Ian Whybrow - Meerkat Madness Flying High

…of neighbours.

Chapter 2 Contents Cover Title Page Конец ознакомительного фрагмента. Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес». Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес. Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом. Dedication Foreword Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Back Ads Конец ознакомительного фрагмента. Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес». Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес. Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом. Also by Ian Whybrow Copyright About the Publisher

The welcome group-hug put life and warmth back into the Really Mads. And once the ground-squirrels were sure that their visitors were fit to move on, they led them among tangled roots and rocky soil to an empty dugout where there was no sign of any flooding. It smelled as if it might once have been a shelter for a porcupine. There, lying among crunchy bits of beetle-shell, melon skins, tubers and the chewed bones of something far from fresh, at last they managed to get a little well-earned sleep.

It was hunger that eventually woke everyone and set the babies mewing for milk.

“Yikes!” squealed Radiant as the hungriest of the babies started his breakfast. “I say, steady on, Trouble, dear! Your teeth are jolly sharp.”

“Ha ha!” chuckled Fearless proudly. “That’s my boy! We chose just the right name for him, didn’t we, my darling? I always said that one would be Trouble, eh, what! Nice to see a hearty appetite! Just like his bold papa’s. I was just the same when I was a little squirmer, wasn’t I, my Trubbly-Wubble – tickle-tickle!”

“Hey, I’m starving too!” said Skeema, feeling rather left out.

“Me too!” added Little Dream.

“And me, me! Don’t forget Mimi!” wailed their sister. As if anyone could.

Uncle roused himself. “I’d better take a peep outside, Radiant, my fluff,” he said, stretching. “You rest here while the kits and I check that the coast is clear. We’ll find you something wriggly to keep you going. Then once we’ve all had a good breakfast,” Uncle went on, with a sad note in his voice, “I think we shall have to start looking for a new home.”

“Oh, no!” cried Little Dream. “Do we have to leave dear old Far Burrow?”

“I’m afraid so. I know how much it means to you kits, and it breaks my heart to have to leave. Still, I’m afraid it’s just not safe any more – especially for the littl’ies. A lot of the escape tunnels will have collapsed already, I’m certain. And what’s the most important thing for a meerkat home?”

“If danger’s about, you need to get out!” chorused the kits.

“Which means…?” prompted Uncle Fearless.

“Boltholes, boltholes and more boltholes!”

“Right answer!” declared Uncle. “Always be ready for anything! That’s the ticket, my clever kits! We’re all right for a short while in this rather Whiffy Old Scrape, but it won’t do in the long run, what-what! Now, are we all set for a look-about?”

“Not half! I could eat a hippopotamus,” declared Skeema.

“Then Upworld, here we come, by all that does and dares!” cried Uncle, and upwards they scurried.

It took only a few moments before they saw the first glimmer of light at the entrance to the tunnel they were in and their hearts began to beat faster. “Steady as we go,” said Uncle. Little Dream waited for orders, but Skeema and Mimi were not so patient. They pushed and shoved in a race to be the first to squeeze out of the bolthole and into the sunshine.

“Wait!” said Uncle firmly.

Cautiously, he lifted his nose and sniffed, picking out traces of all manner of creatures: kudu, zebra, wildebeest, springbok, antelope, giraffe and elephant. “Hmm, the Big Ones are gathering in numbers,” he muttered. “They’re after the new shoots. No matter. By the smell of it, I’d say they passed this way a while ago in the darktime, but you never know.”

“Any sign of lions or leopards?” whispered Skeema. “Any cheetahs?”

“Good thinking, my boy!” said Uncle. “Where the great herds go, the pouncers follow, eh? Quiet, now!”

He twitched his sensitive ears in another direction. He heard parrot squawks and bird calls, the clap of storks’ bills, the chattering of monkeys in the branches overhead. A low, rasping laugh – “ Herrr-harrr-ha-hah-harrrr! ” – made him duck for cover. “Brown hyenas, by all that’s bullying!” he said. The kits clung to him until they felt the tension go out of him. Only then did they start to breathe again. Uncle shook himself free and – ever so cautiously – lifted his head once more and looked about him.

It isn’t easy to look around with just one eye. Fearless had to swivel his neck like an owl. An owl. Inwardly, he cursed The Silent Enemy, the eagle owl, that long ago had caught him off-guard and swept him up into the sky. Before Fearless had been able to struggle from its grip, the bird had half blinded him. Now, far off, Fearless spied a bateleur eagle circling. Another deadly foe! He muttered a low Wup! Wup! but then added softly for the benefit of the others, “As you were. It’s a long way away. Good. Stand by to surface.”

“Have the rains gone?” came impatient Mimi’s voice. “Oh, let Mimi come up and see, me, me!”

“Just keep your fur on while I run through my check list!” barked Uncle. “Now then. Sun’s up? Check! Skies blue and clear? Check. No danger up? Check. No enemies close, no runners, no creepers, no sidewinders or crawlers? Check. But dear-oh-dear!”

“What’s the matter?” called Skeema.

“You’d better come up and see for yourselves,” said Uncle with another sigh.

One by one Skeema, Mimi and Little Dream pulled themselves out of the bolthole entrance, lined up beside him and looked about. They found themselves among the roots of a clump of fever trees that rose from a high patch of rocky ground. Without a word, Skeema took sentry duty at the top of one of them. Horrified, the kits saw at once that streams were running fast into the main entrances to the burrow. A muddy lake had formed in the shallow valley where the yellow foraging-grounds once stretched out. The scrubby bushes and low thorn trees that they knew so well had disappeared under deep water that stretched as far as Shepherd Tree Clump.

“Gone,” muttered Uncle. “Far Burrow and all our best hunting-grounds!”

“Take cover!” Skeema called suddenly and Uncle and Mimi and Little Dream threw themselves flat on the damp and still chilly sand. The cloudless blue sky had turned pink and now began to gabble and honk.