Fishing Flop [Open]

[[Holly]]

Poised carefully, artfully, like a crane, Shorepaw sat motionless on the edge of the stream, angled so the shadow of her figure didn’t fall across the water. Her paw was raised, prepared to strike at the fish glinting promise of fish. With daunting patients she stared into the rippling, rushing water, careful not to mistake the shimmer of a wave for and shinning of scales.

Though she was determined to stay focused on the task at hand, the young she-cat couldn’t completely rein in her traveling thoughts, a failure that irritated her. Shorepaw’s thoughts, the traitors they were, had drifted back to her first training session for hunting fish. She recalled her clumsy attempt at the now perfected poise and was thankful for all the practice she had put in. Naturally, she had not caught anything that first day. But her mentor had encouragingly told her it wasn’t the worst first try he’d ever seen, continuing to tell her about his first day fishing and how a crawfish had clamped onto his paw.

Roused back to the present by remembering she couldn’t laugh at the moment, Shorepaw was able to catch sight of the tell-tale flicker beneath the waves. Instinctively her paw shot forward, not realizing that her body had relaxed while she daydreamed and the sudden movement throw her off balance. With a startled cry, Shorepaw crashed into the water, successfully scaring off any prey she might have hoped to catch.

Head bobbing back above water, Shorepaw hissed curses at herself, the only consolation to her being that no one had been there to see it.