by Ian Whybrow
“We’re all hungry, Mimi,” snapped Uncle, “but safety first! Keep together close behind me and don’t touch anything until I give the order.”
The insides of the elephant-shaped shell had scattered over quite a wide area. Very cautiously, Uncle began to gather things up into a pile and inspect them. “Aha!” he announced. “Yes… I’m pretty sure all these things belong to a Blah-blah. And as you say, Skeema, this very well could be a mobile nursery chamber. It has spinners, after all, and all these things probably belong to a very young Blah-blah. Now, let me see if I can recognize anything.”
He made a little pile.
“These,” he announced importantly, “are for a youngster to chew, I think. They’re not food exactly. But I’ve definitely seen young Blah-blahs with these in their mouths. No doubt they sharpen their teeth on them. Now, what else can I tell you about?”
“What is this?” asked Mimi. She held out a little box. Inside were a number of perfectly round smooth stones. They sparkled in the sunshine. “Look!” she gasped. “You can see right through them. Look at the lovely-colored whirly lines twisting around inside them!”
Little Dream stared at the stones. “Like eyes,” he said to himself.
“I’ve see these hanging on the darkness in the Upworld when the suntime is gone,” said Uncle. “The Blah-blahs love to watch them. They call them stars.”
“They must be for the baby to watch when it hatches,” said Skeema.
“Put them in the backpack,” said Uncle, already turning to look at something else.
“Aha!” he exclaimed. He picked up a shiny, boxy thing. “Now this is an eye-protector, by all that crawls in damp sand! Didn’t I tell you about seeing these before, in my Glory Days, when I was a young king, exploring my kingdom! Many a time the Chief of the Click-clicks bowed down in front of me. He was too nervous to look at me without protecting his eyes—like this.” Bold King Fearless put the shiny thing in front of his face.
“Oh, please!” muttered Skeema through gritted teeth. “He’s not going to start on his Glory Days again, is he?”
Uncle put down what he was holding and picked up something else. “These are interesting. I’ve seen these before. I can’t quite remember what they’re for. Possibly weapons of some kind.” He lifted one to his ear and shook it hard.
“Weapons? Like teeth and claws?” teased Mimi. “Well, I must say, they look really sharp… not!”
“Oh, well, you’re probably right,” said Uncle, with a shrug. Hup! He tossed it high into the air toward a pile of jagged rocks in a ditch below them.
It landed. There was a mighty… BLATT!
…and the thing let out a hiss louder than a whole nest of cobras. It spat a long jet of evil-looking brown liquid high in the air.
Before the last of it splattered among the rocks, the little gang had scattered and lay quaking under the bush again.
“What was that?” gasped Skeema, his heart pounding.
“Snake-in-a-canister,” said Uncle grimly. “Deadly! You give the canister a rough shake, you pull the ring on the top and the snake inside squirts a deadly poison at your enemy. I’ve seen the Blah-blah males practicing with these weapons sometimes at sundown.”
They spread out. Cautiously, they sniffed out the other scattered contents of the shell. Nothing was moving, so they became bolder. Soon they had made another little pile.
“Hmmm! Well, now, Mimi, this (sniff-sniff) is definitely Blah-blah food,” declared Uncle.
“About time!” said Mimi.
“Yum yum,” said Little Dream, licking his lips.
“Can we eat now?” said Skeema. “I’m shrinking.”
“Very well, but no fighting!” warned Uncle. “We’ll share the food. Mimi, you can have this little snake with the funny nose. Little Dream can have the yellow blindlizard. Skeema and I will share this nest of grubs.”
They dug in hungrily. Mimi didn’t think much of her snake. It made her mouth go all frothy.
Little Dream enjoyed his lizard, once he had bitten its head off. It was better than giant millipedes, anyway.
In spite of what Uncle had said, Skeema started a little fight to get the nest of grubs for himself. He and Uncle had a growly tug-of-war for a moment. Then the nest suddenly burst with a loud ripping sound and a shower of red, pink, blue, green, and orange grubs flew everywhere. Uncle had to be quick to grab some for himself. And what a disappointment! How horribly sweet and gummy they were! How they stuck to their back teeth!
“If this is the sort of food that Blah-blahs eat, they can keep it! Yuck!” said Skeema, spitting it out. The taste reminded him of some powdery stuff he once licked off a bee’s legs. He considered stealing some of Little Dream’s lizard, but changed his mind when Little Dream was sick on the spot.
Chapter 9
Skeema thought he had seen something jump quite a long way out of the chamber when it split open. It wasn’t long before he sniffed it out. It was trying to hide under a rock, but the lime-green tail sticking out gave it away. Skeema sank his teeth into it. The creature squeaked loudly, but Skeema held on bravely and dragged it into the bright sunlight. The creature didn’t move, so he got it in a death-grip and squeezed. Squeak! Squeak! it cried.
“That’s odd,” thought Skeema. “It should be dead.” He nipped it all over. Squeak! Squeak! SQUEAK!
Uncle came over to help. “Be careful,” he warned. “I have heard tales of these creatures. They live under the big water in the land of the Narrowhead meerkats. They grow into enormous monsters and their jaws go snap-snap! Have you finished him off?”
“This is amazing!” said Skeema. “He ought to be dead but he just won’t give up. Watch.”
He bit the creature.
It squeaked.
“I like him! He’s tough! And he smells nice. I’m going to keep him as my pet,” Skeema announced.
Uncle was just about to advise Skeema against this when he heard a terrified cry.
“Help!” cried Mimi. “Little Dream’s climbed into the pink chamber. He says there’s an enemy meerkat hiding there! I think he’s having a fight!”
“It could be a Ruddertail, by all that sneaks and slides!” roared Uncle Fearless. “Take cover, you two, and don’t come out of your hiding place till I give the command.” He let out a blood-chilling war cry and charged toward the open shell. “Hold on, Little Dream! I’ll save you!”
With one bound he leaped over the side, ready to do or die. “Have at you!” he cried, swashing away with his digging claws. And then he exclaimed, “Woa, up!” He suddenly realized that Little Dream didn’t need his support. The smallest of all the Sharpeyes was locked in a life-and-death-struggle, all right.
Uncle breathed a sigh of relief. He had seen the sort of thing that Little Dream was fighting before and he wracked his brain to remember what they were called. He remembered how small Blah-blahs wandering among their pointy mounds liked to carry around little models of themselves. When they dropped them, they would pick them up, hold them tight, and call their names softly. Now, what was it they called out? “There-there!” That was it! Little Dream had picked a fight with a There-there!
“Enemy meerkat!” panted Little Dream. “He tried to kill the Blah-blah egg.” Growling fiercely, he sank his little teeth into “the enemy” again and gave him a good shake. “But he can’t hurt him now!”
“Well, er, look here, good job, what-what!” said Uncle. It seemed a pity to mention that There-theres were harmless. As for the “enemy meerkat” Little Dream had fought so fiercely, it was nothing more than a reflection of himself in the There-there’s dark, flat eyes. Little Dream had clearly not understood when he told him before what Blah-blah eyes looked like. Besides, Uncle remembered exactly how frightened he had felt when he first saw himself mirrored in the eyes of the Chief of the Click-clicks.
“Brave work, you young spitter!” said Uncle. “You’ve conquered your first enemy alright! You won’t have any more trouble from him! Here, try his eyes on.
You’ve earned them.” He slipped them onto the proud little pup’s nose and put the arms behind his ears. “Nobody will tease you about pale eye-patches now, what-what! Here, put this on too.” He also slipped the strap of the eye-protector around his neck. “There! Now you look like the Chief of the Click-clicks!” he laughed.
Little Dream was amazed. “Hooray! I can see much better!” he cried and jumped up and down for joy. “I can look up at the bright sky now, look!”
Uncle interrupted. “Listen, where’s this egg that you say the enemy meerkat was after?”
Little Dream pointed to something that was strapped to the other half of the chamber. It did seem to be some sort of egg! It was at least twice meerkat-size, in a shiny gold shell, tied with sparkling ribbon.
Uncle scratched his head. “Well, well!” he exclaimed. “So that’s what Blah-blah eggs look like!”
With a Wee-ooo-ooo-ooo! he sounded the all-clear for Skeema and Mimi, and then quickly undressed the There-there. It looked very strange without any covering. Its body was brown and furless, and felt as hard and smooth as the walls of the pink chamber in which it traveled. It was nothing like the warm, soft, giant Blah-blah he had tamed and climbed up all that time ago. It made Uncle feel uncomfortable. He felt peculiar. There was something here he couldn’t understand at all. So he solved the problem the meerkat way… by quickly burying it and forgetting about it.
He looked down at the pile of the There-there’s clothes, and picked up the helmet. He tried it on. “Hmm, fits me rather well,” he said to himself. “Good. I’ll take these too.” He put on the safari scarf and backpack and felt very handsome. “I dare say, I look pretty great!” he told himself. “Rather like a Blah-blah Chief, I imagine!”
Skeema was first to reappear, closely followed by Mimi. Little Dream was naturally very keen to show off his new eyes. He was expecting his brother and sister to be surprised, but he wasn’t ready for what happened when they saw him. Their happy expressions changed to looks of alarm. They let out their wildest attack-calls. They puffed themselves out and started doing what they hoped was a fearsome war dance!
“Stand easy!” ordered Uncle, chuckling. “Relax! There’s no danger! Use your noses! It’s only your little brother. Can’t you smell him?!”
Skeema and Mimi could smell that it was only Little Dream, but their eyes told them that he looked suddenly stronger, sharper, and… well, scarier.
“What happened?” they wanted to know.
“Oh, let’s just say that he was faced with a difficult test—and he did very well,” said Uncle. “And I for one am very proud of him.”
“Us too!” said Skeema and Mimi. They gave him a squeeze and congratulated him. Little Dream became shy and modestly lifted his new eye-protector in front of his face. “No, honestly! That was really brave, Dreamie. Well done,” they said, and meant it.
Uncle picked up the There-there’s little desert boots. “Here, these are for you, Skeema,” he said. “Wear these on your back paws. They’ll keep your claws nice and sharp and shiny, ready for action.”
“Squeak!” said the lime-green Snap-snap tucked under Skeema’s arm, as if he thought they looked pretty cool too.
“Mimi now, me! Me!” said Mimi.
“I have just the thing for you, my dear,” said Uncle. “This piece of soft nesting material is very pretty and it will alarm your enemies. Here, wrap it around yourself.”
Mimi was delighted. “Am I like a female Blah-blah?” she said to Uncle, her wide eyes shining.
“Most certainly!” said Uncle kindly. “If they have princesses among the Blah-blahs, I’m sure they look like you.”
The talk of princesses made Little Dream think about their mother, Fragrant, who was taken from them before he could remember. Still, at least he and his brother and sister had Uncle Fearless to take care of them.
He put his arms around the egg. “Poor egg!” he said quietly. “What will he do without his mamma? The Vroom-vroom’s gone without him!”
“Far away to the other side of the kingdom, I’m afraid,” sighed Uncle.
Little Dream held his ear close to the egg. “I can hear his heart,” he said.
“Let Mimi listen! Me! Me!” demanded Mimi, and pressed her ear against the shiny shell too. When they listened carefully, they could all hear the egg’s heart beating. Bic-tic-bic-tic.
“Quick!” said Uncle. “I think we should close the chamber. We mustn’t let the egg get cold.” He gathered up the things that were lying about. He put all the shiny canisters into his backpack, bundled the rest of the stuff into the pink chamber next to the egg, and closed it with a snap. No sooner had he stood it up on its spinners than his ears pricked up and his eye began to dart about. He thought he heard a whispering sound from underground. Or was it the sound of loose stones tumbling down a sand dune?
“We’re coming to get you!” came a sing-song voice; a high, pretending-to-be-a-young-meerkat voice. Then there was snickering. It sounded hollow, out of tune. It was coming from out of a bolthole that wasn’t far away! “Now, what kind of far-fetched stories has that naughty old chatterbox been telling them, I wonder?” it teased.
Chapter 10
Uncle Fearless bristled and dragged the pups close to him. They could feel his growling and spit-calls vibrating through his tense body as he stood on all four paws, more like a lion than a meerkat. “I smell strangers,” he whispered, and then he raised his voice into a challenge. “Show yourselves if you want a fight!”
The snickers turned to laughter. Were there three voices? “Don’t worry, old timer! There’s not really going to be a fight... yet!”
“Who are you? Narrowheads? What are doing so far from your own territory? Come out of your hole and face me,” challenged Fearless.
“Face us, he means!” said Skeema, showing his teeth. “There are four fighters here!”
“Hi-yip-yip!” Mimi and Little Dream joined in. “Come on! We’re not scared of you!”
Suddenly, there was a scrabbling noise and a large, gray Narrowhead male sprang up between them and the safety of the burrow entrance. At the same moment, an even larger brute leaped out from a hole hidden under a bunch of buffalo grass. There was no mistaking his misshapen silvery head or the twisted diggers on his right paw.
“Twisted Claw!” breathed Uncle.
“Hello, Fearless! So, they’ve left you to mind the babies and the burrow, have they? Is that all you’re fit for these days—babysitting? Dear, oh dear! Not much to brag about, is it? You used to think you were so high and mighty! Always going on about how the Blah-blahs let you climb all over them and tame them. And as for them bringing you eggs and nuts to eat! Well, we’ve heard a rumor that you offered yourself as a meal for an eagle owl! Is that right? Did you really stand about in the open Upworld like some sleepy little grasshopper who hasn’t got a clue about keeping a proper look-out? No wonder you’ve only got one eye and you’re a nobody! Fearless may be your name, but it’s not your nature, is it? You’re nothing but an old windbag!”
Twisted Claw’s bodyguard threw back his ugly head and laughed like a hyena.
For a moment the strength drained out of Uncle. He glanced at the young ones and felt ashamed. What must they think of him now? The three little ’kats said nothing, but were bracing themselves for an attack. They sensed, as Uncle surely did, that the Narrowheads were softening them up.
Suddenly, Twisted Claw made a quick and secret series of whistling calls. In the flick of an eyelid, the bodyguard stopped laughing and began ducking and weaving like a snake getting ready to strike.
Faced with a half-blind old wreck of a Sharpeye and a bunch of inexperienced pups, Twisted Claw and his bodyguard would normally have walked right over them. Yet for all their outward swagger, they felt far from sure of themselves. For a start, there was something peculiar about Fearless’s appearance that made them hesitate. What was that strange object on his battered head? That thick collar? The floating material around his shoulders? What was the
interesting thing that he had strapped to his back like another belly?
And it wasn’t only the oddness of his appearance that rattled them. The pups looked a bit…well, odd too! The female had something bright and flapping wrapped around her body. One of the young males was holding out some sort of dangerous-looking reptile in a very threatening manner. And as for the little one—what enormous scary eyes he had! Dark and square!
They only hesitated for a second, but it was enough time for Uncle to recover his wits. “Ask yourself something, Twisted Claw,” he said calmly. “If I never tamed any Blah-blahs, or made them my subjects, why did they give me all this to protect my body?” He stretched out his arms to present himself in his Safari-Man outfit.
“And do you see this chamber?” He drummed it sharply with his claws. “This is a Blah-blah egg chamber. I am in charge of it.”
“Yes, and we’re going to take it to the Blah-blah mounds on the far side of the kingdom!” Little Dream suddenly blurted out. “We’re going on an adventure. We’re going to take it back to its mamma!”
Of course, Uncle wasn’t expecting this. All he could do when he heard what Little Dream said was gulp and nod his head in agreement. “Er… yes. He’s quite right, Twisted Claw! You’re interrupting a very important… um, m-mission!” he stammered.
With that, the tables suddenly turned again. Twisted Claw puffed up his fur and became bolder. “A mission, you say? There’s no need for that. Why don’t we save you the trouble? Give us the chamber. We’ve always wanted to try taming Blah-blahs ourselves, haven’t we, Patchie?”
His bodyguard nodded. “Too true!” he rumbled. “And what could be better to attract their attention than something as big and bright as this, eh?” He began to speak fast and urgently to Twisted Claw. “I reckon we should just grab it quick, Chief, because the rest of the Sharpeye mob might turn up here any minute! You flatten this crazy old windbag and leave the babies to me. They won’t give us too much trouble. They’re only like a bunch of little scorpions doing a crazy dance to try to scare us away, that’s all.”