NBAA Vol. 2 Short Story
Digital Version Short Story – Gone Fishing
“Hey Ullr, let’s go fishing.”
“Woof!!”
Reito, fishing equipment in hand, went off to the river, his pet Ullr in tow.
They had been eating a lot of monster meat recently, so he decided to get some fish for a change.
“It’s been a while since we last took it easy like this…do you think we’ll catch anything?”
“Arf…”
Reito attached the lure, then swung the pole towards the water.
Many of that world’s fish were the same as those on Earth, so there was a chance to catch fish Reito was familiar with.
“I haven’t caught any fish I know yet, but…oh, a bite!!”
The first hit came fairly quickly: Reito activated a physical boost support spell, then pulled up the fish.
“Yes! I caught a…what’s that!?”
“SHAAAH!!”
The “catch” was a creature with shark-like face and human-like body.
After Reito pulled it up on land and removed the hook from its mouth, the creature cried as if protesting.
“Shashah!!”
“Ah, er…I’m sorry…?”
“Shah.”
The strange creature, probably best described as a fishman, was apparently satisfied by Reito’s apology: it nodded and jumped back into the river, as if nothing had happened.
Reito and Ullr looked at each other.
“Hmm…let’s change places.”
“Woof…”
~
Reito decided to forget the bizarre encounter and try fishing somewhere else.
Their new spot was near a large river in the vicinity of Lunot.
The water was fairly shallow, so there shouldn’t be creatures like the sharkman swimming around.
“Okay, here goes…gotcha!!”
A few minutes after throwing in the pole, something started pulling.
Reito started reeling in the lure.
The catch was pulling much harder than before, however: the pole almost flew out of Reito’s hands a couple times.
“T-this is big…! Ullr, help me out!”
“Woof!!”
Ullr put his front paws on Reito’s shoulders, to help him stabilize. After a fierce battle, Reito managed to pull the fish ashore.
“Nghah!!”
“Woof!!”
Reito — and Ullr with him — fell backwards, dropping the fishing pole on the ground.
Overjoyed, Reito quickly stood back up.
“We did it!! So what fish…”
“Arf…?”
The hook was caught in the mouth of a two meter-sized octopus.
“An octopus…in a river…?”
Reito was shocked by finding an octopus in a river, while Ullr curiously approached the catch.
“Sniff sniff…ghah!!”
“Eh, Ullr!? Don’t irritate it…!”
Ullr bit on one of the octopus’ tentacles.
Reito hurriedly tried to stop him, to no avail: the octopus sprayed a defensive blast of black ink.
.
SPLASH!
.
“YELP!?”
“Whoa!!”
Reito and Ullr were doused in ink: the octopus escaped back into the river.
The two looked on helplessly, in complete silence.
“…enough fishing for today…let’s take a bath.”
“Arf…”
Ullr “mumbled” an earnest request: don’t take me fishing ever again…