Whoo, second chapter :D! So it's a little bit late, meh... I hope it's okay anyway xD!
Anyway, enjoy~!
*** Chapter Two : The Spotted Ones ***
The following day passed slower than a snail slowing down in a curve. The Elders still wouldn't give in to let Almasi or any other pack leader, gather her hunters and set out to rescue Kafeel from the Spotted Ones. The orders were clear: nobody leaves the village, no exceptions.
Nobody in the village took those news well, especially not Gasira and her family. Gasira were first struck with sorrow over the fact that she would never see her mate again, but then rage came over her and she marched right up to the Councils hut and confronted the Elders. But no threats, pleas or arguments in the world could change their minds and she had to leave, disappointed and brokenhearted.
And for the two cubs, Mteremo spend the biggest part of the day thinking about the Spotted Ones, currently lurking about in the jungle.
"Dad, I wanna meet the Spotted Ones!" He burst out randomly when they were back in the hut. The long, dull day was finally coming to an end, the Great Mother was letting her final rays of sunlight color the horizon blood red and purple, before leaving the night to one of her brothers to guard.
Mwindaji turned with a frown to his son. "Why in the Great Mothers name would you wanna do that?" He asked.
"Maybe he's just as foolish as his father once was?" Almasi said teasingly, who had nothing better to do and to keep herself from becoming too upset and break something else she had spent the day with her brother and his two cubs. She chortled out a laugh at the bemused look Mwindaji gave her and returned the look with a playful punch to the shoulder. "C'mon, I'm just teasing with you, Win!"
"But dad, why are we so afraid of the Spotted Ones? Really?" Mteremo asked his dad and tilted his head curiously.
"We're not afraid of them, Mteremo...!" Mwindaji said, but before he could continue Mteremo talked again:
"Then why are we hiding from them?"
Almasi glanced at her brother. "Exactly my question too..." She mumbled bitterly.
Mwindaji ignored her and shrugged. "We're not hiding from them because we're afraid of them. We're avoiding any further conflict with them. The Elders said that a counter attack could ignite a war between the Brown Ones and the Spotted Ones, and that's the last thing this jungle needs! The Spotted Ones, you see, aren't like us... They're... strange. They aren't afraid to go to war with another people just because some petty thing, really."
"You mean they're bad people?" Etana said, more of a statement than a question.
"Nah, I wouldn't call them bad people, they're just different from us, that's all!"
"I would call them bad people, Win!" Almasi snorted and crossed her arms. "You're not forgetting what they did that caught us in this mess in the first place?! They ATTACKED two from our tribe without any provocation! Two of my best hunters on top of it all!"
"I know, Al. But I just can't help but to wonder why? I mean, they must have had some reason for their actions..."
"I know their reasons: because they're sick sadomasochists who...!"
Mwindaji interrupted his sister with a scowl and held up two fingers. "Almasi, two things, alright?One: we are are in no position to be insulting the Spotted Ones, our mother was one, remember?" Almasi nodded and began to grind her teeth. "And two, before you go on, my kids are sitting right next to you. Just so you know..."
Almasi glanced down and true; Etana and Mteremo were sitting between the two adults and looked up at their aunt with puzzled faces. "Oh... Sorry..." She flicked her eyes back to Mwindaji. "But you still called them kidnapping Kafeel a 'petty thing', didn't you"
"I didn't say THAT was a petty thing!?"
While the two adults had a very one-sided argument, where Almasi barely gave her brother time to talk back, the two cubs rolled their eyes.
"I still wanna see a Spotted One..." Mteremo said lowly and tilted his head slightly to the side. Etana frowned and shook her head, but didn't answer.
…
Mteremo couldn't sleep that night. He lay awake for hours, just thinking about the Spotted Ones. Eventually he couldn't take it any longer and sat upright and shot a quick glance Etana, who was still sleeping soundly.
"Etana?" Mteremo hissed, but that wasn't enough to wake his sister enough. Not even close! He sighed and sneaked up to her and rustled her shoulder. "Etana?" He repeated a bit louder. This time he got a half conscious groan in response. He sighed and covered her nose with his thumb and index finger. Since her air supply got cut off, it didn't take long until she jolted awake with a deep gasp for breath.
"Mteremo, what do you think...?!" She wheezed and glared angrily at her brother, who hurried to hush her and threw a nervous glance at their father. When Mteremo saw that he was still asleep, he drew a relieved sigh. "What do you want, Mteremo?" Etana whispered, angry to have been awoken in the middle of the night.
"Are you coming with me?" Mteremo asked and grinned mischievously.
"What? Where? It's in the middle of the night, Mteremo!"
"I'm going to track down the Spotted Ones!"
The two cubs went silent for a couple of seconds, before Etana raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Uh, yeah right. Goodnight, Mteremo..." She said with a yawn and snuggled down under the blanket again.
"I'm serious, 'Tana!" Mteremo hissed and yanked away his sisters blanket. "I've been thinking, the Spotted Ones have probably heard that we Brown Ones won't leave the village until they're gone, so they're not expecting anyone to find them. I bet they're so reckless even WE could track them down in the middle of the night!"
"No, Mteremo!" She said with a hint of fear in her voice. "Father has said that NOBODY is allowed to leave the village! He'll be really mad if he notices we're gone!"
"He won't notice a thing!" He scoffed and did a wave with his little paw. "We're just go out there, watch the Spotted Ones for a couple of minutes or so, and then we'll be back before the village wakes up! It's childs play!"
Etana slowly shook her head. "No! I-I don't wanna go! I've got a bad feeling..."
"What, you're chicken or something?" Mteremo smiled slyly and raised an eyebrow at her.
"Me? Chicken?" She snorted. "Never!"
"Prove it!"
"No, I... I don't know, Mteremo..."
"Chicken, 'Tana!"
"I'm not a chicken! It's just that the jungle is dangerous at nights, and the Spotted Ones sounds so mean and...!"
"Bok bok bok!" Mteremo began to cackle and scratch with his foot in the ground.
She threw him an angry look and gritted her teeth. "Alright, alright!" She said with a low mutter and held up her finger in front of the victorious Mteremo. "But you owe me one!"
…
By making less noise than a mouse on a thick carpet, the two cubs sneaked out from the village and ventured into the dark jungles. It was dead silent in the dark rainforest, the only sounds that were heard were the soft rustling of leaves as the cubs paws moved over the surface. They were lucky; this night it was time for the Great Mothers oldest brother, Big Eye, to keep a watch over the mortal world. His eye, the big round, pale yellow disc, was lighting up the world and allowed the two adventurous cubs to see, even if it was in the middle of the night.
Big Eye was the friend of all peoples, both day dwellers and nocturnal, as he allowed them to see through the nights. But he could also be deceitful, and light up what should be hidden in the darkness. Like the two disobedient cubs, out to search for a pack of hostile Bouda hunters. Spotted Ones, to be precise.
Etana kept looking over her shoulder and jump high up in the ground for the slightest sound or motion among the plants. Mteremo frowned at his antsy sister, but didn't open his mouth until she returned the frown and cocked her head. "What?"
"You're freaking out!"
"No, I'm not!" She protested and put her hands on her hips. "It's just that it's dark... and maybe a little bit spooky... Besides, we've been here for hours already, and we haven't found ANY signs of the Spotted Ones! If it weren't for Gasira, I wouldn't even believe there ARE Spotted Ones here at all!" She shook her head and nodded back to where they came from. "We should go back home, Mteremo. IF dad finds out we've sneaked out...!"
"No, I'm not going back! Not yet!" Mteremo folded his arms across his chest. "I KNOW there are Spotted Ones here somewhere, we just haven't been looking for the right things, perhaps..." He scratched his chin while he thought.
"Well, I'M going home now!" Etana snorted and turned around. "I'm going to go home and if dad asks where you are I'll tell him EVERYTHING!"
"Huh? Sch!"
"And he'll be REALLY angry when he finds out that it was YOUR idea!"
"Etana, SCH!"
She turned back around and narrowed her eyes at her brother. "Did you just shush me?"
Mteremo stood completely still, his ears were perked up and listened intently. Suddenly he snapped out of his trance-like state and leaped at Etana, pushing her into a nearby bush while he himself swiftly jumped up in the nearest tree. Still without uttering a single word of explanation to her.
"Hey! What's the big...?" Etana scrambled up from the ground and growled at the tree, where her brother was hiding. But she didn't get to finish the sentence until a squealing scream was heard and the sound of hooves drumming against the ground got closer and closer. She barely managed to dive in under cover again as a young warthog came dashing from the trees. It wasn't very large, but it wasn't a piglet either, and it's tusks had just began to grow out from its jaw. Both Etana and Mteremo gasped when they saw the broken off spear buried deep in it's shoulder.
Suddenly, a tall dark figure emerged from right in front of it, making it stop dead in it's tracks and do a sharp turn, only to find itself surrounded by two more shadowy figures. The warthog didn't see another way out, so it went with plan B: attack as best defense. It snorted and lowered it's head, waiting for it's enemies to make their move. The three hunters stood immobilized for a couple of heartbeats, just judging their prey, before one of the leaped at the warthog with a sharp dagger in her hand. The warthog was prepared for just that to happen, so it quickly stepped out of the way and when the hunter staggered to regain her balance, the warthog did a sweeping movement with its head and jammed it's stubby tusks into the hunters side with a hollow thud. The hunters screamed in pain as she was knocked to side, and the warthog squealed in success, but it's victory didn't last long before the two other hunters had, in a flash, leaped at the warthog and stabbed it with identical daggers as the first one. The young warthog screamed in pain and began to hop and buck wildly to get rid of it's attackers, but the two hunters stubbornly clung to his back with their daggers still buried to the hilt.
It didn't took long for the warthog to get exhausted due to the blood loss and it's tries to shake off the hunters became weaker and weaker, until it finally went down on it's knees, panting heavily and grunting in fear. One of the hunters quickly and swiftly jumped off, withdrew their dagger and used it to cut the warthogs throat, putting an end to the hunt. The other hunter jumped off as well and staggered away while the warthog took a few, trembling steps, before it collapsed to the ground and lied still, occasionally twitching as life left it's body.
Mteremo leaned dangerously far out on the branch to get a closer look at the three hunters. Suddenly, a cloud that had been blocking Big Eye moved and allowed the gods eye to once again lit the land with it's pale light, revealing the identity of the three mysterious hunters: Spotted Ones. Three hunters of the Spotted tribe. Etana whimpered quietly in fear and backed further in underneath the thick vegetation, while Mteremo whispered an amazed "wow!" and almost fell off the branch.
They were pretty similar to each other, with stubby and spiky black mane and red eyes. Their fur had a soft, pale yellow color and everywhere, except their stomachs, were covered in black spots.
Two of the Spotted Ones panted heavily while they watched their prey finally succumb to death. The third one, the one who got headbutted in the side, slowly got up on shaky legs and clutched at her pained ribs. She tried to make her way over to the other two Spotted Ones, but the pain in her side caused her to stagger and stumble over her own feet.
"Hey, Acacia, are you okay?" One of the hunters, the one who had finished off the warthog, asked and slowly made her way to her wounded comrade.
"Back off, Chiku!" Acacia, the wounded one, growled and almost went back down on her knees when a stabbing jolt of pain coursed through her torso. "I-I'm just fine!"
"No, you're not, Acacia!" The third hunter, a male, answered sternly. He sounded older than the two females and in the moonlight the two cubs could see a silvery, intricate pattern of scars snaking it's way down his right arm. Both of the cubs shuddered at the sight. Damn, that must have hurt!
They had heard that warriors and hunters of the Spotted tribe sometimes decided to get scars like that carved into their skin when they had done something great or brave and wanted to brag about it. There were even some people who had that as a job, they were known as skin-carvers. Apparently, having the right to bear carvings like that meant that you was a great and fierce person, Mteremo and Etana was just happy that they didn't do that in the Brown tribe! It's probably excruciating to have someone digging patterns in your arms or back with a knife like that!
"Chiku!" The male barked, the other female snapped her head to him. "Take Acacia back to the camp. I'll take this creature back..." Chiku nodded and went to help the wounded female back, but not without struggle.
"I said back off, Chiku! I'm fine! I can walk by myself!" Acacia protested wildly and tried to squirm away from the other Spotted One. "Wasaki! I'm fine! Tell her I can go by myself!"
The male, Wasaki, shook his head. "No, I've heard that warthogs could break all your ribs by just nudging them, we can't take any risks here!"
Eventually, the two females disappeared off into the dark jungle, Acacias wild protests were echoing among the trees and plants until Chikus irritated voice drowned out Acacias complaints. "I swear to the Great Mother, Acacia, if you hit me one more time I'll tie you to a tree and leave you here for the mosquitoes! We'll see how much you hate the jungle then!"
"Go dig a hole, Chiku!"
"And I'll bury you in it if you don't stop flailing around so much, Acacia!"
Wasaki chuckled and turned to the warthog. It was only slightly longer than him from snout to tailtip, but probably weighed at least twice as much. He sighed and shook his head. "There's gotta be a better way to get this thing through the woods..." Suddenly his hand flew to his neck with a loud swat. "Damn these mosquitoes, I HATE the jungle!" He muttered bitterly to himself as he flicked the squished bloodsucking little insect away and tied the warthogs front hooves together with a strong vine before dragging it away after the two females.
Mteremo hesitated for a while, before he slid down the trunk and followed the Spotted Ones. He didn't get far until Etana grabbed his hand and held him back.
"And WHERE do you think you're going?! We gotta get out of here!" She hissed as quiet as she could, in case the Spotted One still were within earshot.
"Why?! I wanna follow these guys! What if we find like, their secret lair or something?" Mteremos round, red eyes literally sparkled with curiosity and excitement. "And did you see the way they were hunting that thing down?! They weren't using traps like we do, they just jumped on to that thing!"
"Yeah, that's how they hunt on a savannah, now let's go already!" She whimpered and looked around, afraid in case they decided to return. "I don't wanna be here anymore, Mteremo!"
Mteremo yanked his arm back from his sister and frowned. "Fine, chicken out then, chicken! I wanna know more about these guys!" And with that he darted off after the Spotted male with the warthog, leaving Etana alone in the jungle.
She nervously looked around before wincing and ran after her little brother. "If we survive this, Mteremo, I'll kill you!"
…
Trying to stay unnoticed by the Spotted One, dragging the young warthog behind him, proved to be more difficult than they both anticipated. His senses were sharp, and it didn't take much for him to halt and snap around, scanning his surroundings. But he never spotted them, luckily. And by the end when he reached their camp, he was pretty much paranoid and jumped for every little sound.
"Gee, I really hope we'll leave this jungle soon!" He said to the others and loaded off the prey by the campfire. "This place gives me the creeps, and not to mention all these darn mosquitoes!" To prove his point, he swatted a mosquito that landed on his arm.
By the campfire sat another four Spotted Ones, three females and another male. One of the females was checking up on the wounded one, Acacias, injury, while the third female, Chiku, sat with her knees pulled up to her chin and rocked back and forth, occasionally throwing glances at a group of tied up critters underneath the massive roots of an old, mossy tree.
"Don't you worry, Wasaki..." The female tending to Acacias wounds, probably their leader, said. "Biton has just finished the raft that will take us down the river to our rendezvous point"
"About time too!" Chiku mumbled and scratched a point on the shoulder where a mosquito just bit her.
"Hey!" Biton, the other male, said like he just got his feelings hurt. "It could have been done faster if you helped, but nooo! You just HAD to go hunting, didn't you?!"
"Are you blaming me for YOUR sluggishness?!" Chiku snarled at Biton.
"Oh don't you two start now again!" The leader snapped with a sharp growl, stopping the fight before it began.
"But we're siblings, it's our job!" Chiku and Biton said in unison, and got a stern look from the other three Boudas.
Meanwhile, Mteremo and Etana were watching them from their hiding spot underneath a fallen, rotting tree trunk. Mteremo was busy studying the Spotted Ones with poorly concealed fascination, so when his sister nudged his elbow and pointed at the captives, he jumped in surprise and nearly yelped.
"Look, Mteremo! There's Kafeel!" She said, and after a while, he spotted the familiar Brown One.
Kafeel looked really beat up, and one of his ears had a big, bleeding hack in it. His arms were tied to his back, just like the others. He was every now and then throwing frightened glances at the pack sitting by the campfire, and whenever he made eyecontact with Chiku, he hurried to look away.
Suddenly Chikus mouth was curled up in a grin and she got up from the campfire. She made her way to the captives and sat down right opposite to Kafeel, who tried to scoot away from the Spotted female.
"Hi, are you gonna talk to me now?" She said, sounding optimistic, but all she got was a frightened glare from Kafeel. She sighed and shook her head.
"Leave that guy alone already, Chiku!" Their leader said with a warning tone in her raspy voice. "No idea getting attached to him, you know that they're for the Strangers, not us!" She rolled her eyes. "Besides, you've already got a mate!"
"Yeah, but not for much longer! Remember how he looked when we left? That bastard's more dead than alive, all thanks to that zebra kick to the skull!" Chiku said and cocked her head at Kafeel, her grin seemed to grow wider. "But that's alright, I never liked him anyway..." She went down on her fours and moved a skip closer to Kafeel, causing him to back off even further until his back made contact with the tree. Chiku giggled and ran a finger along Kafeels nose. "I gotta admit, you're kinda cute! For a Brown One!"
"For the love of the Great Mother, Chiku! What did Tanith just say?!" Biton groaned, got up from the ground and stretched his arms. "Alright, I'll be right back!" He said and turned around.
"And where are you going, Biton?" Wasaki said with a suspiciously arched eyebrow.
"Nature calls!" Was Bitons answer as his back vanished into the jungles darkness.
"Hey, stay away from the leaves with a shiny upside this time!" Tanith shouted after him and shook a fist. "I'm NOT helping you out if THAT happens again!" The three Brown Ones in the area all rolled their eyes simultaneously. Bloody tourists...
"Mteremo..." Etana said carefully after a while. "We should go! We know where they are now, we should go back home and tell everyone!"
"Tell them what? That we ran away during the night after our curfew, into the jungle no one's allowed to be in and searched for the ones everyone has been told to avoid?" Mteremo snorted and shook his head. "You said so yourself; dad will be beyond angry if he finds out!"
"But we can't just stay here! What if they finds us? And we need to free Kafeel!" Etana said and bit her lip. "I... I think I'm scared..."
"Pfft! And you're supposed to be a future pack leader?! Hunters aren't afraid, 'Tana!" Mteremo snorted and tilted his head at her. "See this as an adventure, instead! All we have to do is to make sure to get back home before sunset, and that will be easy!"
"How?! We're in the middle of the jungle! In the middle of nowhere!" She looked around flustered. "I've never this deep into the jungle before!"
"See the river there? That's the same river that passes our village!" He pointed at the glistening water surface that was partially visible through the trees. "All we have to do is to follow that...!"
But he didn't get to finish that sentence until both he and Etana felt a clawed hand grab their ankles and roughly pull them out from their hideouts. They both yelled in fear as they were lifted into the air and held upside down, while a victorious cackle was heard from the one who found them.
"Hey! Lookie here!" Biton laughed and held the two terrified, writhing cubs in the air, the other Spotted Ones curiously turned around to him. "Look what I found!"
Etana growled and swung herself around and grabbed his leg with both hands before burying her short fangs into his thigh. Biton first staggered in surprise when she grabbed, and upon feeling the teeth puncture his skin, he yelped in shock and instinctively let go of the cubs. They fell to the ground and landed on their back.
"Mteremo, RUN!" She screamed and managed to scramble to her feet and took off as fast as her legs could carry her. Mteremo was momentarily stunned upon hitting the ground, and he had barely managed to get up when two strong arms grabbed him and lifted him high from the ground again. His crimson eyes met a pair of equally red eyes, belonging to Wasaki and he whimpered in fear when the Spotted One bared his fangs in a snarl.
"And what do we have here, huh?" He growled lowly as a loud, protesting scream was heard from the jungle, as Chiku snatched Etana up.
"Hey! This one has spots all over her!" Chikus surprised voice bounced between the trees as she struggled to hold the reluctant Etana in a tight grip.
"And this one has red eyes!" Wasaki hollered without dropping the eyecontact between him and Mteremo.
Tanith raised an eyebrow as she walked up to the two cubs. The cubs were held still by the hunters who caught them and they both stared at the pack leader with mixed emotions. Tanith leaned down to the two of them, her eyes wandered from Etanas earth colored eyes, to Mteremos crimson ones. "Who're are you two, and what're you doing here?"
…
The Great Mother was returning to the sky as a new day dawned, bringing along a spectrum of red, pink, yellow and orange on her way up.
Mwindaji yawned and slowly got up to a sitting position as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. Any second now, Etana and Mteremo would make a beeline for his bed and they would both jump up on him to tell him to wake up faster. He knew, for this was the everyday morning routine. But nothing happened. No cubs came rushing.
He yawned again and sleepily opened his eyes. They weren't standing by the bed either. He frowned and peered around the room before his eyes locked on the two beds by the furthest corners. They were both empty. Mwindaji felt his heart skip a beat as he put his feet down on the ground and stalked up to his childrens beds.
They really were empty. He looked underneath them as well, but he couldn't see anyone there either.
He started to get worried as he took one last look around the hut before he dove head first out through the doorway.
"Etana?! Mteremo!?" He called, but got no response. He felt his pulse start to race as he zig-zagged through the village, calling their names. He called louder and louder, until he was practically screaming. The villagers sleepily poked their heads out through the doors and some even yelled at him to be quiet as they had all been waken up by his shouting. But soon they realized that something was wrong, and they too walked out in the early morning.
"W-Win? What's going on?" Fahamu yawned and nearly walked head first into a drying pole. "What's all this hullabaloo about?"
Mwindaji was staggering about, his voice hoarse from all the yelling. "Have you seen Etana and Mteremo?!" He half asked, half screamed, at his brother.
Fahamu shook his head and blew some hair out of his eyes. "What? Have one of your hide-and-seek games gone out of hand once again?" He chuckled, but stopped smiling when he saw the worried look on his little brothers face. "Win?"
"N-no!" Mwindaji gritted his teeth and staggered around again. "T-they're gone! They just... They're just GONE!" His voice almost cracked at that last bit and fear was making his heart go crazy in his chest. "I woke up and they weren't there! W-what if..." He turned back to Fahamu, just begun to pant in panic. "What if the Spotted Ones took them?"
"No, don't be silly! They're probably just messing with you, Win!" Almasi muttered as she came walking from her own hut. "Which wouldn't happen so often if you'd just keep those two on a leash..."
"No! No, no! Something... Something's wrong! I can feel it!"
"Win, you're hyperventilating! Slow down!" Fahamu frowned underneath his bangs and put a hand on his brothers shoulder. "They're here somewhere, just calm down before you pop a vein, okay?"
"NO!" Mwindaji pulled away from his brother and violently shook his head so the little hair-pendulum threatened to flick him in the face. "I'm not gonna calm down until they're here and I know they're safe! ETANA?! MTEREMO?!"
Almasi and Fahamu was worriedly watching their brother as he ran through the village in a panicked fashion once again, screaming his head off for his two missing kids. "This time those two brats really overdone it!" Almasi growled and crossed her arms.
"Al..." Fahamu said and slowly shook his head. "I don't think they're messing around this time..." The brother and sister exchanged glances, knowing that they were both thinking the same thing; The Spotted Ones.
Moral of the story? Don't spoil your kids...
Okay, anyway, let's see how things go in the next chappie, eh? Word of advice: keep a bucket of ice-cream close by. A BIG bucket of ice-cream xD.
Oh, and tissues! Loads of tissues...
See y'all next chapter then ;D!
