//------------------------------// // Chapter Eight, Caring Cozy Coast: Gossip Diagnosis. // Story: Airship Mauled // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// -Jade- A week or two stuck on my back, at least we were in Palicoast for it. I can understand why mom wanted to be here. It was a safe place and I could heal in peace, without the trouble that being in Equestria brings. I was going to be quite bored here, it made me wonder what my friends were doing. -Jacky- I was walking along the docks of the port, I liked looking at boats and airships as they come and go. It felt like the place I grew up. Only there was less cannon fire, people beating each other senseless in the streets and a lot more cats. Fishing seemed kind of boring for a pastime, but Abyssinian’s did eat a lot of fish. At least I knew Kuril and the Captain did, Fizzle did eat fish sometimes and she’s a pony. Cheerilee and Fresh Start always sent Fizzle weird looks when she enjoys a nice piece of baked or grilled fish. I could eat fish too, but I didn’t get weird looks because I was an omnivorous parrot and something that can eat meat. I didn’t mind fish personally, but you try living on an island for the most of your life where the biggest legal export is coconuts. I hated coconuts with a passion, I have and always will prefer bananas. Yes, even pirates had their own mercantile ships. It’s just that they were entirely hands off to any pirate, as they carried various supplies Turtle Toga needed. “I heard from my friend that fishing is a local pastime around here.” I addressed the tubby white furred fellow sitting on the edge of the docks. “Birman’s the name and fishing is something of a specialty around here miss.” The male cat introduced himself, he then went back to what he was doing and that was preparing a lure. ”Everybody who lives here in Palicoast knows how to fish and with all sorts of methods involved therein. We also know how much fishing is too much. Whether it is fishing in a lake, river, out in the ocean and even off the edge of these docks. Just assume we’re mostly good at fishing around here, there are some exceptions though. The exceptionally good and the exceptionally bad.” “Despite living on an island for most of my life, I haven’t learned how to fish.” The cat was just giving me this disbelieving stare, I just shrugged at him not knowing what to say aside from the truth. He was a jovial kind of person with a moderately deep voice. “It seems kind of boring, sorry if that sounds a bit offensive.” “Oh it is boring, I’ll give you that much for a young thing like you. It’s all about patience and getting food without wasting energy, sitting around patiently is not something youths like you are known for.” He stood up, closed his eyes and crossed his arms thinking about something. He then opened them and gave me observing look. “With young ones, it’s always about exploring your surroundings and finding your place in the world. I found my place a long time ago being a well-known fishing cat around here. So does that friend of yours know how to fish?” “Does the name Jaded La Perm mean anything to you?” Something makes me think I said the wrong thing, because he immediately started laughing raucously. “Are you talking about Kurilian’s whole world, that Jaded La Perm you mean?” He gave me a rather amused smile and I nodded at him. “Oh it definitely means a lot around here, poor girl ran afoul of the worst kind of fishing problem a few times here at the docks. Don’t get me wrong, she’s not terrible at fishing. It’s just that there’s this whale shark in the local waters that really doesn’t like her very much, or it may even be the very opposite and it likes her far too much. It’s hard to tell with an intelligent fish like that one.” “Sounds like a story I’d like to hear.” I sat down giving this cat my complete attention. “Oh it’s definitely a whale of a tale alright or a cats tail in any case. If I remember right Jade like’s to go fishing with her tail. Tail fishing involves dipping your tail in the water with a protective covering and waggling it around, it’s a better method of fishing around rivers. It’s used to get a number of small fish easily.” Birman shook his head chuckling a bit. “Jaded fished in the ocean and got dragged in a few times by a whale shark that has a thing for playing with Abyssinians. It doesn’t eat them and it’s a pretty docile thing, but it makes tail fishing here a dangerous sport as it likes to drag you into the sea if it catches you dipping your tail in anywhere around here. If it were only that, then it wouldn’t be such a tall tale that it is.” “What do you mean?” I was quite curious to hear about Jade’s adventures in her place of birth, she had an adventure in mine so it was only fair that I have one in hers. Captain grew up in a really nice place. “It seems the whale shark is always smart enough to know when Jade was fishing with a pole, as such it always knew which line to pull to get Kurilians’s poor little kitten into the water.” As he spoke Birman held out a fishing pole to me and I took it from him, he pulled out a second fishing pole and motioned for me to follow him down the docks. I got up and followed him. “Those interactions led poor Jaded to fearing sea monsters or large aquatic creatures because of that, but it didn’t stop her from swimming or doing some deep diving. Come on and join me while I spin you a few of my best yarns about that crazy green haired cat and a few other legends around here. While I do that, let me show you how to play ‘go fish’ the literal way.” He showed me how to cast a fishing line and what to do when the bobber eventually sinks into the water. Eventually, I ended up next to him with my own fishing line in the ocean. “Ever since she learned to breathe underwater, we’ve taken to giving Jaded the nickname Catfish around here. Not that any of us would ever say that to her face, that would be rather rude.” He pulled his rod back and swung it forward launching his fishing hook off the side of the dock. It landed in the water with a small splash a fair distance away. “It’s definitely a healthy fear to worry about large creatures when you’re not as agile in water as you are on land, especially when you have an oafish shark continuing to bother you while you are trying to help your mother with getting food. Kurilian, her mother, makes some of the best broiled fish I’ve ever taste.” I would learn several more things about the Captain as we waited for a fish to take a bite of our lures. -Fizzle- I know I saw Jacky heading towards the docks, but I wasn’t as interested in the boats or the fishing which was as natural a thing around here as breathing. I was more interested in hearing if there was anything magical around here to see. The buildings here were quaint, if well built, structures. Far better than what I saw in Ponyville at least. The Abyssinians walking around didn’t stare at my broken horn or even bothered me too much about anything, they were keeping to themselves. I tried to listen in on the conversations around here like Jade told me she did back in Klugetown. I stopped and sat down to look at a kiosk with scratching posts, apparently Abyssinians liked to sharpen their claws on them. Even though they really don’t use their claws for much really from what I’ve seen with Jade. “Hey, did you hear?” It didn’t take me long to hear something from a group of gathering cats. “Kurilian’s back in town with her kitten.” “I heard she’s got a place of her own going now and she’s only here because her kitten was hurt and needed a nice place to stay.” There were several feminine felines gathering together into a clowder now. “She’s a good mother, to think she had so many doubts about raising her kitten.” Another one of the cats intoned as she joined. “Speaking of the kitten, she must be lucky to have a mother like Kurilian.” A male cat joined the group much to my surprise. “Do you think she’ll cook for anyone around here while she’s in town?” “Not if she’s taking care of her kitten exclusively.” One of the females moved and wagged a finger at the male. “So don’t you dare bother her about it, just leave her be. Even if we miss her food, we can’t force her to cook for the entire town when she came here to relax!” “Right, what am I thinking? Her daughter is laid up and here I am thinking with my stomach.” Shaking his head, the male continued on. “Did you also hear that Kurilian is the mayor of her own town?” Wow, news travelled pretty fast around here from what I’m hearing. I turned back to the scratching post seller. “Sorry I’m…” I started only for the lazy male cat to hold up a hand. “Curious about those who live in Abyssinia, I know. You came into town helping Kurilian carry the Catfish.” He sat up and gave me a smile. “How've they been doing, aside from what I’ve been hearing about Kurilian’s kitten being badly hurt?” “I’d like to think they were doing okay, up until Jade got hurt at least.” Here I was with nothing to do except listen in on other people’s conversations, I wasn’t a medic nor could I really help Jade get better quicker. “The name’s Devon, would you like a scratching post to give to Jaded?” Was he trying to make a sale, I couldn’t tell. “I’m sure she’d like one as a gift.” “Sorry, but I don’t really have any…” This young thin faced male cat with the grey and black fur pushed a bright green scratching post forward. “Don’t worry about paying, I just want you to confirm one thing… is Kurilian really the mayor of her own town in Equestria?” Devon seemed to be a curious sort himself, I blinked and just nodded. “That must be something really interesting to see, I’m sure she was voted into the office on her cooking skills alone. Let me ring you up, here’s a receipt and now you have a get well gift for Jaded.” “Um… really?” I just looked at it warily. He smiled and nodded as he put the scratching post in a bag and stuffed the receipt in there as well. He pushed it before me smiling. “Yep, just like that.” This Devon confirmed with a cheerful attitude. “You look a little depressed about Jaded being injured. Jaded needs good friends around her age like you, being born between generations and being on your own a lot of the time is no fun. Not that being alone has really bothered Jaded all too much before.” “I don’t feel like a good friend.” I grabbed the bag with a hoof and looked at the green post inside it, I then closed it up. “If you’re upset that the Catfish is hurting, then you’re definitely a good friend.” He had a somber expression on his face now. “Some people have worse ways of showing they care.” “How do you know Jade?” There, now that I put that out there I wondered what Devon would tell me. “We used to go to school together, though I never bothered or talked to her much. I’m several years older than her, which is one of the reasons we never interacted much.” Another cat came up to the stand and after Devon was done with selling them a nice looking brown scratching post, he turned right back to me. “We’re all one big family living here in Palicoast. It was a bit surprising for us all to hear that Jaded and Kurilian were going to move away, mostly because Kurilian’s cooking is well respected here. We gave them a nice send off at least. Sorry if this is a bit much, but is Jade still getting schooling in Equestria?” “Yes, she is.” My response was a little terse at best, but that didn’t deter Devon. “Oh good, because she needs all the help she can get with complicated math.” He gained an interesting smile on his face. “So what are you going to do here besides moping around and eavesdropping on people in the streets?” “Wait for Jade to get better so we can get out of here.” It didn’t seem like there was much to do around here. “No, no, no, that just won’t do at all.” He looked upset with me, did I offend him somehow? “While you’re in Palicoast you need to have a little fun! Get around town, talk to people, find the sights and see them. If there is anything you wanted to do while you’re waiting for Catfish to get back on her feet, then now would be the time for it!” “Maybe see if what Jade says is true about bar fights and throwing a stool a foot away from yourself?” He let out a silly sounding laugh at my words. “Now that actually sounds pretty fun, to bad I’m busy with my store at the moment. If you want to get into the middle of the fighting when you do that, then do so.” It seemed like Devon really wanted to go with me. “The salty sea cats around here pull their punches and it’ll at least help get the aggression out of your system about feeling like your helpless. The harder you hit, the harder they hit, so watch yourself and don’t go too far. You bloody someone, knock them unconscious or they start coughing badly, then you back off immediately. The bar is down that street and hang a right, you can’t miss it. Just remember, have some fun!” I began walking towards the bar wondering if I would really do what Jade did back in Klugetown. -Kuril- “So as you can imagine my little tom cat, everyone is happy to see us again.” I’m sure this was the third time my daughter heard of this. “It’s nice to hear Savannah is still around, has she had any kittens?” At least my daughter was interested in hearing about how our old neighbors were doing, she must be so bored with sitting here all day. “That tigress?" I snorted derisively. "She'll never settle down!” “Jade, Kuril, guess what?” Jacky came in with a bucket filled to the top with fish. “I finally learned how to fish today!” “It seems like you got a good haul there Jacky.” I must admit that was more than just good. “I’m back.” I turned to the pained voice and looked at my little Fizzle in shock. ”Oh my goodness, what happened to you Fizzle?” My little pony looked badly bruised. “I tossed a chair in a bar.” Despite her gruesome disheveled appearance, Fizzle started smiling a bit.