But the night ape’s eyes were drawn back to the platform that supported the dried out corpse and kept it upright. It was made of sticks, and there beside it was another structure of similar design, though it was taller and upon it rested artifacts of unknown function.
However, this was nothing compared to the mysterious creature that sat so near. Fur-nose was a monster from legend, but there was no life left in him.
Gritting his teeth to steady his nerve, Gazda took a step closer and squatted again to better investigate the bones. These were hidden in part by thin material made from a crosshatch of threads like the skin that covered the lair.
This substance was rotten and torn, but clung in tatters to the skeletal shoulders and followed the bones in the legs until they disappeared in leathery containers that held the feet.
The night ape hooted sadly, for this closer observation made it plain from the skeletal arrangement that it was as Baho had hinted: Fur-nose would have resembled Gazda in size, shape and construction.
He reached up to feel his own ribs, while counting those on the skeleton’s chest with his eyes.
The night ape already knew that he was different from Goro’s tribe, but what could this mean? Fur-nose had legs as long like Gazda’s, and his arms were short like the night ape’s, too—their arrangement similar but opposite to the anthropoid ape’s—and here they shared that feature.
The skull’s face was flat, just as Gazda’s face was flat, and the teeth were set in the jaw the same, though the night ape’s fangs were longer and sharper.
Gazda briefly contemplated the possibility that Fur-nose had mated with his mother Eeda. He had heard about this happening with the other she-apes, when rogue males might secretly approach the tribe and mate with them. Had Fur-nose done the same?
That would answer many of the questions that had plagued Gazda and made him the target of such derision. He pondered the notion, and wondered if he would ask her. If not Fur-nose then perhaps the night ape’s father was one from the strange dead creature’s tribe.
Gazda moved closer, sniffing at the air. The body smelled little different from the bodies of dead apes, what could that mean? Was it possible that he like Gazda were just ugly apes? The skeletal differences suggested something else, but the similarities were undeniable.
Unless Fur-nose and Gazda were of a different family than Goro’s but still apes, in the way the leopard was different from the lion.
That made some sense to him, though it would never tell him what he was.
The night ape backed toward the door where he could again lower himself over the arrangement of small bones that littered the floor. They were proof that the apes had come into Fur-nose’s tree-nest, but none had mentioned an infant in the tale. Goro would never allow such a thing in the company of blackbacks, and on an expedition of this sort, no mother and babe would be allowed.
He growled angrily. Unless Fur-nose had killed the baby ape for his own ends—to eat the meat perhaps? Or like Gazda had the stranger similar tastes and murdered the infant for its blood?
Gazda shifted back on his haunches so he could see the two sets of remains, and as he studied them, he reached distractedly for a lock of black hair that hung from his temple. He thrust the end this between his sharp teeth and chewed, twisting it around in his mouth as his mind ran over the mystery.
Then his attention shifted to the lair again. To the right of Fur-nose’s perch were similar structures. The first was taller and stood against the wall. Gazda lifted himself to peer at the top.
Such strange items there: a curious blob of something that looked like chewed fruit but smelled of lightning strikes; there were sheets of thin, pale, skin-like material that sat in dust-covered piles; and by that was a strange knobby stone that was slightly glossy and filled with black dirt.
At the foot of this taller platform, he saw a scattering of small wooden sticks that smelled of ash and charcoal, and on the floor by them a very strange green stone twice the length of his hand.
He moaned fearfully when he moved closer to the tapered rock, and realized he could see completely through its hard skin at certain angles.
Gazda rose again to move past that taller structure to where it touched up against another thing quite like it, but which was shorter and much, much wider. It had stout legs that held up a broad platform covered with sheets of a flexible material that was soft to the touch.
Hooting quietly, he panted at the pleasing texture, and then grunted his amazement as his eye shifted up to the wall over it, and on from there to the corner.
There he recognized the skulls and horns and furs of jungle animals that Gazda had hunted himself. There the skin of a bushbaby and monkey—further on the horns of a bushbuck and tusks of a pig. He panted happily and tapped lightly upon the wall under them and each time he did, fine debris rained down from the ceiling.
Gazda lifted a hand to catch some of it and he noticed that the cascading particles flared to life and shone as they passed through yellow light that leeched past a vine-covered opening in the wall.
Coughing and nodding in understanding, he rose up to his full height and peered out. Indeed, the opening was covered by vines, and also by thin hardwood sticks that had been placed in an interwoven arrangement over it.
Vines had grown through the mesh, and the night ape picked a piece off and chewed it in place of his hair. Gazda squinted out into the light again, and realized he was looking toward the jungle on the south. On impulse he flattened himself against the wall, and angled his eyes right, so he could see—indeed, he
