THE PEACELAND TRILOGY (For Critics Only) #Wattys2020

10

Chapter Nine

It was dawn while most of the monkeys woke up. As Zuba saw Abdul who was sleeping under the tent which was made of banana leaves and bamboos, he patted Abdul's forehead dearly. Abdul opened his eyes and as he saw Zuba who said "rise and shine boy! Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy and wise".

"I only wake up in the midday" said Abdul.

"Incorrect, you wake up at day but from now on, dawn is the routine" said Zuba.

"No air conditioners but so hot, why the hell!" said Abdul.

"Oh you elite humans! Thank God, your mom didn't see this of you! Oh, CAPREEEN!" said Zuba.

Capren arrived as such that he was nervous as if the White Rabbit was looking at the clock down the hole.

"Is the feast ready, dear gentleman?" said Zuba gently.

"Yes, sir!" said Capren.

As the feast would be prepared a little late, Zuba saw Abdul whose sweat made him cold but less ill due to the trees which looked like Disney-esque and the forest was so scattered but it was really such that you can feel the air of the nature rather than pollution from the dirt. As Zuba put his hand onto Abdul's shoulders as a warm fatherly greeting, Abdul smiled a bit but not his usual sarcastic smile.

"I apologize what really happened yesterday, son. We should not have kidnapped you. Instead, we could have taken you from the guest house where our jungle actually starts with. You are not the first person who could talk to animals but there were two more: the emperor and your mother. All three of you have the gift but some can, some can't" said Zuba.

"No, you do not have to apologize. I am the one to apologize. But I never knew that the myth of the emperor's tale could be true because, it is 200 years and some did not record as a history or even an archeologist could not give the accurate information towards it" said Abdul.

"You humans forget your sense of uniqueness. Text books or what is it called... internet that which does not give you the accuracies but records that you only memorize which are not always real because the reality is something else" said Zuba.

"How?" asked Abdul.

"Find it yourself, Mr. Abdul Aseef Khan. Now, the feast is ready" said Zuba.

"I will eat alone" said Abdul.

"It is enjoyable while eating with the others, dear" said Zuba.

Abdul was convinced. Therefore, he sat next to the group of other monkeys but he was disgusted by the way they eat their food. There were lots of fruits such as bananas, grapes, apples and plums which were shared with each other. They were so sweet that Abdul forced himself to eat them.

After the few minutes of the chew, he ate more fruits than what he used to eat for a regular routine but lesser fruits. He was so excited that he happily ate fruits until he accidentally ate a hot paprika.

Smokes came from his ears as it became red. He jumped off and danced as if the ants were inside his body. Capren and the rest of the monkeys were so scared that Capren dropped the water from a banana leaf that calmed him down but his clothes turned wet. Some of the monkeys laughed at the situation.

"Silence" said Zuba calmly.

As most turned silent, Zuba breathed out.

"Some of you might be laughing a lot but this laugh can make anyone cry and such that you all might regret. Never treat our guests in a manner that he might be neglected" said Zuba.

The monkeys calmed down but some of them criticized him.

"He's not our Chosen One"

"May be the Prophecy's wrong"

"The menace of the human nature"

All of these words made him upset as such that Capren took him to the tent.

"Sir, I apologize behalf of them. I hope you understand..." said Capren.

"Why should they say that? Am I like them?" said Abdul.

"It's okay, sir, everything will be fine" said Capren.

"Please don't call me sir, call me brother" said Abdul.

"Okay, then brother" said Capren.

Both embraced each other as if a brother can do for the other.