Four in the group, they gripped his arms and legs and beat upon his chest and bit at his shoulders and thighs with their long canines.
Gazda hissed and spat, but he could not break free.
But then Goro had exploded onto the scene. His massive body made the adolescents look like infants as he cuffed the closest about the head and back, before biting Ulok and lifting him over his shoulders.
The silverback threw the screaming adolescent into the trees where he struck and fell to the ground. Gazda was pleased to hear Ulok making fearful baby noises.
Goro chased the others, driving them forward, flailing their backs with a stout branch as they ran screaming into the closest trees.
The king abandoned the chase to glare after them, before rising up on his stout hind legs and beating his enormous chest from which sounded the challenging roar of the victorious bull ape.
His bellow filled the forest and left it silent.
As Gazda struggled to rise, Goro’s large hand wrapped around his arm, hoisting him to his feet.
The night ape squatted before the giant silverback with his eyes focused at the ground.
“Gazda sorry for trouble, Goro,” the battered night ape panted, with palm held out before him.
Goro brushed his hand with massive knuckles and lowered himself to his elbows to look the little one over—only cuts and scrapes on his thin white skin, perhaps some bruises.
The silverback grunted then, puzzled, looking for injuries he had seen on Gazda when first entering the fray.
The night ape knew the worst marks had disappeared already but was reluctant to discuss his rapid healing with the silverback, if he even needed to. How could he presume that the king did not have the same ability?
“You are too small to fight those apes,” Goro rumbled, studying him a moment longer. “And they are too old to fight one so young...” He scowled after the adolescents. They had been frightened, but they did not seem ashamed. “They have no honor!”
“They were teasing my mother,” Gazda said, shivering where he crouched. “Ulok said she is no ape!”
“Do not listen to their teasing. You are different and they fear of you,” Goro assured, then ripping up a handful of grass, and munching he said, “But none can tease you for lack of courage.”
Gazda gave a little pant of pleasure as he slapped the ground in his excitement, and his thin white chest swelled with pride.
“Nor tease you for having too much brains,” Goro barked, and then gave a pant and hoot, before snatching Gazda up by the arm and dangling him before his face.
“You are brave, little Gazda,” the silverback rumbled. “But a smart ape only fights when he must.”
Gazda’s mouth hung open in a grin, and Goro swung the cheeky night ape back and forth, before throwing him into the thorny underbrush where he tumbled end over end.
“You have honored your mother,” Goro had growled, strutting back toward the main group. “That is good. Mothers make the tribe.”
Often after that had Gazda followed Goro through the jungle when he could and always would he mimic the silverback’s behavior, stance and actions for he wished to be like his king and master.
This hero worship drew the attention of the tribe, but it was not unusual for young males to copy the king, and word of Goro’s intervention on the night ape’s behalf soon caused a marked decrease in gossip about Gazda’s parentage.
Old Baho had always been curious about Gazda, but never teased for he had connected the “night ape,” as many had, to the Fur-nose creature. While that made him unnatural by association, it also gave him an excuse for being crazy.
Baho was just glad that Eeda’s foundling had shown no sign of sprouting fur on his nose, or growing a thunder-hand on his arm.
The rest of the tribe had continued to hold Gazda in various degrees of acceptance, from a deep friendship as with his little friend Ooso and the dim-witted Kagoon to outright but now silent, hostility.
For this reason, when Gazda was not with his friends or his mother, he was usually by himself.
Eeda had always told Gazda that the adult blackbacks had to be respected and feared for it was the law of the tribe, but that like any growing male, he should not let anyone dominate him or suffer injustice unnecessarily. She had long felt the uncanny strength flowing in his wiry limbs, and had seen his speed and ferocity—and felt his first bites.
She knew Gazda could take care of himself, and now that he had grown to almost half the size of his contemporaries, she feared that the adult males might try to manipulate him into taking dangerous chances or making challenges he would not survive if they grew fearful of his differences.
Generally, the adult blackbacks kept to themselves, and were not concerned with females or smaller apes because they were focused on the leadership and gauging the time that they might some day take it away from Goro in battle.
So much of this was just talk that it was easy to be lulled into a complacency that no silverback could afford, for in a moment the growing pressure would boil up and a challenge would be issued; then the jungle calm would explode in a primordial battle to the death.
Of this Gazda was aware since he’d been witness when bigger blackbacks had come close to challenging the king for the crown. But so massive was Goro, so impressive his musculature and frame that all rivals had abandoned their displays halfway through before the ignominious conclusion of being chased by the silverback as he bit their flanks and chewed their bloody necks.
The dispirited contenders consoled themselves by saying that a successful challenger would one day come, but Goro was at the peak of his power, and only his son Ulok had any chance of growing so large.
The whole tribe knew that Ulok had been
