

In the shadow of the bank, Tzimfemme could look down into the water, although not to the bottom of the lake. She shipped her oar and watched the sediment for awhile, which twirled away from the bank contrary to the waves above, until a dull, wide-bodied fish jolted her memory. The naked mage threaded a worm onto the hook, half impaled on the short end of the curve and half wriggling free, then dropped the line straight down into the water and stopped when the sinker was no longer visible. While waiting, she studied the high bank; rocks studded the bank for a short distance above the water, and roots of forest undergrowth tangled along the upper edge, but the majority of the bank was good dark soil, maybe the remains of centuries of dead plants--

 

The line spun out with such force, the canoe started to twirl! Tzimfemme held her palm out flat near the whirling handle and took several blows, but slowed down the reel enough to grasp the handle. Immediately the handle bit into her bruised palm, but Tzimfemme flattened the pole while leaning against the pull, and the canoe halted at an angle to the bank, the fishing line lying across the port side parallel to the bank. She cranked slowly, and caught herself trying to rotate the pole-holding hand in tandem with the handle-cranking hand. The line cut a narrow zig-zag; the fish stayed in the shadow of the high bank and fought only to swim away in a straight line. All at once, the line went slack, and the naked mage began to wind with a gloomy look, but then the pole's tip bowed down to the water--the fish had swum under the canoe! She poked the pole into the water, deeper than the canoe, and continued to crank, feeling foolish, but the pole shook more and more, and the reel was almost full. Tzimfemme levered the pole out of the water and found a dull brown, plump, rounded fish wriggling on the hook. She dropped it into the mesh bag, secured the drawstring, and hung the bag in the water from the side of the canoe as she paddled back to the launching site.

 

"Carp, three kilos," announced the carnie, and unhooked the bag from the hanging scale. "Still alive, also, very fresh. Nice work, lady." He dumped it out on the counter next to the buckets o' bait, where it lay on its side and flopped its tail, gills flaring. "I'll clean it for you if you forfeit the deposit," he added. Tzimfemme glanced over at Rydia's table and nodded. The carnie unfolded a short-bladed pocketknife, and before the naked mage had time to blink, the carp's guts and head were in an empty bait bucket and its fins and tail had been flipped into the lake. She watched carp juices soak into the wood while he unfolded a different tool and shucked scales off of the fish. "Faster it's cooked, the better it'll taste," concluded the carnie, handing the carp back to Tzimfemme, who held it uncertainly with both hands, then turned and walked over to Rydia's table.

[Lord Panther]

Panther walks around the carnival, as if in a daze, but merely is trying to keep the rather bright sun out of his sensitive eyes with the hood of his cloak. He manages to find a tree by a body of water, just in time, it seems, for a carnie to set up his booth in the same area. Not doesn't pay much heed to the carnie as he prepares his canoes, paddles, and the rest of his gear Panther's ears perk up, however, as the carnie starts explaining to the crowd about fishing, and the chances of catching one of Panther's favorite foods, fish. Better yet, there's a chance of getting geld for catching a big one. Geld being something that he needs, as he was unable to bring any on his long trek from his old kingdom to that of the Pen, Panther's interest is definitely peaked, and he decides it may be worth a try.

 

Bravely walking back into the bright sunshine, hood covering his eyes as best it can, Panther makes his way over to the carnie with intentions of catching a big fish. "I would like to take your challenge, and catch a fish in your Derby." Panther announces confidently to the carnie. The carnie looks over the newest entrant, who appears a little out of place and quite hot with a dark cloak and black fur, and smiles with his yellowish grin. "Well, good, uh...sir? I will need a small deposit from you for the boat." Panther ponders his reaction for a second, as he does not have any money to leave as a deposit. After a very short while, Panther reaches inside his cloak and pulls out a small dagger from its place of concealment and offers it to the carnie. "I hope that this will do?" A little taken aback, the carnie stutters for a second, before he notices the rather large red jewel in the handle of the dagger. "Um, yes, this will be fine." he replies rather greedily before snatching the dagger to admire it more closely.

 

With that done, Panther grabs a pole and some bait as well as a paddle and heads over to the canoes. Not completely unfamiliar with the operation of these watercraft, Panther places his gear in the boat and pushes off from the shore. With graceful strokes, he paddles the canoe out towards the middle of the lake, in hopes that deeper water will bring bigger fish. After carefully priming the hook with a plump worm, he makes a great cast into the body of the lake and watches as the worm sinks into the shadows of the deep. Being rather anxious, and obviously not well versed in the ways of the canoe, Panther stands in the middle of the narrow craft, carefully bobbing his bait in the water, hoping for the big one.

 

Much to his astonishment, it isn't more than a couple minutes of bobbing the bait idly, that Panther feels what he figures has to be a huge fish take the bait. Little does he know, he as actually snagged a rather immobile and immovable log on the very bottom of the lake. Reeling fanatically and pulling hard on the pole, Panther doesn't seem to be making any headway with his whale of a fish, but he is doing a great job at rocking the already unstable canoe. Finally, the fishing line decides it can take no more of this punishment, and snaps suddenly as Panther is in the middle of a strong pull backwards. The snapping line sends Panther over backwards, out of the boat and into the lake. The canoe is pushed by his momentum back towards the carnie's booth as Panther disappears beneath the water line.

 

A small crowd gathers on the shore after hearing the splash, wonder who has fallen in, and if they are alright. Not resurfacing right away, the carnie isn't too worried about the possibility of his customer drowning, as he would be able to keep the dagger that was left with him as the deposit. However, much to his chagrin, Panther resurfaces fairly close to the shore with the fishing pole in his paw, water dripping from all over, and a silvery fish flapping helplessly in his jaws. Leaving a trail of water on the shore towards the booth, Panther hands the very drenched equipment back to the carnie and plunks the fish down on the scales. "A half kilo rainbow trout, good catch. Would you like it cleaned?" the carnie looks inquisitively at Panther. "No, thank you, I can take care of that myself" says Panther as he quickly snatches his dagger from the carnie before deftly gutting and decapitating the fish on the carnie's cleaning station.

 

After wiping the fish blood from his dagger on a handily placed rag, Panther makes his way over to Rydia and offers her the clean, fresh fish. "I hope you can use this, it has a couple extra holes, but I'm sure it will still taste great." That done, he goes to find a place to relax and dry off.

 

**edited for spelling

Edited July 7, 2005 by Lord Panther

[Sweetcherrie]

After having signed up for the beauty pageant Sweetcherrie decided to go for a swim. She dropped her beach bag in the sand, and plucked out an oversize beach towel. Careful not to get it all sandy, she spread it out on the beach. She took of her blouse and her skirt and pulled the bikini she was wearing underneath straight. One of the shoulder bands kept sliding of her shoulder and she retied the knot. She placed the beach bag on top of the towel so it wouldn’t blow away, took her snorkelling gear out, and walked towards the sea. In one of boots she heard someone proclaiming that whoever caught the biggest fish would get a price. Sweetcherrie shuddered, she didn’t like the idea of those poor fish caught on a hook, and even worse getting those wiggly creatures of the hook again.

 

The water was fresh, and she waded in until it was reaching to her waist, then with one big dive she went in head first. Under water her hair spread out like a blonde fan, and it felt great to be surrounded by water again. She had always loved swimming and snorkelling had become a hobby. Whenever she had time to go diving for a bit she did, and a lot of the time she saw the most beautiful sights under the water. She stood up straight although the water came almost to her chin she managed to get her diving glasses on and put the snorkel in her mouth. With the end of the snorkel sticking out above water, and her diving glasses under water she could see the colourful fish swim away for her moving hands. The sun was throwing shades on the sea bottom, and the shadow play made the underwater world even more beautiful. A school of yellow fish swam by, and she followed them for a while, until a giant turtle slowly swam in her direction. Its paws were moving slowly, but they scooped enough water for the enormous animal to move. Sweetcherrie moved above it and the turtle looked up.

 

“Hello, could you please move out of the sun?”

 

With the surprise Sweetcherrie got from this she let go of her snorkel and swallowed a big gulp of water. She stuck her head above the water, shoved her diving glasses up on her head, and coughed to get rid of the gulp of water she had taken in, but was too curious to let the turtle get away. She put the diving glasses back on and stuck the snorkel back in her mouth. The sea turtle was still swimming underneath her, and was also still looking up.

 

“Are you ok? You’re still swimming in my sun by the way.”

 

Quickly she paddled away until she was swiming next to him.

 

“I wonder how it comes you can talk?”

 

Her thoughts had only formed the words, but the turtle was already replying.

 

“I’ve lived in Neptune’s city for a while in my youth and he gave me the power to communicate with any sort of humanoid species. You only have to think your words and I can understand them.”

 

The turtle seemed to grin as he said this, but Sweetcherrie wasn’t sure, because she had never seen a turtle as big as this one before, let alone see one grin.

 

“Why is it so busy here all of a sudden?” The turtle asked.

 

“We’re having our carnival at this beach, actually they’re organizing a fish and treasure dive contest, but I don’t like the idea of hurting those poor fish with a hook, so I decided to go for a swim instead.”

 

The turtle seemed to think this over for a bit, and meanwhile he swam gently alongside her.

 

“That’s very good of you, to not use hooks.” He finally said, “I know where you could get treasure, and I’m sure that for your good deed some of my friends will want to help you carry it. Follow me!”

 

The turtle paddled downwards with his big paws, and was already quite a while away when he noticed that Sweetcherrie wasn’t following. He swam back and looked at her with a question on his wrinkled face. Sweetcherrie made an apologetic movement as far as the water allowed her.

 

“I can’t dive that deep”

 

“Oh silly me,” The turtle chuckled, “wait here.”

 

He dove away again, and had soon disappeared out of sight. Sweetcherrie paddled around for a bit and watched the fish and seaweed in the water around her. She’d already started thinking that it had all been in her imagination when she saw two enormous shadows swimming her way. The turtle was swimming ahead and it turned out that the other shadow were two dolphins that carried a large sort of fishbowl in between them.

 

“My friends here were happy to help when I told them what you needed. You can crawl under the globe; there is enough air for you, and we will then pull you down.”

 

Only hesitating for a moment, she took a deep breath of air, and swam from under into the upside down fishbowl. Because it was made she could see everything perfectly and there was indeed enough air for her to breath. She stuck her thumb up, and the dolphins started dragging the fishbowl down. The sunlight filtered out a bit as they got deeper but it was still bright enough for her to see everything clearly. The fish here looked different and the coral was more colourful then in the higher levels of the water. After a while she started wondering where they were taking her, but a strange shape was dawning on the bottom of the sea.

 

“These are the sunken caves from captain NeverComeBack, he used to hide his treasures in them, and only we, sea animals know its location. Inside there is an enormous chest filled with gold, and other valuable items. We can’t use it, but if you can than we’re glad to take it up for you.”

 

The dolphins pulled her closer towards the rock formation and carefully put her down on the roof of the caves. The rock was covered with weed and it felt soft under her feet. Sweetcherrie saw the dolphins and the turtle disappear inside the caves, and about ten minutes later they reappeared with a big wooden chest in between the three of them. She carefully moved her air bubble towards the chest and looked inside. It was filled to the rim with shining golden coins, probably worth millions. It had to be one of the biggest treasures ever found in the deep seas, and she started thinking on how to get it back to the shore, but the turtle had read her mind.

 

“I asked another friend of mine to join us, and...ah there he is”

 

Sweetcherrie turned around to see what the turtle meant by his friend and with fright she almost knocked the fishbowl over. An enormous whale was floating in their direction and it looked rather vicious the way it seemed to grin at her. The turtle swam up to the whale, and started a explaining what had to be done. At least she thought this was what he was doing, because he was pointing at her, then at the chest, and finally he pointed up. The whale seemed to understand him perfectly and moments later the dolphins lifted her on his back with her air bubble and the treasure chest. Slowly the whale started swimming, but the turtle already had difficulties to keep up. It started to lag behind, and obviously had difficulties with the speed the whale kept. The whale looked back, and he probably mentioned that the turtle should just hold on, because the turtle grabbed one of the enormous fins, and let himself being dragged along by the whale. The sea world around her now became a blur, and before she knew it the whale took one last big paddle, and graciously he slid into shallow water.

 

The airbowl that Sweetcherrie was under was still on the whales back, but was now sticking out above water and she tumbled it over. With an enormous effort she dragged the treasure chest of the whales back, and it fell open onto the beach; spilling shining golden coins in the sand. Sweetcherrie looked around and saw that they had landed close to the carnival boot of the carnie, and she jelled out for him to come over. The carnie came wobbling down to where the whale was, and when he saw the coins his eyes almost popped out of his head with greed. He stuttered something that this wasn’t exactly what the contest was meant for, but Sweetcherrie told him that she also had a fish. He looked around and with a dumb look on his face he asked her where this fish was. The whale flapped his tail in the water and an enormous flood wave rolled the carnie of his feet.

 

“Ah yes,” He said as he got back up, “that fish. Yes...erm…very nice indeed, I’ll note it down”

 

With this the carnie disappeared mumbling that in all his life he had never seen something like this, and that he was probably getting to old for this job. Sweetcherrie grinned, and turned to the turtle who was still holding on to the whales back fin.

 

“Thank you so much for your help. Your under water world is amazing.”

 

The turtle shook his head, and spoke in her mind.

 

“Thank you for not using hooks, and if you ever need help under water just send us a thought.”

 

They shook hands, and the turtle gestured to the whale. The enormous fish slowly let himself drift backwards, and soon they had both disappeared in deeper water, and with an enormous frin on her face Sweetcherrie looked at all the golden shinies in the sand. She had only planned to go for a swim, and she had come back with this; it had been a very good swim indeed.

Edited July 9, 2005 by Sweetcherrie

[Quincunx]

"Hiiiiiiiii!" Rydia chirped, waving her nearer ear at Tzimfemme, who stood by the table clutching a plump carp in both hands. "Ooo, that's a large fish," she remarked, "put in on the platter, I'll need to marinate it," and she tilted the same ear's tip down towards the serving dish. Bemused, Tzimfemme dropped the fish onto the platter, stepped back to the sign, and pretended to read it over while Rydia sorted through the spice containers like a card shark. "In a minute," said the pointyear, and shook out some salt into her cupped hand, followed by a few spoonfuls of previously chopped garlic, a cloud of paprika, and a spice blend with various-sized particles. The naked mage sniffed--pepper certainly, thyme or maybe dill?--while Rydia rubbed her hands together and picked up the carp; she stuck one hand inside the body cavity and patted one side of the fish inside and out, then shifted the fish to her other hand and patted the other side. She slapped the fish back into the platter and covered it with the pan's lid before washing her hands off in the lake.

 

Tzimfemme tapped her toe when Rydia turned back towards the table. "Your sign mentions pay. . ."

 

"That's one and one-half earlengths, but I don't have half-gold coins here," Rydia explained sheepishly.

 

"It was half an ear wide!" whatever _that_ means, Tzimfemme added to herself, "doesn't that count for anything?"

 

"I suppose," sighed Rydia, flicking excess water from her hands onto the pan and watching the droplets skitter. "Ten gold then, before I have to get my hands dirty again." She reached into the second basket and whistled three notes; an invisible lock clicked open, and Rydia handed up ten gold to Tzimfemme. The naked mage lifted her hand up to eye level and flicked the coins off of her palm, into a mini-mini-portal that had opened several feet away from her; she grinned and sauntered away. Rydia rolled her eyes, then jumped a bit as she caught peripheral sight of something. . .someone. . .Panther! "You startled me," she gasped, still kneeling by the side of the table and on an eye-level with Panther.

 

He nodded. "I hope you can use this, it has a couple extra holes, but I'm sure it will still taste great," said Panther. Rydia pointed one ear up and through the table; Panther reared up to drop the fish on a melamine plate while she picked out five gold and whistled the lock shut again. He padded away with the gold tucked safely into his mane while Rydia scattered cornmeal and flour into another plate, then seasoned it with a pinch of curry powder. She frowned thoughtfully for a moment, ducked into the first basket, and came up with an egg that she cracked into an empty mug, then picked up a knife and cut the trout into thick strips which concealed the bite marks, and chopped some butter into the pan with the same knife. After dropping the strips into the mug, she swirled them around with two fingers, then picked up strips and dredged them in the seasoned meal before flipping them onto the pan. As soon as all the strips were on the pan, Rydia snatched up a spatula and began flipping the first strips; immediately after the last strips had been turned, she scooped up the first ones and lay them on a paper napkin to drain.

[Patrick]

Patham had listened with interest to the yellow-toothed carnie’s offer. He had never fished before, and wasn’t particularly interested by it. A friend of his had been a passionate fisher, and was capable of waiting for hours before a fish caught the bait, but Patham knew he would not have the patience for that. He was among those, who had started walking off after the announcement of the fishing, but when he heard about the treasure diving he knew, that he had to take part. He was among the first to ask for a diving suit, but waited to see how others fared with the fishing and diving first. Then he decided that it was his time to go for a dive.

 

The suit did not fit perfectly; it was much too large around Patham’s waist.

 

“This suit is too big.” – he shouted at the carnie.

 

“You told me your size, and that suit is of that size.”

 

“Well then clearly you and I have a very different notion of sizes.” – he could see however that the carnie wasn’t going to do anything about it. – “Would you have a smaller size?”

 

“Sorry, only one suit per person.”

 

Annoyed Patham decided to let the problem go unsolved. Besides the discomfort, what could a not perfectly fitting diving suit do to you anyway?

 

He found out two minutes later, when he reached the deeper regions of the water and felt the cold water against his stomach. The water had simply passed between the large waist part of the diving suit and his stomach and in this way the diving suit did not protect him from the cold.

 

I’m not going back without anything. Even with faulty equipment I shall be able to find something! – he vowed.

 

He saw fish of all shapes, sizes and colours swim around him. As he dodged the fishing lines in this area of the water, he suddenly felt something moving against his stomach. Something scaly and slimy. Starting to panic, Patham tried throwing off the diving suit, but had forgotten about the oxygen can. He managed to get out of the suit, but unfortunately also threw off the can of air with it. The weight of the can, as he held on to the breathing piece started pulling him downwards, towards the bottom. Patham tried frantically untangling the can from the suit and managed to do so eventually, putting the can back over his naked back.

 

The fish had all moved away when Patham had started frantically moving. However, he was already at the bottom of the water, and somehow he was starting to feel strange. His ears were ringing and he felt his head throbbing.

 

As he felt consciousness slipping away he gripped at the bottom and found something. He came to fifteen minutes later, floating ten feet underwater, with a half-rotten boot in his hand. He kicked himself up towards the surface, and getting there realised that he had a long swim ahead of him to get back to the shore.

 

“Where is the diving suit?” – the carnie demanded when he took the can of air back.

 

“It was too big and slipped off.” – replied Patham. – “If you’re lucky someone shall find it later today while diving.”

 

Patham turned and made ready to leave.

 

“Oh, I found this shoe while diving.”

 

It was only then that Patham spotted the small oyster shell inside the shoe, inside of which he would later find, was a small, white pearl. He took the oyster shell, to remind himself of his adventure, and handed the shoe to the carnie.