Chapter 25: Chapter 25 – Fishing?

Jumping back into a standing position Shi's eyes glared at the surface of the water; awaiting the slightest movement from it to act. With a splash, water erupted out from the water, and out from it came a large fish.

The fish was roundish in shape with green scales that covered its entire body from its tail fin to its flat head except for the under area that was reddish in color. The fish was around the size of Shi's head which took her by surprise— causing her to stumble back.

What made Shi really surprised, however, was the head of the fish that she saw when it was falling back into the water. It had no eyes, only a large mouth filled with rows of teeth that looked like it could shred her.

Shi wasn't too worried about it shredding her though since it fell back into the water shortly after jumping out. "It seems it can't get out, is that a good thing or a bad thing? Definitely good." 

Shi was happy that that ugly-looking fish couldn't get out of the water; she assumed it only jumped out because of all the movement she caused in the water from washing the bottle. 

'It doesn't have eyes, at least i think so. Maybe it can't see?' A new thought along with an idea suddenly popped into her head now that she saw her first animal down here.

'This means that life can survive down here. That's both good and bad for me, which it ends up actually being i don't know yet.' She thought to herself as she tried not to worry too much about what other animals could be down in these caves.

She hummed to herself softly as another idea came to her mind after thinking about animals. One that might benefit her a lot more if she could get it to work right.

'What if i catch it for food. Fishes should have blood right? Yea, i remember reading that most animals have blood. Then i should be able to catch it and drain it of blood for food.'

As the thought of drinking fresh blood— even if it was fish blood— entered her mind, she couldn't help but lick her lips. Her tongue ran along her sharp fangs in the process. 

She was starving, and her instincts were screaming at her to do it. But she also couldn't be a fool and give in to her emotions; acting recklessly would be a sure way to end up dying down here.

'It's blind, i might be able to use that to my advantage. But i just don't know enough about it to make such a big risk. Plus, how do i even capture it? I don't have any fishing or hunting gear, i don't even have anything to kill it with.'

Shi's inner monologue with herself carried on as she tried to work out whether or not she should take the risk of trying to capture this creature just for its blood. Her instincts on one side screamed yes, while her logic on the other told her how stupid she was. 

And honestly, her instincts were winning.

"Well, i guess I'll go for it," she said to herself as she decided to go ahead and try to catch the fish. 

'It shouldn't be too much of a risk since it doesn't seem like it can come out of the water. As long as i stay away from the water, i should be fine.' She stated to herself, trying to calm her nerves. 

She was going to do it— so she didn't want to doubt herself now.

Shi turned around and looked back toward the wall of the cave where the vines that she used before came from. She needed something that she could use to catch the fish and pull it out of the water without having to get close to the water— the vine could do just that if she used it properly.

Walking over to the wall she looked for a good piece of the vine; unlike when she was making her container, this time she needed something that wasn't too thick so that the fish could bite into it, but it still needed to be strong enough that it wouldn't burst while she was using it.

Trailing her eyes over the wall of vines, she found the perfect one. A thin vine that seemed like it would fit into the wide mouth of the fish while at the same time being quite difficult to rip. Shi was only able to rip it off the wall after some effort from her vampiric strength. 

"This should do perfectly. Let's just hope it takes the bait and bites it." She muttered to herself softly as she pulled it to test it once more.

With that out of the way, she walked over to the water once more— making sure she stand a good distance away from the surface of the water in case something tried to jump out and grab her again. 

Swinging the vine in her hand— she threw it into the water towards the center of the stream— allowing it to float ontop top of the water where it could be reached easily.

The only reason Shi thought this would work was because she didn't see any eyes on the creature. That meant that it was using the ripples in the water to find her and not its sight. This could mean that if anything ripples in the water it would jump at it. 

'Come on you ugly bastard, i don't have all day.' She said as she moved the vine across the surface of the water slowly— making sure it made as many ripples as she could. 

It took her a few seconds, but eventually, she felt the line suddenly go stiff followed closely by a sudden tug that tried to drag the vine down into the watery depths. 

'No you don't, bastard!' She shouted to herself in her mind as she dug her feet into the grassy floor— tightening her grip on the vine. 

It became a struggle of strength— it fighting to drag the vine into the water, and she fighting to pull it out. The innocent vine was the only thing suffering from this interaction. 

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"Come on, just give up already!" She said in an annoyed shout as she wrapped the end of the vine around her hand yet another loop so it wouldn't slip out.

The struggle went on for a few good minutes— long minutes with many times that Shi thought the vine was going to break— but thankfully it held on. The victory came to Shi as she was finally able to pull the fish onto land, having it crash onto the bank of the stream in a splash of water.

"Finally!" She exclaimed excitedly at her success. It had taken her far longer than she thought it would in order to get that annoying fish; she was starting to get worn out.

She didn't allow her victory to go to her head though as she quickly looked down at the fish that she pulled out of the water. It was still alive— flopping around on the ground for its dear life in an attempt to find water. It was dying, just not fast enough.

Shi looked around for a stalagmite that was near here and seemed easy to break— finding one rather quickly because of how much it had in the cave. She used this stone to stab into the side of the fish before it could get away; making sure she killed it by stabbing it a few more times.

It was messy, but it did confirm one thing for her. The fish had blood in it— normal blood— at least by the color of it.

'It should be dead. At least i hope so.' She thought as she moved closer to it, poking it with the stone a few more times to make sure it was dead.

She was right— it was dead. Now she had something to eat and maybe even drink for the exploration to come. She moved closer to the fish, kneeling down near it as she raised it carefully with just two fingers trying to avoid being pricked by any of its scales. 

"I wonder how it tastes?" She muttered to herself as she leaned closer to it to try and get a good sniff.

It smelt— intoxicating. The fresh blood from a newly killed creature seemed to be just what Shi's instincts were craving because the mere scent of it sent her body into shivers.
Her red eyes flashed with a hint of red, her lips moist as her teeth had to be clenched together to avoid just jumping at it whole.

"That was dangerous. I still haven't learned anything about these instincts yet, let alone how to control them." She said as she moved the fish away from her body— trying to get her instincts under control better.

She couldn't afford to lose control right now, especially if she wanted to keep exploring these caves. Eating the entire fish in one go would be bad since it was meant to last her quite a while. She wasn't sure if she could even get another one if she ate this one out— she hadn't even seen anymore.

With her emotions under control, she decided it would be best to drain the fish of blood before it started to leak out and dry up. To do that she would need something to put it in, so she decided to empty the water from the container since the blood would be better to keep. 

If she had the blood, she wouldn't need the water.

Emptying out the container, she tried to figure out how exactly she was going to drain the fish of blood. Trying to squeeze it would just be dumb— she would just squish the fish and make it even harder to get the blood from it. 

Instead, she tried cutting a bigger hole in the fish using the stone and holding the opening over the opening of the container so that it would drain out better.

It took a while, but she was eventually able to drain out the majority of the blood from the fish. While there was still some blood she couldn't get out this way because they were intertwining with the guts and flesh of the fish— the creature was large enough for that to not matter. 

It had after all already filled up the container. 

"Now for the moment of truth, just a sip," Shi said with a smile; as she threw the fish aside and rose the container up, staring at it.

She didn't bother cooking the fish since she didn't have anything to start a fire— and while she could do what she did before she didn't care that much about eating the fish itself. The blood was enough for her— she could tell. Something inside her was telling her that the blood would be enough to keep her filled.

Maybe it was that reversed version of herself she hadn't heard from in a while. But that didn't matter right now.

As she stared at the opening of the container, she slowly moved it closer to her lips. Wrapping her lips against the edge of the vine, she took a small sip from the blood. 

Bad idea. 

She ended up not being able to control herself and poured more of the blood into her mouth. By the time she was able to stop herself from drinking it, she had already taken an entire mouthful— covering her lips in a red tint.

"Dammit, i can't even control my basic instincts. This is annoying." She said in frustration as she wrapped the cover of the container with a leaf to seal it up. Keeping it closed, but also keeping the scent from reaching her.

'I need to get better at controlling these new vampiric abilities and things. I could use my time while I'm looking for a way out to do that.' She planned in her head, as she stood up.

She turned towards the pathways leading to— ready to travel on.

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