Fish!

Ace had been walking around on the beach to move the bait around for a while now. It was difficult to judge time when the sun didn't move as he was used to but thankfully the chip had a clock-function. After a few hours of occasional walking Ace was getting hungry and decided to take go back to the pod and get a few pieces of wood to chew on. His line was long enough for him to have the bait still in water when he went to the pod.

Taking a small break he sat down on top of the pod while eating. Ace was stopped from taking a long break however when he saw movement in the water, slightly beyond where the line touched the surface. As he saw the shadow he realized he might have underestimated the size of his prey and got behind the pod to brace himself against it.

Almost as soon as he got in position he could feel a tug on the line. It was stretched taut. For a few moments nothing happened, like the calm before the storm. There was no movement in the water and Ace waited, tense and holding his breath. As the seconds slowly ticked on he got slightly worried but he could still se the line being stretched.

Suddenly an enormous force almost pulled Ace over the pod. It didn't stop with a single twitch. It was an intense tug of war and he could see the fish splashing around just by the water surface. In this stalemate Ace doubted he would win if he let the fish continue to do as it pleased. He had to fight back.

Preparing the positioning of his feet more properly and gripping the rod even tighter Ace threw himself backwards to force the hook deeper into the fish's flesh and pull it towards shallower waters.

The rod he could barely bend if he put his entire weight on it was almost fully bent. Seeing this he let up slightly and the fish immediately sprung forth, tautening the line again.

Trying the same move again, he managed to get the fish just a bit closer to land than before.

Repeating this a few times he could see the red, glistening back of the fish sticking up above the surface since there wasn't enough depth for it be fully submerged.

With not much left Ace redoubled his efforts and started walking backwards after yanking it.

The fish, realizing it was getting further and further from the deep waters panicked and thrashed violently from side to side. Ace would have lost the rod as it was jerked from side to side if it wasn't because of the coarse texture from his teeth. His hands still suffered though.

While neither the fish nor the man gave up, Ace had the advantage and managed to pull the fish completely up on land. It continued flopping around trying to get back in the water but Ace hauled it even further away from it's home.

Now came the problem of how to kill it. Approaching it was dangerous and he doubted his small knife would be able to kill it efficiently, nor did he have a large club to knock it out with.

While he didn't have club he did have something else. Getting an idea after looking around Ace pulled the fish towards the pod. It had gotten tired but it still jumped around wildly. The success of his next move was reliant on the timing and what direction the fish jumped in.

Having gotten a feel for the fish's wild thrashing Ace pulled hard and seeing the fish leave the ground and head towards the hatch he knew the first part of his plan had succeeded. It was a majestic sight, the large red fish flying through the air sprinkling glistening water drops.

The next part was reliant on his luck and his speed. As Ace ran towards the pod he saw the fish land horizontally, covering the opening. Just like he wanted. Exerting the second to last bit of his energy Ace threw himself on the door, slamming it down hard on the fish's head. Although it got dazed it continued trying to move around. With his remaining energy he slammed the door once again and this time properly knocking the fish out.

Panting heavily Ace sat down to catch his breath and inspect his bounty.

The fish looked like an especially red, overgrown goldfish with tougher scales. It also had a more elongated mouth and head than normal fishes, and with the firm scales it seemed like it was halfway through an evolutionary path to become a lizard or snake. A slightly gruesome wound could be seen on it's left cheek.

Moving it down from the pod and onto the ground Ace was careful to avoid the fins the looked like they could shred flesh like a warm knife through butter. Which, although they gave Ace an idea it wasn't time for that now. He had to gut it and make sure the fish was dead before it woke up.

Ace brought his knife to it's belly and as he was about to slice through the skin he realized he had a problem. The amount of effort just to pierce the skin with the knife would make him doubt the possibility of cutting through the entire underside.

It turned out it was time for his previous idea. Although his knife wasn't enough to cut through scales and skin, it could cut the membrane of the fins with relative ease. They were like flaps of skin with razor-sharp edges and a slight amount of muscle and cartilage, probably used to control the fins.

Cutting of the fin on it's back since it seemed to be the most optimal shape for what he had in mind, he then made a groove down the center three fourths of the way of two sticks and gathered some grass-turned-line. Rolling up the membrane tightly and binding it like that with some holes and grass he then put the roll inside the grooves and squeezed the two sticks together. Ace covered the pieces of wood where there wasn't any fin with grass and tightened it as hard as he could. Using a small lump in the membrane right at the bottom of the handle made it squeeze at the top as well.

With the simple home-made knife in his hand and a slightly expectant smile on his lips Ace tried it out on hs arm. He couldn't even feel it as it slid over his skin. Quickly pulling it away he noticed a thin line of blood slowly trickle out. The cut was so fine it hardly let Ace's thick blood out.

Equipped with proper tools Ace could now gut and kill the fish.