20. Who Is Ape (2/2)

eath before she made a bee line into the direction where the injured chimpanzee was.

"hey there, remember me?" ellie asked as she finally reached the two chimpanzees and stood in front of them.

"human," charlie acknowledged, noticing the woman settling next to both tykki and he.

"oh... um yes," ellie replied awkwardly forgetting that she had not told them her name yet. "we need to help your friend," ellie finally said quickly.

the two chimps stared at the woman cautiously before charlie turned to look at tykki whom nodded slowly. with that charlie stood up and slowly helped his friend to stand as well before turning back to face the human woman once more.

"help him," charlie grunted.

"yes, help," ellie answered.

leading the two away, ellie then approached gregoire whom was enjoying his reunion with milo, cinder and rocket. as she approached the group, ellie had lightly tapped the young chimp on the shoulder and asked for the direction of the creek that he had found. curiously gregoire pointed out the direction with a finger before he asked ellie why she wanted to know where it was. the woman smiled down warmly and explained to him that she would need the cold water in order to help their injured friend and with that gregoire quickly understood. instead of just letting her find it herself, the young chimpanzee decided to show her the way instead and lead ellie along with charlie and tykki to where the creek bed was.

as soon as they had come across the still placid stream, ellie informed tykki to slip his injured hands into the cold water. when asked why by the other chimpanzee she

iefly explained that it would help with the swelling as well as hopefully numb the ape's fingers so that the ordeal would be less painful. without arguing, tykki hesitantly put his hands into the cold water and once he did he felt the immediate effects. within just a few minutes the constant pain that was radiating through his hands had dulled slightly.

once the chimp had done what she had asked, ellie turned around to look down at gregoire whom was watching the other two apes curiously. placing a hand onto the young ape's back she quietly thanked gregoire for showing her the way and asked him to go on back to the others. when the young chimp had asked why, ellie simply told the young ape that he should not be here when she helps the other ape. hesitantly, gregoire looked back and forth from the apes and to ellie before deciding to do what his teacher had said. turning around slowly, gregoire then walked back to the rest of the troops quietly.

while charlie watched tykki place his hands into the freezing water the bigger chimp turned and looked up when the human woman walked up to them. charlie watched as the woman looked around for a moment picked up something nearby and returned to him, handing him a piece of wood.

"what. this?" charlie asked as he accepted the small wood piece, twisting it around within his hands curiously.

"i want you to give that to him, let him bite onto it when we begin alright? it will help," ellie spoke softly.

help? how was this going to help tykki's situation if he were to bite on it? humans sometimes are strange in their methods of curing but they work nonetheless. so instead of questioning the woman more, charlie simply nodded at her.

"human?" charlie spoke out to the woman as she walked away, causing her to stop a

uptly and turn back around towards him. "charlie. name is. charlie," he said softly.

"nice to meet you charlie, i'm ellie," ellie responded, glad that the chimpanzee was willing to offer his name to her and she vice versa.

with that greeting between the both of them ellie left the two chimpanzees and walked on back to where malcolm was as he came on over to greet them.

"how are they doing?" malcolm asked.

"i'm having that chimpanzee try to numb his hand first before we do anything," ellie responded.

"you ready?" malcolm asked as he stood next to wife.

"just about... i..." ellie started as she held her equipment close towards her.

"you'll be fine ellie, i believe in you. also i'll be helping as well so you're not alone on this," malcolm said as he held onto the woman standing next to him.

"thank you malcolm," ellie responded before taking a deep

eath. "alright here it goes," she whispered as she approached the two chimps.

after explaining to the two chimps of what she was going to do, ellie waited patiently for the two apes before the wounded one agreed with a grunt.

"it will hurt... a lot," ellie warned.

"as long. as it. helps," tykki responded trying to sound

ave but came out as a whimper instead.

"you will be fine. trust," malcolm spoke softly as he knelt besides the wounded ape.

"trust," charlie repeated after the man before turning to face tykki.

after a second more or so, charlie finally gave the piece of wood to tykki and asked him to bite onto it. after that he drew his hands out of the water and presented them to the human woman who looked it over as the man flashed the flash light's beam. after lightly touching the now less swollen areas, ellie finally figures out on how to handle the injured appendages and looked into the wounded ape's eyes.

"ready?" ellie asked gaining a hesitant whimper and head nod back. "okay, i will count to three okay? and when i am done counting, i am going to pop your finger back into place," ellie spoke and signed at the same time so that the chimp understood as she slowly wrapped her hand around one of the fingers.

"one... two... three!"

...

"what are they doing?" milo asked in a hushed tone as gregoire gradually returned to the group.

"they are helping that other chimpanzee with his...

oken fingers," gregoire informed as he glanced back the way he had came.

when gregoire had explained to them what ellie and malcolm were doing both milo and cinder had taken each others hand. they both had just learned about the violent ways the ape captors were treating their own and it was rather shocking. just then everyone jumped slightly when they heard a painful wail which was quickly silenced thereafter.

"it must be very painful?" michael said slowly as he rubbed his hands together after hearing that scream.

"of course it is, we saw what uncle nickles did to him," ndume responded with a shudder as another scream erupted only to be silence once more.

"did any of you see rain?" rocket asked hopefully as he approached the small group of apes.

"yeah where is rain?" cinder asked as well, hoping that they others had seen him.

"no uncle... cinder... we have not," gregoire responded while letting his head hang low.

upon hearing the reply, rocket couldn't help but let his shoulders fall a little. he shuddered at the thought of what might have happened to his son. the last time he had spoken to the adolescent bonobo was around mid morning and that did not end well for the both of them. looking back up at the starry sky, rocket wondered if rain was captured and if not, actually somewhere safe. he hoped that it was the latter and he looked back down at gregoire whom had answered him.

"thank you. now. you all. rest," he ordered knowing for sure that they must all be tired before taking off.

"uncle rocket?" michael and ndume said aloud at the same time, halting the older chimp in his tracks. "is our father... safe?" they asked while also gaining gregoire's attention whom looked up at rocket expectantly as well.

"yes... for now. get some sleep. we will. talk more. in the morning," rocket responded as he rubbed the two young gorillas on the head as he left them.

as he walked on by, rocket noticed that gregoire was shaking slightly and he gently placed a knuckled finger under the younger chimp's chin and tilted his face up.

"do not worry. we will. save them," rocket told the young ape whom quickly rubbed at his eyes with the back of his arms.

"promise uncle rocket?" gregoire asked with a sniff as he rubbed at his eyes trying to not worry about his parents.

"i promise," rocket responded as he pulled the young ape into a hug.

after that rocket released his hold on gregoire and picked out a small spot at the edge of the group and made a nest there. heaving out a sigh, rocket made himself comfortable and let his eyes wander up towards the stars as his thoughts raced across his mind over what had happened. letting his eyes fall back down onto the group of apes around him, rocket spotted his little girl cuddling cozily with milo. for some reason rocket could not help as a frown etched itself onto his lips but decided to not think more on it as he decided to close his eyes and let his tired body relax as sleep took over.

...

blue-eyes ascended a rather large redwood tree, perching himself on top of a

anch that stuck out and casually held onto a smaller one just right over his head. his sky colored hues scanned the ever flowing sea of trees beneath him, planning a safe path that both he and rain could tread on safely. as it was still rather early in the morning the sky was very dark and the paths were hard to make out but blue-eyes managed. he himself had woken up a bit earlier than expected but it worked out as it gave him the much needed time to decide on their next course of action as well as give him time to think on other things.

while sitting upon that

anch, blue-eyes couldn't help but remember rain's words yesterday evening. the younger ape had sounded so lost and scared when he had spilled his emotions out towards him. it made complete sense though, it was not everyday that one learns of a particular parent's past and from it finally come to understand why many others will hate you for what that single parent had done. blue-eyes heaved out a tired

eath, closing his eyes as he tried to wonder what the young ape was going through. he was fortunate to be born under caesar who is wise, powerful and a great leader among the apes. however that does not mean that he was still given free reign as he himself had to live under his father's shadow but eventually grew out of it. blue-eyes though could not imagine how it was for rain his little

other was born from an ape who had lied and wounded the apes those many winters ago.

opening up his sky colored hues, blue-eyes knows one thing for sure. he was going to be there for rain when the young ape needs him. blue-eyes learned from his father that koba had grown up in hate and fear from the humans and that is why he acted out the way he did. so feeling that it was his responsibility to not repeat the past, blue-eyes was going to be there for rain. to guide the young ape so that he may not follow his father's tragic path. this was the least he could do for koba, for all the good times koba had done for both him and ash... even though in the end he had hurt them both.

with a sad smile, blue-eyes scanned the pathways again, picking one out before silently descending the tree he was in. as he made his way back to where the cabin was, blue-eyes took a moment to gather some needed provisions for both he and rain. while he gathered food blue-eyes had let his thoughts wander off again, thinking about his family that must be worried sick about him. not just his family but rain's as well, knowing that rocket was rather very protective of his own family especially after what had happened to ash... blue-eyes just hoped that everyone was doing alright in his time of absence and with that he finished gathering what he had needed and proceeded to go back to the cabin.

opening the door slowly, blue-eyes took a peek inside of the wooden house and saw that rain had not woken up yet. quite relieved to see that the young ape was still asleep, blue-eyes silently walked on over to where rain was laying and placed the provisions atop of the coffee table. sitting himself onto the ground next to the sleeping ape, blue-eyes leaned back onto the couch and sighed quietly to himself.

"are you okay?" a voice spoke out softly, causing sky colored hues to turn around to meet up with stormy gray ones.

"did i wake you?" blue-eyes questioned in a apologetic manner.

rain slowly shook his head side to side as he sat up on the couch, opening his mouth in a wide yawn, closing it followed by a series of slow smacks. upon seeing the younger ape's display blue-eyes couldn't help himself as he let out a small chuckle, seeing how similar both rain and rocket were, especially when they wake up after a long rest.

"what is so funny?" the young bonobo questioned when he took notice of the older chimp letting out a snicker at him.

"it is nothing, come i got us some food," blue-eyes signed back as he reached on over, picked out a few greens, nuts and berries then passed them on over to the younger ape.

"thank... you," rain thanked blue-eyes whom only grunted in acknowledgment as he helped himself to a few morsels.

as the two ate in silence, rain couldn't help but wonder what his... family were doing at the moment, if he could even call them that.

"after we are done. we are going to go back home," blue-eyes informed as he popped a berry into his mouth.

"i thought it was not safe?" rain asked as he slowly chewed his piece of wild lettuce.

"yes but we are not safe out here as well," blue-eyes signed as he finished his meal and stood back up, turning around to look down at rain. "we will be a lot safer with our families," he finished.

family... rain repeated those words within his mind over and over again. however he simply stared back up at blue-eyes and gave the older chimpanzee a nod.

"yes... we go back to... family," rain gestured.

hopefully this section explains more of why our antagonist is doing the things he is doing and if any reader is still confused please feel free to pm me and i'll get back to you as soon as i can. anyways enjoy the latest chapter and i will hopefully post the next chapter soon.