Jove had the forethought to grab the gun from his gear sled before rushing out onto the ice. He hated how natural it felt in his hand, the way his mind seemed to shift into protect mode, ready to search for targets, react with swift violence.
He'd already decided to do whatever it took to protect his family. He'd come to that decision the moment he'd gunned down the intruders, if not even earlier, perhaps during his first interaction with Victor Vasquez. It was all that really mattered to him anymore, even if accomplishing it came at the expense of his soul, his humanity, the very fiber of his…
He slowed to a stop as he came out onto the ice. Aster screamed again, the tenor striding that delicate line between panic and delight. She was chasing after a flock of penguins, grinning like a madwoman as they waddled away from her.
Jove immediately felt ridiculous with the gun out. He watched as Aster slipped and fell onto her butt, laughing with an undercurrent of exaggerated pain. Eve had also emerged from the second tent with a weapon in hand and met his gaze for a somewhat awkward and annoying second.
"Okay," said Jove. "Crisis averted."
"They're so cute!" called Aster. "I have to pet one! My purpose in life is now simply to pet a penguin! Ooh, can we take one back with us?"
Jove chuckled and admired his aunt's enthusiasm. "I should go put this away."
"Hold on," said Eve. "Not just yet."
He stared at her, the implication of her words taking longer than it should have to arrive.
"We are not hunting penguins," he said, appalled by the idea.
"Would you rather go home empty handed and wait for protein deficiency to kick in if we can't catch fish?" asked Eve.
"Are you seriously that psychotic?" he snapped. "They're penguins!"
"It's cute how naive and sentimental you are, little brother, but it's time to put your big boy hat on. It's ethically no different from eating factory farmed chicken when you take their cuteness out of the equation. Probably less suffering overall."
"You're insane." He shook his head and looked at his mother. "She is, isn't she? Aren't penguins an endangered species or something?"
Kira hesitated, eventually holding up a calming hand. "There is… some logic to what she's saying. Look at how large a few of them are. It's hunting, and there is an unavoidable element of violence to it, but if we took down two or three of the bigger ones…"
"Mother!" Jove looked at Aster, who'd managed to get one of the penguins to approach her by playing dead and was now having the time of her life patting it on the head. "I'm not shooting an adorable penguin."
"So that's where you draw the line?" said Eve, with a subtle, biting edge.
The rage hit Jove with the force of a rogue wave as the memory of the last time he'd fired a gun came back to him, the wallet, the photo. "Fuck you, Eve!"
He stomped off to the tent, afraid he would say or do something in anger. He heard his mother and sister talking behind him.
"That was not okay to say," said Kira.
"I didn't mean it like that!" said Eve. "I mean… I wasn't thinking."
"Clearly," said Kira.
Jove put the gun away and sat down on the unbroken cot. He was annoyed at Eve, but more out of the sheer momentum from the previous night than from the comment alone. Though, the point she was trying to make struck him on a level which left him feeling like he didn't know himself.
"Hey." His mother came into the tent and sat down next to him. "Your sister shouldn't have said that."
"I'm fine," he said. "I don't need comforting. She has a point, in a way. I can't complain about killing penguins any more than killing people if it's what we need to do to survive."
She touched his shoulder and didn't say anything, and somehow, that seemed exactly like what he needed. There was a tiny metal jingling noise, and it took him a couple of seconds to identify it as the fish bell.
"I think we've got a bite!" he said.
He jumped forward, grabbing the fishing apparatus just as it started to tip over. Something heavy yanked on the other end, and he laughed as his mood swung to the other extreme.
"Can you pull it up?" asked his mother.
"I'm trying," he said. "It's huge."
The control for the reel was basically a stick with the line tied to it on one end that could be turned to wind the line in. He fumbled with it before finding his rhythm, and it took him another few minutes to get the fish close to the hole. It thrashed around once he'd done it, splashing a bit of water onto their floor.
"There!" Jove yanked upward and pulled with all his strength.
The fish came out through the hole, and he gaped at the size of it. It was undoubtedly the largest fish he could ever remember catching, a solid fifteen or twenty pounds of greyish scaled flesh, with a strange mouth that seemed crowded with teeth.
"You caught a fish!" His mother laughed and wrapped him into a hug as his catch flopped around on the insulated panels. He squeezed her tight, briefly lifting her up in the air as they both laughed.
She stayed close to him as he set her down, meeting his gaze for a moment that seemed poised to take off in its own direction. Slowly, his mother leaned in, staring at his lips for what seemed like an eternity before pressing a hot kiss to his cheek instead.
"Good work, Jovian," she whispered. "You may have solved our protein problem."
"That was just round one," he said. "Barely even started yet."