Sazerac RoK

The tension was high in the air and it had been building since the night before. Sazerac had seen the Tokotas she would be going after being tagged the night before when she and his handler, Kayne Julian Westfall, had arrived at the event site. So of course the young, brown sphinx had even more time to stew and think about possible failure while watching the whole heard of Toktoas, four blacks, one that looked like she was a black and two sphinxes like himself, get shuffled together and readied for the following day. She had not seen exactly WHICH of the pack of six had been tagged with the bright red, green and blue plastic identifiers. But she was sure that even if she had it would not have given him any kind of advantage.

Now with the bright early morning sun stretching up and over the beauteous northern wilderness things were slowly being set into motion. The pack that had been brought in the night before had also been released just as quickly to give them as much distance as they wanted to cover. True the area was fenced off after a couple leagues, but that still left for a lot of ground to cover in the day. Sazerac leaned in nervously towards Kayne as her halter was slipped carefully over and around her muzzle. Letting out a low whine Sazerac's bright multi coloured eyes gleamed both eagerly, and nervously, as she leaned in to give Kayne a lick on the nose.

"Hey girl, don't worry now. Our pack isn't too big, so we shouldn't have too hard of a time tracking and singling them out. Besides," reaching up Kayne ran his fingers gently over where a mane would have started on her forehead had Sazerac been a normal Tokota, "I have a good feeling about how things are going to go."

Sazerac wagged her short, hairless tail at the encouragement from Kayne. If he thought that things were going to go well then how bad could anything really happen? Watching eagerly, tail still going from side to side as the weight of her handler transferred from the ground onto her back the Tokota took the weight of her handler with ease as she had many times before. Eager to go and find these she let out a huff as Kayne began to actually read out the names of the Tokotas they were going to be tracking, why did their names matter if all they had to do was look for tags on their ears!

"Let's see... There's the four blacks, Karliah, Diablo, Kuadarius and Van Gogh, then Jeta who looks almost like a black, and the two others who are sphinxes, Princess Bambi and Pimp Princ- whoa!"

Sazerac was not waiting any long. Leaping out excited right from the 'starting gate' the young sphinx set out a strong but steady pace. Even she knew that it would be unwise to waste all his energy in the first few miles and then be unable to catch them later because she'd worn herself out. Kayne merely rolled his eyes as they set out across the now summer set tundra. Flowers and bushes had erupted into bloom all around them. The scent was wonderful after such a long period without any scents but their prey in the frozen winter, and now it was almost a little bit hard not to get distracted by all the things going around. Still, Sazerac found a way to keep her eyes forward and keep an eye out for any signs of the pack they were tracking.

It was clear they had certainly come this way. Stalks of grass were flattened on a very clear trail and small clumps of dark fur, unmistakably black even from a distance, were sticking periodically to the large bushes that were building on either side. Kayne guessed that some had been fighting to get towards the front of the pack first because there was even a large clump dusting the whole area that had been flattened out where the natural path was leading. It made Sazerac laugh a bit because that would have been something she would have done just to avoid staring at someone's rear all through the trek. Still, this scuffle was more then what they needed to pick up the scent of all seven Tokotas and get a nice lead on where they were heading.

There was a nice miniature valley not far from here where a small river flowed through, it attracted all walks of life from deer, birds, bears and Tokotas at all times of the day. It was good for fishing and relaxing in the shade of the trees that covered the banks on both sides from the heat of the twenty four hour sun. Just as both Sazerac and Kayne were thinking this was where the pack was headed, it only proved to be true as the scent grew stronger and stronger in the young sphinx's nostrils. Grinning as his pace slowed, allowing Kayne to hop off and pull the rope from Saz's tack that had been set on earlier, the two crouched down from behind a large series of bushes and carefully crept forward. If they disturbed even some birds in the area it would alert the pack someone was around and put them on edge. If they wanted to make the first capture as easy as possible they had to make sure they were unseen and unheard.

Peeking carefully up and over the very edges of the bushes, the shade of the trees over head helping to camouflage their faces as they glanced around, Kayne and Sazerac did indeed spot the pack of seven sitting on the far side of the river. Great. While the river was not deep it would mean that they'd have to cross it in order to catch any of them, and that would mean having to expose themselves to the pack. Certainly not an ideal case, but since when was this supposed to be an ideal challenge any way?

Kayne quietly counted the group as the pack members sat or lay down in the heat of the day near the cool water. Van Gogh and Diablo were the closest ones to the river, both trotting around and gazing at the fish. Not quite ready to engage and catch fish, but it was certain they were thinking about going for it. The heat was a wonderful deterrent though to do any kind of work. Karliah was lounging a nap circle with Jet and Princess Bami, their legs sticking out in all directions as their backs nearly came to touching. The normal Tokotas slightly jealous of the short fur that Princess and Prince Pimp, who was sitting out enjoy the rays of the bright mid day sun, had were giving them space so they didn't over heat too much, after all they were perfect in the summer heat and did not need any snuggles. Kuadarius was sitting up just keeping an eye on the group as a whole, a bright shiny green tag dangling on his ear as plain as the nose on his face.

Both Kayne and Sazerac let out a low sigh simultaneously. Of course the first one they spot had to be the one that was most alert and ready to notify the rest of the pack of trouble. Giving a shake of their heads the duo let their eyes roam again around it took them a moment to see the tag on Diablo, after all he'd been facing away from them upon first glance. But now after giving him another once over it was clear that Diablo was sporting the bright red tag that hung like a target from his ear. He was a little farther out and perhaps the next one that would be easiest to nab, a short charge across the river might be able to do it. But before making any rash decisions one last time they had a peak for the final and third tagged Tokota.

There was no tag that could be seen on Prince's ear, and he was practically staring in their direction so it was easy to see both sides of his face. That meant they had to look towards the miniature dog pile of three females to see which of them had the sea blue tag pierced into their perky ears. Of course it was several minutes long until the girls, both young and old, had decided that they were done napping. Karliah slowly sat up right giving a large, loud yawn. As she shook and stretched Sazerac stared with intent, determined to spot the final blue tag before his handler. But no luck with the piebald black. Kayne was watching Princess Bambi, thinking that the examiners would have put the tag on the female sphinx in order to try and distract Sazerac with the gentle feminine charm she seemed to carry. But as the handler watched the other young sphinx get up and begin to move around it was clear that she was not carrying the final third tag that they he was hoping she had.

They both came to realize, after looking at each other, that the final tag was on the elder melanistic. True to their fears as she stood and gave a crack of her spine upon stretching there it was, shining as plain as the nose on her face. Luckily for them they had heard that Jeta was a rather cuddly and loveable Tokota, her gentle nature preceding all those around her. She certainly did not look like a ruffian as she trotted quietly over towards where Diablo was standing, her black nose sniffing the air curiously as her head slowly floated towards Sazerac and Kayne's location. They froze, staying absolutely still in the hopes that Jeta did not see them and give away their position.

Luckily for the both of them the elder Tokota has seen neither of their camouflaged faces, and not giving it a second thought they both ducked down and completely out of sight.

"All right," Kayne's voice was hushed as he spoke to Sazerac, "you go out and draw their attention. I'm going to go around the other way and try to get one of them while they're looking at you. ... Got it?"

Sazerac's tongue dropped from her mouth as it traveled up and around his lips to his nose and back into his mouth, blinking in reply to her handlers orders. Kayne let out a low sigh and pointed for Sazerac to go out from behind the bushes. The sphinx looked to where he had pointed and gave a nod, she knew what Kayne was asking him to do, he did not need to point to clarify what was going on.
Pushing up onto all four paws and heading out from behind the bushes he trotted slowly down towards the river. Completely nonchalant about the whole thing he leaned down and took a few sips of water from the cool, crisp water that was flowing by. Drawing in the attention of the pack she let out a friendly bark, tail up and wagging. Pimp Prince and Princess Bambi looked very happy to see another sphinx, and as he was apparently alone Kaudarius had no troubles in simply ignoring the young female.

Diablo and Van Gogh cross the shallow river carefully to join Sazerac on the other side of the river, followed by Jeta who was curious about the young sphinx. She seemed to know exactly what was going on and strayed farther up the bank, closer to where Kayne was hiding almost on purpose. Maybe she had seen them from her glance across just a few minutes ago. In fact that closer she strayed Kayne could feel his heart beating louder and louder each and every second. His hands were shaking until he finally took in a deep breath and clenched his fist around the already tied and looped rope, ready to toss and hopefully catch the older female. Peeking through the bushes he could see that they were as close as they were willing to venture.

Quietly moving up onto his feet and shifting around the side of the bushes Kayne popped up, lasso whirling up and over his head away from the low hanging branches that he had been hiding behind not two seconds before. Sazerac turned and saw Kayne running down the hill, but so did the other Tokotas in the pack. Princess and Prince scattered in opposite directions, while Diablo, Van Gogh, Karliah and Kaudarius all pushed past the young sphinx trying to block their path. There was not much he could do to stop them all from running away. But as Jeta gave a playful dodge to the side of the first rope toss Sazerac leaped in front of her path. Sliding to a stop the older Tokota's eyes met Sazerac's for just a moment before she tried to turn and run, yet the sphinx cut off her path as she slid to stand in front of her.

Once again she tried to change her path, but Sazerac was not going to let her dodge her way out of this one. Growling, more so defensively then aggressively, she held her in place just long enough for Kayne to make an effective toss. The thick, rough rope landing around her fluffy neck and pulled tight as Kayne gave a tug the young man pulled the rope in with his arms as he got closer to Jeta. Letting out a breath he grinned happily, brimming with excitement as he lead Jeta over towards a tree and tied the end of the rope around the tree's trunk to stop her from running away.

Then with a quick hop Kayne jumped and landed squarely on Sazerac's saddle. Pulling up another rope from the back of the saddle he gave his Tokota a tap on the side with his boots,
"Let's go!"

With one down and two left to go, how hard could it be?