literature

RoK Toma, Atsu n Eigsif Tackling the Beast!

Deviation Actions

NineyNinetales's avatar
Published:
253 Views

Literature Text

Travis Cochrane was up bright and early and ready to start the day. He couldn't wait to get over to the Tomahawk Barnes Kennels and finish helping his neighbor Alice get the last rite for the three halfmane tokotas she had been asked to train. Today was bound to be much better then the past two days had been, Alice's fiance Matt was doing better and finally able to ride, so that meant that Demon; a young man who had helped train the halfmanes with Travis and Alice over the past few days would NOT be there! Today they would be taking the three halfmanes to get their rite of knowledge which would complete their last rite so that they could be awarded the Arms of Akna which signifies that the tokotas are certified for breeding. He couldn't wait to get these things over with and made a small mental note to tell Alice that after this he was going to be unavailable as he ran a very large ranch himself and needed to train his own tokotas for a while as he too had several who needed their Arms of Akna.

The Rite of Merit task and the Rite of Fortitude task that the three halfmanes had completed so far were uneventful for the halfmanes and Travis had an idea that he hoped would set up more of a challenge for the trio. Today Travis, Alice and Matt would be taking the halfmanes to a massive enclosed arena that spanned several hundred miles of the wilderness and the halfmanes would be released into this area and have to locate three tagged tokotas that will be running loose throughout the area.

"Alice would get a kick out of this idea." Travis said out loud to himself with a chuckle as he made his way towards the backside of the largest barn on his property. Travis has an adorable little tawny curly maned toki named 'Sam' that lived behind the large barn with his massive yeti dire mate Rusty. Rusty and Sam were completely inseparable and where ever Sam went Rusty followed. Sam was ultra sweet and had a gentle and loving nature, he was always happy and overly eager to help in any way that he could where as his mate Rusty was a big nasty beast that no one not even Travis could approach. Rusty seemed to dislike everyone except Sam. Travis didn't really know anything about the large yeti dire except that about a week after purchasing Sam the dire had followed Sam onto the property one day and refused to leave the little toki's side.

Travis stopped about a hundred and fifty feet from Sam and Rusty and crouched low to the ground, he clicks his tongue and called for Sam. Travis had learned that the only way to be able to get close to Sam was to approach at a distance and allow Sam to come to you, otherwise Rusty would attack. But as long as Sam allowed it then Rusty allowed it, so everything had to be on Sam's terms. Sam wagged his tail happily and trotted over to Travis who reached out and rubbed the back of the toki's ear.

"Hey buddy! Think you and old grumpy pants could help out today? We've got to take some silly old halfies out for training and they have to locate some loose tokotas in the woods. I thought it'd be fun for the halfies to have to figure out how to lure you away from Rusty. Sounds fun hmm?" He cooed to the little toki who now had one eye closed as he leaned his ear deeper into Travis's hand. Travis rubbed the toki's ear a few more times then stood and lead him into the barn to get tacked up with Rusty; ever Sam's guardian close by. Thirty minutes later Sam was tacked up and Travis mounted upon his back they headed out towards the ground where the Rite of Knowledge trials were held.

When they arrived Alice and Matt were in the holding pen with Toma, Atsu and Eggy; the three halfmanes that were training today for their last rites. "Hey guys!" Travis greeted as he approached. "Brought Sam along to be one of the 3 tagged tokotas, I thought it would be a good test for Toma, Eggy and Atsu to have to work together to figure out how to get Sam away from Rusty so they could corral him over to the judges." Travis said jovially.

"Uhhh.... Travis? What in the heck IS that?!" Alice exclaimed as she noticed the massive yeti dire trailing Travis and Sam at a distance.

"That." Travis said. "Is Rusty. He's Sam's mate. Wandered onto my property after Sam one day and refused to leave his side. Acts as some kind of guardian or protector to Sam. It's the darnedest thing." Travis responded.

"No, I mean WHAT is he?!" Alice said exasperated, then followed up with... "Wait.. Sam's mate? But Sam's male."

"Rusty is a yeti dire from the looks of it, and don't ask about the goat horns I am as stumped by them as you are. He won't let me get any where near him without trying to eat me so I can't inspect the horns to see if they are real or not. I've no idea how he came to be nor where he came from. And it seems that Sam and Rusty prefer the company of other males, specifically each other. I caught Rusty mating with Sam once. One of those things you wish you could unsee. Anyhow... it will be neat to see if the halfies can work together well enough to separate Sam from Rusty in order to get credited for finding Sam as one of the tagged tokotas they have to find and retrieve." Travis said with a grin.

"Umm... Yeah sure." Alice responded. "Lets go sign them up so we can get this on the way. Uhh... you'll probably have to be the one to put the tag on Sam's ear." Alice mentioned as she stared unblinkingly at Rusty. Whew that dire gave her the creeps, he seemed to be plotting how he was going to murder and eat everyone here.

Once Sam and the other two tokotas were tagged they were released and sure enough Rusty tagged along behind Sam and soon all four tokotas disappeared into the wilderness. After the allotted time that was given to the tagged tokotas to hide Atsu, Toma and Eigsif were lined up and waiting to be given the signal to start their search. Toma was excited and pranced in his pen, he barked at his sister who was wagging her tail and looking just as excited. Eggy however looked calm and collected. Then there was the sound of a loud whistle and the gates infront of the three tokotas flew open! Toma shot out of his gate like a cannon and raced towards the trees eager to find the hidden tokotas.

Astu decided that she wanted to try and find them on her own and went in a completely different direction then her brother. She was hoping to prove not only to herself but also to him that she was an independent young tokota that could very much so do things on her own and way more efficiently then when Toma was with her. Toma tended to get distracted too easily or made too much noise. Astu liked to be more stealthy and sneak up on her prey without being hard, something she had found out early on was very difficult when your rowdy brother was always with you. Atsu searched the woods for about a good thrty minutes before she found her first tagged tokota. She had seen a few without tags that were obviously in the area to throw her and the other two off. But this one, it definitely had a tag in it's ear! Atsu wanted so badly to yip in her excitement but held it in for fear of scaring the tokota off. She took her time and slowly approached the tokota. when she got close enough she realized that Eigsif had also seen the tagged tokota and was approaching it from the opposite end. Hmm... ok well they could do this together right? After all Eggy was a lot calmer and more reasonable to work with then Toma was.

Eggy crouched lower to the ground as she approached the tagged tokota, she didn't seem to mind that Atsu was approaching from the other side and seemed utter focused on the task at hand. Looking like a lioness stalking her prey; Eggy moved closer and closer very patiently and bidding her time to make sure she did everything right. She liked to be precise in her given tasks and make sure things were done efficiently and properly. It had been rather frustrating for the poor girl to have to train with the rowdy male the past few days, but so far it had worked out ok. Eggy was close now and stood up to her full height, she chuffed gently in greeting to the tokota who wagged it's tail and chuffed back. Thankfully the tagged tokota allowed her and Atsu to come up to it and followed them back towards the judges. Halfway there Toma appeared and bounced excitedly around them as if he had been there the whole time and helped capture the tagged tokota.

After they turned in the first tagged tokota, Toma stayed with Eigsif and Atsu and they searched for the other tagged tokotas that they knew were lurking somewhere in the woods, the second tagged tokota they actually found by accident when Toma tripped over a rock and tumbled down a hill and right into it. Toma, Atsu and Eggy managed to herd it back to the judges without incident much to Eggy's relief. She and Atsu were sure that Toma might mess this up for them, but so far things had went off without a hitch! Two down and only one to go! Easy right?

WRONG! Almost immediately after catching sight of the final tagged tokota they realized that he was NOT alone. A Deep guttural growl sounded from behind the little darling curly maned toki that had the three halfmanes stopping in their tracks and tucking their tails under themselves as they crouched lower to the ground in submission. Figures! Now they have to figure out how to get close to the last tagged tokota without being eaten. Greaaaaat! Uggg!!! Eigsif moved closer to Atsu and Toma and motioned for them to back off so they could regroup and better assess the situation. It was obvious that they had to work this out as a team, Eggy would give anything to have any other tokota to work with right now them Toma.

It took the trio over an hour to figure out how to separate the toki from the big ugly dire that looked like he had murder in his eyes. In the end Toma was forced to taunt and tease the dire back so that the girls could lure the tagged toki back towards the judges. At first Toma was worried that he wouldn't get the points for helping find the last tagged tokota but when the judges saw that it was a team effort and that Toma had been keeping the big dire at bay so Atsu and Eggy could bring the tagged toki in, they gave awarded him with his Arms of Akna along with Atsu and Eigsif. When all was said and done poor Sam had to work extra hard to keep his big dire mate from killing everyone. But it all worked out in the end and it was an excellent way to get Toma to focus on his task and also teach him how to work well with and cooperate with others. Hooray for Toma!
1,992 Word Count!

HP COUNT: 
Toma, Atsu & Eigsif
Total = 14
9(1992 WC) +1(rite) +2(handler) +2(tribemate - tracker)

For Sam & Rusty:
Total = 11
9(1992 WC) +2(non-com)

Rite of Knowledge



Option One

Draw or write about your tokota attempting to catch up to three (minimum: one) tagged tokotas that have gotten loose in the Tokotna wilderness. These tokotas will have tags on their ears for easier identification. The tagged tokotas can be starters, your own, or friends' tokotas.
© 2016 - 2024 NineyNinetales
Comments0
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In