Читать книгу Meerkat Madness Flying High - Ian Whybrow, Tony Ross - Страница 7

Chapter 1

It was (as you know) a stormy darktime in the Kalahari desert. On the far side of the old kingdom of the Sharpeyes, on the edge of the salt pans, the sky was nasty with fizz-fire and sky-crash.

In one snug chamber the founder members of the Really Mad Mob had rolled together into a ball for warmth. They were the three kits, Skeema, Mimi and Little Dream; and their king and guardian, Uncle Fearless. They were never quite still. The place was jumping with ticks and fleas, so there was a lot of jerking and scratching.

Meanwhile, in another chamber a short distance away, Uncle’s new queen, Radiant, lay awake. Normally she slept well. She was not one for worrying and all that nonsense. She was as warm and hearty and cheery as the sun itself and that is why she was called Radiant. She was tucked up tight in the nursery chamber with her four babies. They were a couple of weeks old now, and tiny, clinging, squirming… and the thing was, they were shivering. Their names were Zora the Snorer, Bundle and Quickpaws. Oh, and Trouble.

This is Trouble.

It was the shivering of the babies that woke Radiant up. Soon she became aware that in spite of her own splendid coat of fur, she was cold herself. She couldn’t think exactly what the matter was, but she sensed danger. By instinct, she sprang to her paws and sounded the Snake Alert. Krrrr! Krrrr! Hi!-Hi!-Hi! Krrrooo! Krrrupp!

Uncle Fearless’s sharp ears twitched and in a split second he too sprang to attention. His one eye flew wide open and he jumped up, rousing the kits and sounding the General Alarm – “Wup-wup! Wup-wup! Action Stations, everyone!”

“Wha-what is it?” cried Mimi. “What’s happening to me, to Mimi?”

“Is it a yellow cobra?” cried Skeema, bristling for a fight. He felt in the darkness for his trusty Snap-snap. To you and me it was a plastic bath-toy crocodile that had been dropped by a small boy on a safari holiday. To Skeema, Snap-snap was the powerful friend and protector he had found on one of his first adventures in the Upworld. He nipped his lime-green tail for luck and made Snap-snap shrill in the darkness. Skweee!

“I dreamed I was up in the sk-sky, flying with the b-birds!” stammered Little Dream, his teeth chattering. “Wh-why is it so c-cold?”

None of the worried wakers could see a thing in the total darkness, but Uncle Fearless was straining his ears.

“Silence!” he ordered.

Uncle ran to the heap of sand that served as the main door to the chamber and tested it with his sensitive nose. “Soaking wet and saturated, by all that creeps and crawls!” he shouted. “The rains must have got into the burrow! Stand by, all paws and claws! Make ready to dam the flood!”

None of the kits knew what a flood was, but they knew better than to chatter. They waited for their orders.

“Quick and tricky, now!” urged Uncle. “Batten down the hatches! There’s water coming down the main tunnel. We must block off this door!”

With the skill and teamwork that comes with hard practice, the kits dug their long, sharp claws into the damp floor and passed sand and soil through their legs to Uncle.

“Good work, team!” he panted as he piled it into a sizeable dam. “It’s holding! That should keep us dry for a moment longer. Now, follow me out through the side-wall. And hurry! There’s not a moment to lose!”

The water was trickling into the burrow fast, even down some of the side-passages. As soon as the kits broke out of the chamber, they found themselves in bone-chilling water almost up to their bellies. The shock of it made Mimi cry out. “Prrrr! It’s biting me!”

“Keep close and keep moving!” ordered Uncle and he began to call “Ki-ko! Preeep!” at intervals. He wanted to let Radiant know that he was safe and not too far away.

“Do hurry, old thing!” came her faint and muffled reply. “The babies are getting awfully chilly!”

“Just as I feared, what-what!” muttered Uncle. “They’ll catch their deaths if we don’t get them to a warm place, sharpish. Stick to me like ticks, now, kits! On we go!”

It was clear to him that the rescue party would need to avoid the flooded passageways and cut a fresh side-tunnel into the nursery chamber.

He mustered his most commanding voice and cried out: “Stay together to stay alive, the Really Mads!” The mob motto blazed for the kits in the darkness like a trumpet call. It stirred their blood and lifted their tails and spirits.

Uncle was right to move sharpish. The temperature in the stormy Upworld had dropped close to freezing. The babies would never survive that kind of cold, simple as that. He and the kits set to work with a will to cut a fresh tunnel, but it was painfully hard going. Much of the air had been driven out of the burrow by the gushing water and soon they were all gasping for breath.

“Heave!” urged Uncle. It was touch and go, but – with just moments to spare – they made it! They broke through the side of the nursery chamber just as the first fingers of water reached in through the main door. In a trice the rising water got them in its icy grip, squeezing out of everyone what little breath they had.

Some meerkats would have turned tail and saved themselves, but not Uncle Fearless. His orders came fast and clear. “Mind out, my dear!” he called to Radiant. “I must pull down the ceiling and get up into Number Five Escape Tunnel, if I can. Kits, stand back and do as your queen says!” With that he began to tunnel as he had never tunnelled before.

“Tally-ho! Stiffen the sinews and all that!” answered Radiant pluckily, though she was full of dread. “Kits! Help me with the wrigglers. I can only manage Zora.”

With Uncle scrabbling furiously, sand and stones splashed down like an avalanche. Skeema, Mimi and Little Dream clamped their teeth into the scruffs of the mewing babies’ necks. It was all they could do to keep their tiny heads above the rising tide.

There was no shaft of light to show that Uncle had broken through to Number Five Escape Tunnel, but suddenly there was a welcome blast of life-giving air and a shout of triumph.

“Phew! Relief! No sign of water here! Up you come, my darlings!” called Fearless as he reached down to grab Radiant and little Zora in his powerful jaws.

Having hauled his wife and one daughter to safety, he turned to the task of pulling up the older kits, each with a littl’un in their teeth. “Move along now, keep moving, quick, quick!” he urged each sodden kit as he lifted them out of the swirling water. “The whole burrow could cave in at any moment!”

Exhausted and shuddering, the Really Mads and their precious bundles staggered along Number Five Escape Tunnel as fast as they could. They moved steadily, up and up the slope towards the entrance to one of the many emergency boltholes.

“We’re n-not going to the Upworld before s-suntime, are we?” asked Little Dream nervously, his teeth chattering. He wasn’t just thinking of the terrible cold out there. He was worried about all the unseen enemies waiting to pounce in the darkness.

“Don’t worry, laddie!” called Uncle. He knew they must stay underground until the sun came out of its hiding place to warm them. His aim was to find a safe, dry hollow or chamber just under the surface where the mob could shelter from the wet. If they could only manage that, they could share the last of their body heat with the almost lifeless newborns.

They struggled on for what seemed an age. Suddenly, a shrill voice stopped them dead.

“Halt! Who goes there?”

Fearless grunted with relief. As challenges go, it was a nervous one and straight away he was sure that it came from a male ground-squirrel. Meerkats and ground-squirrels often share living quarters, but this one had never had visitors. He thought of this remote end of Far Burrow as his own private property. No wonder he was quaking with fright.

“Stand easy!” barked Uncle, gasping for breath. “No danger. Fearless here. King. Really Mads. Bit of an emergency. Flooded out. Babies. Got a soaking. Cold. Can you help?”

“Did someone say babies? Meerkat babies? In danger?” came an anxious female voice. “Of course we can help! Eeeep! Emergency drill, squirrels! Gather! Gather to Mother!”

And before the tired-out Nearly Mads could say Warm-up, they found themselves wrapped in the middle of a gloriously welcome hot and furry bundle…

…of neighbours.