Mountain Goat Hunt 2

Archer rose and stretched, yawning before he quickly retreated back underneath his covers. His room was much colder than he had originally thought, and Archer grumbled to himself about the impending winter and cold weather before making a dash for his dresser. He dressed quickly in warm slacks and a couple layers of flannels and hoodies before walking over to the window to check the thermometer. Archer noted the frost spread across the ground and window, before glancing to check the temperature, which was a balmy 23 degrees. Displeased, Archer continued his grumbling as he stalked into the kitchen, and bent, picking up some wood that was stacked towards the door and tossing it into the small wood stove he had going during the evenings. As the fire was brought up, the living area warmed, and Archer started on his breakfast and lunch for the day. After tossing some leftover meat onto the stove to warm up and cook, Archer turned to the fridge, which was becoming rapidly redundant with the cooling days, and took out some bread, peanut butter, and jelly. He rifled through the kitchen drawers, searching for a knife, before spreading the peanut butter and jelly across four slices of bread. He packed the two sandwiches into a bag just as the meat was starting to sizzle, so Archer walked over to the pan and began to tend to it, making sure that his breakfast wouldn’t burn. A few minutes later and Archer was sitting down at his kitchen table, chowing down on the warm food and readying himself for the cold trek today. He was planning on taking his tokotas out for a hunt with a friend’s tokota as a favor, and he was thinking about heading to the rocky hill that he had visited the previous day. While a relatively easy hunt, the toktoas would still have to climb up the steep rocky cliffs to chase the mountain goat off the side of one and onto the ground below, as that was how they generally managed to ‘catch’ them, but there was the occasional time where they were able to grab onto it and drag it back down the hill with them. Archer wrapped up his thoughts about how the hunt would go this morning as he finished up his breakfast, putting the dishes by the side of the sink and leaving them for the evening when he returned. As he walked out towards the barn, a quick glance at his watch told Archer that he was relatively on time this morning. When Archer slid open the large barn door, the sounds of the tokotas inside exponentially increased, as the previously quiet ones started to pipe up when Archer walked in. He patted noses and scratched ears as he walked past, stopping outside a section of stalls that housed his newest toktotas. Archer stopped outside of Birch’s stall, rubbing the piebald merle’s nose and dodging his slobbery tongue while checking to see that his halter was secure before letting the large tokota out of his stall. Archer moved quickly on to Ghoul’s stall, greeting the brown sphinx and narrowly dodging a slimy kiss. Phantom was the last of the tokotas that Archer let roam around freely, and after the half mane roan was out of his stall, Archer turned to Pumpkin. Despite her name, this tokota had done well to inherit her mother’s nickname of ‘Holy Terror’, and was watching Archer with intelligent eyes. Not wanting to get nipped today, Archer made sure to firmly take her by the halter and clip her into the ties on either side of the barn wall to keep her head relatively in place. Archer moved quickly, brushing out the longer mane on the top of her neck, trying to get some of the bedding and tangles out of it, before moving on to tacking the brown half mane piebald up for the day. He made sure to bring extra saddlebags and rope so they would be able to take the carcass or parts of it back with them, depending on the place and whether or not he felt comfortable field dressing the kill or just taking the whole thing back with him and breaking it down at the house. With Pumpkin saddled up without too much trouble, a small miracle in itself, Archer climbed up into the saddle and rode out of the barn. Ghoul, Birch, and Phantom were waiting in the yard for them, and the group set out for his friend’s house. Moving quickly, the group didn’t take too long to get to his friend’s place, where he was supposed to pick up Fen. Archer hadn’t interacted with his friend’s new tokota yet, so he was somewhat uncertain as to how he’d mesh with the rest of the ones that Archer had brought along. While the tokotas he brought along were relatively friendly, with the exception of Pumpkin, Archer hoped that Fen wouldn’t be too much trouble integrating into the group. Archer rode up the driveway, and was greeted by Fen and his handler. Fen was somewhat wary of the group at first, but seemed to warm up to Ghoul after the sphinx made a few friendly advances. Phantom hung back, watching as Fen, Ghoul, and Birch started up a game of chase around the front yard. After a few minutes of conversation, Archer whistled for the tokotas, who all came to him, including Fen, and the group set off towards the rock hill where they would find the mountain goats. Moving quickly, the group crossed over the grasslands, heading for the hill. Fen, Phantom, and Ghoul ran ahead, chasing after the shadows of clouds as they drifted in front of the sun. Birch hung back a bit, keeping his head tilted up as he watched the clouds and sky. When the group reached the base of the rocky hill, they ranged out, heads low to the ground and sniffing around to try and find a fresh scent. Fen found one first, and yipped, drawing the rest of the group towards him. Archer held Pumpkin back as the rest of the tokotas followed Fen up the slope, not quite trusting her on the steep incline and loose rocks with him on her back. To keep the foul-mannered tokota busy, Archer walked her in small circles, eventually widening them to wander back and forth below the cliffs where Archer though the rest of the tokotas would manage to turn up. He could see specks of light colored pelts that he assumed were mountain goats, but those were a bit high up, and he hoped that the tokotas would be able to catch one, rather than drop it from that height. As Archer craned his neck up, he heard yips and growls drifting down from above, and hoped that his tokotas weren’t getting into too much trouble with the mountain goats. A few minutes later, they fell silent, and Archer walked Pumpkin in circles as the half mane grew more agitated. After five minutes, Archer saw movement out of the corner of his eye, and Phantom emerged from around the side of the cliff, proudly carrying a mountain goat, closely followed by Fen, Birch, and Ghoul. Pleased that the goat hadn’t been dropped a few thousand feet, Archer climbed off of Pumpkin and went over to shoo away Fen, who was sizing up the carcass to take a few bites out of it. He tied the mountain goat securely to Fen’s back, where he couldn’t reach it and sneak off with a leg or two on the journey home, and returned to Pumpkin, climbing back into her saddle and heading for home.