She very quickly arrived at the village. There was literally no one within. Some fires for smoking fish were still active, but these were not very large as they were meant to keep the meat essentially raw and only flavor and preserve it.
When she entered her family's lodge, she realized something: She still had no idea what was going to happen. But she was still taking too long, she took the the mixtures from the painted box at her grandfather's corner, and ran out the door.
Meanwhile several groups of hunters had already leaped into the water, and it was now Dleit and X'aan's turn.
"What is taking her so long?" Dleit said.
"She might have figured something out about the dream." X'aan said in a strange attempt to comfort. Soon after He said that, She burst out of the forest and into the open. She ran a few steps.
"I'm back!" She said and collapsed on her back.
Dleit, Gugáan, Éil and X'aan quickly ran over to her, but their faces did not appear worried, in fact, X'aan and the shamans had smiles upon theirs. Dleit immediately crouched next to her. She laid there, eyes shut. She then opened them slowly, and lifted her head in a slow manner, as if she was injured. She placed her hand on Dleit's shoulder.
"What is it?" he said.
"I.. need-" He immediately kissed her on the cheek.
"Thank you!" she laughed, and everyone followed with her, even Gugaan had a smile on his face. "Sorry I'm late." She said still laying down.
"What took you so long?" Dleit asked.
"I was remembering more about the dream I had." She said, "and whatever is supposed to happen is going to happen on a stormy day." A small gust of wind then blew over them.
"Like today." X'aan said with a bit of a solemn tone.
"I'm also remembering..." She paused, leaning her head forward on her hand, thinking to herself. "A cold breeze with a deathly smell."
At that moment they all sighed in relief. "The dream may have merely meant a bad, sporadic winter." Éil said.
"So we have to get extra food while it's here." Gugaan said, "Come a winter that brutal, the fish are going to go to even more unreachable waters even sooner."
Dleit, X'aan, and Kanat'á gathered their weapons and other tools. The weapons consisted of spears with copper tips, a club to kill the giant fish before they could do any damage to the hunters, along with gaff hooks for hauling them to the surface. Given the size and power of large Halibut, 5 hunters at minimum would be in a single group. They also had satchels on their hips for any spare meat they might gather.
"Who want's the club?" X'aan asked his party, who also consisted of Yaxté and his younger brother X'aseek, who was only 16.
"I think me and Kanat'á will use the spears." Dleit said, "Agreed." she said.
"I'll take it." X'aseek said. He sounded surprisingly young for his age.
"Alright." X'aan said. He then approached him and placed his left hand on the first timers shoulder. "Remember, their tough." X'aan said while pointing the Orca shaped club at him like a finger, "Make sure the head ends up even softer and flatter than it was before. Otherwise, one of us will have a broken limb, or worse. Just in case I have a spare one, but since this is training, mine's for emergencies only. Understood?"
"Yes." X'aseek said "Excellent." X'aan said, he then gave him the club. "Let's get going!" Yaxté shouted.
With that, they nestled up against the cliffside in a squatting stance, waiting for their mark to jump.
"Ready!" the starter shouted, "Go!".
Off they went. Off the cliff and into the sea, the air sweeping over their bodies as they fell like diving falcons. They closed their eyes, held their arms in front of them, pointing to the water, and collided with it.
The sea carried a soothing embrace all over their bodies. Even though they could only feel in their fur and taste in their mouths the world they entered at that moment, it felt as much of home here as their lodges, if not a little more. Then they opened their eyes, and this world they came to daily opened up before them.
The water was clear, and they could see nearly the distance of the cliff above them's height. Beneath them, on the rocks, were Crabs, Shrimp, Urchins, Starfish, Anemones and so many others. They made the rocks seem alive, everywhere you would look you would see something clinging to the rocks, and equally common were things walking on them. They were colorful, but when standing still you could mistake them for the rock they sat on.
The hunters then surfaced, "Any ideas where we should go!?" all of them said at the same time. They proceeded to look at each other in happily surprised state, and laughed, as was their kinds norm. "We won't have to go far." Kanat'á said. She then pointed north. A mile away, near another smaller island, there was a large congregation of almost every seabird in the region; Gulls, Terns, Auklets, there was also probably Cormorants as well, gathering in mass. "Where there's that many birds," Dleit said, "there's even more baitfish." "And where there's that much baitfish," X'aan said, "there's the rest of the food chain swimming beneath them. Let's get after them!"
They then dived down so they wouldn't catch the attention of any large predators as they swam, and off they went, occasionally kicking and pushing with their arms and legs, allowing their bodies to taper, and moving their tails up and down. They couldn't outswim a Porpoise, but they could certainly catch a Cod or Salmon within their jaws.
The feeding frenzy had grown in size considerably from when they set out. The swarm was a massive collection of Herring schools. There must have been at least a thousand of them darting to and fro to escape hungry mouths. There were in fact Cormorants swimming all about, and there were even Salmon Sharks. These Sharks were similar in appearance to Great Whites, only they were about half the size and had darker colors. Thankfully they mostly avoided anything that they couldn't swallow whole, but they were still something to be cautious about.
The hunters continued to individually swim outside of the swarm for any signs of their prey. No halibut, but plenty of cod and salmon, so they decided to go after some of those for a midday group meal. They met up on the nearby shore.
"What did we all get?" Yaxté asked.
Each of them held up their fish. Dleit had a cod that was about as long as his arm, Kanat'á had a silver salmon, X'aan had a king salmon, and Yaxté had a sockeye. His little brother on the other hand, had something that was only a little shorter than he was. It still had it's head, unlike the others that had theirs bitten off, if fact, none of the hunters could reach their teeth around any part of this fish's body, excluding the tail. This was a lingcod. It looked similar to a cod, only it a had a much wider, tooth filled mouth, big boney front fins, and a brown, rocklike coloration. These fish had quite the appetite. Unlike sharks they would grab anything they could fit their jaws around, not even taking into consideration if they could swallow it. They were quite the prize however, sometimes even more than halibut, and they were famed for their meat which had a blue tint to it.
Everyone else stared in awe. "I didn't even notice any of those swimming around!" Kanat'á said, "How did you get him?"
"I noticed him towards the bottom," X'aseek said, "Then I went straight after him with my spear and got him from behind. I then just hauled him to the surface and clubbed him."
His older brother then gave him a sudden one armed embrace around the neck. "Can't wait to show everyone at home your amazing first catch, right?!" He said.
"Why don't we cut off a few pieces and share it between us?" Dleit asked.
"Sure I wouldn't mind." X'aseek said.
Kanat'á walked to the fish, pulled out her skinning knife, kneeled down to prepare it, and stopped. "This fish is still alive." she said. Indeed it was, the fish was still moving her massive gills in an attempt to breath.
"Oh!" said the one who caught her, "Sorry about that."
"What did I tell you?" X'aan said. X'aseek simply bowed his head in shame. "First time mistake, it's alright." X'aan said, "That's why I brought my spare along."
X'aseek hit the fish on the head once and her breathing stopped.
