A/N:

Welcome to the first mini-episode, or short if you will. I will have these sprinkled throughout the narrative. They are short, simple anecdotes that don't have much in the way of plot or anything heavy. Really just fluff pieces. I wanted to capture these interstitial moments between the grander adventures. Mostly focusing on slice of life. I hope you enjoy!

Campfire Stories: Fishing

Blue heavens drip onto blue waters broken by blue skin bobbing along the placid surface. Pudgy feet dangle in the underwater sky. Relaxed, bulbous eyes rest on the plane between air and liquid. They stare into nothingness, lost in absent thought until the calm is penetrated by a force of nature.

*SPLASH*

The little body starts riding the displaced waves. Those bulbous eyes awaken from their stupor to see the towering figure in white standing thigh-deep in the water.

"Damn! Got away again."

Bruni continued to float along the surface, gently moving with the current from the ripples caused by another failed fishing attempt. He stared up at Elsa as she scanned the transparent barrier of the water for more prey.

"What are you staring at?"

He continued to stare.

"I know you want to talk about it, but there isn't anything to talk about. It was just a friendly kiss on the cheek."

He stared more intently.

"Of course, it doesn't mean anything. That's just how she is. Kissing on the cheek is 'girlfriends lesson number 11' or something, I'm sure. Girls kiss each other on the cheek all time… I think. Besides, I'm not a man so it obviously was just a gesture between friends."

The stare remained unbroken, unblinking, unmoving from its victim.

"Don't you have a fire to start or something?"

Wide, yellow orbs seemed to fill her entire vision. A pink, fleshy tongue appeared, seemingly in slow motion, raking across the membrane. Cleansing any particulates from obstructing the never-ending scrutiny.

Elsa placed her hand in the water and caused a tiny wave to carry the little blue salamander toward the edge of the lake. The pudgy feet found pebbles underneath them as the wave brought him to the shore. A commotion further up, out of the water caused the amphibian to curiously seek the source.

He slowly meandered away from the pebbly beach and onto long grass, with blades towering over his head. Suddenly a downpour of deadwood plummeted around him.

"Oh, sorry Bruni! I didn't see you there. Come to help me with the campfire?"

Bruni turned his gaze up from the pile of sticks to the always smiling one above him.

Her voice rang out through the sky above.

"You catch anything yet, Els?!"

"Not yet!" Elsa cried back from her stalking in the water.

"Why don't you just freeze the lake and then pop the fish out like fishscicles?"

"I do not need to ruin an entire lake for the sake of our dinner."

"Well, something must be easier than catching them with your bare hands."

"As a child, I would freeze them. Eventually, I learned to make spears of ice for fishing. But catching them barehanded helps me train my focus. It also keeps the fish more intact than impaling them with spikes."

"Whatever you say, forest girl."

Bruni watched as Anna sat down next to the pile of branches she had placed in the small clearing that she had made for the future fire. She inspected her newly crafted magical garment, a short and simple green shift dress made of woven ice that was thin as silk. A temporary solution that Elsa came up with while she set aside the maid's skirt to be more refined into a functional traveling outfit.

"Have you caught anything yet?"

"You literally just asked me that."

"And….?"

"And, the answer is still no."

"Are you sure you know how to catch fish?"

"Maybe you would like to try?"

"Is the water cold?"

"How should I know?"

Suddenly, Elsa heard the sound of clumsy splashing behind her. Clad in nothing but her shift dress, Anna began wading in her direction.

"Whew! Cold, cold, cold! Feels nice in the heat."

"What are you doing?!" Annoyance grew on Elsa's face as the other girl was no doubt scaring away any of the fish with her wide strides and heavy steps.

"Well, you seem to be having problems so I'm here to help get us some dinner."

"I am not 'having problems'. It's just hard to concentrate."

"How come?" Anna asked with a tilt of her head.

"Maybe because there's a loud redhead buzzing around my ears."

Somehow, Bruni doubted that was the reason.

"So, come on! Teach me the ways of the forest."

Elsa looked at her with doubtful pessimism.

"You want to learn how to catch a fish with your hands?"

Anna shrugged her shoulders. "Girls' gotta learn sometime."

"Ok then. First, you have to stand totally still."

"Right! That sounds easy enough."

"Are you sure about that? You're still bouncing."

"I am? Ops. Ok, I got it. Still as a rock. Ready!"

They took up their positions. Elsa stood poised and ready, her body still yet tense, standing gracefully in the water like a crane stalking its prey. Anna, on the other hand, stood waist-deep in the lake, her legs spread and arms held out more resembling a juvenile bear ready to wrestle its opponent into submission.

"Now that you are standing perfectly still, barely even breathing, you wait."

"Right! I wait. For how long?"

"For however long it takes a fish to swim by us."

"Got it! And….. How long does that take?"

"As long as is necessary."

"Gotcha! Waiting… patiently…. Here, fishy fishy, come to Anna….."

"Taunting them won't speed up the process."

"You won't know until you try."

"If and when you see a fish, you must strike quickly and decisively. Like a lightning bolt. Try to pierce the water with your fingertips. Remember that the water plays tricks on your eyes and the fish will not be exactly where it appears to be."

Anna nodded her head in acknowledgment. Her brows furrowed in concentration and her eyes scanning the surface for dinner.

"The most important thing is to make your presence as subdued as possible….."

"FISH!"

A loud *SMACK* followed by a *SPLASH* as she slammed her palm onto the water and plunged it straight down, grabbing hold of white flesh.

"Wait! That's not…!" An even louder *SPLASH* as Elsa's back hit the water and her foot was yanked out into the air.

"Foot? Ohmygod Elsa!"

Anna let go of the foot and it slammed down back into the lake, splashing Anna with cool resentment.

The top of Elsa's platinum head slowly rose out of the water. Her eyes glaring just over the surface at the embarrassment quickly spreading over Anna's face as she slowly began backing away.

"Sorry! It's….uh….. hard to see what's down there.." She gave a winced, apologetic smile with a question mark at the end of the appeal for forgiveness. Elsa continued to glare, her entire body still submerged.

"Please don't be mad at me.."

Suddenly, Anna felt two strong hands tightly grasp her ankles and she was yanked into the cold shallows.

Her head came launching out, water spraying everywhere. As she shook the water from her hair and eyes she could see Elsa, still submerged, staring and…. smiling like a predatory animal stalking its prey in the water.

Anna swung her hand through and up out of the water, sending a wave to splash over Elsa's head. Elsa burst out with a laugh as she returned the gesture with interest, swinging both of her arms so that a wave crashed against copper hair.

Bruni continued to scrutinize from the shore as the two girls sent splashes back and forth in a ruckus of laughter and water. The other eyeball clearly needed licking.

As the splashing continued, a tremble shuddered up Anna's body and her face became stricken with a look of pain.

"YeeeeooooooOOWWWWWWW!"

"Wha… what happened? What's wrong?!"

"I'm being attacked!"

"What?! What's attacking you?!"

Elsa immediately and reflexively took an offensive position, ready to defend Anna from whatever monster of the lake had decided to assault them.

"I don't fucking know! Just get it off!"

Elsa frantically looked into the water for the source of the outburst just as Anna kicked her perilled foot out of the water. To Elsa's shock, the toe brought with it a long, slippery meal with its jaws clamped down tight around the poor digit.

"I don't believe it... Anna, you caught an eel!"

"That's great, now get it off!"

"No!"

"What do you mean, no?!"

"That's our dinner! Don't let it go!"

"In case you haven't noticed, it's the one not letting go! Get it off me before it chews my toe off!"

"It's just a toe. You'll survive."

"Elsa!"

"Ok, ok. I'll get it off."

Elsa tried to grab hold of the slippery creature latched onto the poor girl's foot.

"Stop moving it around."

"I'm not moving it, it's moving on its own! Just grab it already!"

As the two women thrashed about in the water trying desperately to save themselves from their dinner, a salamander sat on the shore and contemplated. Where in the world are they? Where are they going? Why does he light on fire? Did that eel just slap Elsa in the face? Is that a beetle lumbering into his vision?

Contemplations ceased as fleshy tongue lashed out and a hard crunch resounded from his gummy mouth.

A purple fire crackled amongst the dry wood and a defeated serpentine fish roasted on a skewer. Bruni sat curled in the flames with his eyes closed and his tail wrapped around him.

"Ow! It hurts…"

"Relax. It's not that bad."

Anna grimaced in pain as she reclined on her elbows into the grass by the warm fire with her feet settled on top of Elsa's lap. Elsa was sitting in a soft bed of snow, with her own feet pointed in front of her and her knees slightly bent. She had the still swollen toe grasped in a cooling embrace.

"Stop pouting. The bleeding has stopped. I think you'll live."

"How come it didn't latch onto your foot? You were standing in that lake a lot longer than I was."

"Maybe I'm just not as tasty as you," Elsa said with a subtle shoulder shrug.

"Besides, you should feel proud. You caught your first fish. Now you're a real fisherwoman." Elsa gave her a warm glance from the corner of her eye as she continued to soothe the foot in her hands.

Anna instantly brightened. "I did, didn't I? And I did it in minutes when it was taking you hooouuurrss!"

"Ok, no need to exaggerate."

Anna took a slightly more serious and solemn attitude as she looked down toward the fire and bit her lower lip.

"Thank you…"

"Anna, it's not that bad. Really. It's just a scratch."

"No, not that. I mean… thank you for teaching me and… not just brushing me off like an incompetent princess."

"Anna, you are anything but incompetent."

They glanced at each other for a brief moment and smiled before Elsa added, "and next time maybe I'll dangle you out on the lake with a rope to catch a bigger fish."

Anna's smile turned into a threatening scowl. "I will stick this foot into your mouth. See how you like it!"

She brought her uninjured foot up slowly, tauntingly, so that her big toe pointed at Elsa's nose. As she was preoccupied with wiggling her toe in Elsa's face she failed to realize Elsa repositioned her hands so that a single, mischievous finger slowly traced its way along the indent of her sole.

A violent shudder overtook her body as she burst out laughing.

"Ahhh! No fair! That tickles!"

"Then don't stick your foot in my face." Elsa returned the laughter with her own playful smile.

The unexpected shudder across her body caused Anna to fall onto her back so that she was laying down on the grass. She brought her hands up behind her head and stared into the starry night above, melting next to the fire and into the continual soothing caress of Elsa's hands on her burning toe.

Bruni had opened one eyeball from his nap to see what the continual commotion was about. He stood up, stretched his legs and tail out, and belted a yawn. He circled around in the embers of the magical fire and repositioned himself into a fresh curl so that he may dream about laughing water and crunchy beetles.