Mr. Merle
---Mehen
Anik was seated up on Pagan's back as they moved into the woods. Along for the ride, a tiny Toki waddling about a few steps ahead of the half mane. Anik was helping her get some experience as a favor to her owner, and it seemed like a good chance to get in some general experience around other tokotas. They were off to go locate the merle male that had really started it all. Pagan's father, of course, but also a notable relative of most of their merles. He came up enough when they were working out their tokota's family trees that it felt like they ought to meet the guy face to face.
Which had brought Anik out on the trip, along with his companion and their tokotas. As they walked, Pagan couldn't help but curiously sniff at Pippa. She was...new. He couldn't recall having seen her before, and sure he didn't get out so much but, he would have remembered her! True, he didn't know the Toki either, but he wasn't as curious about Mayur. He'd met her already when she'd been handed off to Anik for training, and well...she was definitely a toki he could relate to.
---Lloyd
Well this was probably going to be a hilariously big mistake. It was anik’s idea so perhaps Alaina shouldn’t be too overly surprised. Russell had asked if she could take Pippa for him for the day, thinking the young long mane would learn more with a more experienced hand, and considering how sweet and easygoing that the young female was she really had no issues with it. She certainly took a lot after her father in that regard.
Although she seemed a little uncertain she moved to reached out to sniff the merle male as well, curious and interested, but she still moved forward easily enough in the long run. “Do you know where this male is supposed to be?” Alaina finally glanced over towards her companion, curiosity tainting through her voice.
Did they have far to go?
---Mehen
"Uhhh...he shouldn't be too far in I think..." He was pretty sure that it wouldn't be long before they found the merle. "He's supposed to be pretty well behaved and all, so it shouldn't be anything difficult or whatever." He shrugged. He wouldn't have brought Mayur along if he thought this was going to be very dangerous. A full grown tokota versus a toki? That would end badly. Very badly.
Pagan moved to lick Pippa's cheek, deciding she was okay in his book because she was nice and she didn't try to get mud in his fur or anything like that. He liked calmer tokotas, the high energy pups just got him stressed, and Anik knew that well enough. Hopefully his dad wouldn't be super excited to see him, it might make things weird.
In almost no time at all, the big merle was spotted- distinct red stripe under his eye giving him away. Anik could see where Pagan got his nice colors from, wow. As he assessed him, the little seal toki barked excitedly, as if to claim credit for finding him. "There he is, come on, let's go say hi!" And eagerly he would nudge his mount forward. Pagan hesitated only a moment before moving at a trot to approach the male, who turned to look at them curiously.
Who the heck were these guys?
---Lloyd
“Hopefully not. I did have other things to get done today.” Of course Alaina would grump a little bit but despite the fact she was a busy woman who really did have a lot of other things to do with her time she’d still given Anik time for… this. Maybe that said something. Maybe not.
Pippa wriggled a little bit and moved to nose the side of Pagan’s cheek, a submissive and friendly gesture, but aside from that she was simply calm. There was very little that ruffled the young female in any way and she was contented to head along where they were directed to go.
Until the big male finally appeared. Although she slowed for a moment the long mane just as rapidly calmed, glancing towards the handlers and the other tokota. “You can tell Pagan’s his son.” The merle half mane really did look considerably like him now didn’t he? It was certainly almost amusing.
Although the woman frowned a little bit she moved Pippa along after the other two, keeping a good eye on the dominant male. He was an unfamiliar tokota after all and it stood to reason that his behavior might be a little unpredictable.
---Mehen
"Well you always have stuff to get done." Anik laughed. Alaina was a busy body, always working, always eagerly chomping at the bit to work. It was endearing, but also worrisome. She needed breaks too, or she was going to just keel over one of these days. That would definitely be bad.
Pagan made an approving sound, delighted that Pippa was willing to show him such a gesture. She was sweet, and he decided he very much liked her. Anik could tell, and smiled. At least he'd probably work well with her because of that.
"He's gorgeous." He beamed, and finally Pagan came close enough to sniff the male. Vaquero blinked patiently once, sniffing him back, and then making a confused face. He could tell the familial relationship himself, and seemed a bit dumbstruck that one of his kids had caught up to him. How many of those did he have now? Probably too many. He likely wasn't having many more either, getting too old for that probably.
Curiously he sniffed towards Pippa and Mayur, and made a soft wuff as if to confirm they were no threat to him. "Wow, what a nice male." He hadn't met him before, but he was glad to see him face to face. "Hey there fellow, just...thought we'd see you for ourselves. Got a lot of your kids...and grand-kids in our packs. A couple great-grandkids too. You really get around huh?" Anik laughed, and the merle snorted contently, as if to agree with him.
The seal toki barked once more, scuttling around Vaquero's legs, much to the confusion of the big male- but he remained calm and didn't try to stop her. Maybe he thought she was a pup?
---Lloyd
“Of course. There hunting and fishing that needs to be done on top of the generalized care for the tokotas.” With winter slowly losing its grip on the land the village was starting to run drastically low on supplies and she… she honestly didn’t mind going out and bringing in either.
Either way at the least the two tokotas seemed to be getting along rather well. Perhaps nothing too surprising as far as Pippa was concerned. She was so laid back and gentle that she got along with practically everyone in the long run. Pagan, on the other hand, really honestly wasn’t nearly that predictable.
Alaina watched her companion interact with the big male, noting the lack of aggression within the beast’s mannerisms. It was enough she finally allowed the long mane female her head enough to wander her way closer towards them.
“If he wasn’t so overbred there wouldn’t be as many inbreeding problems that seem to plague lines these days.” A pause before she amended. “Him and the others.” It wasn’t just this male’s fault for being one of the first ones introduced into domesticated lines and all. All those other ones were too.
She, in particular, seemed plague with dear Sister Moon in her lines.
---Mehen
Anik nodded, knowing what was needed. They had plenty of work to do to help others, and their packs. Tokotas needed food, people needed food- and tokotas needed training! That was important too, they had so many young tokotas that needed to be trained up properly. It was a lot of work, but they could take a small break.
It was a nice bonus that Pagan and Pippa got along, because really Pagan didn't necessarily like many other tokotas. He tolerated them, but he didn't like them very much. He just...tolerated that they existed in the same space as him at best. At worst, he got snotty and a bit aggressive. Hilariously, he'd heard their little toki companion could be like this too- though she'd seemed very sweet to him. Maybe because he gave her treats and pets. That probably had something to do with it.
Vaquero was pretty placid overall. Wary and hesitant for a few moments, but generally pretty relaxed, even with the toki moving quickly around him all puffed up and showy. When Pippa was done sniffing him he would walk back a step, and then move to shuffle off to wander. Anik would encourage Pagan to follow him, and for a long while, if Alaina joined them, they would simply shadow the merle as he went about his day.
"Maybe he just fathers huge litters." Anik laughed. Still, he was everywhere. He had a large family, and he wondered if the tokota was happy about that or not. "At least he's not Tavrani." He had to laugh at that. He'd heard there were other tokotas that had plenty of family, but this was the first time he'd met one.
It was shaping into a nice day too though, and maybe they would even get a short hunt in on the way back, get some extra experience for Mayur in. Who knew? He could only hope that things were going to go well for them. Seeing the old merle was nice, but he knew Alaina would be happier if they were more productive. She was his friend, and he really did care about her enough to keep her happiness in mind too. So it would work out nicely for them, he was sure.