but he couldn’t help a small, exasperated smile.
Meea aimed one of the anchoring pins at the ceiling and fired it into an undamaged rafter. The jumagium head penetrated into the wood with ease, several flanges extending to secure its hold. After tugging on the cable a few times to make sure it was secure, the lioness hefted a few bags over her shoulder and hopped over the drop-off, letting the cable play out behind her. A few feet above the ground she squeezed the trigger, slowing her fall and coming to a graceful landing. Once she was sure of her footing, she let the bags slip from her shoulder before releasing the handle, letting the cable rewind. “Heads up!”
Timirza reached out, deftly snagging the handle before leaping after her friend. Moments later the cable rewound again. Matakh stepped forward to grab it, but Shartha beat him to it. “I’ll go first,” the cheetah told him.
Matakh grinned playfully. “You sure? I mean, it’s kind of high…”
Shartha gave him an aggravated glare. “I’m doing it.” With that, he closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and leapt free of the balcony. Seconds later, Matakh winced as he heard the loud thudding of flesh and bone connecting with solid floor, followed by a weak moan of pain from the cheetah. He looked over the edge to see his friend lying spread-eagle on the floor, face contorted into a pained grimace and the cable reel still clutched in his fingers.
“You know, it helps if you squeeze the handle to slow yourself down!” Matakh called down to him, trying to keep from chuckling.
Shartha cracked one eye open, glaring up at the lion. “Yeah, thanks. You couldn’t have told me that before I jumped?”
“Now where’s the fun in that?” Matakh laughed back.
“Just shut up.”
Matakh shook his head. “Fine. Hey, could you send the reel up, please?”
The cheetah chuckled weakly. “Sure. Catch!” His fingers flew open, and Matakh had to pull his head back to avoid getting struck by the reel as it quickly rewound. Grabbing the last two bags, he took hold of the handle and jumped, making sure to keep enough pressure to slow his descent. Within moments he had reached the floor, coming to rest lightly on his feet. As he recalled the cable, he smiled down at Shartha. “Now that is how it’s done.” The cheetah just shook his head in mock annoyance and stumbled to his feet, moaning and rubbing the back of his head.
“Seriously, are you alright?” Matakh asked him, genuinely concerned by his friend’s discomfort. Shartha grimaced and his legs wobbled, prompting Matakh to step forward and take hold of his friend’s arm. The cheetah just leaned on Matakh for a few moments, cradling his skull, before shaking his head slowly and straightening up.
“Uhh… Yeah, I’m just a little sore… Oooh.” He moaned, cradling his head and wincing in obvious pain. “Just give me a minute,” he finally managed to force out. “I think I need to sit down for a little.” Matakh nodded in understanding and helped his friend over to what had once been his family’s living room, gently lowering the slimmer feline into a padded armchair. “Thanks,” the cheetah said meekly. “Sorry about this.”
“It’s fine,” Matakh assured him, giving the cheetah a friendly pat on the shoulder before returning to the girls. “All right, while Shartha takes a little break, we’ll look for the capsule.”
“Do you remember where it is?” Meea asked him.
Matakh thought for a moment. “Gee, it’s been so long.” His face brightened as he remembered. “Oh, yeah! It’s down in the basement.”
“You mean down in that pile of rubble that used to be the basement?” his sister said, her lips twitching upwards in a teasing smile.
Matakh groaned and clapped himself on the forehead. “Great! I forgot all about that.” Sighing, he shook his head wearily. “Well, I guess we’re going to have to do a little digging.”
Meea chuckled ruefully. “Perfect. Just what I was hoping for.”
Matakh smiled at his sister before turning to look at Shartha. The cheetah was still holding his head, but he appeared to be in less pain than before. “We’ll be downstairs,” he called to his friend. When Shartha nodded to show he had heard, the three of them made their way to the basement door and started down the stairwell.
“Let’s just hope no more of the ceiling collapses,” Meea observed. “I don’t feel like getting buried alive again.”
Timirza turned to her in shock. “You mean you were down here when the bomb hit?”
The lioness nodded and chuckled sarcastically. “Yep. What a fun time that was. Matakh got bashed in the head by a rafter, and then half the roof caved in on us.”
“That does sound like fun!” the cheetah girl said, grinning widely.
Meea just rolled her eyes. “Yeah? How’d you like to find out for yourself? I could probably knock some more plaster down for you.”
“Okay, you two,” Matakh cut in. “Save the bickering for later.”
“So,” Timirza offered, “do you know where the capsule was before all of this happened? We could start at that spot and work our way outwards.”
Matakh looked at her sadly and shook his head. “I’m afraid I can’t remember exactly where Dad had put it. We’re just going to have to search the whole basement until we find it.”
“Well,” Meea said, trying to sound cheerful, “then we’d better get to work. The sooner we find that thing, the better.” She glanced at the ceiling furtively. “I don’t want to stay down here any longer than I have to.” As if on cue, the ceiling gave a faint but ominous creak.
The three started wading through the ruins of the basement, but they quickly realized that this task would be the hardest yet. Matakh had thought his room was a mess, but it paled in comparison to the veritable minefield of hazards that they were digging through. Splinters of wood dug into every exposed surface that they could find, and the sharp edges of glass and metal rent their clothes and left painful gashes in their skin. Within minutes, the hands of the three felines were stained crimson from numerous cuts, and their knuckles throbbed painfully from repeated strikes as they tried to shove aside the debris. At one point, they had to stop their work to remove a large shard of glass from Matakh’s hand, and not long after an exposed nail punctured the sole of Meea’s boot and into the soft skin of her foot.
The three were nearly ready to give up when Shartha finally stumbled down the stairs, still slightly shaky but otherwise recovered. “Did you find it yet?” he asked, only to wither slightly when Meea shot him an annoyed scowl.
“If we had found it, do you think we would still be digging through all of this?” Matakh said irritably. “Or does it just look like we’re doing this for fun?”
Shartha looked down at the ground, feeling very chastened, while the other three turned back to their work. But just as Matakh was preparing to heft aside the remains of a cupboard, the cheetah suddenly spoke up. “Well, you must not know what you’re looking for then.”
Matakh looked over at his friend, frustrated but also slightly curious. Immediately, he noticed that Shartha’s embarrassment had been replaced with a look of smug satisfaction, a cocky grin on his face. “Now what’s that supposed to mean?”
