While talking about what they did during their dates, Anna and Ari mentioned the steakhouse they visited. The other carnivores were quite intrigued by that and decided to all have dinner there. After having collected the wolves and retrieved Steph’s favorite ball from the beach, they did just that and ended the day in a deep food coma they fell into afterward.
“Boating time!” Around noon on the following day, after everyone slept in, the group returned to Gativa to explore it some more. While most still looked tired, Steph was already full of energy.
“We also wanted to go fishing during the boat trip, right?” Anna tilted her head. "Does the boat rental place also give out fishing rods, or do we have to get them elsewhere?"
“Don’t worry, I have some rods in my storage~.” Sophia gave her a thumbs up.
“Why?” Ari tilted her head.
“Why not?” The blonde simply shrugged in return.
“They’re good fishing rods, too!” Maya smiled at the jaguar. “I used them before~.”
“You really have to let me take a peek at your storage already!” Steph stared at her sister. “I just have to see what’s all in there!”
“That’s not a good idea." She shook her head. "You'd absolutely get lost, and even with me knowing where everyone is inside my domain at all times, I’m not confident I could find you in the mess that is my storage.”
“Sounds fun!” It only made the dog-girl more excited.
“Just how big is it?!” The jaguar raised her voice.
“Yes.” Sophia just had to do it.
“…” Ari rolled her eyes.
“Anyway, how about we head over to the rental place?” Sophia returned to the initial topic.
“Let's go!” Steph forgot about the storage already. "By the way, didn't the wolves really not want to come with us?" She addressed the fact that the two weren’t around.
“Fen didn’t trust all of us together on a boat.” Sophia shrugged. “Aura also wanted to go and play with him some more.”
“Fen can be quite wise every now and then." The jaguar nodded a couple of times. "Speaking of, could we try not to capsize five minutes in?"
“…” The sisters looked at each other. “We’ll try, yes.”
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Afterward, the girls made their way over to the rental place and got their boat. It was a simple brown rowing boat, but it was easily big enough for the six girls to be comfortable and still have some storage space left.
The boat had three rows of seats, and the sisters took the one in the middle as they decided to take care of the rowing and took one paddle each. Anna and Ari got on the back, while Chloe and Maya shared the front row for the time being. They had turned around to look at the sisters, though.
“You know, it’s a little wobbly, but it’s pretty fun!” While they were slowly moving further into the lake, the princess looked around and took in the sights.
“I agree!” Ari smiled at her before dangling her arm out of the boat and dipping her fingertips into the water. “Don’t you dare to capsize us, though!” Her expression changed a little. “The water is way too cold for that!”
“That will entirely depend on how much the fish we might catch will fight back, but we’ll try our best.” Sophia gave her a thumbs up.
“How are you liking it so far?” Steph looked at her fox instead.
“It’s fun!” Chloe smiled at her. “I agree with the wobbly bit, but I actually like that a lot, too!”
“That’s awesome to hear!” The dog-girl was happy that she was having a good time.
“It’s fascinating how clear the water is!” Maya leaned over the side of the boat and tried to gauge how deep she could look down into the near crystal-clear water. “It’s kinda shallow right now, but I can still see the ground!”
"It is very pretty but also probably bad for fishing because they can see us and get wary." The blonde wasn’t sure how to feel about it.
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“Even worse, I can’t see any fish in the first place.” Steph noticed a lack of fish in the water around them.
“Ah.” Sophia only just realized that before looking around. “There are a couple of people fishing in their boats, but they’re way further out, so I guess we have to find a good spot first.”
“By the way, what are we going to do about the bait?” Maya tilted her head. “We know that our princess doesn't like worms and the likes that are usually used for bait."
“Eh?” Anna tilted her head. “I’m not exactly a fan, but I don’t really have an issue with worms.”
“I was talking about my oversensitive princess.” The cat-girl gestured at the blonde.
“Can you use ladybugs for bait?” Sophia remembered that Maya's mother told her that her daughter was afraid of them and then stared right at her cat.
“…” She went silent.
“Anyway, I got some artificial bait~.” The blonde gave her a thumbs up. “It's some sort of thick paste made out of… I don’t think I want to know and formed into a ball to attach to the lure, so I’m fine~.”
“The lengths you go through to avoid insects or other crawly stuff like worms will never cease to amaze me.” Steph rolled her eyes. “She’s been using that bait ever since we were little and refused to use live bait during our first fishing trip.”
“I’ll never change!” Sophia raised her voice. “I hate those creepy little buggers!”
“Maybe you should try some exposure therapy?” Ari earnestly tried to help her.
“Exposure therapy between me and bugs would end up in an extinction event.” The blonde expression turned a little sour, to say the least. “I know that insects are important and useful, so I’d rather not do that.”
“Well, it was just a suggestion.” The jaguar scratched her cheek. “It’s nice to see that you realized that it would be bad to erase all bugs and the like."
“I’m not completely stupid, okay? I may have some irrational fears, as everyone does, but I do know that genocide is rarely the correct answer.”
“It’s NEVER the answer!” Ari got loud.
“Fine.” Sophia rolled her eyes in response.
“Don’t look so disappointed!” She raised her voice even more.
“How about we try and find a spot with fish?” As much as she loved her sister being unhinged, Steph wanted to get to the main attraction.
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Having put the genocide discussion on hold for the time being, they concentrated on their boating trip again. The sisters rowed them further onto the lake while everyone was on the lookout to find any hints of fish below the surface.
“Oh, I saw something moving just now!” After around 20 minutes of paddling, Maya suddenly pointed to her right, her eyes fixed on a spot on the lake while her tail pointed completely up.
“The cat found the fish.” Steph let out a chuckle. “Such a strong reaction, too.”
“Shut up, dog!” Maya glared at her.
“Okay, fair comeback.” She couldn’t blame her for that reaction.
“Alright, let’s slowly head over there without making too much of a ruckus.” Sophia put a finger on her lips to silence them. “We don’t want to scare them away, do we?”
“Right!” The bickering duo nodded before the sisters got the boat closer to the spot where Maya spotted the fish.
“I don’t want to sound like a sheltered princess again, but how do you fish…?” Anna awkwardly scratched her cheek as she watched the fish in the water a little bit away from them.
“Yes.” Ari nodded. “I don’t really know how to do it, either.”
“Shouldn’t a cat instinctively know how to catch fish?” Steph seemed to be in a barky mood today.
“I don’t think it’s in our nature to know how to use a fishing rod.” The jaguar slowly shook her head while staring at her.
“Exactly!” Anna agreed with her. “I mean, I feel like I know at which angle I had to jump into the water to stay out of the fish’s sight and catch it with my bare hands, but I have no idea how to use a rod.”
“About 25 to 30 degrees.” Sophia smiled at her fellow tiger.
“We’d need to move a tiny bit more to our right for that to work, though.” Maya’s cat instincts were also working.
“Ha.” The dog-girl hadn't expected them to go full instinct on her.
“I also don’t want to jump into the water.” The princess shook her head.
“Very much so.” Ari felt the same. “Way too cold.”
“Time for a training session~.” Saying so, Sophia grabbed into her storage and pulled out a couple of fishing rods to hand one to each. She then also took out a box with the artificial bait balls and a set of colorful lures. “Okay, the rod is a rod, and the reel is used to pull in the line. It's pretty self-explanatory, I guess?"
“So far, yes.” Anna was able to follow her.
"The lure is the more interesting part." The blonde opened the box and took out something that looked like a small blue fish with two hooks dangling from its body. “This thing gets attached to the end of the like. It’s to lure in other fish. The bait goes on the hooks for, well… obvious reasons.” Saying so, she took two of the bait balls and pierced them on the hooks.
“Makes sense.” Ari nodded along.
“The most complicated part is getting the lure into the water or casting it. Technically, at least, because it’s not actually complicated." Having attached the lure to the line and put some bait on the hooks, Sophia grabbed the handle of the rod with her right hand and effortlessly cast the line with a light movement of her arm. The lure flew through the air and hit the water with a satisfying plop sound around 15 meters away from the boat. “You don’t really need to use any power at all. For casual fishing like this, at least.”
“The only thing you really have to watch out for is that nothing is in the way of the arc the lure takes. You absolutely don’t want to get your hook stuck in anything.” Steph added some detail.
“Or anyone.” Sophia suddenly glared at her sister. “You would know, right?”
“Come on!” She got loud. “That was over six years ago! Your earlobe grew back together without any marks, too!”
“Just be careful, okay?” The blonde rolled her eyes and just looked at the couple. “If I’m the one saying that it means something, okay?”
“Okay!” Both energetically nodded a couple of times.
"I hope you apologized back when that happened." Chloe had nothing else to say when she looked at Steph.
“Of course!”
Afterward, Sophia showed them how to do it a couple more times to make sure they understood how it was done before the other girls finally prepared their own lures and cast their rods to have a relaxing day of fishing in the middle of a massive lake.