My Little Bird | Blue Eyes (Under minor grammatical editing)

Chapter 2

(Picture is Dax)

I breathed in the air around me. The forest was damp with dew and the world smelled of sap and water and clarity. I paused to take a photo of a redwood with a humungous trunk.

"Rain." My head snapped towards Dax, who stood a few feet away. "Stay close." The humorous, mellow brother I knew was hiding, and the cautious, efficient Dax was in his place.

I jogged up to him and signed. "Happy?"

He turned away, but I had already seen the grin he was trying to hide. I did as Dax asked and stayed close to his side, both of us quiet. I did what he couldn't and kept an ear out for danger, while Dax watched for any threats. We continued toward the dam, following an old, grown in path for three more hours until Dax called for a rest stop.

He sat down on a fallen log and I threw him our second bottle of water. I had drunk the first one on the way here and could hear a river, so I decided to make use of it.

"I'm going to go refill this." I said and signed to Dax.

"Where?" He signed back.

"I hear water. I'll be back soon." I turned toward the sound.

"Be careful." I heard him call. I kept walking, raising a hand to acknowledge him. It took me about five minutes to get to the stream. I quickly filled the empty bottle and started on my way back. I toyed with the lanyard keeping my small camera around my neck as I walked, but when I got closer to the rest site I stopped dead in my tracks, a loud roar bursting through the air.

I dashed past the shrub line keeping the camp from site and gasped in horror. Dax had been backed up against the trunk of a redwood by a big brown bear. It stood on its hind legs and gave another roar. Dax yelled out and swung the short machete he had taken with him. I dropped the water bottle and strung my bow with an arrow. I took aim and let the arrow fly. It lodged itself between the bear's shoulder blades.

The animal gave another angered cry and turned to me, on all four paws. I picked up a rock and threw it at the bear, managing to hit the top of its head, which caused it to growl as it stalked foward. I raised my arms and signed at Dax to run.

"Hey! This way! Come this way, bear!" I yelled as I backed up.

It huffed and stomped its paws into the ground at each step. "Rain, don't!" Dax yelled.

"Dax, go! Please, run!" I yelled back, signing frantically.

I strung my bow again and aimed, while walking backwards from the animal. But before I could let the arrow go, the bear crumpled to ground, two spears buried into its right side. I dropped the bow as I fell back with surprise, and Dax took the chance to run past the dying animal to me.

"Are you okay? Where does it hurt?" Dax looked me over frantically, totally overlooking the fact that it wasn't either of us that had killed the bear. I was going to say something about it when I heard a thump, followed by a set of thuds. I looked past my brother's shoulder, my mouth dropping open at what I saw.

Three large apes had dropped from the trees and now stood silently, watching us. Dax, deaf to the sounds of their arrival kept looking me over. I finally grabbed his wrists in my hand and nodded to the large figures. He turned and gasped, moving in front of me protectively while helping me to my feet.

All three were chimpanzees. All standing on their hind legs. The one in the middle was tall with dark brown fur and had white paint on his chest and face, looking similar to ribs and a skull. It stared down at us with caution and authority. Obviously the leader of the three. The one to it's right was shorter and thin furred, and a bit pale, but you could easily see the muscles in his arms and chest. The one to the leader's left was the smallest of the three, and seemed younger. It had dark fur and I spotted similar paint on it's chest and face as the other apes, but it's skull paint ended on its upper lip, and it carried a spear, where the other two did not.