In an open clearing in the midst of the "wilds", a small group of very short "Templars" is standing at something suggestion parade attention, dressed in almost stainless (almost) Temple Scout uniforms. This is one of the youngest "lances" in the Scouts, though they've already managed to accumulate a few badges.

The four Scouts are of different species. The largest (and the only boy in the group) is a Jupani named Gartuk, whose greatest passion in life seems to be filling his mouth with anything edible … or that can pass for such.

Next in age is a little Eeee named Rally. If given a chance, she's a real chatterbox. She's often in competition to give an answer to any question asked in a class – and using as many words as possible, and branching off into her life story and anything else she knows if given a chance.

Next in line would be the Paradysian Sphynx, Taliamelle. She looks like a feline, with markings on her fur that look like little heart-shaped rosettes, but she has hooves like a Rhian, and wings like a Vartan. She apparently, with much fussing, has managed to convince someone to issue her a boy's uniform instead of that appropriate for a girl. Or else perhaps she just wore out the other uniform too quickly to be replaced properly…

And last is the youngest and smallest member of the Scouts – hard to believe she's even old enough to be in this group – a little spotted feline who some might mistake for an oddly-marked Savanite … except that she is most definitely more vocal than any spotted slave would ever be. She resists the urge to stomp on a worm inching by her feet, but follows it with her eyes.

And soon approaching these junior Templars is a taller figure, dressed in a truly clean Temple Scout Denleader uniform, his white fur clean and brushed as well. He stops in front of the 'troops' and looks them over with as-yet calm amber eyes. Obviously he doesn't have kids himself, or he'd know better. "Scouts, stand for inspection, er… Gartuk? Don't eat those berries, they'll give you a tummyache." He smiles. "My name is Kani, and I'll be your Den Dad for this excercise. Have you been told what you'll be doing today?"

Heads nod and shake from side to side and then nod up and down.

Rally's hand shoots up.

Kani pauses for a moment. "Er… was that a… " He looks at Rally. "Yes? Rally, is it? Could you tell the others what we're going to do today?"

Rally cheerily squeaks, "We're going to earn our tracking badges today, by learning the ways of the wilderness, fight off ferocious wild animals, track down Babelite saboteurs, discover ancient ruins, learn about alternate fuel sources, save the world, and then after lunch, we get COOKIES!"

Gartuk licks his chops.

Kani smiles as she starts to answer correctly, then his smile turns to puzzlement. "Well… The first one is right, there, Rally. Let's not get too ambitious, okay? We'll… ah… save that for later in the week?" He smiles weakly, then starts again. "As she said, you Scouts are going to earn your tracking badges today by learning the ways of the wilderness. When someone or something moves through the forest, they leave signs of where they've been. Does anyone know what these signs might be?"

Rally's hand shoots up first again. Gartuk barks, "Cookie crumbs?"

Kani says, "Ah-ah, raise your hand first Gartuk, you know better. And no, not cookie crumbs, not unless they eat cookies while running. Good guess, though. Rally? "

Rally says, "Well, the last time we tracked someone, we followed cookie crumbs. You see, there was this evil madman bent on taking over the world and – well, actually, I didn't do the tracking, because he took me hostage, but he also stole all our cookies, as part of his diabolical master plan for domination of Rephidim's cookie supplies, so they had to follow the clues, because I guess he was hungry and decided to sample some himself, which was a good thing, or else I'd surely be doomed, as he said he wanted me to be his apprentice and I just would be no good whatsoever at this taking-over-the-world business… "

The little jaguar nods.

Kani's jaw drops, and then his ears just swivel quietly for a moment. "Rally… That's… um… very nice, thank you, really. I don't think we'll be tracking any… ah… cookie thieves today? Good work, though, Scout Rally." He manages another smile, though his eyes are starting to look a little less bright. "Taliamelle and Pouncer? What do you think might be some signs that someone's gone through the woods?"

Pouncer stomps on the worm that has been inching past her feet. "GISH!" she squeals.

Rally just smiles at Kani's praise.

Taliamelle just sighs at Pouncer's exclamation. "Dunno."

Kani looks at Pouncer. "Well… I guess smashed worms might be a good clue someone's been around… ? And Taliamelle, you don't know of anything?" He sighs and takes a deep breath. "Well. To earn your Tracking Badges, you're going to have to learn to look for the signs that someone's passed by. Now, I want you to think about this… when you run through the woods, you leave footprints, you break sticks, you knock down leaves and make holes in hedges, right? And so does everyone else, especially someone who's running, maybe even… " He pauses and grins, looking around mysteriously, then bending down and stage-whispering. "… an Enemy of the Temple, who you might be chasing after." He stands back up again, still smiling. "So I know that you'll all try your hardest to track the evil badguys, right?"

All of the scout heads nod, not quite in unison, but enthusiastically enough.

Kani thinks… "Let's imagine… that they stole your cookies, and you want to get them back and bring the thief to justi… er… tell on them, I mean. Okay, now who wants to go first?"

All four hands shoot up, though Gartuk and Rally pretty much tie by a split second for having theirs up first.

Kani says, "Alright then, Rally, since you answered my questions so… " He coughs. "… fully, why not have Gartuk go first? "

Rally sighs dejectedly, while Pouncer makes a raspberry sound. Gartuk just puffs out his chest proudly. "What do I do, sir?"

Kani turns towards the woods on one side of the clearing, then gives a short, sharp bark… a signal to a volunteer out of sight of the clearing to start running. "We're going to wait a minute, Gartuk, and then you're going to try to track someone through the woods. Use your nose, look for signs. I'll follow you and give you hints if you need them, or just watch."

Gartuk makes a long sniff of the air. "I've got a GOOD nose!"

The Keiltyn turns back to the other three Scouts. "The rest of you will stay here, I'll be back soon. Don't wander off, don't touch strange plants… or eat them either. Remember you're getting cookies later." { And Danae will kill me if they get into trouble, too, } he thinks.

Kani nods to Gartuk and smiles. "Good. Remember to use it. Alright… Let's go. Track his scent and look for clues at the same time. Right at the edge of the woods here, I'll follow."

The bat, sphynx and jaguar all nod, though with a bit of reluctance. Gartuk, however, bounces off into the woods, sniffing around as he goes.

Kani follows Garuk. "Good job… Have a scent yet? I've heard you have quite a nose."

Gartuk looks up and loudly remarks, "EWWWWW! What a stink!" He puts his nose back down and sniffs a few more times … and dashes off further into the woods.

A faint scent – detectable only by those with keen noses – hints at something a bit foreign to the forest. It smells of sewage, intermixed with cheap cologne. Buried somewhere deep underneath the other scents is a trace of … fox.

Kani keeps chasing after the Jupani. "Remember to look up too, watch for footprints, and listen. You don't want to run right into them!" He sniffsniffs himself, and flattens his ears. { First Ones, what kind of fox could live smelling like that?! }

Gartuk dives under a fallen log, and rushes along, temporarily outpacing Kani, but soon gives away his position with a loud howl … before presumably dashing along again.

Kani hurdles the same log, then perks his ears and dashes towards Gartuk's howl. "Howl when you've found them, Gartuk, don't want them hearing you coming!", he shouts. "Howls are good, not all the time though, quiet approach!" He pads up to where Gartuk howled from. "Still got the trail?"

Gartuk sniff-sniff-sniffs around the base of a large tree. "Yep!"

Kani pauses and flicks his ears. "Okay, keep going then, Scout. Good work."

Above, some of the mid-range boughs of the tree shake a bit too heavily to be caused by a Creen. A flash of orange can be seen, as something is moving out on one of the thicker limbs toward the next tree.

Gartuk looks up to Kani, tail wagging. "Okay!" He sniffs at the air, looking at this way, and then that.

Kani freezes at the sound and looks up, then quickly glances at Gartuk. He smiles. "Very good, Gartuk! Now point him out to me, and you've earned your badge. Excellent job."

Gartuk sniff-sniffs, again, then lets out a slight whimper. He sniffs at the tree again, then licks at a spot where some of the bark has been ripped off recently, resulting in some fresh sap that is still congealing. He spits distastefully. "Ptoo! Bleah!"

Kani sighs and rolls his eyes a little. "No, he's not in the tree, Scout. Now think… the trail ends at the tree. Where could he have gone?"

Gartuk sniffs at the tree again, then looks up. One can almost see the gears turning in his head. He then lets out an excited bark, and leaps up, grabbing at a low-hanging limb, and starts scrabbling up the tree.

"AIEEEEEEE!" cries out a voice from far out on a limb, which begins to shake more vigorously than before.

Kani smiles widely. "Perfect! Whoops, no, don't need to climb the tree, Gartuk. We don't need Scouts with broken paws." He moves quickly to try to hold back the Jupani, then blinks and looks up. "It's alright, he's a Scout!… Gartuk, NO!"

Gartuk barks a few times, and scrapes off more bark, but at last relaxes in Kani's grip, whining. There's a snap from somewhere up in the tree, and the branch descends by several degrees. "YIIIIIII!"

A foppish-looking Fox dangles from the limb, holding onto it with both arms and his legs. A lute slung over his back dangles by a strap, and a floppy hat with an oversized feather stubbornly clings onto his head. A fluffy tail flops from side to side.

"I surrender! I SURRENDER!" cries out the Fox.

Kani, unable to mutter a curse because of the cub present, runs off under the tree and looks up. "Are you alright?" He blinks… then blinks again at the fox's attire. { What the heck is that? } He stares for a minute, at a loss for words. "Er… Calm down! It's just training, no-one's going to hurt you! Calm down and climb back up on the branch, slowly. Why'd you climb up that high anyway?" { And where do they get these volunteers? }

The Fox's predicament seems to solve itself, after a fashion, preceded by a rather loud CRACK eminating from the depths of the wood. With a howl of protest from the Fox, and a splintering of disease-rotted wood. The tree rocks, the bough breaks, and down comes Fox, lute and all.

Kani judges the foppish fox's size as small enough to catch and moves to be ready just in case… and just in time, apparently! He spreads his arms and gets ready for a catch-and-tumble.

The short foppish Fox is caught by the quickly-acting Keitlyn, and the two roll onto the ground. The former gasps for breath, his eyes wide from shock.

Without a doubt, the foppish Fox is the source of the disagreeable mixture of scents.

Gartuk pads up, tail wagging. "Did I do good, huh?"

Kani oofs! as the impact tumbles him, but manages to land right, rolling with the smaller fox. He takes a moment to catch his breath, wind knocked out of him, and nods weakly to Gartuk as he sees him. "Yes, you've earned your badge, Gartuk, don't … worry. Good job." He rfs and lifts the smaller fox off of himself, wrinkling his muzzle. "Did you fall in the sewer, whoever you are?"

The Fox gets back up and sniffs indignantly. "I did not fall into the sewer. Not recently, anyway. I am a proud member of Sewer Maintenance Crew Number Thirteen, I'll have you know."

Gartuk laughs impolitely.

There is some rustling from the underbrush nearby…

Kani looks incredulous, but all the same glances back at Gartuk. "Now, now, it's not proper for a Scout to make fun of the less fortunate and less skilled members of our society. They have their purpose." He gets to his feet and chuckles softly. "Even the sewer vermites. Who climb far too high in trees. That was lucky, whatever your name is, fox… Please don't do that again, alright? And… " He stops and swivels his ears towards the brush.

Before you can say "AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEE", suddenly a couple of small winged creatures spiral out from amidst the trees, with cries of "GOTCHA!", while a somewhat smaller and non-winged creature bursts out of the bushes. All three of them charge the fox. The wingless spotted feline grabs the Fox's hat – prompting a yowl of protest from the latter – then stomps on it. "GISH!"

(Fortunately, it is not on the Fox's HEAD at the time.)

The bat and sphynx, meanwhile, sit atop the squirming Fox, giggling and tickling him mercilessly.

Kani jumps! back a few paces, then flattens his ears. "Scouts! I thought I told you to stay out of trouble?! Yes, you're supposed to track the fox, but with me watching and all, and… " He gets a resigned expression, as if he's just realized there's no hope of getting them to start all over. And his eyes just look… tired. "Never mind, I… guess you've earned your badges, all of you. You found him, and took him down well too. Initiative is… something respected. Good job. Just don't make it a habit, please?" He smiles weakly.

Pouncer pads over to the helpless Fox, and puts her finger on his nose. "GOTCHA!"

Rally and Taliamelle, meanwhile, give Kani obedient head-nods from where they comfortably sit on the Fox's back (now that he's stopped squirming and just whines quietly).

Kani pads over to the hat. "I think you killed it well, Scout Pouncer. Does this run in your family? Your mother 'gish'ed things this well when she was your age?"

Pouncer looks up at Kani with wide eyes, as if contemplating something, then nods up and down. "GISH!"

Rally squeaks, "So, do we drag the suspected terrorist back to the Temple for questioning?" Gartuk barks, "Cookie time!"

Kani shakes his head at Rally. "Normally we would, but I think this one gets put back down into the sewers. He's not really a real badguy, Rally."

Kani settles down near the cubs. He doesn't seem to mind them sitting on the fox, though… probably figures they're not doing any harm, and it's keeping them in one place. "Alright, good work, scouts. As I said, excellent initiative. I will be sure to tell your parents of your tracking and hunting skill when I see them."

The scouts collectively cheer. "Yayyyyyy!"

Kani pauses for a moment. "Rally, Gartuk and Talamielle, I know who your parents are. Pouncer, have your parents been around the Temple recently? I remember hearing something about your mother looking just like you, but I've never seen either of your parents. Is she or your father somewhere close by? I'd like to tell them what a good job you've done today, as I will with the rest of you."

Even before Kani can finish his statements, Taliamelle shoots off, squealing, "I getsa cookies FIRST!" "Oh no you DON'T!" protests Rally, who takes flight as well. Gartuk has to take the more direct route of charging through the underbrush. This leaves Kani with Pouncer. Pouncer just looks after the others, then looks back to Kani, frowning, fidgeting with her hands behind her back.

Kani smiles warmly. "Excellent job 'gish'ing that hat, Pouncer. If that had been an enemy's stolen goods… er… cookies they were carrying, you would have recovered them intact. I would like to tell your parents, I'm proud of you, Scout. Is your mother in the city, or is she away? I remember she wasn't at the last meeting of mothers to discuss cookie sales, at least I didn't see her… But I've heard she looks just like you."

"No Mama," Pouncer says. Then, she shifts to Vartan, scrawking, "Zoltan Papa!"

Kani blinks, and then nods. "Ahhh… I remember. Your adopted father is Zoltan. I'm sorry, Pouncer… you never knew your mama and dad?"

Pouncer swallows hard, looking as if she's about to break into tears. Then, she suddenly breaks out into a long stream of bawling gibberish in some unknown tongue.

Kani blinks again, trying to memorize at least a few of the strange 'words' for later reference… He winces and kneels down next to Pouncer. "I'm sorry, Pouncer… I didn't mean to upset you… I don't remember my parents too well either, so we're even, okay?" He looks down, not wanting to ask the cub any more questions, she's already upset. "Want to go get lunch and some extra cookies?"

Pouncer sniffles, wiping at her eyes. "Want Papa."

Kani nods and tenderly scoops up the cub, offering the tip of his soft tail to dry her tears. "Okay," he whispers. "I'll take you home to Papa as soon as I we get back, okay? Have a nice nap?" He pads after the other cubs, holding Pouncer gently, his eyes a bit pained… He needs the information, but he's not about to ask an innocent cub anything that makes her cry… So instead, he manages a soft smile down at her. "And then you can have him sew your new Tracking badge on your uniform. You earned it."

Pouncer manages a faint, hopeful smile up to Kani as she goes along with him. The Fox seems to have made his own departure, unannounced, at some point during the little cub's outburst. By the scent trail that can be picked up without even sniffing at the ground, he must have made a beeline for the same direction the scouts did. (Perhaps he hopes he has a shot at some cookies, too.)

Out of the corner of his eye, though, Kani notices a shadow that registers as a silhouette of a vulpine form. However, the shadow vanishes when he looks. Pouncer seems to notice nothing, content to just go along with Kani, with promises of going back to "Papa" again…