The Obstacles to Friendship: RoM

All of them stood together in a row, from Chanda with her slightly crooked grin, past Doorstop who had been nosing at the two females on either side of him with enough consistency that it promised to become trouble, to Melody who stood at the end of the line looking at the start of the obstacle course with a distinct air of anticipation that she did not even try to hide. Their energy and their excitement for the upcoming challenge leaked over into those who had accompanied them. Luke felt it distinctly, and though he was not familiar with the two tokota that had accompanied Chandra and Doorstop respectively, he had quickly learned that the first was Sedna, and the second was Queen Bee.

Sedna had accompanied Chandra, the pale furred tokota towering over the small gray furred toki. She offered a steady head to temper Chandra’s impish and stubborn attitude that had given her the nick-name ‘Bandit’. For all of her attitude however Chandra was a lovely toki from her striped haunches to her dark mane which stood out against her gray fur. It was her luminous and intelligent green eyes however which told anyone who saw her that she was a toki to be taken seriously. Unless they were willing to find themselves being tripped up by her unexpected pranks.

In much the same way Queen Bee had accompanied Doorstop. The male had not been around the other toki very long, but it had already taken no small amount of the tawny female’s not inconsiderable patience to keep him from running off or bothering the females on either side of him to the point of causing some manner of disturbance. In truth this task seemed likely to prove incredibly challenging for the ungraceful toki, but his silverish gray eyes shone with an edge of determination that suggested that regardless of how many times he fell down or tripped up he would get right back up again.

Luke rubbed a hand over his short blond hair and looked at the toki that stood before him. In his mind the small tawny, blue eyed toki would always be the most beautiful of the toki that were here, but his opinion was prejudiced by how much he cared for Melody. Though she truly was a beautiful toki in her own right as well. From her dark mane to the sheen of her brightly colored fur she shone with good health and the desire to go off on this new adventure that waited for her.

In the whole group of them there was not a single one of them whose heart did not beat a little faster with the thought of the challenge that awaited them all. There wasn’t any fear, just anticipation, and this was the perfect day for this rite.

With spring turning the weather warm enough to truly enjoy being out and about in the tundra plains. The sky was a pure white blue that allowed the faint light of the sun to shine downwards and warm the world beneath it. Flowers bloomed, turning toward the sky in hopes of drinking in what little they could before it faded away again. It was warm enough, and dry enough to set up the obstacle course that lay before them up outside rather than indoors.

There was a flash of movement to indicate the start of the obstacle course, and Luke was not the only one to offer a little voice of encouragement for the toki’s as that moment of anticipation finally broke out into action. Though Sedna and Queen Bee could not join the toki in their round around the course they lent their moral support to the toki who took off in unison toward the nearest hurdle.

The term hurdle was not a euphemism either, though it might have been an understatement as the wall that barricaded the toki from the rest of the course was tall enough to have been a hurdle for a tokota who was not as small as those who took off toward it. Melody hit the wall first, jumping as high up as she could and boosting herself up over the ledge of the wall. For just a moment she perched on the very top of it to get her balance before she lept off the other side and headed toward the next challenge. Doorstop actually made it to the wall second, but rather than leaping over the wall he ran into it. The force of his own momentum rebounding on him made him shake his head, his sensitive nose throbbing from the impact. Not to be deterred he backed off a little and made a second leap at it while Chanda clamored up the side.

Chanda impishly barked at Doorstop as she went past him, giving him a little wolfish grin that was both challenge and perhaps a little taunting before she followed in Melody’s wake. Doorstop shook himself from head to toe. Behind him Queen Bee offered a quick bark of encouragement but it was not her that drove him to somewhat awkwardly scrambled his way up the first hurdle. It was the wagging gray and white tail tipped with black that made him put on a burst of speed, barking after Bandit his own challenge.

For just a moment he too stood on top of the wall, looking down at the next obstacle which was a set of platforms that they would have to balance on. He waggled his own pale tan tail determinedly and lept off the top of the wall without a trace of fear or hesitation.

Melody was still in the lead, hardly needing any encouragement at all from Sedna who remained with the other tokota and Luke at what was now the end of the obstacle course since it wound around into a circle. She was slowed down considerably by the need to balance on the precariously small platforms, leaping from one to the next with care so that she did not fall down.

Her care gave Chanda time to catch up. The female bounded a bit recklessly over platforms, trusting that her leaps would be neither too short or too long and spill her onto the ground. She gave a little cheerful yip as she passed by Melody, the thrill of adrenaline pushing her onward to the next challenge. This might be a man-made adventure, but she did not really care. She simply liked pushing herself, and if she could push the other toki to come with her she was going to do so. She wanted them to enjoy the obstacles as much as she was.

Doorstop actually managed to run headlong into the first of the platforms, but he was unswayed by the bump and quickly managed to hop up onto it. Like Chandra he ran onward without regard for how the platforms were placed. She might have ran with grace and dexterity, trusting her body to make each jump the way that it should, but it seemed like Doorstop made each jump more by luck than anything else. More than once the small toki had to scramble to stay on top of one of the platforms, but his leap to the end was rewarded by a bark from Queen Bee to let him know that he had cleared the challenge and to encourage him to keep on to the next one.

The small male was more than happy to. He was in full swing of the obstacle course now, chasing after the two females who he had nearly caught up with. However the next part of the obstacle course seemed as determined to be a true challenge for him as the first two had been.

Chandra was not slowed down by the more toki sized hurdles, leaping over the first before wiggling furiously to make it under the bar just beyond that. It was a tight fit but she made it out the other side and leaped over the hurdle on the other side. There was another bar beyond that which she had to wiggle under, and by the time that she reached the third wall Melody was wiggling under the first bar and breaking for the second. Chandra quickly hopped off the wall and wiggled under the second bar, quickly running for the next section of the obstacle course. Melody was not to be outdone however, and she was a little faster than Chandra had been at wiggling under the bars.

Doorstop however of course was having a great amount of difficulty with the hurdles. He managed to run headlong into each one of them, but the little male was by far the fastest at getting underneath the hurdles, hardly wiggling at all he just seemed to slide right under the bar before rushing the next hurdle and running into it. If not for the fact that he regularly ran into things his nose and head might have been rather sore at this point, but if it hurt him any it did not show.

He chased after Melody as she followed Chandra into the tunnel that made up the next obstacle. Luke’s voice sounded odd and discordant inside of the material that made up the tunnel. It echoed around them as they scurried down the darkened path that was laid out before them, the sound of many paws mingling with their breathing and the sound of the young man’s voice.

As Chandra came out the other side Luke’s voice mixed with the encouraging sound of Queen Bee and Sedna whom stood watching with him. All three of the tokota came neck in neck now, racing toward the tall walls of the next obstacle which was a labyrinthian set of twists and turns. Doorstop came in last only because he hit his shoulder trying to round the first corner to the twisting passageway.

Paws skittered over the grass and dirt as they twisted and turned back and forth. The path would go straight for a ways, and then turn sharply enough that Doorstep had bumped into the corners with his shoulders, his hips, often bumping against Melody or even Chandra as they vied with one another for the leading position. Chandra bumped him back, grinning and barking at him. Doorstop could not resist barking back at her even if his paws did skid in the grass so that he had to quickly regain his balance. It made him lose a few seconds against the female, but he bounded back and kept right on her tail. Melody was not to be outdone at all, keeping up with them every step of the way. She was not quite as enthusiastically competitive as the other two, but she was not about to be outdone either.

All three of them came out the other side, a wider path allowing them to run side by side rather than vying for the thin space between winding paths. The long strip of land on the other end of the labyrinth allowed all three to get up a little speed before the ground dropped out a bit into a short muddy pit that they were supposed to jump. Not a single one of them hesitated. Within the space of a few heartbeats three sets of paws lept across the muddy hole. Melody, Chandra, and Doorstop landed on the other side so close to one another now that it was hard to say who was ahead of the other.

None of them stumbled and they kept running, following the path forward as it led up a sharp incline that dropped away yet again. Doorstop managed to pull ahead a little, recklessly jumping from the ledge a few seconds ahead of the two females. He landed and kept running, barreling up the next incline as quickly as his short legs would carry him. On a straight stretch he was just a little bit faster than Chandra or Melody was, but the females were not that much slower, and they followed right on the male’s heels doggedly.

The incline quickly became a decline, a sharp angled downhill path that was hard to manage with short paws to keep balance with. Doorstop being a little less graceful for all of his speed lost some time skidding on the grass. Just enough for Melody and Chandra to regain what little ground that they had lost on the male as he had been running uphill. The speed that they all gained had to be quickly cut short. Doorstop skidded a bit, and this time it was Melody who passed him by, leaping up onto the thin balance beam that lay ahead of them.

Doorstop regained his balance before Chandra could pass him by though, and the female actually bumped into him a little, offering him a wicked little bump to match the bright light in her eyes as she also leaped up onto the balance beam and made her way after Melody. Doorstop barked back at her almost in protest, but it was a mostly playful protest. They all knew that really this was not a race, but making into a race - into a contest had made this entire rite into an enjoyable challenge for them.

It was far more difficult than it seemed at first glance to make it across the thin beam, particularly for the short legged toki. Even though this course had been built with them in mind it was far from a simple task but one after the other they made their way across the narrow band of wood to the other side. Melody was the first to leap off the other side onto a narrow platform and then onto the ground beyond that, quickly followed by Chandra and Doorstop in turn. Doorstop actually gave a little leap once he had landed on the ground, trying to catch back up with the two females.

There was another hurdle waiting for them, though this one was more like a set of windows that they had to leap through. Unsurprisingly Doorstop managed to run headlong into the side of the hurdle, but he quickly scurried over it panting a little with the effort of keeping up with Melody and Chandra who were not taking this obstacle course easily. He managed to stay only slightly behind them as they headed together up a staircase on the other side of the window-like hurdle.

Once again Doorstop managed to once again gain a little on them, almost so that he had caught up with them as they bounded up the staircase and back down the other side which was laid out in the same steps. It was a little more challenging to go down the stairs than it had been to go up them, but the toki followed the path as it led up another more gentle incline that allowed Doorstop to regain what little remained of the distance between himself and the females.

They crossed the finish line so closely that it would have been difficult to say exactly who had finished first, but truly that did not matter. Luke was waiting with open arms for Melody who greeted him with energy that belied the obstacle course that she had just run and his laughter echoed around them warmly as the more gentle tokota with him greeted Chandra and Doorstop. Sedna warmly nudged Chandra, a fond look in her eyes, and Queen Bee licked the young male as if to make sure that he was still in one piece after all the times he had run into things. Her care drew Sedna’s attention and she followed suit though he hardly seemed to need the attention. He was far too busy cheerfully barking at Chandra and Melody. The two females gave the male wolfish grins.

Trouble came in many forms, including friendly ones, and it seemed like all of them might have found a little trouble.

                                                                              - End -

-Elm