Solo Netted

[Ashka]

54 Summer 518

Ashka shook out one of the smaller fishing nets that she had made as an experiment and ran both her eyes and her fingers over it, looking for flaws. She didn't find any, but she wasn't sure how well the nets would hold up to use. There were a number of people with small ships and boats living around Syka now, and she thought a smaller net would be easier for them to use or store as needed. The best way to know how the net held up, she supposed, was to try it out herself. Test it on and in the water, from her canoe. It was a nice day for it, and she hadn't been out on the sea for a bit.

She looked out into the breeze and the clear sky. A perfect day for it, in fact, and she was early enough that the fish might still be out and easier to catch. She bundled the net back up in her arms, hopped down from the house, and slithered across the sandy beach to where her canoe was drawn up on the shore. She packed the net down one side and checked on the rest of the gear she would need out on the water.

Chaya bounced over to join her. "We're going fishing?"

Ashka grinned and nodded. "That's right, Chaya. We're going to try something out, and hope for a fish dinner tonght." Chaya cheered and ran to get her own things together. By the time she came pelting back, Ashka had the canoe packed and was pushing it down to the water, ready to go. Chaya helped push until it hit the waer, and hopped into her usual place in the bow. Ashka gave it one last shove to get it started and hopped in over the stern. They were off!

Common, Pavi, Fratava

[Ashka]

Ashka focused on paddling neatly, trying for maximum push for minimum effort. She set the paddle in the water at right angles to the canoe so that when she pulled it back it shoved as much water as possible past them, then turned it parallel to the side of the canoe to come back to the front, or to change sides. As well as that, she brought the paddle over the canoe from one side to the other as low as she safely could, so that she wasn't wasting energy lifting it high and lowering it again.

The canoe skimmed over the sea to the tune of Chaya's cries of joy and delight. Ashka laughed as a wave threw salty spray across her face. This was home, this was where freedom lived. Finally, they were far enough out that the net could be used without dragging on the sea bed and causing problems both above and below the waves. Using it from the canoe wasn't, however, without problems of its own. The first of these was where to cast it out. On a casinor, where Ashka had learned what little she knew of net fishing, it was customary to drop the net off the side of the ship. That gave the maximum amount of space for people to help haul it up again.

On this canoe, that wouldn't work, because the outriggers covered both sides. There was enough of a gap between canoe and outrigger for her to slide the paddle through, but not to haul through a bulky net. Not without the risk of breaking something, anyway. That left the bow and the stern. The bow might be easier for both of them to get to, but it also ran the risk of the canoe ploughing into its own net and tearing it when the canoe moved. That, by elimination, left the stern.

Common, Pavi, Fratava

[Ashka]

Stern it was then. She gathered up the net, turned, and spread it out before her, using her long arms to stretch around it as if she was using a shuttle on a wide loom. She fastened one edge to a rope and the rope to the canoe, then tossed out armfuls of netting into the sea. It sank lazily, and she sat back to wait. It didn't have the obvious signals of the fishing lines that she was used to, but Chaya came shuffling along the canoe to join her, and they watched the gulls wheel and shriek above sunlit waves. The canoe drifted in the tide.

At last Ashka went back to the net. Some of the rope had sunk too, but because it was fastened to the canoe, she was able to grab the visible part of the rope and use that to pull the hidden part up. It was slow and heavy work, hand over hand, with sodden rope trailing and coiling across her knees. When the net finally came within reach, she leaned over the stern to grab handfuls of it and heave. Chaya slid up beside her, adding her own childish strength to the effort as sea water cascaded out through the holes and left behind a scant tangle of fish and seaweed, with a child's toy caught in the middle. It wasn't much for the time and effort, though it was more than she could have pulled in on a line.

Ashka pulled the fish out one by and Chaya hit them on the head and tossed them into a basket. The toy came last. It was a toy ship, a perfect replica of a casinor in miniature, with the name "Puffer Fish" painted on the bow. An intense wave of homesickness washed over Ashka and she pushed the toy away as if she could push pain away in the same way. A word came to her. She muttered it under her breath before she realised, and then stared in shock and delight and half-tamed grief as the "toy" swelled into a full sized, fully functional, casinor.

Common, Pavi, Fratava

[Ashka]

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Name: Ashka
XP Award:

• Observation 2
• Logic 2
• Canoeing 1
• Fishing 2
• Bodybuilding 1

Lore:

• Efficient ways to paddle
• Fishing with a net
• Hauling a net in
• Logic: sorting through options
• Puffer Fish: a magical ship

Loot Toy Casinor - plot point item
Notes: Self graded