It was a hot sunny afternoon in the dry savanna. Diana the only female meerkat on the team woke up to check on their special pomegranate rugby ball.She clambers over the body of her smelly male teammates, pokes her head through the crack in the rocks and scurries out to the tree where their  sacred fruit is  growing  .It was finally time for the fruit to be picked, Diana was thrilled.The whole team  was,they were the only meerkat rugby team in the savanna and they could never lose with their special ball. They stared up at it lovingly . 

 

Then a large shadow sprawled across the ground, the meerkats recoiled in shock, Shadow the Vultures Team Captain had come for an early visit. He landed above the meerkat’s fruit and then in the blink of an eye he was gone with the fruit clutched in his scaly talons . 

 

Diana sprinted after Shadow, she was determined to get back the fruit. She shot a quick glance behind her and saw the rest of the team in pursuit. They were hot on Shadow’s tail feathers. The team’’s left lock jumped up and clasped the sweet pink fruit in his miniscule claws and held on for his life only to receive a  blow to the head and he was soon on the ground with a splitting headache.

 

After seeing their left lock take such a blow ,Diana called for a meerkat chain so they could reach Shadow’s talons and climb on. It works but the meerkats are soon thrown up into the air.They scramble around passing the fruit around. Shadow makes a quick intercept but fumbles it and the fruit plummets to the ground. Shadow folds his wings close to his sides and dives for the fruit while the meerkats plummet to the earth.

 

Shadow looks behind him and sees the Meerkats fall,he starts to laugh. All of a sudden something small and hard falls on his back followed by 2 more and then 3 ,then 4 then 5 until the whole Meerkat team are standing on his back in a perfect pyramid.With a sharp turn the Meerkats tumble off.Shadow laughs … SPLAT!!! Shadow had flown right into the face of a jagged cliff.The fruit is released from the bird’s grip and tumbles down to the earth.

 

Diana jumps forth to catch the fruit,it lands perfectly in her paws.With a small squeal of excitement she passes the ball through the hands of her fellow teammates and then dropkicks the fruit through the goal post and the fruit smashes into tiny pieces.

 

By Tessa