Shadowland
Chapter 7
Meerkat Manner
I am not Walter Disney, nor am I related to Disney in any way, except for being a fan of his work. Shadowland, Chapter 7: 'Meerkat Manner' is property of Troy Wong, a.k.a. Chookooblash, and is not to be resold or posted on any other site without my permission.
I hope you enjoy reading my stories. Long live the king!
"Meerkats? Not the smartest creatures around, young Sire. And from what I've seen, the majority of them have the most horrid sense of humor."
-Majordomo Zazu the hornbill during the reign of King Mufasa, to Young Prince Simba.
It was the middle of the day by the baobab tree that marked the territory of the Mesa Meerkat family. The sun's heat pounded down on everything, and even the foliage nearby seemed to be getting weighed down by its intensity. It hadn't rained in a few months, and that didn't help the fact that Chilli had decided to expand their tunnel complex on that very day.
Levi, Troy, Julia and Maxwell were working towards the west of their territory. One would keep watch while the others went to work. It was pretty much the same routine for everyone else; Ruby, Joshie, and Zippy in the north, Jasmine, Gopher, Paul, Matt and Charlotte the elephant in the northwest, Stella, Tino, Samuel and Sam in the south, and, finally, Chilli, most of the remaining colony, and the children in the center of it all.
Anyone who wasn't part of a digging team or with Chilli was a sentry. They quickly spread out, creating a circle around the family's territory, scrambling up to their viewing platforms, such as elevated ground, and boulders to do nothing other than to scurry, sniff, and flinch repetitively. This was an ancient technique passed down through all the generations. It was believed that, that very method of spotting predators originated from the same colony that Timon, the greatest hero known to meerkats came from.
At this particular point in time, Matt's group was just beginning to find a good starting spot for their dig. It took awhile, but they didn't mind, because they were in the direct shade of the nearby baobab tree's trunk. Gopher couldn't do much when it came to digging, and neither could Charlotte, so, two of them kept watch while the other two started their digging.
"So…" began Gopher. "Did you feel the love a couple of nights ago?"
"Huh?" she exclaimed.
"You know, that night of the full moon."
"Oh, well, normally, I'm asleep in the night time, but this one time, not long ago, I had to stay up for my friend's funeral." she replied, in an innocent, carefree, and generally childish way.
Gopher nearly choked. That didn't go too well. "Uh, well… I'm sorry to hear that."
She chuckled. "You know, that's just what Jasmine said when I told her that."
"Jasmine? You mean, my friend down there?" he asked, pointing down to the newly dug tunnel entrance.
"Yeah, that's her." She paused. "You're not very good at remembering friend's names! Don't your other friends get angry at you?"
Gopher's face darkened a little. "Ah, well, I don't really have any other friends."
"Are you sure?" she asked. "No other friends at all?"
The little rodent sighed. "Well, I used to, but… Not anymore."
"Oh."
Robert was a sentry as well, and since he wasn't allowed anywhere near Jasmine, he decided to keep watch almost as far away as possible from her in the south. While leaving Jasmine to her work, Robert went closer to Tino's group for a little bit of company. It wasn't too long before his eyes strayed from the horizon to the new tunnel nearby, and being the great tunnel digger/know-it-all that he was, Robert absolutely had to lend his 'experience' and 'advice'.
"You know," he began, pointing into the darkness of the burrow, "that'd be a lot easier if one of you dug while the other three kept that loose dirt in check, instead of you just taking turns, like you are now."
A short moment passed before Samuel pulled his dirt-smudged face out of the sand. "Uh huh?" was all that he muttered before re-entering the dusk.
Robert glanced at Stella for a second. "Stella, I really think you should take a break. You don't look so well to me."
"I'm fine." she replied, sternly.
"Seriously, Stella-"
"Hey, Rob, you might not wanna keep bugging her about that." suggested Sam.
Robert just ignored him that time. "Stella, really, come on. Take a break. You can be sentry for awhile. I'll dig."
"I said I'm fine!" she shouted.
Rob spotted a foot step out of the tunnel, and hoped it was Stella, actually taking his advice, but, no, it was only Sam, trying to get the noise back into his ears. He'd come out to have a word. "Rob, you really don't wanna do that."
"Nonsense. Stella wouldn't dream of hurting me. Would you, Stella?" he asked, seeming a little too sure of himself. There came no reply. "Stella?"
"Rob, look at me." whispered Sam, grabbing him by the shoulders and turning him so that they were face to face. "You don't wanna do that."
"Sam, you need to relax a little. Come on out, Stella!"
"Shut up!" she bellowed, her voice echoing through the warren, nearly deafening poor Tino, who was standing right next to her, and messing up Samuel's hair. Sam and Robert just stood there for a minute. Nothing happened for a short while, but the worst was soon to come.
"Hey, someone's getting a little frustrated. That means you have to come out!"
"No Rob. Rob, you're a dead meerkat. You're a dead meerkat, Rob!"
"You're exaggerating."
"No way, man. She's a homicidal mania…AHHHH!" he yelled, as he turned to see the power of steam engine, materialized, and compacted into one furious, frustrated, fuming meerkat running towards them, screaming a blood freezing, bone chilling, nonsensical war cry. She leaped into the air, right at Robert, arms outstretched, ready to grab and strangle his frail neck. In mid air, she must've changed her mind, because in place of a choking strangulation came a bone-shattering blow to the face that knocked the aggravatingly persistent Robert to the ground with a thump.
But the pain didn't stop there. As Sam cowered and ducked behind a rock in fear, Stella grabbed her hapless, helpless, horrified victim by the shoulders and smashed his body into the ground repeatedly.
"ARGH! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! BAH-" screamed Robert, desperately hoping that she would stop. But once Stella got angry, there was no stopping her.
"SHUT UP!" she yelled, clenching her fist and raising it into the air. Robert shrunk away in fear, ready to take the impact. Before she could unleash all her wrath, though, she was seized by Sam, Tino, and Samuel, as well as a few other meerkats, who had come when Sam ran up to them hyperventilating, and yelling nothing but "Stella! Crazy! Stella! Crazy!" It had happened too many times before for them to ignore it or deem him insane.
With her unearthly strength, Stella shook all of them off like an elephant shakes of the flies with a swish of its tail; not because they were thrown off, but because they were paranoid of what terrible injuries they may have sustained if they were to hang on. A few of the sentries nearby saw what was happening, and after building up the courage, the bowed their heads and ran, screaming, arms flailing, into the fray.
Seventy four injuries, forty-or-so spectators, and the weight of twenty-one meerkats later, Stella was finally brought down. She threw a few meerkats off the top of the mountain that held her down before having wasted all of her energy. Needless to say, Robert wasn't feeling too well after that, but, he had learned a very important lesson.
"Rob! Rob!" called Sam, digging through the near-lifeless pile of his brothers, sisters, cousins, uncles, aunts, and friends. He found what he was looking for, soon enough. "Rob! Are you alright?"
Robert had bitten himself on the lip and tongue five times, and his face was the one part of his body that absorb the most harm, so it was no surprise that all he could do was mumble "I think she broke my nose." in a way that gave you the impression that every muscle that was attached to his not-so-good-looking mug had been very recently paralyzed.
Unfortunately for those rodents, the lack of meerkats keeping watch to fuel the increase of meerkats stopping a weapon of mass destruction meant that predators had a full ten minutes to get into Mesa territory. And that is just what the wild dog hunting party, lead by Hiero did.
"Wild dogs! From the south!" barked the closest sentry, as he turned, ran and dived gracefully into the main tunnel entrance, in the middle of it all. These creatures were preyed upon so often, that diving into tunnels had become nothing less than an art form; for some, even a hobby.
The heap of meerkats atop Stella soon became nothing more than a lump, and then, nothing at all, as each and every one of them used up the rest of their life-forces to sprint directly towards the main cavern and tumble in clumsily.
Of course, if you weren't able to move, or didn't haveany energy left, like Robert and Stella, then you couldn't move. Then you'd have to depend on others to haul you to safety. About half a minute passed. Those dogs sure were taking their time, not to mention those other guys who were supposed to come and save them. Then, the silent thought that they, in fact, weren't coming arose. Would they do that? Would they, really?
Before long, Robert heard footsteps coming from somewhere. He couldn't tell. It was strange. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a shadow approaching.
"What are two rodents like you doing out here all alone?"
Robert moaned. Stella snored. Whatever It was that had just spoken to him, he didn't care, regardless of predator or prey. He heard something very close growl and begin to lift one of its front limbs, ready to strike. He scrunched his eyes, tightly shut, and waited for it to strike.
"Don't do it." called another voice. The growling stopped. "You can't just kill those two. They can't even move."
The figure that was standing in front of Robert seemed to move away, dragging its shadow with it. "What? You can't be serious. We've been starved for days, and when we finally find some food, you tell me that we can't kill them?"
Robert kept his eyelids over his eyes, and silently hoped that the female voice would somehow convince the other to spare him.
"They're helpless! How could anyone be so low?
"I'm not being low! I'm getting food for the pack!" Out of the corner of his eye, Robert saw a shadow once again lifting its arm. The female voice began to growl.
"Don't do it."
'Maybe they were lions? Or a couple of wild dogs…' Robert thought to himself.
"Hiero, I said, don't do it."
"Domin, I am the leader of this hunting party! You are nothing but a lousy, stupid rogue female! You can't stop me- I'm the one who decides what happens here."
Mumbles and hidden gasps from the crowd floated around. There must have been a whole pack of them. 'There can't be this many leopards together…' Robert thought. 'And lions don't hunt like this. They're wild dogs!'
Domin barked, snapping her jaws. "If you strike, I will kill you before you kill them." she snarled.
Hiero's paw came down right over Rob's face, and he recoiled in fear as it was beat and dragged away by the dog's own body as Domin carried him through the air, throwing him onto the ground several metres away. She landed on her feet in such a way that he was immediately pinned.
"I may be lousy, but you're pathetic. I may be stupid, but you're a fool. And, not only am I no longer a rogue, but now I'm the new leader of this hunting party. Unless you want to prove to me that you're the most dim-witted, dense idiot I've ever met, you will never speak against my authority again." she spat in his face, before walking away in disdain. She turned her head towards the remainder of the hunting party. "Let's get us some wildebeest for dinner!"
The hunting party yipped and howled in agreement as they followed her to wildebeest territory in the northwestern regions of the valley. Hiero scrambled to his feet and ran after those that he once owned in fear that he would be left alone.
"ARGH! GET BACK, BEASTS! GET BACK!" bellowed Joshie as he ran out of the tunnel entrance with a fruit husk of some sort on his head as a helmet, and a stick as a weapon. "I HAVE A STICK!" he yelled, swinging it around blindly; his headdress sliding down slightly, and covering his eyes.
Meerca poked her head out of the opening soon after. "Hey, guys! They're gone!" she shrieked, running over to Robert and Stella. "Hey, guys… Are you alright?"
Stella snored loudly. By now, she was nearly drowning in her own small puddle of drool. "It hurts to talk." muttered Robert.
xxx
The sun had disappeared behind the mountains yet another time, leaving only a dim, temporary orange hue behind to illuminate the night sky for a few more minutes. Gopher sat by the baobab tree with Charlotte, telling her exotic fairytales and legends that definitely weren't from anywhere near Amber Valley. And that gave rise to the question, 'How does a small Gopher pick up tales like these?'
"... so Mickey and Minnie lived happily ever after."
Charlotte paused for a moment to let everything sink in before saying, "Wow, Gopher. That sure was a strange story."
Gopher smiled. "Did you like it?"
"Yeah, you told it really well. Where'd you get that story from?"
"Somewhere far away…" he breathed, looking up to the stars. He seemed to be lost in his own thoughts for a brief moment there.
"Where?" asked Charlotte, curiously, trying to link her eyes with Gopher's to bring his view back to her.
Gopher snapped out of his trance. He sighed. "Ah, you wouldn't know where… Nobody from these parts knows where."
xxx
"Don't be a fool, Coyle. Don't be a fool. The plant knows when to drop its leaves… When they're doing more harm than good. One has already been pulled off for you, and that leaves just one more leaf to be dropped. DON'T BE A FOOL!"
Coyle's eyes opened and one of his back legs kicked the air. It was that strange voice again. That was the second time it had spoken to him… Or was it? He didn't know how long he had been sleeping, and he could've sworn that words had been echoing through his head like noises through a cave. Looking to his right, he saw Sapphire, still asleep.
And then, a noise. A noise erupted from beyond the surrounding hills. It was a sound he'd never heard before. A laugh crossed with a yip, wrapped in a call. He heard another come from behind him. It seemed to have answered to the first. Again and again they sounded. They came from everywhere. Coyle and Sapphire were surrounded by things that were still hiding.
The pure white mist around him gradually grew darker, and with that darkness, he slowly became aware that they were closing in. Out from the fog right in front of him emerged a creature he'd never seen before, of grey and black colour, just like its surroundings. More revealed themselves. One, four, nine, sixteen, thirty. Sapphire awoke, and hurried to her feet.
They were smaller than lions and bigger than wild dogs. Their teeth were yellow, and the males of the species displayed small, tuft-like manes, much like a horse's. Their eyes were tired, and bloodshot. By looking at their figures, even a fool could tell that they were starving. Several of these creatures barked and growled at the newcomers cautiously. They, too, had never seen anything that looked like Coyle or Sapphire before.
By those who had lived long enough in their presence, they were known as hyenas.