eyes of the forest - a kingdom of the planet of the apes story

𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚇𝙸

Noa stares at you wide eyed as you stare back. You resist the urge to run to him, to seek safety in his presence. He stiffly sits at the end of the table, eyeing you, Proximus, and Trevathan carefully.

You look at him with concern, your eyes silently asking him if he's okay, although you don't see any new injuries. You notice him do the same as you see him scan your form before settling back on your eyes.

"Tell me, Noa." Proximus begins. "What was it like, travelling here with a human? Must have been, quite the adventure." He laughs airily with Trevathan joining him, obviously making fun of you.

Then another ape walks in with a bowl of more food, you don't think anything of it until you notice how Noa stares at the ape and they lock eyes, clearly they know each other. The ape accidentally knocks over a stack of what you think to be walnuts and you cringe, worried what Proximus might do to him.

The large leader simply scowls and waves his hand. "Leave us." He commands, and the other ape cowers and slinks off, locking eyes with Noa once more before he does. Noa turns back around, glancing at you before looking up at the ape king at the end of the table.

"Noa, are you familiar with the concept of, e-vo-lution?" He says the word long and drawn out, almost as if he's a toddler trying to sound out a big word, and the thought nearly makes you laugh. "You see Noa," Proximus continues. "when humans ruled the earth, they were capable of many great things, yes?" He speaks with his hands and you try to tune out most of what he's saying.

"They could, level mountains, speak across oceans, they could fly, Noa! Like, eagles fly!" He says excitedly. "They learned, through e-vo-lution. But this takes time, vast amounts of time, that i do not have, for i am just, a mortal ape..." He says with a laugh as Trevathan nervously chuckles with him.

"But, inside that vault is something that will give me instant e-vo-lution. And now, i will learn, we will learn, apes will learn." He beams, gesturing between himself and Noa. You feel your heart sink slightly, knowing the dire consequences that will come if he gets what's inside that vault.

You don't notice Noa staring at you as you keep your eyes on the uneaten food in front of you, but Proximus notices. "y/n," He begins, your whole body tensing up once more as he stands up and makes his way over to you. "tell me, do you know how to get into my vault?"

He leans down to your level, his warm breath fanning your face. Somehow, in a sudden burst of courage you glare up at him, and before you can question if this is a good idea or not, words are leaving your mouth.

"You won't get in, because it's not yours." You say sternly but calmly, wondering where that came from. You wonder if you have a death wish, trying to aggravate the 400 pound primate that's currently staring you down.

His eyes flash with a primal anger for a split second before he smiles, taking you aback at his sudden change in demeanor, he even lets out a small laugh. "Oh y/n," He brings a large hand up to your cheek, twirling a strand of your hair between his fingers. "y/n, y/n, y/n..." You yelp as he suddenly grabs a fistful of your hair and pulls your head back, exposing your neck to him.

"It would not be very smart of you, to make me angry." You let a whimper escape your throat as he grips your hair tighter. From the corner of your eye you see Noa grip the table and shift slightly, looking like he's ready to pounce on the ape who's holding your hair hostage. Heck, even Trevathan looks uneasy.

Proximus notices too, and begins to laugh. "Alright, no need for anyone to get upset." He releases your hair and begins to stroke your head in a way that can only be described as lovingly, but it really just leaves a bad taste in your mouth. You almost preferred him pulling it.

"Come, Noa. Let us speak." Proximus says, standing up and finally giving you room to breathe. Noa hesitantly stands and follows Proximus to the window, giving you a glance before walking off behind you.

You could only hear bits of their conversation, Proximus saying something about a kingdom, and then how humans can't be trusted. You roll your eyes, maybe in the old days they couldn't, but now apes ruled everything. And it's not like he experienced the reign of humans firsthand, he was just being prejudiced.

~

After having to sit through more speeches from Proximus and more painfully boring stories from Trevathan, you were happy to finally be excused. But that also meant parting ways with Noa. Even though you couldn't speak to him, just being in his presence was somewhat comforting.

"The evening lesson begins soon, it would be very good for you to be there." Trevathan says to you as he slips his jacket on, adjusting his greasy ponytail underneath. You give him your hardest glare, if looks could kill he'd have dropped dead by now.

He simply sighs and shakes his head as he walks away. "At least go get yourself cleaned up, the bathroom and fresh clothes are that way." He points to a corner of the room as he bangs his fist on the large door and it opens and shuts with a loud click.

You didn't want to 'get cleaned up'. You weren't going to wear their clothes, or eat their food. This protesting might be useless and only hurting you, but your stubbornness still wouldn't let you get comfortable here.

A dull thud brings you out of your thoughts and you stand up quickly, goosebumps spreading across your skin as you see the silhouette of an ape in the hole in the wall. Your breathing and heart rate picks up and you back away, your eyes scanning for something to defend yourself with.

Then the ape moves forward into the light, and you see those vibrant green eyes that you've grown fond of. "Noa!" You breathe out excitedly.

word count: 1060
not to be that person but thank you so much for all the support on this story, i didn't expect to get over 4k reads in just a couple weeks. thank you to everyone who votes, it really does motivate me to keep publishing chapters every day.

- lots of love, raine