Tarzan hated ships, and now thought that shoes and skirts were stupid creations.
Tarzan hated guns, and Clayton, and everything that would threaten her family.
Tarzan was quite ready to defend her family.
. . .
"You came back."
"I came home."
. . .
. . .
"Go ahead, shoot me. Be a human being..."
. . .
She nearly did. The gun barrel was right there, under his jaw. Her other arm was limp and useless, but she had the upper hand. All she had to do was move her finger and watch his head erupt like twisted tree bark, and become something that was no longer a threat to her and hers.
It would've been all too easy...
But then she'd have used the gun, the gun that... She thought of Kerchak. She thought of what it meant to have her discovered 'humanity'.
This was not Sabor, this was a mere man who did not understand what a human being was, what a hunter was.
She would not let this person cheat her own from her. He began to laugh, and she jammed the gun again under his jaw.
Her finger tensed, and...
She made the sound of the gunshot, of the 'Clayton', just to have that satisfaction of seeing the defeated flinch.
She snarled, "Not one like you!"
She destroyed the gun, and the jungle destroyed Clayton.
. . .
"Tarzan..."
"Kerchak, forgive me..."
"No...
Forgive me...for not understanding that you have always been one of us...
Our family will look to you, now..."
"No, Kerchak, please...!"
"Take care of them...my daughter... T...take care of them..."
. . .
"Mum..." James whispered, as in the gently fading rain, Tarzan straightened from the dead silverback. She'd taken on a new stance, a new expression as she faced her troop, one that put a strange uncertainty in him. She'd become an Alpha.
"Mum, can she do this...?"
"I...I don't know..." Mrs. Porter murmured. "I've heard of matriarchal troops, for survival, but this is unprecedented..."
James swallowed.
Theory or not, Tarzan was a female Alpha. She spared the remaining humans a passing glance, before straightening on her arms, one slick and glistening with blood from the bullet wound, signalling her troop to move on, and leading them away from the clearing and their fallen leader and James.
This place was no longer safe for nesting.
. . .
Tarzan hated ships. The ships were taking James away again, forever.
Then suddenly, Tarzan learned what a kiss was.
Tarzan liked kisses.
. . .
. . .
James told everyone, "James stays with Tarzan."
Tarzan had every good reason to howl her triumph into the sky that day.
James loved Tarzan.
And Tarzan loved James.
. . .
