Exploring | Spring Forest Wall

Belle lifted her nose from the trail and leaned into the breeze. Her handler, Sarah, scratched the dire’s shoulders under her mane.

“Feels good, huh, girl?”

Belle woofed in response and then sighed. She turned to look back for the other two female tokotas exploring the woods with them.

The greying tawny piebald had sidled up to her and they leaned against each other. Astrid was the friendliest of the trio, eager to be everyone’s friend and considerate. She rubbed her cheek against Belle’s shoulder and panted happily.

Belle blew in welcome and turned to look for the other piebald but Fuska was nowhere in sight. The dire grumbled and breathed in, scenting past the growing odors from spring coming to bloom. Fuska was easy to lose track of. As softspoken as she was she also yearned for adventure she spontaneously took after an interesting trail – a more intense version of what Belle would do herself.

Sarah caught on to their searching and twitched her blue tail, the fur on the back – a rich brown like her short hair, waving in the breeze. “Where’s Fu?”

Astrid whined and nosed Sarah’s calf.

Sarah stroked Astrid’s curly mane. “Alright, let’s go find her. We are here to explore after all.” She turned the dire and both tokotas went nose to the ground, sniffing out their companion’s trail.

Then Astrid yipped, notifying them that she’d caught the scent, and trotted forward. Belle followed close behind her, head held higher but still able to double check Astrid’s lead as her senses were stronger.

Sunlight filtered through the canopy overhead, flitting along the tall narrow boles of maple, birch, and other variety of trees. Most of the leaves swaying above were bright green, freshly grown from the first unfurling of the season. The sweet smell of chloroplast metabolism wafted over the tokotas and their handler. Moving faster only brought it more intensely over them in a wash. It was if they were swimming in the smell of growing things. From one of the saddlepacks a stoat poked out its head, nose to the breeze. It squeaked happily and twirled its way up to Sarah’s shoulder, snuggling around the back of her neck. She scratched its head absently.

“Let us know if you see anything that might be beneficial,” she told the stoat.

It squeaked in response. 

Astrid halted abruptly. She looked back at the handler and laid back her ears, whining. Belle came around and stopped beside her at the precipice of a steeply sloped wall. Dead leaves had scattered there and a whole heap of them had been pushed over the edge of the slope, scattering in a flurry below them. At the bottom of the rise stood Fuska who barked and wagged her tail in greeting. She pounced back and forth as well, clearly uninjured and excited to see her friends.

Sarah leaned forward, barely noting the stoat scampering down her then Belle’s shoulder to scuttle down the rise, digging in recesses of rock and earth. “Now just how did you get down there, you naughty girl?”

Fuska yipped and stood on her hind legs to lean on the steeply sloped wall.

The young woman pressed her lips together. “I don’t know…Beauty?”

The dire sniffed at the edges where Fuska had descended. She tried a few steps with her forepaws but hauled herself back up by her hind feet when rock and dirt scattered too readily with her weight. She turned and examined along one of the edges, grunting a command to Astrid who did the same in the opposite direction. The high edge extended in either direction for furlongs but came to a slightly deeper “V” formation where Fuska stood. As they explored the top edge Fuska ran between where they were relative to the bottom, panting with excitement and yipping encouragement.

The stoat came back every few paces to hand Sarah items before running of for more secret deposits. After half an hour of exploring she found herself packing away cotton, wool, scraps of fabric and a number of berries – some of which she consumed others she packed into a moisture proof container for recipes to try when they returned to camp. 

Finally Belle growled, the tone of which Sarah understood as a “prepare yourself” and did so, clamping down with her thighs, dropping her weight into her heels, and clinging onto Belle’s greying mane. Astrid approached from their left, watching, anxious, as the dire made her descent. Belle would take a few steps, slide with scattering leaves and dirt for a moment and then stop by controlling her slide towards an outcropping of rock. Sarah relaxed each time they reached an outcropping only to tense again when they slid. At last they reached a section with a twelve foot slide to where Fuska stood. They skid faster than anticipated this time and Sarah’s yelp of surprise ended in a high, relieved laugh. She flattered Belle with croons of compliments and scratches everywhere she could reach while mounted.

“Good girl, very well done!”

Fuska yipped anxiously and Sarah turned to where Astrid paced above them. The stoat stood on its hind feet where Belle had started her descent and squeaked at the curly female.

“Come on, Astrid,” Sarah said. “You can do it!”

The stoat squeaked loudly at the tokota and the female gave her a reproachful look. The stoat scampered down to the first rock outcrop and Astrid took two practice feints before scuttling over the edge after the much smaller mammal. Just before she reached the rock outcropping the stoat slid down to the next one, squealing in happiness. Astrid followed down the stoat’s path, outcropping after outcropping, and finally skid to a halt before Belle. She looked around her, as if surprised she made it down in one piece and then yipped and wagged her tail.

“See? I knew you could do it. Oh, what’s this?”

The stoat had returned to Sarah’s lap again and presented her with a weathered glass shard the size of its head. It squeaked when she accepted the prize and scratched under its chin.

“It’s very pretty, thank you.”

Fuska grabbed her attention next and the other two tokotas followed to where she worried a large object out from between a collection of rocks. Astrid approached and grabbed onto the object to help. Between them they pulled a great clay piece of cookware out of its hiding place. The pot had carvings on its side, depictions of legends in stories Sarah had not thought about since she was a young girl. She retrieved a long parchment and a piece of charcoal from her packs then slid down Belle’s side.

“You three explore – but stay in sight.” She gave Fuska a pointed look and to her credit the tokota pressed her tail between her legs but wagged it obediently. Sarah smiled and then turned to take the first of the rubbings from the long forgotten item. It came through to the paper easily enough and it did not take her long to fill one page. She took a spray bottle from her belt pouch and spritzed the entire thing, laying it out flat with rocks to dry. At her whistle Bell returned and knelt for Sarah to pull out a few more sheets before trotting off again.

“They’ll love this back home, maybe they’ll send someone for it too. The cultural association may even benefit from adding this to the museum.” She chuckled, happy to have found something fruitful on this expedition. When she finished the rubbings she sat down on a rock to make notes with a pencil and even a few sketches as she listened to the sound of the three tokotas padding across the forest floor.

- FIN -