Chapter 46:
Sly ran to catch up to Buzz, who had stopped in the middle of the tunnel. "OK, so whom do you want me to see next?"
"Before I show you anymore relatives, I think we should skip ahead a few months first." The scenery changed to a tunnel collapsing. Sly covered his head, as the dirt came crashing down on them. Buzz grimaced and pulled Sly through the dirt pile. He sighed as he rolled his eyes, "Perfect timing."
"I'll say... What a mess! What happened?" Sly asked.
"I, uh... I was giving Timon a tunnel digging lesson," Buzz mumbled as his younger self and three-month-old Timon popped their heads out from the dirt pile. "I was expecting instinct to kick in."
"Weird."
"Not for Timon," Buzz sighed with a roll of his eyes. "The pup has two left digging paws." Their attention turned to an older meerkat standing at the base of the pile.
"Buzz! What happened here?" the meerkat asked as the young Buzz pulled the young Timon out of the pile.
"Uh, just giving Junior here a digging lesson, Uncle Max," young Buzz replied as he gave Timon a pat on the back.
"Oh, so that's what that was. From the looks of this tunnel I thought you were giving him a demolition lesson!"
Sly winced at the scream with the younger Buzz and Timon. "That extra-large set of lungs is my uncle?"
Buzz nervously chuckled as he led Sly away from the scene. "Great-uncle. He likes to have things in order and on schedule, so he doesn't have a lot of patience. It got worse when Timon started digging tunnels and breaking them, day dreaming of a better life, questioning why we don't stand up for ourselves and why we dig tunnels all the time..." He chuckled. "Oh, it was priceless when Max taught him scurry-sniff-flinch. 'Flinch, then sniff, or scratch and sniff?'"
"Of course he questions it when he's young and he isn't any good at it."
"He questioned it until he was two-years-old," Buzz replied dryly. "He wanted a better life where there are no hyenas and where we don't have to dig tunnels. The rest of us, well, we didn't want to take the chance. We just liked living better than to leave somewhere that's safe when we're not even sure such a paradise exists."
"Yourself included? That's not what I heard about you."
"That's how I felt... at first. Anyway, because of all that he and I always found something to disagree about. About the only one who had enough patience with Timon was his mother." He pointed ahead to Timon sitting down on a rock with his mother.
"Was I adopted?" Timon asked.
Panya frowned, "Timon... I swear, no matter what, you and your father always seem to disagree on something. Why?"
"Well, I'm tired of doing everything his way, or Uncle Max's way. They're always picking on me."
Panya started to smooth out his hair. "Oh, sweetie, you won't be a pup forever..." A cowlick refused to be smoothed out. She tried again. "...and whether your father or Uncle Max like it or not..." The hair popped up again. She used both paws now. "... you'll be making your own way soon." The hair popped up yet again. She shrugged and ruffled Timon's hair up, making Timon laugh unexpectedly. Sly held in a laugh himself. Buzz shook his head and smiled. Panya looked at Timon's messed up hair and smiled as she put her paws on his cheeks. "Whatever you do, I know you're going to make me proud."
"You really think so?"
"Even Dad." Timon smiled and hugged her.
"Thanks, Mom."
Buzz bowed his head and grinned slightly as the scenery faded. "She almost always knew just what to say to him. I almost never did."
"Did you two ever get along?" Sly asked.
"We started to about a month after this," Buzz replied, scratching the back of his head. "Special request from your mother. Took a little work, but we only argued about two or three times a week."
"Really."
"More or less," he shrugged. Suddenly they were inside the tunnel. "Now then... your previous question's about to be answered."
"Previous... question...?" Sly asked as Buzz pointed towards two approaching figures.
Young Buzz and Panya walked down the tunnel. "I don't know about this, Buzz..." Panya said, shaking her head.
"Panya, Timon's going to be six-months-old next week, and he's going to start babysitting soon. If he's old enough to be able to take care of the younger pups then I think he's old enough to know about Titus and understand," the young Buzz replied.
"Couldn't we wait until next week?"
"I, for one, am tired of keeping it from him. I'd rather tell him now and get it over with."
"But I don't know how to tell him..."
"You're afraid to tell him, that's what. You don't want to remember." Panya lowered her eyes slightly. Buzz tilted his head with a soft sigh and then kissed her on the cheek. "Listen, he and I have been getting along great lately, so I'll tell him alone. You won't have to relive that day again."
"Are you sure?"
He nodded. "I'm sure. Where is he?"
"Outside getting a bite, last time I checked."
"OK. Be back soon." He walked away from her towards the tunnel exit. Panya sighed and rubbed her paws together anxiously.
"So you did tell him about me," Sly said to Buzz.
"No, I never got the chance to," Buzz said. "When I got outside it began to rain, and everyone was called inside and gathered in the central meeting tunnel."
The scene changed to the central meeting tunnel, where everyone was gathered and heads were being counted. "Where's Timon?" young Buzz asked.
"Timon's up there!" Panya asked, and then began to pace. "He can't be outside in that! He'll catch a cold!"
"It's hardly a sprinkle." They all turned to the sentry who came running into meeting tunnel.
She panted, "I barely made it. We've got a huge problem up there!"
Panya stared at Buzz, "Hardly a sprinkle, huh?"
"Well, actually, it is hardly a sprinkle right now. But what I mean is, I saw a hyena as I ducked into the tunnel!"
"You saw a WHAT!" Panya grabbed the sentry and shook her by the arms. "My baby's up there! What are we gonna do!" Buzz looked in the direction the sentry came, and then he had a determined look on his face and headed towards the exit.
"You mean this is the day...?" Sly began. Buzz nodded. "But I thought you said..."
"Timon once said to me 'No meerkat should have to hide' and 'Meerkats should start growing backbones.' I guess his words gave me the encouragement to go outside and fight that hyena off. But aside from that..." He looked at Sly and said, "I already lost one son; I wasn't going to lose the other."
The scenery suddenly changed again. They were outside, it was raining, and a hyena was charging towards them. Sly screamed and ducked his head. The hyena ran right through them, continuing towards the young Buzz. Sly lifted his head up. "Gotta remember they can't see or feel us..." he mumbled to himself.
"Here, batter, batter!" the younger Buzz shouted as he swung a stick that was twice the size he was. The hyena yelped and rolled backwards. The young Buzz chased after him. Meerkats watched from the tunnel exits.
"Look at him go!" a meerkat shouted.
"He's got that hyena begging for mercy!" a second cheered.
Then the hyena ran off. Young Buzz panted and tossed the stick aside. He then went behind the rock and tree sentry point. "Wow... you were strong," Sly said.
"That's why Shomari didn't take over our colony," Buzz smirked.
Sly nodded his head towards where young Buzz went. "What's back there?"
"That's where Timon was hiding. I was making sure he was all right."
"Buzz! Look out! HYENAS!" a meerkat shouted as the hyena returned with five more.
The scene abruptly changed to inside the tunnel. "I'm sorry, Sly, but I'd rather not watch my death from a different angle," Buzz said with a shudder.
"I'll forgive you," Sly said with a nervous smile. "So what happened?"
"I told Timon not to tell his mother about him being outside, seeing how she worries so much, and then I pushed him down the nearest tunnel entrance. I then continued to fight the hyenas, you know, to try to scare them off. I realized one meerkat against six hyenas, no matter how strong, were bad odds, but I couldn't make it back to any of the entrances." He exhaled. "It got so bad the meerkats watching had to duck down to avoid getting attacked themselves and wait for the noise upstairs to quiet down."
The scenery changed once more to the central meeting tunnel, where Timon ran to his mother. "Mom, Dad's hurt real bad up there! We gotta save him!" Timon pulled on her arm, trying to drag her outside. Panya wouldn't move. She was too afraid. Timon frantically looked at the group, then he went to Uncle Max. "Uncle Max, come on, we gotta...!" A strong slap across his face stopped Timon from finishing his sentence. It echoed in the tunnels like a clap of thunder. Panya gasped, shocked that Uncle Max had just slapped her son. Sly winced and put a paw on his left cheek.
"It's your fault he's out there in the first place, pup! If you had come straight to the meeting tunnel like you were suppose to during a predator attack or storm, he would be down here now!" Uncle Max sternly said to him. Timon put a paw to his left red cheek.
"They didn't even try to save you?" Sly asked.
"Timon wasn't as big an influence on them as he was to me," Buzz sighed. "But even if he was, they wouldn't stand a really good chance at this point and time."
"But I saw your grave. If you were eaten by the hyenas, then what did they bury?"
Buzz was about to reply, but a loud boom was heard above them, followed by yelping hyenas. "Lighting struck a tree nearby and scared them off before they could eat me. Timon went outside first and found me... alive, but barely." The scenery changed once more to the rock and tree sentry point. "Forgive me again... I'm not too fond of what I look like dying."
"You're forgiven again. But... do you mind if I...?"
"Go ahead." Sly looked at Buzz, and then approached the rock, hearing voices.
"Dad, please... not when we were just starting to get close... I won't let you go!" Sly looked around the corner of the rock, seeing Timon was kneeling down to the young Buzz. Buzz lifted his paw up and lightly ruffled Timon's hair.
"I'm sorry, pal. I can't be fixed." Timon shook his head, trying to deny this was happening. Sly took a few steps closer to the scene and knelt down beside Timon.
"Timon! Buzz!" Panya's voice was heard.
Buzz winced, then exhaled as he looked up at Timon. "Take care of your mother, and the colony. Find that perfect life you always talk about... then no one else will have to go the way I did. Remember... I love you, pup." Buzz's paw became limp, dropping down from Timon's head to the ground. Timon got up and backed away from him, shaking his head.
"Dad...? Dad? No, please..." Timon stared at the body with his eyes wide. Sly closed his eyes and turned his head away as well until he heard Panya walk up.
"Timon, there you are. What...?" Panya gasped when she saw Buzz's body, then shook her head. "No..." More meerkats came up behind her and gasped.
"Buzz..." Uncle Max softly said. Timon continued to stare until his mother put a paw on his shoulder. He looked at her, then clung to her, crying hard. Ma hugged him tightly, crying as well. The other meerkats bowed their heads.
Sly rose to his feet. He looked at Panya with Timon and went to put a paw on her shoulder, but saw that his paw only went right through her. He drew his paw back and stared at it with sad eyes as the scenery faded. "I can't even comfort her in my own subconscious."
Buzz appeared behind Sly and put a paw on his shoulder. "You have to admire your mother, Sly. She's a very strong woman. In just under six months she's lost a son and a husband." The scenery changed to the same location, near sunset. Everyone gathered there to put Buzz's body to rest. After singing a song many walked away. Timon and Panya were the last ones standing.
"Must've been hard to lose a father like that. To have him... er, to have you die in his arms," Sly said as he stepped up to the scene. He looked at Panya as she kissed Timon on the cheek and walked away. "Must've been even harder for her."
"It was, but like I said, she's strong. Ever since then she's been extra protective of Timon. She has more patience and understandings than anyone else when he messes up, and after what happened to me, she'd have to be, or Timon would be all alone." He softly sighed as he watched Timon put a paw against the artwork etched onto the rock. "But then... he was all she had, too. About two years later she thought she lost Timon, too."
Sly blinked and looked at him. "What?"
"Zuri wasn't telling whole lies. Timon was a rogue once upon a time. He left the colony."
"Because of this?" Sly motioned to the grave. "But he's too young to be..."
"No, no, no. He left when he was older, and for different reasons." Buzz looked at his grave and grimaced. "I'm one of them. Do you want to see?"
Sly looked at Buzz, and then to Timon, who was sniffled and rubbed his nose with the back of his arm. He then slowly dropped his paw from the picture of Buzz and walked back towards the tunnel with his head hung low. "... Yeah. Yeah, I do."
Buzz smiled and patted him on the back. "Good answer. Let's go."
Buzz began to walk away, but Sly lingered behind a moment to put a paw on the meerkat-sized rock under the larger rock... only to have his paw go right through it. Sly grimaced. "Can't even touch rocks... it's amazing I don't sink into the ground." He stood and then followed Buzz.
To be continued...