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"These may be some of the most exciting days I've had in a good while." The fisherman gets down in a crouch. Making direct eye contact with blue iris, the guru tilts his head slightly, mouth popping in a strange staccato of smacks while a hand sweeps toward the koi's side in front of bent knees.
The pleasantly surprised sea-child's head dips, two fin slaps accompanying the motion.
Slipping back to his native language, the bilingual utters a titillated, "Thank you!" seeming younger even than the child standing near him on the sand bar.
Fingers pass lightly over coarse scales, dipping slightly into shallow salt water by causality. The contours of the armor bump and raise beneath phalanges, rough to the touch.
Silence wraps the other two humans on the strip of beach, their potential words smothered by politeness. They had asked for a guru, not an average man to host their stay, after all.
Unique exchange with the carp finished, the fanatic straightens.
"I think we chose a particularly good sandbar! This is a prime spot for Magikarp watching. We might even spot some unfortunate ones." A tiny pair of binoculars are withdrawn from a forest-green vest pocket, and handed down to the youngest watcher.
"Unfortunate?" Evan asks. Rather than answer verbally the teacher gestures to the nearby ocean, hand indicating a school that begins to drift differently.
The carp beside the eldest of the group tilts in a clear puddle, engrossed by the odd yet familiar calls.
The sand they stand upon loses its bar status as the sea draws back from the dips on the beach. The minutes tick by, peninsulas appearing in the receding water before giving way to landlocked pools. As more salty ponds appear, so do a smattering of orange blobs across the landscape.
"Agruuoou!" An exclamation at the fisherman's feet jolts the observers from their reverie.
Following the Pokémon's line of sight, Evan notices Jewel studying her wild descendants just as closely as everyone else. But the side of her lips sag in horror, not bliss.
A froth of water kicks up behind furious movement as the female rockets off. At the end of the liquid-filled depression, the pumpkin child explodes out, splashing loudly into the next, before hurtling on.
"MAGNIFICENT! THE POWER! THE SPEED! EXACTLY AS I PREDICTED!" The Vermillion local sprints to catch up to the shrinking cyprinidae. Evan is rooted to the spot at the unexpected change in events.
A winged shadow passes over the chase. The aerial silhouette's colors begin to lighten as the shape shifts position in relation to the sun.
Unfortunate ones.
Evan bursts out after with sudden insight and mounting shock. His father is forced to tow behind at the unfortunate velocity as the son's hand snakes out, latching on in passing. Treacherous footing is denied its shifting wrath despite the panic overtaking the new Trainer. The Pidgeotto just speeds ahead, oblivious to the turmoil and frantic footsteps.
Horror dawns as the distance between the boy and the feathered beast lengthens even as the one between him and his vulnerable partner stays constant.
The first human ceases running twenty feet from his aquatic guest, oblivious to the danger.
Pulling wings in close, the creature pitches in a controlled plummet. It gains speed, arrowing in a collision course for Jewel's trajectory.
But she's waiting for it. Muscles flex, at the ready. Taut fibers snap and the ancient Magikarp is airborne, ferried and encased by a torrent of water twenty feet in the air. Startled, but unable to abort the dive, the predator is bashed from the sky. The great bird impacts the sand several yards away from its intended prey. It rolls beak over talon, wrenching a wing with a sickening pop, before lying still.
A snort of distaste blows out the top ridge of the defendant's face amongst a spray of loose, displaced earth as she lands on her side. A small flop, and the fire-opal body angles back toward the true intended target of the raid.
The still-speeding duo finally blow past the guru and skid to a stop at the scene, catching up far too late. Evan forsakes his father's hand, lunging forward to engulf his precious starter in a shaking hug. Apologies and garbled promises are mumbled as tears streak a flushed face.
Of course. She forgot how young her bladeless, Biped-Water-Beetle was. He must have been scared senseless at the sight of that raptor. Poor thing.
The prehistoric Champion nuzzles into the boy, intent on assuaging the fear. It doesn't matter whether it is the before-dark, or the after-brightglass, a Champion must always protect the School. Even if her two-legger doesn't understand that he is too big for the hatchling-stealers, the child still deserves the comfort those bearing her title are duty-bound to give.
After several minutes, Evan calms. Sensing the quelled hysteria, the carp is able to turn focus to the Other-School needing attention. Carefully Splashing out of the Trainer's grip into the waiting tide pool, the victor rights herself, and casts concerned eyes at the iris-less pupils looking back.
"Garrouuu. Agrooo. Groouaauu..." A conversation passes between the two, ending in a sympathetic look on Jewel's side.
Chapter Notes:
-Whaaaat? An action scene in the slice of life?! Couldn't be. XD
-I have decided that the Fishing Guru speaks Aquatic, the made up fish language.
-I created the title of Champion to be something that only existed in the past. Basically it is a designated carp, often the strongest, that the School chooses to protect it from predators and other things that may hurt the School. I am kind of imagining a knight.
-A school is a group of fish. So Other-School implies that it is a fish not from her own group.
-I love that Jewel thinks of Evan as a child that needs care, but that same sweet attitude makes Evan think of Jewel like a child. Jewel is more mature. XD
-the dark is what she saw when she died, the brightglass is what she saw first when she was revived