Chapter 14:
Morning finally came, and Timon was still fast asleep. He was laying on his back with his left foot dangling on the edge of his nest. Still beside him, Zuri was just awaking up with a stretch and a yawn, and then she winced. "Ow!"
Upon hearing that "ow" Timon immediately woke up, jumped to his feet, and then out of his nest, cupping his mouth with his paws. "Call the water! Boil some family! I'm in labor, here!" He paused a moment, and then starting hitting himself on top of his head. "I would've hoped the second time I'd get it straight! Call the family and boil some water! Zuri's in la-- Ow!" Timon stopped his ranting when Zuri threw a pebble at the back of his head. He turned around, rubbing the spot where the pebble made contact, and looked at Zuri. "What happened to slapping me when I become hysterical?"
"I didn't want to get up," Zuri replied, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. "And I'm not in labor, Timon... meerkats don't go into labor after just five weeks."
"Well, how was I supposed to know? I've never been pregnant," Timon smiled apologetically as he walked back over to the nest and helped her to her feet. "Then what was that 'ow' about?"
They both stepped out of the nest as Zuri rubbed her backside. "I just moved and a piece of straw poked me." Then she brought the paw back to her front to check for blood, which there was none. "Time to relay the leaves."
"Yeah, well, make sure you don't relay them while I'm still lying in there. I'm going back to sleep," Timon yawned as he began to climb back into the nest.
"Hold it." Zuri reached over and grabbed him by the scruff of the neck, pulling him back over to her. He grimaced and furrowed his brow at her. "A moment ago you were wide awake, screaming to have the family boiled, and now you're going to go back to sleep just like that?"
"Well, why should I be awake when there's plenty of morning left to sleep away?" Zuri arched a brow, and Timon mimicked her actions. "What, you have an early Lamaze class you wanted to drag me off to?"
"Of course not... it's only Tuesday and Lamaze is Friday. " She released him and put a paw on her hip. "I thought you were going to go find Shani and talk to her first thing. I'm sure she's calmed down by now and she wants answers and to know you still love her."
Timon looked up at the treetops briefly with his lips pouted, as if thinking about it. He then waved a paw and went to climb back into the nest. "I'll make it second thing."
Zuri's jaw dropped briefly, and then she furrowed her brow. "Timon..."
Timon suddenly turned around and smiled at her. "Kidding, kidding." He patted her on the shoulder as he went to walk away. "I'll go talk to her. She's probably with our mothers having breakfast."
"Uh, just so I'm clear, Timon..." Zuri spoke up to stop him. She walked over to him and put her paws on his shoulder. "What are you going to tell her?"
Timon looked at her for a moment, and then inhaled deeply. "I'm going to apologize for blowing up at her and her instincts and I'm..." He exhaled deeply, as if defeated. "... I'm gonna help her understand how we used to live. It'll make her happy and less aggressive towards me." Zuri tilted her head and smiled. He added with a mumble, "And maybe even tell her about the 'tunnel klutz' days. ... EXTREMELY LARGE maybe."
"As long as you consider it," Zuri smiled as she kissed him on the cheek. "You talk to your daughter, I'll fix the nest, and then I'll come back and tell her the correct history of the colony." Timon wrinkled his eyebrow and slightly grimaced, but then it turned to a grin. He moved to walk away again when he heard his name being called.
"Timon, Zuri, wait a minute!" Both of the meerkats turned to see Timon's mother Panya trotting to meet with them. She stopped in front of them and panted softly. "I was wondering if you've seen Shani yet today."
"We just woke up. I was just about to go find you and Dalila and see if she was with you," Timon said with a blink.
"I haven't seen her since the re-enactment performance yesterday," Panya replied with a shake of her head, worried. "And she's never late to meet with Dalila and me."
"Calm down, Ma... she's around here somewhere, and odds are someone's seen her today." Timon folded his arms in front of his chest and furrowed his brow. "By now the word's spread that she's the mystery digger and she's probably in hiding. I know I would be."
"Everyone knows you would be, Timmy." Zuri giggled softly at Timon's expression, and then they stood to attention when suddenly a hollowed horn sound echoed throughout the oasis.
Timon furrowed his brow and put his paws on his hips when the echo subsided. "Hey, I thought I was the only one allowed to blow the meeting alarm..."
"It must be Uncle Max. He's gathering everyone together, probably to talk about what to do about Shani," Zuri said as she put a paw to her chest.
"Well, c'mon," Timon sighed as he started walking along. "They can't start the meeting without me."
Five minutes later...
Everyone gathered around the largest tree near the stream, waiting for everyone to arrive. Kito, Bango, and Morake approached the group, and almost right away the group began whispering among themselves.
"You think it's true?"
"Why not? If Shani's been digging, why not Kito? He's her older brother, after all, and the younger would copy the older."
"That might explain his attempts to make good around here..."
"Yeah, to try to make up for putting someone in a hole."
Kito pretended he wasn't hearing them as he made his way through the crowd towards the front, where he would normally go in the meetings. As he made his way through his eye caught sight of Dajan, who was looking right at him. Kito paused a moment, and then growled and made his way towards him. Dajan's eyes sneered as Kito drew closer, still holding a hatred of him for the night before. He barely moved when Kito grabbed the front of his fur and pulled him closer to his face.
"It was you! You told them about Shani! Who are you to put my sister on the spot like this? Was it for turning you down as a mate?" Kito growled, his grip on Dajan's fur tightening.
"Yes and no," Dajan replied calmly, but he kept his sneer. "You know I hate being told 'no,' and telling everyone that your sister is the digger also opens a window to the thought that you could be helping her." Kito's pupils shrunk and his lip curled into a snarl, barely able to keep himself from ripping the slightly older meerkat's throat out. Dajan noticed and smirked. "The colony already knows you won't do anything worthwhile, and you wouldn't have won that fight with me anyway... next Brain-dead one."
"That's it!" Kito growled and tackled him to the ground, knocking over a few of the neighboring meerkats standing.
Bango and Morake winced at the growling and meerkats falling over and rushing to pull the two apart. "Well, he's getting his exercise for the morning..." Morake said with one eye closed.
"Good thing for us," Bango nodded.
With the help of three meerkats on each side they were able to pull Kito and Dajan apart. "All right, break it up, break it up! We're here for a meeting, not for the last slice of centipede!" a meerkat said as he pulled Kito away.
Kito struggled for a moment, and then stopped to pant, glaring at Dajan. The three meerkats holding onto him guided him to the front row next to his grandmother Dalila, while the other three put Dajan out of his eyesight near the back. Soon the crowd parted for Timon, Zuri, and Panya, who were making their way to the front. Uncle Max and Shomari, Zuri and Sudi's father, were already waiting in the middle of the semicircle. Kito, Dalila, Sudi, Penda, Pete, and Sly were in the front row, waiting for the meeting to start. Panya stood next to them as Timon and Zuri joined Max.
"All right, we're here... now what's all this about?" Timon asked as the crowd gathered together again.
Uncle Max tapped a stick into the palm of his paw as he turned his eyes to Timon, speaking loud enough for the colony to hear. "What is this rumor I've been hearing, Timon, about your daughter digging tunnels in the oasis?"
"You called a meeting just to ask me about a rumor?"
"Is it true or not, Timon?" his father-in-law Shomari spoke up.
Feeling a little cornered, Timon tried to make an excuse. "Well, Shani's at a stage in her life right now where the wants to dig up her bugs instead of peeling them off tree bark, that's all. It all depends on how you look at it, Dad."
Zuri elbowed Timon in his ribs, who grunted softly and rubbed the spot. She then cleared her throat. "It's not a rumor, Uncle Max, Papa... Shani finally caught onto the old meerkat instinct of digging."
A few surprised gasps were heard in the crowd, and Kito's eyes widened. "Instinct? Digging's an instinct?"
"Does she understand why she's doing what she's doing?" Shomari asked the two of them.
"Uh... well..." Timon clicked his tongue as he ran a paw through his hair. "She might have a clue, but I don't know. I was so upset with her attitude last night I told her to forget about those instincts, and she ran off. Said she wanted to make her own decisions about that kind of thing." Penda, who was the last person to see Shani, looked thoughtful and looked at her feet. "Before you called the meeting I was going to go talk to her."
"Do you know where she is?" Pete asked from the front row. "I haven't seen her yet, myself. Everyone's supposed to come to the meetings."
"She was supposed to have breakfast with Panya and me, but she hasn't shown up yet," Dalila spoke up as Panya nodded. "I'm starting to get worried..."
"I haven't seen her since last night," Kito spoke up with a shrug.
"Shani's probably got her head in the ground again," Dajan snorted. Kito looked back at him and growled, but Dalila put a paw on his shoulder to keep him in place. "Like some ostrich! Ha!"
"Dajan!" Shomari growled. "Keep your voice down or I'll have you thrown out of here!"
"And don't be calling my daughter an ostrich!" Timon copied Shomari's growl.
Kito blinked a few times. "What's an ostrich?" The colony got back to the previous subject, about where Shani was. The group looked amongst itself and revealed she was not present, nor that anyone had seen her today.
"She's not here... and neither are the other warthogs," Uncle Max mumbled as he nodded his head towards the back where Bango and Morake sat. "Was the alarm not loud enough?"
"Oh, it was loud enough," Sudi spoke up, sticking a finger in his ear. "They were probably on the other side of the oasis when they heard it and it's taking them longer to get here." Suddenly Pumbaa and Jina raced towards the group, looking worried. "And here they are."
Pumbaa stopped by Bango and Morake, panting heavily. "Sorry we're late, but we were looking for Barika. Has anyone seen her?" A few meerkats muttered, and then most spoke up and said no. "No one has? Now I'm really worried..."
"Calm down, Pumbaa, she's around here somewhere," Timon said, and then paused, putting a paw to his chin. "Why does this seem familiar to me?"
Jina shook her head at Timon. "No, no, she isn't! We have breakfast together every morning and today she never showed up! We've looked everywhere! We haven't seen her since last night!"
Sly suddenly thought of something. "Last night? You haven't seen Shani while you were looking?" he spoke up.
"Not a hair, why?" Pumbaa asked.
"It seems the last time anyone has seen her was yesterday... and now Barika's missing, too."
Pumbaa's eyes suddenly widened. "Oh, no, Shani's missing, too?" He suddenly started sobbing hysterically. "Timon, our daughters were kidnapped!"
The meerkats nervously backed away from Pumbaa to avoid getting wet from the tears. Suddenly Timon snapped his fingers. "That's why it sounds familiar! It's like when Kito and Bango disappeared last year to look for Sly! And we thought they were kidnapped." Pumbaa suddenly stopped sobbing and blinked a few times.
"They couldn't have been kidnapped, could they? I mean, Kito and I just left in the middle of the night while Shani covered for us," Bango said with a blink.
"Yeah, it was you guys who assumed we got kidnapped," Kito nodded, and then nervously smiled when he received a look from Timon.
"Why would they leave, though?" Morake asked, swishing his tail.
"Oh, dear..." Penda suddenly said, putting a paw to her mouth. She felt Sudi put an arm around her shoulders.
"It's OK, Penda, I'm sure they're around here playing... maybe they found a new hiding spot behind a waterfall or something," he said to calm her down.
Penda shook her head as she stepped up to Timon and Zuri. "No, I mean I think they really did leave, if Shani had the real reason to." Timon and Zuri both widened their eyes and listened to her as she clasped her paws together. "I'm so sorry, Timon, I had no idea she was upset with you about that..."
"Upset about what?" Timon asked, concerned.
"I... I spoke to her last night after your argument with her." Timon gasped and widened his eyes more. "She was upset that you were making her decisions for her and I told her that she was old enough to do that by herself. It was her life, and..." she softly sighed and shook her head. "I had no idea it was about instinct or I wouldn't have encouraged her like that, making her own decision about leaving."
"Are you saying she made up her mind to leave the oasis on her own?" Timon asked, looking shocked.
"Not on her own... if she took Barika with her," Jina gasped when she realized. "I understand Barika might go to protect her, but why would Shani leave?"
"Because Shani's following our old meerkat instincts..." Shomari began.
"... And she knows it's no good to dig here anymore..." Panya followed, putting her paws to her mouth.
"... So she's left to find a place where she can dig..." Dalila followed the trend in a soft voice.
"... And not be discouraged about it. But where is she gonna find a place like that around here?" Kito ended and looked at his elders.
The group was silent for a moment as Timon rubbed his chin with his paw. Suddenly a light bulb lit up in his head. "A meerkat colony in the Pride Lands!" he exclaimed.
"The Pride Lands! Barika's never been to the Pride Lands before!" Pumbaa looked panicked.
"And Shani's never been beyond Pride Rock!" Timon also looked panicked. "They don't know what's out there! They'll get eaten for sure!" He pushed his way through the crowd of meerkats towards Pumbaa. "We've gotta go after them and bring them home!" He jumped onto Pumbaa's back and onto his head, grasping his ears.
"Hold on a minute, Timon!" Sly shouted as he went through the crowd of meerkats towards Pumbaa. Zuri and Kito followed behind him. "Don't take off yet!"
"You've got 60 seconds to tell me why I shouldn't and I'm gone, starting now. Tick-tock-tick-tock..." Timon tapped his invisible wrist watch and mentally counted the seconds.
"The Pride Lands are a big place, in case you've forgotten. It'll be like looking for a beetle in a haystack..."
"... Tick-tock, 49 seconds, tick-tock... and it's actually a lot easier to find a beetle than a needle in a haystack. Tick-tock..."
Zuri stepped up next to Sly and tried to help him reason. "You don't know where to begin! Meerkats like to move around in the Pride Lands, so the colonies that were there last spring are probably gone by now."
"... Tick-tock-tick-tock, so I'll ask around. No big deal. 30 seconds, tick-tock..."
Sly grimaced and folded his arms in front of his chest. "That's really getting on my nerves, Timon. Either you quit ticking or I'm gonna tock you."
Timon gulped slightly and nervously smiled. "Fine... 25 seconds."
He continued. "And like you said, Shani's never been beyond Pride Rock... she's gonna be relying on her instincts heavily just to find food, and if she's very lucky she'll find a colony that'll actually accept a female."
"18 seconds... what are you getting at?" Timon arched a brow.
"Mob leaders see female rogues as a threat, and if she finds one before we get there..." Timon stopped tapping his wrist and counting the seconds when his brother trailed off, and exhaled. Seeing this, Sly continued. "In order for us not to stray off-course so much, it might be better if we had a clear view of what she's thinking."
"And how do you propose we do that, Sly? Phone the Psychic Friends Network?"
"No, but it might be cheaper to ask that chimp Rafiki. But since neither one of us is crazy about him, let's go with something that's a little easier to come by... a meerkat just a year and a quarter old with instincts."
"Why that particular age?" Zuri asked.
"Because they're the same age as Shani, younger and more naïve, and most of them have never been to the Pride Lands, like Shani. Their senses are at their peek for new experiences. It's duller for meerkats our age. If we took one of the younger meerkats along they'd probably know what Shani would do and where she'd head off to."
Kito's eyes widened slightly when he realized. A meerkat the same age with instincts? He closed his eyes tightly, clenched his teeth, and furrowed his brow. Shani, you rotten sister, if I get ridiculed for this...! "Take me, Dad!" He shouted louder than he intended, and grabbed the attention of everyone present.
Timon look at his son, nearly floored. "Kito?"
"So he has been digging!" Dajan pointed. "Freak! Tunnel freak!"
Kito was too set to convince his father to let him go that he didn't even pay attention to Dajan. He did hear him, though... subconsciously he clenched his paws into fists that shook violently. Instead he opened his eyes and stepped up in front of Pumbaa, looking up at Timon. "I'm the same age as Shani, and I have been feeling the instincts! They're not exactly as strong as hers, but if it'll help, I wanna go with you to find her!" Timon gave a look like he was going to say no, so Kito pressed on, closing his eyes tightly. "I found Uncle Sly last year and I was just a pup... so why can't I find my own sister as an adult?"
Timon's expression softened as he looked down at Kito, and then he heard Pumbaa speak. "It might not be a bad idea, Timon. He is the type Sly said we should take," he said softly. Timon put a paw to his forehead and rubbed his temples. "He could help us find Shani quicker than alone."
Timon slowly removed the paw from his forehead and sighed. "I want this to be a short trip, so only one warthog and a limit of two or three meerkats leaving." He looked down at Kito and nodded his head to Pumbaa's back with a slight grin. "Climb aboard, pup." Kito smiled as he climbed onto Pumbaa's back and got comfortable. Timon blinked when he noticed Sly starting to climb up with Kito. "Where are you going?"
"You said two to three meerkats. I'll come along to help you think straight and show you where I remember some of the old meerkat colonies were. Sometimes meerkats take abandoned tunnels. You'll be running around like a chicken with its head cut off if I don't come along."
Timon blinked with a wrinkled brow. "How can a chicken run if it doesn't have a head?" Sly grimaced and waved it off. "All right, you can come along, but that's the limit!"
"What do you mean that's the limit? You're not letting us come?" Zuri asked, referring to herself and Jina. She jumped slightly when she felt a paw on her shoulder.
Dalila was the owner of the paw. "Zuri, I know you're worried, but you're carrying now and it's not the best of ideas to go and stress yourself. It's harmful to the pups. It would be much faster with fewer travelers," she said gently. Zuri's expression softened, and then she sighed and nodded.
"Thanks, Mom," Timon winked at his mother-in-law. He pointed at Zuri. "And I mean it this time, stay home." Zuri grimaced, but nodded.
"Just bring the girls home safely, all right? And be careful," Jina said softly as she lightly nudged Pumbaa.
Pumbaa returned the nudge. "Hakuna Matata! We'll be back before the end of the week."
Panya stepped up and looked at her sons. "Timon, Titus--" She put a paw to her lips at her slip, and at Sly's sour expression, and corrected herself. "I'm sorry. Sly... don't take too long out there. I've already lost you both one too many times."
"Don't worry, Mom," Sly said with a wink.
"We'll be OK!" Timon smiled reassuringly. Panya smiled slightly and nodded, taking a step back. "Let's not waste anymore time... heigh-ho, Pumbaa, away!" Pumbaa glanced upwards at him with a furrowed brow. "... Please, go." Pumbaa nodded and then started running towards the desert with the three meerkats in tow.
Panya watched after them sadly, and then looked up at the sky. Buzz... please watch after them again... Soon the group began to disperse, except for Bango and Morake, who watched after them.
"I hope Kito's not doing this to prove he's worthy of the next Great one," Morake whined softly.
"If he is, we've helped him all we can," Bango said, looking a little sad.
As they turned to walk away, Morake broke the silence asking, "I wonder if he's gonna start saying 'fortune favors the brave?'"
"I hope not..."
To be continued...