Toko: A whole day out!

It was a clear morning when Diego stepped out of his house that day. ‘Good’ he thought to himself, then today he had been invited to join a group exploration. He had told all his friends, but only Luka, his best friend, had said he’d come too if he can make it. So Diego made his way to the barn where his little pack of tokotas was housed to get his lady ready for today. He had already packed everything he might need into the saddlebags now swung over his shoulder. Diego pushed the heavy barn door open, getting greeted by excited yips and whines from the residing tokotas. As he walked up to his tokota’s Stall door, he occasionally patted a Tokota’s head or boop their nose if they had stuck out their heads to greet him. At Sky’s door he stopped, opening it to let her step into the hallway. She wouldn’t go anywhere, he could trust her. Halter already ready, he took her to the middle of the barn, where he’d brush her and get the saddle ready. This always took some time, as Sky was a longmane, brushing her until she was clean was always a challenge. But half an hour later, he sat atop of his longmane girl outside the barn in the front yard, ready to go. They agreed the meeting point was about half an hour walk from his home, so he gently nudged Sky’s sides to get her to walk in a loose but quite fast pace. She yipped excitedly, ready to meet her friend and make new friends today.

Adelaide ran her hands through her black Van Gogh female’s fur. The young energetic female watched her as she did so her golden yellow eyes bright with excitement for the day was planned to go out on an exploration. Not by themselves like they normally would do, but with others as well. Aysel wagged her tail as Adelaide walked to her side checking the saddle she had strapped to her only a few minutes ago. Satisfied with how it was on her Adelaide moved to the the Vitiligo male that waited just as patiently for her to check him over.This would be Sid’s first exploration trip that he had ever taken since setting a foot on the land Adelaide owned. He was so excited words couldn’t comprehend the rush of feeling overwhelming him. Adelaide looked him over his light violet eyes following her every movement. He wagged his tail just like Aysel had done moments ago, then before Adelaide could stop him he gave her a giant puppy dog smooch right on her face. She laughed and shoved his huge head away from her’s.
“As much as I enjoy getting kisses, I don’t feel like big wet slobbery ones are for me Siddy!” She told him, wiping the drool from her face. Once dry again she resumed checking him over. Stepping back once she was satisfied both were ready to go.
“I see they are all prepped and ready to go. You were never one to wait up for me Adelaide.”
She turned around in time to come face to face with Nickolas. His bright green eyes shining, his cheeks and nose red from the chilly air outside the barn. She couldn’t help but match his silly grin with one of her own.
“You were never one to be motivated. We do have to be there at a certain time you know, can’t keep the others waiting forever you know.”
He laughed loudly, “Always gotta be on time! Not once you can be late I doubt they would leave us anyways, we had been prepping this for days, its just a simple little day exploration. You act as if we will be gone for weeks.”
“We went on that one trip with a much larger group and we weren’t as prepared. You do remember what happened right?”
He rolled his eyes at her, of course he remembered, but then how couldn’t he so much had happened and they even had managed to bring home a curly tokota. One that seemed to have a knack at snagging things when they weren’t looking.
“Besides I didn’t pack much just a bag for each of us to carry.”
He smiled grabbing the bag she had indeed packed and left on the barn floor for him. He put it on walking past her to get to Sid, but stopping only briefly to give a strand of her blonde hair a slight playful tug.
“Let’s get going then sunshine, can’t keep them waiting forever.” he chuckled, mounting onto Sid. In a flash both him and Sid were out the barn.
Adelaide shook her head at them both, then grabbing her own bag she put it on. Going over to an anxious Aysel she mounted onto her back, nudging her gently in the sides. Aysel broke out into a sprint, racing out of the barn into the chilly tundra air. Her feet dug into the ground as she gained a faster pace. Easily catching up with Sid. Both tokota’s matched each other’s pace, their handlers guiding them to where they needed to be going.

Diego arrived at the meeting point just on time, but still happened to be the first. Punctuality wasn’t really a thing you could expect from riders, since it always depended on their animals too. He really wasn’t bothered by it. He decided to use the open field as a practice arena, letting Sky run some laps and doing some reining work with her. He had great trust in her, and she in him, they knew exactly how to work together. As a child, Diego had taken lessons in western styled horse riding. His passion for western pleasure had stuck with him, apparently.
It took about 25 minutes until Luka arrived, with his piebald male Palleas, who excitedly yipped at the sight of his friend Sky. “Hey Diego!” greeted Luka with a big smile “Already up and running, huh? Always the first one around.” he teased as Deigo took Sky’s reins to stop her run. Sky wagged her tail in excitement and approached Palleas and Luka to nuzzle the pie. Palleas whined happily, always glad to meet his friend again.
“How have you been? It’s been awhile since our last exploration, hasn’t it?” Diego asked as the two Tokotas settled next to each other, sniffing their manes and nuzzling together, like as if they were having a nice chat together.
Luka chuckled “Yeah, Indeed. I haven’t been up to much, I’ve been training with Palleas for the Rite of Fortitude. The Pup sadly lacks some stamina. I think this exploration will help him get a little more used to group travels with other tokotas.”
Diego nodded in agreement. “Yeah, its probably for the best. He ran away on our last journey, we couldn’t find him for hours. Still a favourite of mine.” he laughed and patted the pie’s head as he had looked up at his name being mentioned.
“I’m sure our other companions will arrive shortly. I’m always a little early” Diego said as he turned Sky around to face the woodland path where he expected his companions to come down from.

The duo had rode for a good half hour before they came upon the place they were to meet the others. Adelaide immediately catching sight of the two and their tokotas with them.
“See we are late.” she grumbled to Nickolas who laughed yet again at her.
“Relax its not going to be the end of the world that’s for sure.”
She rolled her eyes at him slightly annoyed with how laid back he was today. Normally he was the one fretting over things but today it was her. She took a deep breath exhaling so loudly that Aysel’s ears twitched back at the sound.
“Sorry girl” she told her, scratching the females thick mane of fur.
As they came upon the other two explorers for the day, Adelaide took the chance to gather herself. It wasn’t like this was her first exploring trip but each time they went out she always grew nervous of the things that could happen when they are out in the wide tundra lands. The tokotas, tails wagging madly raced down the small hill towards them all. Sid letting out a happy playful yip, tripping over his feet as he went. Nickolas shouted in fright, holding on tightly as Sid tumbled to the ground, a happy look on Sid’s face as he laid there taking a moment to gather himself. He was truly the biggest klutz anyone could have known, and yet his riders seemed to enjoy him none the less. Nickolas laid sprawled on the ground beside Sid, shocked from the fall they both endured. When he came to his senses he bursted out laughing. It took a lot to get him off a tokota unwillingly, and yet Sid seemed to do it with a natural talent. He sat up staring down at the goofy Vitiligo male, who stared back at him. When both had their fill of the staring contest, Nickolas rose to his feet brushing the cold snowy dirt from his backside. Sid clambered to his feet at well, leaving Nickolas behind he trotted over to greet the other two tokotas. More interested in them than their owners. Adelaide dismounted Aysel, allowing the female to go over to make an acquaintance as well.
“Sorry we are late.” Adelaide apologized, she glanced at Nickolas who was grinning like a fool at everyone.
“We are here now though so we can get going whenever you guys are ready!” He said before Adelaide could add anything that would make him look bad.
“We are ready whenever you guys are.” Diego said, speaking for himself as well as Luka.
Before starting they watched the tokotas for a few minutes. Allowing them all to get to know each other before they started off on the trip.


Sky was very excited, but seemed to behave herself well. She had a more calm approach than her companion, Palleas. While the piebald was gentle and very careful, he was very excited to be around new tokotas, yipping and whining and wagging his tail. He almost forgot at times that he still had a person on his back, having to be roughly reminded of it.
Diego chuckled and took up the reigns. “I’ll be leading today, since this is rather my field of expertise. “ he smiled “ I do lots of exploration with my girl here.” Sky whined like on queue.
Diego waited for Adelaide and Nickolas to mount their Tokotas again before sending Sky into a loosened up trott out into the wide open fields of the endless tundra. Luka grumbled something about having enough experience here on his own too, which was a lie, and nobody hear that, luckily.


The four of them spent most of the time observing wildlife, they had a race with no finish line, and found quite some interesting things laying around. Diego found some bones again, eagerly telling his companions about how fascinated he was with them. Luka had only sighed at that, having heard it all by now.