My Tracker story

[tigress303]

I couldn't put this on the actual tracker dog forum because it's waaaay to long. (I went a bit overboard.) and so here it is. My four page tribute to a tracker.


Lilly woke to her mom shaking her. "Lilly! Lilly! Wake up! You'll be late for assignment!" Lilly leaped out of bed and looked at the clock on her wall. It was 8:45! She was supposed to be at the compound by 9:00! "I'll make you breakfast honey." said her mom as she hurried of to the kitchen.
Lilly ran to her closet and grabbed a pair of jeans and a red T-shirt. How could she have over-slept? Today was the day she would pick her tracker partner! "A tracker is a companion for life." muttered Lilly as she quickly pulled her shirt on. She could remember that saying as her teacher, Mrs. Goss had said it a million times. Lilly went to a special school for policemen and women in training. This was her first year and she had been looking forward to this day for a while. Everyone in her class teased her because she was so small. Although she was 15 she was only five foot three and very skinny. "You won't be able to handle the big tough trackers!" Sam Peterson told her. He was another student, same age as Lilly but Sam was a giant! At almost six feet tall he towered above his classmates. And incredible muscular! He had told Lilly that a good policeman is brave, strong, and able to beat the toughest criminals in a fist fight. Lilly simply said "You also need brains and a good sense of right and wrong." but Sam just laughed. As far as he was concerned all you needed was biceps the size of a terrier.
Lilly quickly ate breakfast and hurried out to the compound. She was fifteen minutes late as she came hurrying across the lawn. "I'm here!" she gasped to Mrs. Goss. Mrs. Goss simply glared at her from behind her glasses. "A good policewomen is always punctual. I expected better from my star student." she said in her snooty voice. "I'm sorry ma'am. It won't happen again ma'am." mumbled Lilly quite ashamed. "Go inside. They saved a tracker for you." said Mrs. Goss pointing to the large white building behind her. Lilly sprinted up to the doors and burst inside. "Ahh. You must be Lilly!" exclaimed a cheerful looking man. "I'm Dr. Rolen, I'll show you your tracker."
"Don't I get to choose?" asked Lilly. Dr. Rolen frowned."Well you were so late all the other kids took their trackers so we only have one left." Great. Thought Lilly miserably. I'll probably get the weak, stupid one nobody wanted. She followed Dr. Rolen down the long hallway where they turned left before entering a door on the right. "This is the holding area." explained Dr. Rolen. "It's where we keep all the trackers ready for assignment." They walked past empty cages to the end of the row. "Here he is!" exclaimed Dr. Rolen. "You're very own tracker!"
Lilly looked in through the bars. There, was the biggest tracker she had ever seen! He was an aerial and upon seeing them he stretched out his wings. "He's beautiful!" Lilly said, glad that he wasn't small and timid. "How come no one else picked him?" Dr.Rolen bit his lip. "Well... you see he's got...behavior issues..." Lilly looked at him, confused. She had taken a whole course in the police academy about training trackers and problem behaviors. She had done great with Mrs. Goss's own tracker she brought in. She had even taught her two new tricks! How bad could this tracker be if nobody wanted him? "What kind of behavior problems?" Dr. Rolen sighed and said "He won't do a thing anyone says. He knows the commands he just won't do them." Lilly thought Dr. Rolen was joking. "That's all?" she asked. "Well it's not as basic as you think." he said opening the cage, letting the tracker out. "Well here you go. You may pick his name and get to know him a bit before making you're final choice. The other kids are outside working with their tracker right now. Go join them." She nodded and looked at the tracker. Her tracker. "Magnis, that's what I'll call you." she said smiling proudly at her new partner. "It means big in Latin." Magnis said nothing but followed obediently at her side as they headed out the side door that lead to the back lawn.
They had barely stepped foot on the lawn before Sam and his friends Brady, and Greg confronted them. "Aren't you lucky? You got the leftovers!" Sam yelled. This made them all start laughing hysterically. Lilly ignored them. "I'm sure I could train him." Lilly said. Sam snorted. He motioned to his tracker. A wild brute only a couple centimeters shorter than Magnis. "Sit!" he bellowed at his tracker. His tracker obediently sat and waited for further instructions. "Let's you do that." Sam said smugly. Lilly looked right at Magnis. "Sit." she said in a weak voice. Magnis just stood there staring at her before lifting his leg on a nearby bush. Sam, Brady, and Greg roared with laughter. "What a wimp! She'll never become a member of the police!" Greg spat. Brady just snorted. Sam pointed at Magnis and said "What a stupid tracker to not even know sit!"
Magnis looked up and growled. He took a step back before charging Sam and knocking him to the ground. "Help! Help!" he cried. "Lilly's stupid tracker's attacking me!" Mrs. Goss and the rest of the kids ran over. "Magnis! Stop!" Lilly yelled. Magnis reluctantly got off Sam and returned to Lilly's side. Meanwhile Sam was telling the whole story Mrs. Goss. "I just came up to congratulate her on her new tracker and it attacked me!" he explained. "Look what it did to my hand!" He thrust out his hand. Looking closely Lilly could see a tiny bead of blood on his pinky where Magnis must have scraped him. "That's nothing!" protested Lilly, but Mrs. Goss silenced her. "It may have been just a tiny cut this time but if you don't learn how to control your tracker hr may do something much worse in the future." she said harshly. "Now go home and work on training." she said to Lilly.
When Lilly got home she was close to tears. It wasn't Magnis's fault! Sam had insulted him and Lilly could now see this was a very proud tracker. "Ok." she said to Magnis as he lay on her bed. "We're going to have to teach you some commands." She got up and walked to the other side of her room. "Magnis come!" she called in a sing-song voice. Magnis simply lifted his head and looked at her before going back to sleep. Lilly sighed. "Magnis come!" she said in a loud, confident voice. To her amazement Magnis leaped off the bed and landed next to her perfectly. "Sit!" she barked, her confidence building. Magnis sat, his muscular body straight and ears perked.
Lilly grinned. She felt a bit daring and Magnis was pretty big... Swinging one leg over his back she wrapped her arms around his neck. Magnis remained sitting but Lilly could see a flash of something in his eyes. She couldn't really tell but it looked like surprise. Lilly laughed. "What's wrong? Nobody try to ride you before?" She gave him a gently kick with her heels and Magnis effortlessly stood up. Although she had taken horse-back riding lessons back in fourth grade Lilly had never ridden a tracker before. Sure it was possible with the right sized tracker but Lilly had never met one this big. She took a deep breath and gave Magnis another nudge with her heels. He began to slowly walk forward. Lilly felt a bit wobbly and unsteady, but after a couple laps around the room she felt balanced. "Now let's go outside!" she shouted with glee. Magnis obediently went through the open door and down the hallway. As they made their way into the living room her mother dropped the cup of tea she was drinking and her father blinked a couple times as if to make sure it wasn't a hallucination. "You taught him how to ride?!" her mother gasped. Lilly shook her head. "I just got on his back and he sorta just figured out how to do it. Can you open the door please? We were going to go around the block a few times." Her father opened the door still incapable of saying anything. "Thank you!" said Lilly giving Magnis a kick. And with that they trotted out the door.
Training went smoothly after that with Lilly teaching Magnis interesting tricks she made up and Magnis showing Lilly how to be daring and brave. Her parents watched in awe as in the course of a month their timid, quiet girl transformed into a ready, courageous handler. The end of the month marked the tracker training demos. The students were expected to work together with their trackers to complete different tasks. As they arrived Sam instantly started taunting Lilly. "You and that tracker will never match up to me and Angus here." he said proudly petting his tracker. "We'll cream you in everything!"
"We'll see." Lilly said winking as she adjusted the cowboy hat she had worn to this occasion. First up was the search and rescue. A volunteer would go hide in the woods and the tracker and handler would have to find them based on an article of clothing left behind with the person's scent on it. Sam and Angus went first. He held up a jacket to Angus's nose and bellowed, "Find, Angus, find!" Angus sniffed it for a few seconds before charging of into the woods with Sam behind him. They came back about seven minutes later with the volunteer in tow. Everyone clapped. "3: 56, a very promising time." said Mrs. Goss "Now let's see if anyone can beat that." Nobody did, until it was Lilly and Magnis's turn. She let Magnis sniff the jacket for a minute until he lowered his head and looked towards the forest. "Find!" barked Lilly and Magnis was off like a shot. Lilly raced behind as the cleared bushes and small streams in a single bound. She felt one with Magnis as they raced through the trees. They didn't need to say a word as Magnis lead her over logs and around rocks. Finally Magnis stopped and barked. Lilly stopped and looked around. She could see the volunteer's shoe peeking out from behind a large tree. "Found you!" she called. The volunteer stepped out and to Lilly's surprise saw it was Dr. Rolen! "Good job!" he complimented as he stopped his stop watch. "3:41. I believe we have a new record!"
"Yes!" Lilly cried giving Magnis a big hug. Magnis wagged his tail happily and licked her face with his long tongue. As they walked out of the woods everybody clapped a bit unenthusiastically. They didn't believe that Lilly could come anywhere near Sam's marvelous time. Mrs. Goss looked at the time and smiled. "3:41! We have our winner!" she shouted. All the kids screamed and cheered. Giving Lilly pats on the back and hugging Magnis. It continued like this through the trials. Sam and Angus would set the top time and Lilly and Magnis would break it. Finally it was down to the free-style trick competition and Sam was determined not to be out done. The competition took place in a huge open field where each of the students would perform a series of free-style tricks with their trackers. Sam went first, as usual with a intricately set up agility course that he ran Angus through. Angus preformed perfectly leaping over hurdles, diving under low planks, and jumping through hanging tires. Everyone applauded. Even Lilly had to admit he'd trained his tracker well, but she had a trick up her sleeve.
When her turn came, Lilly's only setup was a five and half foot ramp she placed in the center of the clearing. She then got on Magnis's back and gave him his cue. Magnis began to race around the clearing, a bit slower because of having to carry Lilly but still fast enough to be impressive. The kids stared in shock. Suddenly they were all jealous because their trackers were too small to ride. After a couple laps around the clearing Lilly steered Magnis up towards the ramp. He hit at top speed and launched himself of it. Stretching out his wings he glided over the heads of the crowd. "They're flying!" shouted one girl as the rest stared on awe-struck. Lilly smiled. It wasn't really flying, gliding more like, but the crowd believed it. Lilly looked down and saw Sam and his friends staring up at them, their eyes bugging out of their heads. They landed gently on the other side of the crowd to wild applause. Lilly and Magnis took a bow as Sam walked up to them. The smug smirk had been completely wiped off his face. "Uh...well..." he mumbled. "Good job." He finally said. Lilly chuckled. "You too." she said holding out her hand. Sam took it and they shook. "From now on you don't insult Magnis and I won't sic him on you." she said jokingly. Sam smiled. The only actual, honest smile Lilly had seen on him. "Deal." he said happily.