Oh, Take a pike

At this point February was close to losing his cool regarding the human that had been trailing them. He had snapped at all the females at least twice, and just as many times Dani had nipped him back when he had gone after the others, especially when he had gotten annoyed with Nala, the smaller of the half mane females. The human made him cranky, very cranky in fact, even if she haven't come as close to him as she had been on the beach. After the seal hunt she had kept her normal distance. Never tried to come any closer. It was like never being able to get rid of an annoying insect that kept buzzing around your ears. The dire male growled to himself as he paced in front of the shore of the lake. They had left the sea and the seals behind them many days ago and he had done his best to make both the long mane female and the human to lose their tracks. Sadly it didn't take the trailing pair to find them again.

Nala casted a worried eye in the males direction. She had been on the receiving end of his annoyance a few times already and made sure to stay out of his range. She had only been nipped on her rump once, then she had learned how to get out of the way. Thankfully she was much faster and more agile than the male, much thanks to her smaller form. Still the one nip she had gotten had stung and Nala was sure the male had gotten a nice fluff of her fur in his mouth. After glancing over her shoulder the greying tawny piebald turned her focus back to the lake and the somewhat slimy creatures that hid under the reflective surface.

Dunking her entire head under water, way above her ears and with air bubbles coming up around them, Flecki looked for said creatures further out in the lake. The female wasn't so far out that she wouldn't be able to stand, the water just about reached her elbow. At times she became too eager and moved in too fast, making the shoal of fish dart in all directions to avoid the female’s sharp and lethal bite. After a few fruit - or rather fishless - attempts the merle female moved with more care, putting one paw down slowly as to not disturb the bottom sediments too much. It almost looked like when she was stalking a land living prey but in a way this was much harder. There wasn't much of a scent to go on, besides the kind of fishy, kind of sweet smelling scent of the lake. The fish itself was hard to get a scent on until you caught it, and it wasn't like you would be able to track it down before. This was more a hunt that depended on a good eyesight.

Tana sat perched on a good solid branch with a good view over the lake where the pack had settled for what seemed to be a hunt for fish. She had made sure to stay even further back when she both sensed and felt the male's aggressive spirit become even stronger. In safety up in the tree she sang to the spirits to soothe whatever had made the male so angry in the first place. At the seal hunt she had been so close to the male when he rushed past her that she might had been able to touch his fur if she had held out her hand. In a way she felt honored that he had allowed her to be close, but it went up and down. Some days February hadn't seemed to care, other days he had charged the females like they had to suffer for his foul mood.

Underneath the tree the pied long mane female rested, her head almost completely hidden under her tail. A sound from the lake however made her look in that direction, ears flicking as a string of her silky mane tickles it. Tilting her head upwards she made sure her twofooted was still there before getting up and walks slowly towards the sound. Misia greeted her kindly as she came out of the shrubs and Tul made sure not to look directly at the male that had placed himself upon a big flat rock for a better view. She had learned from watching that sometimes February took a direct glance as some sort of challenge or something that voiced an opinion that was different than his own. Towards them it was mostly bark and not much bark but Tul didn't want to risk that the male would turn his annoyance towards her human. For some reason the male did not like her, even if Tul knew that her twolegged - for being a twolegged - understood quite a lot. Despite her silly looking nose, small ears and funny looking paws.

Wagging her tail towards the long mane Misia then turned her interest and focus towards the lake. With some spark in her eyes she watched a small flock of mallards fly over her but they landed to far away for it to be even worth the effort. There was however signs that the fish was still around, despite Flecki’s floundering around in the water. Dani came up beside her and rubbed her head on her shoulder in a sisterly manner. Together with Tul the two dires walked towards the waterline.

Februarys ears turned, folding close to his massive head. The long mane brought the slight stench of the two legged with her. She was clever, keeping her head down, pretending he wasn't there but he could tell she knew well. It wasn't like he was invisible. For a moment he pondered about chasing her away, perhaps back to the source of the foul smelling human, but then the other females closed his view of her as they come up on either side of the long mane.

From her tree Tana watched the group, with Tul staying close to Misia and Dani, beginning to try to catch some fish. February shoved his way up to the front and it seemed like the females, now well aware of his nature just let him be. As long as it was just shoves they could handle it but Tana would see that it vexed the normally well composed Dani, Misia didn't look overly happy either. Flecki just had her eyes glued to something under the water. Her tail was stiff, standing straight out but her entire body seemed to shiver in excitement. It reminded the woman of the pale dire male she had in her own pack. She had to bring him out on a fishing trip soon. With Joe vanishing the way he had done it had left Uk quite depressed. It was getting better but it was clear something very important was missing for the pale dire.

Slowly the half mane had snuck closer to some slow moving shapes along side some bull rush plants. The fish, yet unaware of the approaching danger of the four footed land hunter was stalking prey themselves in the form of smaller fish. The slow motions with the tailfin was rather deceiving. With just a stronger stroke it would send the fish forward quicker than one might think. Every now and then when the as good as perfectly camouflaged fish opened it's mouth it revealed a set of sharp teeth, designed to give a sharp bite.

Just as the water dwelling predator darted forward and caught it's prey it also revealed itself. No matter how much it tossed and turned it stood no chance against the merle female dires jaws. The more the fish struggled, the more the sharp teeth sunk into it's flesh. For many years the fish had been one of the giants of the lake, and with the size that age had brought it had also been less and less creature in the water that had been seen as a threat. Instead it was the main danger for many of it's smaller brethren. There was no hesitation into eating it's own kind - nor grabbing mallard ducklings from below the surface. Now however it had met it's final moments. It's jaws opened and closed as it in vain tried to get hold of something but it was a futile move.

The fish was enormous and it had actually taken a great deal for Flecki to hold onto it as it trashed. She wished to renew her grip but the fish was still alive and on land several sets of eyes had followed her successful hunt. Surely they could all try their own luck but it was less job to get it from someone else’s jaws than the water's depths. Misia and Dani wouldn't mind sharing and neither did Tul and Nala. Just a little bit. One who wasn't that interesting in sharing was the male. Flecki hesitated. It seemed like the male wasn't to sure of the water. The other females moved to the side just slightly, curious on how it all would play out.

Tana watched from her perch, wishing she had a way to show the interaction between domestic or tame tokotas, semi wild and completely wild tokotas. How despite it all was easy for those that lived close to humans to go back to the wild ways. How much different were these tokotas to the short legged tokis. How had they become so much more docile? Her ponders was interrupted by the ruckus on the lakeside. Both were a bit ruffled in their furs but each of Flecki and February had one half each of the big fish as they pulled back to either side of the shore to eat it. Dani, Misia, Tul and Nala had now entered the waters on their own. It seemed safer that way.