Page 25 of The Chosen Fae

"I would say that is about nine feet long," Stone said.

"At least. Do we call the others so they can help?" Rune figured the Game Master was right, that working as a team would be better.

"Yeah. We found it so we might get more credit for it. Sharing it with the others offers team participation and easier fishing, plus it could be safer for all concerned," Stone said.

“Right.” Lolita yelled, "Over here! We found a nine-foot fish!"

The other competitors raced to join them, but when they saw how big the fish was, they hesitated to join Stone and Rune in the river.

"We can find a six-foot pirarucu and take that one in," Vesper said, and he and the others agreed.

Stone wasn't sure that he and Rune could manage the one they had targeted on their own. But then, Lolita, with the heart of a lion, joined them in the water, and the three of them tried to wrangle the fish.

He really didn't want Lolita out there with them, but there wasn't any way that they could do this without her help, he felt.

Vesper and the others ran off to look for another pirarucu that was smaller and easier to manage. If they had all worked on this one, they would be done and could share in the feast.

Stone was trying to bite the fish in the neck, and got a good grip and held on for dear life as the monster fish thrashed, trying to shake him loose.

Rune bit into its tail, trying to hold it still so it wouldn't get loose from Stone, but the fish was truly powerful and whipped her off. A wolf's bite per square inch was normally about 400 PSI, but could go to 1000, and he was sure he was exerting that much pressure now.

A jaguar had one of the most successful bites at 1500 PSI and could crunch through mammal skulls and turtle shells. They could make mincemeat of a pirarucu.

But if one intervened, the wolves would be out of luck, and their meal would be gone. They also had to keep watching for caiman, which might be attracted by the giant fish's struggle in the river.

Still, Stone was holding on for dear life, not wanting to let go in case the pirarucu tried to bite him, Rune, or Lolita. This reminded him of the tug-of-war with the rope and how it would have helped if all the wolves had teamed up.

The fish stopped thrashing for a moment, like it was trying to regain its strength before it fought them again.

Both Lolita and Rune gripped his tail hard. And then Stone figured this was it. If he didn't sever the spine now, he knew they would have another fight with him and was afraid they would lose him this time. Stone was wearing out, his mouth tired of holding the scaly beast, and he was sure Rune and Lolita were too.

Stone took a deep breath and bit as hard as he could. As soon as he did, so did Lolita and Rune, and the fish tried to shake them loose, but then went limp.

He'd only done it with the girls' help. He wouldn't have been able to if he'd tried to manage biting him and hadn't had them to keep the fish from getting free.

When Stone finally killed the fish, he was so worn out, and so were Rune and Lolita. For a few minutes, all they did was hold onto the fish so that the current didn't carry it away or sink to the bottom of the river.

Then he started to pull the pirarucu toward the shore, ready to eat the fish.

Rune and Lolita turned into their fae forms and helped him drag it to the shore. It felt like it took forever to reach it. He wondered what the other fae were doing, but he was too busy trying to get the fish to the shore to look. He turned into his fae form.

"You were amazing," Rune told Stone.

"I couldn't have done it without you two," Stone said.

Then they beached the fish, and all three of the fae were breathing heavily.

"Shall we eat it as wolves, or cook it to eat as fae?" Rune asked.

"Wolves," Stone said. "This is our kill, and the others wouldn't help, so once we're done, they can eat the rest, but not until we're done."

"We shouldn't let them have that much because they wouldn't help us," Lolita said.

"Yeah, I agree with Lolita. But we'll treat this like wolves do. And once we're done, they can have the rest of it," Rune said.

Rune brought out her knife to cut off the sandpaper scales. But Stone stopped her and used his sword to slice them off closer to the head. Rune used her sword to take off the scales in the middle of the pirarucu, and Lolita wielded her short sword on the tail of the fish.

They worked until they had cleaned off the scales, so thick and rough that natives used them as sandpaper.