Eeda moved away from the king with her eyes set lovingly upon the small red eyes in the cave for she saw now that a little infant hid in the shadows. Pale it was, and strangely formed, but it tipped its head left and right to mirror Eeda’s own curiosity. The others had noticed her movement and their nostrils flared as they realized what had caught her attention.
Goro growled at this new scent, and old Baho coughed repetitively as he moved into place at the silverback’s side where together, their noses twitched at the strange smell.
As Eeda drew near, she saw that the little infant’s limbs were white and trembling as with cold, and then her breath left her with excitement. She threw dead Kado’s corpse aside and leapt toward the cave in the wall, and reaching in, she swept the creature from its perch and into her embrace.
Warmth filled her powerful breast and caught at her throat as the creature’s tiny fingers twined in her fur.
Goro grumbled and turned to challenge her, but Eeda answered him fiercely. She shrieked, and snapped her teeth at the silverback with her shoulders half-turned to him, jealously guarding the infant with her body. Screaming she leapt away, first climbing over the shoulders and backs of Goro’s surprised lieutenants, and then outside rushing toward the jungle through the long grasses.
The assembled blackbacks snorted uncomfortably and showed their fangs at yet another breech in etiquette in Goro’s presence, but all of them were too unsettled by the thunder-hand’s proximity to challenge the disrespectful female who was already out of their reach.
Goro shook his head at Eeda’s histrionics and followed his thoughts back to the dangerous tool lying in his dead enemy’s lap. He reached out with his massive fingers to pluck it from Fur-nose’s hand.
Something in its precarious placement, and in the clumsy way the silverback handled the hard thing caused the device to suddenly clink loudly, and thunder-hand roared with a deafening crash. Flash and smoke blinded the terrified apes in the crowded lair.
Goro dropped the thunder-hand on the floor and turned with his blackbacks to charge out of the tree-nest as a mob.
And somehow, in the mad scramble to escape, the flat panel that hung in the doorway was batted and knocked about so hard that it swung shut.
As the last frightened ape leapt to safety, the door hit the frame hard enough to throw the latch and forever lock them out.
Eeda climbed high into the jungle canopy with her strange discovery until she came to a crossing of stout branches where she quickly built a nest of woven twigs and leaves that she lined with blankets of hanging moss.
The little white ape—for so she thought of him—seemed in form and shape similar to her, with the same number of arms and legs. Male he was, and possessed of a strong grip despite his fragile look.
She settled onto her comfortable bed, and on her back gazed up admiringly at the infant as his great round head rolled against her hairy chest, his sharp fangs gleaming when he opened his mouth wide to cry and fuss.
Eeda shifted positions, elevating her head and shoulders so that she could look down into his eyes. No longer red there in the daylight; they were dark. She could barely contain her excitement, panting and hooting as she cradled the foundling in her arms.
She caught a scent of blood then, so pressed her nose and mouth tight against his belly, legs and body to see if he was injured.
“Eek—eek!” the infant chortled, and Eeda was pleased that her snuffling inspection had brought a squeaky giggle from his bony chest. Panting and nodding, Eeda shared the laughter as her mind registered the scent of blood on his breath and thin bare skin. Musty he seemed, and she thought of how the poor thing had been closed up in a cave in the tree-nest with the rotting Fur-nose.
His eyes caught hers again and gleamed as they focused. A red heat grew in the orbs all of a sudden, and Eeda’s breath caught as the jungle went quiet all around her. The eyes probed, and the female’s slowing heartbeat grew loud in her ears. Lips going slack, she moved her face toward the infant’s until a wind came up to rock her nest, and she hooted joyfully before licking the little thing’s cheeks and neck.
Gazda. The name had popped into her mind as her eyes were locked on the white ape’s little face.
“Gazda,” Eeda repeated as she panted at the infant’s red smile, before her ridged brow furrowed, wondering at the source and meaning of the word.
She coughed and hooted happily then, pointed at her own chest with a sturdy thumb.
“Eeda,” she told her new baby in introduction, lifting him then, and pressing his bright red lips to her swollen breast. She winced as the little thing hungrily pricked the flesh around her nipple with his sharp teeth.
But before she could react to the minor pain, a calm slipped over her, and leaning back she gazed at the bright pink mixture that dripped from the baby’s busy mouth.
“Gazda,” she said in the guttural way of her folk, thinking that the name fit well enough. The speech of the apes consisted of crude words and sounds, but much of it was couched in body language, sign and gesture.
If she said “Ga” and opened the fingers of either hand, that indicated “bird” to another ape. The word “zeda” when linked to a stamping foot meant “snake” to her kind, so that must have been why she had thought of the name. One look at the odd little fellow made her think of birds and snakes, because Gazda had the long skinny legs of a bird and the hairless skin of a snake.
He had no fur, save for the dark covering upon his head.
“Gazda,” she repeated, breathing calmly to settle back into her leafy nest. Suddenly, Gazda made
