Hi! I get bored easily, so I thought I'd try my luck writing a story. It might be a little

weird though, but here goes nothing...

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Slowly, a small monkey trudged through the undergrowth of the forest that she had been lost in for weeks. Her black converts were scoffed with mud, and there were numerous amounts of leaves in her shoulder length tawny hair. This didn't bother her much though, nothing did these last few days, and she was never a real prep to begin with. A crow cawed overhead.

"Like a desert, just with trees." she mumbled to herself, with what seemed to be a very weak Spanish accent. This was true, because, though there was rain, it was impossible to find anything edible, and the coming winter made it all the harder. Her tailcoat snagged on a bush, and she tugged it loose. She was dressed strangely, clearly seen. She wore a white dress, and over it she wore a short black tailcoat. One of its sleeves was missing, and as a replacement she had used a strip of leather that looked remarkably like chainlike. Staring up at the canopy of trees, she brushed back one of the three long strands of black hair that made up her bangs. She stopped when her hand brushed against the turquoise Indian style headband that she was wearing.

"Darn these things." She said to herself. She thought angrily as the memory of when the zoo she had come from had had to close down do to the unexpected cost of them flashed through her mind. They had been a new invention, some sort of smart helmet of a new design. The zoo had planned to give it to some of their more behaved monkeys. Then there was a sudden drop in stock, and bam, she and her siblings and almost everyone else was thrown off somewhere.

Lost in thought, she hadn't noticed the cruel bear trap in front of her until it was too late. With a pained shriek, the monkey fell to the ground as the trap clamped its jaws around her ankle. Stunned, she laid there for a moment, not hearing the muffled whispers behind her. Finally, she dared to look at the damage that had been done. It could've been worse. At least her ankle wasn't broken, but blood was streaming from the wound, and there was a small amount of rust of the metal, which meant that infection was a looming monster. She tried to pry the jaws apart, but due to fatigue and her small crippled ness, it was no use. She was captive to the horrid beast until someone freed her. She stayed in her position, watching her gray tail flick back and forth, the crooked tip never changing. Her mind ran back to the disease that had rampaged through the zoo not but a year ago, the fever that had robbed her of most of her strength and left two inches off the tip of her tail useless. She shook any thought of her home out of her head. Any memory was heartbreaking in some way. Laying her head on her arms, she let herself fall into inevitable unconsciousness.

She awoke to the sound of a bird's song. Rubbing her eyes, she looked up at the sky, wondering how long she had been dreaming. A dull pain still throbbed where the trap held its lethal grip. Looking behind her, she saw that the gash was still oozing blood, and thin, pale red lines had begun to spindle up her leg. Her head flopped back to the soft earth. It must have rained recently, for dampness was in the air. Closing her eyes, the realization of her position finally truly struck with an almighty blow. Tears slowly began to leak out of her clamped eyelids. It took her a moment to figure out the connection of a twig snapping and the fact someone, our something, was there. She stopped her gentle sobbing instantly, afraid that something besides some birds was alive in these woods, and hungry. Opening one eye ever so slightly, she could make out the form of a... monkey? What was a monkey, especially one wearing yellow pants, doing in an inhospitable place such as this? Out from behind this monkey came two others, all interested in what was captive in the trap, and all wearing helmets! She said a slight prayer to herself. But her glee sharply spun down the toilet as the apes began to converse in monkey. She could understand monkey quite well usually, but her recent predicament had left her quick mind sluggish. But what really upset her was the fact that if these monkeys were as smart as her, they would be speaking in human. Deciding that, even if she couldn't understand much, she might be able to piece together something of interest, she tried to listen on their conversation. The first monkey was speaking.

"What... monkey... should move her... because if Specter..."

"A specter, oh great, just what I need, a haunted woods!" thought the monkey as she continued to half listen, half drift off. Her mind came sharply back to Earth when she heard the words "get leader"

"Of coarse, they must have some sort of leader, what would a band of wily monkeys be doing otherwise? And the leader has to be at least somewhat smarter than the others." She thought, her heart racing. The monkeys left, but she was not discouraged because she new the reason. Her mind started racing through possibilities. Maybe this leader would let her stay, she might not be strong, but she could do many things others couldn't. She fingered the small flute in her pocket lovingly. It was a present from her brother a while ago. She could play it as well as any human, but no one would need a flute-playing monkey. She heard footsteps. Despite herself, she began to breathe faster, aware that she was eating up her reserve of strength. Bad thoughts started to race through her head. "What if he or she is cruel... they could just leave me here to die."

She was aware that her heart was making quite a racket inside her chest when the footsteps stopped, right in front of her. She was facedown, so her field of vision only allowed her to see a pair of large brow hiking boots. She heard more speaking in monkey, but her mind was so weary she couldn't understand a word. She had to know... she had to.

Using all of the energy left within her, she turned her head enough to see, and was staring right at a regal, pure white monkey with a red eye. That was the last thing she saw before blackness enveloped her.

You're probably a little confused so I'll give some explanations. The monkey you're hearing about is called Pinta. (Her siblings are Nina, Santa Maria, and Christopher, can you guess why?) This doesn't have a lot of Ape Escape characters in it yet because it's sort of a prologue, but not quite. This is taking place in Ape Escape 2, right before Specter leaves for the moon base. Speaking of Specter, there'll be a lot more on him, you'll see. Rate... please? I'll get the next chapter up ASAP if you do.