[Solo] Friendly Trouble [Dusk Wave]

[peanutbutter]

Dusk Wave, a scout of The Cres and one who very much enjoyed his role and location, was very familiar with shuppies.

It was hard to not be, honestly, when one lived at The Cres; they were able to be seen roaming the waters and the beach in small packs, or right next to their owner's side, or the most common way - falling into one of the holes they seemed to be eternally digging. As much as the beach was part of the Cres, so were the shuppies, and Dusk had come to make his peace (and bruises from falling) with this fact. He had watched them from afar, enjoyed some of their antics, and then had gone on with his day. He had never really considered bonding with one of the creatures, always concerned with going on patrol or making himself useful to the community, that he just felt he had never had the time. Not to mention, he would probably never be found good enough for one - the creatures were fiercely loyal, and he simply just found he didn't deserve it.

And yet, he still found himself lately watching them a bit more closely.

It wasn't loneliness. He refused to let it be loneliness. That would be giving up, giving in - oh who was he kidding. It was a basic fact of Dusk's being that he was lonely, a bit lost, a bit confused about everything and unsure of what he deserved. Leaving his daughter had been one thing - she had needed room to grow, and he needed to grow out of his role as her dad, their parting was for the better if extremely bittersweet on Dusk's part. But figuring out what to do from there? That was another. Dusk wasn't very good at making new friends to begin with, it was hard, and confusing, and well... he probably wasn't a good friend anyways. He didn't know how to be.

But he could learn, and what better way to start than with a shuppy?

He at least knew how to keep things besides himself alive - he had managed to successfully raise his daughter to adulthood at least. And it wasn't like The Cres was exactly low on the creatures, with how often holes were created and the packs of them ran into the waves and then ran out and rolled in the sand and then back in and - ok it was confusing whatever they did but they did it! Although maybe that was the problem, Dusk watched them and observed them and had no earthly idea how to approach them. They would run when he got near, usually, and his usual demeanor seemed to scare them off of approaching him (or maybe it was the fact they got distracted by anything that moved, and Dusk was very, very good at being still).

So with everything tried, and Dusk being nearly out of ideas, he went for the one thing everything in the swamp seemed to like: food.

Dusk wouldn't call himself an expert fisher, not with the others he had seen in the bay who easily outpassed him in skill and output. But he was passable, and so he started with that, wading out in to the waters and collecting a few fish, then throwing them out on the beach to passing shuppies. Some avoided them, which admittedly, it was probably alarming to see a fish randomly fly at you Dusk thought. Some just gobbled them down and then ran off which, well, that was probably what was bound to happen. But there was one who seemed to consider Dusk as they ate the fish, before they sprinted off, and that gave Dusk some hope.

So he continued his little fishing adventure when he could, repeating the process when he was back from his scouting or when he had a little extra time off. The results stayed mostly the same, except for the one shuppy, who stayed a little longer, and strayed a little closer to Dusk each and every time. It was slow progress and Dusk was content with it - he had learned patience a long time ago and was in no rush for the process to go any faster, and well he had the added bonus of his fishing skills getting a little better. So each time he could he waded out to the waters and quietly, determinedly, fished up food for the shuppies.

Until one day, when he waded out to the waters, a shuppy joined him.

wc: 761