We were taking it in turns to dig into the mound and catch termites. I decided it would be benevolent of me to allow my siblings to have the first few goes, and so I stood at the back keeping an eye on our surroundings. I was not at all worried about being bitten by a termite, or having fun playing with a butterfly! I just cared about the development of my siblings, is all.

It seemed as if I wasn’t the only one who felt benevolent today since sibling No.5 decided to sit next to me to groom herself. She didn’t think I was lonely, did she? Anyway, the moon steadily reached its zenith and it was soon my turn to have a go at catching some food. “Can’t sibling No.5 go instead? Eh? What’s that she’s eating…? She already did it?!” With my tail tucked between my legs, I padded with a heavy heart towards the tunnel of doom – I mean, the termite tunnel.

Father gave me a reassuring lick before nudging me ever closer to that dark, foreboding space. Not wanting to disappoint my parents, I took the plunge and jammed my head in the tunnel. Well…more like my snout since the tunnel wasn’t overly large to avoid the termites from escaping and biting us. Stretching my tongue out, I managed to catch some of the little critters and wagged my fluffy tail in happiness at my achievement.

Now that I’m not having to worry about making a fool of myself, I began to think about those dreams I’d been having. Why was I having them? What were those non-aardwolves? Why did they seem to have fur and not-fur? It didn’t make much sense to me, since I knew I had never seen such things in my very-short life, but they looked so familiar. “Ouch!” Another termite managed to bite me, but I caught it with my tongue and quickly chewed on it. “See! I’m brave! I can take the pain!”

After a few minutes of lapping up many delicious morsels of meat, I felt Father nudge the side of my neck and so pulled out of the hole. Nuzzling me in praise for how brave I was, Father wagged his tail before leading me back down the mound. Before me I could see my siblings playing; some were wrestling with one another, while the others were chasing each other.

As Father and I neared the others, the sound of Mother’s low rumbling growls could be heard. Unsure of what was wrong, I looked at Father and tilted my little head in curiosity. The vision that entered my eyes was not comforting in the slightest. Father was rigid and staring in one place not far from sibling No.3. We all turned to gaze in that direction and saw a cobra about the same size as Mother and Father only a few steps away from sibling No.3.

I felt a sense of trepidation and concern wash over me as I recalled the crystal cobra from my dream and how violent it seemed. Without realising it, I had rushed over to try and push him out of the way only for the rest of my siblings to crowd around the cobra in curiosity. “No! Get away from it!” I desperately tried to tell him, however my words only came out as barks of distress.

I wasn’t thinking clearly at the time, but my barking distracted them into not paying attention to the cobra. Mother and Father reacted in unison and charged after the cobra while barking furiously and baring their canines. Seemingly unfazed by my parents, the cobra reared its head and hissed at them. Sibling No.3 had moved out of the way after noticing our parents going after the snake. I sighed in relief as I reached him and nuzzled him affectionately before expertly nudging him away from the vicinity of the cobra.

We padded several steps away from the confrontation before turning to observe the situation. Siblings No.1, 2, 4 and 5 were still quite close; obviously curious about what the cobra was, since they’d never seen one before. Mother moved closer with her hackles raised, as Father blocked the cobra’s line of sight from my siblings. The cobra lowered its head and slid away but was chased after by Mother.

Sibling No.1 was more curious than the others, it seemed, since he also chased after our parents wanting to watch what would happen. I barked at him to try and get him to come back but he ignored me and carried on running over to the confrontation. Siblings No.2, 4 and 5 didn’t really know what to do, with one coming to me while the other two followed sibling No.1. “Mutiny! How dare you ignore your leader’s warnings!”

I chased after them in anger, not keeping an eye on the situation ahead and only caring about keeping my siblings safe. When I finally reached them, I saw the cobra had received several slashes from Mother and Father’s claws but was still very much being aggressive towards them with its constant hissing. Sibling No.1 looked at me and raised his chin in smug defiance; proud of having ignored my warning barks.

While we were doing a stare down with one another, a pained whimper sounded beside us as Sibling No.2 crouched down and began licking at his hind leg. Mother and Father immediately appeared and slashed at the ground beside sibling No.2’s leg – followed by the frustrated hissing from the cobra. “The cobra was here?!” Sibling No.1 cowered behind me as we both caught the scent of blood coming from our injured sibling.

Eventually, Mother and Father drove the cobra away and hurried over to examine sibling No.2’s leg. They each gave reassuring nudges and nuzzles to us all before trying their best to lick at the wound. Poor sibling No.2 was weakly whimpering in pain as he lay on the ground and barely moved. Seeing as it wasn’t safe out here, and that we’d finished eating, Mother carefully carried sibling No.2 in her mouth while Father guided us all back to the den.

Entering the den, Mother gently placed unconscious sibling No.2 in the bedding area and kept licking his face and nuzzling him. I also went over and looked at the wound: black blood was slowly oozing out and I could see he was barely breathing. I didn’t really understand what was wrong with him but I knew he must have been in pain, and I knew what pain felt like….it’s not nice.

I began licking his wound but Father picked me up and moved me away before lying beside Mother and nuzzling sibling No.2. My other siblings were really confused about what was happening and wanted to get closer to help wake sibling No.2 up. I thought he was just tired, so I distracted them by sacrificing my pride and tripping over myself on the other side of the den.

My siblings quickly turned to see what I’d done and immediately forgot about waking sibling No.2 up. Instead, they ran over and tackled me to the ground before wrestling with me to see who would be the victor this time. “Bring it on, siblings! I am more tolerant to pain now, ha ha ha!” As I was being trounced by a 4v1 match, I kept giving sideways long glances at sibling No.2 and our parents; a bad feeling was rumbling in my gut. “Am I hungry?”