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"The only thing I'm worried about is the smoke from the fire," Shiro murmured. "I mean ... it hasn't rained here in the two weeks that we've been here, but ... everything is so moist here, I don't know if we would be able to find dry wood to burn. We might have to use just wet wood, and that smokes something awful."

He wondered, if they brought the fish back to the village, if there would be somewhere there that they could smoke the fish.

"My guess? Rainy season." Shiro shrugged. "It must somehow rain enough that it keeps the entire island moist all year round. Any other place would be dry after two weeks of no rain, even if their weeks are shorter than ours."

Perhaps that was a question to ask once they got back that evening.

"And here's the river," he murmured as they arrived at the large body of water. "Now for a spear ..."

Shiro was also scanning the ground, but he couldn't find anything to use. He smiled at Lin and nodded at the stick that she found. "Perfect," he grinned. "Here." He took it from her and took his knife from his bag. Freshly sharpened, he had no difficulty using it to sharpen the end of the stick and smooth out the edges, and soon enough it was ready to use.

"All right," he murmured, "and now for a good place to throw from ..."

It would be best if he could throw without having to go into the water, since going in the water would scared the fish away, but how else to do it? There were no trees over the water ...

His stomach growled, and he felt pressured to hurry. "Do you think it would work if I flew?" he asked Lin quietly, thoughtfully.

Shiro nodded. "Though there's always the question of whether I'll be able to throw properly from the air," he admitted. "I'm not the best at physical stuff, I can get by ... but ..."

Well, he would try it, and if he couldn't do it, then he would get Lin to try, it was that simple.

He took the makeshift spear in one hand and spread his wings, then took off into the air. He skimmed slowly above the water's surface - his wings didn't allow him to hover, so he had to keep moving - watching for the fish. He spotted a school of fish, but they were too small to be good targets for him ... another school was too deep, and beyond his reach ... but then he saw some fish that were a good size, and near the surface.

"Gotcha," he murmured softly. He flew a little higher, then drew his arm back and dove for the surface. Just before he hit the water, he launched the spear and caught the air, stopping short but throwing the spear into the water.

"K'saa," he swore, reaching into the water and grabbing the spear again. "I think I may have gotten a tail, but not enough of it to actually get it ..."

He flew back to the shore and held the stick out to Lin. "Would you like to try?"

Shiro chuckled. "Maybe at this rate it will be easier to catch them by hand," he grinned at Lin. "Do you want to try again?"

He wasn't sure how willing he was to keep trying, he might try once more but then he figured he would try with his hands instead.

"Try throwing it straight down," Shiro suggested, his mind working over the physics of the exercise. "Straight down won't change the angle ..."

In theory anyways. But it just might work.

Shiro laughed and grabbed the fish off the spear. "Well, it's dying, what do you expect?"

He grinned at her. "Catch another and we'll have ourselves a small feast here."


Though they never did end up finding any dry wood, they did enjoy their fish nice and smoked, and Shiro at least thought it was pretty darn good, considering the circumstances. As the sky began to darken, they made their way back to the village and sought out the rest of their group.

Leyenda, Kelirahc, Arwen and Roydon were sitting at the front row of the crowd that was already beginning to gather, and Rhea was chatting with a young man on the other side of the crowd. Shiro glanced at Lin, and began to make his way towards Leyenda and the others, to join them. Several of the Night Elves glanced up at him as he passed, but no one paid him particular attention - something that amazed him, and made him glad.

It didn't take long for Shiro and Lin to join the others, and Shiro took a seat beside Kelirahc, then motioned for Lin to sit next to him. He spoke with Kelirahc for a moment, then turned back to Lin.

"We haven't missed anything," he told her quietly, "though we are just barely in time."

As he spoke, the last vestiges of light disappeared into the night, and the moon suddenly appeared from behind a cloud. Then the stars appeared, as quickly as if someone had flicked on a switch. They were very bright, and the moon was full, and the night was quite light, despite the fact that the sun was completely gone.

At the same instant, the doors of the elders' huts opened simultaneously, and the nine stepped forth, all of them in long, white robes. The starlight shone on their hair, almost making it seem as if they were glowing, though their skin made them as shadows. They stepped forward unanimously, moving in a perfect line, and they came to a stop in a semicircle around the bonfire pit. There, Alaundil, front and center, touched her mark, a bird, and a phoenix shimmered into being. With a loud cry, it swooped once around the crowd, and then dove into the pile of wood. Instead of the wood falling over, however, it burst into flame, and the phoenix vanished.

As the flamed licked towards the sky, a dark shadow appeared from the direction of the huts: a young woman, clad in black, her pure white hair braided down her back, her golden eyes shining brightly in the abundance of light.