Chapter Seven

 We can’t tell what a meerkat might be thinking, and sometimes they do something that we would not expect. The year has been long and harsh, but winter is almost over and the rumble of thunder is a sign that the good times will be upon us. The desert is ready to celebrate, but trouble is never far away. Even in the middle of paradise. 

The first rains had fallen during the night and the meerkat groups all woke up to a glorious new day. The Sun Mob are at their burrow, waiting for their leader to emerge. It is unusual that Psyche would be late, but Eros looks around and notices that Diona is missing as well. Suddenly there is a squeal from the burrow and the younger female appears with a pup in her mouth. She goes off a little way and proceeds to kill it and then consume the body. With her jaws now stained red, Diona makes her way back to the burrow and is clearly intent on finishing the job that she’d started. 

Psyche suddenly comes rushing out of the burrow and the normally calm and gentle meerkat is clearly furious! She wastes no time and tears into her younger sister, with Eritha joining in to help evict Diona from the group. Diona has no choice but to make a run for it and gets the whole of the group on her tail. Once Psyche is sure that the message has been well received, she returns to the burrow and goes to check on her litter. Eros follows and is introduced to his one surviving pup, Hedone.

As much as it pains Psyche to leave her baby, she has to eat in order to produce milk. Hedone will be left in safe hands, with Eritha choosing to stay behind to babysit. Good thing she is on duty because Diona does try sneaking back in and Eritha is quick to send her packing.

Now that she is alone, Diona is quick to realize the situation that she is in. Her pups will be born soon but will not survive without the help of a group. She could wait and see if Psyche will let her back in later, but who knows how that will end?

It is time for Diona to start thinking of plan B and she begins looking around, making sure to stay under cover as much as possible and taking time to look for food. The dry season is a good time for rovers since litters conceived will then be born once the rains come. Meerkats can usually breed at any time of the year, but most are done during the summer. 

Diona’s hard work pays off, for now. She spots a familiar pair of male meerkats, which just so happens to be Phobos and Deimos. They are still connected to the Valentine, but this may not last for much longer.

For all the blessings that Aphrodite and her family have received, they are now going through some seriously hard times. Disease has taken most of the younger members and both Aphrodite and Ares are not getting any younger, and both appear to be infected with the illness known as TB which can easily wipe out an entire mob.

Roving males and evicted females often join up to create new groups, but there is no guarantee that the pair will stick around. Diona is already pregnant and so she can’t mate with either brother. They might grow bored and leave her to find better opportunities elsewhere. For now, Diona will take what she can get and deal with the rest in time.

Following the incident with her littermate, Eritha has no further trouble. She goes down to check on Hedone often, grooming the pup and feeding her until Psyche can return to take over. The family comes home around midday and Psyche immediately goes to check on her daughter. The rest of the group takes a siesta and nobody seems to have noticed that Diona is not lurking around.

To be honest, none in the group has ever really liked her. Diona made a name for herself by often stealing food from others and would bully the other females when Psyche was not paying attention. Her dream of power was poorly hidden and keeping the young female around could surely have been inviting further problems.