SKILL hunter 5/5

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ah, but what lonely boy was immune to the simple charms of a girl?

his head rose, just a little and it froze, eye wide and gazing off. it was so simple, and yet his heart fluttered and a part of him swore he could fly if he just jumped. a sheepish glance at her and a smile, nervous. it's okay. it wasn't anything to be grateful for. if he didn't hunt for her, she would starve. well — no, she wouldn't. she was much more capable than him and if anyone was dragging the other down, it was him to her.

returning to his hunt, and thinking of how she fished, ghelan stood still like herons. certainly not as graceful as either herons or ishmira but what did it matter to the fish. a lightness in his chest, pressure leaving his temple as he gaze long and deep at the calming waters. he could not copy her technique exactly — lean limbs were faster but less sturdy on land, but ishmira thrived in water. whereas his were built for land, for the reviled march, for following and chasing caribou rather than the much more precise fishing. and gnashing his teeth underwater made him too slow to catch even the kelp.
it was simple what he had to do, then: attack just before the fish slip beneath him. aim with force, and if he predicts well, he will catch it.
with the wafting smell of ishmira's catch watering his mouth and his increasingly impatient hunger, akiak focuses. but it still takes a few times. the first, he was too quick and the fish fled. the second, much too slow. the third was the most upsetting — he'd finally caught one only for it to wriggle free just as he'd leaned down to kill it. it was on and only on his fifth that the boy finally emerged, glistening bass caught proudly — and tightly — in his jaws. akiak found himself turning to ishmira for her approval, but then slinked a few feet away, shrinking in embarrassment.

he is a clumsy, foolish boy— and his antics warm her ice-bitten heart even still. a girlish sigh parts her lips as success at last meets him halfway, flailing fish in tow. ishi's bone-white tail sweeps the ground pleasantly, and she cracks a smile.

he shrinks beneath her gaze like a scolded child, and she covers her mouth with a paw to stifle her laughter.

she wonders, dreamily, whether blackfell might approve of his noble heart and brave face. and she knows it would be true, were he not cen's boy— sun eater's blood, hated by blackfell and all who call themselves his kin. perhaps she is bound by duty to shun him, too. to cast hate upon him for the unforgivable crimes of his father before him.

but as she looks upon him, dripping with lake water and eyeing her fondly, she cannot bring herself to feel an ounce of contempt.