EmmaEatsRainbows

            The day of the herding trial was predicted to be spectacular. Weathermen urged people to get their shorts and swimsuits and enjoy the great outdoors, be it at the beach, the lake, or on a hike through the mountains. The sun would be shining, the birds would be chirping, and there would not be a cloud in sight on this glorious day in early summer.            Unfortunately, that was all completely wrong. The sky was gray and heavy with looming thunderheads which poured down rain nonstop from the wee hours of the morning into the afternoon. The ground was slick and flooded, but that was no deterrent for the hardworking Tokotas and

            Even from her Very Secret Rock, Tok could hear the commotion down at camp.            “What do you think they’re doing down there, Mud?” The fourteen year-old asked lazily, her eyes still closed and her sharp face warmed by the sun. “Trying to figure out who’s going to lay the straw without me around?”            She was talking to her brown Tokota, a strapping young male named for the color of his fur. Mud looked up from where he was sniffing the ground nearby when he heard his name, but he did not answer. Of course not.            Tok had never been one for talking to animals, yet here s