CHAPTER 13 – The Shining Fang
He sheathed the long knife and shifted it from hand to hand, wondering how he could carry it through the trees as he swung.
Impossible! And yet, he knelt by the corpse of Fur-nose again, and studied the long loops of cloth that girded his waist. Yes, the strange creature had carried the long knife within the folds of that belt, but Gazda could tell with a glance that the apparel was too large and long for him and would wrap many times around his body.
An idea struck him, and he leapt to the low platform and drew a skin out from underneath it. After several attempts he managed to cut a long circular strip of leather with his new blade. This he wound three times around his thin waist and then made fast by twisting its overlapping ends together until it stayed cinched.
A moment later, he had thrust the long knife and scabbard through this belt which tightened it the more. Gazda then drew the weapon with a quick flex of his right arm and stood armed for battle in the center of the lair.
He hooted and panted, then sheathed the weapon before slapping the floor with his palms and leaping up and down. The night ape was quite proud of himself.
The great Gazda! He thought, rising erect again, and drawing the long knife from its sheath. None are as great as he! Woe be to any other ape!
Then he groaned worriedly, sheathing his weapon and crouching low, before creeping over to the far wall by Fur-nose where he had noticed a strange thing lurking in the darkening shadow.
A curious twist of hardened stone lay there. Crouching by it and leaning forward upon his knuckles, he saw that it was of a material similar to the long knife—like smooth, shiny stone. This thing was slightly bigger than Gazda’s hand and smelled of lightning when he pressed his nose against it.
A realization struck him.
The night ape jumped back and banged into the door that still hung open on its hinges. Growling fearfully, he leapt into the doorway. The thing on the floor must have been the thunder-hand that old Baho spoke of in his stories, and Gazda kneeled there briefly, paralyzed with fear.
Baho and other apes had seen it flash in the tree-nest before the entrance disappeared. It had been like thunder in mighty Goro’s hands!
This thing?
He looked up and around Fur-nose’s marvelous lair and felt great anxiety. Could this thunder-hand make the entrance disappear again?
The night ape returned to it, face hovering near as his lips pulled away from his sharp fangs when he smiled.
The thunder-hand was unlikely to make the entrance disappear if it were not inside the lair.
Gazda took a deep breath and then with all the speed in his body, he snatched up the otherworldly weapon and leapt outside. The night ape threw it as far as he could.
Thunder-hand glimmered once in the setting sun before it fell into the long grasses and was gone.
Gazda turned to hear a muted sound coming from the south. Out on the open platform, he could recognize his mother’s distant call. She was far down the beach, and had finally missed him. It would take time for her to find his trail and discover where he had turned from the tribe to seek out Fur-nose’s lair.
Strength suddenly surged through his body and he realized that he had stayed far too long. The sun was setting out beyond the great blue water and night was coming. He had to return to the tribe before the full jungle darkness closed upon him. He would be safer thus, and he could guard the others also.
He entered the tree-nest again and stood before the corpse of Fur-nose. Gazda sniffed the stuffy air, but the stink of decay had departed with the open door. The night ape did not think to throw the skeleton away. There was no blood or meat in it, so being nothing more than dry bones, the remains held little interest for him.
Again his mother’s call came from the distance. She was still very far away but she was moving north.
Gazda had to go, but his mind was already set on something. The night ape would make use of the tree-nest and call it his own for there was something comforting and secure about it that appealed to him.
With Fur-nose long dead this could be Gazda’s lair, and he could come to it when he wished to be alone, for all those years of alienation had taught him to crave solitude.
He would do that, but first he needed to answer his mother...
Then just as he looked away from the body, something else caught his eye. A silvery flicker came up from under the long, rotten hair that laid over Fur-nose’s chest. Shifting closer, the night ape saw a silver line looped around the corpse’s neck and shoulders.
Gazda hurried over to pry the thing off as Eeda’s desperate cries echoed in his powerful ears.
The silver line was made of many small bits of shining stone, round and interlocking, no bigger than bugs, and as he pulled it over Fur-nose’s head, a circular piece of hard metallic stone came free of the corpse’s mangled chest.
Holding the pendant up to his face, Gazda saw an image set on the disk that took him a moment to recognize: a tapered head and long, coiling neck.
He cried out fearfully and the odd artifact clattered to the floor. Kneeling over it, Gazda could see on the disk a long neck and the cold flat head of a snake. It was like the giant pythons that lived in the jungle and hunted apes.
Gazda studied the hard links for movement, and watched the round disk for a flicking forked tongue, before something within him frowned at his own fear.
It was
