The cold season has finally arrived in that corner of the pond. A pale sun of another freezing day has
lifted upon the yet unfrozen, quite water. But beneath the reeds an alertness
was raising. There was something unusual perceptible under the water, like a sinister
presence breaking the dull in the lethargic consciousnesses.
It all started when the group of rudd, that was stationing at
the mouth of the inlet, had suddenly disappeared. Quite unusual, considered that
the warming sunrays had just started cracking the haze over their favorite grazing place.
Then it was the time of the two tenches, that since some
days have been seen sunken in the mud, in the torpor of the winter drowsiness. They vanished,
like swallowed up overnight by the bottom silt.
It is true that there had been some stirring and displacement
on the bank and in the bushes outside the liquid element. A big shadow casted off the water
every now and then with weird jerks, but it was clear that the origin of the uneasiness was coming from underneath the water.
Then some terrified chub swam
by in hurry. They reported
of a big dark shape idling close to the bottom, amid that last group of reeds over there. In a moment the alarm was spread and there was hope that everyone could get in shelter in time.
As the last group of bleak took cover in the waterweeds, the thin line dividing the fog from the water was broken with a little splash. The lateral lines of every fish perceived the subtle
vibration produced by something that was making its way through water. A little white and sivler creature was moving fast, yet swimming in the wrong direction, towards the dark shape
in ambush by the reeds.
The pike bolted out of the hideout, he attacked the creature from the side and wolfed it in
one opening of the jaws. A second later the big predator started to twist and twirl around. Then, suddendly, after a jump in the air, he swam away and was never seen again in that corner of the pond.
