Fitz was content in a way he hadn’t been in a long time. Part of him felt guilty about it. There was still so much that he’d had to do back home, and there’d still been no sign of the Skill scrolls he’d had with him when he’d entered the Skill pillar.
But how could he not be content? He was lying on the bank of the river, the grass soft under his stomach and the sun warm on his back and the water cool around his hand as peered into the river below; there was a rock ledge under him, and he could see the tail of a trout waving gently in the water. His wolf was lying some ways off, at his side again. He felt whole again, with Nighteyes’ comforting presence in the back of his mind. He wasn’t always successful at following Nighteyes’ advice to just live in the moment, to not worry about the past or the future, but only about what was happening now, right in front of him, but today… today he could.
Someone comes, Nighteyes said, lifting his head and turning toward the footsteps that Fitz could now hear through Nighteyes’ ears.
Anyone we know? he asked, not taking his eyes from the fish.
No. There was a pause, and then, It’s a cub.
Fitz wondered at that a little. The forest was no place for children by themselves, and if the kid had someone with him then Nighteyes hadn’t seen them. He wasn’t in the habit of underestimating children – he’d had dozens of kills under his belt by his 14th summer – but Nighteyes didn’t seem to feel much of a threat – he had, in fact, put his head back down on his paws once he’d caught sight of the kid – and so while Fitz was alert, he didn’t move from where he was laying.
He cupped a hand under the trout he’d been tickling, and tossed it onto the shore beside him. Now Nighteyes did get up, scooping the fish up from the bank into his jaws and trotting a little ways off to enjoy his meal.
You could catch your own fish, you know, Fitz thought dourly at him as he sat up onto his knees.
I could, but why would I when you can do all the work for me? Nighteyes asked. He dropped the fish onto his paws, and his tongue lolled out the side of his mouth in laughter. Fitz couldn't bring himself to be annoyed at him.
“Hello,” he said instead, and for the first time turned his gaze to the youth. He dried his hand on his shirt. “Nice day for a walk.”
Was it the smartest to head out into the woods on his own? No. Did that stop Dustin from doing so every so often? Also no. He’d explored the woods in Hawkins plenty when he was younger and he’d continued doing so even after everything had happened. There could be scary things inside of them, terrifying creatures who could swallow him whole before he could blink, but it was also where his friends and he had built their fort and gone on their own mini-adventures, playing parts until the street lamps turned on.
He had his walki-talkie and phone. If he needed an assist he could always call for one. He hadn’t let himself live in fear back home and he wasn’t about to do so in Vallo either. Plus there was always the chance of meeting interesting people.
And animals.
He really wanted to meet more animals.
The wolf caught his interest first. The man next. And then the man had caught a fish with his bare hands.
Dustin blinked and then blinked again when he realized he was being spoken to. He raised his hand in greeting. “A lot cooler out here than in the city.”
“You’re right about that,” Fitz agreed. “I’m sure all that glass and cement only serves to make it hotter.” Fitz couldn’t explain how that worked, only that the sun only seemed hotter when he was looking at it through his window, and that the streets of Vallo were sweltering while the woods were pleasantly hot.
“Quieter, too. I suppose if you cram a few million people together,” Million, a number so large that Fitz still had trouble imagining what, exactly, it meant, “and things are bound to be noisy. Do you often come out this way?”
“Less shade can make it hotter too.” Vegetation was important to keeping areas cool. Luckily Vallo wasn’t a city that had chopped down all of its trees to make way for ‘progress’, but the forest was still infinitely cooler.
“I like exploring the area. It’s bigger than what I’m used to back home but there’s something kind of familiar about it.” The forest made him miss Will more though. But Dustin would have missed him anyway. “Do you live out here?”
“No, I live in the city,” Fitz admitted. “I wasn’t from Vallo originally, and when I arrived I was provided with an apartment.”
We’d be better off living out here though. Nighteyes said, and snuffed disdainfully. I do not like that box. It is worse even than the Castle was.
I cannot live in the forest without shelter. If we find somewhere, then I will move.
“I agree with you about the forest though. It’s different than the forests of my own home. Different animals, and different threats. But different beauties as well. They have plants I could have never dreamed of, were I back home. Have you explored far?”
Some days it amazed Dustin how many people managed to show up in Vallo. All of them from different worlds with vastly different experiences and for some reason they had all been thrown into the same place. He couldn’t figure out a pattern to any of it. Nothing that helped track who might show up or who would end up leaving. There was no rhyme or reason. It made his brain hurt sometimes.
“Not too far because it shifts all the time and I’m not that great at tracking.” He was working on getting better, but Vallo’s forest was crafty. At least old fairy tales had already warned him not to use pieces of bread or rice or whatever as his pathway back to Fox Way. It helped that technology mostly worked out in the forest, especially the Enki stuff.
“How did you do the fish thing?” Because that had been amazing.
“The shifting can be a problem,” Fitz acknowledged. “But so long as you can see the sky and that mountain range,” he gestured toward the mountain range in question, “I’ve found that it’s not too difficult to find your way. But if you’re intending to explore the forest at some point, learning some stronger skills to find your way would probably be a good idea.”
Fitz’ lip twitched into a quick smile before settling back to his usual face – what he might consider neutral, but what likely looked to most other people as a scowl. “You mean tickling for trout?” he asked. “It’s not too difficult. Would you like to learn?”
Dustin glanced up at the sky and over at the mountain range. He hadn’t thought of using those as landmarks to help orient him, but it seemed like good advice. Though maybe he should kee a compass on him. At least he kept the walkie-talkies in his backpack for communicating with his friends.
Tickling the trout? That’s what it was called? Oh Mike was going to love that when Dustin filled him in. “That’s really what its called?” Dustin grinned. “Hell yeah I want to learn.” Whether her’d be good at it or not was up for debate.
“It is what it’s called,” Fitz said, smiling. “You’ll see why soon enough.” He appraised Dustin with a glance, and tilted his head to the side, not unlike a curious dog. “I think your arms should be long enough to reach. Here, lie down here. We’ll see if your hand reaches down far enough. If not, we’ll have to stand in the stream, but there’s a spot just a little up river where it’s knee deep, so we can move if we have to.”
Dustin shrugged off his backpack and set it down beside them before he did as he was told and got down onto his stomach beside the river. He rolled up his sleeves a little more and then stuck his hand in the water. It came up to about his shoulder. Hopefully that was deep enough. He raised his arm back out. “Is that enough?”
“Yes, that’s fine,” Fitz said. He laid down on his stomach next to the boy. “Now, you see how the river undercuts the bank here? Trout love resting in the shade, so you’ll find them there, or under rocks.” He peered into the water, and when he spotted motion he pointed. “There, that’s the tail of one? Do you see it. What you’ll want to do is ease your hand into the water, nice and slow, and reach underneath it, and then you’ll just gently rub its belly until you get to its head, and then you should be able to grab it and pull it out of the water.”
That sounded easy enough. In practice it was anything but easy. The first three fish Dustin wasn’t able to get even close to the tail, the fish swimming away. He eased his movements after that, trying to go even slower. That helped a lot but the next fish slipped through his hand as he tried bringing it out of the water.
“At least I got hold of that one.” No matter how briefly.
“You’re doing very well,” Fitz assured him. “It took my boy two days before he even managed to touch one.”
Of course, Hap had been eight at the time, and had the kind of impatience that was borne in a child who’d been scavenging on the streets; the idea that he if he didn’t move fast a rat or a cat or another person would snatch away his meal from him before he’d even had a chance at it. But that didn’t need to be said. From what Fitz knew of Vallo, he thought it unlikely that Dustin had ever had to catch his own food before, and if that was the case, it was admirable that he was even making an attempt, let alone one that was even marginally successful.
“You have to grab them hard,” he added. “Don’t worry about hurting it, it will be dinner soon enough.”
Yes, I could do with more dinner, Nighteyes said mischeviously, licking his chops clean of the last of his stolen fish.
“Dinner for yourself,” Fitz added pointedly, shooting Nighteyes a stern look. “I’ll make sure my dog doesn’t steal your fish as well.”
Nighteyes’ tongue lolled out of his mouth in silent laughter, and he got up slowly, stretched, and then came to lay next to Dustin on the bank.
“Here, try again,” he urged.
Fitz had never had much luck with using the Wit on fish; their minds were too different from a humans, and in truth, he’d never known someone who had bonded to a lizard or a fish, though he’d heard tales of men who’d bonded to whales or dolphins. But he quested toward some of the fish below them, and attempted to send calming thoughts so they were less likely to dash away as soon as they could. He could feel his Wit Questing slide off their scales, like water on oil, but perhaps even a little was enough to make them docile enough to remain in Dustin’s grasp.
Dustin glanced over at the dog for a moment before concentrating on the water again. He took a deep breath, trying to clear his mind and center himself a bit more. Grab hard. Okay. He could manage that. He repeated the motions from before but this time he managed to grab hold of a fish. He wasn’t sure if he or the fish was more surprised by the outcome as he pulled it out of the water.
“I did it!”
Shit. He had to tell the others about this. They were never going to believe him.
“You did,” Fitz said, smiling at the boy. He’d been significantly younger than Dustin when he’d tickled his first trout, but he could still remember the feeling of accomplishment the first time he’d managed to do it successfully, and now that Dustin had a feel for it, Fitz thought he could probably manage even without Fitz’ Wit help, if his Wit had helped at all. He hardly knew the boy, but he understood the pride he must have been feeling, and felt it too.
“Would you like to try again? Maybe you’ll manage to catch enough for a proper dinner.”
“Yeah, sure.” Dustin wasn’t sure how to cook a fish, but he could learn.
He repeated the motions again. The first fish slipped out of his fingers but he managed the second one. It was bigger than the one he’d caught before. “My friends are never going to believe this.”
“Well done, lad,” Fitz said, with genuine warmth in his voice. “You’ll have to show them yourself how you managed it.” He wondered if Dustin would show his friends the trick of it if they wanted to learn, and decided he thought he would; he didn’t seem like the type of boy who would hoard information to himself. “Do you know how to prepare the fish for eating?”
Dustin shook his head. “No clue, but I can probably look it up on youtube.” That site had how to do everything and he felt like he’d already taken up a lot of Fitz’s time. Not that it seemed like the guy minded but he had been relaxing when Dustin showed up.
Fitz’ brow furrowed. He didn’t actually know what youtube was. He wondered if it was some sort of library.
“I can show you, if you would like me to,” Fitz said. “It will be better for travelling, and I’m sure that Nighteyes would enjoy making a treat of the entrails.”
Nighteyes’ tail gave a slow wag to show his approval of this suggestion.
Well, how could Dustin turn down an offer like that? Especially with such an enthusiastic response from Nighteyes. “Alright. Show me how to prepare this fish.”