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Vi could think of so many things she would rather be doing than looking after pups, but she had been gambling with bones and she had lost, and that meant that she had to pay the forfeit. In this case the forfeit had been to take over cub-minding duties for a week. She was so unenthused about the prospect that it was practically palpable.

"There're only a few pups here in the mornings," she was told over her friend's shoulder. "But in the afternoons a few more are dropped off. You'll want to watch out in particular for a young male called Drvena and his sidekick Muko. They get into all sorts of trouble if you let them."

"Great," Vi muttered as she settled on the ground, surveying the four or five pups that were already there. "This is a few?"

Muko walked to the pup minders with a sort of miserable stride. He knew that his best buddy in all the world, Drvena, would not be there that day. They had already worked out between them a plan which required Drvena to play hooky while Muko covered for him. It was a great plan, like all of Drevena's plans, but Muko was certain he would be lonely and bored without his best friend to keep things interesting.

His certainty vanished when he noticed that there was an unfamiliar female seated where Coocucha usually placed herself to watch over her charges. This one was young and had the most unusually colored coat. Muko was used to pelts of all different colors, but this hyena's coat was a color he couldn't even put a name to. It was sort of a soft brownish grey that was warm, too.

He took a moment to decide what Drvena would do in this situation and decided that his best friend would behave like a gentleman and introduce himself. To do that, though, Muko would have to fight his way through a passel of pups, and he wasn't ready to do that just yet.

Vi had not realized how quickly she would be overrun with pups. It wasn't just five pups. Soon there were nearly twelve. This was utterly ridiculous. Some of them were older, but she was certain that the older ones would be more trouble than the younger ones when it came down to it. So she would somehow have to keep an eye on them while the younger ones climbed all over her. This was the last time she gambled with bones ever.

"All right, I know you lot don't know me. My name's Malvi and I'm in charge today. I'm a hunter, and I have better things to do than memorize all of your names. So for today you're all going to get code names, like you're on spy missions, okay?" And so what if all the names she assigned were based on physical traits? She would remember them and as long as she told the pups what she expected them to answer to, everything would be all right. Unless of course that purple girl started crying, as she looked like she was about to do.

"You're going to be called Weepy," she told the purple pup, who was so startled by this designation that she actually ceased to look miserable. Huh.

Muko's plans to introduce himself and make it known that he was a hyena to be trusted were further derailed by Malvi's plans to rename everyone. Lacking his friend's suspicious nature, it didn't occur to Muko that she was telling the truth about why she was giving everyone new names. He figured it was part of a game that she would get them all involved in later. In his experience, games introduced by the minders weren't much fun, but he was willing to give it a go right up until Malvi's gaze rested on him.

"Dopey," she decided after a moment's contemplation. Muko wrinkled his nose at the outburst of giggling that followed.

"Dopey?" he repeated indignantly. "I am not dopey."

Sure, he knew he wasn't the fastest zebra in the herd, but he was hardly dopey. He was insulted, and in this he seemed to be channeling Drvena somewhat, because his friend would never have stood for such a moniker. "Give me a new name."

The brown pup who protested being called Dopey was not the first pup to be displeased with the designation she came up with, but he was older than the others who had complained and was not impressed by the glare she sent him to quell his complaints.

"Are you, by any chance, Drvena?" she asked. She had somehow thought that she wouldn't have to worry about that pup and his sidekick until the afternoon group came in, but perhaps she had misinterpreted Coocucha's warning. She looked around. "And which one of you ankle biters is Muko?"

The pup didn't look as though he had any adoring fans or followers, but he was one of the oldest pups present and so she was forced to assume that she was dealing with Drvena, who was supposed to be the more troublesome of the pair. Muko, she had been told, was more of a follower.

Even drawing himself up to his full height Muko still did not make an impressive showing as he attempted to look more grown up to reply to the hyena, who he didn't think was going to last the morning without his help. She already looked harried, and despite being annoyed at being designated Dopey he felt a certain sympathy for her.

"I'm Mfumuko. Drvena's not here today. He's not feeling well."

Secretly he was tickled that she had heard of him and his friend. He was certain it was because of all the good deeds they had done and all the wrongs they had righted. He knew that as a male he couldn't hope to win much in the way of acclaim, but the fact that Coocucha had told her substitute about him and Drvena made him proud.

"If you need any help, I would be happy to assist though." He thought he sounded very dashing and debonair, like Drvena would.

Vi blinked. She was faintly relieved that she wouldn't have to deal with the more troublesome of the duo, and hoped that the absence of his friend and leader would make Muko easier to deal with. She had not expected him to try to come across as grown-up and helpful.

"Right," she said, unable to think of anything else to say. "I guess we won't call you Dopey. We'll call you Phew."

As in "phew, there's just the one of them." Not that she had any intention of telling him that. Probably he'd think that she'd said "few" and try to puzzle out how she'd come to settle on that name for him. It would keep him quiet and distracted until she finished, she hoped. After she finished she planned to play a game of Statues with the pups.

Muko frowned at his new moniker, which he couldn't really say was any better than the first one. What kind of code name was Few? Was that like saying that she thought he had Few wits? He didn't get it. Drvena probably would have gotten it. He was clever that way.

"If we're going to be spies, what will our mission be?" he asked, deciding that he would not make a big thing of his new name. Probably if he did she'd just call him something like Difficult or Ugly or something awful like that. He didn't want to be laughed at again. He didn't like to be laughed at, especially by younger pups.

"I could be helpful, you know," he continued. "I know this area really well and- "

Ugh. Enough of this. Vi turned to the talkative pup with her long canines bared and informed him, "You can be most helpful by being quiet."

There was a poorly veiled threat implicit in her words which seemed to upset some of the younger pups, if not the one she was actually threatening, who she suspected was too dim to realize that he was being threatened. Bah. She didn't like pups. They were simply impossible. Everything made them cry or whine. She would never, ever have them.

"Why don't you be the prey if you know the area so well?" she suggested. "You'll have to be very quiet and not say a single thing until you're told to report. Everyone else, let's divide into groups. Doesn't that sound fun?"

Because it sure didn't to Malvi. She had no idea how she'd keep track of several groups of pups. Bah!

She had forgotten that they were supposed to be spies, not hunters. And she had suddenly arranged things so that Muko would be hunted. This seemed like it would be a very, very bad thing to Muko. He was bigger than a lot of the other pups, so he would probably be able to fend them off, but maybe not without hurting them.

"Um." He didn't want Malvi to think he was afraid though, and so he swallowed while his ears flattened to his skull. "Okay. Give me five minutes' head start."

Malvi wasn't paying attention. She was already working on dividing the rest of the group into smaller groups and hunting parties. He decided he'd best skedaddle now. Maybe try to find Drvena and let him know that their plans would have to happen some other time because of this disruption. This wasn't going to be much fun at all.