Chapter Nine:
Monkey on the Mountain
To Clouds surprise the approaching figure was nothing more than a squatter monkey which had followed him from the ruins. It was using his old footsteps to gain more ground quicker, but every so often it'd trip into the snow bank and become sprinkled with a light shower of ice crystals. When it was only a couple of feet from Cloud, it stopped and stared into his eyes. It itself had huge black eyes that shone, even in the dark. Cloud, however, was hungry, and this monkey would taste a lot better than any of the crap he had stored away in his pouch. So an idea had crossed into his mind. He slowly reached into the pouch and pulled out a slice of bread, the last in fact, then thrust the stale thing towards the little fuzz ball as an offering.
Hesitant at first, the monkey slowly edged its way towards the food until it was close enough to snatch the morsel from his hand. Without even glancing at it, the monkey began to shove pieces into it's mouth. Cloud continued to stare, not wanting to alarm the satisfied creature that at that moment he was slowly sneaking one of his hands behind his back for the dagger he had stored behind his buster sword. As he neared the leathery brown handle, he hesitated, for a moment the monkey almost looked…cute! He slightly shook his head, what was he thinking? He would starve! So he continued, and had wrapped his fingers around the handle and slowly began to drag it out.
When the blade had fully been pulled from it's sheath, Cloud hesitated once more. The monkey was just finishing up the last few crumbs, then looked up at him with it's large pleading eyes expecting more. Without realizing it, Cloud had actually resheathed his dagger and his hands lye in his lap disappointed at the loss of their meal. Without smiling or anything Cloud turned from its eyes, then stared into the flames of the fire. A small thump of his lap made him jump a little, but it was just the monkey making itself known, and cuddling up. He looked down at it, and it looked up at him, saying please with its eyes.
"Look, you've cleaned me out…" he snapped, then he mumbled under his cold breath, "…now we'll both starve." The monkey hadn't moved it's eyes in the least. "GET!" shouted cloud shifting his body to scare the monkey out of his lap. It had jumped out, but while on the ground, it turned back to him and scurried back into the warmth of his lap. Giving up, cloud concentrated back onto the flames. It was quiet that night. But the silence was broken by a small chirping noise which had come from the monkey below him. He looked down upon it, and realized it was sleeping. "What a strange creature…" he thought, beginning to stroke its furry back for the first time. It seemed to purr a little at this, but hadn't stirred from its sleep. Cloud continued to gently stroke it, but looked back at the fire. He dare not sleep on this fiend-infested mountain. But he actually didn't mind, he was use to little sleep, after being trained in SOLDIER, so for the full night, his head hadn't bobbed once.
The sun had finally began to make itself known, showering the two with it's morning rays of warmth. The monkey awoken and had jumped from his lap and onto his shoulder. Then it began to look around as if scoping out the area. Small chirps came from it evenly timed with the next. Cloud watched it from the corner of his eye, then stood up. The fire had died during the night, and all that remained was a small pile of smoking sticks. Without any trouble, the monkey had scurried over to clouds other shoulder and began to scope out the area once more. Annoyed, Cloud snatched it by its tail and peeled it off of its post, which it had dug its small claws into after being snatched. It was thrust out in front of his face and he stared at it. It had those same pleading eyes from the night before. Cloud gave a small scowl, then dropped it.
There was a muffled plop of it falling into the bank as it landed next to him. He ignored its little feet violently kicking to pull itself free, then began to journey once more. But soon enough the monkey had buried its way free, and was up on his shoulder again.
"Maybe I should've roasted you." Cloud said giving it a cold stare. The monkey ignored him, and chirped. It seemed pretty happy, and it also looked as if they were reaching the bottom of the mountain. When the snow began to clear up, it was already warm from the sun. But something was wrong, Cloud came to a halt, as he looked ahead and saw that he was back…back at the calm lands.
