Anana

Anana was born in the Qammatiq Flats to a Musk Ox Tribe family. Her parents were riding trainers, and she grew up surrounded by tokotas. She built a career for herself working with disabled tokotas, or those with behavioural problems; often, they had been confiscated from irresponsible owners.

In her late teens, she became besotted with an older man from the Bear Tribe; a Pack Leader who studied dire tokotas in the Tartoks, and trained people in handling them. He returned her affections, and they married – against the wishes of her parents, who felt he was too old, and too dangerous. Together, they set up a rehabilitation centre for dire tokotas who had been kicked from the Desna pack; the tokotas had often sustained injuries, and needed nursing back to health before they could be released into the wild again – or, in some cases, re-homed with handlers. The couple earned a great deal of respect for their work in the Tartoks. Soon, they had their own pup, Aujak.

However, Anana’s husband was not as faithful to her as he was to his tokotas. He had an affair with a woman he was training to work as staff in the sanctuary. Stung by his betrayal, Anana announced her intention to leave him; he refused to allow her to take Aujak, and cut her out of the business they had built together completely.

After her divorce, Anana adopted a nomadic lifestyle, travelling from place to place, as nowhere felt like it could be a permanent home. She resumed her work with disabled tokotas, and was soon offered a place on the Council for her efforts. She accepted, but even this honour could not fully satisfy her; the absence of her son hung over her like a dark cloud, and she wrote to him regularly, but was never sure if he received the letters.

Several years later, she received a proposition from a respected businesswoman and tokota trainer; to open a sanctuary for tokotas in Napaaktuk, similar to the one she had run with her former husband in the Tartoks. This sanctuary would provide rehabilitation for injured tokotas, puppy training, and breeding services, as well as offering classes for people wishing to become tokota handlers. The prospect excited Anana, and she accepted. Together, she and Selena approached the Council for funding, and were granted it; they set about building their business in the grasslands of Napaaktuk.

Under Anana’s leadership, the Napaaktuk Sanctuary thrived. It became a sanctuary for her too; she found happiness among the verdant landscape, surrounded by wildflowers, towering firs, and rushing rivers. The place was a world away from the harsh, snowy peaks of the Tartoks, or the biting cold and stillness of Qammatiq, and her bad memories began to haunt her less frequently.

One sunny morning, Aujak appeared at her door with his new tokota pup in tow. Fast approaching adulthood, he had fallen out with his father, tired of being neglected in favour of work. He asked to live with Anana, who happily accepted.

Anana's Tokotas