Chapter 2 2

0 fish, 1 man

The day was a humid hot.

The sun's malevolent eye beat down on the back of Adara's neck relentlessly. She huffed out a hot breath and pushed back her curls with one hand and squinted out into the lazy river that turned and twisted before her.

"I see nothing." She muttered to nobody.

The stem of grass clenched between her teeth turned like a sundial. "Damnit its hot." Despite wading ankle deep in the river, the cool of its lapping waves did little to mollify the burn that billowed through her veins.

She muttered again and wiped her glistening forehead with the hem of her shirt. A cool wind brushed against her exposed navel and she shivered as goosebumps marbled along the brown skin.

"Shoulda' done this way earlier... but no," she dragged the no in a whiny pitch as she turned and waded out of the sloshing water, stepping over the intricately weaved net used for catching fish. "Just gotta be stiff necked and choose noontime."

One she had spent a pretty penny on believing it would earn her a massive catch, maybe some salmon or catfish... rumour had it catfish were sloping down this rivers in schools.

"I know better now." She affirmed herself while stepping onto the dry river back. The golden sand was warm beneath her cracked feet, the soles flashing pink like tongues as she made her way to the low hanging willow tree where she collapsed loosely onto the grass.

I know better now.

The day was fine despite its lack of catch. She could hardly complain as she lay under the foliage watching as sunlight streamed past and dappled on her skin. All was quiet and mellow. In the distance was the sound of streaming cars, owned by the rich folk. A few neighing horses and further up the river was the cheerful glee of laughing children as they splashed about the river.

Her stomach rumbled in the silence, drawing her attention from the baby blue sky to the rucksack laying limp by her hand. She foraged through it with a blind hand, fingers groping for the half eaten dry sourdough bread she had snatched from her uncle's kitchen earlier in the day while rushing out of the house.

The bottoms of her jeans were rolled up to her knees revealing scabs which she picked at mindlessly while tearing at the slice of sourdough. Occasionally her dark eyes flicked to the rippling tides before her, watching the water meander lazily... and her net remain unmoved.

A single flinch had her jolting upright and rushing towards the water. ignoring the sloshing movement as she dove for the net and drew it up out of the water.

Nothing.

"Damn it all!" Yanking the net sideways, she struggled in a flurry as momentary anger lanced through her. The struggle was futile as she fought nothing in specific before releasing the net with slumped shoulders and a face bejewelled with droplets of water.

"... sick an' tired of all this." She murmured. A drop of water seeped between her lips. "... shoulda just stuck to mucking the pig stalls... but no... just had to come up with some bright idea." A wave at the net floating about the surface empty as the promises she made to her pawpa about bringing fish home, making a big buck from this passion.

"Passion my behind." Spitting into the water she turned and made her way back to the shade where she knelt before the knapsack and opened her journal, squinting at the squiggly handwriting where she had numbered the catch for the week under each day.

Licking the tip of the coal pencil with brows furrowed in a concentrated line, Adara drew a measly circle under the date.

A pause.

Her eyes flickered hesitantly to the other days previously, gleaning over the multiple 0's that crowded the pages. Once so confident were those numbers, poised with square shoulders and a a tongue peeking from her mouth corner as she murmured assuredly that the next day would be better.

Then the next.

And when the 0's remained as consistent as the river's presence, the number began to take on a smaller and smaller shape.

Now, she loathed the number itself.

With a groan she tossed the book back onto the satchel and crouched low, hands cradling her head as she pressed it into the tops of her knees. She just needed to drown out the gurgling sound of the river, so insistent, so annoying. Some peace and quiet to let her feel and hear, to gain some clarity in this world that had built walls around her and was crashing in. Pressing in.

Pressing the heels of her palms into her eyes, she grit her teeth and counted to ten while contemplating the next excuse she could give her uncle.

"The weather was so hot..." which was true. Even as the bright sun glowered in the horizon as it sunk to its knees, the heat remained like a mist on her. "My net got carried away, I had to swim for a while just to catch it--" no, she used that excuse last time.

She needed to bait him before he handed her the shovel and sent her back into town, mucking pig stalls for the civilians.

"I passed out from the heat..." that could be believable.

Yes, she could use that today actually-

"I used that last week!" Her head fell back with a mournful sound. Gripping her curls she stared up at the sky now turning a blush pink, hues of orange stretching out like fingers on fire.

"Have mercy on me, whoever is above!"

Just then the sound of something catching in her net drew her attention from the sky to the water. Snapping around, Adara remained still on her knees. Unmoving, as wide eyes searched the water surface, particular the area of her net.

All was quiet and familiar but only for a heartbeat when she saw a silhouette.

A flash of dark.

That was all she needed as she rose to her feet and rushed into the waters, heart thumping against her rib cage, cheeks drawn wide and tight as the silhouette of the catch began to take form beneath the hazy river's surface.

I did it. I did it.

Smooth shelled rocks pressed beneath her sensitive soles but she did not care. Neither did she notice that one pant had come undone and was soaking up the water greedily. Her eyes were locked onto the shadow beneath the water tangled in the net.

Far too tangled.

It looked large.

A catfish.

With a face set like flint, she dove into the water blindly, groping wildly at the fish expecting some slippery contact but only found material. Skin and clothe and...

Muscles... hair?

Far too intrigued by the size of her catch, Adara's hand curled tightly into thick mass of dark hair and with a grunt, lifted the creature out of the water. Barely. The size of it was far too great for her strength, and the length of it... It was not until the face resurfaced from beneath the waves did she pause.

Before her was not a catfish.

Far from it really.

With his body fully submerged beneath the water and half his face floating from her unrelenting grip, Adara stared blankly at the face of the man before her. With skin so pale it seemed near translucent. She could map the blue-green veins that pulsed weakly beneath his eyelids and dark soot lashes that did not flutter with life.

A man.

She was gripping a man's head.

But that was not what drew her attention. Still in shock at what she had caught, she had not yet processed the sight of him nor his origin. Not until her eyes dared glance towards his mouth which was heavily scarred as though someone had dragged a knife in a mockery of an extended smile from each mouth corner.

Canines.

A beast.