Hunt- Tensions running high

Wolborg lay quietly around the fire glaring ice blue daggers at Nuksi. The hunt hadn’t gone very well for the tundra piebald and he wasn’t very happy about it. He saw himself as a great hunter and leader, but here he was the only tokota in the group who hadn’ t gotten one single tote in the hunt. Nuksi had gotten three and the greying brown female, Lana, had gotten one. She was on her first hunting expedition and had gotten more than him! It was mind boggling to him. How had he gotten nothing? Across the way Nuksi grinned at him while sitting next to Vinheart. His handler was very excited and proud. The emotions were evident by the way she kept patting his paw lightly while conversing with Aidyn. A large warm hand rubbed the fur on his head  to calm him. Toushirou smiled sympathetically at him making him realize he’d been growling low in his throat at the grinning tundra.

“Don’t worry boy.” Shirou replied. “There’s always tomorrow.”

Wolborg snorted in response. He didn’t need pity, he needed a darn goat! His pride was at stake right now. In the morning he’d show them all what a great hunter he was. He’d bring down the most goats and prove how amazing he was. Shirou scratched him behind the ear making his tense muscles relax a bit. Yes he was taking this too seriously, but he wouldn’t let another male one up him without a fight. Tomorrow he would do better. His blue eyes watched Shirou stand up and walk away into the darkness most likely to relieve himself so the others wouldn’t see. He didn’t understand that either. Wolborg could pee perfectly fine in front of Lana with not shame. Why couldn’t Shirou in front of Aidyn and Vinheart?

His thoughts were interrupted as Lana walked up with a bone in her mouth. She dropped it softly in front of him and stood there wagging her tail. He looked from the bone to her and back again.

“What’s this for?” he asked.

“A thank you present.” she told him. “ You helped me to become a good hunter.”

“I don’t need your pity.” he scoffed scrunching his nose up at her.

The greying brown female blinked at him in shock. It was a complete surprise that he would speak to her in such a manner. She only wanted to share and say thank you. Lana had thought he was at least her friend. Apparently she was dead wrong about that. She hung her head low with disappointment as she walked back over to the other side of the fire to lay beside Aidyn.

Wolborg felt a little bad as he watched her sadly walk away, but only a little. He could get his own, maybe not today, but tomorrow he would. His eyes wandered back to the bone she’d left at the tip of his paws. Part of him wanted to knaw on it even if just for a minute. As he moved to pick it up a tundra colored paw snatched it away from him. He looked up to see Nuksi gazing down at him with a mischevious grin.

“Now Wolborg. We both know you don’t deserve this.”
The other males words made the fur in his mane stand straight up. His lips curled back into an angry snarl as he inched his way up into a standing position. Nuksi stood up taller and raised his ears and tail as well to assert his dominance over the piebald. Nuksi was on his way to becoming a dominant tokota while Wolborg was still just a submissive. This meant he was low on the totem pole compared to Nuksi which only aggravated him more. Back home no matter how hard he worked his status always came out to that of  a beta when he knew he should be an alpha. The two of them stared the other down. They heard Vinheart call out to Nuksi with concern but they paid no heed.

“Heh. Your handler sound worried Nutsy.” Wolborg chuckled.

The tundra hated when Wolborg called him that. Nuksi was proud of his name and didn’t appreciate others making fun of it. He loved Vinheart and everything about her very much.

“Not as worried as you should be...Wally.” Nuksi spat at him feeling satisfied with the name he’d thought of on the spot.

His piebald rival didn’t seem  to like it making his grin turn into a full blown smile.

“You know real males don’t disrespect females like you did Lana.”

Nuksi felt proud of himself for saying it after Wolborg slumped a little and backed up. Shirou came back and looked around  before realizing they were on the verge of a fight. He rushed between the two of them and put his hands up to separate them.

“Settle down you two!” the raven haired young man commanded with a stern tone.

His cornsilk blue eyes glittered with satisfaction as he watched Wolborg walk away with his head down. Nuksi shook his marked collared mane as he turned around only to recieve angry glares from all the girls. He turned his head in a curious manner confused of why they would be upset with him.

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The next morning everyone woke up bright and early. All three handlers chattered away with excitement for another day of hunting. It was a weekend hunting trip after all. Meat was an essential part of all their diets and required to keep their tokotas well fed as well. Tension between their mounts however was still high and a huge concern. If they didn’t get along and work together it would lessen their chances for a good hunt. Aidyn frowned as she looked at Lana. Her pretty greying brown girl appeared to be depressed. She was a sweetheart who did not like fighting. The auburn haired young woman was almost positive that her tokota was upset over Wolborg and Nuksi not getting along. Some of the other tokotas back home at Cinderwolf Kennels didn’t get along either, but Aidyn didn’t think there were any rivalries as strong as the one between the piebald and tundra. She spoke softly to Lana in an attempt to relax her and make her feel better. Her ears perked up a bit, but not enough to make Aidyn happy.

All three individuals climbed up into their respective saddles and silently rode higher up into the mountains. The air around them was crisp and cool. There was only a tad dusting of frost on the ground signaling fall was coming to a close. They listened quietly as the tokotas sniffed the earth, rocks, and foliage around them. The sun had yet to rise and hopefully the goats hadn’t either. Lana was the last in the group due to Wolborg and Nuksi trotting side by side. Neither of them were willing to let the other get the first whiff. She rolled her light brown eyes at their crazy antics. The two of them might as well be sixth month old puppies again with their childish behaviour. Something caught her attention stopping her in her tracks. She raised her snout high in the air as her ears flicked back and forth listening. A muffled sounding bleat could be heard to her left. Aidyn pulled the females reins tight to stop her when she tried to move in the direction of the sound. Her handler made a clicking noise to alert the others, but they didn’t seem to hear. Vinheart and Shirou were clearly struggling with keeping the boys in check. As much as she hated to do it Lana made an “oof” noise causing the two males to swivel their heads around to look at her. She was losing her patience dealing with them, but she knew Aidyn was against hunting alone in the mountains. Her paws tread quietly over the dry leaves making only slght crunches here and there.

A thick fog was lingering helping all of them to stay hidden from sight. Lana used her nose to lead them through it. She smirked a little to herself at the thought of her being the leader for a change. The moment was short lived as her right front paw didn’t touch the ground. Her weight fell forward and she hung there in mid air looking down into a valley deep below. The ground had ended and a large crevice that was a self formed valley stood between them and the ledge she needed that was a great distance away on the other side. Nuksi and Wolborg had grabbed hold of the tack she wore and pulled her backwards saving her and Aidyn from falling to their deaths. The young woman and female tokota were about to get a scolding when there was another bleating noise followed by a second and third different sounding one.

Nuksi turned to head upwind of the bleats walking alongside the mountain and dangerous ledge. Vinheart turned in her saddle to shrug at the others. Obviously the tundra was in the zone and wouldn’t listen to her at all.

“We’ll discuss this later.” Wolborg told the female in a concerned tone.

“There’s nothing to talk about.” she huffed turning her nose up and walking past him.

Humph. How dare he try to get all wise sounding with her. He’d been a jerk since yesterday and now he wanted to be protective. Forget that! She wouldn’t tolerate a moody male. He could take a pine cone and shove it where the sun doesn’t shine!

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Nuksi scanned the area while standing on top of a large boulder. He didn’t like the low visibility that they were stuck with. Lana’s mishap was a perfect example of the accidents that could take place. As leader of the hunt, yes he considered himself to be in charge, he felt he needed to take more initiative. He could smell and sense that their prey was nearby. What they needed was for the goats to come to them, but staying above was the most import ant thing to do. He turned around as Lana and Wolborg approached and ignored them to trek higher up further into the mountains. If the goats climbed higher than they were they wouldn’t have very much success. A hunt goes much smoother with mountain goats if one stays above them. Staying away from the cliffs was also important. If the horns and meat got too damaged it would
be useless to them, The tundra led the way taking them up above the fog. His light colored coat helped them to keep track of his position. The dark markings on his face helped to hide it in the case the goats became spooked at all. He stopped when they made it out of the fog allowing Vinheart to dismount and remove his saddle bags. From a bad experience once he knew she was worried about losing items while he ran. He paid none of them any mind as he stalked forward. He could get a goat easy, but Wolborg..heh..he’d seen with his own eyes the piebald come out of a hunt with empty paws. The only one he would depend on in a hunt was Vinheart and himself, the two of them were a well oiled machine together. Nuksi became angry though when he saw Wolborg walking next to him.

“Why don’t you stay back and watch a real hunter at work?” he asked smartly.

“You’re dumber than I thought if you expect me to let the females do all the work.” Wolborg smirked.

Nuksi’s blue eyes widened before they narrowed.

“If only looks could hurt.” he thought to himself.

“Both of you are morons.” Lana replied trotting past them.

There was no emotion in her voice. Clearly she was upset with the two of them. Wolborg laid his ears down against his head and ran up beside her. He watched her scrunch her nose and turn it to the sky while running faster to get away from him.

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Meanwhile Toushirou sat down on a rock and sighed heavily. He leaned back on his hands and frowned as he watched the three tokotas together.

“I don’t know what’s gotten into him today.”

Vinheart and Aidyn looked at him with raised eyebrows. The two women looked at one another and rolled their eyes.
“Boys will be boys.” Aidyn informed him.

“What does that even mean anyways?” he questioned. “Unless its the same thing as if I said. Hn women.”

“Pretty much.” Vinheart shrugged before her tone lowered and became deadly. “But talk about women like that again and I’ll cut your tongue out.”

Aidyn giggled as Shirou quickly clamped his mouth closed. Her friend could be quite scary sometimes, especially in her hunter outfit. The young woman looked like a deadly ninja that could take your life at any moment. The auburn haired woman certainly  didn’t want to be on her bad side. She enjoyed her company and friendship very much. Aidyn had learned a lot from Vinheart and the other woman had helped her on many occasions. She’d met her when she’d seen an ad for tokota puppies and they had been adorable. She had a beautiful black male, who was back home, that had come from a litter Vinheart had bred. The short woman was very proud of the black and was hoping with any luck that she would be getting more puppies from Vinheart again sometime.

“I think it’s just some competition between the two.” she informed him. “You know Wolborg likes to be in charge and Nuksi….well he’s higher up on the hierarchy status than Wolborg.”

Shirou nodded in agreement with her while Vinheart folded her arms and gave them all a proud cheesy grin. Secretly she hoped Nuksi would bring back more meat than Wolborg simply to peeve Shirou a little that the girls were getting more out of the hunts than he was.