Page 86 of Storm over the Caribbean
I felt like banging my head against the wall. Except…there wasn’t any. Would banging my head against a nice, hard tree be a sufficient replacement? Probably not. I had run around looking for non-existent food and being chased by wild boars for the last several hours, and there had been food right here under my nosethe entire time!
Where was a really hard wall when you needed one?
Instead of going to look for the cave to ram my head against some nice rocks, I did something marginally more sensible. I went in search of something to use as a net. Or fishing line. Or…what did people actually use to catch fish? I actually had no bloody clue.
Well, there always is the best and oldest method of all, right? Trial and error, Lilly. Trial and error.
That was so wonderfully helpful.
All right, enough time wasted!
Without wasting another second of time, I headed into the jungle. Five minutes later, I returned with several large palm leaves. I weaved them together as best I could—knotted and entangled, more like—until I had a messy, but fairly reasonable imitation of a fishing net. It was a thing with holes in it, anyway. That was the definition of a net, right?
Wading into the water, I placed the thing on the bottom of the pond and lay down in the grass at the edge, unmoving. My hands, out of sight of the unsuspecting fish, were clenched around the bits of palm leaf net that stuck out of the water.
I waited. I waited like a snake in the grass, ready to strike. The fish, who had been chased off by my wading into the water earlier, slowly peeked out from behind the weeds, then startedto return, spreading throughout the pond once more. Slowly but surely, they approached my home-made net. Three feet…
Two…
One…
Now!
I gave a quick, sudden jerk! There was a silvery flash, as something with glittering scales flew up out of the water.
“Yes! Yes, I got o—”
That was when a wet fish hit me in the face.
“Nngmmph! Gak! Arg!”
Sputtering and choking, I tried to grab the fish, then touched something slimy and wet, and very much regretted grabbing the fish. Before I could do anything, it had slipped through my fingers and was flopping on the ground in front of me. I didn’t wait. I didn’t hesitate. I just grabbed a nearby stone and brought it down onto the thing. And again. And again.
Finally, panting hard, I dropped the stone and stared down at the fish. Theunmovingfish.
I waited for a second.
And another.
Could it really be…
“Yes!” I punched the air. “Victory!”
Fence, apparently attracted by my antics, trotted to my side, curiously regarding the unmoving fish on the ground.
“Woof?”
“Yes, it is me! The victorious huntress! Shout my greatness from the rooftops!”
“Woof, woof!”
It was only then that I realized a slight problem.
“Um…” I looked at the fish again, then glanced down at Fence, who looked back at me with his shiny, black, philosophical eyes. “How do you eat these without choking on fish bone again?”
“Woof!”
“Thank you so much for that wonderful advice.”
