Prove Your Worth

 The sun was fading fast as the late afternoon sank in. It was common during the wintertime for the evening to bleed into the sky, chasing the sun away so that night could last longer. Nocturnal critters stirred from their slumber and prepared for their nightly activities; owls in their perches amongst the evergreen branches stretched out their wings and talons and foxes were slipping out from their dens to catch the field mice that roamed in the safety of their snowy tunnels.

  Though not all that were awake were preparing for a hunt. 

  Three Tokotas were standing around a snowy field encased by spruce and evergreens.

  Domitius and Anit watched with a sullen expression as Solomon pressed his snout against the crook of Dahlia’s neck as a farewell. For the longest of time Dahlia had been by his side, especially when he had last his first handler, and yet now she was leaving him so that he may undergo his final Rite. 

  “You’ll be fine,” Dahlia muttered into the thick white coat of her Tokota, grabbing onto his mane while she hugged him tightly, “you just come back here safe and unharmed, alright?” 

  Solomon pulled his head away to peer down into her ears and lowered his ears, a soft whine escaping his throat. 

   “I can’t come with you – not on this one.” She looked behind Solomon at Domitius and Anit who were waiting patiently for Solomon to join them. “Go on. It will get too dark for you to travel if you stick around here.” She kissed his cold and wet nose and then sent him on his way by flapping her hands at him, shooing him off quickly. 

  Domitius and Anit walked on ahead when Solomon began to walk over to them and then trot to catch up. Domitius was the first to speak up to Solomon.

  “Have you never been away from your human for long periods…?”

  Solomon nodded. “I have… I was even away from my first human. But the last time I was gone he…” 

  Anit and Domitius shared a look together and Anit shook her head as if answering an unspoken question. 

  From the Superiors, they were heading towards the Starfall Expanse where they would be undergoing and completing their last Rite and prove their worth as Tokotas. Their task was unknown but they felt in deep in their bones that they needed to be there in order to achieve their Rites of Fertility. 

  “What do you think we will find there?” Anit suddenly asked. She was hoping that by bringing up the task at hand the air around the three of them would lighten up or, at the very least, make Solomon less down and more focused than he was currently. 

  “Who knows,” was the response from Solomon. His still looked and sounded downcast but at least he had lifted his head to look ahead rather than watch his paws disappear and emerge from the thick blanket of snow. “But whatever it is, we can take it.” 

  “What if we’re not there to hunt?” Domitius spoke up, tilting his head at the other two. “What if we’re to meet someone and gain knowledge?” 

  “True…” 

  The snow began to thin out as Domitius, Solomon and Anit began to draw closer to their destination. When they finally saw the Starfall Expanse they slowed to a stop and stared down at the scarred landscape that stretched for endless miles ahead. Peering down at it from their vantage point, Domitius shuddered and shook his head. 

  “This isn’t right,” he mumbled and took a step back. 

  “It looks… Like a fire had recently come through here.” Anit said and hopped down onto the blackened earth, charred from the meteor.

  “Careful,” Solomon walked forward and began to travel with Anit into the scarred area, “don’t sniff at the ground.” 

  Domitius followed them reluctantly and avoided putting his nose to the ground. Not that he wanted to, anyway, seeing as the ground was black and cracked with no sign of water or grass anywhere. Even the trees looked like charred skeletons as they lay broken and dismantled on the ground far ahead of them.

  Anit trotted beside Solomon and looked around as they walked. Though her small ears twitched at the sound of an ominous howl and she and her companions came to a stop. “Did you hear that?” 

  “I heard it.” 

  “It sounded like another Tokota,” Domitius said and looked around for the source of the howling. 

  “Is this what we’re here for?” Anit looked up at Solomon and then behind at Domitius who was growing concerned for the well-being of another Tokota.

  “This way!” 

  Anit and Domitius looked to Solomon who rushed off ahead and ran to catch up with him, picking up speed when they heard another howl on the wind. But as they neared the infamous Devil’s Scar they froze in place and stared in horror at the beast that lay in wait. 

  What they had heard was not a howl but rather the roaring of a beast with long fangs.

  A Smilodon paused in its stalking and turned its ashen face towards the Tokotas and stared at them for a few moments, no doubt wondering if they were real or figments of its broken mind. When they did not disappear or waver from sight, the Smilodon bared its teeth and roared out in anger, blaming them for its misery.

  “What do we do?” Domitius asked.

  “We take it down,” was the response from Anit. “Otherwise it could hurt others if they get lost in here, too.” 

  When the Smilodon charged after them, Solomon, Domitius and Antic rushed forward as well.

  Anit broke off and to the side to flank the Smilodon, her small legs making quick work of the distance that was between her and the Smilodon.

  Domitius and Solomon clashed with the Smilodon head-on and they fought with a flurry of teeth and claws. 

  The Smilodon growled with fury and slashed their claws at Domitius who had the foresight to jump back and crunch the large paw between his teeth. 

  Solomon moved his head away just in time when the Smilodon had been about to bite his face and sunk his own teeth into the throat of the beast, shaking his head to either side to pull and rip at the thick coat and flesh. 

  Anit nipped at the rear legs of the Smilodon to keep it moving and jumping, sometimes diverting its attention so that Domitius and Solomon could bite and pull the Smilodon.

  The growls and snarls they emitted echoed throughout the Devil’s Scar and possibly could be heard from the very edges of the Starfall Expanse. For a moment, Solomon even wondered if the smell of blood was carried on the wind as there was nothing else making any scent. 

  Anit eventually jumped at the Smilodon’s back and bit down on the beast’s scruff, holding on while it snarled and tried to bat her off with a swipe of its paw. 

  Domitius jumped at the beast and knocked it to the ground, jumping to bite and rip at the vulnerable belly only to be kicked away and receive a slight nick on his shoulder from the claws. 

  Solomon, Anit and Domitius were starting to pant as they continued their unrelenting attack of the Smilodon. As it was a three against one situation, the Smilodon was receiving more wounds and injuries than it was giving, and soon it wasn’t just tiring from attacking three Tokotas but also from the weakening it felt as its blood pumped from its wounds. 

  Anit, Domitius and Solomon fell on the Smilodon for possibly the last time and held it down, biting and ripping into it until the Smilodon stopped moving and breathing, and the charred and blackened ground beneath them was glittering from the crimson blood that flowed sluggishly from the open wounds on the Smilodon. 

  The three Tokotas stood around the downed beast and looked at it with mixed emotions. They were glad to have defeated the Smilodon and no doubt passed their Rite of Strength… But at the same time, they were aware that they had taken the life of a creature who was merely confused and took out its fear on them.

  “I’ll carry it out of here,” Solomon broke the silence and looked at the other two surrounding the beast, “then we can go and rest up… And possibly give the creature a better place of rest than here.”

  Anit and Domitius nodded in agreement and helped pull the Smilodon onto Solomon’s back before they began to head out of the Starfall Expanse. 

  When they returned to the safety of the Superiors Dahlia was there to welcome them. She was confused to see the Smilodon but followed them to a small grove where they dug a deep hole to bury the Smilodon with no worries of the body being dug up by scavengers. 

  Once the body was covered Anit and Domitius said their farewells to Solomon who began the long trek back home.