Mina stood at the waterfalls edge staring out into the valley below, tears stinging her cheeks as the cool wind blew across her face. Goosebumps pebbled her skin from the cold yet she refused to move. She refused to acknowledge anything but her son Julius, whose sniffles and hiccups were all she could hear for the rest of her was numb.

Ceaser watched her from afar with sad eyes. Grief struck through his heart as he saw his daughter and grandson weep for their lost one, his own son. He had arranged a search as soon as Blue Eyes fell into the rapids, but after seven hours of searching it had grown too dark to see. Ceasers heart broke at the thought of his son being lost forever.

He sighed heavily and walked up to the two. Julius saw his grandfather and shot to him, jumping in his arms and weeping on his shoulder. Ceaser tucked the little ape boy under his hip as he neared his mother, wjo still didnt move.

"Mina..." she spowly turned to him, her eyes holding a small glimmer of hope beneath the veil of pain.

"We must go. We cannot search at night. Im sorry..." Ceasers coice cracked and he blinked back tears.

"He is gone."

This sent Mina over the edge. Her lips quivered as fresh tears filled her already red eyes and her legs gave out. She fell to her knees and whimpered, clawing at the ground as she cried. Then she let out a loud cry, echoing across the valley.

Ceaser closed his eyes and fought against his own tears and set the boy down. He reached down and pulled the grieving woman to her feet and slowly walking her home while Cornelius walked up to Julius, who's bottom lip quivered. He wanted to be strong, but to his uncle it was unnecessary.

"Come on Julius." the teen male took the little ones hand and walked with him back home.

That night Mina sat curled up against the balcony doorway watching her baby sleep. Poor Julius had cried cried himself to sleep that night clutching his fathers fur blanket to his face for comfort. Mina watched for fear he would have nightmares but mostly because she didn't want to have any bad dreams of her own. She wiped her tears away as she stared up into the stars.

"Oh Blue Eyes..."

"Zira, go fetch us some water will you?" a soft voice calls from the doorway of a tiny home. The little ape girl nods and grabs the doeskin bag from the hook and runs to the river. She hums as she skips down the river ready to fill the water sack but something catches her eyes and she stops short. She blinks in confusion at the lump of fur just past the tree lining. She slowly turns the corner of the trees and gasped. An ape was laying with his legs and waist in the water, blood running down his leg and into rhe river. Another wound was seeping out from his chest and he was breathing raggedly.

"Papa!" the little female says dropping the sack of water and running back up the hill and home to tell her father the news.

Blue Eyes slips in and out of consciousness for a while, his heavy eyes searching for his wife and son.

"Mina..." he mumbled as he saw figures surrounding him, talking in hushed whispers and soothing voices while hands poked and prodded at his wounds. Then it went dark again, Minas name slipping through his lips as he fell unconscious again.

What seemed like minutes later, his eyes fluttered open. They were still heavy and his vision was blurry but he blinked enough times for the blurriness to subside. He then saw a red solid surface above him. Confused, he looked around him and noticed he was in some kind of red clay home. There were bowls of ground herbs and dried fruits donning the side of a wall on a wooden table along with glass jars of liquids and more herbs. There was even a human first aid kit by them. Blue Eyes felt a mattress beneath him and looked around him, seeing a cot with a worn matress and a quilt that had seen better days draped over him. He slowly sat up with a grunt and noticed his chest was bound in clean white gauze. He touched it, feeling the tender skin beneath and grimaced. Then as he was about to stand he felt a sharp pain shoot up his leg and to his back. He grunted in pain as he pushed the quilt back, seeing his leg was also wrapped tightly with a gauze. He sighed heavily and stared at it for a while until he heard a voice from behind him.

"So your awake." he whopped his head around and saw an old female ape dipping a cloth in a bowl of water. She was wrinkled and gray with big green eye and a kind smile, with beads donning her ears and hairs on the side of her head.

"Good to see you pulled through my boy. It was a close call at times." she says as she shuffles towards him, bowl in hand, and picked the rag up.

"Where am i? What is this place?" he asks as she wrung the cloth out.

"For you, it is simply a stopping point in your journey back home. For us, this place IS home." she says as she dabs his warm forehead with the cloth.

"Must go, must get home." he says trying to stand, but groaned as he clutched his chest.

"Be careful, the wound is deep, you must be patient, let it heal."

"You are going nowhere for now child."

"I have to get back to my family." Blue Eyes groans.

"Your family will not forgive you if you die trying to get back to them. Wait for a while, let wound heal and then may leave." she says patting his shoulder as she handed him a bowl of dark green liquid. It smelled terrible, but when she pressed it close to his face, he drank it. Shuddering in distaste, he handed the bowl back and laid back on the bed.

He sighed but did as the old female says, laying back against the cot with his head in the pillow. The old female nodded with a smile and pushed the covers back over him, just as his vision became blurry again. He sighed out his wife's name as he slopped back into darkness, dreaming about his family.