Yes, the faithful readers! Sorry about the real long delay... trouble deciding how to get the battle going and I was getting ready to go to Anime Central 2004 in Chicago May 14-16. That was a long weekend, I think my brain's fried. That's what I get for cosplaying as Chii from Chobits... wearing a blonde wig for that matter. Anyway, sorry if this chapter isn't very exciting... I miss my muse. ::Sniffle.:: Read on!
Oh yeah, before I forget... I know Shomari acted really evil in the last chapter, but that's animal nature for animals killing the leaders to take over. Just trying to keep things realistic.
Chapter 5:
Present...
"Wow..." Pumbaa stared at Ma, a bit amazed. "I had no idea meerkats could be so aggressive! Or is it just Shomari who kills the leader so he could take over?"
"If you want to be get into a new colony when the leader won't let you, you have to resort to desperate measures. It's the laws of nature."
"I thought that was the food chain."
"No, the food chain involves animals eating other animals. Shomari needed an army and he went with the first one he saw, even if they were weaker than ours. You know the expression, 'beggars can't be choosers.'"
"So, what happened?"
"We forgot about Shomari... we had other things on our minds. At least, until over four months later..."
6 years ago...
The sun had begun to set. The meerkats were collecting their dinners before hitting the sack. Today Pete was on sentry duty, and he would stay until the sun was completely set, or when every meerkat had gone inside. And he was only waiting on Buzz to come back from the nearby bird nests to collect some bird eggs. He watched Buzz walk by him rolling two bird eggs in front of him.
"Now you can make a scorpion omelet," Pete said.
Buzz stopped in front of the sentry rock Pete was on and looked up at him. "Can't without a scorpion." He suddenly grinned. "You wouldn't happen to see one out, would you?"
Pete took a quick look around and shook his head. "Nope." He looked back down at Buzz. "So, how's Panya?"
"Hungry and moody." Buzz rubbed the back of his neck. "I don't know if I'm ready for this, Pete. It's been just about eleven weeks, so the pups should be here any day."
Pete sat down on the rock to get a closer view of Buzz. "Ahh... the pressures of a first-time father. If you listened to what your own father taught you, you should do fine, Buzz-Boy."
"Yeah..." Buzz started rolling the eggs back, then stopped. He looked back at Pete with a concerned expression. "But what if they don't like me?" He growled when Pete suddenly fell onto his back laughing. Buzz climbed onto the rock, grabbed Pete, and put him into a headlock. "You're not being very supportive!"
"Ack!" Pete growled and then pulled himself out of the headlock. He let out a few more chuckles. "Sorry, Buzz. I couldn't help but laugh. I mean, I've never heard of a pup not liking his father."
"First time for everything." Buzz jumped back down to the ground.
Pete looked down at Buzz as he started to walk away with the eggs. "You worry too much."
Buzz stopped a moment, grinned, and turned back to Pete. "That sounds familiar." Pete blinked a moment, and then grinned. Buzz turned back around and resumed rolling the eggs to the tunnel. He started to push the egg down the tunnel when he suddenly noticed some movement up ahead. He took a moment to look, then shook his head, thinking it was a mirage.
He then stood to attention when Pete yelled, "Buzz, rogue meerkat!" Buzz absentmindedly pushed the egg down the tunnel just as his Uncle Max was climbing out of the tunnel to see what was going on. The egg broke when it made contact with Max's head, spreading all over Max.
"Buzz!"
"Huh?" Buzz looked and nervously smiled. "Sorry, Uncle Max."
"What's this about a rogue meerkat?"
"Never mind right now. Look, do me a favor." He pushed the other egg to Uncle Max. "Take this back to Panya and stay with her." Uncle Max nodded and dropped back into the tunnel with the egg. Buzz turned his attention back to the approaching rogue meerkat. He cracked his knuckles and walked towards the meerkat. When the meerkat's face came into focus, Buzz stopped in his tracks and gasped. He squinted his eyes, in near disbelief. "Shomari?"
Shomari stopped in front of him, then took a brief look at the area. "Love what you've done with the place, Buzz," he said dryly, since the only change in the area was that it was near winter when he left and now it was almost spring.
Buzz furrowed his brow and folded his arms in front of his chest. "I almost thought I'd have the pleasure of never seeing you again. You've spoiled my day."
Shomari cracked a grin. "Just like old times, eh?" He frowned when Pete stepped up next to Buzz. "Peter."
"Shomari. Still alive, I see," Pete said.
"Duh. He's in bad tastes, so no one wants to eat him," Buzz joked, to which Pete chuckled.
"Oh, you still have a sense of humor! Good. You'll need it," Shomari growled.
"We've run out of nests, so if you're trying to come back into the mob through sweet talk--"
"Sweet talk, Buzz? No, what I had in mind... is far from sweet talk."
Pete pulled Buzz to the side and whispered to him, "He reeks of other meerkats. He must've found another mob."
Buzz looked back at Shomari, then turned back to Pete and scoffed. "A mob that would take him in?" Buzz whispered back.
"If he killed the leader that's the only reason he was let in. Laws of nature, you know."
"Relax, Pete. I took him on before and almost beat him." Buzz rubbed the arm Shomari bit the night he left. He then punched his fist into his paw. "This time I won't stop until one of us stops breathing."
"That's not what I'm getting at, Buzz! If after four or five months he just shows up out of the blue with the smell of other meerkats on him, that usually means something."
"Like what?" Pete looked back at Shomari, then gulped. "Pete?" Buzz turned his attention where Pete was looking, and then notice the group of meerkats stopping behind him.
"Like kicking us out of our tunnels," Pete finally answered Buzz.
Shomari heard him. "Kicking you out? That's not quite what I had in mind, Pete. No, I think submission over your mob will be much more satisfying."
Buzz growled and stepped back over to Shomari. "I'd rather die than submit to you."
"That can be arranged." With that, Shomari leapt onto Buzz and began to fight with him.
Pete ran back towards the tunnels and yelled into it, "Intruders! Meerkat mob attacking!" Shomari's mob took Pete's yelling into the tunnels as a signal and rushed towards him, where meerkats began pouring out. The two mobs wasted no time to begin the battle.
Present...
"Pumbaa?" Ma stopped telling the story when Pumbaa covered his ears. "Pumbaa?" She walked over to him and pulled a hoof down from his ear. "What's the matter? I haven't gotten to anything gory yet."
"Gory?!" Pumbaa rolled his eyes into the back of his head and fainted.
Ma grimaced and took hold of his back leg, and twisted it. Pumbaa yelped and sat back up. With Pumbaa revived Ma released her grip. "Pumbaa, you said you wanted to know about the day Shomari's mob tried to take over our own. I can't tell it if you're unconscious or have your ears covered."
"I'm sorry, Mrs. Ma. I've never been good with war stories," Pumbaa sheepishly admitted. "Isn't there something else you could tell about that day?"
"Depends... would you faint if I told you about the pain I went through that same night when Timon was born?"
Pumbaa gulped and then he nervously smiled. "I think I might prefer the g-g-g-gore."
Ma chuckled. "Unfortunately I wasn't told much about those details... so you may have to settle with the fact that our mob won and move onto Timon's birth."
"Oh, Panya, that's such a boring ending to the story," a voice said. Pumbaa and Ma turned to see Shomari walk up to them.
"Mr. Shomari, what are you doing here?" Pumbaa asked.
"I've been listening to the two of you talking about that old fight..."
"Invading our privacy?" Ma arched an eyebrow.
"I just wanted to make sure you weren't saying bad things about me," Shomari said as he eyed Ma a bit with a grin.
"Who, me?" Ma innocently asked. "Stick around if you'd like. I'm done telling the story."
"Oh, don't stop telling it on my account."
"She wasn't told the exact details of the fight. Just that Buzz won, you left, and Timon was born," Pumbaa said. Shomari softly growled, turning away from the two. Pumbaa gulped, "Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Shomari! I just really wanted to know how it all turned out! I mean, Mrs. Ma said that Mr. Buzz said the two of you would fight until one of you were dead."
Shomari half-smirked. "Well, if you want to know why, I could tell you."
"Are you sure, Shomari?" Ma asked.
"Hey, he wants to know how it happened, I'll tell him."
"But, uh... could you just skip to the end of the fight? I don't handle well with g-g-gore," Pumbaa stuttered.
"I'm bad at describing action shots anyway."
6 years ago...
The night was dark when the heated battle began to cool down. Buzz pinned Shomari down to the ground, his legs holding Shomari's arms down, his right paw at his neck. The two of them glared at each other and panted.
Shomari then swallowed with a bit of difficulty, with Buzz's paw at his neck. "Go ahead then. You know you want to." Buzz's lip curled up into a growl, and then his grip tightened. Shomari coughed, gritting his teeth and digging his claws into the sand. He felt darkness starting to settle in as the oxygen from his lungs escaped. But then he suddenly felt the grip on his neck loosen. He inhaled deeply and opened his eyes to see Buzz looking away from him and standing. He sat up and put a paw to his throat, coughing. "What are you doing? Why don't you finish me?"
"You're not worth it," Buzz said in a low voice.
Shomari growled, "You're afraid to take a life, aren't you?"
"Are you saying you want to die?" Shomari was silent. "The worst thing I can do to you isn't killing you, because you don't want to live with the shame of defeat."
"Who would?"
Buzz dusted himself off and turned away from him. "Get you and your mob out of my sight. You're not welcomed here anymore."
Shomari stood and dusted himself off. He stared at Buzz, and then he called to his colony, "We're done here!" He turned back to Buzz. "I won't forget this. I'll hold this grudge against you for the rest of my life. Just pray if I ever come across your pups--"
Buzz growled, bared his teeth, and grabbed the front of his fur. "Threaten the lives of my pups and I'll tear your throat out!"
Shomari looked Buzz over a moment, and then he smirked as he pried Buzz's paws off his chest. "You're so sensitive." Shomari then turned and walked away, his colony walking behind him, defeated. They walked a good distance from the tunnels when they finally met up with the females. Shomari sighed and approached Dalila, who was revealed to be heavy with pup.
"You don't have the look of triumph on your face, Shomari," Dalila softly said.
"They beat us, Dalila. I'm sorry. The prey around here was good, the tunnels already completed..."
"There's still time to find another area for our new tunnels before the pups come. If we have to dig, we'll dig. Simple as that."
Shomari sighed and nodded. He turned to the group. "It's dark. The hunters are out. Let's start digging."
...
Buzz watched the remaining intruders walk away with heavy breath. He exhaled when the last one was out of sight. He ran a paw through his hair and plopped down onto the sand. He put a paw over his eyes and panted, physically and mentally tired from the battle. He even thought of going to sleep right there until--
"Buzz!"
Buzz sighed deeply at the sound of his uncle's voice. He turned to see Uncle Max run over to him. "What is it, Uncle Max? Can't it wait 'til morning?"
"It's important. It's Panya."
That grabbed Buzz's attention. "What's wrong?"
"Well, unless Panya understands you missing the birth of your first litter, you've got nothing to worry about."
"WHAT?!"
To be continued...
Oh yeah, before I forget... I know Shomari acted really evil in the last chapter, but that's animal nature for animals killing the leaders to take over. Just trying to keep things realistic.
Chapter 5:
Present...
"Wow..." Pumbaa stared at Ma, a bit amazed. "I had no idea meerkats could be so aggressive! Or is it just Shomari who kills the leader so he could take over?"
"If you want to be get into a new colony when the leader won't let you, you have to resort to desperate measures. It's the laws of nature."
"I thought that was the food chain."
"No, the food chain involves animals eating other animals. Shomari needed an army and he went with the first one he saw, even if they were weaker than ours. You know the expression, 'beggars can't be choosers.'"
"So, what happened?"
"We forgot about Shomari... we had other things on our minds. At least, until over four months later..."
6 years ago...
The sun had begun to set. The meerkats were collecting their dinners before hitting the sack. Today Pete was on sentry duty, and he would stay until the sun was completely set, or when every meerkat had gone inside. And he was only waiting on Buzz to come back from the nearby bird nests to collect some bird eggs. He watched Buzz walk by him rolling two bird eggs in front of him.
"Now you can make a scorpion omelet," Pete said.
Buzz stopped in front of the sentry rock Pete was on and looked up at him. "Can't without a scorpion." He suddenly grinned. "You wouldn't happen to see one out, would you?"
Pete took a quick look around and shook his head. "Nope." He looked back down at Buzz. "So, how's Panya?"
"Hungry and moody." Buzz rubbed the back of his neck. "I don't know if I'm ready for this, Pete. It's been just about eleven weeks, so the pups should be here any day."
Pete sat down on the rock to get a closer view of Buzz. "Ahh... the pressures of a first-time father. If you listened to what your own father taught you, you should do fine, Buzz-Boy."
"Yeah..." Buzz started rolling the eggs back, then stopped. He looked back at Pete with a concerned expression. "But what if they don't like me?" He growled when Pete suddenly fell onto his back laughing. Buzz climbed onto the rock, grabbed Pete, and put him into a headlock. "You're not being very supportive!"
"Ack!" Pete growled and then pulled himself out of the headlock. He let out a few more chuckles. "Sorry, Buzz. I couldn't help but laugh. I mean, I've never heard of a pup not liking his father."
"First time for everything." Buzz jumped back down to the ground.
Pete looked down at Buzz as he started to walk away with the eggs. "You worry too much."
Buzz stopped a moment, grinned, and turned back to Pete. "That sounds familiar." Pete blinked a moment, and then grinned. Buzz turned back around and resumed rolling the eggs to the tunnel. He started to push the egg down the tunnel when he suddenly noticed some movement up ahead. He took a moment to look, then shook his head, thinking it was a mirage.
He then stood to attention when Pete yelled, "Buzz, rogue meerkat!" Buzz absentmindedly pushed the egg down the tunnel just as his Uncle Max was climbing out of the tunnel to see what was going on. The egg broke when it made contact with Max's head, spreading all over Max.
"Buzz!"
"Huh?" Buzz looked and nervously smiled. "Sorry, Uncle Max."
"What's this about a rogue meerkat?"
"Never mind right now. Look, do me a favor." He pushed the other egg to Uncle Max. "Take this back to Panya and stay with her." Uncle Max nodded and dropped back into the tunnel with the egg. Buzz turned his attention back to the approaching rogue meerkat. He cracked his knuckles and walked towards the meerkat. When the meerkat's face came into focus, Buzz stopped in his tracks and gasped. He squinted his eyes, in near disbelief. "Shomari?"
Shomari stopped in front of him, then took a brief look at the area. "Love what you've done with the place, Buzz," he said dryly, since the only change in the area was that it was near winter when he left and now it was almost spring.
Buzz furrowed his brow and folded his arms in front of his chest. "I almost thought I'd have the pleasure of never seeing you again. You've spoiled my day."
Shomari cracked a grin. "Just like old times, eh?" He frowned when Pete stepped up next to Buzz. "Peter."
"Shomari. Still alive, I see," Pete said.
"Duh. He's in bad tastes, so no one wants to eat him," Buzz joked, to which Pete chuckled.
"Oh, you still have a sense of humor! Good. You'll need it," Shomari growled.
"We've run out of nests, so if you're trying to come back into the mob through sweet talk--"
"Sweet talk, Buzz? No, what I had in mind... is far from sweet talk."
Pete pulled Buzz to the side and whispered to him, "He reeks of other meerkats. He must've found another mob."
Buzz looked back at Shomari, then turned back to Pete and scoffed. "A mob that would take him in?" Buzz whispered back.
"If he killed the leader that's the only reason he was let in. Laws of nature, you know."
"Relax, Pete. I took him on before and almost beat him." Buzz rubbed the arm Shomari bit the night he left. He then punched his fist into his paw. "This time I won't stop until one of us stops breathing."
"That's not what I'm getting at, Buzz! If after four or five months he just shows up out of the blue with the smell of other meerkats on him, that usually means something."
"Like what?" Pete looked back at Shomari, then gulped. "Pete?" Buzz turned his attention where Pete was looking, and then notice the group of meerkats stopping behind him.
"Like kicking us out of our tunnels," Pete finally answered Buzz.
Shomari heard him. "Kicking you out? That's not quite what I had in mind, Pete. No, I think submission over your mob will be much more satisfying."
Buzz growled and stepped back over to Shomari. "I'd rather die than submit to you."
"That can be arranged." With that, Shomari leapt onto Buzz and began to fight with him.
Pete ran back towards the tunnels and yelled into it, "Intruders! Meerkat mob attacking!" Shomari's mob took Pete's yelling into the tunnels as a signal and rushed towards him, where meerkats began pouring out. The two mobs wasted no time to begin the battle.
Present...
"Pumbaa?" Ma stopped telling the story when Pumbaa covered his ears. "Pumbaa?" She walked over to him and pulled a hoof down from his ear. "What's the matter? I haven't gotten to anything gory yet."
"Gory?!" Pumbaa rolled his eyes into the back of his head and fainted.
Ma grimaced and took hold of his back leg, and twisted it. Pumbaa yelped and sat back up. With Pumbaa revived Ma released her grip. "Pumbaa, you said you wanted to know about the day Shomari's mob tried to take over our own. I can't tell it if you're unconscious or have your ears covered."
"I'm sorry, Mrs. Ma. I've never been good with war stories," Pumbaa sheepishly admitted. "Isn't there something else you could tell about that day?"
"Depends... would you faint if I told you about the pain I went through that same night when Timon was born?"
Pumbaa gulped and then he nervously smiled. "I think I might prefer the g-g-g-gore."
Ma chuckled. "Unfortunately I wasn't told much about those details... so you may have to settle with the fact that our mob won and move onto Timon's birth."
"Oh, Panya, that's such a boring ending to the story," a voice said. Pumbaa and Ma turned to see Shomari walk up to them.
"Mr. Shomari, what are you doing here?" Pumbaa asked.
"I've been listening to the two of you talking about that old fight..."
"Invading our privacy?" Ma arched an eyebrow.
"I just wanted to make sure you weren't saying bad things about me," Shomari said as he eyed Ma a bit with a grin.
"Who, me?" Ma innocently asked. "Stick around if you'd like. I'm done telling the story."
"Oh, don't stop telling it on my account."
"She wasn't told the exact details of the fight. Just that Buzz won, you left, and Timon was born," Pumbaa said. Shomari softly growled, turning away from the two. Pumbaa gulped, "Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Shomari! I just really wanted to know how it all turned out! I mean, Mrs. Ma said that Mr. Buzz said the two of you would fight until one of you were dead."
Shomari half-smirked. "Well, if you want to know why, I could tell you."
"Are you sure, Shomari?" Ma asked.
"Hey, he wants to know how it happened, I'll tell him."
"But, uh... could you just skip to the end of the fight? I don't handle well with g-g-gore," Pumbaa stuttered.
"I'm bad at describing action shots anyway."
6 years ago...
The night was dark when the heated battle began to cool down. Buzz pinned Shomari down to the ground, his legs holding Shomari's arms down, his right paw at his neck. The two of them glared at each other and panted.
Shomari then swallowed with a bit of difficulty, with Buzz's paw at his neck. "Go ahead then. You know you want to." Buzz's lip curled up into a growl, and then his grip tightened. Shomari coughed, gritting his teeth and digging his claws into the sand. He felt darkness starting to settle in as the oxygen from his lungs escaped. But then he suddenly felt the grip on his neck loosen. He inhaled deeply and opened his eyes to see Buzz looking away from him and standing. He sat up and put a paw to his throat, coughing. "What are you doing? Why don't you finish me?"
"You're not worth it," Buzz said in a low voice.
Shomari growled, "You're afraid to take a life, aren't you?"
"Are you saying you want to die?" Shomari was silent. "The worst thing I can do to you isn't killing you, because you don't want to live with the shame of defeat."
"Who would?"
Buzz dusted himself off and turned away from him. "Get you and your mob out of my sight. You're not welcomed here anymore."
Shomari stood and dusted himself off. He stared at Buzz, and then he called to his colony, "We're done here!" He turned back to Buzz. "I won't forget this. I'll hold this grudge against you for the rest of my life. Just pray if I ever come across your pups--"
Buzz growled, bared his teeth, and grabbed the front of his fur. "Threaten the lives of my pups and I'll tear your throat out!"
Shomari looked Buzz over a moment, and then he smirked as he pried Buzz's paws off his chest. "You're so sensitive." Shomari then turned and walked away, his colony walking behind him, defeated. They walked a good distance from the tunnels when they finally met up with the females. Shomari sighed and approached Dalila, who was revealed to be heavy with pup.
"You don't have the look of triumph on your face, Shomari," Dalila softly said.
"They beat us, Dalila. I'm sorry. The prey around here was good, the tunnels already completed..."
"There's still time to find another area for our new tunnels before the pups come. If we have to dig, we'll dig. Simple as that."
Shomari sighed and nodded. He turned to the group. "It's dark. The hunters are out. Let's start digging."
...
Buzz watched the remaining intruders walk away with heavy breath. He exhaled when the last one was out of sight. He ran a paw through his hair and plopped down onto the sand. He put a paw over his eyes and panted, physically and mentally tired from the battle. He even thought of going to sleep right there until--
"Buzz!"
Buzz sighed deeply at the sound of his uncle's voice. He turned to see Uncle Max run over to him. "What is it, Uncle Max? Can't it wait 'til morning?"
"It's important. It's Panya."
That grabbed Buzz's attention. "What's wrong?"
"Well, unless Panya understands you missing the birth of your first litter, you've got nothing to worry about."
"WHAT?!"
To be continued...