Even if it had been a snake tricking him somehow by making its skin like shiny stone, was it still not a very small snake and easy for a hunter like himself to kill?
On impulse he drew the long knife from his belt, and smiling, loomed over the strange thing before he picked it up, marveling as the shining disk spun on the length of interlocking links.
After giving the disk a quick sniff, he glanced at Fur-nose’s body and shrugging slid his weapon away.
Gazda held the loop of links in his hands and thrust his head through before sliding the artifact over his neck and shoulders in the same way it had hung over Fur-nose’s moldering skull and neck. The flat, circular snake’s head rested against Gazda’s well-muscled chest, swinging on its silvery links when he moved.
He did not know the reason for the ornament, but he liked the feeling it gave him to have it there, or to simply have it. For once he was pleased to have something magnify his differences from the tribe of Goro. The thing was splendid, and marvelous and his.
How many apes in the tribe would dare wear a shiny stone serpent around his neck? Who but Gazda would have taken it from the very bones of Fur-nose?
They were different apes, indeed.
He left Fur-nose’s nest, but hesitated before pulling the door closed behind him, making sure he remembered how the curious wooden latch opened by pulling on the length of leather that was threaded through the wall. He tested it a few times and then sprinted to the closest tree where he swung up into the branches.
For the time being, he would keep the provenance of his unusual new possessions to himself, fearing that the blackbacks would grow bold if they knew the night ape had been in the tree-nest, and in his absence molest his new-found lair.
So to hide where he had been that afternoon, Gazda traveled east and left Fur-nose’s lair between himself and the great blue water before turning south again and angling west toward his mother’s call. Her frantic voice still echoed from south of him, well down the sands where she was likely turning over every rock in search of him.
It warmed his heart to know his mother was so protective, but he also felt guilty for causing her dismay. The least he could do was put himself in the way so she could find him herself, and after the initial celebration scold him roundly for being such a foolish son.
He sped along a trail through the high branches until coming to the great forest of shorter fruit trees that bordered the beach for miles and miles. He had used the path so many times before that he could have navigated it through the growing dark with his eyes closed.
His own scent was everywhere. Some hint of it lingered on every tree he passed.
With the night falling fast, Gazda’s powers were returning, and he could soon hear the ocean waves as though they were curling beneath his feet. He could sense also the powerful presence of the great blue water crouching like a monster in the west.
Its waves struck the sand hypnotically, and he soon smelled its salty breath on the warm jungle air.
The night ape was making good time until he came upon a broad swath of trees that had fallen over as if a strong wind had taken them down. This forced him away from the opening and east again to where the forest edged this gap of destruction and led back toward the shore.
Gazda fairly flew around this detour, flinging himself from branch to branch, listening intently for his mother’s call. All the while quite pleased with his accomplishments, happy to have explored Fur-nose’s lair, and proud of his courage and his actions.
He continued forward, leaping from tree to tree, and flitting like a shadow until a thick log three times the length of his body hurtled end over end toward him from of the jungle below.
The night ape contorted his body to escape the whirling missile’s jagged ends, but he was struck across the abdomen.
The impact sent Gazda tumbling through the air into the open space that was littered with broken trees. He glanced off a fallen trunk and cartwheeled over the sandy ground as the flying log exploded into jagged splinters when it struck the ground near him.
As Gazda scrambled to his knees a great cloud of dirt, dust and ruin descended, blinding him; but it did not in any way diminish his other senses, for he immediately felt the earth shake under him as if a great storm approached.
The night ape squinted up into the twilight sky to see Magnuh’s massive black bulk hurtling across the open space toward him.
Gazda shrieked, springing toward the closest trees south of him, realizing as he leapt over the fallen trunks that the bull elephant must have set this trap and now intended to take it to its bloody end.
The night ape growled admiringly despite his damaged body’s cries of pain, for he respected the sly beast’s ingenuity even as Magnuh angled his charge to block Gazda’s path into the trees.
Luckily, the sun had slipped completely past the horizon, and left a purple sky under which the night ape’s nocturnal strength returned in full.
He leapt onto a fallen tree and jumped toward the nearest branch 20 yards distant.
Gazda caught it...but too late, for Magnuh’s long trunk lashed out, curled around the night ape’s left ankle and squeezed.
Pain flashed up Gazda’s leg as his ankle bones shattered, and agony scorched through his mind even as his thoughts flashed to Fur-nose’s shining fang, the long knife in his belt.
The night ape held tight to the branch with his left hand, while with the right a single action drew the flickering blade from its sheath before it bit into the thick hide on the elephant’s trunk.
Magnuh bellowed mightily at this, and recoiled in pain.
Gazda’s leg sprang
