Out in the distance, a baby's cry could be heard from the path the band of Mangani were traveling on. Kara, a female of the tribe, though she had imagined it at first, but the cry had echoed again, and she knew she hadn't simply remembered her own child. Kara stepped out into the wilderness, desperation driving her towards the shore. The cries could still be heard, and she prayed she'd arrive in time to save the poor creature.
Memories of her own baby flashed through her mind as she raced through the rocky path and jumped over fallen trees and bushes. Her baby had woken up during a storm and had decided to play around with a frog. Unknowing to the mother Mangani, a leopardess had been preying on the child and had jumped him when he came in proximity of her hiding spot. Kara was too late.
She could still hear his cries of agony. His cries resonated with the unknown child's until they became one, and Kara now chased after her son in one last desperate attempt to save him.
The cries were close. Kara stopped near an enormous tree supporting a surprising amount of wood shaped in an odd manner. She easily climbed the grass covered tree and stood at the cabin's entrance. She identified the baby's cry coming from inside a wooden capsule, but it was not alone. Kara began to quiver as she recognized the other creature walking in circle around the device: Sabor, the leopardess who killed her son.
The fearsome wildcat also seemed to remember Kara, as her attention quickly deviated from her prey to the newcomer. She bent her front half into a predatory position before pouncing on the Mangani. Kara fell on her backside and pushed the leopardess over her with her legs, where she could only assume she had been thrown off the edge and sent plummeting down to her death.
Her thoughts, however, were preoccupied by the baby's cry. She rushed over to the wooden contraption and laid eyes upon what seemed like a hairless baby chimpanzee, for the exception of blond hair on its head. Kara felt like crying as well, finally coming to terms that her son was truly gone.
The baby opened his eyes and gazed above at the furry black creature. The tears stopped running down his cheeks, and his hands reached up to touch the softness of Kara's fur. The Mangani responded to this by letting the baby play with her large index finger. His laugh seemed contagious as Kara found herself smiling and enjoying the baby's presence. She gently pulled him out and placed him on her foot for better observation. He did not seem so different from her kind body wise, for the exception of his missing fur. Kara noticed a strange smell emitting from the white object covering the baby's lower half. She removed the strange device and wiped the filth off his bottom with a nearby rag. The baby laughed once again and Kara couldn't help but embrace the small creature.
She briefly wondered what it would be like to raise this baby, until she remembered he already had a family. Then it dawned on her, there was nobody else in this cabin, the baby was alone. She held the small boy against her chest and ventured further down into the wide space. She tugged on a vast purple fabric covering the window, and discovered two bodies lying in a pool of blood smeared by animal tracks. They were undoubtedly a male and a female greatly resembling the baby physically.
Kara shook her head and sighed. Her saddened expression turned to the baby's. The child was innocently enjoying making a bubble out of his saliva, completely unaware of the tragic event that had occurred just minutes ago.
In Kara's mind, leaving the baby behind to die was simply unthinkable. She would raise this baby as her son in the Mangani tribe and protect him like any caring mother would.
A wild roar pulled Kara out of her trance. Sabor had managed to survive by gripping onto old roots that had grown over the old tree and pulled herself up onto the platform. Her eyes narrowed on her prey and she pounced. Kara dodged by jumping into a corner and threw the fallen curtain on the leopardess. As she struggled to free her vision, Kara ran in the opposite direction, but tripped over an odd shaped object, causing the baby to slip out her arm and off the platform. Thankfully, there was a net to catch him and roll him down to the middle. Sabor, now free from the vile curtain, stood at the edge of the platform opposite of Kara. She decided to follow the baby's voice and jumped onto the net, slowly making her way towards the child. Kara broke some of the flooring in order to reach for the baby down below, but he was too far out of her reach. Sabor pounce but at a too short distance and the baby flew up into Kara's reach, who quickly pulled him up. The leopardess didn't wait long before trying to make her way up as well. Kara dashed towards the edge, Sabor hot on pursuit. The only way was a long fall down, or a strange looking device that was held in the air thanks to brown looking vines. She leaped into the wooden shell at the last second. They were safely flown to the ground as Sabor was trapped with a knot of vines that imprisoned her into the air.
Kara glared up at her, blaring out her fangs and growling victoriously before returning to her tribe.
The reunion was as predicted. Her fellow Mangani circled around her in worry. Kara reassured them she had only gotten a little sidetracked, and revealed the baby snuggled in her arm. Her friends gasped, confused as to what to say. The youngest of all, had remained unfazed, too young to fully understand the situation.
"What's that thing Ant Kara?" Asked the female Mangani known as Ishizu.
"Why, he's a baby." Answered Kara as she handed the boy over to her niece.
"W-wha-" The little girl exclaimed as the baby tugged on the hair on her head. He then burst in laughter, much to Ishizu's annoyance who held out the boy for her ant to take back. "So, what are you going to call him?"
"Hmm. I think I'll call him… Marik."
The Mangani women whispered their thoughts. Ishizu simply shrugged. "Alright. He's you're baby."
"What's going on here?!" A deep voice raged from the background. Out came the leader Kerchak and he was not pleased. "Kara, where have you been?!"
"She just got carried away is all." Ishizu's mother came to her defense, but a back-handed slap across her cheek quickly silenced her. The female cowered on the ground as the leader towered over her.
Everyone had taken a step back. It wasn't uncommon for a Mangani, this intermediate race of ape between gorilla and chimpanzee, to have outbursts of violence. For Kerchak, it was a daily leisure.
"You are not the one I have addressed!" he barked as the female whispered apologies. He returned his gaze on Kara and stepped menacingly towards her. "What were you doing away from our tribe? And what is this thing?" He gestured to the now crying baby.
"It's a baby." Kara replied gently, trying to appease the male ape, with no success.
"It's an abomination! You must get rid of it for the safety of our tribe." He ordered and spun around, expecting his decision to be final.
Insulted, Kara held the baby up for display, "Does he look dangerous to you?!" she questioned.
Kerchak roared and banged his fists against his chest. Kara instinctively hid Marik under her arm before being knocked over and assaulted. She kept little Marik safe as her back was pounded by Kerchak's fury. The Mangani leader would have no doubt continued attacking the female had her friends not pushed him back. He huffed, taking deep breathes and glaring down at each one. Kerchak would have no trouble taking them all down for betrayal given his imposing size, but he did understand the importance of breeding and as it was now, all of the Mangani women were staking up protectively before Kara.
"He's you're responsibility." The male breathed, conceding to Kara. As he began to leave, her friends tried to approach the injured ape in an attempt to aid her, but this only reignited Kerchak's fury.
"Nobody help her!" He growled and turned to face his tribe. "We will camp here for the night."
The female Manganis reluctantly stepped away from Kara and her crying child. The female ape turned painfully on her side and lay there with the crying baby in the crook of her elbow. She smiled despite her beating, sliding a finger down the side of Marik's face. She had managed to save that baby twice now, as it would seem.
"Shh. Shh. It's alright. You're safe. Mommy's here. Mommy's here." She whispered as she held her son and began to sing to him. "Come stop you're crying, it'll be alright. Just take my hand, hold it tight. I will protect you from all around you, I will be here don't you cry."
The baby boy snuggled into his mother's fur and rested peacefully under her watchful eye.
Kara had just had the most wonderful dream. She was standing on the edge of a mountain with her son at her side, watching the sun rise over the morning mist, forming a rainbow in the damp sky. Her eyes fluttered open as she patted the nearby ground to find her son. When she couldn't find him, her eyes shot open and she began to search frantically through the bushes surrounding her nest while whispering his name worriedly. Kara turned around at the sound of a thud behind her and sighed contentedly when she laid eyes on her son holding on to a vine with one hand, and a big mango with the other.
Marik simply laughed, finding her reaction overdramatic and hilarious. "I sure scared you mom!"
Kara sighed with relief and sat back in her nest where Marik went to join her. "That you sure did!" she said, taking the fruit he held out for her and split it in two, handing one half back to her son. They both enjoyed their breakfast in silence as they always did. Kara laughed as Marik's face was enveloped in mango juice. In one swift move, she lift him up closer to her and with her other arm, wiped the sticky liquid away.
"Pwah!" Marik stuck out his tongue in disgust, trying to rid it of his mother's hair.
Kara simply laughed. Even though her son was fighting his way out of her grip and put up a pout, she knew he loved the attention. Some of the tribe's kids suddenly passed them by, running and playing some sort of game. It made her sad to see Marik's longing eyes as they followed them. She knew he struggled with being different, and often wished she could be of more use to him.
"Why don't you go play with them?" Kara said softly.
Marik hesitated, knowing the other's parents would most likely disapprove of him being near their kids. "Is that ok?" he asked timidly, running his fingers through his hair to keep them as lean as possible. He found it was a good way to fit in with his ape family, despite it being much longer and a sandy-blond color.
Kara gave him a slight push in their direction. "Of course!" she said, "As long as you behave. We don't want to disturb Kerchak now do we?"
Marik's eyes beamed with joy. He launched himself through the wilderness on all four, his usual walk, jumping over rocks and running through bushes to find his friends. The boy was too caught up in the moment to notice the tall dark figure standing on the other side and ran straight into Kerchak. The boy tumbled backwards while the giant beast remained unmoved. His dark eyes leered down on him. Marik didn't need to see smoke coming out of the Mangani's nose to know he was quite displeased at that moment.
Marik waited for Kerchak to begin shouting at him, or worse, beat him, but before the ape could do anything, Ishizu came out of nowhere and butted in.
"Marik! Thank goodness you are alright!" She said pulling him into a tight hug and continued with wavering her voice to make it appear as though she were crying, "the guys and I have been so worried! Thank you. Thank you so much for finding him Kerchak, you are such a wise and caring leader! Run."
She took off after whispering the last word to her pal and waited for him behind a large tree. When he came running by, Ishizu pulled Marik aside, stopping him in his four-legged sprint.
"Are you crazy?!" she said, poking his nose, "How many times must I remind you: If you want to be on Kerchak's good side, stay away from him." She sighed and began to walk away. "I have to go now, the guys are waiting for me."
"Can I come?!" Marik asked excitedly as though the previous event never happened.
Ishizu was caught off guard, having thought it was the end of the conversation. "Oh well… you know us, always moving and all. I mean sure, if you can keep up, but you know, you can't really keep up. I'm coming guys!" She shouted the last part to her friends waiting further down the path near the edge of the cliff.
"Took you long enough." One of her friends known as Honda, said in annoyance. Hitting Jonouchi, the other Mangani, with his own hand had gotten boring after a while.
"Sorry fellas, I had a little problem to deal with, but it is all taken care o-ah!" Ishizu screamed as she was knocked forward when someone crashed into her.
Marik composed himself and smiled at the gang of friends. "Hi guys!" he said, brushing the branches out of his hair.
"What's he doing here?" Jonouchi asked angrily.
Marik was not Honda's and Jonouchi's favorite person and the boy knew that. He began to tug on his hair timidly, "Well, Ishizu said I could come along if I could keep up."
Both turned to their friend in disbelief, "Ah come on! Nooo! Ishizuuuu!" they whined.
Feeling on the spot, Ishizu cleared her throat and led Marik aside, "Listen, Marik," she said putting an arm around his shoulders, trying to find the right words, "you see… hum, well, my friends over there are used to quite the adventure. I'm not sure you could handle it…"
"Okay, then what do I have to do?" Marik inquired, ready for any challenge.
Ishizu was once again caught off guard and before she could say anything, Jonouchi wrapped an arm around Marik's shoulders and led him back to Honda.
"What's this? Little Marik wants to prove he's a big ape like us?"
"This could be fun." Honda added, also putting his arm around Marik and led the two at the edge of the cliff.
"What are you guys d-" Ishizu asked worriedly before being cut off by Jonouchi.
"Quiet Ishizu." he said, bringing his attention back on Marik. "If you want to be cool enough to hang out with us,"
"You have to go get a hair." Honda finished, pointing at the herd of elephants.
Marik's eyes watched horridly as the enormous beasts fought playfully with each other. "A hair?" he gulped.
"An elephant hair." Honda added with a smirk.
"What?! Marik is not stupid enough to do something so reckless!" Ishizu exclaimed, but again she was ignored.
Jonouchi snickered. "If you're too chicken Marik, then you should just go home and cry to mommy." He said giving him a push backwards and the boy slowly backed away into the bushes.
"See," Ishizu said smugly, crossing her arms over her chest "What did I tell you, Marik isn't stupid enough to-"
She stopped mid-sentence when the hairless boy ran past her and the other two and jumped off the edge.
"Nooooo!" Ishizu screamed as she watched her friend plummet down the cliff, arms outstretched forward, only for the gravity to throw them back at the last second as he began to panic, and flop onto his stomach.
Marik sunk unto the nose of a hippopotamus. His eyes shot open when he realised the beast he was laying on was dangerous and managed to flip himself behind the animal and avoid its long deadly teeth. When he swam to the surface, he was received wild cheers and applause from Jonouchi and Honda, and scolding from Ishizu, though he couldn't hear anything through the sound of the cliff's running water. He waved them hello as a sign he was ok, before setting his sight on the herd of elephants and making his way towards them, despite the protests he imagined from his cousin.
Rishid poked one toe in the water before immediately pulling it back.
"But mama!" he cried out to the female elephant amongst the three bathing further down in the lake. "Are you sure this water's sanitary?!"
"It's fine honey." She replied annoyed and wishing he would quit being childish.
Rishid poked the water with his trunk and brought some of the water to his mouth before spitting it out with disgust. "But about bacteria!"
The boy took a hold of his courage and took two steps into the clear liquid. "Rishid, can't you see mommy's talking?" The women practically whined.
Rishid pouted at this and was inclined to give his mother another silent treatment until he noticed something frightening moving in her direction under the water. "Watch out! There's something swimming! It's coming right at you!" He rushed to his mother and pulled on her nose with his own.
"Honey, mommy's losing her patience." She said calmly, despite herself.
Rishid turned back to the source of his worry and saw an odd shaped fish stick its head out of the water. "It's a piranha!" He cried, frightened and latching onto his mother's leg.
The women sighed and lifted her son's head with her trunk, staring him in the eyes and saying "Honey, there are no piranha's in-"
"MY BUTT!" One of the other elephants of the group cried when he felt a set of teeth grab his tail.
The group moved around frantically, trying to find their way back to land, all the while trying to avoid any dangerous creatures that might be lurking in the water.
Ishizu, Jonouchi and Honda watched with worry as the herd of elephants made their way rapidly towards land after seeing Marik fall into the water in the center of the group of elephants and stomped on by the giant animals.
"He's dead…" Jonouchi said. "We're dead!" He said in unison with Honda as they turned to run away from the heard moving in too closely for they're taste.
Ishizu managed to get a hold of a vine and swung herself over a tree branch ungracefully. When the stampede was over, she dropped to the ground and went searching for her cousin in the water. She found him lying on a large rock in the water, unconscious, and quickly dragged him over to land, mumbling to herself worriedly. She shook the boy, trying to wake him up, but something grabbed her by the waist and pulled her away from Marik.
"Get away from there! Don't you know a piranha can slip your face in seconds?!" Rishid cried, trying to protect the little Mangani.
Ishizu easily worked her way out of his grasp and shoved him away angrily. "He is not a piranha he is…"
Marik began to cough out the water in his lungs and was pulled into a tight hug by a rejoiced Ishizu. "He is alive! He is alive! He is alive!" She chanted with Rishid joining in on the last line. "You idiot!" Ishizu suddenly turned sour and threw the boy against the ground, before bringing her hand to her chest. "You almost gave me a heart attack! I hope you are happy!"
Marik smiled brightly and showed her the hair he kept squeezed in his palm. Ishizu's eyes grew big and round. "I cannot believe you managed to get a hair Marik!" She said in amazement.
"That's it?" Said Rishid confused. "That's all you needed? I got a whole tail of them!"
He swung his tail around happily with the other two laughing, until two familiar silhouettes came to view and the cheers died down.
"Who's that?" Asked Rishid, and the other two answered in unison. "My mom."
Kala ran to her son and lifted him up by the underarms. "Marik, what happened?" She asked worriedly, wiping the blood leaking from a cut on his left temple with her forearm. Before the boy could explain, Kerchak, followed by the other members of his tribe, arrived on the stomping grounds, anger blaring in his eyes.
"What happened?" Demanded Kerchak, articulating every syllable for emphasis.
Kara held her son against her stomach, ready to protect him at all cost.
"Something spooked the elephants." She said. "The children were playing nearby and were lucky to have made it out of harm's way."
She hoped she sounded convincing, though Kerchak seemed to be unreadable at the moment. Rishid nodded enthusiastically out of fear, which helped to make up the leader's mind. He considered Marik for a brief second.
"This one is weak," he stated, "He is worthless to my tribe. You can't keep him Kara."
Flabbergasted and offended, Kara had no trouble raising her tone to rival Kerchak's. "What's that supposed to mean? He's only a child!"
"That's no excuse Kara, you can't keep defending him."
"He'll grow, he'll learn!"
"He will never learn! You can't teach him to be one of us!"
"Because you never give him a chance!"
"Give him a chance? Kara look at him! He is weak, different, an imposter! He will never, be one of us."
That was all Marik could take. He struggled with being different, but more than anything else, he wanted to belong, and if he couldn't be accepted here, why stay? He climbed out of his mother's embrace and ran off into the woods.
"Marik!" Kara called out to him.
She would have followed him right then and there if Kerchak hadn't hit her in the stomach and then on her back, making her hit the ground hard and knocking the wind out of her lungs.
"Know your place. Don't attempt to defy my orders ever again." Menaced the giant ape.
He turned around and walked away in the direction he and his tribe had arrived from. The other Mangani hesitated between helping out Kara and following their leader, but decided on the latter, not wanting to be punished as well. Only Herra, Kara's sister and Ishizu's mother, stayed behind with her daughter to help her up.
"Oh Marik…" The beaten up Mangani whispered to herself, wondering if her beloved son was alright, and what she could possibly do to help him surpass his physical differences.
Marik stood near the edge of a pond and observed his facial features in the reflection of dark water. Nigh had already fallen and the glow of the moon allowed him to make out his silhouette in the cold liquid. He hated himself. He hated that he was weaker than the others, that he couldn't perform like they could, but mostly, that he was hairless. Maybe if he just had a little bit more hair, he could look like them… And maybe that's all he needed, just a little bit more hair…
Marik dug his hands into the mud and brought it up to his stomach to make it darker. Liking the effect of his skin darkening, he brought up some more mud into his long sandy colored hair, gelling it up in dark spikes. Finally, he brought some more onto his face, but avoided the scratch on his temple, it still really stung.
He observed his new form with wide eyes. He looked completely different… and he loved it. Suddenly, there was a ripple in the water and he truly did look like an ape!
"What are you doing?" A voice behind him asked.
Marik spun around in surprise and found his mother standing behind him and eyeing him curiously.
"What are you doing?" She asked softly.
Kara tried to reach for her son but he backed away quickly. "Hold still."
"No!" He shouted back in defiance. It was the first time he had ever back-talked his mother and he wasn't proud of it, but at the moment, anger was clouding his judgement. "This makes me look more normal! J-Just look at me!"
"I am Marik," she said softly, "and you look anything but normal."
She attempted to reach for her son again and he didn't resist her this time. She sat him on her leg and lifted his chin up with her thumb. "Do you know what I see? I see a boy who is lost, who's been told countless times that things are as they appear, and yet, I see two eyes, like mine, and a nose somewhere… Ah! Here!" Said Kara after wiping away the mud from the boy's body. "Two ears!" To this Marik laughed and tried to play along.
"Two hands!" He said, holding them out in front of his mother.
"That's right." She giggled and placed her palms against her son's. To this, Marik lowered his head to observe his own hand which he pulled back towards him. His thumb wasn't as far back on his hand like his mother's and he once again felt depressed.
Kara sighed. "Close your eyes, what do you feel?" She said after placing Marik's hand on his chest.
"My heart." He answered, somewhat surprised.
"Come here." Said Kara as she pulled him close to her and rested his head on her breast.
"You're heart!" Marik exclaimed softly and jumped into his mother's arms to hug her tightly.
"You see, we're exactly the same." Kara smiled for a moment before sighing. "Kerchak just can't accept that."
"Doesn't matter!" He beamed, surprising Kara with his happy energy. "It doesn't matter anymore! He'll have to accept me, because we're the same! I'll grow big and strong! Maybe even stronger than Kerchak! You'll see!"
The Mangani laughed and began to tickle her son. "Oh I bet you will!"
Perhaps it was the way he showed up unafraid and proud that Kerchak didn't persecute him. Or maybe he simply thought he was a joke and wouldn't last long in the wild that he decided to let him stay in his tribe. The latter seemed more appropriate considering Kerchak's odd behavior when he showed up the next day… He chuckled, and didn't do anything else… Strange…
Time seemed to pass by rather quickly. Marik taught himself many things, such as hunting for fruit and climbing trees, though sometimes requiring assistance from Ishizu. She was his best friend. They loved to wrestle, even though he would always lose, and ride on strange large birds they would capture thanks to vines. Marik grew really close with the animals in his environment, especially the elephants. He developed a close friendship with Rishid as well, to whom he taught how to swim in deeper waters. He learned to make weapons out of animal horns, particularly with rhino, and even carve drawings into trees.
Life had thought him how to survive and to be unafraid against more powerful and more dangerous enemies. Whenever such a case presented itself, Marik jumped into action. With that attitude, he fought against crocodiles, anacondas, wild cats and more, making him stronger each time.
It wasn't long until Marik had grown into a young adult, swinging from vine to vine and gliding from a giant slippery tree branch to another. Kerchak wasn't pleased with how much stronger he'd grown, his strength perhaps enough to rival his own… It was exactly what Marik had wanted.
Feel free to comment :D
(But if you do, I know it's Kala and not Kara, I took the liberty of changing names.)
Jonouchi and Honda from season 0 anybody?