Meerkat Madness. Ian Whybrow

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СКАЧАТЬ dry like bark. Yet on the middle parts of their bodies they have a covering. It’s soft, I would say, not at all furry. Except on their heads. A lot of them have fur on their heads.”

      “Uncle! Have you really climbed a Blah-blah?” said Mimi.

      “Oh, many times! Once they know who’s boss they’re safe as burrows to be with.”

      “What did the other Sharpeyes say when you told them?” asked Skeema, giggling. “Did they say, ‘Oo, Your Majesty! What a big fibber you are! There’s no such things as Blah-blahs or galloping Vroom-vrooms! You’re just making this all up . . . ’?”

      He got a nip for being cheeky, but only a play-bite. Uncle was very fond of him. “Not at all, you saucy young dung beetle!” he boomed. “Most of the tribe were too scared to come out of the burrow at first, but when at last they did, they saw for themselves. Of course, it took a bit of time to get used to the size of the great clumsy creatures, but in the end all the Sharpeyes got to know them. In fact, we did our best to teach the Blah-blahs useful skills. We showed them the way to dig proper burrows, how to forage for food, how to do sentry duty . . . all that sort of thing. We even showed them how to do a war dance. The sad thing was, the Click-clicks turned out to be a bit stupid. They never did anything much, apart from sitting and hiding behind their eye-protectors.”

      “I believe all of it,” said Little Dream. He never doubted his dear old babysitter.

      “Mind you,” added Uncle a little sadly, “all this was . . . Harrumph! . . . before my . . . er . . . accident, of course. I couldn’t be a king any more after that. My brother had to take my place.”

      “Sad,” murmured Little Dream.

      Suddenly Uncle’s fur stood stiff and he was on the alert. “Wup-wup-wup!” he called urgently, and pulled the kits tighter to him.

      “What is it, Uncle?” whispered Skeema.

      “I can feel something! There! The ground’s shaking!” said Mimi.

      Loose sand began to drift on to them from the ceiling. The kits began to cough and whimper.

      “Is it an enemy?” whispered Little Dream. Skeema jumped down from Uncle’s lap and darted round the chamber making spit-noises. He always liked to have a plan. His present one was to run to an escape tunnel. He found himself digging furiously at the chamber door to get out.

      “It’s an earthquake, possibly,” said Uncle. “Hush, now, Skeema. Stay with the group.” “Vroom-vroom!” breathed Little Dream.

       Chapter 2

      After a minute or two, it was silent once more. Uncle sounded the all-clear – Yee-oh-oo-oo-oo! – then he mused, “Do you know, Little Dream, you may have been right. I suppose it could have been a Vroom-vroom.” He paused to have a sniff and a think. “But I doubt it. They never come over to this side of the kingdom of the Sharpeyes. No.” He clacked his teeth together to show that he had made up his mind. “I think it much more likely that the sandstorm was playing tricks in the tunnels.”

      The kits relaxed. As soon as the danger passed they were asking questions about the Blah-blahs again.

      “Do they stand on all fours?” Mimi wanted to know.

      And Little Dream asked: “Why they want to hide their eyes all the time?”

      “Ha-ha! Good questions! To answer yours first, Mimi: mostly they seem to move on their hind legs. And, as I mentioned before, they’re taller than ant hills. Do you remember our lesson, where I taught you all how to stand like sentries?”

      “Yes, yes,” squeaked the cubs, wriggling and stretching out their hind legs.

      “Well that’s how the Blah-blahs stand!” “I can stand!” squealed Little Dream and showed them. It was too dark to see him struggling to balance. Finally he fell on his nose. Bonk! The others heard him, but took no notice.

      “Do you mean the she-Blah-blahs as well as the he-Blah-blahs?” Mimi squeaked. “Can the she-Blah-blahs stand? Like Mimi? Like me? Like me?”

      “Oh, give yourself a rest!” said Skeema scornfully.

      “Yes, Mimi, hush now,” said Uncle Fearless. “The Chief of the Click-clicks always has a female with him. Her legs are as long as the trunks of young baobab trees. She has a long, pale mane but no fur otherwise and she has longer claws than the male. Sometimes they shine bright like red berries. Her calls are softer than the males except her alarm calls. Oh my goodness, I remember once when a scorpion scooted right up to her paw! She could easily have pounced on it and sucked the juice out of it. But what did she do? She did a funny sort of war dance and ran away making a noise like a scared baboon – eee!-eee!-eee!”

      Skeema enjoyed that. “Now make up something funny about the males,” he begged.

      “He’s not making it up,” insisted Little Dream.

      “Ah, yes, I was going to tell Dreamie about their eyes, wasn’t I?” said Uncle, ignoring Skeema. “The Blah-blahs look rather like meerkat kits in a way, because their eyes are dark and usually on the front of their faces, but they’re flat and square and very shiny.”

      “What do you mean, usually on the front?” asked Skeema. “Can they move them to other parts of their face?”

      “Oh, yes. Their eyes are joined to their ears by little arms. So sometimes the Blah-blahs lift their eyes up and put them on top of their heads.”

      “Oh!” gasped Mimi.

      “Oh, yes, they’re very strange,” said Uncle. “The Blah-blahs’ noses are quite small compared to ours, so perhaps they can’t smell very well and they depend on their eyes to keep them safe. Their eyes are so dark and shiny that when I first got close to the Chief and he was sitting down I thought I was looking at a mighty meerkat warrior from a rival tribe! It took me quite a while to realise that I was looking at myself!”

      “Vrrrrr!” purred the kits, though not all of them quite believed this part.

      “Now, now, it’s getting late,” said Uncle. “We must all get plenty of sleep. We have a big day ahead tomorrow, remember!”

      “Oh, please,” begged Mimi. “Tell me just one little bit more.”

      “Just two things,” put in Skeema.

      “Oh, all right. I’ll just tell you one or two more things that made us Sharpeyes chuckle and that’s all. I’ll start with one of the Chief’s bodyguards.

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