Chapter 10:
Shani had a clear view of the setting sun as she finished dusting herself off and covered her latest tunnel with sticks, dirt, and leaves. "This time, stay hidden." She licked a paw and smoothed it over her hair, and began grooming herself. As she groomed she looked upward, seeing the stars had begun to come out. As she looked she noticed... "Huh... new moon tonight." She inhaled, and then paused when she caught scent of something. She sniffed a few times before she turned her head towards the approaching footsteps. "Just passing by, Dajan?"
A meerkat male, a few weeks older than Shani, stopped in front of her and looked her over a bit, as if inspecting her. He was tall for his age with dark hair and blue eyes, and the grin he gave Shani made her shudder for some reason. "Nope," he replied as he knelt down to the gathered flowers laying next to Shani's feet and inhaled. "I just came by to say, tonight's your lucky night, Shani."
"It is?" She grimaced as the male named Dajan leaned closer to her, producing the flower. "How is it lucky?"
Dajan clicked his tongue, a tad disappointed in Shani's slowness to catch on. "We're both well over a year old... do I need to spell it out for you?"
Shani frowned and furrowed her brow slightly. Dajan wasn't exactly the most lovable meerkat within the first years. He was arrogant and self-centered and expected to get his way... and this time, it seems, he wanted her as a mate. She turned her face away from his with her eyes close. "How can you spell it out if you can't even spell? Try this: N-O." She reopened her eyes and gasped when he tightly grabbed her by the wrist.
"How can you spell 'no' to something you've never even had? C'mon, Shani... you know you want me."
"I know I want you to let go. That hurts!" She grunted and tried to pry his paw him her wrist, but he held firm. "I mean it, Dajan! Lemme go right now!" Suddenly a paw came down and striked the wrist of the paw that held Shani's, and released his grip on her. Shani took a few steps back, rubbing her wrist as she looked to her rescuer.
Kito was just walking by when he heard Shani yelling, and decided to put a stop to it. He stepped in front of his sister, keeping her away from the unlikely suitor. "I know you're not exactly the quickest the catch on, Dajan, but my sister told you no, and even though that's not your favorite word, you're going to obey it, or else," Kito softly growled. Dajan stood scowling, but he was silent for that moment. Kito slowly turned away from him and put a paw on his sister's back. "C'mon, let's get out of here." Shani nodded, grateful that Kito had been there for her, and walked beside him.
Dajan watched the two walking away from him, and scoffed. "Is that all? A slap on the wrist and a verbal warning? Oooo, you're scary, Kito!" he called out to Kito in a taunting manner.
Kito furrowed his brow and softly growled. He never took taunting very well, and he was doing his best not to stop and turn around. What was worse, he was still feeling aggressive and twitchy, and this would be a great opportunity to let it out. Shani looked at her brother, worried. "Don't pay attention to him... just walk away..." Kito mumbled to himself. "Beat up a tree instead..."
"Not that you'd stand a chance against me anyway..." Dajan continued taunting. Kito's brow furrowed deeper as he put his paw against a tree to steady himself as he walked over a root. Shani walked around it. "... You know, with your pathetic attempts to prove you're the next Great one. Really, I think you're more suited for the title of the next Braindead one, right up there with your Pop and Grandpa."
Kito stopped. His pupils contracted just before he set his foot down on the opposite side of the root and dug his claws into the tree he was using to balance his weight. Dajan noticed a lack of movement from Kito and grinned, seeing he struck a nerve. Shani softly gasped as she watched her brother's face darken and the claws raked the bark of the tree, leaving claw marks behind as he slowly turned back around to face Dajan. "Kito... don't..." Shani whispered in a stern voice.
"Oh, no... he's asking for it..." Kito growled as he walked towards Dajan. "... I'm asking for it..." Dajan stood there with his arms folded over his chest as Kito approached him, waiting for him. The sight of him boiled Kito's blood even more, turning his walk into a run. "...And one of us is gonna get it!" He leapt at Dajan and tackled him to the ground.
Shani gasped and ran closer to them as they fought, growling and exchanging blows. She jumped back when Kito was thrown backwards and Dajan pounced at him, only to have Kito roll to the side and leap on his back. "Knock it off, both of you!"
"I wanna knock it off... right into the knothole of that tree over there!" Kito hissed as he slugged Dajan right in the chin.
"That's not what I meant..." Shani winced. She didn't want to get in the middle of that, but she didn't know what to do. Instead she watched where they were going and tensed. Please don't fall in the hole, please don't fall in the hole... It increased when she heard voices approaching.
"What's going on over here?" the first voice asked in a demanding tone.
"Both of you, stop it!" the second voice followed. Timon and Sly, who Timon had met along the way to finding Kito and Shani, ran towards the combating meerkats.
"Not now, Dad, I'm in the middle of something!" Kito grunted and got punched by Dajan again. He growled and jumped on him again slamming him into the ground... which broke under the pressure and they both fell into the hole Shani had just covered. Shani slapped a paw over her face, groaning. Timon and Sly gasped and ran over to the exposed hole, looking down. "I'm OK... Dajan broke my fall," Kito called up to them.
"We're glad to hear it, but I'm not sure how his parents will take the news," Timon grimaced. "Here, gimme your paw..." He reached down deep and grabbed Kito's paw, pulling him to the surface. Kito was bruised and wincing when he made it back to solid ground. "For once, I'm glad there was a hole there." Shani grimaced slightly when her father wasn't looking her way.
"And I was winning, too..." Kito mumbled, and then winced again.
Sly bent down and helped Dajan back to the surface, who instantly made a lunge for Kito. Sly still had a hold of him, so he held him back. Kito saw this and went to tackle him again with a growl, but Timon took hold of him. "Hey-hey-hey, cut it out!" Sly grunted as he held tight. "I didn't hear any bells!"
"Round 2! C'mon! Lemme at 'im, Dad!" Kito growled as he struggled against Timon's grip. "Let him loose, Uncle Sly! I'll KO him in a minute-two!"
"Not unless I throw in the towel for you, pup!" Timon grunted as he held Kito back. "Just what were you fighting about?"
"He badmouthed you, me, and Grandpa Buzz and he tried to put the moves on Shani when she didn't want anything to do with him," Kito said, then struggled a little bit more. "And for some reason I've been wanting to tackle something that moves on its own all day! It's irritating!"
"So's your Uncle Sly's re-enactment performance record, but I still put up with it." Sly furrowed his brow at his brother, wishing he would forget about it already. "Feeling aggressive is no reason to try to rip his throat out. Even when we had the competition we nev--" Timon paused a moment, then looked up at the darkened sky and stars. The moon was shadowed.
"What is it, Timon?" Sly asked.
Timon glanced around the area briefly. The sun was almost set. Shani looked well-groomed. Kito felt the need to fight. Dajan tried to romance Shani. The two males fought each other. And there was a small bunch of flowers that were picked on the ground. "I guess it is the right time..."
"Would you mind filling in the blanks?" Sly asked with a wrinkled brow.
"It's the first new moon of the summer... before I found the oasis, that was when we had the competition for mating rights, the first new moon of the season."
"You actually fought to mate? That barbaric!" Shani said, disgusted.
"That's how we handled things a long time ago before we came to the oasis, Shani. But most colonies stopped having the competition because of the aggression it caused between the losers. The way I hear it that's how your Grandpa Shomari left my side of the colony," Timon explained.
Shani blinked a few times as she took the new information all in. New... that's exactly what it was, because it was just today she learned that this colony used to dig, that they didn't always live like they were now. What she thought was alien was actually normal among normal meerkats. She furrowed her brow slightly. "First digging, now mating rights? What else have you been keeping from us, Dad?"
Timon looked at Shani, a bit surprised at her tone and expression. He released Kito, who seemed to have calmed down a bit, and walked over to her. "Nothing that would interest you, Shani, trust me. It barely interested me when we did it."
"Maybe I wanna learn. Maybe I like digging. Did you ever think about that?" Timon looked taken aback by her words. More than that, she actually admitted that she was the digger.
Sly looked between the father and daughter, and then cleared his throat. "Uh... I think we'll leave you two alone to talk," he broke the silence for a moment as he grasped onto Kito's shoulder. "See you later, Timmy." Keeping a good grip on him and Dajan he lead the two of them away from the area, leaving Timon and Shani alone. Timon grimaced as he watched them leave, having no one to back him up now. Shani hardly acknowleged their departure as she grabbed Timon's attention again.
"I used to think I was sick, that I was becoming some kind of freak, and I find out it's a part of what we used to do?" She took a step towards Timon, who took a step away from her. "I was afraid to come forward because I saw how you reacted to the tunnels, so I thought I was doing something bad, but that's because you didn't tell me anything about how we used to live!"
Timon furrowed his brow as he responded. "That's because the meerkat life outside the oasis is dangerous. You have no idea what's out there, and I don't want you to know. Trust me, it's not the place for you."
"I'm an adult now! Aren't I entitled to making my own decisions?"
"Of course you are... as long as it's related to whatever I say." Shani growled and stomped her foot, pouting her lips out a bit. That pout caught Timon off-guard a bit, and he tried to hold firm. "Hey, no pouting, I hate pouting! And while you're at it, whatever outside-meerkat instinct you've picked up lately I want it thrown outside right now! This oasis is ruled by Hakuna Matata, not Digga Tunnah. It doesn't belong here."
Shani shook her head in disbelief as she took a step away from her father. "That's not fair... you never take me out beyond Pride Rock because you say it's dangerous." Her expression hardened as she continued. "You say a lot of things and I stopped believing them a long time ago! So you say the Pride Lands are dangerous, so that must mean they're as safe as a bug in a rug! I can't say 'no' to something I've never even had!"
"Shani--" Timon began in a warning tone.
Shani only covered her ears to block him out. "No! Stop lying to me! And while you're at it, stop telling those stupid stories! You're not fooling anyone to believe them anymore! ... No one except Kito." Timon gasped. She didn't believe the stories anymore? Shani looked at him with tears welling up in her eyes. "Don't say anything... I don't wanna be lied to anymore!" She turned and ran away from him. He was too stunned to follow after her and just stood there. He only stared after her, feeling numb at his daughter's words...
"Stop telling those stupid stories! You're not fooling anyone to believe them anymore! I don't wanna be lied to anymore!"
"They're not stupid stories... they happened..." Timon felt some feeling return, and he closed his eyes and bowed his head. He then dropped to his knees and put a paw over his eyes. "I didn't lie to you... but I never told you the truth either..."
To be continued...