First things first, I finished my first week of this Daily Writing Exercise, um, exercise yesterday and I’ve posted the recap of that first week:
Now, if today’s scene calls to mind a certain Simpsons clip…
…that’s probably because that’s where my mind goes whenever I hear the word “fishing.”
This is, incidentally, not the first time I’ve done a scene about a group of my characters going fishing. Hopefully this time will end better for everyone involved.
Sorry, Amara…
Copyright J.B. Norman
True to its name, the city of Middlesbrooke straddles the river that flows through the approximate midpoint of the continent of Realmgard. The river has been the site of several notable episodes in the Duchy of Middlesbrooke’s history, most infamously the piratical career of Gregor von Plündern who, after stalking the river for several years stuck wheels onto his boats and undertook a brief but memorable career as a land-pirate.
Due to he proximity of the river, fishing is also a widespread hobby in the Duchy among both the nobility and the commonfolk. Lucia, Apolline, Petra, Alda, and Roland have decided to spent the afternoon fishing in the forests just outside the city.
As the others fish from the banks Lucia stalks along the river in her lynx form.
“Come on, fishies,” she says, her keen feline eyes scanning the water. “Tell me where you are so I can eat you.”
“Great Uncle Pollux would take us fishing when we were children,” Apolline says. “He always said it didn’t matter if you didn’t catch anything when you could just sit back and enjoy nature.”
She frowns and touches her chin thoughtfully.
“Though I think he may just have told himself that because he was never very good at fishing,” she notes.
“Yeah. That’s ridiculous,” Lucia notes, momentarily glancing up from the water. “If you don’t catch anything, what are you going to eat?”
“Well, he would usually just visit the fish market in town,” Apolline answers.
“Uncle Chuck took us birdwatching,” Roland replies. “He never said anything about catching them, though. But I think that’s because you’re not supposed to catch them when you’re birdwatching. They’d call it bird-catching then, right?”
“My favourite was that time we saw a mother Frigidian Stork feeding her chicks,” Alda says. “But the way they feed their chicks is kinda gross.”
Roland turns a novel shade of green and nods in agreement.
“Why?” Petra asks cautiously. “How do Frigidian Storks feed their chicks?”
Alda beckons the Troll-Amazon to bend down and whispers into her ear.
“Oh,” Petra says.
“There!” Lucia cries.
She pounces into the water with a splash, then hops back out on the opposite bank with another splash, emerging in front of her companions — but also drenching them in the process.
“Oh, Lucia,” Apolline sighs, taking out her handkerchief and wiping her face.
“Sorry, everybody but Roland,” Lucia says through the fish she’s got grasped in her mouth. “So, who’s hungry?” Lucia asks, dropping the fish at the feet of her companions.
“Can, uh,” Roland ventures. “Can I have one you didn’t take a big bite out of?”
“You’re welcome, everybody but Roland,” Lucia says as she shifts back into her human form. “It’s not like I’m a cat, or anything…”
“Oh, Lucia,” Apolline sighs again, as she realises there is now a frog perched atop her beret.
Enjoying its new vantage point on the Aurorean Sorceress’ head, the frog croaks nonchalantly.
“You know,” Roland says, staring thoughtfully at the frog. “I still don’t understand why they’re called bullfrogs. They don’t even have horns!”
If you’ve enjoyed my content, please consider supporting me through Ko-fi or Patreon, or through Paypal by scanning the QR code below:
Follow Realmgard and other publications of Emona Literary Services™ below:
Subscribe to the Emona Literary Services™ Substack newsletter here.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The author prohibits the use of content published on this website for the purposes of training Artificial Intelligence technologies, including but not limited to Large Language Models, without express written permission.
All stories published on this website are works of fiction. Characters are products of the author’s imagination and do not represent any individual, living or dead.
The realmgard.com Privacy Policy can be viewed here.
Realmgard is published by Emona Literary ServicesTM
