Gone Fishing

They had come across a specific town which was hosting what would best be described as a “fishing festival”. It seemed that in this particular time of year, the tides would recede enough to reveal a special fishing hole where one may catch some rare particular fish. The tides were timed, and would open only during certain times of day. People lined up to obtain fishing rods for this event, Margaret being one of them. 

“I hope I have enough fisher tokens!” Margaret said, handing over the requisite currency for a fishing rod.

Harper looked on slightly confused as she ran back to him clutching her fishing rod like a treasure. “You’re going fishing with that?”

“Yeah? How else would you fish?”

Harper blinked and looked down at his paws. Wriggling his individual fingers at her, he replied “I usually dive in and grab them”

“You have got to be joking.”

“That’s how I was taught to catch fish and that’s how I have been catching fish all my life.”

“Oh, you truly cannot understand the appeal of fishing until you can feel the pull on your line.”

Harper gave a somewhat dismissive sound of acknowledgement as they joined the throngs of people waiting in line for the fishing hole to open up and appear.

“I heard there’s a fish with iridescent scales that lives here that sells for a lot!”

“I’ll look for it in there for you.”

There was a low rumble as the tide receded, revealing a cliffside cave. The representative of the Fisherman’s Guild gave a signal and people funneled in, casting their line into the deep waters in the cave lake.

Margaret cast her line, and she glanced at Harper doing some stretches before preparing to dive into the lake.

“Stop!” the Fisherman’s Guild rep shouted, trying to halt the Sealomimi from diving into the water. “You can’t do that!”

“Why?” 

“This cave only remains open for 30 minutes a day. If you go in there, when the tide rises you will become trapped in here.”

“Ah.” Harper stepped away from the cave lakeside, disappointed. He moved over to Margaret and sat down next to her as she sat there concentrating on her fishing line.

“Back from fishing already, Harper?”

“They said I can’t go catch fish. They said it is dangerous.”

“Oh.” She looked over to him, seeing him thump his tail against the ground in frustration. “If you want to fish, you can try fishing with my fishing rod.”

“I’ve never done it before.”

“You can learn! Here! You see this is the reel, and when you see the bobber out there go down and you feel a tug on the line, that means you caught something. Then you crank the reel to pull the line up.”

Harper looked at the fishing rod and shook his head. “Perhaps it is better if I watched you do it first.”

“Sure.”

They sat in silence for 10 minutes, waiting for something to take the bait. They were not alone in this, as everyone else sat in tense silence as well. 

“Seems that fishing takes a lot of patience if you want to do it like this,” Harper said.

“Well. Yeah. That’s the fun of it.”

Harper couldn’t really wrap his head around that, but if Margaret said it was fun, maybe it was.

A sudden bubbling and splashing noise roared through the cave, along with the distinctive zip of fishing lines pulling taut.

“Woah we got one!”

Harper looked around at everyone suddenly standing up and fighting against whatever caught on their line. Everyone seemed to be filled with adrenaline as they attempted to reel in their catches. 

“Almost got it!” Margaret exclaimed, pulling excitedly. 

Then, as her catch breached the surface of the water, her line snapped. The round pufferfish that escaped seemed to taunt her before swimming back to the depths. 

Others in the cave were luckier with their catches in comparison. 

“It’s time to get out of here!” the Fisherman’s Guild rep said, ushering everyone out of the cave. “The hole’s boutta close up.”

“That’s a bummer.” Margaret said, inspecting her fishing rod. A part of the rod seemed to have broken off during the encounter, and she sighed. “I might have to buy another one.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“That’s ok. When we buy a new one, we can go fishing somewhere else, and I’ll teach you.”

---

They stood on the rocky shore surveying their fishing spot. A chunk of chicken was placed upon the dangling end of the fishing line.

“Is this how one is supposed to do it?”

“Well, usually you try to match the bait with what you are trying to catch.”

“And what does this catch?”

“Crabs.”

“Crabs?”

“Yeah! You see, I think that when I was fishing earlier, the pufferfish was fighting very hard against my line. I know for a fact that crabs don’t really fight against the line so catching one shouldn’t be as difficult.”

“Have you ever caught a crab like that?”

“Actually, no,” she admitted. “Most people catch crabs with traps, actually.”

“I’m starting to doubt you know how to fish.”

“I-I do! I have caught things before!”

“Like what?”

“... A rock. Some coral.”

“Uh huh.”

“A-and two fish!”

“That’s great.” 

“I hope you’re not being sarcastic,” she replied dejectedly.

“I’m not. It seems very hard to fish so catching anything with this… inefficient thing is an achievement, truly.”

A small tug on the line.

“Hey, start reeling! You caught something!”

“Oh!” He began reeling in, pulling the fishing rod back as he had previously observed others doing. Before long, he had pulled up a blue crab that was grabbing onto the piece of chicken for dear life.

“You’re a natural at this aren’t you?”

“Couldn’t have done it without your guidance.” Harper set out to try to get the crab to gently release the bait so he can place it in their cooler. Their Purrmaid, Puck, looked on with interest. “Though I think it would be faster if I just dove in the water and got the crabs myself.”

“I suppose!” Margaret picked up the curious Purrmaid away from the crab, which was threatening to pinch their beloved pet. “But that’s not really the point of fishing as a hobby I think.”

“I see. I had always fished to eat, but if you have other goals in regards to catching fish, I could see how this could be ‘fun’.”

Margaret smiled, feeling like she’s broken through somewhat and gotten Harper to understand a differing opinion. “So would you want to fish again?”

“Not right now,” he said, fetching a large knife from his bag. “Are you hungry? I noticed some oysters and mussels growing over there, I’ll get us some food.”

She shrugged. There was no real way of convincing him that fishing was fun, but he had been living in survival mode for so long it would take some time for him to learn to have fun with it.