Ecstatic that his lessons continued to visibly pay off, any irritation the last carelessly tossed words may have caused his opponent escaped notice. Glee shone in Fahl's eyes when the wolf withdrew her paw from the water, the green of algae held within instead of glinting fish scales. Mockery unintended, he laughed again.

"Yes. Lucky. But I doubt," he said before taking a breath in preparation for a deliberate emphasis, "you can eat it." Indeed, if moss was not to her liking, the superior taste of algae wouldn't do the trick either. But still, he could not wait to explore the water more later. Perhaps his preferred food grew plentifully here.

For now though, a competition needed attending to. Out of sportsmanship and a desire to continue enjoying this test of skill, Fahl set forth a proposal. "Three rounds. This was first round. See who catches best. Good?"

@Comet

Comet

Arctic Wolf

Comet growled at the lizard when he laughed. She strongly considered the idea of chucking the chunk of algae right at his head. See how he would like eating such a slimy ball of green stuff. This lizard was getting awful annoying. And it seemed overconfident too, as she proposed for them to do three rounds. "Okay, I'll go first."
She dipped her paw into the water. It almost slipped out of her paw, but she scooped the fish out of the water and slammed it onto the land. A quick bite to the neck, and it was dead. "You're turn." she said with a smile. Comet doubted he would get lucky twice and catch another fish with his weird head into the water strategy.

@Fahl

Upon hearing agreement, Fahl enthusiastically nodded his head. Perfect. Fishing against another wasn't new to him, but facing someone presumably not a master was another thing altogether. Measuring skill with another pupil could prove to be useful.

He leaned forward to get a closer look at the wolf's successful catch. The compulsion to compare caused him to slide his fish next to hers. While neither were as impressive in size as the very one that had started this entire competition, his remained the inferior one. Despite the algae-grabbing incident, she had the lead.

"Good job," he said. That seemed to be the appropriate response. Unlike Imp's encouraging words, though, they left much room for interpretation. Try as he might to emulate the same level of energy his teacher exuded, it was becoming obvious that his tongue refused to cooperate and convey such. It... nagged at him.

But, yes, his turn. Same as before, he got into position, scanned the waters, and waited. Then, as soon as he sensed movement, Fahl dove. This one was trickier, more agile. Even so, he persisted, avoiding being shaken by its evasive maneuvers. He'd been close, teeth nearly grazing it.

And then not. Face stinging from the brutal slap of a tail in his face, he reeled back. Bubbles burst from his mouth; underwater, thankfully, no one would be exposed to the string of curses he spewed. Hurt outrage at rebellious food spent, he emerged from the depths, silent and with nothing to show for his efforts.

Round two over, one fish total for each.

@Comet

Comet

Arctic Wolf

Comet watched the lizard slide his own fish next to her's. She gave a smile as she saw that her own fish was bigger than his, which made up for the first round when she grabbed algae. The first fish that she had caught was bigger too, and she smiled, she had a good lead so far in this competition.
"You too." Comet replied. But she could not hear anything behind the words. Sure, he said them, but there wasn't really any emotion behind them as far she could hear. Oh, well, perhaps he was just jealous that she had been doing so well. It was good to retain good sportsmanship so she didn't say anything about that.
The wolf watched as he dove beneath the water, but this time it seemed he was having a bit of trouble. She saw him flinch, probably from the fish, and a string of bubbles appear at the surface of the water. That usually didn't mean anything good, and she saw the lizard emerge with a not so happy look on his face. Good, no fish for him, and she had more than caught up. It was her turn.
Dipping her paw in the water, Comet waited for the flicker of movement that meant a fish had passed over it. And she saw it, she lifted her paw up, hoping the fish would come up with it. But she suddenly felt a sharp pain on her paw pad, the fish bit her paw! And then swam away. "Darn." Now she was as sullen as the lizard, with round two wasted, none of them having caught a fish. It was really down to the final round now, where anything could happen.

@Fahl

The wolf did not seem to fare any better on her turn. Well, maybe slightly better. Fahl's jaw still stung from his less than ideal fish encounter. Not wanting to appear too consumed in his own failure, he dipped his head in a small show of sympathy. Hopefully the lingering pain would not hinder him in the final round.

But that wasn't the only thing to worry about. When he'd plunged into the water, the focus had not been there. Whatever had cast his thoughts adrift, he needed to defy it and rein them back in. One couldn't be expected to fish well when their concentration was not entirely devoted to the task.

Fahl fell into routine one more time: watched, waited, and dove. This time, barely snagging it by a fin, he emerged with a wriggling fish held in his mouth. It was set beside the other fish, right next to the first one he'd caught, so that it could be scrutinized and comparisons could be made.

@Comet

Comet

Arctic Wolf

Comet dipped her head in return. This was the last round, what may very well define this whole competition. She watched with focus, as the lizard dipped their head into the water, and came back up with a fish in his jaws. Strangely, this one was white, unlike the previous grey ones that had been caught. Must be more rare.

"Nice job!" she said. He slid the fish next to the others ones, and in was considerably bigger in size. In fact, it was the biggest one that had been caught yet. "Looks like you're winning now!" But there was one more catch to go, and it would rest on this one catch to see if it was Comet or the big lizard who would win the competition.

She positioned herself on the rock, paw tensed and ready to dart down and snag a fish at the slightest movement. This time, she would not try and catch the first one she saw, she would wait for a decently sized big one to come across. Her paw dipped into the water, silent and deadly. Comet expected it to be quick too, but it seemed like this fish was especially big. Heaving it up, she slammed it onto the ground, but it wouldn't stop moving. The slam was not hard enough to stun the fish. "A little help here?"

@Fahl

It appeared he'd have some more practice to do. At least five paws across in length, this fish was the biggest catch Fahl had ever seen. And a bit much for the wolf to handle, as it continued to flail desperately against fate with mouth agape and its tail slapping on the ground. He seized the request for aid. Rushing over, he leapt to slam down on the stubborn creature with both front feet.

Even with this weight applied upon it, the fish continued to buck wildly. Determined, Fahl pressed down. Its squirms did not entirely cease but diminished enough to be less of a problem. Not wanting distraction to cause him to slip up and release the fish, his next words were said to the wolf without an upward glance.

"Make your move."

@Comet

The lizard slammed down the fish, but Fahl's weight did not seem to be enough to calm the desperate flailing of the fish. "Thanks." Now Comet did not have to struggle as much on her end, and this opened up an opportunity to kill this fish.

Heeding the lizard's words, she reached down and tried to find the space where the head ended and the body started. Which was something was not easy to do. It looked like the fish simply did not have a neck. Comet bit at a random spot, and sunk her teeth in as far as they could go, almost letting go several times. The wild bucking of the fish got weaker and weaker, until the ceased completely.

"Half and half?" offered Comet, she would not have been able to kill the fish without Fahl.

@Fahl

Although fish wasn't to his taste, he could not turn down the hearty meal that the half offered would be. It'd be a rude and poor decision for his ever-unsatisfied stomach to do so. Therefore, an accepting nod was his response. In a show of politeness since this was the wolf's kill, Fahl withdrew his weight from the fish and settled claws back onto the ground.

"You caught it. You take preferred half." He tilted his head down to where the gargantuan bundle of scales lay slain. Whether someone had a fish end they enjoyed more, he had no idea, but the odd suggestion seemed decent enough to say. However, the more he pondered over his words, the dumber they became. Hopefully, she'd just take a bite of whichever and end the increasing doubt over his manners.

Another thought occurred, born from a hint of curiosity. "Have you eaten warm? Or only cold?" While he did not know what magic the other possessed, this was the perfect opportunity to test a supposed truth he'd learned some time ago. Burnt fish continued to elude his skills, but maybe a Gembound who liked eating the finned things would be able to tell if his mediocre heating of the fish still improved its flavor.

@Comet

Comet didn't know about Fahl, but she did not know that the different halves of the fish tasted different. Maybe he was experienced in the ways of how fish tasted, but she wasn't. Red meats tasted better after all. Not having a preference, she decided to let the lizard choose their half first. After all, they knew there was a difference in the tastes.

With a strong snap of her jaws, Comet severed this fish in half, with the head on one end, and the tail on the other. "You can choose. I do not have a..." Darn what was that word again? "preference."

"Eaten warm?" Comet thought back to everything she had eaten. They were all warm, because they were freshly killed prey. Or would that count as cold? "I do not know. I have eaten fresh prey that I catch though."

@Fahl