Hello everybody. For the next four chapters, I'm gonna be writing in first person for each of the guys, starting with Bollo. I'm also writing in the present tense, which I must admit I'm not usually that fond of, but hopefully it'll work for this. I'm afraid that the next chapter might be rather similar in terms of events, because it's gonna be about the same night, but it'll be from Vince's perspective instead so hopefully it won't be too similar. Anyway, this starts with him flying back from the Board of Shaman.

I can feel the wind blowing my fur around as I speed through the air towards home. I still can't quite comprehend what's happened. Tara, gone. I don't know what Naboo'll do without her. He's of a strong emotional sort usually, he must be, being a Shaman. But he was different with Tara, he let himself be more open. Admittedly, I haven't known him for all his four hundred and six years because I'm only forty, but I've never seen him look at anyone like he looks at Tara. How he looked at Tara – he wont be looking at her very much any more unfortunately.

The shroud is folded in my lap. There are traces of silver meandering through it like vines, so as to bind the shroud around the body as ivy might bind itself to a wall. It's really beautiful, and it's such a shame that its only used in such tragic circumstances.

I've brought curtains to hang around her as well until the funeral – she needs to be placed somewhere quiet, so that those grieving aren't disturbed.

I pull the carpet through Naboo's bedroom window. It's still habit to call it Naboo's bedroom, even though its Naboo and Tara's now. Rather, it was. Now it'll just be Naboo's again. Which means that I wont have to keep trying to remember to call it Naboo and Tara's room, but that isn't the point, the point is the reason why I won't have to. Tara is dead.

I can hear Howard talking in his room. As Naboo and Vince are in the living room sat on the floor, I can only assume he's talking to himself.

Naboo and Vince look up when I enter. I nod to them. Even though I'm able to express myself eloquently in my own mind, being an ape, I find it hard to verbalise everything. For the most part, it comes out as monosyllabic grunting.

'Hey Bollo' says Vince sadly. Even Vince is (usually) better able to verbally express himself than I am, and, don't get me wrong, he's a dear friend of mine, but he's hardly in line to be the next Stephen Hawkin. He doesn't even have a wheelchair, although if he did I'm sure it wouldn't be entirely manoeuvrable for all the glitter and feathers on it. I even once heard him reflect that Hawkin hadn't 'done as much inventing as he should' because he was unhappy with the voice on his computer, and that he actually wanted 'Duff Man' from the Simpsons.

Naboo's looking at me expectantly. 'Bollo spoke to Board of Shaman. Got shroud. Board of Shaman will make arrangements. They send word.'

'Thanks Bollo' says Naboo, as he and Vince stand up. There's a noise behind me, which turns out to be Howard, coming out of his room with the phone and looking exhausted and upset. He says that he's called Tara's friends and Vienne to tell them, and that Vienne will arrive tomorrow morning. I know that Vince knows a lot of Tara's friends from when they were younger, and I think Naboo has met a few of them, but Howard and I haven't. It's such a tragedy that it should be something like this that brings us all together for the first time.

Vince asks me what the shroud is, and I tell him. Poor Vince, I can't imagine what he must be going through, let alone once, but twice, because Tara has technically died for the second time. At least he didn't have to deal with this aftermath the first time, although he would have had to deal with the worry of what was to come.

'We must move Tara.' I see, then see the look of panic cross his face.

'Where? Why?'

Naboo explains that she has to be put somewhere quiet, and Vince immediately asks 'where she's out of the way?' in a cold voice. He apologises right away, and really looks like he means it, but I can still see how much it has hurt Naboo. Of course he doesn't want her out of the way, of course he loved her, of course he'd bring her back if he could.

I'm jolted from my thoughts by Vince asking where we're going to put her. I offer the option of putting young Tara in what we usually call 'the tower' (a name of Vince's devising), and they agree, so we being to clear out all of Howard and Vince's (barely used) musical equipment.

Howard kindly agrees that we can put it in his already small and overcrowded room. Once everything is cleared and we've hung the curtains across to shield the room and anyone in it from the outside world, I step up behind Howard. 'Howard. This for Naboo and Vince only. Come, we leave them alone.'

I lead him back to my room and sit down. He stays stood up, and paces the room like a restless lion. With poor taste in music and facial hair. He looks rather like he doesn't know what to do with himself, which isn't exactly unusual for Howard, but I can only assume that he feels he should be doing something more to help. Little does he know that there's very little he can do for them, not at the moment anyway. I don't think that how I actually think about Howard comes across very well, probably because of being an ape. He's hardly my best friend, and I do think he's a 'ball-bag' as Naboo puts it, but he's an alright sort of ball-bag really. He certainly can be an idiot, but he isn't totally useless, he's got Vince out of trouble in the past, and I'm sure he'll get him through this.

I try to tell poor pacing Howard this, but unfortunately, because of my limited vocal capacity, when I try to tell him this all that comes out it 'You useless idiot.'

Hope you liked that, please review!