[Fair '24] Alowyn - Fish Pond

“These are all so pretty,” Alowyn gushed as she stared down at the brightly coloured fish. 

Around her the noises of the fair tried to distract her, but for once she was focused on the exotic and magical-looking fish weaving through the water. The colourful lights of the fair refracted through the water and created a glittering spectacle against the fish scales. She didn’t want to disturb them by putting the net in the water to try and catch them. So she stared, fascinated, for a little while longer. 

“Are you going to play?” The reosean in charge of the Fish pond asked. 

“Oh yeah,” Alowyn sighed. 

When Alowyn didn’t move to catch any fish, the reosean said, “Look, there are others in the line. If you're going to participate please get on with it.”

Alowyn sighed again as she shifted around the edge of the pond. She spotted a glittering purple and blue fish with large flowing fins and this was the one she would attempt to catch. Alowyn watched it move for a few more breaths before she gently placed the net near the fish of her choice. She cringed slightly as many fish darted away from the intrusion of her net, but she stilled letting the water settle and the fish resume their graceful swim. 

The blue and purple glittering fish that held Alowyn’s interest seemed to swim everywhere but near her net, she was patient keeping her net still though the reosean in charge was getting impatient. The reosean would huff whenever he looked over Alowyn’s shoulder to see there wasn’t a fish in her net. They didn’t verbally rush Alowyn once they saw she was trying, but their body language was all Alowyn needed to see to grow more anxious. 

The first time the reosean came close to seeing how she was doing, Alowyn apologized and moved her net gently to a new area to see if that would help. Her careful movements paid off only in the way of not disrupting the fish. She inched closer to the blue fish. The fish would circle her net a few times and when it almost looked like the fish was about to go into the net it would zip across the pond. Alowyn sighed but waited to see if it would come back. 

The reosean watched Alowyn struggle to catch the sleek blue and purple fish. They didn’t have any advice to offer besides trying a different fish. That particular fish had caught many reoseans’ attention, but no one had been able to catch it. The fair noises rose around the fish pond as a group of tourists and fair-goers came by on a tour of the grounds. Gwen was heard talking animatedly about the extraordinary fish in the pond. A few reoseans left the tour to get in line, but Alowyn didn’t notice. Her focus remained on the fish in front of her. 

After the third time of the reosean huffing over Alowyn’s shoulder she felt she needed to speed up the process. She inched closer to the blue fish, resting her net gently on a couple of rocks. The fish flitted around the pond before it came back to where Alowyn’s net was. Alowyn felt her excitement right as the fish inched closer to the net. She tried to hold in a physical reaction while she tapped her toes with anticipation. As if the fish knew what it was doing, it swam into the net, and then before Alowyn could react it whipped out of the net. 

“What?” Alowyn cried, “It was so close!”

Alowyn watched the pretty blue-purple fish swim around the edge of the pond as if to taunt her. She sagged in defeat, lowering the net a touch deeper into the water where a golden orange fish lazily entered the net. Alowyn perked up ever so briefly as she carefully lifted the net out of the water. She gasped at the glittering scales and made a series of happy noises while the fish flipped around in the net. Once her joy passed, she noticed the fish’s distress and quickly lowered her net back into the pond to let the fish go. 

“What are you doing?” The reosean asked Alowyn with a look of bewilderment. 

“I don’t want to hurt the fish,” Alowyn said simply. 

“But.. the whole point..” The reosean considered explaining the game again, but sighed, “Never mind.”

Alowyn smiled at the reosean and thanked him for the fun before she wandered away from the fish pond without her prize. 

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