Elementalists (completed)

Chapter 20

The next couple days are bright and sunny, not a cloud in the sky; a complete contrast to the depressing night before.

Begin day five.

Ten more to go.

I walk toward Ignis, clutching a fish in my hands, my clothes soaked, my pants and sleeves rolled up and my hair a mess.

Indifferent to my looks, I feel proud as I stride over to Ignis. The fire girl stops working on the mud house and turns to me.

"Hey Ignis!" I practically sing, bouncing to a stop next to her, the fish held like a trophy in front of me, "Guess what guess what guess what?"

Ignis sighs, propping one hand on her hip and waving the other one animatedly as she speaks to me, "What?"

I beam at her, thrusting the fish forward, "I caught a fish!" I exclaim. Ignis rolls her eyes as she takes the fish and starts to cook it, clearly annoyed by my enthusiasm.

What can I say? This is an achievement for me, being the first one I'd caught for the past two days. Not for lack of effort, mind you. It's a lot harder than it looks. They way they wiggle in your hands, making them slippery. That, plus the fact that you almost certainly had just leapt forward and are probably wet, in a bad position, and possibly injured, does not help matters.

Ignis finishes cooking the fish and hands it to me, "Just put it in the fish-hole." She tells me, turning back to the house.

I nod and am about to walk into the house when Terro pops up from behind Ignis, his eyes sparkling, "Wait wait wait, Blitz, caught a fish?!"

I glare at him and Ignis groans.

He ignores both of us and keeps going, "This is monumental! This is, this is.....I have to go get my-! EEEEOW!!!"

I smirk.

That, my friends, is the sound a Terro makes when you slap him with a fish.

I ignore his whines and walk into the mud house, going past Kin who congratulates me.

I smile at her, glad someone is being an encouraging friend.

Once I put the fish in the fish-hole, I walk back out to the river to hopefully keep catching fish.

The only thing I manage to do is get soaked to the bone and bruised all over. Stupid fish.

Surprisingly, Neve is the best at catching fish. You'd think it'd be Nero, but apparently that kid is pretty clumsy. He only managed to catch one, like me, but that was because his fish stupidly jumped out of the river and onto the grass, where a beaming Nero picked him up.

Neve has caught four just today. Yesterday she somehow got six, and the day before she got three. I don't even know why we're all fishing, Neve is a pro and could feed us forever.

Night rolls around and all the designated fishermen step out of the river, dripping and grumpy. My enthusiastic attitude had vanished and was replaced by a sulky cloud.

Ugh.

"Fishing's hard." Nero whines as we walk back to the house for dinner.

I nod firmly, but Neve just shoots him a smile which makes him scowl.

I laugh, making all the other poor souls that had been chosen for fishing laugh too. Well, except Nero of course, who grumbles something under his breath.

The fishermen had been me, Kin, Neve, and Nero while Terro and Ignis worked on the house. Anemos had kept an eye open for the Black Serpents, but there had been no sign of them. Yet.