Birth of the Planet of the Apes

Truth

Reading aloud was difficult, but the stress it gave Blue Eyes was far less than Riley's previous option. Alex helped him with many words that he didn't recognize and Blue Eyes tried his best to say everything without problems.

After thirty minutes, everything was going relatively well. He no longer asked Alex for help reading the words, but he still couldn't say more than three words before his breath fell back into grunts. This frustrated him more than his lack of reading skills. Maybe it was Riley's earlier mention that humans hated stuttering which upset him so, for it was at a particularly long sentence that he had been muddling over for minutes when his temper finally flared. Alex tried to help him out, but he ended up screaming at the book, throwing it across camp, and loping over to the tree where his horse was tied. He ignored its nuzzle for attention on his shoulder and jumped up the tree instead.

Alex had fallen backwards off his log at his outburst, cowering from the sudden noise and action. Riley calmed him with her sarcasm.

"And with that, I believe lessons are over for today," she was more relaxed than expected after what he just did.

She walked over to the where he had thrown the book, retrieved it, and handed it back to the boy. Alex took it with a small nod, still clearly shaken up.

"Why d..."

"He's a chimpanzee, Alex," Riley said with a shrug and a shake of her head, "I don't really think emotions are a 'held-back' thing with them. Especially tempers." She glanced up at him; he bared his teeth and turned his eyes away. True it elaborated on her point but he didn't really care.

"I've met plenty humans with tempers worse than his," Alex's words were unusually hard.

Blue Eyes glanced back at the humans below him. He couldn't see Alex through the branches but he assumed he was giving Riley a glare because she pursed her lips and crossed her arms like she was going to give a snide remark. However, she kept up with her easygoingness and shrugged, "Yeah...can't argue with you there." She paused for a while and looked around the camp, scratching her head, "Well, since there's not much we can do with him right now, what you say about calling in our good friend Fremont? It's almost noon anyways."

Alex shrugged.

There was that mention of Fremont again. Who was Fremont? It might've been the residual anger left from his temper tantrum that drove him down the tree, but he jumped from his twenty foot perch in a huff. Both sets of human eyes flew over to him with a start while he glared back.

"Who...is Fremont?" he growled.

They glanced between one another; Riley spoke first, "He's our leader. Well, along with Malcolm...kind of. You remember Malcolm right? Of course you do. Anyways, Fremont's the guy who..."

Blue Eyes stopped her with a deep grunt through his nose. The girl was talking way too fast to keep up and he honestly wasn't entirely sure he wanted to listen to her. He switched his eyes over to Alex, "Explain."

Alex glanced over at Riley who rolled her eyes and swung her hand with a jerk like she was welcoming someone into her home, albeit begrudgingly.

Blue Eyes stayed standing while Alex sat down. The human boy never took his scared eyes off him as he sat. Perhaps he'd been too harsh. There was a pang of guilt in his chest for the boy, but he kept it hidden. He needed answers. Now.

He repeated his request again, quieter this time, but with no less demand in his eyes.

Alex swallowed, then broke eye contact, "He...he sent us up here to find Caesar. There...was an attack." Alex glanced over at Riley who looked up at the sky in frustration and ran her hand down her face, clearly not happy at what he just said.