SilverShadows-Stable

Alex double checked the saddle girth, making sure that the light racing saddle strapped to Duc d’Orleans’ back was secured, pulling it taut sharply to an annoyed grunt from the curly maned Tokota. Duc, Chevalier de Lorraine and a friend’s Miralta, Cinnamon, were all competing in the steeplechase in just a few minutes, and Alex wanted to make absolutely sure that all Tokotas and riders were as safe as he could make them in the time he had left. Marcus and the twins, Jason and Christopher, were acting as the jockeys for this event, as Alex was too heavy for a timed race like this, and all three were a mixture of excited and anxious. Thankfully, Alex and Tristan had plenty of practice calming nervous people, and Tokotas, down, though Tristan was attempting to do so with Chevalier’s companion cat in his arms, as the orange tabby would definitely attempt to run the race with his buddy. Alexandre, the cat, was particularly attached to Chevalier and did not like it when the Tokota was out of

Monster glanced over at his blind date, Kiangak, the lovely Barbary maned Dire currently ordering her dessert, and was completely thrilled at how well this particular Kindling first date had gone. Kia was perfect, she was sweet, intelligent, and easy to talk to, and Monty knew that he himself was a little awkward, so he was very happy that she was so gracious, easily carrying the conversation when Monty dropped the ball. Suddenly he realized that Kiangak had stopped talking to the waitress, with both of them now watching him expectantly, and he panicked a bit. Sorry, I was distracted, um… what was the question? Kia chuffed a bright laugh, nearly distracting Monty again, and the waitress smiled brightly. “I only asked if you would like some dessert yourself, sir?” Monster looked down at the menu again, panicking even further for a moment. The waitress waited patiently, making quiet small talk with Kiangak while Monty scanned the menu frantically. Perhaps the strawberry shortcake? It

The three Tokotas, two Dires and one Akota, eyed the entrance to the caverns in Sikatou, wariness radiating off of the three of them. All three had heard about the Maxiilamits earlier in the year and none of them wanted a repeat of what had happened then, so they were hovering at the entrance of the cave, rather than going in, debating with themselves who would go first and who would get to enter last. Finally, Aurora took charge and basically shoved Doug, who grumbled the entire time about how she did not know why she was being forced to go first, to the front of the line. Doug huffed and gave in with bad grace, ears pinned back and grumping to herself. Aurora took the second spot, with Eldritch bringing up the rear. Aurora, Doug and Eldritch had been sent, with a lot of other groups of Tokotas and handlers, to explore the mostly undiscovered caverns on Sikatou, and see if there were other creatures to catalog for the Tokota Cultural Association living inside the caverns. The TCA

Alex, carrying a basket with three Tokota pups inside, carefully pushed open the gate to Aurora Borealis’ paddock, where the big black Dire was lazing in the sun, accompanied by Tristan, who was sitting on the ground with Aurora’s head in his lap. Tristan was alternately stroking Aurora’s mane and ears, and glanced up, smiling softly at Alex and his basket. Alex walked over, careful not to trip or stumble and upset his precious cargo. They would be having an interesting afternoon already and Alex did not want to rile them up too quickly. Once Alex reached Aurora’s side, he carefully put the covered basket down, stroking a hand over Aurora’s head when she huffed a greeting at him. “Good afternoon, you two, are you having a good day?” Alex asked, settling down on his knees next to the basket, keeping himself between Aurora, who was starting to take an interest in the smells that were all over the basket and Alex, and the basket itself. Alex and Tristan both carefully redirected Aurora’s

Doug huffed contentedly to herself, carefully picking up a piece of brightly colored, heavy cardstock paper and placing it, equally carefully, on the still-wet glue she had just put down. Doug was in the process of making a set of personalized holiday cards for a pair of Tokotas she hoped to be friends with. Necklace of Cans, the handsome Barbary maned snow roan with his signature necklace… of cans, was going to get an incredibly shiny (and tacky, but Doug thought he would find it hilarious) card, featuring a Tokota silhouette made out of small pieces of aluminum foil on a dark blue metallic background, and nearly a ton of glitter. Doug knew she had been exiled outside of her kennel to work on the cards because of the glitter, as she now had it all in her mane and she had to resist shaking her head and spreading it even further. Necklace of Cans’ card was slowly drying already, just waiting for Doug to ‘sign it’ with her paw print. Doug had received a card less than a week ago from

Alex collected the Tokotas in his charge; Atka, Sabrina and Zelphia were all going with him to a local cave to explore and see what they could find. Alex had heard of massive stalagmites and stalactites, jutting from the floor and the ceiling, some nearly touching, as well as a small underground pool, which had an interesting type of bioluminescent lichen around it. Alex was as excited as the three Tokotas were, and he barely managed to throw a bareback pad and halter-collar on Zelphia before the three Tokotas took off. Alex had to scramble to get himself aboard, otherwise Zelphia would have taken off without him. She grumbled unhappily, as Alex held her back for a moment to check on the saddlebags he had strapped to the bareback pad, watching as Atka and Sabrina got more and more ahead. Satisfied, Alex turned her loose, and the big Dire charged after the other two Tokotas, catching up with Sabrina and Atka quickly enough, then the three of them ran together towards the cave mouth

With Alex and Tristan both being busy throughout the day, Alex decided to leave the new Tokota pups and Shedu cub in the care of Eldritch, Aurora Borealis, and Gyllir for the time being. He carted the heavy crate down to the kennel, herding the two Dires and single Tokota into Aurora’s kennel, before he reached into the crate and carefully lifted out their first charge. Ronja, in protest of being man-handled, went completely boneless in his grip, quickly scuttling into the kennel proper once Alex put her down. Since Ronja was just attempting to get away from the handler as quickly as she could, she accidentally plowed into Gyllir’s foreleg, causing him to stumble and nearly fall over. Ronja reeled backwards, then she looked up at the other Tokota, decided he would protect her, and dove behind Gyllir’s hindlegs to yip at Alex in annoyance from safety. Alex shook his head, amused, then reached back into the crate. The next Tokota pup was a Dire, Haven, and she was much easier to get out

Alex flipped the map open with a dramatic flourish, one that got him a very narrow eyed look from Tristan, who then promptly seized a corner of the map and whisked it away from Alex’s grasp, leaving Alex making grabby hands after it. Their three Tokotas, Aurora Borealis, Eldritch and Gyllir, huffed, amused, at their handler’s actions, while they waited for Alex and Tristan to mount up. The group of them, the Tokotas and handlers, were headed on a 350 mile journey, just as soon as the handlers figured out the best route for them to take from Sankhij Village, across the Origin Springs and finally to the Ikkuvan Playground. Tristan, finally falling for Alex’s sad eyes, sighed and handed the map back over, Alex grinning brightly as he accepted the map back, spreading it over the flat boulder they were using as a table. Alex paused for a second, looking for Sankhij Village on the map, then made an excited noise when he finally did, then he started carefully tracing the optimal trail from

What the HELL is THAT?! Aurora screeched as quietly as she could, trying not to attract the massive creature’s attention, as she dove quickly behind a fallen tumble of rocks, followed immediately by an equally freaked out Czarevich and Eldritch. All three Dires carefully peered over the fallen tower wall, looking back at the creature that had shambled out of an open area between the ruined stone buildings on the island of Sikatou. The three Dires had been sent out to the island by Artemis, to ‘fix’ what other explorers of the island had broken, specifically the release of the Maxiilamits, creatures that had been described as ‘massive, long-legged, hideous, hairy alligators with two sets of jaws’. Aurora, Ellie, and Czar had all taken the description with a grain of salt, thinking that there was no way that the Maxiilamits could be that ugly, but now all three of them were questioning their own sanity. Artemis did NOT say they were three times our size! Ellie hissed, ducking back

Chevalier de Lorriane hesitated at the heavy black metal gates that led into the notorious Gaskin’s Graveyard. He eyed the entrance distrustfully, seeing the ‘Help Wanted, Inquire Within’ sign that was just barely hanging on to the wrought iron gate, before he turned to look at his companion. Duc d’Orleans was pretty much plastered up against Chevalier’s side, head down and tail held low, obviously frightened by the Graveyard’s appearance now that the two of them were actually there. The Graveyard was really living up (or was that down?) to it’s creepy reputation for this time of year, as the stone corner walls and the iron fences around it were strung with dead ivy tendrils that had become home to a multitude of spiders and other creepy crawlies, and since Chevalier and Duc had made the bright decision to come down around dusk, a fog was starting to roll in, seemingly coming from the multitude of open graves within the Graveyard proper. Are you sure you want to do this? Chevalier