The Eagle and the Vixen (Closed)

by **The Selkie** » Wed Jul 25, 2018 9:04 am

Lillorainen wrote:Chris nodded. "Yeah, it was way cheaper for me coming here by ferry, too" - he said. "And more people to have a chat with. Though, going to Purgatio was cheaper by plane. Sometimes I have trouble getting through their price structure - I often tend to think they just roll dices over them." He imitated the voice of a stereotypical businessman, "Hey, I've rolled a double of four - it will be 440 Marks then!"
He grinned about her way to stress glorious. Without a doubt, it must have been glorious.
"Once I've missed my ferry to another island, so I spontaneously rented a hovercraft to get there. I just overtook the ferry with it. Hah! It was one of my rides that were most fun."

"And you caught a lot of eel while doing so?", I asked with a grin, before I looked at our fishing rods - no movement as of yet - and out to the sea. "We actually had a delay of half a day. A private yacht had gotten into distress at sea and our Captain aided them. Couple of tourists with kids, the foxes and I got to play with them while their parents were screaming at each other and the Captain contemplated throwing them overboard."
I shrugged.
"He didn't, in the end, only dragged them to Dumhach.", I added, "The kids were fun, though."

by **Lillorainen** » Wed Jul 25, 2018 9:17 am

Chris grinned, too. "Some jokes never get old. Well, if I had, they'd sure have been for free. Some extra service. I'd have taken them and have had them fried somewhere."
He remembered giving the Captain 20 Marks for being this fast.
"So the kids were calm and their parents were screaming at each other?" - he asked. "Would normally be expected vice versa. Well, it surely depends on who could be blamed that they got into distress."

by **The Selkie** » Wed Jul 25, 2018 9:58 am

Lillorainen wrote:Chris grinned, too. "Some jokes never get old. Well, if I had, they'd sure have been for free. Some extra service. I'd have taken them and have had them fried somewhere."
He remembered giving the Captain 20 Marks for being this fast.
"So the kids were calm and their parents were screaming at each other?" - he asked. "Would normally be expected vice versa. Well, it surely depends on who could be blamed that they got into distress."

"Oh, the kids were far from calm!", I said and remembered, "They were loud, ran around had chased after the foxes, while they chased after them, soon leading them outside, where they had enough space to run around, much to the amusement of the class trip, who either helped them or hindered them, making an interesting game of cat and mouse out of it.
When they had spent all energy and the parents were still screaming at each other, the foxes cuddled them to death, which was fun to watch as well.", I finished my tale, "That's a part of their vacation, which they'll never forget!"

by **Lillorainen** » Wed Jul 25, 2018 10:18 am

Chris laughed. "Ah, I see. So the only reason why everyone survived this ride was because the Captain couldn't decide whom to throw overboard first, eh?"
He looked out to the sea again.
"Sometimes one surely gets that feeling in public transport on land, too. This desire to just wait for the Metro to stop so you can grab some people and just throw them out ... I often had that back in school, especially at those times I had to get up very early, and especially when I had slept badly. You know, you're awfully tired, your coffee machine doesn't work, so no morning coffee - the water boiler doesn't work either, so no morning tea. And then all these kids at half past six in the morning screaming in your ears all the way from Aldekant to Maschenich - so, across the whole city. And all this because of a plain leak in the water conduit flooding the school building making you temporarily switch to a substitute classroom in another district. I really got no issues with kids themselves, playing with them is really fun - but these are situations where you really wonder if we still need a forth generation of Lillos." He shook his head, snorting.

by **The Selkie** » Wed Jul 25, 2018 11:10 am

I grinned as well. He was right, public transport had its moments sometimes... I was mostly thinking of long train-rides, though.
"And then comes the chance for revenge.", I said with a grin, "We even have an official day for that, called Cub Day. Cubs is the lowest year, six Springs old and just entered school. Cub day is, when those little lads and lassies are invited into the High Schools to see the end of their educational career. We always welcome them with great ceremony and formality... and spend the day playing pranks on them. Sending them searching for the assembly room key - the doors are for pushing, not pulling, but it looks like they are closed - crackers poised to go off when you open a door, harmless sabotage of sports equipment, like letting the air out of the footballs, locking doors, which are supposed to be open, sabotage of chairs and desks."
I looked to Chris.
"I love kids, too, they are fun and have insights, which I am often missing, but it's fun to prank them, too.", I said, snuggling against his shoulder.

by **Lillorainen** » Wed Jul 25, 2018 11:52 am

"Oh yes, we have a similar day, too!" - Chris said, trying to pay attention to his rod while she was snuggling against his shoulder. "The name for it varies by region, so naturally, since I switched before the last year, I know two for them. It's basically the same, but just the other way round - senior students visit primary schools again. A bit 'back to the roots' style, you know - to see and think back to the place, where your career started." He let a beat pass. "And for the primary school students to see what they're gonna end up like someday." He laughed. "Actually it's just some bit of ceremony. But of course, seniors prank them kids all the time, pretty much the same as you guys. Now, one could assume teachers were watching - but that's the point, they're too busy watching the kids to notice what seniors are doing. That was also my advantage of moving to another city - where, of course, primary school teachers couldn't remember me from back then. No one knew me, no one noticed me, no one saw what I was doing in the gym."

by **The Selkie** » Wed Jul 25, 2018 1:51 pm

"For us, the teachers turned a blind eye as long as no one was hurt.", I said, grinning at Chris' story, imitating an old man's voice, I added: "I heard no firecracker going off, kiddos, don't be such wussies!"
I laughed at that, but that immediately came to a stop, as something drew my attention: The line, it was nudging!
Something was on there!
I jumped forward, lest lunch escaped us, and pulled, sure, that Chris would come to my aid in a moment.
I pulled, just as I had learned from my Uncle, pulled hard, then with Chris' help, and it was a huge one! I was not sure, if it was a fish, but it was not an Arracht. If it was one of those, we would be dead already.
I was afraid, that the line might give up before we or the fish did, but it held fast.
It held and held and...
...with one mighty heave, we both fell over backwards and our catch out of the water, next to us onto the wharf.
A big, white and fat fish with a little horn on the head, surely more then twenty kilograms in weight, red highlights on the fins and flippers.
"A Caille!", I said as it waggled around and tried to find its way back into the water, but a quick application of my knife to its brain ended that. "That's awesome! They're delicious!"

by **Lillorainen** » Wed Jul 25, 2018 2:10 pm

Chris was just starting to laugh - then suddenly Cel's line was nudging.
He immediately came Cel to aid, pulling as if it was about his life. Well, it wasn't that drastic, but at least, it was about their lunch, after all.
"Alter Lachs is dat n Klopper!" - Chris intuitively exclaimed, then thought about the sense of his exclamation for a second. Of course, this was nowhere near a salmon. But phrases are phrases, and it quite was a big one.
They both fell backwards, as the fish gave up resistance. Chris exclaimed a quick gasp, as he fell on his back. Some of his younger mates would have grinned at this gasp now, saying something like, 'ah, we're getting older, eh?'
That fish was still trying to get back into waters - Cel prevented it from escaping with her knife.
So, this was a Caille. A big, fat, white fish.
"Already looks delicious" - Chris said. "Well, at least the parts that aren't bleeding. I'd say our lunch is safe."

by **The Selkie** » Thu Jul 26, 2018 2:31 am

"Yeah, looks like it.", I said with a grin, inspecting our catch more closely. Rhiannon's teats, that one was really a big one! Lunch, and probably dinner, for the entire inn were safe!
Only one thing left to do, though.
With a small smile, I cut a small piece out of our catch, a few hundred grams, but even while raw, it looked delicious and reared my arm back - with a mighty heave, I threw it out to sea, where it landed quite a distance away in the water.
I folded my hands and sank to my knees, lowering my head as well.
"Lodan Lir, Lord of Rivers and Seas, we thank You for Your blessings and this wonderful gift to nurture and feed us. May it be as delicious as it looks!", I spoke a short prayer of gratitude to the God of Rivers and Seas, already having offered Him, and the Seas, a small piece of our gratitude. I nodded to Chris - if he wanted to thank his God, Goddess or anyone a small piece of gratitude, then this was the time.
I'll freely admit, that I didn't pay much attention during religious sciences...

by **Lillorainen** » Thu Jul 26, 2018 3:09 am

Indeed, this fish would probably feed the entire inn for the rest of the day.
Chris watched Cel cutting a piece of the giant fish off. He knew what would come now.
He patiently waited for her to finish her prayer. When she nodded to him, he knew what to do. He cut another piece off it, just about as much as she had done, got up, took it in both hands and put these to his forehead, closing his eyes and murmuring something Cel wouldn't understand. Then he opened his eyes again and threw the piece into the water.
"Done" - he said, nodding.

by **The Selkie** » Thu Jul 26, 2018 12:41 pm

I smiled and nodded in approval, the Gods, no matter the own creed, needed to be thanked for such rich bounty. It was only polite. I haven't understood, what Chris had said, but that was fine.
Now, onto the next part.
"Well, let's get this chap moving!", I said with a grin and went to the head to lift it up. Carrying twenty kilogram was not a problem for me, in and of itself. It was just the size and shape of the object, which was troublesome. "You take the other end, please!"
And with that, we got moving with our catch.
We'd have to collect the fishing rods later, maybe even sit out for a second fish, but that had to wait. Best to get this thing to the inn's kitchen before someone, be it fox or Dreapadóir, decided, that it was his meal and not ours. Always a possibility around these parts, that was for sure.

by **Lillorainen** » Thu Jul 26, 2018 1:04 pm

Of course, it was only polite and necessary - you won't find such a big fish very often, and even less frequently manage to catch it, after all. Chris surely would repeat this every time they'd catch some more nice loot from the ocean. 'So long, and thanks for all the fish!' - these would surely be his last words to whoever was in charge (opinions on that tend to vary by culture a lot, naturally).
Chris lifted the other side up. Indeed, twenty kilograms weren't exactly a lot, but this fish was everything else than handy thanks to its size and shape. Though, it was not a hard job.
Unbeknownst to him, they were thinking the same. "Where are we gonna lock it to prevent our vulpine comrades from acquiring it?" - he wondered. "Not to mention ... whatever sorts of greedy creatures might live here aside from them."

by **The Selkie** » Thu Jul 26, 2018 2:54 pm

"We get this catch to the Inn's kitchen.", I told Chris with a smile as we carried that huge bugger along as he bled and lost blood. Some of it dripped into the ocean... well, these weren't exactly shark-infested waters, so I didn't worry. Yet. "The Cook there hopefully knows her stuff about preparing and might even set aside a few scraps for our lads and lassies. And others."
But first things first... getting him there.
Together, we moved from the wharf, onto the street. With the lack of traffic, we had it easy crossing.
I expected a Bass, maybe even a Perch, but not one of this fishes. If I had, I might have gotten a handcart or something like that... oh, well, there were worse couple activities!

by **Lillorainen** » Fri Jul 27, 2018 1:25 am

"Oh yes, that sounds like a plan. I'm sure there will be enough of it left for everyone. You could feed a whole army with it ..."
This would surely be fun for the house cleaners, getting all that blood off the floor ...
Thanks to the force of habit, Chris looked to the left and the right at the street, to make sure there was no traffic crossing - of course, there wasn't, but as said, force of habit. Chris was used to crossing six-laned avenues from his home, so one never knew.
Indeed, there were worse couple activities. For example, wanting to go to the West Shore for holidays and spending an hour standing in traffic jam on the A4 because someone had overestimated their own driving skills was surely a horrible activity for couples, friends, and families alike.

by **The Selkie** » Fri Jul 27, 2018 3:04 am

"Hopefully, but you've never seen the amounts a Selkie can eat!", I said with a grin, "All fat goes where it's needed!"
We are healthy eaters, we Selkie, that was for sure. None of us was going to die of starvation or something, if it could be helped, but foreigners always wondered, where the fat went - the usual response was, that it went, where it was needed. Where exactly that was, that was left to the own imagination.
Speaking of which, as we entered the front courtyard, we were already expected by a matronly woman in a cooking apron over a shirt and a pair of pants, sandals on her feet. She looked at us with wide eyes.
I grinned. "Lodan Lir blessed us!"
"Well, better Him then Rhiannon at your age!", she replied with a bit of disbelief in her voice. I blushed scarlet. Rhiannon's blessings, the Blessings of the Goddess of Horses and Fertility, were either for fertile fields or many children, something, which could indeed wait for a bit. "Dinner's on the house tonight for every guest, if you give that one to me!"
"That was the plan, wasn't it, Chris?", I asked my co-carrier.

by **Lillorainen** » Fri Jul 27, 2018 3:34 am

"Ah, I know that thing with the fat from somewhere" - Chris said. "Okay, then it's gonna be a small army."
Lillos generally were good eaters, too, but the amount of people where one could tell it from their outward appearance was quite small. Wherever the Selkie tended to leave their fat, it must have been a place similar to the one it went with Lillos.
The cook was already waiting in the courtyard, staring at them like a broken car.
Chris had to snort at her comment regarding Rhiannon's blessings. Indeed, Chris currently preferred a good meal over fertility. He was a bit older than Cel, but still a bit too young for this.
"That was the plan" - he said. "Where to put it?"

by **The Selkie** » Fri Jul 27, 2018 6:39 am

Lillorainen wrote:"Ah, I know that thing with the fat from somewhere" - Chris said. "Okay, then it's gonna be a small army."
Lillos generally were good eaters, too, but the amount of people where one could tell it from their outward appearance was quite small. Wherever the Selkie tended to leave their fat, it must have been a place similar to the one it went with Lillos.
The cook was already waiting in the courtyard, staring at them like a broken car.
Chris had to snort at her comment regarding Rhiannon's blessings. Indeed, Chris currently preferred a good meal over fertility. He was a bit older than Cel, but still a bit too young for this.
"That was the plan" - he said. "Where to put it?"

The cook nodded. "Wonderful. Follow me. By the way, I'm Nora!"
"Hi, Nora.", I told her in return.
She led us through the front courtyard past the building itself and to the back, where she opened the kitchen door. Usually, people expected an equally antiquitated kitchen to such an old house, but I knre from the Inns in Cuan, that they were actually in many cases highly modern kitchens of stainless steel and floor tiles.
This was not Cuan.
The kitchen in front of us was clean, but antiquitated, with wooden shelves, cast iron pots and pans, with a stove of iron, a stove of bricks, an open fireplace with a pot of Stobhach boiling there since before Rhiannon gave Her own fertility to allow us to procreate, and a lot of counters to work with. I also spotted a rather intimidating-looking array of knifes on one wall, neatly lined onto the hooks.
"Over here!", Nora commanded and pointed to a table. We heaved the massive guy onto the table, where the old wood stood firm. "Well, he looks better from up close!" She let a beat pass, then turned to me, giving me a hug and a kiss on the cheek, before she did the same with Chris. I do think, that there were worse rewards, mainly because while Nora had twice my age, maybe even thrice, she was still a very good-looking woman. "Thank you, both of you - that'll be a feast!"

by **Lillorainen** » Fri Jul 27, 2018 8:18 am

"Hi Nora" - Chris had said.
They followed her into the kitchen with their big catch.
Unlike Cel, Chris wasn't really surprised about how antiquitated the kitchen looked - old inn, old kitchen. Made sense to him. Cel looked more surprised ... probably she knew it differently from her home.
Chris himself felt rather reminded of some of these old motels in the middle of nowhere. They had a lot of retro charme.
He also noticed the set of knives. Not bad ...
Nora hugged and kissed Cel and first, than him. He didn't bother this sort of reward. She did not look that bad, considering she was probably older than him and Cel together.
"Mah, no problem" - he said with a dismissive had gesture. "It wasn't a big deal, although it's slightly above the size of the average shore fish."

by **The Selkie** » Fri Jul 27, 2018 10:26 am

I noted, that Chris was not exactly bothered by the reward, but he wasn't too thrilled by it either.
Good.
"That he indeed is.", Nora said with a grin and a nod, "And it's not no problem. Now... what to make..."
"Grill fish?", I suggested, Nora looking at me with a raised eyebrow. I shrugged. Grill Fish was a typical campsite meal. "Fish stew?" That seemed to find more purchase. "Breaded fish?"
"Let me get to work and we'll see, what I do!", Nora said with a grin. "Cuts for the foxies included."
That was our sign to leave and I grinned at Chris as I grabbed his hand and pulled him out. The vulpines would be happy, they loved fish, after all. "See you later, Miss Nora!"
"And no second helpings for bootlicking!", the woman called after us with a grin.

by **Lillorainen** » Fri Jul 27, 2018 10:39 am

Cel didn't seem to mind Nora's reward - possibly because it, indeed, hadn't thrilled him.
Chris wanted to suggest Fried Fish, but as Nora wasn't exactly convinced by Grill Fish, Chris said nothing.
Cel grinned and pulled him out of the kitchen.
"See you later!" - he had said, too.
When Nora called behind them, 'and no seconds helpings for bootlicking', Chris turned to Cel. "Does she mean us, or the foxes?" - he asked, grinning.

by **The Selkie** » Fri Jul 27, 2018 2:28 pm

"Both!", I said with a grin. By calling Nora Miss Nora, when she clearly wasn't a Miss anymore, I had insinuated, that she was younger then she was - bootlicking, essentially. And the foxes, well, they were always easy on the eyes as cute little buggers.
With our shoulders now freed of the burden, I rolled them once, then a second time and looked around us. One of my foxes, Gormghlas, was sniffing one of the splotches of fish blood on the ground.
"Dinner.", I commented to him, then motioned to Chris. "Thank him for it!"
With large, larger eyes, the fox looked at Chris, swinging his tail.

by **Lillorainen** » Sat Jul 28, 2018 5:42 am

Chris grinned back. "We should put more effort into this next time, maybe it works then."
He had not really figured that Cel's way of calling Nora 'Miss Nora' had been an attempt of bootlicking - who knew if she was married, after all?
Gormghlas appeared, sniffing some rests of fish blood. Chris remembered how Cel had been trying to bath him.
Following Cel's appeal, the fox looked at Chris in a thankful way.
Chris grinned. "Ach wat, da nit für" - he said in his homeland's way of saying 'no problem' when thanked. "I wasn't alone, after all."

by **The Selkie** » Sat Jul 28, 2018 9:43 am

Gormghlas still looked at him with those adorable large eyes, then... charged.
He jumped up with surprising ease, slamming forehead-first into the young man's chest, giving a squeal, which made me laugh as I prepared to catch one of the two, but I was quite sure, that neither of them would need it.
Still, it was an adorable sight.
He even was still clean, as I noted with a smile, so it wouldn't dirty Chris too much. And it showed, that he was at least in Gormghlas' good books, which was wonderful as well. If he and my foxes got along, then what did speak against him?
Actually, the answer to that has time.

by **Lillorainen** » Sat Jul 28, 2018 10:03 am

Chris was a bit startled by Gormghlas jumping right into his chest, but reacted quickly, stabilized himself by making a step back.
Cel was laughing - Chris had to laugh, too. "A new definition of breathtaking, eh?"
Luckily, Gormghlas was still clean.
Chris was satisfied - since he had arrived here, he hadn't met anyone who disagreed with him, be it human or vulpine. Not being on anybody's hit list was quite new to him, but it didn't feel bad.

by **The Selkie** » Sun Jul 29, 2018 2:40 am

I was glad, too - my boss, for a given definition of the term, approved of him, my foxes approved of him, so far, we had met no one hostile towards him, me or the two of us.
I knew, there would be problems in the near future, there always were in stories like these, but for now, I wanted to bask in this feeling. The feeling of us, of a vulpine life in our arms, of love and life and far away from dark shadows, which haunted my dreams.
I kissed Chris on the lips and Gormghlas on her nose, quick pecks before I turned to walk around the corner again. "I'll clean up our mess on the wharf!", I explained, "You two play nice!"

The Eagle and the Vixen (Closed)

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