The Exiles (2 page)

‘I still won,' said Sara with a grin, her own tail waging back and forth behind her.

‘That's only one for you, and two for me,' Trex informed her.

‘That's ok, I still won one,' Sara said, happy with herself.

Trex gave her a sore look, but he wasn't one to hold a grudge. The two youngsters regained their breath. Looking around with large eyes, they wondered what to do next.

It had become a hot summer's day in the lower foothills of the mountains. The heat shimmered off the surrounding yellowed fields. A rumble from the lion cub's stomach broke the silence.

‘Do you think lunch is ready yet?' asked Trex. A large insect-like creature buzzed around his head. The Anthro lion cub swatted at it with his large, orange fury hand.

‘No,' replied Sara, ‘my sister would come and get us if it was.'

Trex looked around. They were on the border to the only neighbour Sara's family had. The neighbour's property stretched out from the other side of the tree-lined creek near them. Water trickled soothingly between the rocks. It looked like the neighbours were away at the moment, as nothing could be seen through the heat-haze.

Trex loved to visit Sara's family's farm, there was always something exiting to do. Normally, the two young Anthro wolves of the neighbours were there as well. Trex lived with his Uncle and Aunt a few valleys away, and they had no neighbours of any kind.

‘If you are hungry, we can get some kaltisa melons from the Satlisons,' suggested Sara. She pointed to a wide flat tree some distance away on the neighbour's property.

‘Kaltisa melons,' said Trex in awe. The lion cub's mouth watered. They were delicious, ‘Won't your neighbours mind?'

‘If they were home I'm sure they'd give us some,' Sara replied. ‘Come on' she said.

Trex hesitated for only a second before he followed the young Anthro wolf. The two made their way over the creek-bed towards the neighbour's melon tree.

The world that Sara and Trex lived on was much like Earth. They had snow, rain, mountains, oceans and deserts just like us. So it was not surprising that many of the animals and plants on their world were similar to ours.

There were insect-type creatures, animals with scales, feathers and fur, fish that could breathe underwater and swim, trees with flowers and fruits, all these things of different shapes and sizes. Life had evolved to fill all the roles as on our world.

A good example of this was that other then the humanoid-like Anthro lion and wolf race, there was nothing like cats or dogs of any kind on the Anthro world. There were other animals to fill the role that felines and canines do here on Earth. And it was one of these other animals that was watched the two young Anthro cubs as they approached the tree it was guarding.

‘Are you sure we're allowed to be here?' asked Trex, ‘we don't have permission.'

Sara ran on, blissfully unaware of why Trex was worried. ‘We're not breaking in. If no one knows, who'll care?” she said, “No harm… no foul.' Sara happily repeated a line her older sister used often.

Trex was only somewhat convinced, and ran after Sara through the crop field; the long thin stems of the wheat-like plants came up to his neck.

They approached the melon tree. It stood alone in a small grass clearing next to a track. Coming closer, Sara suddenly stopped. Trex ran up beside her. Ahead, a large animal had just raised itself onto its hind legs. Its powerful front paws were tucked up in front of it so as to get a clear view of who was approaching.

The animal could best be described as strange cross between a meerkat and a giant possom here on Earth.

Sara and Trex knew it as an ossum, an animal that weighed up to about thirty kilograms.

The animal's large, dark eyes looked out from a long wide snout, flanked by large floppy dog-like ears. Other than its face, which had short fur, the ossum was covered with a long shaggy coat. This longer fur went all the way down the length of its large, powerful tail, used for stability as it sat up on its hind legs. This ossum was a older, and was not happy to see Sara.

Trex looked worried. Though Sara had an ossum who was quite friendly, they were still as large as the two cubs, and stood just as high when they sat on their hind legs. This ossum did not look particularly friendly to Trex.

‘Does he know you?' asked the lion cub.

The ossum sniffed the air, growling a little.

‘Yes, but he's mean,' replied Sara, her tone almost as sour as her expression. She had not planned on this.

The wolf cub could see that the ossum was tied to the kaltisa melon tree. He had obviously been put there to guard it. The tree was not that tall, with strong old branches reaching out from a single point on the massive trunk in a flat ark, making the tree look like a large umbrella with its wide flat leaves.

Trex looked around with growing concern. ‘I don't think they want anyone to take the melons.'

‘Stupid Rukkt.' Sara referred to the ossum by name, ‘Ms Satlisons would give us the melons if she was here. He's only there to stop other animals from taking the melons while they're away.'

Trex did not know what to say.

‘I want a melon,' persisted Sara, kicking at the dirt.

Trex scratched the back of his head, unsure of how to respond.

‘You can sneak good!' The wolf cub suddenly turned on the lion.

‘What?'

‘Yeah, I'll distract it and you climb the tree.' Sara clapped her hands with enthusiasm.

Trex backed away a little, his tail showing between his legs as his round fury ears drooped.

‘You're not scared, are you?' Sara mocked. She could see the uncertainty in the lion cub's large brown eyes.

‘No I'm not,' replied Trex.

‘You're a fraidy lion,' Sara teased.

Trex breathed in, puffing out his chest. His ears sprang back to attention.

‘Let's go,' he said confidently.

Rukkt the ossum could no longer see the two cubs in the longer grass. They had been down wind, so sniffing the air didn't help. The ossum had about ten metres of rope that tied him to the tree. He prowled the edge of the boundary, occasionally jumping on his hind legs to try and see them.

The ossum suddenly smelt something. Turning, he could see the wolf cub had circled behind. The ossum chased Sara back.

Just out of reach, Sara had a large stick and was teasing the animal, ‘Nia nia nia!' she shouted. ‘You can't get me!'

The ossum growled and yelped as it strained against the rope. Sara ran back and forth.

‘
Splotch
.'

Hearing a strange noise, the ossum suddenly stopped, and turned around.

Trex was in the tree, one of the ripe melons had fallen when he was out on a branch.

‘Trex, look out!' shouted Sara in alarm.

Quick as lightning, Rukkt bounded back towards the tree, his long tail bobbing behind like a strange counterweight. Jumping onto the tree's side with all fours, the powerful animal scurried up the thick trunk.

Trex was still out on a limb when he saw the animal cutting off his exit. Panicking, Trex simply threw himself from the branch, jumping the few meters to the ground. The lion cub landed on all fours on instinct, absorbing the impact well.

The ossum raced down the other side of the trunk. Trex backed away as fast as he could from the growling creature

‘Hurry, hurry!' yelled Sara, as she came running towards them in concern.

The ossum had unwittingly shortened his lead by running up and down the other side of the tree and Trex was just out of reach.

‘Lookout!' yelled Sara again, stopping by the base of the trunk.

Struggling against the tight rope the ossum turned. Sara was now in reach.

Her eyes became as large as saucers and she screamed as the ossum raced towards her.

‘Eeeek!'

Sara turned just in time to wave her stick. The ossum growled, snatching it in his jaw. The ossum tore it out of Sara's grasp. Sara lost her balance and fell onto her tail.

Spitting the stick out to one side the ossum advanced on the cub.

Sara scurried backwards hurriedly.

Finding its lead further shortened and unable to advance further, the frustrated ossum ran frantically back and forth around the tree trunk. The angered animal only managed to twist the lead further together until he could only move a short distance. Squirming in defeat, the ossum continued to growl at the Anthro cubs.

Trex made it back to Sara, who still sat frozen in shock.

‘That didn't work,' said Trex angrily. He looked over at the melon that had fallen from the tree, squashed on the ground.

‘Well… he's stuck now at least,' Sara said. Standing up, she dusted off her green skirt.

‘But we can't get to the trunk anymore,' said Trex, his disappointment apparent.

None of the large branches of the melon tree were low enough for them to reach.

Sara didn't want to give up. Looking around with renewed determination, she could see that there was a loose plank of wood against the fence nearby.

‘Give me a hand,' she instructed, moving off towards the fence.

The two cubs returned, dragging a large wooden board behind them.

Rukkt continued to growl as he watched them struggle to lift the plank.

With one quick check to make sure that the ossum was really tied up, Trex scurried up the plank while Sara held it in place. Rukkt could only circle on the spot and growl while Trex picked the fruit and dropped it to the waiting wolf cub below.

While holding three good melons, Sara's attention turned to the ossum. The animal had stopped growling and was now whining. Sara suddenly felt sorry for the poor animal. Trex appeared beside her, another melon in his hands. Sara could see that Trex's melon had a yellow stem, meaning that the fruit was very overripe.

‘You can't eat that one, it could explode if we open it,' she warned.

‘I know,' said Trex, his young voice taking on a dangerous edge. Trex removing the yellow stem from the melon.

Kaltisa melons ripen from the inside first, their gas built up to such a pressure that they eventually explode, sending the pulpy centre and seeds flying; the only real way to see if a melon was overripe or not was to look at the stem, assuming that it was still on.

Trex gave the ossum an evil look; the animal had scared him half to death moments before.

Sara eyes travelled from Trex's scary face to the ossum, suddenly knowing what he had planned.

‘You can't do that!'

Sara stepped between Trex and Rukkt.

‘Why not?' protested Trex, ‘that stupid ossum almost killed us.'

‘It's not his fault,' countered Sara, ‘he's only doing what he's supposed to do. We've got our melons, let's go.'

Trex's eyes darted from the whining ossum to the worried face of Sara. She was still clutching the large melons to her chest. Looking at the animal once more, Trex could see that Rukkt was now harmless.

‘Okay,' agreed Trex reluctantly, feeling a little guilty. Dangerous melon still in hand, he walk back to Sara's family's property.

Sara turned to the ossum again. He was sitting on his hind legs, peering at Sara with his large dark eyes, his floppy ears down and his large tail wrapped around him. Sara suddenly took a melon over to a nearby rock. Breaking it into two halves, she placed them just in the animals reach. Picked up the other melons, she ran after Trex.

The ossum sniffed the halves and then ate the refreshing pulpy centres gratefully.

Trex and Sara found themselves back at the small creek on Sara's farm's side.

Finding a nice bolder to sit on under a large tree, they ate the two good melons. Trex's over-ripe one was left nearby on the ground

‘I don't believe you gave him a melon,' said Trex, still annoyed with the wolf cub. Sara didn't reply.

‘Well, well, what do we have here?' said a voice behind them.

Both cubs turned to see Sara's older sister, Fera, leaning against the tree. The female wolf had just reached adolescence and was much larger then the two cubs.

Fera's longer hair was jet black and she didn't have a fringe. She swept the long, black hair behind the tuft of fur that was at the back of her jaw bone.

This tuft of fur at the back of the jawbone was something all Anthros had in common.

Fera took a couple of steps towards the two cubs; they were still shocked at her sudden appearance.

Fera was wearing a short skirt similar to Sara's, it was split on both side to allow mobility, and you could occasionally see the baggy soft short pants underneath.

The clothes of the Anthros were worn sparingly and loose so as not to rub against the short thick fur that covered their bodies.

‘Kaltisa melons?' Fera inquired smoothly.

‘Ms Satlisons gave them to us,' Sara lied instantly. She was hoping her sister did not know that the neighbours were away.

Trex nodded in agreement, his cheeks puffed out with a mouthful of melon.