Chapter 14: The Tunnels

There was silence in the room until Lilypaka's brother spoke up. "What do you mean?" he asked, leaning against the wall of his cage and munching on the grub he had.
"Your grubs," Lilypaka said. "Where do you get them from?"
Tiggerpaka snorted. "Uh, a rotting tree. Duh."
"No, like, where?" Lilypaka pressed.
"The rotting tree!" Tiggerpaka yelled, throwing his arms up as he gulped down the rest of his grub. "You find one, stick your arm in and pull out a grub!"
"Where is the tree you idiot?!" Campbell snarled.
"You imbeciles!" Tiggerpaka exclaimed. "You pups don't know nothin'! A rotting tree is outside! Duh!"
"Where outside?" Lilypaka demanded.
"The woods!" Tiggerpaka shouted.
"No, Tiggerpaka!" Bracken exclaimed. "She means like, where? Like, which woods!"
"Okay," Lilypaka said. "Let's try this again." She breathed in, then let it out. "Tiggerpaka. To go to this rotting tree to get the grubs, in the woods, how do you get there?"
"Through the tunnel," Tiggerpaka snorted, grabbing another grub from the pile he had created and beginning to eat it.

"...What tunnel?" Lilypaka demanded.

"Under there," Tiggerpaka said, pointing to his stick hut.

Everyone was silent again until Campbell spoke up. "A tunnel?!" she said in disbelief. "You mean we could've escaped this WHOLE TIME?!"

"If you don't pipe down we never will!" Sidew snapped.

Lilypaka quickly ran over to Tiggerpaka's hut and kicked it over. Misty sat up a bit, and could see the tunnel Tiggerpaka had apparently dug.

"Hey!" Tiggerpaka yelled. "That's my hut!" He went to charge his sister but Lephos put his paw on the meerkat's tail, preventing him from getting to her. "How else am I supposed to seek safety?!"

"You realize...we can get out of here!" Bracken exclaimed, beaming.

"Tiggerpaka, by you digging this hold, you've given us an escape!" Lilypaka gasped.

"Of course," snorted Tiggerpaka. "You pups are just too dumb to know earlier."

"Sure," muttered Rhett.

"Then we gotta escape," Koro insisted.

"You think, Koro?" Rhett snorted. "What would we do without ya?"

"Surely we'd be lost," chuckled Ophir.

Koro looked slightly annoyed. "Any ideas as to how we can get over there?"

"Seems quite simple. We just need tunnels dug between the cells," Lilypaka explained. "I did tunneling back a the Meer--"

"And were terrible at it!" Tiggerpaka exclaimed. "Allow me. I am the best tunneler in the land!"

"Ha, right," chuckled Rhett. "And Campbell will say something positive for once, Sidew will become skinny, and Adele will start speaking."

"Hey!" Sidew protested, while Campbell growled; and Adele, as usual, said nothing, obviously not having had heard Rhett's comment.

"Okay, we'll both go then," Lilypaka nodded, "if you're so eager."

"I shall break us all out," Tiggerpaka declared, chest puffed out. He then started digging and in no time he was tunneling underground.

Lilypaka sighed and went underground as well.

There was silence in the room until Lilypaka popped up in Bracken's cage. "Get through the tunnel," she ordered. Bracken nodded and Lilypaka popped back underground, and Bracken squeezed himself into the tunnel.

Lilypaka then popped up in Lephos's and he began to come through. Lilypaka had continued to dig others out but Tiggerpaka had failed to come up. "Where's Tiggerpaka?" Misty asked.

"Who cares?" snorted Rhett.

"But what's going on with him?" Misty said. "Tiggerpaka!"

She then heard a bump and a muffled "ow". Then Tiggerpaka pushed up from under the ground, back in his cage. He rubbed his head, and Misty assumed it had been knocked on one of the walls of the cages. "Yes, my dear Mistake?" he said.

"Just wanted to make sure you were okay," Misty replied.

Tiggerpaka chuckled. "Although I thank you for your concern, I am a warrior. I can handle myself well enough."

"'Handle yourself well enough', my tail," snorted Campbell from behind Tiggerpaka, having had dug up from the tunnels.

"What about your tail, Crabbell?" Tiggerpaka demanded.

Lilypaka then popped up in Misty's cage. "Let's go," she insisted, digging back under.

Misty then crawled into the tunnel, keeping her eyes closed to prevent dirt from getting in. She followed the scent of Lilypaka that lead in what she hoped to be the direction of the meerkats' den, and then popped up where she had wanted to end up.

"You got dirt on your head," remarked Campbell, brushing it off with her paw.

Soon after everyone - even Adele - was in the meerkats' den.
"You're all very welcome," insisted Tiggerpaka. "If it hadn't been for me, you'd all still be stuck in your cages."
"Right," growled Campbell.
"He has a point, actually," Misty insisted. "If he hadn't dug that tunnel we'd still be in jail."
"See? Mistake is smart!" Tiggerpaka said. "Unlike the rest of you--"
"We should get going," interrupted Lilypaka, with a wary glance at her brother.

"Yeah, let's go," agreed Koro. "I'll go first."

"And here we see the grand, selfless leader, going forward for the sake of the group," Rhett chuckled. 

Koro shot his brother a look before heading out the tunnel.

"Ladies first," smirked Sidew, beckoning with his tail to the tunnel as he looked at Lephos.

"Yes, so go first, Sidew," Lephos retorted.

"I'll go," spoke up Campbell. "If you two will shut up that way..." she then headed into the tunnel.

"Poor girl will probably get stuck," chuckled Ophir, heading in after. 

"I'll go next!" Bracken exclaimed, diving in.

"I'm going now," announced Lephos, glancing at his brother. "And don't you say a word." He then headed through the tunnel.

"Lady," sang Sidew, heading through the tunnel as well.

"Hmph. Dumb pups are probably dead by now. I shall go see if they're safe," declared Tiggerpaka, dashing into the tunnel.

Now all that remained was Adele, Rhett, Lilypaka and Misty. 

"You go," Rhett insisted to Misty.

"I'll be going with Adele," Misty said stubbornly.

"You need to quit guiding her paws," Rhett replied. "How else is she going to learn on her own?"

"Me not guiding her paws would result in her death," Misty retorted. 

Rhett shook his head. "Suit yourself." He then went through the tunnel.

"I'm going last," announced Lilypaka.

"Alright," nodded Misty. She then turned to her sister, and looked at the tunnel.

Adele did as well, then headed through. Misty quickly followed her.

The tunnel was dark, like the one she has crawled through before. Again she kept her eyes closed and followed the scents of those before her. 

When she emerged  from the dirt the darkness of the night greeted her. The rest of the group was waiting for her. "Misty's here," announced Koro, helping her up out of the tunnel and making Misty smile shyly.
Not too much later Lilypaka came out. "Let's hurry!" she exclaimed. "Who knows when someone'll check on the jail?"
"Agreed, we need to get moving," Koro nodded.
They started walking along in the forest, everyone silent like the rest of the area. Nerves were beginning to build up in Misty and with every step she became increasingly paranoid, concerned they were going to get caught somehow. What if a Tribe member was checking the jail right now? Maybe some of them were outside right now and they'd come across them. You're being paranoid, she told herself. You'll be fine.
The group continued to walk, and that was when Misty spotted something.
A brown wolf was standing there, his eyes locked on the group.
It was Tsovo.
If possible, everyone was even more silent than before. This lasted for a while before Koro spoke up. "We're leaving."
There was silence again as Chief's son scrutinized them. Misty found herself holding her breath. How was he going to respond?
"You're going the wrong way," said Tsovo finally.
This took Misty by such surprise that her jaw dropped. "What?" she found herself saying in disbelief.
Campbell growled. "If that's some sarcastic remark about you bringing us back--"
"I don't do sarcasm," insisted Tsovo in his bored tone. "You're actually going the wrong way. Follow me."


Misty couldn't believe that Koro actually trusted the Tribe member. He got us put in jail in the first place, she told herself, fighting back a growl of annoyance. And Misty knew Tsovo well enough to know that he wouldn't help the group out unless it was somehow to his own advantage. This won't end well, she told herself.
After a while of walking Tsovo stopped. "This is as far as I'm gonna go. Just keep walking."
Koro nodded at him. "Thank you."
Tsovo gave a stiff nod back that seemed rather reluctant.
"Let's get going then," Koro said to the group, and he kept walking along, the rest of the group following.
"Ha! We didn't need So-so to show us the way. I can navigate my way through any place! Like that one time--"
"Shush," hissed Lilypaka to her brother.
Misty followed the others but then heard Tsovo's voice. "Misty?"
She turned around to look at him. What does he want? she wondered nervously. "Yeah?"
Tsovo gave a small nod. "Seek safety."

Author's Note:
There was an error and the whole chapter hadn't been posted. Sorry! D:
And yes...Tsovo knows >:D