The king had wasted no time calling the tribe together and leading them through the jungle at a slow and steady pace.
The journey lasted for much shifting of the shadows that the rising sun sent down through the branches, but the apes arrived finally at the broad, flat space by the Two Trees. The land there was open to the blue sky, and the sun was high over them warming the tall grasses and the banana trees that grew along the eastern edge of the clearing.
There Goro ordered the group to feed after he, Baho and his loyal blackbacks spaced themselves evenly around the others to stand watch for predators and bone-faces while they ate.
The Bakwaniri had not attacked the tribe since the incident that led to Eeda’s death, and while the king thought the bone-faces strange, he considered them less a threat than hungry leopards.
Omag, Ulok and the aging queens came late to this place, followed by nine young blackbacks, so when they dined it was on green fruit passed over by the others. The late-comers had doubtless been slowed by the crippled ape’s labored gait.
The wasting disease had twisted Sip-sip’s back until a huge hump of muscle quivered between his shoulders, set slightly higher than his head; and his right arm had shortened so much that he depended entirely upon the axe-head when moving on the ground.
Many apes still joked about “Sip-sip’s baby” but as walking grew more difficult for Omag, the tribe saw that the crippled ape needed the device for mobility...or so they thought.
Omag’s protégé, Ulok, was unhappy that his late arrival meant he had to eat unripe fruit, and he grumbled his displeasure to his companions and blackback comrades, before turning to the entire tribe and voicing his ire most vociferously.
This year, Ulok’s broad muscular back had grown a dappling of silver fur to match the bright bands at his shoulders and hips, and many in the tribe were growing anxious as they anticipated a challenge to Goro’s reign.
Such speculation was all that the females and blackbacks could talk about when grooming or tending to their daily needs. The young bull ape was massive, and had grown to look so much like Goro that he was sometimes mistaken for the king.
After growling his complaint, Ulok postured and pumped up the swelling muscles that rippled beneath his bristling silver mane. The bull ape glared across the clearing to where Goro sat with his queens, before quite deliberately raking at the earth with his rigid hands and snorting loudly.
A palpable shudder quivered over the tribe as Omag rose from where he sat with the aging queens and limped over to Ulok.
Sip-sip stood upright, swaying before his enormous young ward, and then with great flourish, he bowed so low over his cane that his ragged forehead scraped against the grasses.
And a gasp went through the clearing.
Sip-sip’s behavior was an outrage, for none but the king could be shown this sign of respect before the tribe.
Goro had watched this display from where he lay in the grass with his queens about him grooming. Nearby his young sons rolled and played.
The silverback grunted powerfully and the females called the infants close before moving away toward the forest at the clearing’s edge. Goro rose up on all fours, his chest rumbling deeply and threateningly.
Baho moved near Goro and with him came six of his blackback allies—some of them his sons. The combined darkness of their fur and staggering mass of their muscle dominated that side of the clearing. The message was obvious to the blackbacks gathered near Ulok. If there was a challenge to come, then none but Goro and Ulok could settle it.
At that same moment, other blackbacks could be seen moving along the edge of the clearing toward Ulok.
“Something would be settled that day—we all knew,” Kagoon croaked and coughed. Gazda held the injured ape and pressed his hands against the wounds that clustered at his friend’s shoulders and neck. “The tribe was split.”
This division had existed for their entire lives. Many apes had always believed that Goro was weak because he showed mercy, while the recipients of his mercy, like old Baho, believed that the quality was his strength.
Omag and the aging queens had always been vocal about their thoughts on the subject and all knew that they had passed along their contempt to young Ulok.
The king was soft, they said, and did not act like an ape, or respect tribal law.
“Goro growled and showed his fighting fangs to Ulok then,” Kagoon continued softly, the images flickering through Gazda’s mind. “But his eyes—they burned upon Omag.”
Goro swayed in place and barked fiercely. The action set his mountainous muscles quaking and he yawned to show his enormous fighting fangs, giving Ulok a moment to reconsider whether he was making a mistake. The challenge could still be forgotten; could still be forgiven.
But Ulok only glared and raked at the ground with his claws!
Goro’s eyes flared angrily as he stamped his feet and reached out to tear a thick sapling up by the roots. The silverback howled repeatedly as he swung the tree back and forth, voice rising in pitch and fury as he rocked from side to side.
The insolent Ulok looked away and down at Omag, to see the aging queens glancing up from where they laid on their bellies by the crippled ape.
And with that Ulok’s lips rolled back from his fighting fangs, and with a terrible roar he charged at King Goro, his mighty fists tearing up rocks and plants as he pounded forward.
The king was taken aback at this flouting of tradition, for ape custom regarding challenges demanded long displays and several mock charges.
But Goro was no coward so he leapt forward, thundering across the open space, anvil-like head lowered, and long canines snapping—a battering ram of muscle and fury.
The giants crashed head to head almost in the center of the clearing, and a great, meaty whump resounded from
