Heila flung herself at Andrus as soon as he cried out, wrapping her arms around his torso and setting her cloven feet wide apart on the ice as he fought against the pull of whatever had taken the bait.
"Ashlynn," Hauke said quickly. "Wrap the line around the ice spike," he said, pointing at a thick spike of ice he'd conjured near the hole in the ice. "Pull slowly!"
"Got it," Ashlynn replied in Eldritch without waiting for Heila to translate since the diminutive horned woman had her hands full keeping Andrus from being pulled into the hole in the ice.
Reaching out, she captured the trembling line as it danced at the end of the fishing pole, pulling slowly but firmly on the line to prevent any sudden motions from snapping the line or dislodging the fish. Working carefully, she looped the line around the spike several times, transferring the force of the pull from the fishing pole to the thick shaft of ice anchored to the frozen surface of the lake.
