{bide}ing my time...

[johnny]

There were fish in the river.

There were no fish in Bide's belly.

She was trying to fix this problem, but the fish in the river simply would not cooperate. Bide's claws were not trained for catching fish, and she just wanted to launch herself at the water and start snapping, like she'd do with any other prey. The problem was, there was a trick to the water that made everything seem smaller, or larger, or closer, or further away than it actually was, and whenever Bide aimed for one place she ended up in another place entirely. Then, once she'd splashed into the water, she'd have to wait several minuted for the fish to come back after she'd scared them away. Fish were not the "quick meal" that Bide had thought them to be, and she was about five seconds from giving up entirely when a small but plump little fish fluttered into her view.

Concentrating on what she'd learned about the illusion of water, Bide lined herself up just above where she saw the fish to be and was careful not to cast a shadow and scare the scaly creature away. Her mouth salivated, she opened it and closed it again just in case a bit of saliva was to escape and drop into the river. She was sure it wouldn't make a big difference - the current was already fairly fast, and she doubted a little ripple would frighten the fish off, but it was always better to be safe rather than sorry.

Moving agonisingly slowly, Bide neared the fish, inch by inch, until finally she opened her jaws and snapped forth into the water.

She expected to come out empty again, simply because she'd gotten so used to the experience, so when she realised there was a flapping, frantic silvery thing between her jaws she almost dropped it in surprise. She didn't, though, until she was safely away from the river, on the grassy bank where she could dig into the fish with gusto.

She peeled back the skin and scales, spitting out the unpleasant scales that flaked off into her mouth. The bones of the fish were tiny and Bide tried to eat around them, but with her large, wolf maw it was nearly impossible to get any meat that way. Instead, she began to carefully crunch the bones down to a small, edible size safe to swallow and ended up eating the fish whole, save for the head, tail, and leftover skin.

Stomach full and pleased with her fishing success, Bide settled by a tree to sleep away the rest of the morning.