Despite Seymore's insistence that there was no need to go fishing, Kestrel felt determined to show off her skills. She didn't *need* the colony to provide for her, after all, and felt that the group could do with a reminder of this. Unsurprisingly, Quartz, Citrine, and Peridot had followed her as soon they caught wind of her preparing to go on another trip to the swamp. Wading trough the rivers was quite nice on this specific day, as the heat had hit the region. The sun was especially harsh in the swamp, with bugs clinging to the colonists skin as they walked around. The strange blue fish, that Woodland had told them were called Blue-Cheeked Fungusfin, ended up being quite tasty. After last time, the group had come home and roasted the one Peridot had caught, and found that the odd-looking fungal covered fish was actually pretty commonly eaten by the inhabitants of L'hatzif. The four Tark'ee had instantly offered to go get more, but at first Seymore (the Xunari in charge of trade) had rejected, claiming they would just get some more by buying the fish from local fishermen. Kestrel especially had been determined though. She didn't want to

be "indebted" to the colony in any way, and saw this as an easy way to "pay them back." "So ah- why exactly did we bring buckets?" Peridot spoke up, from the back of the group. "Ah, to carry the fish in, duh." Said Citrine. Perdidot rolled his eyes. "If we were bringing back dead fish we should have brought something bigger, and Kestrel told us to make sure to bring buckets that could hold water." Kestrel nodded. "If we bring back dead fish we'll be here every day. I talked to Koi, an she mentioned that we could probably put some live fish in the irrigation system of the fields. That was, they will hopefully breed there, and we can harvest the fish from there." "Whoa!" Quartz said, excitedly, "That's so smart! I wouldn't have thought of that myself!" Kestrel didn't think it was that impressive. The thinking was quite straight foreward, really. Instead of bringing yourself to the fish, bring the fish to you. She sighed. "I think I see some over there!" Peridot called out, excitedly. ((Sure enough, in a small river off to the side Kestrel could already seem some turquoise shaped moving around just under

the surface.)) "Perfect, let's go." Kestrel called out, and slowly stepped into the river. The water was murky, making it hard to see anything but big shaped just under the surface, and Kestrel knew that catching the fish would not be easy. Especially after scooping the first few up, the rest would likely try to swim away. They would have to go slow. Peridot and Quartz had follow her into the water, but Citrine seemed hesitant. She gave him a look, but the marigold Tark'ee had awkwardly mumbled something about staying off to the side in case of emergency. Knowing Citrine, he likely just didn't want to get himself dirty. She rolled her eyes, looking at the fish swimming around in lazy circles. Waiting for the right moment, she scooped one up in a bucket. One down, many more to go. She, and the other two Tark'ee in the water, got into a rythm, scooping up the fish and passing them off to Citrine, who made sure that they got as many fish as they could into one of the buckets, passing back empty ones after merging the buckets with fish. It was easy work, and Kestrel quickly found herself

quite happy with what the small group had achieved for the day. She was less pleased, however, when something long and slimy slipped past her leg. She jumped up and away, startled, and quickly climbed back to shore, only to see Peridot and Quartz looking at her strangely. "I ah- felt something." she muttered, embarased. "You mean a fish, maybe?" Citrine said, awkwardly. Kestrel huffed. She looked into the water, but didn't really see anything strange. She supposed that maybe she had overreacted a tad, but still didn't quite want to jump back in. The buckets were almost full anyways. "Let's just head back for now." she said, grabbing one of the buckets and heading off. The others didn't feel like going up against her. They quickly grabbed a few buckets each and headed off.