Need An Atlas RoF

“Hey, that tree looks pretty familiar!” Mishka exclaimed in mock worry.  

“What?!” Kodi yelled in a panic.  He stopped his tokota, Atlas, and whipped out his poorly drawn map of the area. Atlas ignored the command and turned the other direction and started walking.

“Hey, man, I was just kidding” Mishka giggled; she loved making fun of Kodi.  He was too serious and such an easy target.  And to make it even better, he’d been on edge all day because Atlas wouldn’t go where he wanted him to.

“Well good thing you said something because we’re nowhere near the campsite I planned!” Kodi replied.  
“Oh, great. Wonderful” Mishka sighed.  The sun was already setting and Kodi was so sure they were headed for a spot he thought would be a sufficient camp and here they were, who knows how far away from that very site.  

“Actually, I don’t even see this on the map…” Kodi mumbled, tugging on the reins in a semi-failed attempt to get Atlas to halt like he had asked.

“Excuse me?” Mishka said, “Are you saying we’re lost?” Although in times like these she would enjoy seeing Kodi squirm about being so wrong, but he looked genuinely concerned.  She started to worry herself whether they’d be warm enough or have sufficient shelter for the night.  Before she could get to upset, Atlas suddenly bolted leaving Kodi barely holding on and his map in the snow.  “Come on, Nook!” she encouraged her tokota, who had been absentmindedly watching the sunset during the dispute.  The vitiligo took off after Atlas and quickly caught up to the larger, slower tokota.  

As they approached the other pair, Mishka could hear the string of insults and fruitless negotiations Kodi was spitting out to try to get Atlas to stop.  After nearly a half hour of trying different methods, the tokotas were getting tired of running, and the handlers had given up a long time ago.  Atlas suddenly slowed his pace and sat down in front of a peculiar tree growing in an “S” shape.  Kodi slid off the saddle and sat in the snow, feeling like a failure but happy to be on stable ground.  Nook lumbered over to the handler and nudged him in the face with his muzzle.  Kodi, caught off guard, fell into the snow and made no effort to move.  
“Wow, that bad?” Mishka asked, amused by his look of defeat.  Kodi opened his eyes to banter back but stopped when he saw the tree.  

“Hey, I know that tree!” He yelled, quickly getting up and brushing the snow off his coat.
“Ha-ha, very funny” Mishka replied, crossing her arms.

“No, I’m serious! We’re only a couple miles from the campsite!” He exclaimed in astonishment. Bursts of semi-hysterical laughter emerged from him as he ran to his tokota and hung from his neck in a full-body hug.  “Atlas, you’re brilliant!”