Here Fishy Fishy (Prehistoria Lit)

    “A bunny!”

    “Bunny? C’mon, that’s obviously a mammoth!”

    “A mammoth, human? How can you see that?”

    “What kind of bunny has leaf-like ears, Lua?”

    “That one.”

    “No.”

    “Yes.”

    “No.”

    “No.”

    Ilaat, a young human with tan skin, brown hair, and dark eyes, furrowed his brows and looked up at his headrest with a lopsided smile. “Lua, that doesn’t work with me.”

    Naluaa, the worg on whose furry belly Ilaat rested his head, glanced down at him. “Worth a shot,” she chuckled softly, using her paw to playful pat Ilaat on the face.

    The two friends rested next to the river bank, watching the clouds above with a calm, relaxed carelessness. The spring day was warm with a pleasant cool breeze to gently rustle the tall green grass the pair lounged in. Not far off, a herd of mammoths ambled by, but neither Ilaat nor Naluaa cared to chase them. It was too nice a day to spend it risking their lives for meat they didn’t even need.

    No, if they were to hunt at all, it’d be from the river a few meters away.

    Ilaat batted the heavy paw away. “And that’s why we leave the long-range strikes to me,” he teased.

    Naluaa snorted and looked down at him. “You’re a melee fighter, human. Since when do you use longer range weapons?” she asked, a smirk on her face. “Have the prey finally realized you stink and therefore you can no longer get close?”

    Ilaat sat up and shoved at her belly. “Excuse you, I don’t smell of moldy fur.”

    The worg rolled over and stood up before turning to face the human. “Well,” she huffed with mock offense, “Sorry my stench is intolerable to you. Excuse me while I rid myself of this offensive smell.” Holding her head high, nose in the air, she trotted over to the river, smacking Ilaat in the face with her tail as she passed. Nose still in the air, she pranced into the rushing water.

    Despite his stinging face, Ilaat chuckled. That worg was something else. He watched her prance in the shallows, the river spraying up around her. Abruptly she turned, facing him. She reared up on her hind legs, grinned at Ilaat, then jumped and flung her weight backwards into the deeper portion of the river. Landing on her back, the displaced water splashed up around Naluaa before enveloping her. She remained underwater for a few moments before she resurfaced. Paddling back to where she could stand, Naluaa rose to her feet and shook herself, droplets of water spraying the air.

    Watching his companion, Ilaat felt a sudden urge to paint her. Looking around, he grinned when he spotted a large flat boulder near some mud. Perfect. He made his way over and began to use the mud to paint out the image of her shaking herself off, occasionally looking up at his muse to check anatomy.

    It didn’t take long for the subject to notice the artist staring at her occasionally. Curious, she padded out of the river and over to the human. Standing beside him, water dripping from her fur, she frowned. It was her… on a rock. But why? “What are you doing, human?” she asked, peering at the mud.

    Ilaat smiled over his shoulder at her. “Drawing you!”

    Not quite understanding, the worg cocked her large head to the side. “Why? Is it a part of magic?”

    Ilaat laughed. “No! It’s just for fun.”

    Naluaa sat down. Sure, playing in mud was fun. But Ilaat only had his fingers dirty. Where was the fun in that? “I don’t understand. Is this a human thing?”

    Ilaat laughed softly. “Kinda. It’s just fun and satisfying to create something out of nothing.”

    Suddenly Naluaa felt like she got it. “Oh! One of your creativity things.”

    Ilaat nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah! Want to try it?”

    Naluaa, excited, nodded vigorously. Looking down at the mud, she dabbed her paw into a thick patch of it. Careful not to mess up Ilaat’s existing drawing, she pressed her paw around it, leaving large muddy paw prints. After encircling Ilaat’s drawing, she lowered her paw. “Like that?”

    Peering at the array of muddy prints, Ilaat smiled at her. “More or less.”

    The worg narrowed her eyes at him, then, without warning, pressed her still muddy paw against his face.

    “Gah!” Ilaat exclaimed, reeling backwards.

    Naluaa roared with laughter, falling on her side.

    Wiping the mud from his eyes, Ilaat glared good-naturedly at her. “So that’s how you want to play, Lua?”

    Hearing the challenging tone in the human’s voice, the worg jumped to her feet and ran back towards the river just as Ilaat lunged for her. “Nice try, human!”

    A large grin on his face, Ilaat raced after his friend. Roaring a battle cry, he plunged to the river. Ignoring the shock of the cold water, he playfully splashed Naluaa. In response, Naluaa used her massive paw to splash him back.

    Back and forth they went, occasionally dodging the splash of the each other. Soon, however, the two began to tire and their stomachs began to rumble.

    “How about we fish?” Ilaat asked, slightly panting. Naluaa, saliva pooling in her mouth at the thought of food, nodded eagerly. Laughing, Ilaat announced, “I’ll be right back. See if you can catch something while I’m gone!”

    Nodding, Naluaa turned and stood still in the water, waiting for the fish to return after their playful fight.

    Trotting up the bank and retrieving his spear, Ilaat turned back in time to see Naluaa lung towards the water with open jaws. He reached the water’s edge just in time to see her come back up with a mouthful of bitter river grass. Stepping back into the water, he laughed as she spat it out with a sour expression. “Nice catch, Lua!”

    Tongue still out, the wrog glared at him. Suddenly a cruel smirk twisted her face, and the next thing Ilaat knew a strong current swept his legs out from under him.

    Letting out a startled shout as he fell backwards into the river, he resurfaced spitting out water. Small droplets trickled down his face from his hair, which hung down in his face.

    Tipping her head back at her companion’s ridiculous expression, Naluaa once again roared with laughter.

    Huffing and trying desperately to keep the smile from his face, Ilaat pointed the spear at Naluaa. “That was a dirty trick!”

    Naluaa stopped laughing and grinned at him. “Dirty? Actually, you look pretty clean to me now!”

    Wiping the strands of hair back out of his eyes, Ilaat found he couldn’t prevent the smile from spreading across his face. “I guess that’s fair,” he laughed, standing back up.

    Shaking her mane out, Naluaa grinned at him and turned her focus back on the river.

    Mimicking her, Ilaat hoisted his spear up and waited for the flash of scales to signal a fish swimming by. He didn’t have to wait long for a particularly large fish to come swimming downriver. Gauging its speed, he thrust the spear downward in front of it.

    Unaware of the danger, the fish swam right below the spear just as it came down. Ilaat gave a triumphant yell as he impaled the fish. Bringing his spear out of the water, the still flopping fish on the end, he grinned. “I’m winning, Lua! Better step up your game!”

    The worg turned her head to look at him, and once more a devious expression spread over her face. Pressing her paw to the river bed, she closed her eyes and concentrated.

    Ilaat felt a rumble beneath his bare feet, and looked upstream. At first confused at the sudden mass in the river, he soon realized it was a massive school of fish. He didn’t have any time to prepare as the school, around fifteen in number, jumped out of the water in one synchronized movement. As they passed, a number of them slapped the stunned human with their tails.

    Reeling back in shock, by the time Ilaat recovered the school of ninja fish had vanished. In their place was a triumphant Naluaa, who held four large fish in her jaws. She shouted something, and although the fish distorted the words beyond recognition, Ilaat knew exactly what they were.

    “I win!”