Surviving

Chapter 1

You had been hunting for ages. It had been a little past dawn when you set out and now the shadows were beginning to lengthen again. You had been so determined to catch something that you had ignored all the rules you had put in place for yourself and had ventured further into the forest than you had ever gone before. Still you had found nothing. You weren't even 100% sure which way you needed to go to get back to your hut. You smiled at the irony. Just when you had decided to survive it seemed you would die, alone in the forest with night falling and no idea where you were or how to get back.
Pathetic.
A noise in the bushes pulled you from your thoughts. For a second your heart leapt, thinking it was a deer or something just as edible but a second later you realised your mistake. The noises were too subtle, too stealthy to be made by a deer. This sounded like something dangerous, something...predatory. As you watched, a glint of gold fur caught your attention. Cougar. For a moment your heart froze until you realised it was moving away from you. You quickly jumped into the nearest tree, scaling it with a silent ease born of long practise. From your vantage point you could see the cougar much more clearly. It was obvious it was hunting something and, without thinking, you began to follow it. If it were hunting elk, there would be more. You would eat well tonight.
So caught up in your thoughts as you were, it took you a moment to realise the cougar had stopped. You only had to look past it to see why. The clearing just in front of where the cougar crouched was filled with monkeys. No, not monkeys, apes. But they didn't look like ordinary apes. Their fur was painted with a sort of white paste and they held crudely made spears. You watched in fascination as they communicated with each other using a series of grunts, whoops and hand gestures. The atmosphere seemed almost jovial. In a second you realised why. One of the apes reached down and hefted something onto its shoulders. An elk. This was a hunting party.
The apes began to move out and your attention suddenly snapped back to the cougar. Its haunches were up and it began to knead the ground with its paws. A sure sign it was about to pounce. You quickly found its target. An ape was standing close to the tree-line, his back to you and the cougar. Without realising it, your hand went to your back, unslinging your bow and knocking an arrow on the string. The next few seconds seemed to happen in slow motion. You watched as the cougar leapt, silently marvelling at its power and grace. Its face was set in a ferocious snarl, claws unsheathed as it zeroed in on its target. You heard the panicked shrieks of the other apes as they realised what was happening. You saw the targeted ape stiffen suddenly, turning slightly to watch as his death approached. You felt rather than saw your arrow leave your bow and watched as it curled in an arc, zeroing in on your own target. There was a solid thock as it met flesh and the cougar let out a roar, its momentum sending its body crashing into the ape, its face frozen in an eternal snarl, exposed claws now harmless in death. For a second, the ape beneath it was still, as if it couldn't believe it was still alive. As the rest of the apes swarmed around it, you began to back away, trying to place the tree trunk between yourself and the clearing before any of the apes spotted you. It seemed you weren't quick enough as you felt eyes on you and looked up to see a scarred ape glaring at you from a tree not far from yours. Forcing yourself to be calm, you began to back away and slowly swing yourself through the trees. Once you had gone about 100 meters you stopped and peered behind you. None of them had followed.
You let out a sigh of relief but quickly froze as you heard urgent hooting behind you. The scarred one must have alerted the others. "Damn" you muttered, beginning to swing in earnest. You could hear the apes behind you and you forced yourself on to greater speeds. Tiny branches whipped your face, leaving shallow cuts on any piece of exposed skin. You ignored the ache in your arms, pushing yourself to go faster but you could hear the apes getting closer and see dark shapes in your peripheral vision. You knew you had lost, there was no way you could outswing an ape, but you still pushed on with sheer, petty stubbornness. You had just swung yourself out over a wide gap into the next tree when you realised your mistake. Two apes are already waiting for you. You tried to scramble past them, but one reached out, pulling you to his chest, his arm around you like a steel band. You growled angrily and tried to struggle but it was pointless. Clutching you with one arm, the ape began to swing into the next tree. You frowned, this would never work. The ape holding you seemed to agree and suddenly you felt yourself being flung through the air. Your heart leapt to your throat and for a dizzying moment you thought he had just hurled you to the ground, then, with a jolt, you found yourself in the arms of another ape. Unfortunately, you were only there for a second before you found yourself flying through the air again. The wild race through the treetops seemed to go on forever and when you were finally placed on the ground, you fell over, too dizzy to stand properly. You stayed crouched on the ground for a while, shaking your head and blinking, trying to get your eyes to refocus and stomach to resettle. You groaned, sick and humiliated and hunched over further, willing yourself fervently not to throw up.
Finally you looked up. To your surprise it seemed you hadn't been taken back to the clearing. Instead, you were currently in the middle of what seemed to be the ape's home. Forgetting you were surrounded by more than 100 apes whose intentions were, as of yet, about as clear as mud, you pushed yourself off the ground and looked around you in awe.
The ape village was in the middle of a clearing with sharpened stakes around the outside, acting as a fence. There was a large stone in the middle of the clearing with a strange symbol carved into it. It almost looked like a star with a circle round it. Across to one side was a large, vertical, flat rock that looked, and obviously served, as a chalkboard, as, to your amazement, you could make out words written on it. However, the one thing that caught your attention was the houses. Each one was attached to the top of a tree with logs sticking out down the length of it to act as stairs.
Finally, you realised the apes had been staring at you as you gawked at their home. You dropped your eyes quickly, wondering what they wanted with you.
Your unasked question was soon answered as the apes in front of you moved to the side, parting to make way for an ape you could only assume was the leader. He was tall for a chimp and walked upright in a surprisingly human manner. You could almost feel the power radiating off him. He stopped just in front of you and glared down at you, brows furrowed, lips pressed tight. He breathed heavily through his nose then opened his mouth and spoke.
"Why. You. Here?"
Your eyes widened in amazement and your mouth dropped open. In the back of your mind you knew you shouldn't be so surprised. If these apes were smart enough to build a village, hunt elk with spears and write words, they were probably smart enough to speak as well. However, although you could acknowledge the reasoning, your brain seemed to have gone into shock at hearing something you had only ever regarded as an animal, speak. To you.
Finally your brain unfroze as his words sunk into your conscience and, with it, a sudden anger. He wanted to know why you were here. After you had just saved one of his apes and been thrown around like unwanted baggage for it all the way here. You glared up at him, eyes flashing angrily.
"Well I'm not really sure" you said angrily "Maybe it has something to do with the fact I saved one of your apes and the rest of them decided to thank me by using me as a human pass ball" You weren't sure if any of them would understand the references or the sarcasm but you hoped they could see your anger. Because you were angry. Very angry. The leader looked at you, slightly surprised at your outburst but you could've sworn you saw his mouth twitch in a smile before he turned away. To your surprise he used sign language to communicate with the other apes. You were slightly rusty so It took you a while to decode what he had said.
"Is this true?"
You bristled slightly at his distrust but watched as one of the apes stepped forward. You recognised him as the one you had saved from the cougar.
"It is true, Caesar" he signed "None of us saw the cougar until it was too late" he looked at you with something close to gratitude in his eyes "She shot the cougar with her bow and arrow. It was dead before it touched me" the ape leader, Caesar, looked back at you, a new expression in his eyes. If you didn't know better, you might've thought it something close to respect.
"And then?" he signed.
"Koba called the apes to get her. She can swing almost as well as us and she led them on for a while before they caught her" he signed back, huffing a little in what you assumed was the equivalent of a laugh. Caesar looked at you again, amusement shining in his eyes. He watched you thoughtfully for a moment.
"She will stay here for now, until we know what her intentions are" he signed finally "She will stay with Koba as he seemed so ready to bring her in" From the crowd came a growl of protest. Caesar turned towards the noise. You couldn't see who he was looking at, but he seemed to be having a stare down with another ape. It seemed he won as he finally turned away and walked off, the crowd dispersing as he went.
Finally you found yourself face to face with Scarface. He glared at you for a while then turned and walked off, jerking his head angrily as If he expected you to follow. You pressed down a fission of fear as you followed him through the village. Scarface was Koba.

Finally Koba stopped in front of a large house. He barely acknowledged you as he began to climb the ladder, looking down at you almost mockingly from above, as if daring you to come up. You glared back at him and began to climb. You weren't sure if he thought you should be scared of the climb or him, but you were determined not to show fear of either. You quickly caught up to him and he glanced at you, his scowl slipping into something close to surprise and, dare you say it, a touch of respect. Then he turned away and you could no longer see his face. Entering the hut he spoke for the first time. "Human take nest, Koba take floor" he said. You glanced at him in surprise, then shook your head.

"The nest is yours" you said "I'll take the floor" Koba's scowl deepened.

"Human too fragile for floor. Koba tough, human not. Human take nest" You crossed your arms, tilting your chin up stubbornly.

"No" you said. Koba looked at you and an unreadable expression crossed his face. Then his eyes hardened, and he was in front of you. Before you knew what was happening, his arms were around you and you were dumped unceremoniously into the nest. His head peered over the side, looking down at you and you swore you detected a smugness in his eyes.

"Human. Nest" he said. You looked up at him, wincing slightly.

"Note taken" you replied, voice strangled. He grunted and, as he moved off, you were sure you saw a smile on his face and heard a huff of laughter.