Eritopia

To Catch a Hyena

'We'll stay downwind of it,' Van said. 'It should pass by.'

But the hyena continued to approach.

Bear crouched down with Van and the others. 'What if it doesn't go?'

'Then we will have to catch it before it alerts others to our presence.'

'Others?' whispered Anya.

'Yes, hyenas travel in groups,' Van said. 'Although I can only smell one at the moment.'

As it got nearer Bear could smell it too, a musty mixture of sweat and staleness.

'It stinks,' said Calypso.

The hyena was looking behind tree stumps and fallen branches, nose close to the ground.

'We will have to lay a trap for it,' said Van.

'How will we do that?' Bear asked.

'We need some bait.' As he said the words Van was looking at Calypso.

The others looked at him too.

'At last,' said the monkey, 'Some action. What do you want me to do?'

A little later the slight figure of a monkey could be observed slipping up a tree. It climbed up to the top branches, sat and waited. Beneath it, still downwind of the hyena, the others had spread out. Anya went to the left, Bear to the right, with Van between them. When Bear and Anya were thirty paces apart the three advanced together. They stepped forward until, reaching an agreed spot, Calypso in his tree began to gibber. His strident calls echoed in the silence of the tree tops. A few birds, startled by the noise, flew up and out of nests and hollows, adding their alarms to the raucous din.

***

After the encounter with the wolf, Fleg had wandered, distressed, in the forest with the others. The Colonel was alive, although a flying stick had struck him in a foreleg. Two of the pack guards were helping him. Asmel was missing, presumed one of the dead, and Tang had taken it badly. He started a miserable, low howl that added to the confusion. While the Colonel was being tended the survivors waited for orders. The black hyena, Melos, had disappeared.

'Poor Asmel,' Grap said, as they listened to the sound coming from nearby trees. 'What a way to go.'

'I've never seen such a thing,' said Fleg.

'He must have been important, that wolf, for them to rescue him like that,' said Grap.

'Really important.'

'Where d'you think he's going now?'

'I know where he's meant to be going—the Outside,' one of the other hyenas said. 'I heard the Colonel talking about it. They're expecting him there.'

'That'll teach him,' said Grap, then murmured. 'The Outside. He deserves it.'

So it continued, with hyenas standing around, wondering if another attack was coming. Then one of the Colonel's guards arrived, with a summons for Fleg.

'Me? Why me?'

'Because you are the only captain left,' came the terse reply.

Fleg trooped off behind the guard. He came to the Colonel, who was resting against a log. Blood matted his fur and he held his right foreleg off the ground.

'Ah, Captain Fleg, there you are.' He winced. 'I have an important mission for you.'

Fleg felt his stomach sink.

'Our information is that there are other Insiders, here in the Forest,' the Colonel said. 'We have to locate them.'

'But shouldn't we go back to the clan? We need to get you well again.'

'I fear it is too late to help me,' the Colonel said, looking down at his leg. 'But we must continue our mission. You will scout ahead and bring back information about these Insiders. How many there are, what direction they are going, that kind of thing. Melos needs to know their intentions. The wolf's rescue has changed everything for us.'

'Where is Melos?'

'That is none of your business. I have told you what you need to do.'

'But, Colonel—'

'Enough, you have your orders.'

To find the Insiders' trail Fleg traced a course across the edge of the Forest, to see if it crossed there. When he failed to find it he moved back to where the wolf had been found, and headed East. taking care not to wander into the Outside. He knew its reputation. He ghosted through the trees, nose to the ground, a grey streak among the litter of pine needles and branches. If he couldn't find the trail he intended to slip further inside the Forest, then circle round until he picked it up. He would get close enough to observe them and return to the clan as fast as he could.

Unfortunately he had been spotted before he could get close enough. As he heard a monkey shout above and looked up, he didn't see the lightning charge of a fox as it crashed into his back legs. The effort knocked him up and over, sent him spinning into a tree trunk. As he rose to face the angle of assault a clubbing blow from a bear sent him once more to the floor. Before he could move a deer had a hoof on his throat, while the reins of her harness were being wrapped around his legs. As his head cleared, he looked up. The beady eyes of a monkey stared into his.

'I've found them, Colonel,' Fleg muttered, as he drifted into unconsciousness.