The sun wasn't even up when Mom finally led us outside of the densite. All the times I'd been out I had to be able to see it, this was the first time we were truly outside.
Mom led us to the other shore of the dead wing of the river in the densite and then upstream. Dad took the other three and ran off in the opposite direction, they wouldn't be hunting fish like we were.
***
After a long lope we arrived to the split in the river.
"We'll go further upstream, there's long stretch of slow shallows where a lot of fish tend to search for food. If you get swept up just stay calm and swim to the shore, don't fight the current." Mom said and led the way.
***
The river was wide and flowed very slowly where Mom stopped. "We're here. The fish we are mostly looking for are large and silvery." An image suddenly appeared in the air next to her showing the fish. "There are a lot of other species here but don't go for anything below this size, you'd be just wasting energy. And don't worry about failing, hunting in the water is hard, you can't use smell or hearing, and the water shifts the positions of everything inside it. Experience is the only way to improve. Sit down and watch."
Carefully she slipped into the water, looking around as she waded through making sure to not stir the water. From where we sat I could see movements under the surface of the river but I couldn't tell what was causing them, Mom, however, did.
She quickly found a target and crept closer. Still making sure to not stir up the water and even moving in a way that her shadow was behind her. After five steps she lunged. Halfway diving into the water she struggled for a moment before she stood up with large fish flailing in her jaws.
After making her way to the shore she dropped the fish on the grass for us to eat, it was already dead.
"That's about the way you should do it. Always make sure you know where your shadow is, and try to make as few movements in the water as possible. They can be hiding under the rocks or along the shore, while they are far harder to find there, it makes catching them easy. You don't need any magic for this." Mom said, still dripping water. "Any questions?"
All of us grunted that we understood, it didn't look too complicated, but it was definitely hard to master. The fish tasted good, even if split between four of us it was barely a mouthful.
"Fine, spread out upstream then and hunt on your own, if you are near each other you'll be startling the fish for each other. Be sure you stay within howl so I can call you back. And if you meet something dangerous jump into the river and swim down to me while warning everyone."
"Yes Mom." we grunted and ran upstream.
We spread out and I was stuck with the position furthest from Mom.
***
The river here was closely lined by trees whose roots were bare in the river, creating ripples. Crouching down I crept towards the shore. There were some fish by the shore nibbling on the algae stuck to the roots.
After careful calculation I pounced... and hit my paws on the root, I could feel the fish swim away under my head.
"How did I hit that?" I grumbled and examined the roots, they looked to be much deeper then they actually were.
"So annoying..." I growled softly when there was no sign of the fish. Into the water it is then.
The water didn't even reach up to my chest in this stretch so I tried to mimic Mom's style of walking to not stir up the river. I still messed up a lot.
After several tries I finally got close enough to a fish to pounce on it. I calculated, remembering how the roots looked to be much deeper than they were I corrected for that.
I pounced.
And undershot.
I could feel the fish slipping past my face and I snapped up at it.
I managed to catch piece of it's scaly tail but my teeth sheered through that, letting the fish escape.
"So close..." I grumbled and went to try again.
And again.
And again.
And again.
And again.
Finally on my seventh try I managed to catch one. I still overshot, but my chin hit the fish, stunning it for a moment and with quick snap of my jowls I held it firmly.
I got back to the shore and tore into the fish. It was the first ever food I caught myself and it made it taste that much better, even if the tiny bones were a bit annoying.
The sun wasn't even at its highest point when I finished eating the fish. One was far from enough though, After carefully checking the shore again and finding nothing worth the energy I slipped back into the water to continue trying.
Missed.
Missed.
Missed.
Missed.
I was getting better at moving stealthily in the water now but after the fifth miss in a row I realized that my shadow moved to the other side, warning the prey ahead of time. I knew Mom warned me about it, but I never needed to pay attention to my shadow before so it must have slipped my mind. I quickly readjusted.
After few more startled fish I got close enough to another one, this one looked more like a fat snake and was laying on the river floor.
-
(AN: it's a catfish.)
-
I pounced.
Diving completely I managed to grab its neck, do snakes even have necks? I wondered.
But the snake fish wasn't dead and was fighting to free itself, throwing even me around. Its slimy skin was hard to hold onto in the water and it was preventing me from driving my teeth into its spine with magic. Not even using magic of my own to strengthen my jaw muscles and sharpen the teeth helped, I had to come up with different way.
I tried to get my footing back and lift it out of the water. The rocks on the river floor were slippery and with the snake fish thrashing about it was a tough fight. Being carried by the stream didn't help either.
I managed to surface a couple times and find my footing but the snake fish wasn't weak, and it was desperate.
My neck and jaws were starting to hurt from all the trashing, but thankfully the stream carried me to where Xerio was hunting. He saw me struggling and rushed to help me. With his help we quickly overpowered the snake snake fish and dragged it out of the water.
Shaking out my drenched coat Xerio inspected the fish. "You caught this by yourself this quickly?" He asked.
The snake fish was huge, it would be more than enough for both of us to eat our fill, maybe even leaving some scraps for later.
"It's the second fish I caught, the first one was the same one as Mom though." I said.
"I didn't catch anything yet." He let out a defeated whine.
"I just got lucky. There is lots of them where I was hunting. If I couldn't try so many times I wouldn't have caught anything either. I think Mom didn't expect us to catch much today."
"Hmmm..." He whined, "You should eat first, you caught it."
"There's more than enough for both of us." I yipped and tore into it. The slime was annoying, but once I got past the skin the meat and guts tasted great, if a bit muddy.
My first hunt was a success and I couldn't wait to tell Mom.