Fishing And Realization

After our introductions were over, we started walking past a couple trees and quickly walked up to a river. That’s probably where the sound of flowing water came from that I heard. They started walking upstream and I followed along.
Maybe we’re heading towards their village. What did they call it again? Emmerberk? But this isn’t the direction that they came from when they first ran into me.

‘There is something me and Casper need to do before we go back home.’ Maya said to me. ‘So, you’ll have to stick around with us until then.’
‘That’s alright with me.’ I responded.

In this situation, where I have no clue where I am, I’d rather walk with someone else. Even if they gave me directions and I had perfect confidence in my sense of direction, I’d still think it would be smarter to go along with them.
We started to walk side by side. Maya in the middle and me and Casper on either side. Walking beside her, I noticed that she had a pouch attached to her waist and what looked like a knife inside it.
Did she always have that on her? Better not make her angry.
Now that I think about it, Casper did have a bow and arrow on him. Do they always have that with them when they go into the forest? Just who are these two?

‘By the way Maya, can I ask you why the two of you were here in this forest to begin with?’ I asked her.
‘That’s the thing that the two of us still need to do.’ Maya said. ‘It’s not that far and I’ll explain more once we get there.’
‘Okay.’ I responded.

Not knowing what to say or ask next, I started to look around. The little bit of fog that was here at first had now cleared up, making everything a lot easier to see.
The forest is dense with only a couple spots where the trees let the light pass through. I could clearly hear some birds singing and chirping, followed by a loud clapping of wings. I think we got too close and scared them off.

The water of the river is incredibly clear. So much so that I can even see fish swimming through it. I noticed that they don’t often come by. There might be more fish, the more upstream we go.

Listening to the sound of flowing water, the wind rustling the leafs and the sounds of our footsteps, together with the sight of the trees around me, made me feel oddly calm and nostalgic. I recalled the times I would go to the forest with my parents to be surrounded by nature for a while.

‘Micheal! Micheal!’ It’s Casper trying to ask me something. He went to my side and pulled at my shirt while doing so. ‘I noticed you are looking around a lot. Why is that?’
‘I guess I’m just enjoying the scenery.’ I explained. ‘It’s been a while since I’ve last been in a forest like this.’
‘When was the last time you went then?’ Casper asked as a follow-up.
‘Maybe when I was around your age. By the way, how old are the two of you?’ I asked both of them.
‘I am eight, almost nine!’ Casper said.
‘I am fifteen.’ Maya said.

I was actually pretty close with my estimations of their age.

‘What about you?’ Maya continued. ‘You look like you are around the same age as me.’
‘You are right about that. I am sixteen. I responded.
‘Really! Cool, so we are around the same age.’ She looked at me happily and excited while saying that.

Is that really such a big deal? She does seem happy about it, so I guess it’s a good thing. But having her suddenly become really excited, made me a little nervous and made me slowly avert my eyes away from her.
It’s amazing that people like Maya can be so easily excitable about anything, but they can sometimes be really hard to deal with for an introvert like me.

Either way, I am happy that these two were the ones who found me and I’d love to learn more about them.

---

We continued to walk for another 5 to 10 minutes, sometimes engaging in a little small talk, and I could eventually hear the sound of water crashing on something.

‘Alright, we’re almost there.’ Maya said.

We came face-to-face with a waterfall. So this is the river’s origin. It wasn’t the biggest, but it’s size still overwhelmed me.

‘Whoa.’ I audibly gasped at the sight of it.

I have never seen a waterfall firsthand before. So seeing one before me, crashing down in a big crystal clear lake with the sun glistering upon it, made for an incredible first viewing experience.

‘Impressive, am I right.’ Maya said, almost proudly.
‘You can say that again.’ I replied, still looking at the waterfall.
‘We wanted to be here earlier, but then “somebody” ran off.’ When putting emphasis on somebody, Maya looked at Casper.
‘I said I was sorry!’ Casper responded, making a pouting face.
‘I know, I was only kidding.’ She said while laughing at him.

I couldn’t help but smile and silently laugh at the two of them. They really seem close. I’ve seen siblings who aren’t nearly as close as these two. Not that I would know how it feels to be a sibling, since I’m an only child.

‘By the way, Maya. What is it that you wanted to do here?’ I interupted their moment, wondering why we’re here.
‘I’ll show you. Follow me.’ Maya responded excitedly. ‘You too Casper, so you’ll know for next time.’

We followed behind Maya and got to a set of trees to the left of the waterfall. There are even a couple berry bushes here. They kinda look like raspberries, but instead of red, they are a darkblue-ish colour and are the size of an apple.

‘It’s behind here.’ Maya said, while pushing away the branches and leafs so both me and Casper could take a look.

I see a rope with one end tied to the rope again to form a circle. The other end seemed to be attached to a stick in the ground which was attached to a tree branch, pulling the branch down.
I think I’ve seen something like this before.

‘What is this?’ I asked, curious about the set-up.
‘Oh, it’s a trap. I set this up myself, but we haven’t caught anything. Both me and Casper came here to check up on them. Normally I go alone, but Casper insisted on going with me. I was eventually going to show and teach him how to hunt anyway. It just happened sooner than I expected.’ Maya explained.
‘I’m sorry, but did you just say “hunt”?’ I asked, slightly confused at what she just said.
‘Yeah, I did! Why, what’s wrong?’ Maya responded quickly.
‘Oh, i-it’s nothing!’ I said, while stammering over my words.

I don’t think it’s completely unlikely for someone to hunt. Maybe for a girl her age, or when so many types of food are readily available in the local supermarket, but I’m not one to judge someone’s interests or hobbies.
Maya gave me a weird look after my stammering, but shrugged her shoulders and started looking at the ground. Maybe she is looking for something.

‘Since we didn’t catch anything, I guess we’ll do the next best thing!’ Maya picked up a long stick from the ground and started to chip off the end of it with her knife, making one end of it sharp and pointy like a spear.
‘There are plenty of fish in the lake, so I’ll teach you how to catch fish.’ Maya said to Casper.

I have a feeling I know what she’s going to do.
Maya walked towards the lake with the now pointy stick in hand. She took her shoes off by pushing them off with her feet, rolled up her dress enough that it was now above her knees and entered the water. She kept walking until the water touched her knees.

‘What’s most important in catching fish is patience.’ Maya said to us. ‘When you enter the water, the fish will be scared off and swim away from you. But eventually they’ll come around again. Just be as quiet and still as you can possibly be.’

Maya stood completely still in front of me. Stick above her head, ready for whenever a fish comes close.
Her focus is incredible here. I can’t even imagine how many times she has done this before, to be completely unfazed by even the flow of water and the slight gusts of wind blowing her hair.

‘HI-YAAH!’ Maya shouted.

It only took a couple minutes for Maya to do something.
The speed at which she thrusted her stick in the water was faster than I could follow. Maya took her now submerged stick out of the water and on it, there was a now lifeless fish cleaved through by the spear-like stick.
Maya walked back to us. With the stick resting on her shoulder, she looked weirdly cool to me. I had once gone fishing with one of my friends, but that was with a fishing rod. Not in a caveman style.

‘Aaaand that’s how you do it.’ Maya said proudly.
WHOAAA!’ Casper said, his eyes brimming with a child-like excitement, ready to try it himself. ‘Let me try! Let me try!’

‘Alright, here you go.’ Maya said. First taking off the fish from the stick. Then handing the stick to Casper and holding out her other hand for Casper to give her his bow. ‘Keep in mind that you don’t want to strike down too close to you, unless you want to risk punching a hole in your foot.’
‘Don’t worry about it.’ Casper said. He handed Maya his bow and raced into the lake.

Maya silently laughed a little at her little brother.

‘I’ll be watching you from over here. If there’s something you need help with, just ask.’ Maya said to Casper.
‘I knooooow.’ Casper said in an annoyed, but still excited tone.

Maya and I watched Casper try his best at catching fish. We see him try and try again, but every time he pulled his stick out of the water, no fish were on it.
Between Maya and me, it’s silent. We barely know each other, so where would we even begin with talking to each other. Sneaking a glance at Maya, she also looks just as uneasy as me. Twirling with her hair and touching her straw sunhat.

‘Uhm….’ We both said at the same time, still looking at the lake.

Surprised at us trying to start a conversation in unison we both turned to look at each other.
Before we even had time to say another word, suddenly a strong gust of wind came from behind Maya. She grabbed her dress, but wasn’t in time to grab her sunhat, which flew away.
I reacted to the sudden movement of Maya’s hat and followed it with my eyes.

‘I got it. I got it.’ I said to Maya, not looking at her and instead focusing on the sunhat that flew over my head.

The hat kept flying for a few meters. I’m running behind it, in order to catch it. At least, I was planning to, but I was just a little too late in my reaction time and it landed right in front of my feet.
I picked up the sunhat from the ground and dusted it off a little. I turned around to walk back to Maya.

‘Here you go Maya!’ I said while walking towards her with her hat in hand.
‘Thanks, I appreciate it!’ She said, while walking towards me and ready to happily accept it.

The closer she got to me, I started to notice something moving on her head. Are those…? No, there is no way. But that would explain….
The thought I had when we left the forest came back and stronger than before.

In the meantime, Maya had taken back her sunhat. As she was about to put it on again, I had to ask her about those “things” to confirm my thoughts.

‘Uhm, Maya! What is that on your head?’ I asked her, shocked with what I saw.
‘What is what? I don’t have anything weird in my hair, do I?’ Maya said, questioning why I asked her. Her hands ready to pick out something from her hair.

I couldn’t see them before, since they were hidden beneath her hat. But on her head, what first looked like two pointy cowlicks, or two pointy tufts of hair pointing upward, was a pair of cat ears.

I was in denial all this time, because of how ridiculous it sounded in my mind, but this settles it. Me suddenly being in an unfamilair place, the old feel of Maya and Casper’s clothes, them hunting for their own food and Maya’s cat ears.
I’m not even on earth anymore. I’m in another world.