*A/N: GAAAH! This is a lot harder to write than I expected! What have I gotten myself into?! It's like writing a research paper…except without the professor breathing down my neck and the annotated bibliography at the end... Ok, so it's not that bad, but still! *Pounds knuckles into face* …ow.
Chapter 3
Bugs and Dirt
Chef Gourmand kept his nose to the ground, snuffling and sniffing at the various scents his ridiculously sensitive nose could pick up as he crept along. He was so wrapped up in this task, in fact, that he never noticed the shouts of excitement and the beam of blue light shooting skyward from about forty feet away. Finally, just as the beam dissipated, he came across a particularly interesting smell and stopped.
"Mmm-mm!" he said, straightening and smacking his lips. "There it is! But…what is it? It's comin' from over there…"
Crouching back down, he inched forward through the sparse, prickly grass a ways until he came to a thicker, taller clump. Reaching out, he parted it and his patience was rewarded with a view of his prize. There in front of him, scampering around the mouth of a small burrow while a few adults looked on, were four or five meerkat pups.
His face split into a wicked grin. "Aha!" He let the grass fall back together and rubbed his hands eagerly. "Aw, these tender squirrelies will make the best little meatloaf I ever did taste." He took another peek at the small animals. "But they won't come easy. I'm gonna hafta hang tight 'til the big'uns ain't lookin'. They always say good things come to those who wait, eh-heh-heh!"
xxxx
A meerkat-sized Martin was the first to hop down from the miniaturizer.
"C'mon, Chris! Let's go meet the gang!"
Chris landed next to his brother. "Right behind ya, bro!"
The pair jogged off, completely oblivious to but unseen by the evil chef who was peeking through the grass further away at that very moment. Soon enough, they paused, fascinated by what their meerkat buddies were currently up to.
The little animals were busy digging around in the dirt for food. Their long claws made the job only too easy and the pickings seemed to be good. Bug after tasty bug was snatched up and gulped down as if it was a last meal.
"Now that's what I call 'fast food'," said Martin. "Look at'em go!"
"Well, when you're a meerkat," Chris said, pulling out his creature pod to start scanning, "eating as much as you possibly can is a top priority since you don't exactly have any stores of body fat to rely on. Eating is a big part of what you do all day."
"Hey, sounds like a good deal to me. Eat, sleep and…eat."
"Except for the fact that when you're the size of a squirrel, you make a pretty convenient to-go snack for predators in a hurry. That's where sentry duty comes in. Imagine trying to eat with the constant danger of being eaten yourself."
Martin considered this for a second. "Good point. Huh, I wonder what else meerkats do?" He didn't get to speculate for long since his attention was snagged almost immediately by something else. "Hey, there's Lookout! And check out the size of that millipede he's caught!"
A holographic Aviva zapped into the space beside them from Martin's creature pod. "What's he doing? I thought he was supposed to be keeping an eye out for danger?"
"Don't worry," said Chris. "Adult meerkats take sentry duty in shifts while they're out foraging. See?" He pointed at the newest guard standing on the tree branch.
Aviva relaxed a little. "Whew! I was a little worried."
"We could tell," said Martin.
"Hey," Jimmy said as he too appeared. "Why is Lookout rolling that big bug around on the ground?"
"It makes the millipedes taste better," Martin answered.
Koki appeared, a tablet computer in one hand and the other on a hip. "Oh, come on. You're telling us meerkats season their food with dirt?"
"Not exactly. Millipedes aren't the tastiest bugs around. The meerkats roll them in the dirt to rub off the bad taste before gobbling them up. Pretty ingenious trick if you ask me."
"Uh-huh…" Jimmy trailed off, looking at the pizza slice in his hand and smiling. Then he zapped out abruptly.
"Jimmy, what're you—ew!" Koki shrieked. "Don't even think about it! Dirt doesn't belong on pizza!" Her projection vanished as well.
Chris and Martin both choked back snorts of laughter.
Aviva merely rolled her eyes. "I don't even wanna know. Anyway, I don't see a water source out there…"
"That's because meerkats get most of the water they need from the food they eat," said Chris. "Cool, huh?"
"Very! It must be nice not to have to be tied to a watering hole all the time. Let's see…" she thought for a moment, "I think I might have enough information to start on the discs. Keep it up, guys!"
"Awesome!" Martin high-fived his brother.
"I'll send you some scans once I finish them," said Chris.
"Perfect." Aviva paused. "So…what're you two going to do now?"
"Hmm…" Chris glanced up at the sky. The sunlight was starting to fade. "Well, it's getting late…"
"…and the meerkats look like they're wrapping things up…" added Martin.
"…which means they'll probably be heading to their burrow for the night." Chris turned to his older brother, grinning excitedly. "We can check out where they live! I've always wanted to see the inside of a meerkat den!"
Martin returned the grin. "They might have pups!"
Aviva rolled her eyes heavenward. "Ok then, you two have fun sleeping in a hole with a bunch of fuzzy animals tonight."
"Oh don't worry, we will."
