anyone!
And he spent hours squatting down, just scratching the shield with the point of the spear. Very odd! And instead of marking out his territory in the normal way by squirting things with his scent glands, he . . . ”
“He what, Uncle?”
“Now you are going to think I’m telling you a whopper. Every now and then he put a small white stick in his mouth and set fire to it! Then he blew smoke out of his nose. Honestly! He looked like a warthog snuffling about on a frosty morning!”
The kits kicked their little legs and laughed till tears ran down their faces. It made Uncle laugh just to listen to them. “Honestly-hee-hee!” he protested. “I’m not making this up! Oh, I can’t wait to lead you up into the sunlight and get your eyes working! I’ll teach you trees! Colours! Sky! Dry white sand, rich wet sand after the rains! You’ll see how a tasty scorpion dances when it’s cornered! I’ll teach you how to rub the stink-juice off a millipede by dragging it across the sand! Believe me, seeing is almost as much fun as smelling, what-what! Hang on! I must just have another scratch.”
“Look out everyone! Here comes another earthquake!” giggled Skeema.
“Help! A flea-storm!” squealed Mimi with a chuckle.
Uncle pretended to have a fierce fight with them – which was just what they wanted. They rolled about the chamber for a while, wrestling and yipping and play-snarling and snapping.
“Oof! That’s enough! You’ve quite worn me out!” puffed Uncle, dusting himself down.
“Uncle! Is it easy to climb a Blah-blah?” asked Mimi, wanting more, as usual.
“Oh, easy as sneezing! I remember one time I was . . . ” Suddenly he was alert and on his back feet again, shaking the kits on to the floor. “There! You almost got me started again!” he said with a laugh. “But it’s way past your bedtime.”
He rolled the kits into a bundle and stood over them in the guard position, growling gently but firmly. “No more talk. Busy day tomorrow. There are so many lessons for you to learn, you’re going to need all your strength.”
Chapter 3
The pups were very excited and also rather nervous. Still, they slept soundly.
Fearless was not so lucky. He was troubled by his usual nightmare. He dreamed of beaks and claws and fighting and falling. He flung out his arms and legs like a star! This always happened just at the moment when a giant eagle owl dropped him and left him falling towards the rocks. His jerking and kicking and shouts of terror shocked him awake – and woke everyone else.
Little Dream was the first to comfort him. “Safe, Uncle,” he said and held him tight. He groomed him for a moment, feeling through his fur for fleas. As soon as Skeema and Mimi had their wits about them, they were up and hugging him, too.
“I don’t know what all this fuss is about,” grumbled Uncle, trying to pretend nothing had happened, but trembling all the same.
“If The Silent Enemy comes down on us when we reach the Upworld, I’m going to bite his head off!” said Skeema, doing his best to sound brave.
“Good lad!” said Uncle. “That’s the spirit! But don’t you worry about enemies. We shall be perfectly safe so long as we look out for one another. You see, I was . . . well, I was on my own. I was caught off guard, what-what! It was hunger that did it. My mind was on a tasty rock lizard, d’you see? The eagle owl saw his chance, came out of the sun, snatched me into the air and took out my eye with his claw.”
“Poor Uncle,” said Little Dream.
“Never be off your guard!” warned Uncle. His voice grew stronger as he added: “Ah! But at least I gave him a taste of his own medicine! I pulled a great mouthful of feathers out of his chest! Ha-ha! That shook him! That showed him who was boss! He couldn’t hold me then, what-what!”
He decided not to mention that the eagle owl had dropped him from a great height and smashed several of his bones. This was not the time. He took a deep breath to stop himself from shaking at the memory of it. “But it was all rather a shock, I don’t mind telling you. It took me a very long time to get my strength back,” he went on. “My mind wandered. I was feverish! I was weak as a grub! The rest of the Sharpeyes thought I had the Meerkat Madness. They didn’t think I’d live. So naturally, they had to choose another . . . ”
He couldn’t bring himself to finish the sentence and so Little Dream said, “Never mind. You can be our secret king.”
“Hear, hear!” cried Skeema and Mimi. “Three cheers for our secret king!”
“Harrumph!” grunted Uncle, feeling foolish. “No more nonsense, now! Up and follow, kits. Up and follow.” Without another word he began digging at the nursery door.
The kits had learned their lessons well and stood in line behind him in their digging order. Each passed the scooped-out sand to the one behind, as if they were passing buckets of water to put out a fire. Skeema was right behind Uncle Fearless, his brave heart pounding; then Mimi, then Little Dream. In a flash they had removed more sand than they all weighed together – and found themselves in a damp and chilly passageway.
Blindly they followed their noses and ears through this and other passages and into a wider space. Uncle told them in a whisper that they had reached the main tunnel. There were strange new smells in each place they came to – of pee and dung that was not theirs – and the kits’ paws were tickled by unknown dung beetles at work with their loads.
“On,” said Uncle. “And say nothing until I tell you.”
They followed silently until the tunnel did a peculiar thing. Its blackness rolled back and became something else, not so solid. This made them gasp and Dream began to whimper quietly.
“Don’t worry. This is just the sunlight pushing in,” said Uncle. “It creeps into the burrow slowly so as not to shock our eyes. You’ll notice it grow bigger as we get closer to the Upworld. But it won’t harm us. It’ll warm us up and make us feel quick and tricky. Then you will understand what we call ‘seeing’. You’ll enjoy it once you’re used to it.”
They pressed forward and smelled new air as the darkness began to move aside for a stronger kind of light that made the kits’ eyes blink. It was there in the half-darkness that Chancer surprised them. His smell slid out of a side-tunnel first. Then came his slick head. That was finally followed by the swaying body of the King of the Sharpeyes himself.
“Welcome to the Upworld, brother Fearless!” said Chancer. He didn’t sound very welcoming. “The Queen’s hungry,” he went on. “She’s keen to forage on the hunting grounds, but she is waiting to greet the young ones at the entrance to the burrow. So hurry. Come this way. ”
Chapter 4
