The Cake

The sun was bright and the grass shone with morning dew as Jarrell, a greying brown alpha Tokota, Kaydence, a greying sable tawny piebald dominant female, and a black cat sat together in the front yard of a small white house. Their eyes shone in the bright morning light as they stared down the street at the two approaching figures of Kana, a large tundra piebald dire female, and Keeonah, a cream tundra dominant female. Keeonah made her way down the dusty road quickly, full of energy and with a swing in her step as Kana followed along after her, clumsily tripping every once in a while over her own paws as she went.

"Good morning!" Jarrell called out, as the pair drew close. Beside the greying brown alpha male, Kaydence's tail wagged as she glanced over happily at the new arrivals.

As the two Tokotas made their way into the yard, the front door of the house opened and a young woman came outside. "Keeonah! Kana!" Calleigh exclaimed, stepping over to the two females and reaching her hand out slowly for each of the Tokotas to sniff. Keeonah responded with a happy bark, pleased to see her own handler's best friend. Kana, forgetting her own strength, nearly knocked Calleigh over as she butted her head against the young woman's chest in a friendly greeting. The young woman laughed and stroked the dire female's soft mane, before turning to wave back at Jarrell and Kaydence.

"You guys behave yourselves!" she called out, eyeing the four Tokotas, before making her way out of the yard.

Once Calleigh had disappeared down the road, Jarrell turned to look at the three Tokotas. "What should we do today?" he asked as the small black cat jumped up onto his back and began to wash one of his paws.

Kaydence grinned, her tongue lolling out of the side of her mouth. "We could go exploring!"

"Or hunting!" the small black cat yowled. His stomach rumbled, as if agreeing with his suggestion.

"We could cook something!" Keeonah blurted out, catching the others off guard.

"Wait...we could do what?" Jarrell asked, frowning slightly. Beside him, Kana was staring at the cream tundra female with a puzzled expression on her face.

Keeonah shifted her weight uneasily from one paw to the other. "We could cook something for our handlers," she said, shrugging slightly. The idea had seemed fantastic in her head - she remembered Aylen's mother often cooking things to give to other people in the village, and the people who received those gifts were always very appreciative.

"Oh, let's cook something!" Kaydence pleaded, trotting over to stand next to Keeonah. Kana nodded her agreement, although her face still bore a slightly confused expression.

Jarrell stared back at her, his face full of doubt. "How would we cook anything?" he asked. "I wouldn't have any idea where to even begin."

The small black cat coughed slightly, his tiny voice gaining the attention of the four Tokotas. "We could use Calleigh's chocolate cake recipe," he said. "I know which book its in. She says its so easy, even a moron could make it."

Jarrell frowned. "I don't think we really need to use that sort of vocabulary," he chastised the cat.

The black cat shrugged. "Her words, not mine. Do you want to make something for our owners or not?"

Against his better judgement, the greying brown alpha male turned to look at his three female companions.

"Kee?" he asked.

"Of course I want to do it!" she said stubbornly. "It was my idea after all!"

"Kana?"

The tundra piebald dire female nodded. "I would be happy to try cooking the chocolate cake recipe," she said softly.

"Kaydence?"

The greying sable tawny piebald dominant female grinned back, her tail wagging again. "Definitely! You know how much Calleigh loves chocolate!"

Jarrell sighed inwardly. Something was bound to go wrong, but he didn't have the heart to tell the three females they couldn't do what they wanted. "Alright," he said, turning to look at the black cat. "You're in charge of the recipe."

With a small chirp, the black cat jumped off the greying brown male's back and bounded off into the house. Jarrell, Kaydence, Keeonah and Kana followed. As they stepped inside, the tundra piebald dire female promptly knocked over a small coffee table. "Sorry," she mumbled, stepping swiftly backwards and bumping into a bookshelf.

At the kitchen table, the black cat was already standing in front of a large open book. "Here it is!" he yowled. "Hershey's Chocolate Cake!"

The four Tokotas crowded around the table, staring at the decadent chocolate cake displayed in the picture.

"Oh wow, that does look pretty good!" Kaydence said.

"How are we supposed to read the recipe book?" Jarrell said, his voice bearing a slightly irritated tone to it.  He was absolutely certain there was no way they would be able to make something look like the picture in the book.

"Its ok," the black cat said smugly, "I've been around Calleigh so much of the time that she's read things, I've gotten used to most of the words. Between that and listening to her when she cooks, I'll be able to help just fine."

"What do we need first?" Kaydence asked.

The black cat squinted at the lines of writing. "Flower."

"Flowers?" Kana asked, her expression confused.

"Yep. It says, in bowl, mix flower and chocolate."

The four Tokotas glanced at each other for a moment and then shrugged.

"We'll get the flowers!" Kaydence said, nodding for Kana to follow her back out into the yard.

"I'll get the bowl!" Keeonah said, turning and nosing through the cupboards until she found a large bowl.

"We need two bowls," the black cat called out. "One for the dry ingredients and one for the wet ones." Nodding, Keeonah turned to grab a second bowl and set it on the table next to the larger bowl.

With a thud, Jarrell tossed a small bag of chocolate candies into the large bowl. "Chocolate," he said.

The black cat shook his head. "You can't throw the bag in there too!" he yowled in exasperation.

With a sigh, Jarrell grabbed the bag with his teeth and shook it up and down, tossing the pieces of chocolate everywhere, but managing to get most of it into the bowl.

"Smooth," Keeonah said with a grin.

A sudden thump of paws sounded as Kana and Kaydence made their way back into the kitchen, each carrying a mouthful of flowers from the garden.

"We didn't know which type of flower to get," Kaydence said as she tossed her mouthful into the bowl. "So we just got a few of each."

Kana added her own mouthful of flowers to the bowl and the black cat nodded with satisfaction as he reached out with a front paw and carefully mixed around the pieces of chocolate, daisies, tulips, carnations and roses.

"It also says baking sofa," the black cat said with a frown.

"Baking sofa?" Kaydence asked, frowning. "I have no idea what that is."

"Oh!" Keeonah exclaimed suddenly, catching Kana off guard and making her jump. "I've heard that before. A sofa is what humans sit on - so a baking sofa must be a sofa that you bake on!" Grabbing the bowl in her mouth, Keeonah carefully took it out and set it on the couch in the living room. "There," she said, satisfaction clear on her face.

"I think we're off to a great start," Jarrell said, as the cat stared intently at the book once more.