ORIGIN

Fish was Kera's favourite food. She had caught rats and mice before, but they never lived up to the thrill of plunging into the ice-cold water and grabbing a fish. When it came onto land, it was fairly helpless, and it was good eating. The rats around Polaris were borderline tasteless in comparison, and often too fast for Kera to catch comfortably. The spiders crunched too much, and the large, cloven-hooved creatures were too big for her to catch.

Perhaps one day. She did wonder what it would be like to catch one and eat it. She was sure she'd grow to be able to eat one soon enough.

She wasn't sure if it would beat her love for fish, however. Her favourite part of it was sitting by the riverbed, breathing in the scent of cold, rushing water. She got herself comfortable here, laying on her belly to keep her weight off her injured leg, and stared into the churning black water.

She spotted faintly, under the waters' surface, a long silvery fish squirming by. Opening her mouth hungrily, she lifted one paw and sent it into the cold river. She felt nothing for a moment, just the water against her leg, before realising that she had missed.

Half-pushing herself up with a loud, startled snort at her impending failure, she swatted her paw around frantically in the water before finding another slimy fish, catching it in pin-prick claws before plunging her jaws into the water alongside her jaws to grab it and take it out the water.

Satisfied, with a thrashing fish between her broken teeth, Kera settled down and started to tear into the fish, keeping her paw planted over it to keep it still while she ate.

When Kera heard the gentle clicks of nails against the cave floor, she ignored it in favour for the coppery taste of blood in her mouth and the gentle crunching of flesh between her teeth, not even noticing how close the little creature had gotten before he spoke.

She blinked, eyes flicking up from her meal. "What? It's fish," she said, quizzically. "You've never had fish? They're in there-- here." A tongue swept across her jowls, lapping up crimson from her white fur before she nudged the half-eaten fish towards the owlette, immediately glancing into the river for more.

"You're small," she offered. The little bird did look an awful lot like the bird that had attacked her-- but this one had a flatter face. And was a whole lot more polite. Kera had no time for gooses with nothing but hatred, but she had every time for making new friends and offering to help others. "You don't have long legs so you might not be able to catch them. I can catch more. Do you want to see?"

Regardless if he actually did or not, Kera had every intention to dive right in there and catch more. She was still hungry. She shifted forward, closer to the cold water, sniffing carefully and watching the surface with wide, unblinking eyes.

"Fish is good," the wolf offered as she watched the water. "Fish is better than rats and spiders." She turned her gaze briefly to the owl, tail thumping hollowly against the cave floor as she watched him eat for no longer than a second or two before turning her nose back to the water.

"I'm Kera. I'm a dog, or a wolf, I don't know which one," she said, ear flicking idly before she beckoned the owl over with a slight nod of her massive, furry head. The subject of what she was did bother her to an extent-- not that she would let that be noticed --but she did not think she had reason to believe the aggressive goose when it repeatedly called her a dog, while others said she was a wolf. It had also called her stupid, and Kera knew she was smart. "I've been called both, but I don't think it matters too much. What's your name?"

One of her hind legs lifted, itching at her shaggy white fur. She watched the river more than she watched the owl, speaking regardless if he approached or not. "It's tricky to get the hang of," she began. She did not mind having to teach the bird something. If anyone had to teach him, it might as well be her. She was the best at catching fish. "You have to wait for one to come by. They're silvery and wriggly in there-- you see?"

As a fish came swimming by, Kera half-lifted herself, pointing her nose at it. "Fish live in another world. They don't know what's happening outside it. We can see in it, right? So, when you see one coming by--" a burly paw cut through the water's surface, plunging itself into black depths. This one was bigger-- conveniently, perhaps, a good size for a wolf and an owl to share --but the consequences of a larger target quickly showed itself as Kera was yanked off her belly and almost fell into the water.

There was a strangled yelp as Kera lurched back, and then craned her head into the river to drag the fish out the water and back against the riverbed. It thrashed violently, kicking up mud and dust, until the wolf crunched down hard on its head, repeatedly, until it fell still.

Panting, she continued speaking. "You see, ah... you just go for it, but our bodies are different. You can try if you want, but you have to be careful you don't fall in." She passed a glance towards the water, then to the owl, then to the freshly-expired fish.

She sat back on her haunches with a deep sigh, catching her breath. "Does that make sense?" she offered before leaning down and biting through scales and meat, taking the first bite without asking.

Aka was a weird name. Perhaps Kera was a weird name. Kera did not know-- but what she did find unusual was that he seemed to have two names. Regardless, Kera did not question this. She had a mouth full of fish, after all.

She did feel faintly proud as the owl moved off to the riverbed, content in her ability as a teacher. Passing her great skills down onto another meant that soon, everyone would be good at catching fish, and everyone could thank her for it, for figuring it out. Licking her jowls, she took another bite out of the fish--

--and the owl was in the water.

That probably wasn't good.

She was frozen on the spot for a moment as the bird was swept away by the water, unsure what to do. She only sprang into action when he started calling for help, scrambling to all fours and skidding across the cave floor with her nails scratching against the ground.

He was gone by the time she actually got a good view of the water. Kera searched up and down the stream with her ears perked high until he came up to the surface again, gasping and screeching, and Kera wasted absolutely no time in plunging her upper half into the river in front of her, neck craned out in front of her.

Jaws snapped at air and water as she tried to grab hold of the owl, but she found herself missing completely, being half-toppled over by the river herself. "Grab me!" she spluttered with a mouth full of water, not knowing what else to do until she could get another good look of the owl to try and grab hold of him again.

The talons sinking into her fur hurt, but Kera was glad, albeit briefly, that Aka had managed to grab hold of her. Now all was left was to actually get him out, which might have been easier said than done. The rush of water was strong, and it started to send Kera off her paws and into the icy-cold water.

"Just-- hold on!" she shouted over the water before moving to clamp her jaws around Aka, given that he was close enough, to pull him above the surface of the water while she was sent floating down the river, paws batting rapidly as she tried to keep them both afloat.

This had gotten bad pretty fast. Kera wasn't sure how to scramble back to the surface, though she could try and paddle her way off onto a shallow enough surface to pick herself up out the water and back to shore.