The next morning as most of the apes slept peacedully in their huts, the dew still stuck on the grass and leaves and a pinch of cold clung to the breeze, two young apes were already up and about. Blue Eyes and Ash were collecting fish for the morning meal and were on their way back chatting happily. They were joking about the bear incident. seeing as how Blue Eyes wasnt sore about it anymore, Ash decided to poke a little fun.
'That bear wouldn't get me blue eyes. I'm quick!' The gray furred ape boasts, earning a shove from his buddy.
'Shut up, ash!' blue eyes says half playfully as they headed home with their fish.
Then suddenly as they were walking down their path, A human man trudged from the bushes, eyes cast downwards and walking right up to them. When he looked up, he saw the apes and all three of them froze mid step. As soon as one of the apes moved, he pulled out a gun and raised it to them. Blue Eyes hissed a little, attempting to scare him away. It only made the human cock the gun. As soon as one of the apes moved, the gun fired, hitting Ash in the shoulder.
The gunfire was heard all the way to the colony and Ceaser shot up, terrified at first. He looked over to his son's nest, only to see it empty. He got up and rushed to the entrance where the others were already waking.
'Was that gunfire?' Maurice questioned as Rocket rushed towards them.
'Ash is out there!' he signs panicked.
'Let's go.' Ceaser signs as they rush out of the colony.
They, along with most of the males took off across the valley to the sound of his son's harsh cries, bolting with the others to the sound. Ceaser and the others saw Blue Eyes leaning over Ash, who was shot in the arm, howling and waving the human away as the human shouted to others who were also running to the scene.
"I shot him! I shot him." Carver shouted to the others as the man, Malcolm came up and held his arms out as the apes shouted and hollered as Ceaser tried to silence them.
'They shot ash! Shot my son!' Rocket shouted as he went to his boy and held him up, waving his spear at the humans angrily, worry written in his face as he wailed.
'Rocket, wait...' Ceaser tried to reason, thankfully getting the gray furred father to calm him, hugging his son in worry.
"We don't mean any harm!" Malcolm shouted as he lowered his gun.
"They're apes, man. You think they understand what you're saying?" the man Carter who shot Ash, says being pulled behind Malcolm.
"Do they look like just apes to you?"
All of them stared at the humans in anger, until Ceaser spoke with a voice so angry and deep it made the humans all jump in fear and surprise, sending chills down their spines.
"GO!" he shouted, spitting out the words like venom at the intruders.
"Holy shit. Okay. Okay, we're going." Malcolm says and they all take off. Ceaser looked to Koba, who glared at the humans.
"Go!" Koba adds as the humans rushed down the hill and away from them. They shuffled down the path as Ceaser got down.
"Koba. Follow." He says and Koba motioned two others to follow with him through the trees tailing the humans. Ceaser turned to Rocket, who was still holding his son. From what he could see, a bullet was lodged deep in his shoulder and his obas couldn't get the bullet out.
Meanwhile, not far from their colony, Mina was cooking some rabbit over the fire as she looked around the valley floor, warily clutching her machete in hand. She heard the gunshot earlier and was concerned, but decided it was better to stay put and see if any more gunfire happened. It didn't thankfully, and so she went about her business.
That is until she heard hooting from a few feet crom her camp. She stood and saw the apes on horses nearing her camp. She put her machete away and stood, dusting her dirty hands on her cargo shorts and waited for them to dismount. Ceaser and a handful of others walking up to her, nodding in greeting to her, her nodding back. Blue Eyes walked beside a gray ape, who led a horse around with another ape perched on the horse still and laying across the back of the horses. It was huffing in pain. She stood as Ceaser walked up to her with a grim face.
"Need. help." he says motioning to the ash covered ape.
"Humans come. Shot young ape. Ape cannot help." he explains.
"Can you help?" he asks.
Nodding, she walks up to the gray furred ape who held onto the younger one. He glared at her a moment but when he saw her unarmed, he slowly moved away to let her see his son. She lifted his head a bit and saw a wound on his shoulder. It looked deep and was bleeding fast.
She nodded to Ceaser, who motioned for some apes to pick the other ape up and carrying it to her small bed in her tent, followed by Rocket, Blue Eyes and Ceaser. She moved to cover the ape with her blanket and flicked on her lamp, moving it to his side. The poor thing was wheezing and panting in pain.
She inspected the wound and nodded, getting up and pulled out a large metal box with a red cross on it from the corner of her tent and bringing it back to the ape's side. She opened it and rummaged through it until she found a small jar and opened a needle.
Ceaser sat across from her as she filled the syringe with a clear liquid. Rocket sat inches from her, watching her intently as she reached for the ape, but stopped and looked at his fatger, patting her veins with her fingers. Rocket looked to Ceaser, who signed to him.
'She is going to put it in his body. It will help.' he informs.
Rocket realized the human was asking for permission. With a nod, she slowly injected something into Ash's arm and soon, Ash relaxed. His breathing slowed to a steady rhythm and his body went limp and he calmed. This made his father breathed a sigh of relief as he took his son's hand as the young ape drifted to sleep.
Blue eyes watched as the woman pulled out some tweezers and slowly began to pry the bullet from the wound, looking it over and dropped it in a bowl. She got some gauze from the kit and wrapped the wound slowly, keeping it perfect.
Once done, she then pued out a bottle of pain killers and handed it to Rocket, pointing to Ash and then her mouth. Rocket mimicked her and she nods.
'He must eat these?' he asks. She makes a swallowing move and raised one finger, then he nods. Must swallow it, one at a time.
After patching Ash up and making sure Rocker understood what to do with the medicine, she put the kit away as the apes shuffled Ash out od the tent and back onto the horse with his father. Rocket signed a thank you, but she simply stared at him. He looked to Ceaser confused.
'She doesn't know sign. She doesn't speak either.' He signs back and rocket nods.
He took the woman's hand and nodded his head at her, patting her knuckles in appreciation. She smiled and nodded back as he lifted himself on the horse and rurned to leave back home.
"Thank you." Ceaser says nodding to her.
She nods back as the other apes left, walking beside the horses. Blue Eyes got on his own and looked over at her. She smiled at him, showing her perfect white teeth and he looked away nervously, walking with his father. With a final hand shake, Ceaser headed out, leaving the human to her food. As he left her camp he looked back at her poor excuse of a meal, realizing it was a tiny one, even for her. She wouldn't be able to fill up on that, no womder she was so thin.
As he walked back, Ceaser decided that tomorrow he would pay her back with some food that would actually fill her stomach.
When they returned, they led Ash to his father's hut and let him rest while Rocket and the others gathered.