Just Un-Lucky: Perchta, Savara, Cynder RoF

From the bright warm light of the morning to the much warmer embrace of the afternoon, and into the cooling edge of the evening the stretch of land rolled ever forward. The sun was sinking now, falling slowly toward the horizon as all stars eventually fell to the earth. In a flash of glorious light sinking into darkness. For just a moment the light flashed across the ground, blinding with its brilliance and then it was gone, leaving a roil of pink and purple in its wake that was quickly fading into the darkness.

It was amazing how quickly the world grew cold, how bitterly the air clung to the skin without a single waft of wind to carry it. Regardless of the fact that it was finally spring, these dark hours were still cold enough to be mistaken for those of the less generous months. She was grateful for the lack of wind though, if it had been making its way through these trees it would have been much colder. As it was though the world was nearly eerily silent and still. As if it were waiting for something.

None of the beauty, none of the stillness or the cold which seeped around the edges of her clothing was something which she could pay attention to in this moment however. Her mind was far too occupied for the weather or these darkening surroundings to divide her attention further. Besides, the edge of her anger and her worry kept her warm.

Dena rubbed her hands through Cynder’s mane. The tokota had been carrying her for some time now out of a combination of practicalities. Cynder was faster than her own two feet, and with the growing darkness the tokotas eyes were far better suited to moving through the shadows of the boughs above them that darkened the night into a nearly pitch tone. Even the warmth of the tokota so close to her could not dispel the cold entirely, just as the warmth of her anger could not cure it. If she had looked closely at it, she might have wondered if the chill was truly the chill of the night and not something else entirely.

The anger that warmed her was not at one of the tokota that surrounded her, moving like giant wraiths through the trees, their presence was in fact what kept that anger boiling low into her stomach rather than spilling forth in useless emotion that would not help her now. She was angry with herself. Angry that she had not been paying better attention. She knew better, and as much as she wanted to be angry with Savara, as angry as she surely would be, she could not really blame him. He was simply acting in his nature and she had not noticed him wandering away.

She had not noticed him slipping off into the woods just as he so often did, wandering away from their little pack so that he could return later with some surprise for her. At first she had not even been worried. He always found his way back to them, and since they had all stopped for a quick break there was no reason to curtail his freedom. Only… He had not returned. They waited, and waited, and there was no sign of him.

They waited until Perchta was pacing back and forth, golden eyes looking out into the forest as if expecting him to appear at any moment. It had not been until Oogie had called for Savara that the irritation Dena had felt over waiting for the tokota to return truly turned into worry. There had been no answering howl. No sound to let them know that Lucky was out there in the woods somewhere searching for something to catch his fancy.

She had not realized until that moment how much she cared about the surprisingly shy and playful tokota.

Then her anger had poured in, anger that she had not kept a better eye on him, and it was an anger that only deepened as they searched for him. Anger that she could not find him. That her tracking skills were useless with the falling of the sun so that all she could do was cling to Cynders back and allow her companion to carry her in search of Lucky. Oogie howled again, listening for some response, and every time that cry rolled out she listened with the same hope. Every time that Savara failed to answer her worry grew.

Where are you?

Her eyes tried to see through the darkness, making out the vague forms of the other tokota as they searched for Savara just as she and Cynder did. She watched Perchta pause, looking out between the trees, and Sedna silently stopping by her side. The much paler female nudging Perchta’s shoulder and encouraging her to keep trying.

Of all the rites, this one had seemed to her as though it might simply be fun. Taking their time and traveling across the tundra together. At first it had been, but now somehow it had become something else entirely and now every second was one that had her worried half to sickness. Oogie cried out again, his howl picked up by all the tokota this time so that their call rang out in echoes between the trees.

Sedna paused a few feet in front of Cynder, her ears twitching as the howl died out, and then suddenly like a bolt of white and cream she suddenly took off into the darkness. Dena did not need to tell Cynder to follow the other female, nor did she have to call out and let the other tokota know that Sedna was headed toward something. They simply sped in her wake, and she hoped that it was something. That it was the tokota they were looking for.

Sedna paused again, ears twitching back and forth. The moment that she paused all of the other tokota did as well. Everything was perfectly still save the pounding of her heart like a drum inside her head, and then they were running again. Again, and again Sedna stopped, listening for some sound which Dena could not hear. She paused again, and this time Oogie picked up the pace, racing forward and now she could hear it too. A scratching sound. A muffled barking and short howl.

In a matter of moments they reached the spot where the sound was coming from. Even looking at it though Dena could not figure out exactly what had happened. She could not actually see Lucky, but the sound of him was coming from beneath what looked like a particularly large fallen tree. It did not seem as though the tree had fallen recently, but as she got down off of Cynder’s back she realized that It seemed to have rolled or something. Rolled and somehow Savara had managed to get himself stuck under it. If he had been smaller he might have been able to wiggle around it, and if the odd crevasse he was stuck in had been a little less deep he might have been able to move the tree himself, but as it was he was quite stuck.

“Shhh it’s okay Lucky. We’re going to get you out of there I promise.” How quickly her anger simply evaporated into nothingness. It could not matter. Not right now. Lucky needed her.

The other tokota gathered around the tree, Perchta and Sedna nosed at it, making small sounds as though to comfort the trapped canine. Oogie looked as though he had no idea what to do with himself. He kept pacing back and forth, back and forth. Dena turned away from where Savara was trapped beneath all that heavy wood and started pulling rope out of her belongings.

Rope, one tool that a wise traveler never went around without.

She started tying the rope around the tree, which was not half as easy as it sounded in the darkness. Dena could hardly see in the darkness, but she managed through pure perseverance to get the length of rope wrapped around the tree and pulled into a knot tightly. It was more of a challenge to work the rope so that the tokota could pull it.

“Alright! Come on!” She encouraged Cynder to start pulling, and as the tokota moved she could hear the tree shifting and moving in response to the effort. Dena encouraged the tokota more, going around the tree and putting her own weight on the other side so that as the tree shifted and moved away from where Savara was trapped she could help and guide it. She knew that her weight was not much considering that any one of the tokota was far stronger than she was much less all of them, but she helped just the same.

All of them together managed to push and pull the tree aside, allowing Savara to awkwardly clamor out of the hole and back onto more solid ground. His claws skidded across the ground, trying to find purchase before he managed to stand on his own four paws again. The moment he was up all of the other tokota were there, sniffing at him to make sure that he was okay, and Dena found herself letting out a little laugh that was almost more relief than it was actual joy. She shifted between them, trying to get closer to Lucky so that she could get a closer look at him also.

She ran her hands over his face, his withers, and his haunches, trusting her hands more than her eyes. There was no sign that he was injured though. No sound from Lucky that her touch hurt him or anything, in fact as she moved back up to his face he turned and nuzzled her, dropping something into her hand.

Dena looked down, tracing the object with her fingers. It was a tiny and nearly perfectly preserved squirrel skull. She smiled to herself and tucked it into her coat, hugging the tokota gently. “You be more careful wandering off you hear me?” He made a little noise in the back of his throat.

All of them spent a few long moments simply allowing the raw emotions that had brought them here to this place to fade away. Dena’s heart rate finally came down a little so that she could breathe properly, and she pulled away. “Come on. We should keep moving.” The words were gentle. Part of her wanted to say ‘don’t do that again’. But she had already said it.

The tokota moved with her, becoming those indistinct shapes that they had been before. Little more than shadows moving through the darkness. All of them but Savara at her side. Staying close to her. There was an air of caution about him now, deeper than that which he normally had simply being around the other tokota. Her fingers kept tracing the skull he had given her, tracing it over and over again. He had gone through so much trouble to give it to her. He always did. She watched Perchta and Sedna moving ahead of them. Whenever she glanced slightly behind Oogie was there as well. All of them staying close enough that they shifted in and out of her view.

They had miles and miles yet to go. Miles across the trackless land of the tundra. She promised herself that she would keep a better eye on him from now on though she thought that perhaps after this incident he would be a little less likely to go wandering off, or at least wandering off so carelessly. Dena found herself smiling a little. No, he would likely be off exploring an hour from now. Exploring as he was wont to do, returning with his odd little trinkets. Nothing, not even this would change that, and honestly some small part of her was glad. Glad that this quiet uncertainty would pass and soon enough he would be playing with Oogrooq and wandering off once again.

Lucky would not be the same if he was to lose his odd little habits and for all that he irked her she knew that she would not change him.

One did not change those they cared for.

                                                                                - End -

-Elm