Butting Heads - Fishing

                Hedan should be heading back now. She’s been in this strange area for a while now taking care of some business, namely hunting, sorting things out with Sabathiel and his tribe, avoiding that weirdo Asteraoth, and just generally relaxing in the soft spotted woods. But with all those activities squared away and a cloudy afternoon, that didn’t make her cold at all, even with all the snow, because of all her fur, she was starting to miss her home. Her loved ones were probably waiting for her return and she very much wanted to see them again.

                It was time to go home, she knew that, and she planned to head out soon. However, she felt she deserved few moments to herself among these tall, sparsely packed and snow dusted trees. Just some peace and quiet to tide her over until she began the journey back to her home. Laying down on the snow, her body slightly sinking into the layers of it with a slight audible crunch, Hedan kept her head high and closed her blue eyes. She rotated her ears about, searching for any noise that would alert her to nearby nuisances. Finding no such disturbances, she exhaled quietly, warm breath tumbling from her maw and melding into the cool air around her.

                Her tense muscles laxed gradually as she let go of the stress and frustration that had been coiling inside them. The tundra longmane almost zoned out, her mind diffusing with the sudden tranquility that washed over her. She thought about doing some fishing afterwards, she’d need to be fueled up for her trip home. She didn’t relax like this that often, so it almost surprised her that she was feeling this all so quickly and easily. But, that ping in her mind just faded with the hum of calmness in her head. Then, her ear flicked. She had heard something. An alert pulled at her neurons from the dredges of her tranquil attention. It yanked hard as she registered the sound her ears had picked up.

                “Where is this Sasquatch guy taking us?” An unfamiliar voice grumbled. It belonged to a male, that was for sure. Too deep and masculine to be a female’s.

    “To adventure! And maybe flowers!” Oh that voice is definitely familiar.

    Dread sunk into her head, evaporating all the peace she had finally gathered. Sabathiel. It’s not that Hedan didn’t like the tawny, but he was just… really loud. And annoying. She knew with a shudder that her time of relaxation was over just as quickly as it had begun. Getting to her paws, melting snow clinging to the long tundra strands of her fur, Sabathiel met the intruders as they came up upon her.

    They weren’t very far away and Hedan could spot them easily through the open spacing of spruce and fir trees dotted across the landscape. She saw the telltale coat of the tawny dun, along with the unfamiliar coats of the other tokotas in his company. A black piebald yeti, a greying tawny halfmane, and an orange eyed seal tokota caught the longmane’s eye. The yeti was leading the three other tokotas in Hedan’s direction. She couldn’t tell if the yeti noticed her, because his eyes were covered, but she saw the others did as the seal tokota was smirking at her, the halfmane had her cool lavender eyes on her, and Sabathiel’s tail was wagging so vigorously she worried it would slap the halfmane in the face.

    The light blue eyes met her darker ones and she inwardly cringed. Seeing the tawny dun so much, fighting off an evil spirit and its army of coyotes, and exploring the wilds in search of his handler had made the longmane soften up. A familiar face usually does that to Hedan, but still. This is not the outcome she had expected when she originally met the persistent tokota a week ago. She might even miss him after she returns home. How weird. The four tokotas were only a short distance away, prompting the halfmane and seal tokotas to stop, their attention on Hedan as they seemed to gauge her threat level.

    The yeti seemed unperturbed as he continued walking, finally stopping a few feet away from Hedan’s position, Sabathiel coming up beside him to smile at Hedan happily. His cat companion wasn’t with him this time, which felt a bit strange to Hedan, but she shrugged off the feeling as she tilted her head up and stared at the other tokotas. Sabathiel was a few centimeters taller than her, which annoyed her, but the Yeti was more eye level with her. Well, floof level. She felt a bit disturbed when she looked at the tokota’s white furry face, his eyes hidden beneath the extra fur. She couldn’t tell if he was looking at her. His snout was pointed at her but that was the only indication.

    “Who is that, Sabath?” Came a growl from the seal’s maw. The halfmane beside her wore a cold expression, her lavender eyes drifted to the side after meeting Hedan’s blue ones. Sabathiel looked back at the other male tokota, sticking his tongue out at him.

    “This is Hedan! She helped me protect Ezekiel and find Drift!” He barked. Whipping his head back around to face the longmane, he smiled and added, “This is Domiel and this Lassuarium!” He nodded his snout to the seal tokota and halfmane respectively. The three tokotas regarded each other. Domiel’s white and black spotted face shifted into a smirk. The greying tawny halfmane’s pale lavender eyes remained locked on Hedan’s, her expression stoic. Hedan gave them both a withering look.

    “Who is the yeti?” Hedan asked, dragging her eyes back to Sabathiel. She almost jumped, the tawny’s face had gotten a lot closer than before. “Back up.” She growled tersely, her tail beginning to raise.

    “I don’t know!” Sabathiel smiled after glancing at the black piebald. Domiel scoffed behind them, shaking his head in disapproval.

    “We ran across this Sasquatch while we were preparing to go fishing and Sabathiel has had us tagging along behind him for like 10 minutes.” He groused, the charm he’d exuded before replaced with irritation. Hedan shot a glare at Sabathiel for his stupidity of following a complete stranger. The yeti, who Hedan decided to refer to as ‘Sasquatch’, stuck out his tongue and began panting, his tail swishing side to side.

    “O-kaaayyy…” Hedan responded, eyes darting at Sasquatch before looking back at the other three tokotas. Lassuarium looked to the side, one ear flicking as she avoided eye contact with Hedan again. The longmane wondered why she kept switching between staring at her and looking away. A little itch scratched at her brain and she felt even more annoyed than before.

    “Why are we here anyway? Why did you lead us to this longmane?” Domiel stepped forward, bumping his shoulder against the yeti’s rump. Sasquatch closed his maw and looked over at Domiel, or at least turned his head that way, and let out a little growl. The seal tokota’s tail lifted and he bared his canines threateningly. The yeti moved closer to Hedan’s side to get away from the sneering tokota. “Oh don’t be so skittish.” He laughed.

    Lassuarium turned her eyes back on the other tokotas, her head tilting to the side slightly. Hedan grimaced at the awkwardness of the situation. She slowly began backing up, which caught Sabathiel’s attention. He tilted his head to an almost impossible degree, or at least it seemed like that, and took a little step forward.

    Hedan turned on her heal and burst into a sprint. Dashing away from the annoying tokotas. Especially that douchey seal Domiel and the stoic, silent Lassuarium. They were all weirdos and all she had wanted was some peace and quiet! Maybe running away was a bit childish, but Sabathiel is like glue in the form of a giant ball of tawny fluff. She’d never get rid of him without fleeing. She heard the crunch of snow behind her and exhaled sharply. Those idiots were chasing after her! She could hear Sabathiel’s barking somewhere behind her.

    Hedan willed her muscles faster, and ran through the woods. The wide space between each conifer allowed her some room to zigzag and luckily prevented her long fur to get caught on branches and underbrush. She feared the halfmane Lassuarium would catch up to her, since she had less fur to slow her down. But, maybe she would get away from these guys after all. With that little inkling of hope in mind, she felt her paws get swifter and lighter.

    Then, the cruel hand of fate dealt its card and Hedan felt her paws slip on nothingness, her body dipping forward as her paw pads finally connected with something solid. As they touched it, whatever had been dense broke and she felt icy water envelop her legs. She fell into the rather deep river, the patches of ice shattering around her. A trout darted away from her as she became enveloped in the cold water. She snapped at it, the instinct to fish nudging at her mind. The sensation of the frigid water barely penetrated her thick long fur, but she still felt a little chill down her spine. Especially since the impact with the water was so sudden all she felt for a moment was shock.

    “Hedan!” Called a voice from above the rippling waves. Hedan didn’t recognize it, but registered it as female so she could only assume it had been Lassuarium calling out her name. The longmane breached the water, gasping for air as she kicked her back legs and flailed her paws for something to grab. Something clamped down on her neck and she felt herself being lifted from the river, her fur dripping water as she felt solid ground beneath herself.

    Sasquatch released the back of her neck, his tongue lolling out again as he panted happily. “Are you okay Hedan? Why did you run off?” Sabathiel asked as he got up in Hedan’s business again. The longmane snapped at his face warningly with her jaws. The tawny whimpered and backed up, bumping into Lassuarium, then turned his head and apologized to her. While he did so, Domiel stepped forward, his face drawn into a scowl.

    “Why the hell are we following this girl around?” He barked, tail raised. His orange eyes burned, obviously agitated. Hedan’s lips curled and she snarled for a moment. The yeti’s mouth closed again. He tilted his head, backing away from the two opposing forces. Sabathiel was too busy fussing over a stoic Lassuarium to notice the heated glares being exchanged between the two tokotas. Then, Hedan lunged at Domiel.

    The seal tokota growled, lifting his head to retaliate with his jaws, but Hedan wasn’t aiming for his face. She grabbed the scruff of his fur and yanked, using momentum to move her body around and almost fling the slightly smaller tokota into the water. Domiel yipped in surprise before he was submerged in the frigid waters. When he resurfaced, he had a rainbow trout in his jaws. His orange eyes were wide, as though he couldn’t fully comprehend what had just happened.

    A moment of silence passed, and then the yeti burst out laughing. Sabathiel followed, stepping forward until he stumbled into the river, splashing in next to Domiel. Lassuarium narrowed her eyes, tilting her head, then sat on her haunches as she observed the following events. Hedan grinned. She had been so annoyed at these weirdos, but the feeling was being slowly replaced by an almost giddy sense of entertainment. She maneuvered herself to standing in front of the yeti, then pushed him in. With a glint in her blue eyes, she looked at Lassuarium.

    The halfmane let out a little whimper, and then got up and jumped into the river. The other tokotas were all laughing and splashing around in the water. Domiel had thrown the trout he caught on the ground before playfully shoving Sabathiel around in the water. The yeti was still laughing, loudly, the upper half of his body collapsed over the riverbank. Hedan smiled before jumping back into the water, kicking a few splashes of water at Lassuarium before going over to head butt Domiel.

    The five tokotas play fought in the water for a while, laughing and growling as they splashed around and broke up the remaining ice on the river. They scared off the majority of the fish, but they didn’t care. Eventually they did care, as their tummies rumbled and they wanted to grab some food. So they swam a little downstream after the trout they had seen before. There they found a treasure trove of fishies. With gusto, the small pack flailed around to catch the fish.

    Sabathiel snapped his jaws, struggling to catch the fish as the other tokotas got their share. He pouted for some time after many failed attempts until Lassuarium offered to share her fishing techniques. The two worked together to ‘corner’ the fish and catch them, adding them to the growing pile of prey. Sasquatch eventually climbed out of the water, his fur heavy with clinging water droplets, and when he shook himself to get rid of them the other tokotas, who had submerged, all groaned as they were covered in the spray. He laughed again, settling down by the fish pile before softly gnawing on a fish bone.

    Domiel and Hedan kept arguing as they caught fish. They often went after the same thing and ended up snarking at each other until one caught sight of another fish to chase and they both went after it. They were bonding over their little spats in a way only grumpy tokotas can, and ended up working very well together to get the fish. Although a few got away due to their head butting and occasionally snapping their jaws at each other. By the end of the day, the tokotas had gotten a good haul and played a ton in the water.

    Although Hedan had wanted peace and quiet, she ended up with a memory of fishing with some weirdos who maybe weren’t so bad after all. After they returned to the tribe with their haul, Hedan was practically dragged there, Hedan was finally ready to go home. She said her goodbyes to Sabathiel and the other members of his pack she had met, then she embarked on her journey back home. A little wistful and a little saddened, but feeling rejuvenated, and excited about seeing her loved ones again.