Late Lynx Hunt Pt1

“Please please please please please?”

“Kayia, I told you no. Stop begging, it’s quite annoying.”

“But I need your heeelp!”

“Well, sorry sweetie, but you put yourself in this situation.”

This was the sounds of a typical day between the two sisters, Kayia and Nausicaa, who bickered quite often as most siblings do, but they still always loved each other.

“I taught you that the first thing about doing pack outings was to consider personality which is exactly what you didn’t do and now you have a situation on your hands Kayia.” Nausicaa’s hazel green eyes flashed between strands of her auburn hair at her younger sister for having forgotten the advice.

Avoiding the condescending gaze, Kayia took a step back and replied, “I know, I know, I just got a bit excited and I wasn’t thinking when I scheduled them all on the same day, but it won’t happen again I promise. Can’t you just help me out for today?”

Crossing her arms and sighing, Nausicaa fell quiet as she thought over the situation. Her younger sister was following in her own footsteps by being a tokota handler whose job it was to take other tokotas out in pack outings for activities or even just socialization. However, Nausicaa was starting to pull away from the job, trying to explore other careers so Kayia was slowly growing into her sister’s old job. Today, Kayia scheduled to take out a new clients tokota named Indi. According to Indi’s form, he thrived on attention, was arrogant, and a mommas boy. Another tokota Kayia has handled before, Benji, had a similar personality. Benji was shy around other tokotas and was very needy and attached to his handler. On top of two emotionally needy tokotas, Kayia insisted that her new yeti pup, Nigel, be included for his first outing.

Nausicaa turned, letting her gaze fall on the tokota she helped raise for her sister, a dark bearmarked tokota named Kuma. Kuma was always included on outings for her even tempered personality made her a great balance with other tokotas. Nausicaa smiled thinly. Kuma wasn’t her concern. It was a new unpredictable pup and two needy mommas boy tokotas she knew her sister couldn’t handle alone that concerned her.

Grumbling, Nausicaa pushed herself off the wall she was leaning against as she made her way to Kuma. “Fine. I’ll help you today, but I have two conditions.”

“Oh my gosh, thank you! Wait.” Kayias excitement halted as she narrowed her eyes. “What are your conditions? If one of those conditions include me needing to muck the shed out for a month again, you had better forget about it!”

“HA! Oh that is a good one, I wish I thought of that. My first condition was simply that I call riding Kuma this time and you get to break in your new yeti. Its been awhile since I had some Kuma time isn’t that right girl?” Nausicaa giggled as she scrubbed under the tokotas chin who gave a happy grunt in reply. “Second, we split the pelts from the hunt. Of course, if you insist on manual labor, you can still totally clean the shed out for a week maybe?”

Kayia grabbed the closest object to her that she could chuck at her sister’s head- which was a book- for that remark.

“Nope, I’m completely fine with the chance to ride Nigel today, thanks.” She said, rolling her eyes and turning away though she was relieved her sister agreed to join.

The two sisters, now agreeing on the rest of the days plan, worked together to pack up all of the supplies needed for the hunt they agreed upon. Kayia preferred to start the day as early as possible and aim for large prey hunts mid day. However, they were both arguing so much, half the day was already gone and Nausicaa insisted they hunt smaller prey. Smaller prey meant that less teamwork was needed to catch an animal because of how small it was. This might be the preferred way to go considering the personalities they would be dealing with. So it was settled- a twilight hunt. Kayia never did such a late hunt before and she was comforted by the fact her sister was leading this hunt.

To save time and to get a chance to start a bond with the clients tokotas, the sisters decided to split who they were picking up. Nausicaa and Kuma were going to pick up Benji, while Kayia and Nigel were meeting Indi. They were to meet near the base of the Tartok mountains for they were headed to the Aqtuquaq forest.

Nausicaa hummed as she let Kuma take them to Benjis house. Kuma was there before and already had something of an impression on Benji. Last time they met they hunted seals together and Benji took a liking to the dark female. Kuma wasn’t one for flirting or anything of the sort, but she liked his pure heart and was happy to see and work with him again. Coming to what Nausicaa assumed was Benji’s house, she saw a dark brown vitiligo tokota behind a young - and attractive- female elf handler. Tentatively Nausicaa dismounted Kuma at the gate and waved in greeting to the girl who looked a bit perplexed.

“Good afternoon Miss, I’m Nausicaa, Kayia’s older sister. I’m sorry if my arrival confused you, I’m accompanying her on the hunt today and I wanted to get to meet Benji before we started.” She held out one hand to the handler and one out to Benji with a treat who only took the treat after his handler shook hands.

“Ah, that makes more sense now, it’s a pleasure to meet you, I’m Anastrianna, but you can call me Ana and this here is my Benji.”

After some small talk and letting Benji get comfortable again with Kuma, Nausicaa bid Ana goodbye and promised to be back no later than daybreak at the very latest. As they turned to go Benji looked back and whinned, already having separation anxiety from ‘mom’ who waved him off.

“Benji boy- can I call you that?- I promise you’re gonna be just fine. You know Kuma and I don’t think I’m too bad myself. We just gotta focus on this hunt to make your mom proud ok?” She smiled back at the tokota who was slightly behind Kuma and reached out to rub his ear.

Kuma also wagged her tail encouragingly at him to make him feel more at ease. Benji leaned into Nausicaa’s touch and tried to push thoughts of his handler out of his mind for now.

During this time, Kayia was picking up Indi while trying to handle Nigel. Nigel was a young pup and eager to be out and eager to please, however, he hasn’t been socialized and Kayia was a bit nervous how he would react to others. So far the ride to Indi’s house was good. Nigel was also somewhat new to being ridden and so Kayia rode him bareback so a saddle wouldn’t bother his back just as he was getting used to being ridden. Kayia knew that Indi was a lilac, curly tokota and was certainly one of the rarest, and prettiest tokotas she has ever dealt with. Her stomach tightened, hoping handling him wouldn’t be too much of a challenge. Coming to the front of the field where the tokotas were kept, Indi was indeed stunning. He saw the young handler and trotted over to her in a smoothly. Because it was late afternoon, his handler already left to attend to other errands and left him in the field for pick up. Reading a brief note left by the handler, Kayia looked up in the sky. She saw nothing. She whistled, putting a leather glove on her hand and held out. Suddenly something dark flashed out of the corner of her eye and before she knew it, a falcon was perched on her glove. The note was about how Indi had a falcon companion who would love to join on the hunt. Kayia loved birds of prey and was happy to have a helping friend along. She took up the reins of the harness that was on Indi and led him close to her as the falcon decided to follow on wing. Till she knew how every tokota was going to react to one another, she always required handlers put harnesses on their tokotas for control and protection. Nigel sniffed at the curly tokota and barked.

“No Nigel, stop, he’s alright.” The young handler who was just under 20 scolded him and tugged at his reins as the yeti continued to bark loudly, alarming Indi who started backing up.

“Nigel, I said cut it out!” This time she gave him a bit of a kick with her heels to enforce her words. This surprised Nigel enough to cease barking though he still eyed the curly with caution.

“Nigie, you’re gonna need to get used to being nice to others and barking in their face isn’t really very nice.”

The yetis tail lowered and turned away from the lilac curly. Kayia patted him on the back for understanding and she leaned toward Indi to run her fingers through his curly mane. He seemed quite pleased and used to the gesture as he held his head up a bit higher and moved closer to Kayia.

“Kai, you’re gonna ride into a tree if you’re too busy on petting him rather than watching where you’re going.”

Kayia’s hand snapped back to her side as she looked up to see her sister in front of her, waiting with Kuma and Benji. Warmth filled her cheeks and she nodded.

“You’re right, I’m sorry. But he’s a lilac curly! I’ve never petted one before and his mane is so soft…”

Benji whinned. He knew Kayia from a previous hunt together and the tokota was somewhat hurt she didn’t yet greet him and instead raved another tokota. What about him?

“Oh I’m sorry Benji! How’s my seal slayer doing?” Kayia cooed over him, remembering the seals he and Kuma caught on their last hunt. The attention was needed and appreciated as the tokota responded with a gleeful yip and a wag of his tail. Nigel immediately barked loudly in reply, thinking that is what one does when you meet someone new. Indi stepped away from the boisterous yeti yet again and Benji retreated behind Kuma.

“Nigel, stop barking, Benji is fine! Barking in someone’s face isn’t nice!” Kayia yelled over the noise as Nausicaa dismounted and turned to console Benji. Nigel was too excited and reared up, still barking loudly. Doing what she does best, Kuma stepped forward and snapped at the young yeti’s face, missing his nose by inches. This startled Nigel to make him quiet again as Kayia regained her composure and tried to relax Indi who was quite displeased with this loud yeti. Sighing loudly, Kayia looked over at her sister which was a mistake. Nausicaa had her arms around Benji’s neck to comfort him, but her eyes were on fire toward her little sister.

“This is exactly why I’ve told you to be careful about pack personalities.” She spat. “If I wasn’t here Benji may have run away, Nigel could have thrown you off and who knows what Indi would have done and his falcon has seem to have flown off.”

“I know.. I’m sorry, you were right and thank you for helping me handle this today.” The young handler avoided her sister’s gaze and was quite disappointed in herself. So far her pack outings have been good, but it only takes a careless moment for things to get dangerous.

“I’m not all you should be apologizing to you know.” Nausicaa stated bluntly. “Kuma kept Nigel in line. She’s a good pack mom.”

Kayia nodded. Kuma wasn’t yet a mother biologically but she was like the figurative ‘mother bear’ of the pack. She was no nonsense and fierce to defend but she was loyal and loving to her pack mates. This was exactly why Kuma was bought on so many trips, she was simply needed.

“Thanks Kuma.” Kayia whispered as she smiled faintly at the tokota who accepted the thanks with a nod.

Seeing the shadow of the falcon fall over them, Nausicaa knew it has returned. “Well. Now that we seem to have our heads back on straight, how about we get this hunt started already? It’s already dusk and we have nothing to show for it!”

Nausicaa talked her plans over with Kayia who at this point, listened to every word her sister said like gold. She didn’t want to mess up any more tonight. The sisters agreed to stay together till they got to the forest where they would split, Kayia and her team will stay in the outskirts of the forest while Nausicaa and her team went deep into the forest to get to the lake in the center. The mark was lynx who mainly hunted rabbits at night but they were solitary predators hunting alone and they had a varied range. Lynx could be found swimming, climbing trees or rocks, or poking around under fallen trees and burrows. The sisters agreed to meet at the center lake - Dreaming Waters- by midnight. There they would camp for the night, and then in the morning, try their hand at another small hunt before heading home by daybreak.

The trip to the Aqtuquaq forest was quiet in comparison to how the trip started. Nigel behaved himself now that he was getting used to those around him. Kuma also kept watch over him out of the corner of her eye when she wasn’t doting over Benji who was getting less shy as time wore on. Indy stayed away from Nigel who seemed too unstable for his liking, but he stayed close enough to Kayia for the attention he craved. Even before they entered the forest, Indi’s falcon screeched- a signal that it spotted prey as it flew over head. Here the sisters split as Kayia and her pack followed the cries of the falcon. It was a good learning experience for Nigel who hasn’t yet learned how to hone his sense of smell to find prey. Indi and his falcon took the lead on this hunt as he quickly got the fresh scent in the wind. It was indeed a lynx they were close to. Indi bounded off, Nigel and Kayia following as Nausicaa urged Kuma and Benji into the forest. Though they had no companion, they didn’t need one. These tokotas had quite a bit of hunting experience between the two of them and they got to work sniffing the ground and air for any hint of lynx or its favorite prey; rabbit. If they could even pick up the trail of a rabbit, perhaps a lynx would not be too far off. Kayia’s pack found success faster than did Nausicaa’s. Indi gave chase as Nigel tried to keep up but between Indi and his falcon, they finished off the lynx they chased quickly. Wondering how her sister was doing, Kayia let Nigel sniff the kill to learn what lynx smelled like. Hopefully the next lynx they found, it would be Nigel taking action.

It took about an hour before Nausicaa’s pack found a rabbit burrow. It was too late for the rabbits to be active and by now they were in the burrow sleeping, but perhaps a lynx might check the area or another rabbit had yet to find its way home. The trio hid by the warren, resting as they waited which didn’t go in vain. Benji and Kuma’s ears went up nearly at the same time as they heard the faintest of rustling of soft paw pads against the ground debris. Straining to see in the night, Nausicaa made out a dark form. Looking to Kuma and seeing how fixated the bearmarked tokota was, Nausicaa knew that it was a lynx and both Kuma and Benji were already tensing their muscles ready for the catch. Silently, Nausicaa placed a hand on each of their flanks. It was her silent signal to go. The tokotas seemed to almost move in unison as they split to surround the lynx before Benji broke out in the chase. The poor lynx was flustered and ran practically into Kuma’s waiting fangs which clamped down quickly on its neck.

Nausicaa smiled and treated both tokotas for a job well done. Looking up at the sky she approximated it was a good hour at least to the lake she was to meet with Kayia at.

“Best get a move on in that direction guys. Hopefully we something will cross our path as we get there. One lynx. Not bad guys, but you know we need to beat Kayia on this hunt kill.” She lightly joked with the tokotas as she packed up the lynx to skin later. Though it was near midnight, the night was still young to offer more possibilities of what was in store for their hunt.