Chapter 6 - Fishing and Friends
The water was calm and still that morning, the overcast sky reflected off its mirror surface making it seem like the small bobber at the end of the line floated in thin air, if not for the half that was submerged in the still water. Gentle ripples spread from the small floating device as it lazily drifted along the calm surface. The sand seemed dull and lifeless, the only change in color was when the gentle waves washed a few inches up, leaving behind a darker shade of grey as the water retreated back into itself.
Much like the water the day perfectly reflected Zenna's feelings it seemed. The huntress had felt oddly unsure for sometime now, she rarely felt helpless or unable to think of something, but she also rarely had to deal with people. Her habit of being a loner was getting the best of her. With her metal visor up, she glanced a look to her right. A few yards away the reason for her uncertainties stood with his own line cast in the still ocean waters of the small bay. Between them stood a large barrel, full of nothing but sea water so they could deposit their catch, though it only contained water at this moment.
It had been several weeks since Koryn had recovered from his injuries. When his body had healed enough for him to start once again working alongside his mentor Vul'kan. The hunter had become a recluse for a few days as he frantically worked on repairing his damamged armor and weapons from their encounter in the Misty Peaks. Zenna had happily visited him everyday as he worked, and the two talked and chatted as he hammered away. He rarely looked up from his work, and she had taken his lack of eye contact as focus. When he had recovered enough to go out hunting, that was when she began to notice the small changes.
Koryn was never one for much crude humor, even before he knew her secrets he was a always hesitant to laugh if she cracked a dirty joke. She found that innocent nature of his somewhat endearing, if a bit out of place, she lived with two men back home after all, and since she trained with them both she was used to the occasional obscene jest. No his lack of colorful humor was never an issue, but it seemed his habit of politeness had intensified over the past few weeks. What worried her even more was his need to distance himself at times. After a hunt the two usually sat and ate with one another, drank a bit, and joked. The eating and drinking was the same, but there was a lack of pleasantries at times. The fiery eyed swordsman would talk if asked, but would rarely engage lengthy conversations himself, and whats more he seemed to focus on his meals, as if deep in thought.
She decided to try and start some small talk with her partner, the silence only making her mind fear for the worst, and so she cleared her throat and called to him in the quiet morning.
"So get a nibble yet?" almost immedietly as she had said it she wished she hadn't. Koryns expression was one of utmost concentration. After a few moments he seemed to realize he was not alone and very slowly shook his head.
"Nothing...I really don't know if I'm even doing this right," the hunter replied, not looking back at her, only at the small bobber in the water. It was clear by his tone he was less than thrilled with their activities, he really was not one to just stand around and wait for action. She ventured if he had his way he would have dove into the water and tried grabbing the fish rather than trying to catch them on a line. Zenna began to have second thoughts on all this.
"He must really hate me," she thought to herself after observing his change in attitude for a few days.
Zenna had never thought she'd be truly afraid of anything before, except for maybe a freak lightning storm, but that was hardly the same. The huntress dreaded the idea of loosing such a skilled hunting partner, and a good friend. She wanted to ask him what was the matter, but every chance she had, either was during a hunt where chatting could hardly be sparred, or she just couldn't bring herself to ask for fear of not liking the response. After many failed attempts, she decided she needed to speak with him; away from Vul'kan, or the shop, or even hunting. So she hatched this desperate little plan several days ago in the hopes she'd finally be able to set things right.
"So much for this idea," she huffed to herself.
Three days earlier Koryn was busy in the workshop with Vul'kan overseeing his work as usual. He had finally gathered the needed materials with Zenna to try and upgrade his equipment. The ores the two had gathered a few days ago had begun to glow cherry red in the crucible as he pumped the billows feeding the fires. Once the metal had grown soft and began to meld together into a bubbling mass, he moved the retrieve a pair of heavy iron tongs and carefully used the tool to extract the small vessel of molten metal from the embers.
With a steady hand he walked over to a small channel and carefully poured the contents of the container into it, the red hot liquid rolled slowly through several small lines and emptied into elongated molds. The metal pooled, and slowly cooled, become bricks of shimmering silver ingots.
"Well done," the wyverian croaked with pride. Koryn felt releif wash over him, seeing he had managed the correct ratio or ores to make the glimmering material just right.
"You've got a knack for this kid...you're learning everything I can teach you so quick...who knows maybe you'll learn how to use more than just bone and metals soon," Vul'kan grinned, hinting that he might soon be ready to try and make special weapons. Koryn had the urge to pump his fist in celebration, but re-framed from doing so, for fear of causing any second thoughts to his readiness.
"Now lets not take to long, else the metal will need to be heated again," just as the blacksmith finished his instructions, the flap to the workshop flew open and in came the raven haired huntress.
"Koryn!" Zenna shouted with excitment, she seemed to have something on her mind, but at that moment she seemed to realize she had walked into the middle of something and her body language quickly grew placid.
"Oh...er...sorry did I interrupt something?" the green eyed warrior asked bashfully. In the light neither of the two craftsman could tell she was blushing slightly. Vul'kan gave the boy a nudge and nodded.
Kooryn straightened up, wiping his hands on his apron and used a rag to pad the sweat from his brow. Once he was ready he regarded her with a pleasant smile "No...just working on some things, whats up Zenna?"
She didn't speak right away, the huntress must have thought his politness was only an act, and was hesitant to say anything. The thought to just excuse herself and leave crossed her mind, but then she realized she would have interrupted him for nothing. After a deep breath she continued. She fought the urge to ask what it was he was working on, afraid she would get side tracked and forgot to say what she had wanted to say.
The huntress had spent a few days after they had come back from a simple gathering excursion to give him some space. During the time she had thought of someway to hopefully get him to open up and to mend whatever needed mending between them. The opportunity had presented itself that morning when a new batch of guild requests had come in. She found one that seemed perfect, and had quickly snatched it from the quest board and raced over.
"Oh um...I just..." she cleared her throat "I thought maybe you'd want to help me finish a request," she fought the urge to look down at her feet, instead keeping eye contact with him. She found it hard to look at him when she thought he was growing distant from her. In the light his eyes also seemed to burn much like the embers in the furnace.
"Oh uh...well whats the request," the falter in his voice was not lost to her, and she already felt he would simply reject the proposal in the end.
"Well...some rich noble wanted us to procure some gourmet ingredients for him," she replied, making the request sound all the more appealing to what it actually was.
"Such as?" he said with an arched brow.
"Golden fish," she replied quickly.
"So we are going to go fishing?" he asked skeptically. Zenna was already beginning to have second thoughts.
"Well...yes...but the reward money is amazingly good," the huntress said, trying to grab his attention. Koryns gaze quickly flicked down at the ingots he had just created, and she knew he was sold on the prospect all to much. Once he got into a project little could deter him from it.
"That sounds...great...but," before he could finish, the apprentice felt a sharp blow to his backside that caused him to almost lose his balance. He turned to see Vul'kan had stood up and apparently given him a kick.
"Go on boy, everything will be ready for you when you get back don't you worry," Koryn wanted to argue but Vu;'kan continued "Besides...I hear golden fish scales are quiet valuable as well, each goes for a nice amount of zenny, that could prove useful for the shop in the long run."
It seemed at that Koryn was stuck, it felt almost like he was being forced to go on this quest rather than choosing too. If it did help his mentor and helped the shop get some much needed improvements, than he had little choice.
"Alright," he said in a somewhat defeated tone "When do we leave?"
Zenna's eyes lit up and she smiled brightly. "Awesome...um...well we aren't going to set out until tonight...so I'll come back later so you can get ready okay?" With that she turned and bowed out of the shop before he could ask any other questions. She had purposly not given him all the details, and to her luck Vul'kans involvement had played in her favor.
She hurried back to her own dwelling to get things ready. It would be some hours later that she would return to the small shop to collect him. Her metal armor clinked as she walked through town. She had purchased the new set of iron armor about a week back. She had thought it was efficient, covering up most of her figure with sheet metal and treated leather. The fact her thighs were mostly exposed past the skirt of metal plating was not something she enjoyed, but the boots only covered up just past her knees. It did provide more mobility on her part, but she greatly missed the covering of the Rhenoplos armor.
Zenna had expected him to greatly like the more pleasing armor, but when he instead looked away she guessed perhaps the fact it had not been purchased from the wyverian he learned under that he had little appreciation for it. She did not push the subject, and found it odd she even cared for his approval in the first place.
"Are you ready?" she asked as she saw him standing outside the shop. His armor had been nicely repaired since the Misty Peaks, but she noticed his guantlets seemed particularily well made. She guessed that was only part of what he had been working on earlier, the metal seemed to gleam brighter than any steel he had used before, and she guessed the material was a whole new substance.
"Nice," she commented gesturing at his hands. The hunter seemed puzzled for a moment before he followed her gaze.
"Oh...yeah thanks," he replied with a small grin, flexing the metal digits of his gloves, as if to showcase the improvement in motion. She only smiled back, unsure what she was supposed to notice, but he was smiling and that was good.
"So how long is this...fishing trip going to be," the sword wielding hunter asked curiously. He was really impatient to finish his little pet project it seemed.
"Um...well...a few days...maybe a week," she replied quietly before she anticipated his loud response.
Now presently she was regretting her decision to take him to this deserted island in the hopes to get a chance to muster up the courage to talk to him. Their first day upon landing on the island had been anything but helpful. Koryn had been delighted to see the ocean, having never seen a body of water larger than a river or lake before.
Once the duo had set up camp they had to go about collecting bait for their fishing excursion. Zenna knew exactly what they needed, and knew just how unpleasent it might be. Golden fish loved to eat bugs, and had a particular taste for Snakebee larva. The island was covered with large hives for the hunter to plunder, but finding them was far easier than actually harvesting them.
The ordeal was a painful one. The angry insects did not like the two armored hunters breaking their hives and collecting their young. Though their had been some exchange of words between the two, their conversations mostly consisted of both angrily swearing at the buzzing attackers, and yelping in pain as they got stung.
By the time night had fallen, both had a bag full of wiggling grub-like creatures for bait, but also many painful red spots were they had been stung by the angry Snakebees. Neither had it in them to talk much, as they spent a good portion of the night applying a salve to their wounds, and when that had finally been done and they had eaten they made to sleep until morning. Zenna took notice that Koryn seemed insistent to take first watch, and she knew he would not bother to wake her during the night, nor to even go into the tent to sleep. He would prefer to sleep outside, and so she thought it was just another way he was being distant to her.
The following day had proved just as favorable to her hopes of their relationship growing stronger as partners. They had found a nice spot to fish, and after showing him how to rig a line and cast his bait, they had spent the entire day with nothing to show for it. Koryn was greatly disheartened by the days end, and once again the two spent most of the evening in silence.
Now it seemed this morning would be like the rest. They had been at it for over an hour, and nothing was happening. Her hammer lay beside her as she stared vacently at the calm ocean. She was about ready to give up and apologize for wasting their time, when she suddenly heard her companion shout.
"It's moving!" Koryn shouted, his voice a mixture of uncertainty and excitement. The hunter seemed to forget his need to reel in the line for a moment, simply tugging backwards as if trying to yank the fish out of the water with brute force. It was clear he had never done this before, but in an instant he seemed to collect himself and he grabbed the small crank of the reel and began to furiously draw the line in.
Zenna held her breath for a moment as she watched him struggle to land his catch. In almost an instant he went from a frightened novice, to what seemed like an expert angler. He reeled in the line when it grew slack and then stopped as it tugged, even at times allowing the fish to run with it before it slowed and he drew it in closer to shore. She had to admit he had a talent for this. After a few minutes something flashed along the waters surface, a glimmer of gold that finally brought some color to the dreary morning.
"It's big...I think," he managed through gritted teeth. Suddenly with a mighty pull the surface of the water broke in a shower of droplets as he yanked the hooked fish from the water. As it sailed through the air he reeled in his line and the fish flopped frantically on the wet sand. The fiery eyed angler ran towards his catch, grabbing the line a few inches from where the fish was connected to the hook, and lifted it triumphantly.
"Zenna look!" he shouted, showing off his prize to her. The fish was a nice size, bigger than her forearm and covered in large glittering scales. The huntress was about ready to congratulate him but her line had suddenly grow taut as well. After another battle, she too held a nice glittering golden fish of her own.
The two hunters met to deposit their catch in the barrel between them, both of their faces plastered with a wide grin.
"How many of these things are we supposed to catch?" Koryn asked sounding in much better spirts now then he had been in days. Zenna only shrugged and shook her head.
"Not sure...but I'm guessing we should try and catch a few...," she ventured to suggest. The dual blade wielding hunter nodded as a reply, seemingly no longer put off by the idea of continuing this excursion. They both baited there hooks and cast their lines, this time noticeably closer to one another than before.
As the hours passed there luck seemed to have turned for the best. Both had caught several of the glimmering gold fish. At one point they began some sort of impromptu competition, both trying to either catch the most or the biggest fish before the days end. The duo had tried there best to distract one another from concentrating on the fish. Zenna at one point jokingling fanned herself, and even suggested loosening her armor because of the heat. The end result of her little farce had caused Koryn to simply drop his bait, and forced him for several minutes to try and grab the now wet and wiggling larva from the wet sand.
"I think we need to call it soon," the huntress suggested, they had both caughten the same number of fish, it appeared unless one of them caught one more their friendly little bout would be decided another day. It was just then her companions line once more grew taut and the rod bent in a tight arc.
"D-damn...it feels...like a big one!" the hunter said as he ground his greaves into the wet sand anchoring himself better. The water splashed and foamed as the line shook wildly.
Zenna watched in awe at the sight, whatever was on the line must have been a real monster of a catch. She contemplated trying to help him bring in his catch, but her competitive nature told her to wait just a bit more. Her worries seemed for nothing as a glimmer of gold flashed at the waters surface. The streak of light flashed along the long body of the fish, even with it still being submerged she could tell this one was bigger than anything they had caught before.
As the piscine prize splashed out of the water, the two hunters saw something else dart behind it. Rather than a shimmering streak of gold, this was more like a dulled line of yellow that followed. Koryn gave an annoyed growl as he realized something was gunning for his catch as well. The slim swordsman began to slowly move backwards to drag his prize onto the shore.
With a sharp pull the fish broke the waters surface and flew through the air. Koryn let out a cry of joy, only to turn it to a colorful swear as something else leapt out of the water. The creature was long and yellow in color, seemingly reptilian in nature its broad snout and maw was open wide in an attempt to snatch his fish out of the air. Just before the creature could gobble down his hard won trophy, Koryn yanked the line again and the creatures fangs snapped shut a second to late.
The sea dwelling monster fell with a loud audible smack onto the wet shore, its long neck thrashing about in annoyance. The hunter reeled his fish in closer, the flopping flounder still thrashing lively at the end of his line. Koryn looked at the would-be thief seeing it clearly with it now out of the water. The yellow monster was larger than he was tall, its large clawed web feet seemed dangerous. The reptilian head was crowned with small spikes. Its tail was long and thick, flattened and finned to help it propel through the water.
"Zenna what is this thing?" he shouted. He'd never seen a monster built for swimming before.
Zenna watched as everything unfolded before her. She had long since forgotten to even worry about catching a fish. It was Koryns voice that broke her out of her stupod and she thought for a moment as she looked over the aquatic reptile.
"Thats a Ludroth!," she shouted to him in kind as the fish laden hunter tried to jump away in order to keep his hanging prize away from the monsters snapping jaws.
The creature slunk towards him with a loping stride. Zenna dropped her rod completely and stooped to pick up her hammer from where she left it. Lifting the heavy weapon into a fighting stance she ran at the lumbering yellow monster and swung. The ludroth was taken by surprise, not paying attention to anything but the golden fish, and her hammer hit with a solid blow causing the creature to stumble sideways.
The monster hissed and turned on the huntress, it reared its head back before raising its snout to the sky and letting out a series of barking like shouts. Both warriors seemed a bit taken by the odd sound, but realized what it was to late. It was only moments before two more yellow missiles leapt out of the water onto the shore. Now facing a trio of the strange water reptiles, they realized the situation was getting quickly out of hand.
Koryn reached for one of his blades strapped to his back. The familiar movement was awkward as he tried not to let his dangling fish dip to low for the greedy monsters to bite ahold of, and with some difficulty he drew his longer blade in his right hand as he held the fishing rod in his left. He stabbed at a charging ludroth, causing the creature to leap aside clumsily in order to avoid the blade.
After a few unsuccessful attempts to fend off his attacker, the blade user came up with an idea. He carefully dipped the hanging fish low enough that it brushed along the sand a few feet from the ludroth. His plan worked like intended as the creature halted mid-attack and turned to look at the glimmering meal. Before it could even realize its own mistake though, Koryn struck fast with lethal force. His blade struck along the creatures neck, eliciting a sharp cry of pain from the monster. His attack did not end though as he brought his weapon down onto the monster and impaled it. The creature lurched in pain for a moment, but his strike hit a vital spot and the monster quickly grew limp and still. He withdrew his weapon, not taking the time to wipe it clean of blood. Koryns attentioned turned to see how Zenna was fairing.
The hammer user was in a bit of a situation herself as the two newcomers turned on her. She swung her hammer in wide arcs, keeping the monsters at bay as well as trying to land a lucky hit to their jaws and head. Despite the monsters being built for the water, they did not struggle much on land and managed to step or shift just out of her range of attack. One monster reared its neck backwards and opened its jaws wide. A mass of liquid flew from the monsters mouth and struck the huntress with enough force to cause her to stagger mid-swing. It was then a ludroth lunged forward onto her and snapped it jaws. Using the handle of her weapon she kept the monster from biting into her. Unsure if its companion would take advantage of the situation she reacted quickly and kicked with her armored boot, striking the monster in its softer gut. It cried and pain and she struck its jaw with her fist making it move off of her allowing her to get up as quickly.
The hunstress quickly lifted her hammer high and brought it down on the monsters skull. The ludroths body fell limp into the sand, not even managing a cry of pain as her heavy weapon slew it. She could not savor the victory as suddenly she was struck hard from behind. The final ludroth had decided to no longer be a spectator and had lunged at her as she slew its kin. It knocked her face first into the sand, its weight pressing down on her causing the breath to violently leave her lungs. The strong jaws of the creature bit down on her right shoulder, her armor proving difficult for it to damage her flesh but the pressure causing great discomfort.
"G-get...ugh..off ...gh!" her protests and struggling were cut short as it shook its jaws roughly causing her to wince from the pain.
"Hey ugly...fetch!" the huntress heard her partner call out. She managed to just look up from the ground as the ludroth let go of her shoulder to hiss angrily at the other hunter. Koryn had his fishing rod held back as if to cast it, the dangling whopper of a fish hung now dead and in a sorry condition at the end of his line. With a hard throw he sent the fish and line hurling towards the water, as it soared yards out to sea he used his carving knife to cut the line allowing the dead fish to fly loose and splash loudlly into the water. The fishing pole fell from his hands and he quickly sheathed his knife to withdraw both blades and crouched in a ready stance.
The yellow creature watched the strange actions of the hunter, its head following the path of the piscine treat as it flew out over the water. It splashed in a shower of water and golden scales. The ludroth turned to regard him as he withdrew his swords, and mildly seemed to consider its options. With little pause it move off the downed female and instead padded towards the shore before leaping up and into the water to take the offering before any other creatures decided to make a meal of it.
Zenna felt the monster move off her, the absense of its weight allowing her to breath easily and she did her best not to inhale sand as she gasped. After a few moments she looked up to see the fiery eyed hunter crouched down with his hand outstretched to help her up. She gratefully took it and grinned wearily as he helped her up.
"Are you okay?" his words where heavy with worry as his eyes rested on the dented and marred shoulder of her armor.
"Yeah...no real damage done," she said with a quick nod "not to me anyways," she regarded the chewed up armor.
"I can fix it later if you'd like," Koryn quickly suggested. The huntress smiled gently and gave another nod.
"First lets get that barrel covered and back to camp, before anymore party crashers show up," Zenna was all to happy to agree and the two fastened the now fish and sea water filled barrel with a topper. The two made sure it was sealed so its contents did not spill out, and took turns rolling it back to camp.
The fire crackled pleasenlty that night. The two hunters sat down next to each other. Zenna took notice at how close they were, usually Koryn would sit across from her with the fire between them both, other times he would sit a distance away from her, usually if he was fiddling with something or focused on a task at hand. He didn't make an attempt to move away as she sat down less than an arms length away. She starred at the fires for a bit, letting the warmth envelop her. Once the silence grew a bit uncomfortable, she ventured to start a conversation.
"Sorry about your fish," the huntress mumbled, hating her lack of tack.
"Not a problem...fish is a small price to pay for a friend right?"
She smiled at the mention of that. Just hearing him confirm their relationship took a great weight off her shoulders. Before she could comment though he continued, giving her a side-long look as if he was not fooled one bit about something.
"I take it you didn't have us travel all the way into the ocean just to go and fish on some deserted island for over a week, just for a nice amount of zenny," he paused as if waiting to see if she argued, when she didn't he pressed on "So...what exactly did you want to accomplish?"
To say she was speechless was a bit of an understatement. She was glad she had not let her jaw hang loose as he so easily deduced her intentions, for the most part. The huntress took a moment before she responded.
"You've seemed...off lately," she said flatly, deciding to keep her words short and sweet.
"Sorry about that," he began "I just...was a bit afraid whenever I opened my mouth I might ruin a good thing."
"So thats why your being so distant?" Zenna said with a sharper edge in her voice then she had wanted.
Koryn did not seem mind it, if anything he looked more than ready to take a good lecture from her if that was in store for him. "Three people have accused me of being bad with the ladies," he said somberly "I just thought I misplaced joke or comment might you know..." he finished his sentence with a hand gesture, like something crumbling in between his fingers.
"So why didn't you just say so?" she pressed
"You never asked...and well..I wasn't sure how...not without sounding pathetic," he looked at the fire, as if the flickering flames would be of some comfort, or perhaps spell out what needed to be said for him.
Zenna sat doing the same. Would it have really just been that simple? If she had asked what was wrong he would have been forthcoming about his anxiety. She hardly doubted what he said was true. Despite his skills as a hunter, it was clear his private lessons did not include socially interacting with other hunters, whats more he missed out on a few things in his youth it seemed. Pity began to well up in her stomach at that. He was an orphan of sorts, not to say other hunters weren't, but his situation was understandable. She sighed heavily as she mulled things over.
"Well...so much for my plan of having a fun filled adventure and growing closer as friends huh? I could've just asked and saved us the trouble," she threw her hands up into the air and let them fall limply to her sides. There was a long stretch of silence that followed, until suddenly Koryn began to chuckle. Slowly his laughter and she looked on with a sense of worry, fearing she had somehow broken her hunting partner.
"W-whats so funny?" she asked, unsure if she had said anything that was meant to be so humurous. It took several moments before the hunter managed to stop laughing enough to reply, at which she was growing a bit impatient.
"S-sorry..." he snickered between words" It's just...I realized something."
"What?" Zenna was a bit upset she was seemingly not in on some joke.
"I was...worried...I couldn't talk to a girl," Koryn once more had to wait until his mirth subsided a bit "But you're...just as bad...at talking to a guy," he covered his mouth trying to stifle his laugh, but the gentle shaking of his frame was proof he was failing.
She stared at him, dumbstruck by the truth in his words. Her eyes narrowed dangerously like sharp blades of emerald. With a clenched fist she punched him hard in the arm, his chuckling quickly becoming a grunt of pain. He raised his hands in truce.
"I'll stop...but it is a bit...ironic?"
"Yeah yeah..." she mumbled, despite it feeling good to thump him, it didn't make the truth any less annoying. "How about this...lets communicate normally...no worrying about hurt feelings, or speaking our mind unless it disrupts our hunting deal?" she offered her hand.
"Deal!" Koryn went to take her hand, but stopped short "Oh..and no breaking wrists or anything of the sort in retaliation to a misplaced word...I need them," he added with a grin. She smiled and with a nod they shook on it.
Zenna felt better than she had in weeks. Already the tension between them seemed completely gone. The urge to test just how well their friendship was had crossed her mind, but a dirty joke or even playful teasing might be a bit uncalled for at the moment. For now she just sat quietly, feeling content.
The two hunters chatted for a while as the fire slowly began to die down.
-Chapter End-
A/N
There is chapter 6 everyone. I hope you all enjoy. Once again I am sorry their might not be a lot of action, but I hope you enjoyed the chapter anyways. I am working on the next one now, hopefully editing and stuff will go fast so I can get it to everyone in a timely manner.
If you have a monster you'd like to see in upcoming chapters let me know. I have a few ask me already and I am considering a few myself. Let me know what you like about the story so far, or maybe how I can improve.
Thank you all for reading. Happy Hunting