Yet another hot day on the savannah. Ank knew very well that if she wanted to find entertainment she'd more or less have to make her own but she hadn't the slightest clue as to go about doing it right then. There were not any little animals around to chase or torment, nor did there to seem to be any real game in the area either. The larger animals (fortunately for her) where all also happily absent. But that was fine. More often then not she ended up being their plaything rather then vice versa. That wasn't fun. That was never fun. There was a fine line between playing with someone and being played with and it was never much fun to be the creature being played with. She stopped and wrinkled her nose as she looked around over the tall grasses. would be nice to spot a cheetah. She'd met a couple of them and they didn't really seem to be bad. Most of them had good tempers and did not seem at all interested in batting around. They would rather run and chase but never just bite and claw. Not seeing any sign of movement she pressed her nose to the ground and began to sniff as she followed it forward. If there was nothing intresting above ground perhaps she would be able to find something interesting below it. She caught a scent near a hole and wiggled her nose as she pushed into the opening. There was something in there. Something warm, alive, and not all too big! Something that would likely be great fun to play with. Not being able to fit her body in she began digging at the hole. There wasn't much airflow inside so it was likely, if the creature was close, there weren't many tunnels or exits it could flee to if it wanted to escape.
What the jackal hadn't been counting on was the simple fact that the creature she was sniffing out wasn't some helpless bunny or some little baby with no defense. It was a honey badger. It was Darva. And when Darva saw the stranger digging up her burrow she flew into a right furious rage.
"What on earth do you figure you're doing!" she screeched, barreling right toward the entrance of her little home. "Have you no manners?!" she bellowed. "How did you get it in to your foggy head that barging into my home uninvited would be a fine idea?!" she took a swipe at the strange jackal, who hadn't managed to back out of the burrow quite fast enough, and caught her on the nose.
Ank yelped and jumped back, slamming her head on the top of Darva's burrow. She hadn't counted on her fun little game being interupted by the intrusion of a furious honey badger!
"Sorry, sorry, sorry!" she yelped. With every word she took a step further away from the new found stranger, not wanting to turn her back but also wanting to get away from this as quickly as possible.
"You had better be!" Darva growled, "Just look what you went and did to the entry way! Have you any idea just how long this will take me to fix, young lady? And just when I was curling up for a good nap too!" She charged forward and took another swipe at Ank.
The little grey jackal, now free of the restrictions of the tunnel, managed to dogdge, but continued backing off.
"I Did not mean too!" she whimpered, "I - I Did not know anyone was living down there!" it was a total lie....
... and Darva knew it.
"Don't you go spouting that wild buffalo manure on my front path! I saw you're nose huffing away as you dug yourself deeper and deeper down my very own burrow and I know you knew very well exactly who was living down there! You wanted me! Now you've got me!" she puffed up and took another charge at Ank.
Before she even got half way there Ank had turned tail and was running off toward the grasses, Darva in hot pursuit.
"You get back here and you face me!" Darva hollered after her, making it far too plain that if either of them was using the other as a play thing it was Darva who was using Ank. She was too strong, too determined. Ank had by far picked the worst hole to try and entertain herself with.
The little jackal knew it and was far too happy to beat a path out of there. It was just too bad that Darva was also just too happy to follow that path out of there.
"Leave me alone! Leave me alone!" she called back, hoping beyond hope that those words alone would be enough to send the little demon badger back into her hole. "I won't do it again! I learned! Leave me alone!"
"And what if I had little cubs in there! You might have scared the living daylights out of them!" she wasn't showing any sign of giving up. "I should give you a good piece of my mind, I really should!" she seemed quite oblivious to the fact that she was already giving Ank a good deal of her mind.
"I'm going! I'll remember not to stick my nose down your burrow again!" she licked her bleeding nose and ducked behind a boulder. Honey badgers looked slow but damn they could move fast if they set their minds too it!
"You had better not, my dear lady!"
Ank was thoroughly terrified now and when the aggressive badger didn't appear on the other side of the boulder she turned tail and bolted out into the tall grass, hoping to find some place she could lay down and lick her wounds.
Darva, on the other hand, happily returned to her burrow and began rebuilding the broken entrance way. If the damage was too great she would have to go find another, better burrow she could invade and dig out to fit her preferences. Either way it was a job she wasn't looking forward too and chances were that she would simply sleep in her now slightly shabbier burrow tonight out of sheer laziness. After all, no one in their right mind would mess with her when she was in one of her moods. If they did then they would get the full brunt of her fury, just like that darned jackal she'd just chased off.
She inspected her burrow then kicked the dirt around for a while as she thought. It would serve her just fine as she looked for another home. The entrance was near ruined but the hole was deep. For now though, she thought, she would go find a nice big helping of honey before taking a good long nap.
