And it started in La'marri (With cake! >.>)

[Anonymous]

----- Cerena grinned widely.  She didn't have a fishing pole or anything that would help her catch fish (other than magic, of course), but it sounded fun.  She didn't know if Felina was a local or not, but if everyone in the area was as friendly as her, then she was going to have a fun time while she was in town.

----- "Sure!"  She looked up at the sky, trying to remember if the sun set in the east or west, before giving up quickly and smiling sheepishly at Felina.  "Lead the way?"

[Anonymous]

Felina smiled. "Why, of course," she said. "Follow me." Her intuit sense of direction told her that west was on the other side of town, so she started walking, glancing behind her occasionally to make sure that Cerena was following her.

[Anonymous]

----- Cerena was glad Felina knew what direction west was; she wasn't necessarily bad with directions, but she always traveled by landmarks.  She followed after Felina, trying to focus on making sure she didn't lose her in the crowds or accidentally walk into her if she stopped.  As much as she tried to keep her attention focused, she was easily distracted by just about everything.  Other people, market stalls, buildings, even alleys all proved to be interesting enough to steal her attention for a few seconds.

----- As the town began to turn to forest, Cerena calmed down a little, acting less like a child and more like an adult.  She kept an idle lookout for any animals, just in case she did end up getting more meals from the area, but the only animals she managed to verify was a doe and two young fawns, which she wouldn't touch if she could help it.  She began wondering how unrealistic it might be to simple camp out near the river and walk into town whenever she needed supplies.  If the area wasn't dangerous, it could be an easy place to stay for a few months....

[Anonymous]

Felina continued walking through the familiar quiet of the forest, occasionally listening for Cerena's footsteps to make sure she was still behind her. Soon enough, Felina heard the sound of running water, and after another few minutes of walking, the two came upon the river.

The river was about a hundred feet wide and stretched up north and south as far as the eye can see. The current wasn't too swift, flowing at a good, steady rate. Forests lined both sides of the river, but Felina's eyes spotted a tiny, grassy peninsula extending about fifteen feet into the river not too far from where they were.

She turned to Cerena and pointed at the peninsula. "That looks like a good spot," she said. "What do you think?"

[Anonymous]

----- "Wow, this river is huge..." Cerena ran to the edge of the water and watched it flow over a few rocks on the bottom.  The water wasn't perfectly clear, of course, but it was clear enough to see a few little fish swimming around in the water.  They were too small to make a meal, like guppies, but they were fun to watch flit around.

----- She looked over at the peninsula when Felina pointed it out, and nodded.  "Looks fine to me too.... so, how are you planning on catching any?"  Cerena was torn between building some sort of makeshift fishing pole or just giving up and using magic, but she didn't want to use that unless she had to.  She wasn't in the mood for casting any serious spells at the moment.

[Anonymous]

Felina paused. "Y'know, I never really thought about that," she admitted sheepishly, her face going a little red. She hated it when she jumped right into a situation without even thinking about how to handle it; it really messed things up for her when she did. "We could try to make makeshift poles...but I'm open to any suggestions you might have."

[Anonymous]

----- [-- OC: Sorry it took me so long to reply.... I thought we were gonna be having a low key weekend at home and my parents ended up inviting a ton of people over. ^^;; I hope you had fun at the Renn Fest, though, I cannot wait until the one near me opens!  --]

----- Drat.  Cerena had really hoped that Felina was carrying some kind of magic pouch that was capable of holding fishing poles or something to that effect; but no such luck.  That left either using some sort of spell, running back to La'marri to buy fishing poles, which wasn't a great option either.  She bit her lip.

----- "So....Felina, you don't know any magic by chance, do you?  I'm thinking we're either gonna hafta use magic, whittle ourselves some fishing poles really quickly, or run back to town and buy some.  I know some magic, but... I'd have to think about how to best apply it to fishing..." She crossed her arms and stared thoughtfully down at the river, watching the fish flit around in it, safe for now.

----- Touché, fish.  Touché.

[Anonymous]

((--OC: That's quite all right. Well, I did indeed have a blast at the Renn Faire, and I'd like to describe it in a PM.

Oh, and don't you just hate it when something unexpected happens and it throws your plans off? I do.--))

Magic...Felina had seen a lot of people perform all kinds of magic, and it still amazes her every time she sees someone do it. But even though she was unique in the eyes of many humans, she could not perform any magic at all.

"I'm afraid I don't know any magic, Cerena," Felina admitted. "I'm sorry."

[Anonymous]

----- [-- OC: Please, go right ahead!  I'd love to hear about it.  ^^

----- And yes, I hate that more than almost anything.  It was fun, I'll admit, but I had planned on spending my weekend in a very different way, so I wasn't exactly pleased.  --]

----- She smiled.  "Don't worry about it, it's not a problem!  Just lemme think for a minute..."

----- She could try to lure the fish to one particular area and then somehow pull them out, which seemed practical.  It'd be more practical if they had a net, but if they had thought that far ahead they would have boughten fishing poles.  A big leaf could be used to scoop a fish up, she supposed, but she had only seen leaves that big growing in jungles, and she doubted any would be growing anywhere near where she was now.  It was possible Felina might be able to catch them, if she had very good reflexes and eyesight, but she wasn't sure that was possible.

----- It theoretically was possible to pull all of the oxygen out of part of the water, but it would be a huge undertaking, and it'd kill far too many fish.  Everything she was thinking of was either too impractical or too wasteful.  She scowled slightly.

----- "So, if I managed to make the fish swim slowly, d'you think you might be able to grab them?"  She smiled sheepishly, a little embarrassed that was the best plan she could come up with.

[Anonymous]

((--OC: Okay, after this post is up, I'll PM you ^.^--))

Felina smiled at the idea. "Sure, that sounds like a good idea," she said. "If that doesn't work, then I'll think of a plan B."

She wasn't exactly too sure what her "plan B" was, but she figured she would be able to think of one in time.

[Anonymous]

----- Cerena let out a deep breath.  Great, luring fish should be a pretty minor spell.  At most it'd only be a small cut on her palm; nothing noticeable.  Or at least easy to blame on just clenching her fists too tightly while she was concentrating.  She forced herself to relax a little and smiled at Felina.

----- "I'm gonna mimick dropping bread crumbs in the water.  They should go for it, cause it's food, so they'll probably stop around where they think it is when they try to eat it.  If you can catch them then.... we can eat, I guess.  If not, we'll have to think some more."  She smiled hopefully.

[Anonymous]

Felina smiled. She had very good reflexes, so catching distracted fish shouldn't be too much of a problem for her.

"Alright, that I can do," Felina said, now reassured. "If you may?"

[Anonymous]

----- Cerena's eyes flickered shut, and she felt her nails digging into the palms of her hands.  She didn't even wince as the nail finally broke the skin, and a thin trickle of blood began to seep out onto her hand.  She quickly flipped her hand up and spread her palm, hoping in the back of her mind that it was out of Felina's sight, but she didn't want to risk messing the spell up by distracting herself that much.

----- She began to trace a pattern on her palm, using the blood as a thin layer of paint.  The cuts she had inflicted had already began to close up; and after a moment of concentrating on her hand, she closed and opened it slowly and found herself holding a small pile of bread crumbs.

----- Of course they weren't real bread crumbs, or there wouldn't be a point in fishing.  They were really just illusions that Cerena was focusing on so they'd interact with the real world in a realistic way.  A bunch of bread crumbs wasn't exactly difficult magic, but doing the same with something like a dagger was much more intense.  She tossed a few of the bread crumbs into the river and watched as the fish slowly began to move towards them, mistaking them for real food....

[Anonymous]

When Cerena dropped the "bread crumbs" into the water, Felina noticed that Cerena's hand was bleeding. She decided to ask her about it after she caught a fish.

Felina waited for a good-sized fish to take the bait. Then, she spotted one: a large salmon, maybe two and a half feet in length. Felina put down he pack, scimitar, and hunting knife, and crouched by the water, waiting for the salmon to drop its guard to the bread crumbs.

Then, much like a cat, she pounced, diving into the river and siezing the salmon before it knew what hit it. The salmon thrashed about wildly, trying to escape Felina's grasp, but it was no use. Felina brought it above the surface, where it kept thrashing about for a few moments until it finally gave up due to the lack of water. Grinning widely, Felina climbed back onto dry land with the salmon in tow.

"It's a big one!" she exclaimed enthusiastically. "For a second, I thought it was going to drag me down the river."

[Anonymous]

----- Cerena nearly panicked when Felina jumped in the river- she hadn't been quite sure of what to expect, but she had just assumed that she would be able to reach her hands in and grab a fish or something.  Not leap into the river.  She was so surprised that she entirely lost her focus and the remaining bread crumbs disappeared.  She would have been annoyed at herself, but judging from the size of the fish Felina was wrestling with... she wasn't going to be needing the other crumbs anyway.

----- She dipped her hand momentarily in the water, rinsing off the blood pattern and the excess blood.  The cuts weren't really noticeable, but they were still there, as always.  As always.

----- As Felina pulled the fish onto the land, Cerena simply stared.  "I'm not sure I've ever seen a fish that big before," she murmured, watching it slowly stop flapping it's tail.  "How in the hell did you catch that?"  Then she grinned.  "Good job!  Now we just gotta cook it."

[Anonymous]

Felina smiled and giggled. "Thanks. I'm half-cat, after all." She set the salmon down and shook the excess water out of her hair. "Just let me dry off first." She had forgotten what it was like to get wet, so it felt kind of uncomfortable for her. Luckily, there was plenty of sunlight on this peninsula, so she lay down in the sunlight, hoping she would dry off soon. She loved the warmth of the sun beating down on her; it relaxed her so much.

"So, how are we going to cook this fish?" she then asked after a moment.

[Anonymous]

----- "Cooking it'll be much easier," Cerena promised.  "It's basic magic to light a fire, as long as you have some sticks, and we are in a forest, so they shouldn't be that hard to find."  She smiled as she watched Felina sunbathe in an attempt to dry off; it looked so nice.  But Cerena preferred to do almost everything on a full stomach, so she focused her energy on collecting firewood.

----- Pretty soon she had a decent sized pile, so she set around to arranging it so it'd light easily.  It was only after she was ready to light the fire up that she began to wonder the schematics of roasting a fish.  If she just stuck it on a stick and stuck it in the fire, it was liable to not be fully or properly cooked.  She considered building some kind of a spit so she could rotate the fish, but the chances of finding two sticks like that were slim to none.

----- "Hmm..." Well, the chances of finding two perfect sticks were slim.  But magically altering some sticks- that was certainly do able.  She wandered back into the forest, telling Felina she was just looking for some more sticks, searching out three long sticks.  She painstakingly managed to manipulate the wood to form a makeshift spit, but she had to spend a few minutes washing her hands afterwards, leaving a faint red trail in the river.  Altering plants- especially dead plants- wasn't an easy feat, and it certainly wasn't her specialty.

----- She returned triumphantly and set up her little cooking spit, examining it with pride.  The only thing left to do was light up the fire... and actually cook the fish.

[Anonymous]

Felina continued to lay in the sunlight, smiling at the warmth that bore down upon her. She loved bathing in the sun; it made her feel so relaxed and content. It made her just want to forget all her troubles and think about the bright side of things.

She was about to doze off when she heard Cerena come back and set up something. Felina reluctantly sat herself up, and, after examining her fur to see if it was dry, examined the spit Cerena had set up.

"Did you make that yourself? Good job," she said happily. "Now, to light the fire and cook the fish. But first..." She grabbed her travelling pack and proceeded to pull out small containers containing a multitude of herbs and spices. She pulled out at least 35 such containers and looked them over carefully, making sure the contents of each container were still fresh. She also pulled out a small grinding bowl and grinding stick.

"Now, what to season it with?" she murmured, looking over her collection.

[Anonymous]

----- [-- OC: Sorry I haven't replied; my wireless has been sorta broken... but it's apparently working now.... --]

----- "Yeah, hopefully it will stay standing long enough for us to use it; I've never tried to make one before so I have no idea how stable it is."  She turned partially, to focus on lighting the fire.  That was an easy spell; it didn't even require any blood.  Just a moment of concentration.

----- She could hear Felina going through her traveling pack and pulling something out.  She wondered if maybe she had some bread or something, to supplement the fish.  Her stomach grumbled a little bit.  It was one thing to be hungry; it was another thing to be hungry and only about twenty minutes away from a delicious meal.

----- She turned around to see what Felina was looking at and gaped.  Spices!  Herbs!  So many cooking things!  The only spice Cerena could even recognize (she assumed it was what she thought it was, at least) was a little jar of cinnamon.  "Now, what to season it with?"

----- "...I don't really know what to flavor fish with... I don't think I've ever seen this many little jars, either..."

[Anonymous]

((--OC: That's quite alright. It happens to the best of us.

And sorry about not replying to your PM as soon as I hoped...so many unexpected things came up yesterday and the day before, but I should be able to reply today...hopefully.--))

Felina chuckled. "Well, if you're like me, you'd be having a lot of herbs and spices around with you, too," she said. "You'll never know when you'll need them and what you'll need them for. Now, let's see..." She scanned over her herbs again. Then, she decided to make a sort of spicy, flavorful seasoning for the fish.

Felina proceeded to grab containers of paprika, salt, black pepper, parsley, dried onion, dried garlic, oregano, basil, whole cumin, a cinnamon stick, and thyme, and carefully measured a small amount of each into her grinding mill. She then took her grinding stick and ground all of the ingredients together into a fine powder. A mild spicy aroma emanated from the mixture, and it could be smelled around the peninsula. Felina's sensitive nose sniffed the scent, and she smiled.

"I think that should do the trick," she said.