Roleplay - 10th of October

Josephine knew the risk of approaching the evicted females, and risking her position of the mob was a small price she was willing to pay rather than have members of her own family risking their lives trying to support themselves alone in the harsh desert.
Chirping to herself, Josephine rubbed her head caringly against Linda letting her know she was on the outskirts of the group because she wanted to help them.

Unsure if they wanted her there or not, Josephine darted off into the scrub to try and locate a source of plentiful food unaware she was running straight into the path of the jackel pup.

Linda lets Josephine stay, reassuring herself that Josephine knows what she's doing. She resumes foraging, digging up a few beetles.

Scurrying around with her nose pressed to the sand, Josephine was about to start digging up the source of the tasty smell but suddenly came face to face with jackal pup. Letting out a high pitched squeal, Josephine dropped onto all four feet nervously and began to spit and bark as best she could at the intruder.

Linda hears the squeal and stands. She sees a jackal pup next to Josephine. Just a pup, but it's parents weren't. She races over, barking and hissing loudly at the pup. The pup flees, yelping all the way to behind a big tree and into tall grass. She sees two jackals emerge from the grass, looking a lot like the pup, only larger. The parents. She freezes in fear, not being able to react. She was terrorfied of jackals, ever since her separation from her birth family.

Veriece runs over as well, barking. This jackal wouldn't get a meal today.

Buckeye is too busy fraging to hear what is happening to her evictd subordinates and Josephine. Hutch, however, spots the pups and alerts the group. He leads the charge, hoping to get rid of this jackal once and for all.

The pup's parents lock on the the three evictees and Josephine and begin to charge. Linda's startled by Verniece's bark and wails an alarm, telling everyone head into a bolthole right away. She darts into the nearest one she sees and goes down as far as she can. Some of the worst moments in her life, including THE worst moment in her life, all involve jackals. She was terrorfied of them.

Unaware of the danger at the evictee group, Tank is locking eyes with the protective yellow mongoose. She doesn't want to give up the bolthole she chose to make her home in as her pups are too small to follow her to a new home so she's decided that she's going to fight off Tank. The 2 mongooses stare each other down, waiting to see who makes the first move. The yellow mongoose makes the first move and charges at Tank, growling, not afraid to use her sharp teeth if she has to. Tank is quick and swiftly steps to the side. He snarls and makes a charging bluff of his own but the mother doesn't plan on going down without a fight. She lunges at Tank and snaps at his front paws as he quickly jumps back. Tank doesn't want to harm the mother or her pups, he just wants to get her out of Willows territory but if it comes down to having to fight her off then he will do whatever it takes to protect Buckeye's soon to be born pups.

Lancaster is unaware of the jackal parents in Willows territory and is trying to stay focused on sentry duty but it's not very easy for this very easily distracted meerkat. The playful antics of a pair of ground squirells below him has drawn his attention and can't resist watching them as they playfully chase each other around his sentry post.

Seeing the rest of the jackals, Hutch is too frightened to help. he runs back to the group, warning them.

Buckeye hears Hutch and tries to see what he is frightened about. She then spots the jackals in the distance. She alerts her group, trying not to attract the predators to their location.

Verniece runs for the safety of the bolt hole, leading the others in the same direction.

Linda lays down and whimpers as the jackals close in. They were safe inside, but it still brought back terrible memories. She looks at the entrance worried, hoping everyone make it down okay.

Lancaster hears the alarm and glances up from his playful ground squirell companions to see a pair of jackals in the distance. He shrieks a bark as a gasp then leaps down from his sentry post and runs to aid the group in fending them off.

Tank picks up the faint cry of an alarm call and glances over his shoulder to see the Willows gathering in the distance. It looked as if they were preparing to go to battle with something. Tank glances back at the yellow mongoose mother growling. She'll get away with raising her pups in Willows territory for now but once he sees her taking her pups out for their first forage they will no longer be welcome as the mother could pose a threat to Buckeye's pups. Tank races to help the Willows, leaving the yellow mongoose to tend to her pups in peace.

Linda nervously looks towards the entrance of the bolthole. She can hear the furious jackals growling and snarling as they close in. She hopes these jackals don't have good patience.

Lancaster raises his tail and growls, ready to fight the jackals to the death if Buckeye decides to give the call to charge.

Tank arrives at the Willows and sees the jackal parents investigating a bolthole several yards in front of the group. He assumes they have cornered the evicted females and snarls. They may be out casts but they're still family and they may need the group to come to their aide. Tank stands on his hind legs and sizes up the jackal parents. If the Willows choose to fight them off, he'll target the father jackal. If he and some of the Willow memebers can manage to bring him down, then taking down the smaller mother should be pretty easy.

ooc- Lets just say Josephine and the evictees are in the bolthole.

ic- Linda waits nervously for what the jackals decide to do. In the past she's seen them try to widen the boltholes and burrows to fit inside. Unaware that the mob is close, she realizes the only way to stay safe in the one-entrance bolthole is to wait out the jackals' patience.

Tank snarls then looks to Buckeye waiting for her battle plan.

Lancaster looks around the group. it appears that every nonevicted Willow member is preseant. Suddenly he realizes that some one is missing. Josephine! Lancaster shoots up on his hind legs in a panic and scans the area. Maybe she wandered away from the group while she was foraging but he doesn't see her anywhere. He glances at Buckeye. Could she have been evicted? It really wouldn't be surprising to find out if she was considering Buckeye's aggressive mood swings and eviction spree. Lancaster looks back at the jackal adults raiding the bolthole. She could be in there. Lancaster gets back down on all 4s and growls. Even if she is or isn't down there with the evictees, the jackals still need to go.

The jackals start clawing at the bolthole, trying to fit inside. Not only did they look like meals to the jackals, but they were also furious for almost hurting their pup. They start clawing at the walls, kicking away dirt and sand. Linda's worst fear has been realized. They're trying to widen the bolthole!

Seeing the Jackals' aggression is enough to set Tank off. He knows if the Willows don't act fast, they could be open for attack and if the evicted females are down in that bolthole they're in grave danger. Tank takes a risk by not waiting for Buckeye to sound the charge and wardances at the jackal parents alone.

Lancaster shrieks as he sees his brother make a foolish solo charge towards the jackals. He can't take both of them on alone and could risk getting himself killed. Lancaster runs after him to try to stop his solo attack but he may have already drawn the jackals' attention to him and the Willows group. But Lancaster sees it as a good thing because if the evicted females are trapped down in that bolthole, then he, Tank and the Willows can act as a diversion so the evicted females can escape to safety. Lancaster decides to join his brother and runs off to the side barking mockingly at the jackals.

Linda decides the only way to stop them was to dig farther from them. She turns around and starts digging at the dead end, beginning to extend the bolthole's length.

Tank snarls as he closes in on the jackals. He didn't want to act as a diversion, he wants to fight.

Lancaster circles around the jackals and the bolthole, barking, trying to draw them away from the bolthole. He hopes his decoy strategy will work long enough for the evicted females to be able to escape and for the Willows to make their surprise attack.

Leon barked was Tank insane? There was no way he could take on two adult jackals alone.

Keeko barked to the group, and led a chargetowards the Jackals. Normally he would have tried to avoid them, but as Tank had run towards them he had no choice but to follow.
Crash followed behind Keeko, doing his best to seem intimidating.
Golly Gosh bounded after his dad, but Miley leapt forward and grabbed him, running to the nearest bolt-hole. She called for Glade, Gretel and Grace to follow.

Linda realizes the ground isn't really stable, and digging much further may collapse the tunnel. She stops and looks towards the entrance. Their advance was slow, but steady. The jackals are too focused on getting the meerkats trapped inside to hear the barks or see the advancing mob.

Tank lunges at the male jackal and clamps down on his ankle. He sinks his teeth deep into his skin drawing blood and thrashes his head to and fro viciously tearing flesh. Tank's so enraged that he isn't thinking clearly. By attacking the male jackal alone he's putting himself at risk of receiving a fatal retaliation from both jackals. Not only that, he's forced the Willows with no choice but to attack, putting their lives at risk.

Lancaster watches with his eyes wide in horrofied shock as his brother tears into the male jackal. He's going to get himself killed! Lancaster acts fast. Before the jackals could get a chance to retaliate, Lancaster bluffs a charge at both jackals and barks mockingly trying to divert themm from harming Tank and from noticing the Willows coming at them in a charge.

Seeing that her pups were safe, Buckeye led the remaining Willows into battle. With her pups due soon, she would not tolerate jackals in her territory.

Leon reluctantly followed Buckeye into the charge.

Tank jumps up and chomps on the male jackal's thigh. He hangs on and whips around as he thrashes viciously.

Lancaster jerks forward and slashes at both the jackals' front legs, leaving straight bleeding wounds across their front legs.