"Just a few more ..."

The displaced monkeys were happily settled into their new tree. Mum Lioness had occasionally thought the cubses quite naughty, but when she spend 24 hours living side by side with the monkeys, she began to understand what the word naughty meant! The morning after the monkeys moved in, she was woken up very early by a lot of chattering. Giving up on sleep, she got her tea and was about to open her laptop when she realised it was gone! Just then Tirucub came bounding in shouting, "The monkeys are surfing with YOUR computer up in the tree!"

Luckily, it was retrieved without it falling, but then the monkeys said they were hungry, and could they please have some iddlies.

No sooner had the monkeys been fed than Arunacub rushed to the cave where Mum Lioness was washing the iddli steamer to tell her Unca Krishnamoorthy's truck could be seen approaching.



"Scuse me, Mum Lioness," began Unca Krishnamoorthy. "There were just a few more creatures displaced by all the bulldozing and tree chopping on the other side of the Hill ... no very large creatures ... just rather small ones ... can you fit them in for the time being?"

Looking into the faces of the worried, shaken creatures, there was no possible way to say no!



Seeing the look on Mum Lioness' and the cubses' faces, Unca Krishnamoorthy began to piggyback some of the smaller creatures over toward the cave entrance.



Unca Krishnamoorthy drove away swiftly before anyone could change their mind. Mum Lioness was just wondering where the new creatures would sleep when Spotty whispered something in Med Tiger's ear. Omcub stood very close by, pretending to look into the distance but really trying to hear what Spotty was saying.



Med Tiger cleared his throat importantly and everyone looked at him.

"Dear Spotty has made a most thoughtful offer. He has suggested he and I turn over our cave to the new creatures for the duration ... if Mum Lioness will allow us to have a few sleepovers in a row at their cave ..."

Omcub leapt about 8 feet in the air in joy. "Say yes, Mummy Lioness, say yes! The new creatures will love that spacious cave, and come over and visit us every day."

Mum Lioness beamed at Spotty and said of course he and Med Tiger could shift to the lion cave so the displaced creatures could sleep in the other one (which was bigger).

"I hear that Unca Krishnamoorthy truck again," said Arunacub. No one could see it, but the engine could be heard in the distance.

Soon Unca Krishnamoorthy pulled up again. Spotty promptly jumped on Mum Lioness' back.



"Oh my!" exclaimed the hippo twins.



"Now, now, no one panic. This dragon assures me she is very friendly. I promise, this will be it for my displaced creature deliveries today .... er, I HOPE it will be ..." said Unca Krishnaswami, then doing a few fake-sounding coughs because he was not sure what else so say.

Tirucub bravely stepped forward.

"I have been studying dragonology for a long time ... in fact I plan to be a dragonologist when I am a big lion. I can assess the situation. There is a way to tell a friendly dragon from ... well ... "

"Be careful, Tirucub!" said Mum Lioness. "Studying dragonology books is one thing ... making assessments quite another."

But Tirucub jumped over in front of the dragon and looked very carefully into the dragon's eyes for quite a long time. Everyone held their breath.



"Friendly," pronounced Tirucub.