"Why is it MY job to find that girl?" The ratel growled to herself as she hurried along the plains, sniffing at the ground, following the scent of a female hyena. The smell was faint, but not so much that Omoa could not follow it. She had been traveling for days without much luck on the orders of Yakuti, the hyena who had raised her.
"I can't say I blame her for running off though." She sighed, "The graveyard isn't the most ideal place to live." She plopped her backside down on the ground, frustrated with her lack of progress. She was tiny compared to a hyena! How on earth could that blue hyena expect her to catch up with these stubby legs of hers?!
"Loko o Ka!" She called as loud as she could, "Get your fluffy butt over here!"
Loko o Ka flicked her ear as she heard a tiny voice in the distance calling for her. Who on earth could that be? She didn't recognize the voice, but who ever it was obviously knew her. She wandered toward the source of the noise and found an irritated looking ratel.
"Hello?" She tilted her head to one side. "Are you the one calling to me?"
Omoa jumped as she appeared out of nowhere, surprised that her idea had worked. She didn't think she was close enough yet.
"Yes, that was me." She snorted, "I'm Omoa, your grandfather sent me out to find you and bring you back."
"Well you can tell Yakuti that I'm not coming back." She growled, turning and walking back in the direction she had come from. She didn't have time to argue with a ratel she had never met before. She had important business to attend to within her steadily growing pack.
"Go on." She barked, seeing that Omoa was following her now. "I'm not going with you, and that's final."
"Don't you 'and that's final' me, girlie." Omoa snapped, "I can't go back to him without you, do you know what he and Shira will do to me? Failure isn't really an option for them, you know." She was fairly certain that she had met her own grandparents, or else Yakuti wouldn't have bothered to send her.
"Let's get out of here before we get spotted by something. You can't defend yourself without the pack to back you up, you know." She was speaking more for herself than the hyena, but she knew that the strength of the hyena species mostly came from their pack.
"Excuse me, but I wasn't aware that you had any say in what I am allowed to do." She shook her head, "And if you don't want to go back, fine, but you're not getting me back there. I've had quite enough of my idiot mother and the rest of those drooling boneheads." She rolled her eyes. Some of the hyenas in the graveyard pack were intelligent, but the majority of the ones she had met were more focused on killing lions than they were on learning. What a waste.
"That's where you're wrong, little friend." She flashed a grin at the ratel as they approached the end of the grasslands and the beginning of the long, narrow valley where she was currently living. "I don't have the old pack behind me, but I have a new one. One where intelligence and creativity is more important than brute strength." She nodded toward one of the many small caves in the mountainside as they went through the thin walkway between the two small mountains. "You may not see them now, but there are six hyenas here, aside from myself." She figured that the others were either in their dens or out hunting, as they should be. She had been hunting too until she met this little thing.
Omoa looked on in awe as they went between the mountains. She had never been outside the grasslands and graveyard before, so these staggeringly large rocks were almost frightening.
"Well you do sound like you're doing alright." She shrugged, padding along behind the stubborn female as they went along the valley. The path they were walking on had been cleared of rocks, it appeared as though the hyenas had pushed all the fallen rocks to the side to make a good path. She wondered if it was safe for them to be in here, but she saw that the rocks were fairly small, they were just large in numbers.
"Better than alright, Omoa." She grinned as they reached the end of the path. She motioned for the ratel to follow and she climbed up onto a rock, and then another, as if the rocks were oddly shaped stairs, until she was on one massive slab about fifteen feet above the rest of the valley. It wasn't that high, but it was large and flat.
Loko o Ka resisted the urge to laugh as she watched Omoa struggle to get up the rocks. They were no trouble for a grown hyena, but the short ratel had a bit of a problem. When she finally reached the top, Loko o Ka continued.
"This is where the council meets." She smiled, "The smartest hyenas are on the council. The Acer Lepor Lepos, like myself, and the Magistrate. We make the decisions that will affect the rest of the pack."
Omoa had to admit that she was impressed. The amount of organization in this small pack was beyond anything she had seen in the graveyard. "Where does everyone live?" She asked. She saw some small caves, large enough to hold a few hyenas each, but if the pack grew they would not sustain them for long.
"We live in the caves. We spend a great deal of time digging to expand them." She said simply. "It is hard work, but when our numbers grow we will need the space."
Omoa fell silent for a moment, thinking. She couldn't go back to the graveyard empty handed, and at this point she figured that Loko o Ka was better off here anyway. And, she did love to dig...
"I can help." She offered, making up her mind. "I'll stay here with you, I can even dig tunnels for you to connect the caves." She had done so in the graveyard, so why not here? "It would be easier for you to get from one cave to another that way."
Loko o Ka perked up. Tunnels? She hadn't thought of that, but then again hyenas were not nearly as good of diggers as ratels were. Perhaps Omoa could be useful after all.
"I think that is a wonderful idea, Omoa." She nodded, "In exchange you will be provided with food and protection. I will make sure the rest of the pack knows who you are, and not to harm you in any way. If you come across a rock that is too large for you to move on your own, find someone and they will assist you. Otherwise, do as you wish." Loko o Ka was very excited at the prospect of this mutually beneficial arrangement. She would have to consider recruiting more ratels for digging purposes.
"Thank you." Omoa beamed. A prospect for a new life was just what she needed, and this seemed like just the place. She had more freedom, all she had to do was dig, and she would be protected. It was just like the graveyard only less gloomy and the hyenas were less likely to eat her. Win-win in her eyes.
"I will leave you to your work, then." Loko o Ka pointed with her nose to a nearby cave. "That is my den, you may live there if you wish, until you find or create a cave of your own." She paused, "In fact, feel free to make a tunnel out of my cave into a chamber for yourself. Anything that you think will be comfortable for you." She hopped down the rocks onto the floor of the valley and bowed her head to Omoa, "I must be off, it has been a pleasure meeting you."
With that, she headed off to the grasslands once again, eager to inform the other members of the pack of this new prospect.
