There was something fishy about Fischer. He was known for his less than pleasant attitude outside the act of fishing and it seemed that he was one of those types that fished out cash for the hobbies he truly loved. Eva had the great pleasure –note the sarcasm- of knowing Jacob Fischer when she decided it was a wise idea to take up a job assisting someone with fishing. Eva never went fishing before –thanks to her great relationship with her family, but she had the basic idea of what it entailed. You had to have a rod, some bait and a bit of strength to reel the fish in; at least that’s all that she knew about it.

“You wouldn’t guess what I got the other day,” Jacob raved as his hands fished through a large bag beside him for something Eva hoped wouldn’t gross her out. She had been seeing worms and weird things all day. Thanks to fishing being a really popular thing in Hargeon and the docks usually full with people, she could only guess that she was going to see more of those slimy creatures than her money’s worth. Eva had to try extra hard not to lose her posture that afternoon. She would smile and nod at Jacob all the time he tried to explain something to her but Eva was already at her wit’s end. She imagined herself submerged in a sea of plums but whenever she sunk into those reveries, one jar of worms or another was thrust close to her face.

“Look at these! What do you think?” Jacob squealed like a girl in love just as he pulled out something purple and red from the bottom of the bag. He had kept it extra safe and careful seeing as that was the only thing that he kept non-cluttered in the bag. “This,” he practically glowed, “Do you know what this is?” he asked Eva with a tone that sounded like Eva wouldn’t know what it was even if she meditated in the high mountains of Fiore. “This is the magic bait that I spent my entire savings to buy!” and Eva’s smile fell for a split second. What kind of idiot spent their entire savings on fish bait? She had her doubts that Jacob was slowly losing his mind over fishes but Eva wasn’t going to say a thing. She managed to poke the bait once out of curiosity before Jacob snatched it away with a shriek. “Don’t touch it!” he barked, held it close to his chest and pet it like it was his baby.

“We are going to use this little one here to gather a lot of fishes today!” He squealed excitedly again and turned around to take the boat off to the sea. Meanwhile, Eva was left guarding the bait and his bag. She cast dubious glances at the purple bait that glowed a deep red once in a while. It looked rather suspicious for a harmless fish bait, but she shrugged her shoulders and left the thing alone.

Once they were out in the sea, Eva undertook the job of spreading the bait around. She was still quite suspicious of the little purple and red thing but Jacob was positively beaming at the sight of them floating over the water surface. Eva rolled up the end of her pants once she was done and took off the thin shirt she wore. She had a loose blue tank top with a floral design on it underneath but she found that Jacob still stared when a bit of her skin showed. However, his attention didn’t last on her long enough before something started tugging violently at the end of Jacob’s line.

Jacob pulled his rod back with all his might but it seemed that the fish at the end of it all was really strong because it was starting to drag Jacob in. Eva had to interfere, throwing her arms around Jacob’s waist to pull him back as he placed one leg on top of the boat. It didn’t take them too long to reel the fish in with their combined strength but what came out of the waters shocked Eva enough to make her jolt back immediately. Jacob, on the other hand, was beside himself with joy. It was a fangtooth fish that you would usually find in the deeper parts of the sea. Eva had to cast an accusatory glance at the fish before she acted and kicked the fish back to the sea. It managed to scrap her legs when it grazed its teeth over it but she was fine for the most part until Jacob cast a not so pleased look her way.

“What are you doing?!” he exasperated, his fists clenched in anger. “I wanted to catch that fish!” he wailed like a baby that got its candy taken away. “That fish is dangerous!” Eva tried to reason albeit faltering to the vigorous shake of Jacob’s head. He wanted that fish and he was stubborn about it. “If I don’t catch at least one of those fishes, you can forget about your rewards, Miss Evangeline,” he basically pouted at the platinum blonde haired girl who was lost between wanting to give the boy a major scolding and keeping her mask from breaking before she finished the quest. “Fine!” she finally breathed, her lips twitching up into a forced smile. “You want a deep sea fish; you’ll get one”.

And they tried again. Jacob threw his line with newfound energy as Eva stood behind him. Right beside her was an extra fishing rod that Jacob had taken along with them in case he could teach the joy of fishing to someone else –though he realized soon enough that Eva was the wrong person for that. It was a fish that she didn’t even know the name of this time although that didn’t stop it from looking any uglier than the previous one. Just as it reached closer to them –its eyes angry from having its peace disturbed, Eva kicked the thinner end of the wand up, took a fine grip on it and swung it like an ace baseball player, hitting the fish square on its face with the handle of the rod. Jacob looked both surprised and scared at Eva’s feat but that was soon replaced with an overwhelming joy when he spotted the still fish on his boat. “You’re the best! I’ll have your reward ready as soon as we reach land!”

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