Bit #3

What made Delilah mean was that she didn’t use her fangs. She much preferred sneaking up on her prey, cornering them, and coiling.

Having been lulled by the beauty and peace of the day, this now unlucky fish had done a very foolish thing. Now, everybody knew that you wanted to stay out of Delilah’s way, and everybody knew that in order to stay out of her way, you had to stick to deeper waters. Even then, you weren’t always safe. But today, near the edge of the lake, a particularly delectable worm under a log had caught the eye of this childish trout. By the time she saw the shadow moving in behind her, it was too late.

But youthful stubbornness was on her side. All the splashing and thrashing attracted two very unlikely heroes.

Everett took to the air and Bill paddled as fast as he could, which is very fast for a moose. They were there in no time. Bill jumped out and did a little jig on Delilah with his big, moose hooves, making her let go of her catch, and Everett scooped up the poor, faint little fish, flying her off to safety.

It was rather strange for Everett, to have a fish in his mouth. But he’d reacted so quickly and it seemed, well, natural. So was the urge to swallow but he resisted that. He didn’t understand it. Who would want to swallow a fish?!? It just seemed so… well, he couldn’t decide how it seemed. So he shook off the feeling and continued on his way back to the cabin he shared with Bill.

Meanwhile, Bill had sufficiently taught Delilah a lesson. At least for now. And the water moccasin went slithering through the water with not just one hitch in her giddy-up, to the other end of the lake where she lived. It would take a bit for her to heal, to straighten out all of the kinks that Bill’s dance had left in her back, but she vowed that when she was better, she’d have her revenge. Funny enough, revenge didn’t quite work out the way she had planned, but that’s for another story.

Bit #2

Everett dropped the tip of his wing into the water, trailing it there. He always loved the feel of water and came out to the lake nearly every day. He didn’t need the boat. He’d just float, with his wings tucked in, and be swayed to sleep by the water and the wind. There wasn’t anything like it.

But he did need a boat whenever he went fishing with Bill. It turns out a moose doesn’t float very well. They’d tried.

Just as Bill and Everett were drifting off to sleep in the boat, there was a great commotion towards the shore. Splashing and thrashing and bubbled cries for help. At first, they didn’t know what to make of it. It seemed such a sudden and strange juxtaposition to the quiet a few seconds ago. They lurched up and caught sight of what was going on.

It was Delilah, the biggest, meanest water moccasin in these parts and she’d grabbed ahold of a very feisty lake trout who was determined not to go down without a fight.