Staring up at the sky. The moon was awake, shining down at my face as I walked forward. It was finally nighttime which meant that Mort's fishing trip would commence. The four of us were walking through the woods that had many different trees of various sizes as my feet along with theirs stepped on top of rocks, dirt, and small streams of water, probably from some pond or possibly the lake we might be getting closer too.

The three red heelers chose to deck out in fishing gear while I altered to wear my normal clothes instead, due to Mort only having gear in a pacific size, one that I was not able to fit in as they were too big for me. The only size, if you're wondering, was two extra large. Regardless I was fine with just wearing my normal clothes.

"Hey Shane."

I heard my name being called, ending my rant to myself to see who had said that. I looked to my left and saw Brandy was now walking beside me. "What's up?" I asked her, wondering what she wants to talk about. "Remember when you suggested, I should tell Chilli and my dad about Luka?" She replied to me, with a question of her own. "Obviously... what about it?" I answered, I did recall telling her she should tell Chilli and Her dad about him. Only thing that puzzled me was what she wanted to tell me else wise about it. Judging by her expression, I started creating a theory.

Is she actually going to tell them while we're fishing? If so, that would be a good approach. "Well I've been thinking about your idea since we've been here. But after some debating and thinking about it more, I finally made a decision... I'm gonna tell them." She announced to me. I was very surprised to hear that, my reaction couldn't speak volume as to how happy I felt.

But I didn't want to say anything just yet as I could see she had something else to say. "I believe it's the right time to be straightforward, and at the perfect place to announce it, no less." Brandy finished her sentence.

"Brandy. That's awesome to hear, I wish you the best." I told her in excitement. She was going through with telling them and I couldn't be more proud of her. "Yeah, I'm hoping for the best too. Just have to keep myself calm and collective. Be honest with them, cause I'm going to need a lot of luck right now." Brandy said while taking a few deep breaths.

"I think you'll do well." I rest assured her. She then messed with my hair before giving me a smile, happy that I have confidence in her to tell them. "What are you two talking about?" Unexpectedly I heard the voice of Chilli in front of us as we both looked straight and saw the red heeler. Who had her head slightly turned around, wondering what we were currently discussing about.

"Nothing important. Brandy was just telling me-" I tried to conjure up an excuse. However Brandy seemed to have already thought of one when she cut me off, replying to her sister with. "I was giving him some tips on what to do while fishing. Don't need him falling in the water especially without a life vest." I knew that wasn't what we were talking about. But I shook my head and went along anyway, seeing that Brandy wanted to keep her surprise for later instead of me spilling the beans to Chilli immediately.

"Fair point. Dad said earlier he has life vests in the shed, there should be one in your size Shane... unlike the fishing gear." Chilli explained, mentioning a shed next to the boat dock that held life vests I could wear. "Ok I'll probably grab one before we head on." I replied. I'm going to take note of that before heading out on the boat with them, who knows it might come in handy.

Chilli shook her head before turning back around. "Maybe we should keep quiet until then." Brandy whispered to me, knowing we almost got caught. I agreed and stayed silent about it until the time came, strangely I noticed we were still on our way to the dock despite having a conversation a second prior. It made sense, Why would we even need to stop in the first place? Not like there's anything of interest to see or even hear in these woods anyway.

"Hello... Shane." Holy shit! Suddenly I felt a gust of wind breezing my neck. But more importantly I heard the voice of a woman that scared me to my core. To the extent that I immediately stopped walking and turned around quickly expecting somebody to be behind me, only to see nothing other than the path back to Mort's house. I became both confused and scared, wondering if I saw a ghost or a supernatural entity and what's worse is that they knew my name.

"Shane?"

I heard the familiar voice of Chilli as I turned around to see her with a concerned look on her face. "Is everything ok?" She asked me worriedly. "I'm good, thought I heard somebody for a moment, I think my mind's playing tricks on me." I sighed. I wasn't sure how to explain to her what I heard, I recall a gust of wind blowing past me. The only thing I remember was that their voice sounded feminine, however it was a feminine voice I wasn't familiar with.

"Don't remind me. This forest can be rather... mysterious at times. But if we stick together and you don't get lost, there's nothing to be afraid of." She reassured me, this took a bit of the unease from my mind. "Come now. Mort and Brandy are waiting at the dock." Chilli told me, signaling with her hand to follow her on the trail. I shook my head and walked aside her, heading to the boat docks so we could catch back up with Brandy and Mort. But I still had my mind on that mysterious voice wondering, who in the world was that? And what do they want with me?

a few minutes later

I heard Mort starting the boat's engine next to me. It was very loud, enough to where I felt it ringing in my ear for a little bit, but once we got moving the sound became slightly better. Chilli, Brandy, and Myself were sitting on Mort's boat heading to a specific spot which Mort claimed to be the best when it comes to getting much bigger looking fish.

I was overall still excited, despite being spooked out by that strange voice earlier. Also remember when Chilli mentioned Mort possibly had lifevest in my size? Well... turns out he actually did. And so I put one on, just in case if anything leads to me getting in the water. Unfortunately it didn't help me with staying dry, as the boat sped up, water splashed onto the boat and of course... landed on me, mainly my face which I quickly wiped off.

"Just about to be at the spot." Mort gave us all a heads up. I decided to tighten my life vest a little more, better be safe than sorry, I suppose. "So sis, you wanna enlighten me what kind of fishing tips you gave to Shane?" I heard Chilli starting up a conversation, asking her sister the very question.

"I just told him the basics. He's obviously not as experienced compared to us." Brandy admitted. Can't say she wasn't wrong, my knowledge of fishing is as good as my understanding of a complicated plot in an anime, it's pretty blank. However, Chilli looked at her with a suspicious stare in response to what she had said, almost like she didn't believe her.

"Umm... I don't feel like that's all you had told him." She responded suspiciously, before retracting what she said and replied. "...Oh who am I kidding, you're right. He needs to learn the basics first, before getting into the tips us experts use." The way she said that made me grow my own suspicion. She told myself and Brandy that in her regular voice, compared to her response prior which was oddly skeptical. I even noticed that she was not directly talking to me but instead Brandy.

Did something happen between Brandy and Chilli during lunch that I wasn't aware of? "Riiiight." Brandy muttered, being skeptical herself. Chilli gave her a similar suspicious stare before looking at the lake and the conversation seemingly ended. Well... regardless, it seems like we have arrived at the spot, as the older red heeler stopped and turned off the boat engine.

"Hey now you're two. Don't give too much information to the rookie. I'll be taking care of that." Mort said jokingly. "Anyways... we have arrived at our destination, thus we can let the fishing begin. But first we're gonna split up." He stated. He then pointed at his oldest daughter and began explaining what the plan was.

"Brandy. You're going to partner up with your sister, try to snatch whatever you can get on your side. As for myself, I'll be teaching the rookie. All the fishing rods are laying in the middle and are free to use." The older red heeler explained, and then added.

"However... Do not use the one with a red bandanna wrapped around the handle. It's my lucky fishing rod, even though I don't use it as much. I always bring it out here as a good luck charm, and so far my odds have been pretty solid." Definitely good to know beforehand. I was kind of eyeballing that fishing rod for a moment and figured it was his own or had some sort of importance. Turns out, I was right.

"Say Brandy. Let's get fishing and see what we can fetch." Chilli told her sister, both grabbing a fishing rod. All of them looked and felt similar to one another when I picked one up, not counting Mort's lucky one, so there wasn't any difference picking a fishing rod over the other, they were the same.

"You ready to get started, Mate?" Chilli's dad asked me, already having a fishing rod in his hand and ready to catch some fish. "Sure am." I nodded, we both turned to face the water. It looked clear, avoiding any dirtiness, or trash being thrown within it. But when it came to spotting some fish, it was still rather difficult to make out any kind.

Mort then grabbed a bucket, containing what looked to be worms as he grabbed two, one for his hook, and one for mine, respectively. I'm guessing this is the way we bait the fishes to our rods and obviously catch them. "K, I just attached a worm to your hook. Now all you gotta do is unwind the string a little bit, and when you're ready just use the fishing rod to swing the hook into the water. The worm will serve as bait for the fish to come near it.

Once you feel it trying to pull, reel that fishy in and I'll see what you got." Mort explained what I needed to do, the way he explained how to fish sounded easy enough with still a bit of a challenge as I replied.

"Okay. But I wouldn't have your hopes up too high on me getting one." I told him, doubting my confidence in actually getting a fish. Don't get me wrong. It did seem pretty simple but I didn't want to get my hopes up on catching one the first time around.

"Ah don't like that, just trust yourself. If you fail, try again." Mort said to me with a smile. The thing he said a moment ago, reeling the fish in. It made me realize I was going to have to put in a lot more work than usual to get it out of the water, it made me... remember something.

"You know, this kind of reminds me of one time. Where my parents and I were moving from Winnipeg to Vancouver because my father was able to afford a nicer house with his MMA winnings and so we can get out of our old apartment due to the landlord becoming more stingy by increasing the rent, so much so that my mom and dad had enough and we moved out." I explained. Mort stared at the lake, his smile turning into a small frown, hearing why we left our old home.

"Oh man. That must have really sucked." Mort replied, I then continued. "It did... but regardless, we were taking boxes out of the moving truck and putting them into the new house. To say there was a lot to unload would be an understatement, all of it was from our old house as I finished getting my stuff into the new house. Which would lead me to move on to the next boxes and they were way harder than the boxes I picked up before. It was a dolly cart with five boxes full of large decorations stacked on each other, I had no faith in being able to pull it all inside. But luck would have it, I did. With all my strength I managed to do that by myself. After that day I felt something... a small glimmer of hope that I had some sort of strength within me." I shared my memory with Mort, who was listening throughout and was happy that I managed to accomplish that on my own.

"Well if you're able to pull some boxes by yourself, then I believe you can reel a fish by yourself." Mort told me, His frown turning back into a smile while also boosting my confidence. Seems like I can't elongate this anymore, I should at least give it a shot. I proceeded to unwind a bit of the fishing line using a crank on the side of the fishing rod.

After doing so I stared at the water, taking a few deep breaths and then I swung the hook into the water. I completed the first step, however, I was not done yet. It was now time to wait for a fish to take the bait. It only took two minutes and I felt something pulling on the fishing line. I held my fishing rod tightly, grabbed a hold of the crank and started to reel it in. This must be a big fish as it was not letting me reel it, almost like it was trying to escape my hook or something.

"Keep reeling it, mate. You can do it." Mort said, cheering me on. I wasn't going to give up now, pulling and reeling as hard as I could, I started seeing it getting closer and closer until suddenly the fish emerged from the water holding onto the hook. Mort grabbed a hold of the fishing line and took the fish I caught off the hook putting it in his hands, I looked at it with amazement. It was an actual fish and a medium sized one at that, although I wasn't sure what kind of fish it was.

"Whoa, kid. Got yourself a real catch here. You've caught an Australian bass." Mort said. He then let me hold onto said fish, turns out the fish I caught was known as an Australian bass, I was just surprised I managed to get one and on the first try no less. "I got one... I actually got one! This is so cool, why-" I was going to finish what I had said. But suddenly I paused hearing something unexpected over on Chilli and Brandy's side of the boat.

"Brandy. Don't do that!" Me and Chilli's dad both turned instantly to see what was going on. At first I thought this was just a random interaction between the two sisters, if only I knew this would end up escalating quickly. Turns out there has been some kind of tension between them the whole time and unfortunately I just now noticed and it's too late. But what really struck me was that I was not able to predict what would happen next.

A/N: Whew. And there you have it, I am now caught up with releasing all the chapters here. I apologize for the extensive wait on this chapter, it took me a while to get this one done but I am happy to release it to you all either way. I'm currently planning to get back into the swing of things and release more content soon. Hopefully the next chapter won't take too long, anyways thank you all for reading and supporting this story and I will see you when the next chapter drops.