Steam Stream Seam

It startled everyone when Chalice Charity, of all the Isolings in the village, crept forward. A wide grin had stretched across their mouth, showing off their snaggletooth and their long tail thrashing wildly behind them. Mischief always followed them and their actions, so the atmosphere became tense when they interrupted the group.

“Hey, I think we should go hunting!” They piped to the gathering. It had originated with just Oma and Bo chittering about various gossip topics, catching up on the latest and whatnot, while Asery and Vogel had approached the conversation after eavesdropping for a minute and input their knowledge to the conversation, and now there was their little huddle, in which Charity had graciously intruded upon. 

Everyone stared at the odd Isoling in immediate suspicion. This wasn’t the first time they had brought forth a suggestion that might lead them to trouble, but it certainly won’t be the last. Oma, however, lived by many rules, one of those being [Everything ends up being alright]

“What are we hunting?” Oma queried while the other Isolings remained silent. It shouldn’t have been as tense as it was, but Vogel and Asery huddled together in an attempt to appear smaller together, while Bo uncomfortably looked between Charity and Oma. Oma was so kind to all of them, despite her sleeping habits, he wasn’t sure how to help in this situation. He feared the rupture of a fight between the two, which Oma would certainly lose. 

“We’re going to go to the river and swim!” Charity chirped, an innocent enough start. “We can get fish and maybe those Memora creatures might be over there!” 

“Aren’t Memoras dangerous?” Bo piped up, not missing the glare sent his way by Charity. They huffed, puffing out their chest and straightening their back to appear larger. It worked, obviously, as Bo immediately regretted speaking up to the terrifying Isoling. He shrunk back and tried to shuffle a bit behind Oma.

Charity huffed. “So?”

Vogel shrugged, speaking up. Whether he meant to distract Charity from Bo or just input his thoughts on the situation, it’ll never be known. “We might not run into Memoras. It would be nice to swim. It’s been a nice day.”

Asery also shrugged, tail wiggling behind him as he gained the courage to speak up since Vogel did. “Safety in numbers.” He added, helping to solidify the vote. Whether or not they accompanied Charity, they would be the first to be interrogated if anything happened to the odd Isoling. And while Paprika isn’t the most aggressive Isomara they know, they collectively knew that parents can get angry when their children are in danger. 

“Then it’s settled! We’re wasting time, let’s go, let’s go!” Charity ushered them to run along to the forest stream. They disappeared into the bushes, leaving the other four Isolings to look at one another, suspicion still clear on their features, before following suit into the woods. They trotted along the dirt covered path, long whiskers of grass and the petals of their flowers tickling their fur as they jogged along. Bo lagged behind Vogel, acting as the caboose while Charity lead the way a few feet ahead of Asery. 

Then they all crashed into one another as Charity stopped suddenly, a chain reaction of them running into one another. Poor Oma let out a squeak of being sandwiched in the middle, while Charity let out a strangled yell, falling into the water after scrambling and losing their balance. 

After everyone sorted themselves out, Charity mostly dry with only a few clumps of algae clinging to their scraggly tail, Charity wandered away, snootily waving their tail behind them. They traveled upstream, mumbling something about sending fishes downstream for easier catches. The others spread out along the stream’s bank, scaring tadpoles and minnows that shuffled into the darkness of the water as their shadows passed by. 

Vogel ended up wandering away, slipping into the water and swimming further down from the group. He loved the water flowing around him and his fur, all six of his legs flailing in the water with his little wings flapping happily. At the very least, he wasn’t interfering with the other four’s hunting tactics. He at the very least batted at the fish swimming past and with him to say he tried, but no real attempts to catch them were made. The tree leaves dancing above him and the current guiding him to the center were much more entertaining. 

Bo was more focused on creeping around and seeing all the fish flutter along, as if flying in their own designated pathways. They’d eventually come out if he was still enough, but when his eyes caught sight of them, the joyous flutter of his ears would always make them dart away again. He thumped his tail behind him, ruffled his fluffy cuffs with his shuffled paws, before laying to stay still once again. The ground was cool on his stomach, even beneath all of his fur. He had no interest in fishing, it was much easier to lay still and watch them wander their magical world. Besides, they were all too small in this stream to really want to fish. Only they would find a decent meal in these catches; the adults wouldn’t want any. 

However, despite the lollygagging on all the other’s part, Oma and Asery were working together to actually fish. Oma’s wide stance and range of reach was very advantageous to ping any larger fish from Oma’s side to Asery’s open claws. He snagged one, two, three, but they all escaped his grasp and dunk themselves back into the water. They darted away, leaving two disgruntled Isolings to try their luck once again. 

Until Charity burst out from the bush behind Asery and pushed him into the stream, all the fish scattering around and he fell in with a startled yelp. Charity guffawed loudly, crowing “Got you, got you!” over and over as they ran away gleefully. Bo stared, incredulous, that Charity really just did that, but at the same time, he really shouldn’t have expected anything different. Oma had jumped in the water to swim across and help Asery out, and Vogel strode forward to all the racket. 

After that chaos, a collective agreement of departure back to the village came to be, leaving the streamside smelling of various flowers and empty handed. 

“Called it.”

“No one said it out loud, but yeah, called it.”