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 Posted: Thu Jun 13, 2013 1:07 pm
All day.
And some of the night! Mini had been working during all of it. Her long-claws were dirty, paws were sore.
But she was nearly there. Hair-brained Teetle had told her she couldn't dig a family den worth of tunnels in one day. Said she was no good as a mother! Hmph. Standing at the entrance of the grand palace of family dens, Mini had something to say about that.
Only there were problems. Lots of problems.
The entrance wasn't wide enough, she could barely fit through it. She wasn't a large ratel, and Teetle certainly couldn't fit his fat arse between those boundaries. But there was too much rock, and she just couldn't budge it. Not to mention, some of the tunnel's internal structure had begun to fail.
But there was no arguing with the rhinos. They walked where they pleased.
"Excuse me, miss, can you pick that stick up and bring it over here?"
Mini's gold, beady eyes had settled on a brown lioness. One who looked very distracted, and in need of a good, focusing task.
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Posted: Thu Jun 13, 2013 1:26 pm
Who wasn't distracted when rhinos were stomping around? For the most part they were bullies with a horn and you'd do well to keep an eye on them, lest they gauge it out just to be spiteful.
Roka had taken note of the ratel's quandary some time back and come up with a thousand and one ideas to ward off the giant pests for both their sakes. She couldn't hunt with them here. They might decide they liked zebras more than lions and charge her.
"Excuse me, miss, can you pick that stick up and bring it over here?"
"Oh. Sure." Roka was going to lament her carelessness in lifting the stick as soon as she felt the sting of a fractured splinter against her tongue. "Where do you want it?" she asked from the corners of her mouth.
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Posted: Thu Jun 13, 2013 1:36 pm
"Yes, yes," she encouraged as Roka selected the stick. "That one."
Mini took a glance back at her burrow, squinting one eye closed, her lip raising in concentration as she examined the entrance size.
"Right there." One paw stuck out, claws pointing next to the dens entrance.
The ratel waited with unparalleled patience for the stick. When it was finally set down, she uttered a, "Thank you!" and picked it up with her own mouth. She, however, was smart enough to avoid the splinters.
Triumphant, Mini strutted towards the den's entrance. A small piping sound came from her throat and she fell flat on her a**. The stick rolled a few feet backwards.
"Well, darn. I swore it would have fit."
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Posted: Thu Jun 13, 2013 1:46 pm
 Roka's eyes flitted between the ratel and her burrow. She was more than happy to rid her mouth of the taste of stick by time instructions were provided. Not that the flavor of her own blood was much better.
Damned splinters.
She rolled her tongue around behind her teeth and watched from start to finish, from the ratel grabbing the stick to falling right back on her a**.
"Maybe if we break some of --"
Some of it off, she meant to say, but the eruption of laughter from the nearby rhinos drowned out her words. Probably anything within two miles, even the birds.
Roka wasn't sure if it was good or bad they'd been laughing at some story amongst themselves and not the ratel. She had a feeling they'd have mocked her without hesitation had they been paying attention to the fact they were making everyone around them miserable to start with.
She glowered their way.
They didn't notice.
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Posted: Thu Jun 13, 2013 1:57 pm
The ratel was shaking her head now, either ignorant to the rhino's laughter or simply having more care.
With a single-noted hum, she pulled the stick away, creating a snake-line pattern as the object drug. It was left to the side, useless.
"It's this opening," Mini began, in a whispy voice. Her eyes flicked to Roka. When that did not pull out the desired results, she walked a few more inches and gazed up at the lioness.
"It's just too small." No? Pulling out the big guns. "And I have been trying all morning, but the surrounding rock is just too much for my weary muscles."
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Posted: Thu Jun 13, 2013 2:05 pm
Sometimes by habit and sometimes as a rule, Roka tended to steer clear from the implementation stage of brainstorming. You'd have to be a real idiot to not know what this ratel was getting at it.
Roka had rarely wished herself stupid. But. Well.
Yeah.
Eye contact was inevitable, and no sooner did she level her gaze with the smaller creature's than any resolve she'd had to deny her crumbled. Crumbled like, say, a burrow under the weight of inconsiderate rhinos.
"I... could help move the rocks," Roka suggested.
Yes. "Suggested."
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Posted: Thu Jun 13, 2013 2:12 pm
"Oh, would you?" The ratel's muzzle erupted into a toothy smile.
"That is really very kind of you, miss." Hopefully, the lioness didn't mind being paid in gratitude. Mini had lots of it to give.
But she had a lot more orders.
"There's this one on the side, here. It's about the right size for you to move. Don't you think so?" Mini insisted that a rock that size would mean the burrow would be plenty wide enough.
It may have been, but more likely than not, the rock on the left would have to be moved as well.
Mini picked up her stick, and prepared herself for the exhausting task of measuring.
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Posted: Thu Jun 13, 2013 2:23 pm
Karma had finally come calling for Roka. She'd always been the bossy one in the family, and it was only partial due to how low the bar was set with her timid mother and clueless father at the parenthood wheel. The other half was she'd enjoyed dictating her siblings' every move.
No wonder they'd gotten so mad when she did this.
Lots of effort and a self-pep talk later, Roka had pawed, pushed, pulled, and rolled the first rock away from the burrow. She stood back and waited for the bad news.
That rock on the left may as well of been laughing at her loud as a rhino.
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Posted: Thu Jun 13, 2013 2:34 pm
As authoritative as if she was in charge of her own pride of lions, Mini approached the burrow with the stick.
Nearly, nearly.
"Oh, goodness," she said. "Barely too small!" Mini tapped the stick on the offending rock to emphasize her point.
"Could you also move that one? You're being very helpful."
Who said ratels couldn't be cute? Mini must have looked downright precious, jaws clamped around a piece of wood and moseying her way from the den with a sway only a ratel could do.
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Posted: Thu Jun 13, 2013 2:40 pm
"It's no trouble." Roka couldn't believe that was her voice yammering on without her conscious permission. All she could do was be grateful Uuni wasn't around to make it all worse.
Heave-ho!
She could hear the rhinos and their maniacal laughter sounding off again. Though she couldn't see it since she'd been forced to use her head -- literally -- to move the rock the final few inches away from the burrow.
"How's that look?"
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Posted: Thu Jun 13, 2013 2:48 pm
"A little further; it's still in the way." Or rather, Roka was in her way.
The badger squeezed by her, consulted the stick. Success!
"That will do very nicely, thank you." The ratel disappeared into the burrow with what was now going to be a supporting beam. She had trekked a few feet down into the darkness when she remembered her manners.
A wet, dirt covered nose poked back out from the den. "That should be all. Have a nice day, now!" Mini had work to do.
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