The War of Safari Lane
No more homework, no more books! Summer vacation had finally started, and that only meant one thing.
WAR!
As the ex-students streamed home, they shouted challenges to each other across the street… ahem 'battle field' of Safari Lane.
"Red team is going to eat our water!"
"Not if we wipe you out first!"
"Oh yeah!"
"YEAH!"
"We'll see about that!"
And war was declared.
The 'honorable' Red Team consisted of "General" Red Scorchio Timothy, and his soldiers; Blue Wocky Cassie, Brown Grarrl Bob, and Golden Gelert Jessie.
The 'nefarious' Blue Team consisted of "Overlord" Green Yurble Jeff, and his soldiers; White Lupe Shawn, Christmas Zafara Sarah, and Purple Ixi Wesley.
The object of the war was to either defeat the other team – using garden hose "wands", water balloon "Grundo Bombs", and water filled bucket "maces" – and capture their garden gnome "Amulets".
The war waged daily that summer, with losses on both sides on various days (you could only be defeated until the end of the day), but no real winner. If it hadn't been for that one fateful day, the war would never have been won or lost that summer.
A Shadow Kougra named Jennifer and her sister, a Skunk Aisha named Ashley, moved into an empty Neohome on the block. Extremely curious as to why a Blue Wocky was skulking through their yard carrying water balloons, the sisters slipped out the door.
"Hi!" Jennifer exclaimed cheerfully, "What'cha doing?"
"Yaiiieeeee!" Cassie screamed, and had to scramble to catch her water balloons before she dropped them, "Geez, don't sneak up on people like that!"
"Whoops! Sorry, sorry" Jennifer apologized, abashed, "Um, are you playing a game?"
"I'm a soldier in war!" Cassie proclaimed proudly, "I'm about to give the Blue team a total soaking."
"Oooh wow!" Ashley breathed, "Can we play?"
"Hmmm," Cassie rubbed her chin thoughtfully, "Well, there's two of you. I suppose if the others agree and you're okay with playing on opposite teams so things are balanced, I don't see why not… Hang on for juuust a moment."
The sisters watched in bewilderment as the Wocky took a deep breath and hollered, "Tiki Tack Tombooolaaaa!"
There were a few seconds of silence, and then another voice farther down the block picked up the cry, "Tiki Tack Tombooolaaaa!" As the strange code was echoed all up and down the block, pets began appearing from yards all over to meet in the middle of the street.
"That's our code for a 'time out'," Cassie explained, leading the two sisters out to meet the two teams, "We each repeat it as we hear it so that anyone else near us hears it too."
Cassie introduced the sisters to the two teams, pointing out who was who and giving a quick rundown of the rules of the war, "They would both like to play, if you guys say it's all right."
The two teams seemed to think it was fine, and General Timothy and Overlord Jeff welcomed a sister into the group.
"All right!" Overlord Jeff clapped his paws for silence once the girls were greeted by their teams, "It's five minutes till noon. I say we just start our Lunch Truce a few minutes early and meet up in our separate hideouts. We'll all have one hour to eat and bring our new members up to speed."
When his suggestion was greeted with clapping on all sides, the two teams parted; Ashley following the Blue team and Jennifer following the Red Team.
Ashley climbed the rope ladder to Blue Team's "hideout" a tree house, and gazed in wonder at the insides. Sandwiches and drinks were passed out while Jeff unrolled an overhead map of the neighborhood.
"Okay, this is where we're allowed to go, as the Pteri flies," Jeff explained, "We're here. This… is our territory. The rest is theirs. Now pay attention, cause there are a few 'no pet's zones' scattered around. Whatever you do, stay out of here… here… and here… Those are very carefully tended Neogardens, and the adults have asked us nicely not to tromp through them while we battle. We don't want to get in trouble so make sure you stay out of them at all costs..."
Jennifer was welcomed into a tree house as well, and Timothy gave her a rundown of the neighborhood as well, "…a direct hit resulting in a soaking by any weapon means defeat, the defeated victims are left to wallow in one of Mrs. Jones' paddling pools… to remain cool in the heat of course. These are in the middle of the block, right here," he pointed out the spot, "You can easily see them. She keeps snacks and drinks for you while you wait for the battle to end. You get a good view of what's happening but you're not allowed to 'help' any of your team members while defeated. You're stuck there for about an hour, and then you go back to the Hideout to guard the Amulet and wait for the War to end. Okay, we've already got three soldiers and a leader. Uhmm, I got it! You can be our spy!"
Jennifer blinked.
"See, we could really use someone who can sneak around real quiet and real quick. If you can find members of the other team and sneak back to tell us, we can ambush them and defeat them," Timothy explained as they munched on fruit salad.
"I could do that," Jennifer agreed, eyeing the map and mentally picking out the perfect spots to hide.
As time passed, the two teams quickly picked up speed and skill. Their new "spies" made the war all the harder, thus they had to get better at playing.
Jennifer crept through a yard, her shadowy fur helping to keep her hidden in the bushes, and under trees while her leaping ability and tree climbing skills let her get excellent views of nearby yards. She spotted several members of her team and signaled silently that a Blue Team member was trespassing, sneaking toward their home base.
With a wet "splash!" the first victim of the day was defeated and sent to a wading pool to lounge.
She narrowly avoided a bucket full of water from an enemy soldier an hour later and sounded the alarm of an ambush.
A scamper along a fence and around a corner to within easy distance of Blue Team's hideout gave her an excellent report: there was an unguarded path to the opposite Team's hidden "Amulet."
That day was a close call, but had to end early when two Team members got called home for an early dinner.
Then… that fateful day happened. The 'honorable' Red Team made a serious mistake.
Jennifer was having a wonderful time, competing with Ashley to keep her Team informed of the enemy's whereabouts. Lunch was filled with plans on the map while they ate. Based on what she had seen and spied on, there was a way to get to the Blue Team's hideout without getting caught. All they needed was a diversion while somebody stole the "Amulet." Once they had it, they could soak the team at leisure.
It was risky. It was challenging. It was… a terrific plan!
Jennifer rubbed her paws together. She was small, quick and quiet enough to pull it off! She…
"Oh, thanks Jennifer. By the way, stay here; we don't need you anymore," Timothy said over his shoulder as he led his team out of the tree house.
WHAT!
Shock, hurt and finally fury washed over Jennifer's face. If he had said, 'Stay here to guard the amulet in case they try the same thing,' she would have understood. If he had said, 'Hey, we want you to help us distract Blue Team, while somebody else grabs the Amulet' it would have been okay. But…
'We don't need you anymore!'
After all she had done to help her team. After she had successfully protected the tree house all by her lonesome that one day with nothing more than a handful of water balloon 'Grundo Bombs'. All the scouting. All the scheming.
With a miserable whimper, she plunked her head on the table; on top of the map... inches from the Red Team's… her OWN Team's precious "Amulet", a Curious Blumaroo Gnome.
Her team no more.
Jennifer bared her teeth angrily and seized the gnome in her paw. If they didn't need her anymore, then she wasn't on their Team. And if she wasn't an 'honorable' Red Team… then she was on the 'nefarious' Blue Team.
Grimly, she swung down out of the tree house, clutching the precious Gnome. She was only going to get one shot at this, so she had to get as far as possible without being defeated. Already two of the Blue Team had been defeated and their numbers were slim. If she did this right, she could boost their ranks by one at least.
She smirked as her ex-Team rounded a corner ahead of her. What they didn't realize was that Jennifer – being the spy – knew all the unguarded short cuts. She knew how to travel far, fast, and silent.
She bounded quietly around a corner and nearly crashed into her sister and Shawn from the Blue Team.
"A spy! Eat water balloon… Jennifer?" Shawn froze abruptly in the middle of pulling back his arm to plaster Jennifer's face with a water balloon.
Quickly he sized up the Gnome… the ultimate objective… clutched in the Shadow Kougra's paws. His eyes darted up and saw the look on Jennifer's face. The look of betrayal there was… He couldn't make up his mind whether to just get her now and take the gnome... or to see what she wanted or…
"Jennifer? Jenny, sis, what's wrong?" Ashley asked softly, her longest pair of ears were standing straight at attention in worry, "Sis? Do you need me to call a Tiki Tack Tombola?"
Jennifer shook her head vigorously and swallowed hard, "Where is Overlord Jeff?" she asked; her voice strangely calm despite the hurt in her eyes.
The two Blue Team members shared a quick look and then both of them jerked their thumbs back over their shoulders. "That-a-way."
"Thank you," Jennifer made her way past them and walked past several Blue Team members, who took one look at the ultimate objective making its way willingly into their clutches and held their fire.
"What is the meaning of… this…? Hey, are you lost or something Jennifer?" Jeff sounded surprised and puzzled as the Shadow Kougra reverently placed the gnome into his open paws.
"They said they don't need me," the anger finally made her voice crack.
"Tsk."
"Aww man."
"Dude, that was just wrong."
"Jenny? Did they REALLY say that to your face?" Ashley put a paw on her shoulder.
"Yes."
"Welcome aboard dear girl," Jeff snorted briskly, and handed her an armful of water balloons, "Okay, be quick. What do we need to know?"
And Jennifer told them.
Jennifer stood on the Blue Team tree house balcony with both Amulets resting in plain sight before her. She shared a determined smile with Shawn while the rest of her new team stood at attention at the base. Two hose "wands" and an arsenal of water buckets and water balloons nestled in paws.
"CHARGE!"
Timothy led the charge around the corner, and found himself face to face with the entire Blue team, armed to the teeth. And there, smirking smugly down at him with the precious Amulet was Jennifer.
"Jennifer! What are you doing!"
The Red Team skidded to a stop in bewilderment.
"You said you didn't need me," Jennifer's voice was laced with scorn, "So I found a team who did."
Overlord Jeff grinned, "Fire!"
"AAAAHHHH!"
Kabloosh! Splash! Doosh!
Blue Team flattened Red.
Jennifer swung down from the tree house and smirked grimly at her defeated ex-leader, "The next time you think you can treat someone rotten, remember this very important lesson you learned today," she jabbed his nose sharply and glared at him.
"The war is over, Blue Team wins. You guys owe us Slushies for a week," Overlord Timothy proclaimed.
"Sloth hath no fury like a lady betrayed," Jennifer smiled, baring her sharp teeth.
The end