Gingertail mentally heaved a sigh of relief, and her face broke into a grin. He seemed a bit reluctant, but he was Dustfur, and, besides, at least he'd agreed! She thought she'd ruined everything and chased him off, but nope. He was still willing to help her practice teaching fishing. Who cared if he was right and there would never really be a use for him to know how to fish? There wasn't really enough space on RiverClan territory for her to chase after rabbits, but she'd learned anyway.

"Well, you know, you never know when you'll need it! Say the river rises so much it overflows the gorge and WindClan can fish in it! Then you'll be glad you learned how to fish," she said matter-of-factly, then turned and led the way towards the nearest section of river, a bit farther downstream from where she'd been swimming earlier, but in a place that was shallower and slow-moving. Perfect for beginners.

"Mkay, come over here, Dustfur! I'll show you how you're supposed to sit. It's a lot different from rabbit-hunting, let me tell you!" The ginger she-cat waited for him to join her by the river, eyes gleaming warmly. How wonderful, getting to do two things she loved: fish and spend time with Dustfur.

Dustfur joined her on the riverbank. Gingertail beamed at him and demonstrated the proper sitting position for the form of fishing they were going to be using today. "Okay, sit just like this," she said, sitting in a slightly crouching sit with one paw slightly extended. She was careful not to let the shadow of her paw fall over the water. "Whatever you do, don't let your paw stick out over the water, because fish can tell when there's a shadow," she explained.

The two were sitting pretty close together, though not close enough to touch, to the she-cat's dismay. She'd probably chased him off, anyway, so it shouldn't matter. When she'd mentioned liking him he hadn't said anything about liking her in return. It was only through a miracle that she'd found this excuse to keep him hanging around longer. Otherwise he'd be halfway back to WindClan by now. Which would make Gingertail very sad.

She glanced up at him, waiting to see his sit-crouch and correct any mistakes he may make. He seemed a bit skittish being so near to the water, and Gingertail remembered that they didn't have water like this in WindClan. Only the gorge.

It was just another difference the two Clans had that made Gingertail feel even farther from the tom.

"Oh, no, you're fine," Gingertail assured the WindClan tom as he pulled his paw back over the river bank. "It's not your fault I didn't mention that to begin with." She probably should have told him that first thing, anyway. It was one of the most important parts of fishing: remaining undetected until you swooped in for the kill. In all hunting, really. You know, except for rabbits. You pretty much just had to outrun them. She'd learned that last time she'd seen Dustfur when he'd taught her how to catch rabbits. Personally, she found fishing infinitely easier and energy-preserving.

The ginger she-cat scooted a mouse-length closer to Dustfur, checking his posture to be sure he was sitting correctly. She found no massive discrepancies, so she took up the sitting crouch again. She found the uncertain way Dustfur asked about what to do next really cute, but attempted to force her mind to focus. He seemed like he was worried about talking because of the quiet way he spoke. He was usually quiet, anyway, but now he was even more soft-spoken.

"Now," she said, "you wait for a fish to swim by." Much to her disappointment, no fish happened to appear right at that heartbeat to make her statement seem amazingly impressive. "And when it does, you scoop it out with your paw." She sat in silence for a time that seemed long but in reality probably wasn't. At last, a small silvery creature drifted by. She hoped Dustfur was paying attention as her paw flashed out and scooped the fish up. It arced through the air and landed on the bank beside her, where she quickly dispatched it.

Glad she'd gotten the chance to show off her fishing skills for Dustfur, Gingertail turned and smiled. "Like that, see?"

Gingertail sat back, pleased with her fishing partner's awed and impressed reaction to the fish she'd caught, and watched Dustfur's first fishing attempt. She made certain to sit far enough away from the water that she wouldn't cast a shadow upon it, therefore ruining Dustfur's chances of catching anything. When she didn't see anything majorly wrong with his stance, she instead focused on his face. (This was a dangerous and overall unintelligent thing to do, especially since she was supposed to be watching his technique, not Dustfur himself. But the ginger she-cat could help herself.) His amber eyes were narrowed in concentration, and also uncertainty. Gingertail found the latter to be one of his most endearing qualities. Maybe she just had a thing for awkward toms.

She observed his expressions for a while, and found her gaze wandering to the rest of his body as well. He was long and lean, like all WindClan cats, and his pelt was short and tabby-colored, which also seemed to be a fairly common WindClan trait. Gingertail had never given much thought to the way other WindClan toms looked, but on Dustfur, the brown tabby-and-white/long-legged combo was something she found attractive. Not to mention his amber eyes...she'd never noticed it before, not really, but Dustfur was kind of an open book. Even a cat like her could read his emotions fairly easily. Not that this was a bad thing. She liked it. She preferred knowing what someone was feeling while conversing.

Or maybe she really was terrible at reading cats and just thought she was good at it. Gingertail was reading Dustfur completely wrong, for all she knew.

Suddenly Dustfur changed. It wasn't much, but it was enough to alert the RiverClan she-cat that something was about to happen. The tom tensed his muscles, and she looked down to his paw and caught sight of the fish just as his paw splashed into the water. Unsurprisingly, he'd missed the fish. He'd swiped just a bit too late. It was a good first try, though, and Gingertail said as much.

"You did beautifully, Dustfur," she gushed. "Your posture is right and your swipe wasn't bad, but you need to work on your timing. Don't worry about not catching the fish. No one ever catches a fish on their first try!"

Dustfur crouched back over the water, with the pretense of trying again. He didn't look like he was entirely sure about what he was doing yet, but he seemed a bit more determined this time as he focused on the water. His stance was good, Gingertail thought. He had the makings of a good fish catcher. He just needed a little practice. We'll turn him into a RiverClan yet! she thought triumphantly, but quickly she scolded herself for thinking that way. Dustfur was a WindClan cat who probably wouldn't ever need this skill again after leaving RiverClan territory.

A rather large shape flashed in the water, drawing Gingertail's attention. It began swimming straight towards Dustfur. Her heart went out to him, encouraging him and cheering him on. You can do it! she chanted silently. He braced himself, tensing as the fish swam closer and closer...and then his paw flashed out, swooping down on the fish. It splashed in the water, but his paw came up empty. Her face fell, but that was still a good try. It was only his second attempt, after all. And now she knew what he was doing wrong. He needed to start swiping a bit earlier than he was; instead of striking when the fish was right in front of him, he needed to strike a heartbeat before so the fish wouldn't swim by.

But then something happened. Dustfur's front paw started slipping. One of them was already extended towards the water, and the momentum of his strike combined with the slippery grass was sending him into the river. She reached out to him...but missed barely, and he splashed into the river.

He can't swim! Dustfur doesn't know how to swim!

The thought drove her to frantically leap into the water after the flailing feline. He'll drown, he can't swim! she thought. She waded over to Dustfur, who'd ceased his flailing.

Wait...she waded. Feeling like a mousebrain at her frantic reaction, she remembered she'd chosen a shallower part of the river. The water only came up just past Gingertail's belly, and for a lanky WindClan cat like Dustfur it would just touch his belly fur. As a matter of fact, he was standing up now, having also come to the realization that he could touch the bottom here.

He looked around in a mixture of dejection and embarrassment. "I-I'm fine," he stuttered. He was soaked through, and Gingertail felt a pang of sympathy for the tom, as well as embarrassment at her own frantic reaction.

"Come on," she meowed comfortingly. "Let's get you dried off." She pressed her partially dry body against his drenched one and assisted him in the short trip to the river bank. Well, that was fun...