.jpg)
x
You stared in horror at the monstrous apes, surrounded and outnumbered. The apes were huge, standing at least twice as tall as the largest man you've ever seen. They wore handmade battle armor composed of metal and wood. They had a thick coat of fur on their bodies and sharp teeth that gleamed in the moonlight.
You could see their muscles bulging underneath their skin, and they looked as if they were ready to attack at any moment. You notice their maniacal chuckling, getting themselves into a war position. The sound of their growls was like a low rumble, echoing through the jungle. It was clear that they viewed you and Inkagi as intruders and were prepared to defend their territory with all their might.
As you and Inkagi stood there, surrounded by the apes, you slowly realized what was happening. The apes were preparing to attack. They were hissing, growling, and pounding their chests, showing signs of aggression and dominance. The air was filled with tension as everyone waited for the first move.
Although the night was pitch black, with the light of the stars and moon you could see them. Then one of the apes with a torch walked over to you. “Stop, you idiots!” A large muscular gorilla dressed in royal garments screamed at the top of his lungs. It was as if the entire jungle silenced itself when he said that. The ape army froze in place, not moving a single muscle. The spears in their hands returned to a neutral position. Not a single sound was made after that. He walks over to get a better look at you.
He growls and looks at you and Inkagi up and down. He notices your fear and almost takes a liking to your terrified state. It was as if he was thinking about what to do with you.
In your mind, all you could think of was how incredible it was that a gorilla was able to speak. Everything was happening so quickly, and you didn’t have time to react.
“Forgive us, we were just passing by.” Inkagi bows his head. You quickly do the same, hoping they would spare you.
“Liars. Ma-Zongo! No one permitted you to speak,” The gorilla’s quick and powerful response shook you to your core. His voice was clear and deep. It was commanding and authoritative, and you could tell that he was used to being in charge. Despite being intimidated by the gorilla, you found yourself transfixed by his presence. It was like nothing you had ever experienced before, “you know the rules. Humans are not allowed here. The punishment is death.”
The massive gorilla turns around and walks away from you and Inkagi. You look around one last time at all the apes around you. Then you heard the gorilla’s last command. “Tie them up and take them to a holding cell. Not a drop of blood must fall tonight, it is a sacred night. We shall deal with the intruders tomorrow,” the gorilla then turns his head slightly to the right as he stops in place, “do I make myself clear?”
“YES! Your majesty! Yai-Nu Yai-Nu!” The other apes raise their fists in the air confirming that they understood his clear instructions. Then proceed to take a thick rope and tie you and Inkagi up.
As you are tied up, you watch as the apes take you and Inkagi away from the river, leading you deeper into the jungle. You can hear the sounds of many voices getting louder with each step that you get closer to your holding cell. You take notice of little details. You hear the ape army talking about you and Inkagi. The inexperienced grunts were given the assignment to escort you and Inkagi. You were perplexed, their voices sounding almost human. It is difficult for your mind to process it all, you think it’s the voices of humans, but you come to realize, the moment you step into their village, that every ape could speak just like a human can.
On the outskirts of the village, you can also hear the sound of a waterfall in the distance, the sound of water crashing down against the rocks echoing throughout the jungle. You wondered if you would ever be able to break free from this and continue your journey to find Alaska. You became downhearted thinking that maybe for her it was too late, she could already be dead. You thought that maybe if you state your case, they could let you go but at this point, the situation seemed hopeless.
You needed to come up with a plan to escape and fast. But even if you did escape, the apes could quickly catch up with you and take you down. The fact of the matter was that they had weapons, and you didn’t. They also know this part of the jungle like the back of their hands. Running and evading them wouldn’t make any sense, since both you and Inkagi are now extremely hungry and exhausted from trying to look for Alaska near the river. You could depend on Pyro to help but at this moment your hands are tied up and you can’t reach into your pocket to get your Guardian Stone.
As you are escorted through the village you notice ape people staring at you. You were awestruck, so you stared back. You wonder how this strange world even came to be, full of dinosaurs, humans, and even ape people. You start to notice the ape woman and the ape children. Many with melancholy faces. You wondered why they were so sad.
You knew deep down that you wouldn’t want Pyro bursting in and attacking any innocent lives just to bust you out. Even if your own life was at risk, killing another to save your own just didn’t sit right with you. Using the Guardian Stone to help you escape was out of the question.
You realize that you need to think outside the box and come up with a plan that doesn't involve running or fighting. Your options became more and more limited as they finally pushed you both into a small cell made of wood. One of the apes closes the cell door behind you and spits on the ground. “Treacherous human scum.” In a low voice, he turns around and walks away leaving you both alone in a small hut.
“Inkagi, I thought the ape civilization you mentioned before would help us. Why are they going to kill us?”
Inkagi looks down away from you. “Well, the plan at first was to lead Shintiro to the other side of the river. If the apes had captured him, that would have given us our chance to escape. They would be distracted by him instead. But the situation completely changed when we had to find Alaska. I didn’t know the apes would have found us so close to the river. It was our only option to escape from the imminent danger, from Shintiro,” Inkagi sighs and gives you one final bit of information, “Because of Shintiro’s actions in the past, the apes no longer trust humans.”
You didn’t want to say anything else. Inkagi wasn’t to blame for your current situation. The more important matter at hand is to come up with a plan that could get you out of there. You try to wiggle your wrist to try and get the ropes off them but to no avail. The ropes tied to your wrists are tight.
You look around your surroundings and assess your options. Inkagi notices your attempt to remove the ropes from your wrist. Inkagi whispers to you, “Look into my pocket, I still have my dagger. They didn’t take it from me. You can cut my hands free.” You discreetly reach into his pocket and grab the dagger. He turns around so that you can cut his hands free. That’s when you hear noise coming from outside the hut door. Someone comes in quickly. You and Inkagi scramble to hide the dagger under some straw that’s beneath you in the cell.
An ape girl with long silky blonde hair sneaks in. She looks through the crack of the hut door, hoping to not get caught. She turns around and sees both of you. “Oh,” the monkey girl was curious and wanted a closer look at the first humans she had ever seen in her life, “Coo,” She softly made a monkey-like sound as she looked at Inkagi and then at you. Her eyes dilate as she looks deep into your eyes, “You don’t look dangerous like they say,” she tilts her head left and right, completely amazed at what she was seeing.
You notice she wore tribal garments, but these were very detailed and intricate. Inkagi also takes note of her clothing. “You’re a royal, aren’t you?”
She covers her mouth in disbelief. “Oh my, you speak,” She rests her chin on the back of her hand, “I guess everything my mother taught me was a lie. Figures. All well, I never trusted her anyways.”
You and Inakgi stare at her all confused. “Your beautiful clothing gives it away.” Inkagi smiles knowing that if you both play your cards right, you had a ticket out of the cell and an easy way out of the ape civilization.
“You humans are even smart. Nothing like what anyone else says about you. Yes. Yes, I am of a noble line. My name is Karaee. I can hardly contain myself. Real-life humans in our village.” Her eyes sparkle with excitement knowing that she is meeting for the first time an intelligent being that isn’t an ape. "Oh my, I'm so rude. You must be starving." She quickly takes out from a small bag around her waist some food for both of you to eat.
“Nice to meet…” As soon as you attempted to introduce yourself there was a sound coming from the hut door. Karaee acts quickly by dashing behind a pile of straw to hide behind.
An ape guard pokes his head inside as you look at him casually, trying not to look suspicious. You hide the small bits of food under your foot hoping he wouldn't notice. After giving a quick scan he then closes the hut door.
“Well, that was certainly a close one. It’s quite obvious that I’m not supposed to be here.”
You lean forward toward her with the rope still tied to your wrist. “My name is… And this here Inkagi.”
“You both have very interesting names.”
“Karaee, look, we need your help. Please, help us get out of here. We aren’t here to hurt anyone; we were just looking for our friend. We beg you to speak to someone, the king perhaps, to let us go.” Inkagi stares into her eyes with a serious look as he states his case.
Karaee lowers her head. “You’ve been captured at a very convenient time. Today marks the sad anniversary of many of our people becoming ill with a breathing disease. My little brother Aruvi also suffers from this illness. We call it Zonda, meaning ‘life taker’. Aruvi does not have much time left. He has held on for a very long time.”
You speak after Karaee pauses. You see a lot of sadness in her eyes. “I’m sorry your village is going through this.”
“We won’t kill you today because we are too busy mourning and taking care of our sick. But my father the king will make preparations to have you both killed tomorrow.” Karaee turns around downheartedly and slowly makes her way to the hut door.
“Wait. We’ll do anything to get out of this.” You quickly speak as she was walking away. You try your best to not make too much noise.
Karaee looks over her left shoulder with a bit of a half-smile on the other side of her face. She didn’t want you to notice of course so she quickly changed her expression to surprised.
“You, you would do anything? Please, promise me you will. Give me your word.”
At first, you hesitate to respond, wondering what her true intentions were. “Umm.” You didn’t know if answering her to keep your word was a good idea.
Inkagi quickly got up and said “Yes! We give you our word.”
Karaee looks at Inkagi and then looks at you. She waits for your response. You look at Inkagi and you could see the desperation in his face. It was obvious that he didn’t want to die. He wanted badly for you to say ‘yes’ to her request.
Karaee tilts her head waiting to hear from you. “Yeah. Yes. We give you our word.” Finally, after what seems like an eternity, you give in and nod your head. Karaee's smile widens as she takes a step closer to you. She squeezes her hand through the cell bars and places a hand on your shoulder. Karaee’s eyes sparkled once more. She almost tears up but instead, she smiles. You sit there wondering what exactly she wanted from both of you.
"Unuk-cho, in our language this means unity," she softly whispers, "you gave me your word so that means we make an unbreakable pact. You won't regret this. Or maybe you will? We’ll see.” You gulp and realize that your life is now in the hands of a strange monkey girl you just met, “And just so you know, if you still end up being killed, it’s not my fault.”
You and Inkagi look at each other dumbfounded. You both couldn’t even say a word after she said that. You both wonder what exactly you've gotten yourselves into. But there is no time to think about that now. Doing what Karaee says is your only option to escape and finally get back to the river and find Alaska.189Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF7xiZhYXs2
