Inkesha's first time with friends part 1
One for noon the troop was foraging. Some of the apes were sitting on treeless patches of ground eating grasses, another portion of them was digging the moist, dark, fertile soil for roots, others gathered edible berries from shrubs and bushes, a few groups of them were situated on trees and consuming fruit. And a small circle of funny males consisting of Banagi, Keyta and Isuku were excited to go insect and crustacean hunting. The two silverbacks and the black back were creeping, while conversing, towards Kong and Terk who were about to join the other members in searching for food. When they arrived into King Kong's and Terkina's field of vision they were laughing.
"What's so funny," asked Kong.
"We saw something funny happen to the Old," replied Banagi while smiling. "The Old had eaten too much fermented fruit, he still doesn't know his limits," he added while shaking his head.
"He looked interesting after the children placed grass then, strong-scented flowers, ones which bees love, in the layer of grass on him and behind his ears. Then, the kids hid behind the nearby bush and waited," chimed in Isuku.
"They didn't have to wait long until the bees started flying around him. Then, a bumblebee chose the flower behind his ear and buzzed in it. He woke up frightened and got even more scared when he realized he was sheathed with grass and flowers and bees were circling around him. He began to panic and shook the plants off of him which the bees perceived as threatening behavior towards them. They retaliated by flying around him angrily and wildly, they began stinging him," continued Keyta.
"He hollered, leapt up while swiftly jigging then, bolted all of the sudden followed by a small cloud of enraged bees. The kids loved this, they were heehawing! We also thought it was humorous," finished Banagi then, shifted to the intended topic. "Do you two want to come with us to the nearby insect pit and catch weta-rexes, arachno-claws and deplectors," he enquired with a grin on his face.
"I'm in. I haven't had those in a long time," responded King Kong enthusiastically.
"Me too," replied Terkina excitedly.
Inkesha instantly came to her mind, she thought that she may find the activity of hunting for the mentioned creatures interesting and their flesh delicious.
"Guys, may I invite Inkesha," she asked. "She's a new friend of mine, we have similar traits," she added.
"I just imagined what she looks like," reacted Banagi while smiling, "like you without that long hair on top of your head."
Terk didn't smile nor frown in response. After a bit of thinking about the older male's strange opinion and her friend's appearance she concluded that the silverback was somewhat right.
"Well, we do have several things in common regarding looks, but excluding our hair on our heads she's still not identical to me," she answered. "Now can I invite her or not? I'd better hurry before it's too late for her," she exhorted, her tone carrying impatience.
"She can come. Maybe, Keyta will soon end the bachelor's lifestyle, isn't that right Keyta," enquired Banagi for fun to embarrass and annoy him in front of his friends.
The specimen who was being messed with glowered at his older friend while Terk left for Inkesha.
"I have sired 12 offspring so far," boasted Banagi. "You'd better hurry if you want to catch up!"
Keyta sighed angrily then, made his facial expression uglier out of fury.
"You're beginning to get on my nerves," he replied while trying to conceal his negative emotions, but his meta communication leaked them. "Why do you pester me with this topic every once in a while? Find someone else," he added in an annoyed way while quickly jerking his head toward King Kong who suddenly noticed that.
"Oh, no, don't you start. This goes for both of you, I don't want to be involved. I'm a one-lady childfree male and I don't want to change that," stated the male firmly.
Banagi glanced at Kong still appearing to be in the mood for joking which Kong perceived.
"No," he shouted as he saw the older silverback take a breath to speak. "No," he repeated just as strictly as before his yellow eyes showing disapproval.
The jokester's silliness abandoned him due to the negative reactions. The males' conversation ended here. A short while later Terkina returned with her new lady friend and introduced her to Banagi, Keyta and Isuku. After this, the 6 gorillas wondered through the humid jungle then, reached a clearing. A part of the meadow was bordered by precipices which had rifts in between them. The vastest of these was the insect pit. When the apes arrived the pit seemed lifeless, no lifeforms could be seen excluding carnicti in dark muck which appeared to be inactive.
"The creatures won't come out on their own. One of us will have to go in there and play dead then, they'll crawl out of the crevices on the walls. When they get close the gorilla who lied on the ground will pop up and all of us except for one enter the pit and quickly grab the weta-rexes, arachno-claws and deplectors we can and throw them out towards the gorilla who is outside. That one's task is to crush the critters' heads as soon as possible," expounded Banagi. "Inkesha, since you're new to this you don't have to be the one who acts dead if you don't want to. Would you like to enter the pit and hurl out bugs or would you like to stay outside and squash their heads once they're thrown towards you," he enquired.
"I'd like to be in the pit," she replied.
"Okay. Who wants to play dead," asked Banagi.
No one volunteered. Everyone excluding Inkesha looked at each other waiting for the other to take up the task.
"Nobody? Terk, how about you," enquired Banagi.
"Why me," replied the female in an irritated way stressing the first word of her sentence.
"I think you're the best at this. You even control your breathing so that your chest and stomach rise very little. One time, you even stuck your tongue out," answered Banagi enthusiastically.
"No, thanks," replied Kong's mate dryly and with a stone-face.
"But you're the best," tried Banagi.
"My answer is still no," replied Terk a little louder than before. "Why don't YOU do it," she asked in a bit of an angry voice narrowing her eyes.
"Yeah, Banagi, why don't you," asked King Kong.
"If you want to push others into doing it push yourself instead," replied Keyta. "You're the biggest among all of us, the creatures will consider you a tasty treat. You'll lure them to yourself and will have the same success as a pile of excrement has with flies," reasoned the younger silverback. "So now, there are three of us voting for your going to play dead," he added. "Oh, and by the way, you mess with us, we mess with you."
"Fine, I'll do it," exclaimed the older silverback then, pouted as he crept into the rift.
He acted weak then, dropped himself to the ground as if he just deceased. The weta-rexes, arachno-claws and deplectors rushed out of their caves and chasms towards Banagi. The other apes excluding King Kong hurried into the rift, the older male popped up and the 5 began quickly grabbing hold of any creature they could and chucking them out towards Kong who was killing them. After a while the gorillas gathered enough food for all of them and those who were doing the tossing hurried out of the pit to Kong. Terkina showed Inkesha how to crack the shells of the arachno-claws and deplectors in order to reach the meat which tasted like crab.
"So, how did you like bug hunting," asked Terk her friend then, took a bite out of a deplector claw whose flesh she had previously exposed.
"It was a little scary but fun. I got bit multiple times by weta-rexes," answered Inkesha before consuming the de-shelled thorax of an arachno-claw.
"The same happened to me during my first time at this. One jumped on the back of my neck and held onto my hair with its pincers. I got mad and killed it, but it still latched on and I couldn't pull it off because more and more of the critters came and I had to keep throwing them out while scanning my environment and making sure none of them bite me. There are more things at once that you must pay attention to, you'll get better at it," explained Terkina.
After the apes finished their scrumptious, nutritious feast rich in protein they headed back to the troop and conversed for a while before heading down to the beach.
"Isuku, I noticed before that you have a grey hair," announced Banagi merrily.
"Really? That's great! I'm becoming a silverback," Kong's cousin excitedly questioned.
He was coming to the age when a male begins growing grey hair on his back and across his shoulders. He could hardly wait to become a silverback. He turned around and squatted showing his back to the other apes.
"Where is it?"
"Oh, it's not on your back, you're not turning grey yet there. It's on your head," replied Banagi.
Isuku let out a long, frustrated groan.
"When will I become a silverback," he asked demandingly.
"If you keep being impatient you won't but you'll end up with a head full of grey hairs and you will be the pioneer of a breed of males called grey-heads. Then, I have no idea how, but you'll find a female or two with lowered expectations and you'll mate with them. Your future kids may inherit impatience from you thus a new generation of grey-heads will appear. And as your bloodline continues grey-heads will spread and some male babies will be born with silver hairs on their heads and their descendants will be silver excluding their backs and shoulders from the birth to the death. And this is how everlasting black backs will be made," explained Banagi cheerfully whilst smiling the whole time.
A few of the apes chuckled, Isuku frowned.
"Not funny," declared Isuku in an authoritative tone.
"When I was your age I was still black," said King Kong. "About a year later my first silver hairs popped up in the center of my back," he continued while turning around then taking up a squatting position. "Another year later, in the year when most of our troop was slain by dinosaurs and when I was abducted I had a patch this large of grey hairs," he said while reaching backwards and showing the size of the area with his hands. "Shortly, I met Terk, we spent 9 years in New York. I don't assume any changes happened in the first 2 years. Then, we got "married" and during the time of 8 years of marriage, 7 years in New York and 1 on Skull Island, the number of my silver hairs increased. So a big thanks goes to Terk for making me go grey on the upper and lower parts of my back and turn whiter in the center part of it," he added, putting irony especially in his last sentence.
Terk lightly punched her husband in his upper arm out of playful revenge.
"You hear that, Isuku, find a girl and become her life-mate! Then, you'll surely become a silverback," exclaimed the older male. "Oh, speaking of females, here's one that's single! Ask her out," he exclaimed.
A glare formed on Keyta's face, he narrowed his bright, nearly glowing amber eyes and emitted a low growl at Banagi. This reaction strange to the others caught everyone's attention.
"What are you growling about," asked the older male.
The younger silverback stayed silent and softened his glance. All eyes were on him.
"Oh, I get it! You're already jealous of Isuku who hasn't even asked her out yet," concluded Banagi out loud.
If gorillas had white skin Keyta's face would have turned beet red as a result. The temperature of it suddenly increased, burning from embarrassment. He shifted his vision to the ground. He didn't respond this remark either.
"Keyta's in lo-o-ove," shouted the older silverback.
The amber-eyed male jerked his head up, ogled into Banagi's eyes whilst his pupils contracted and he distorted his face in anger.
"Can it," he roared, frightening Banagi, who winced, and the others even himself.
He was surprised at and ashamed of his behavior which wasn't usual of him. He hung his head staring at the soil again.
"Banagi, I think you should knock it off," suggested Kong. "You're provoking him."
The older male realized he had stepped over the borderline of acceptable jokes into the area of poking fun at another's delicate topic and remained quiet.
"Okay," he pressed out.
Shortly the gorillas crawled down to the sandy beach. The weather was perfect for frolicking in the water and swimming. Several small, white, fluffy cumulus clouds ornamented the light blue sky and the sun's shine contributed to the warm temperature of the atmosphere. The light, humid, cool breeze originating from the sea countered the effect of the hot, ascending air which radiated from the grains of the yellowish, tawny sand. The apes were creeping into the water when Terkina lost sight of King Kong. She had a bad feeling about this then, a suspicion suddenly emerged among her thoughts that the silverback may be behind her and planning to wet her hair. She hastily got up on her hind legs, swiveled around and caught Kong red-handed whilst trying to implement his plan. The male was standing up holding water in his palms put together. When a hideous expression manifested on the female's face he began grinning innocently at her still possessing the water in his hands.
"Don't you dare," exclaimed Terkina threateningly.
This raised the others' attention. They looked in the direction of the voice. Terk's mate was still holding the water. The female swiftly grabbed his wrists and pulled them apart allowing the water to flow through his hands.
"What was he going to do," enquired Inkesha.
"He was about to pour that water on my head to ruin my hair in front of all of you when he KNOWS WELL that I'm fastidious about my hair," explained Terk still shooting an ugly look at her husband.
The male's smile faded, his facial expression indicated seriousness.
"Sorry," he squeezed out.
"Don't even think about it," replied Terkina.
The apes were now swimming into the deeper parts of the ocean. Keyta began splashing Inkesha who reacted the same way. Soon Banagi, Isuku and King Kong joined them causing the friendly splashing to turn into a water war, everyone was against everyone. Terk backed away a bit to avoid her head getting soaked and watched them. About 5 minutes later she spotted some black dorsal fins lift out of the water as their owners swam to the surface to exhale then, take a new breath and submerge then, repeat the cycle.
"Orcas, over there," she shouted while pointing to the pod.
Her friends stopped their activity and gazed in the shown direction.
"Maybe, they'll come here if we stay quiet and don't make sudden movements," said Keyta. "Who knows, maybe they're some of the dolphins that we had saved before," he added.
"You saved dolphins," wondered Inkesha.
"Yes. After that powerful storm which produced a water spout and large hail we went foraging then, wanted to bathe in the ocean. As we reached the shore we saw a lot of beached dolphins and a few whales. There were orcas among them. We picked the live cetaceans up and transported them back into the ocean. Some turned back and beached themselves again. We had to save them again. After we finished we finally went in and bathed. While we were doing that some of the dolphins swam over to us and did tricks, a few even let us pet them. Isn't that right, Kong?"
"Yes, that's right, but you left out one important detail," corrected Kong with a smile on his face.
"Oh, no," protested Isuku.
"Oh, yes," replied the silverback with a wide beam, his yellow eyes shining.
"You mean the accident," asked Keyta.
"You mean when Isuku accidentally peed on you all excluding Terk," enquired Inkesha.
"How do you know," yelled the black back unpleasantly surprised.
"When Sharam was being punished a few of those who were beating him were listening to King Kong's report. From that point on, thanks to them, this story spread like wildfire. Everyone knows this, even the kids," explained Inkesha.
"Is this true," asked Isuku.
"Yes," responded the female.
The pod of killer whales approached the primates and began swimming around them.
"Do they bite," enquired Inkesha.
"No they don't unless you annoy them," answered Banagi.
Some orcas stopped by some of the apes, one situated itself in front of Inkesha.
"This means it wants you to pet it. Just stroke or rub its back. If it turns on its side or rolls over it wants petting in the exposed areas," advised Keyta.
Inkesha did as was recommended. The dolphin remained calm.
"This one's female. Females are smaller than males and have less significant dorsal fins than males do, moreover males' dorsal fins are straight but the females' are curved," informed Keyta.
A male swam to the young silverback and began spy hopping. He wrapped his hands around him and slowly began lifting him out of the water. After he completed that he continued speaking to Inkesha about these marine mammals.
"This one is male. Besides those differences that I shared with you earlier males have larger pectoral fins than females do and the tips of their flukes curve downward," he said.
"I have a question," chimed in Banagi.
When he received Keyta's attention he asked, "Are you going to burp it?"
When the younger silverback was discussing serious topics he disliked it and found it irritating when others were taking it lightly or even joking.
"No," answered the amber-eyed male and placed the orca back into the ocean setting it free.
After spending a while with the sea creatures the gorillas let their fur coats dry whilst creeping on the shore. They traveled towards the troop, about a kilometer from it they stumbled upon a tree whose yellow-orange, cucumber-like, meter-long fruit had fallen onto the soil under it.
