Thicket of Secrets keeping you close

Shallow water has trapped several fish in a small pond. Hunt Opportunity

Her brows knit together, she continued to stare at the water at the place where it had all gone wrong. She played the successive events that had just transpored on loop within her mind, striving to determine what the problem had been and what might be done better next time to ensure failure didn't happen, again. It wasn't until Duckweed spoke up that she broke her concentration to look up at him. What he explained helped her to better see and understand that while skill was involved, there was also a high degree of chance. That was certainly something she wasnt used to. In all honesty, chance made her uneasy. Thankfully though, this wasn't some pressing, all-important task and she was able to accept this new understanding with a deep breath and a sigh.

"Right. Okay."

She backed out of the water and headed up stream once more, eyes scanning the water with renewed determination. However long it took (and that Duckweed was willing to stay out here with her), she would get this down. More time passed than she would have liked before she got another chance, but as she had claimed, Nineva could be patient. Another one had slipped past the trap entirely, this time unbothered by the wolf who could now recognize a lost cause. This one that she was currently tracking, however...

Her ears picked up and hope shone in her eyes as it seemed to be right on track for moving into the purposeful nest of stones. This was it, this was it... she used stepping stones to carefully make it closer, the trap on Duckweed's side of the river. Her shadow was behind her, it didnt seem to notice at all, and her lips parted as she stood poised and ready for it to seal its own fate.

The moment came, and she lunged, and once again, things went wrong. The thin misting from the stream kept the top of the rocks slick and icey, and throwing her own momentum around so suddenly caused her paws to lose purchase. So focused on the fish, she nearly didnt catch herself. As it was, her legs ended up soaked and her underbelly got a good splashing and the minnow managed to escape her jaws and off it went to its freedom. Nineva could only blink and stare at the fleeting silver flash it became downstream.

Well.

This was not going to stand. Extracting herself from the frigid waters she shook herself off briefly on shore before turning right back around and heading upstream to find yet another would-be victim.

Whether or not his reassurances actually worked was pretty hard to tell. The two wolves spent a lot of time together, her persistent interest still something he didn't understand, and so while she made him feel vaguely on-edge, he was also quite comfortable with their dynamic. His frustration over being the weak victim she always needed to save had faded with time, as he grew to understand how her mind worked, and that her predilection for saving people wasn't born from wanting to feel better and bigger than them. She just liked righting wrongs.

As a wolf who felt deeply wronged by life, Duck couldn't deny that spending time with her was strangely compelling.

Watching her extract herself from the water and trot back upstream, the smaller wolf stood fixed to the spot, not wanting to disturb or distract her at all. His toes itched to get on with it and do some fishing himself, but the power-ratio of their ordinary encounters had been flipped on its head, and for the very first time, he was the one in control of the situation - or, at least, the one who knew what he was doing. His well-practiced eyes spotted a few flashes of movement in the stream which he stubbornly ignored, because he couldn't allow himself to get in her way or otherwise hinder her attempts at all.

But her next try ended in just as much failure as the first, even if, this time, she'd been able to properly wait for a fish to go through his bottleneck. Predictably stubborn, she just marched back on up to find her next attempt, and the wolf found himself just enjoying watching her. Her determination, her resilience to failure, her brain working as she had clearly learned from the first attempt.

So he just sat down, feeling confident in just watching her because she would be too preoccupied to notice, and let the familiar calm of this familiar place settle in his bones.

It took several times, Nineva learning with each successive failure that she was a very poor fisherman. It was unfamiliar territory, to have to work so hard at even minimal success. The girl was used to learning quick and excelling at nearly everything she tried her paw at. She was intelligent, well-coordinated and strong. Agility was her downfall, however, and clearly she was lacking finesse today as well. Yet as frustrating as it was, her determination was greater and she refused to lose her cool.

Somewhere among the different attempts she had ended up on Duckweed's half of the river. With no stones to slip upon and enough misses to finally get a grasp of the timing needed, she finally closed her jaws around a catch.

The feel of scales upon her tongue was unexpected at this point, and she nearly dropped the fish back into the water in her shock. Jumping backward, her tail began to batter the air as she whooped past the flopping creature betwixt her fangs.

"I fidit, I fidit!" she exclaimed, paws slapping the snow excitedly.

Wow, she never thought she'd be this happy to catch a dumb fish, but here she was, overjoyed. Hopefully, it was more than a lucky fluke and this meant she'd gotten past the learning curve.

{ood}fade? :D[/ooc]

Witnessing that little cycle of try - fail - learn - retry was almost mesmerising. That Nineva was a strong-willed individual was hardly a surprise, but beyond a few notable occasions, Duck rarely truly saw the extent of it. She was gentle and patient around him, never forceful, and being able to watch her slowly develop her skills felt strangely special. Just as clear as her determination was the fact that she wasn't very good at it, but whether or not she realised this herself did not seem to be any kind of deterrent. While there were several times he felt the urge to interrupt and help her, her clear desire to do it herself coupled nicely with his desire to be a wallflower and, in all, it made for an enjoyable experience.

Not least when she finally succeeded, and the runt could not help but grin at her pure adulation, a rare, soft laugh escaping unrestricted.

"You d-did," he confirmed, tail swooshing lightly over the snow behind him, struck by how similar this felt to the times he'd taken @Cinaed, @Flair or @Enia out to do the exact same thing, and the comparison emboldened him, made it easier to forget how anxious she made him. It also let him slip a little more comfortably into this teacher's role, enough to say: "Let's ssss-see how, how m-many we can get." And he stood up and stepped back towards the water, with what he hoped was an encouraging smile, for he had a job to do here himself - and, for once, the idea of having company (other than his mother) was not so unpleasant.