14. Information (2/2)

"something to show me?" rain asked uncertainly, keeping a wary gaze up at the older gray chimpanzee.

while rubbing the back of his neck, rocket heaved out a heavy sigh before nodding in confirmation to his son's question. "follow me," he gestured before making his way pass the other and leaping off of the tree that contained their home. once on the ground, rocket straightened himself up and thought about what he was doing. looking ahead he knew where he must take the young ape to, to that place that was filled with nothing but sorrow and painful memories. at the sound of a soft thud behind him, rocket closed his eyes and took in a deep

eath, his mouth turning into a slight frown. he still did not like the idea of informing the young bonobo about this but rain now old enough and had the right to know about himself. taking a glance back both he and rain locked eyes for a split second before he rounded himself and led the way.

as they slowly trekked across the giant courtyard, rain kept his eyes at the various apes that frowned in his direction. however they seemed to turn their attention elsewhere once the older chimp in front of him shot them a glare. glancing back at rocket's backside, rain felt a sort of reassurance from the older ape. for once he was glad that he was with his father even though he still had doubts and questions about him. "father?" rain spoke quietly as he kept trailing behind the other, "where... where are we going?"

"you will know... soon," rocket said responded, keeping his pace.

as the two apes slowly made their way across the colony they entered into a section of the village that seemed to be deserted. there were only a few huts that were still standing and just a few apes still lived there. once rocket and rain came into view the apes that made their home there offered the two a sad smile before returning to their huts. rain stuck close to his father and curiously let his gray colored eyes wander about, taking in the almost empty scenery that was laid before him. rocket on the other hand had kept a vigil eye on the younger bonobo and watched how he reacted and how he took it all in. to the older chimp it was hard returning to this closed off area within the colony. sure he's been here many a times but that did not stop the terrible memories from bubbling back up to what had occurred here, in this place. however if he wanted to show rain what the younger ape was seeking then he would need to traverse into this section that was filled with sorrows from the past.

"i... i know this place..." rain whispered quietly, stopping within the middle of the empty trail, letting his gray eyes wander around. he swear he could remember it but could not place a finger on it. eyeing a particular spot on the trail he slowly approached it and stood there. looking back up and around him, rain's eyes widened slightly when he recognized the area from his dreams, except this time it was real. this spot that he was standing on, this was the spot that female ape, his mother... was standing on so long ago. his gaze soon fell upon rocket who was standing a bit away from where he stood and smiled back at him sadly.

"of course you do..." rocket spoke up, causing the younger bonobo to focus his attention at him. "this was your home, after all," he signed to the younger ape.

"my... home?" rain questioned but he did not get the chance to ask more as the older chimp disappeared into one of the small huts that he was standing next to. quickly bounding up to the spot where the older ape stood, rain stopped in front of the small hut and held his

eath. this small house that was made out of straws, tied wood works and mud made stones looked vaguely familiar to him, as if he's been here before. then he remembered his father's words and slowly placed a hand onto the frame of the entrance way. "this... is my home?" he repeated slowly, looking at the hut again in awe. hearing some noises coming from within, rain carefully stepped inside and was surprised to see various objects strewn across the ground,

oken and battered, as if a storm had blown through the area. taking a few steps to the side he picked up one of the

oken wooden plates and gingerly touched the object's surface, feeling the old scratched and imperfections on it. there was a soft shuffling noise to his left and rain rounded his head slowly to see the older gray chimp emerging from another room with what looked like a tan colored bag, held within his hands. the backpack looked old and withered, like the rest of the things around here. besides its tan color, rain could see that the old item also had some faded but dark red stains laced onto it. slowly placing the

oken plate back onto the ground, rain slowly approached the older chimp and curiously glance back up at rocket's face then to the bag within the older ape's arms. "what is that?" rain questioned.

rocket merely let his green eyes fall onto the tan colored backpack within his hands before he let them glance back into rain's gray ones. slowly reaching down to the side of the backpack, rocket slowly pulled at the zipper and let the little noise fill the silent empty home before he reached into it. gradually he pulled out a plastic bag that contained a yellow folder within. unzipping the top of the plastic bag, rocket reached inside and pulled out the yellow folder and merely gazed at the thing. taking in a deep

eath, he glanced back at rain and slowly held the document out towards his son.

rain looked into his father's eyes before he genuinely approached the older ape and took the yellow folded paper into his own hands. feeling the smooth surface of the yellow paper, rain did not know what this thing was and glanced back up at his father. "what... what is it?" he asked cautiously trying to understand why his father was giving him this human item.

"open it and you will see," rocket merely signed back to the youngster as he lowered the backpack onto the ground.

rain however caught the sad look in his father's eyes and wondered why the older ape felt so. what was in this piece of paper that his father had kept hidden from him? what did the older chimp know that he did not? maybe... maybe whatever is in his hands right now might reveal to him the answers that he had been seeking. biting the bottom of his lip, he slowly placed his index finger and thumb at the edge of the yellow folder. with a sigh, rain open up the file within his hands and took a look inside of it.

...

just after the humans had left to go work on the dam did caesar return to the platform along with him mate to discuss of the on goings that has been occurring since his absence. turning to greet each of his fellow friends, caesar look round but did not see rocket in sight. "you know where rocket went off to?" caesar questioned his mate who looked back up at him.

cornelia look slowly up at caesar and offered him a small smile, "i spoke with ari, she told me that rocket was going to be busy today... with rain," she informed caesar gaining an understanding nod in return.

"i... see," caesar replied, proud that rocket was not taking the time to talk to his son rain. he knows that it will be hard on his friend but was glad that he was going through with it and just hopes that everything turns out well for them.

caesar glance up towards maurice and luca as they approached and acknowledged them by giving them a nod to which they returned with a nod of their own.

"good morning caesar, i hope you are doing well," maurice greeted with a warm smile.

"yes thank you my friend, any news on how milo is doing with his condition?" caesar inquired.

"he is doing very well, very strong will, like the both of you," maurice reassured both of the parents, gaining a smile from the both king and queen.

caesar perked up when he heard his name being called and turned to face whomever it was. surprisingly, caesar watched pankun and a few of his fellow apes approaching him, stopping at the edge of the platform. taking a glance at his mate, caesar slowly stood in between cornelia and the other apes who all had spears and other sorts of weapons within their hands, "is something wrong?" caesar asked the other chimp.

pankun and his apes let their fierce eyes glance around at the apes that surrounded the king before he directed his attention back towards caesar. "don't play with me caesar, where are our apes!?" pankun questioned, gaining a confused look from the king.

"i do not understand your question. what is going on here?" caesar asked.

"my! fellow! apes!" pankun bellowed as his own warriors got in a stance as did caesar's.

"i suggest. you lower. your weapons. friends..." luca growled menacingly at the apes with the hostile display.

caesar held up his hand to still his own ape warriors that were nearby and stared down pankun who shot back a glare of his own. letting his hazel colored eyes scan the apes behind pankun, caesar could see that they held a bit of fear within their gaze, surely they were not used to this kind of confrontation. however it seems something was amiss and had provoked pankun and his warriors to act so, desperately. "i do not know what is going on nor am i aware of your situation, pankun, but we can talk this through. call off your warriors and i will call off mine," caesar signed with a stern glare.

clearly seeing that he and his group was outnumbered pankun glanced back at his apes and then glared at the ground for a moment before letting out a low bark for them to lower their weapons. if this would prevent any kind of violence and unnecessary bloodshed then he would rather not risk the lives of his ape

others. glaring back up at caesar, pankun then watched as the king lowered his arm, with his apes sheathing their own weapons.

glancing back down at pankun, caesar's eyes narrowed and thought about what the ape had said earlier, about missing apes within the colony. "now explain to me. what do you mean by missing apes?" he inquired.

...

"kaholo, what is going on?" xuě asked while she followed the male bonobo deeper into the woods, now a fair good distance away from the creek. after a moment of silence, xuě frowned and quickly ran in front of the bigger male and stopped in front of him. "kaholo, i deserve to know. what is going on?" she asked with a concern look etched onto her face, "you are my friend are you not? please," she finished. the bonobo kept his green eyes on the her but exhaled out a deep sigh before glancing down towards the side.

"your father has recently learned that our apes were being taken from their homes ever since we have been here. he's learned that the colony's king might be plotting something and that we could all be in danger. so your father sent me after you and your friends, do not worry though, i have already found the others and had them return back to the safety of our apes," kaholo signed.

"it can't be... why... why would blue-eyes... his father, do that to us?" xuě signed, still confused.

"blue eyes?" kaholo repeated with a confused look on his face before the word clicked in his head and he turned slightly back around, towards the direction of the creek. "so that is his name..." he mused to himself. facing xuě once more he gave her a sympathetic look, "i do not know xuě. all i am doing is

inging you back to your father. even i do not know all the details but i trust your father's judgment to be prepared and safe," he explained.

"maybe i can ask blue-eyes, he might know-" xuě said quickly as she turned back around to go back but was stopped when kaholo took a firm hold of her hand, preventing her from moving any further. turning back around xuě glanced at the bonobo who looked down at her with sympathetic eyes, shaking his head slowly all the while.

"i'm sorry xuě but we cannot trust him right now. he is the son of the colony king correct? no matter how much good you think he is, he might be one of the apes who are kidnapping one of our own," kaholo spoke quietly.

"how can you say that?" xuě exclaimed in shock as she ripped her hand out of the other ape's grasp. "you don't even know him?" she said slowly.

"yes... i don't know him... and you do not know him either," kaholo said slowly, causing xuě to stare up at him with wide eyes. "i know that he saved you... your father as well as the rest of us are grateful for that. we really are... but... we just can't trust him. he could use it to get closer to you and right now you should not let your feelings for him cloud your mind. xuě... he might be using-"

"no... stop," xuě spoke softly as she placed her hands over her heart and closed her eyes at the painful words. "he's not like that, he would never do that. he saved me from that mountain lion... his mother and father are good apes. he's told me about his little

other, saying how playful and how selfless he is, blue-eyes would never kidnap our apes. he and his family would never do that," she whispered aloud turning to look back up at kaholo as several tears flowed down from her eyes.

"xuě..." kaholo voiced as he approached the white chimpanzee, noticing her taking a step back away from him as if she were afraid of him. he felt terrible for his friend but all he wanted to do was to protect her from harm as he himself was not sure what was entirely going on. so in a sense, her reaction towards him hurts quite a lot within his chest but he quickly pushed it aside, seeing to her safety first. suddenly there was a painful blow to the back of his skull, causing him to stagger a bit before he fell forwards onto the ground.

xuě heard kaholo's body drop in front of her in a loud thud, surprising her quite a bit and could feel the sudden change in atmosphere. "kaholo!?" she exclaimed as she ran on over towards her fallen friend however before she could take a few steps, a set of strong arms suddenly wrapped around her mouth and body. taking a glance back, xuě's eyes widen as she saw a giant chimpanzee doing his best to hold her down as she struggled and tried to scream through his strong grip.

"help me here!" the big chimp barked to someone out of sight and let out a yelp as the white chimpanzee had actually bit him in the hand, causing him to let go of her. staring at the teeth marks on his now bloody hand, the chimp glared down at the female ape and struck her down with his good hand.

"hey! careful!" one of the captors said aloud gaining a grunt from the chimpanzee who had attacked the female.

as soon as xuě felt the powerful blow, it sent her flying backwards onto the ground and knocking the wind out of her small body. dazed, she tried to get up haste-fully but there was a sudden heavy weight on top of her and before she could scream out for help, one of the apes had quickly tied something around her mouth, preventing her from crying out. with her heart pounding, xuě tilted her head away from the chimp as he leaned down, baring his fangs all the while.

"hurt me again. and i will hurt you worse," the chimp spat, gaining a shuddering nod from the female.

xuě watched as the menacing looking chimp rose back up onto two legs and signed something to one of his lackeys. within a moment she was pulled to her feet and was roughly put onto the shoulder of one of the chimp captors. looking around quickly xuě saw that kaholo was in no better shape as he was unconscious and was tied down as well, being carried off somewhere. tears started to stream down her eyes as she looked around frantically for any signs of help but nothing came into view. "blue-eyes..." she mumbled through the mouth gag, letting her gaze fall back onto the trail that lead to where the blue eyed chimp was, as she was carried away.