Humanum Opus (The Simian Forest Saga: Vol. II)

IV. Future

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The steady beat of a drum filled Koba's ears. He had been perched up above the scene below, glaring off across the village as he remained awake. Sentry duty was his only escape from those god-awful night terrors. The situation below was a grave one, the colony discussing battle tactics and the great hunt to come in the next few days. Apes would need more food soon, seeing as how breeding levels were skyrocketing. The bonobo brooded as he scratched his chin, observing as his kind mingled among one another; the sky above was inky and speckled with silver stars. He could see Caesar and his wife, as well as Maurice and young Blue Eyes, their attention glued to the human girl's face, framed by her tangled mane.

Her hair was liquid flame, her eyes the color of the sky and her skin peppered with blemishes of the oddest kind. Koba had never seen such detail in a human's fleshy pate before, although he wondered if this was perhaps because of how close they had come to one another the day of her discovery. She still walked slow and favored that skinny leg of hers, yet did not need any dressing upon her healing wound, nor an escort around the village.

The harsh thud of a hard body colliding with the sentry tower alerted Koba to an approaching ally. His head turned to briefly look upon Grey, followed closely by Stone. They silently greeted one another, the two chimps coming to sit upon the edge of the tower platform alongside him. Despite being an ape to mind his own business, he found his eyes wandering over toward his two friends, watching them speak back and forth about the presence of this creature. They were just as displeased as he with her presence, it seemed.

'She looks like a stork,' Stone remarked, causing Grey to laugh.

'Just as ugly, too,' agreed the greyish chimpanzee. Koba's head swept around and peered at the conversing pair, only to realize that they were watching him expectantly. He felt a twinge of irritation in his chest, pursing his lips and removing his gaze from the pair to his left. The fire below hissed and popped. Koba shuffled his feet and leaned his elbows into his knees, arms crossing in front of his chest. 'Probably would scream like one too, feathers everywhere.'

The wind ruffled the hair upon his shoulders. It wasn't as if he disliked their presence— he enjoyed being surrounded by like-minded apes, but the conversation he had had with Caesar so long ago about the human and how she wasn't taking too well to sign language still stuck in his brain. How was he supposed to follow through with his promises if his followers wouldn't follow him, or didn't have the same ideals? Caesar needed support. Stone suddenly leaned over and nudged him, earning a faint grumble from the bonobo. 'Why so quiet?' he asked, gibbering softly, similar to playful white-tail.

Perhaps he couldn't tell, but judging by how the other chimp hummed in response to his friend's indignant prying, Grey could take the hint. The paler male leaned away slightly, looking at the scene below, remaining innocent as Stone began to pester his friend with a grapple to the side of the head. Koba felt a burst of anxiety and tore away from his companion with a snarl, rising o his feet imposingly. Stone cowered slightly in surprise. "Caesar says.. she will learn," he answered, defiant. 'If she doesn't learn, then we can move. Until then, she stays.'

This caused the chimpanzee to cock his head, glowering in question at Koba. 'Why not kill her?' he suggested. 'Would solve problem. Apes would not be in danger then.'

Stone had the right idea, suggesting that they move now. Killing her would be so easy, and yet... the words his king had spoken repeated like a broken record in his mind, causing him to hesitate. His own inner turmoil resurfaced and he found himself stuck between a rock and a hard place. It would be so easy to slit her throat in her sleep, to bash her head in while apes least expected it, but Caesar would be terribly upset, or worse, never forgive him and strip him of his title as a member of the council. Koba could see how he looked upon the human with a look of such innocent admiration and curiosity, as if she were the first of her kind he had ever seen. It was like watching a white-tail observe a bird from afar.