Lydia

Lydia was sitting on a log in the glade where she usually trained Malcolm, Ellie and Alex, her mind straying to and fro as she stared at nothing in particular, simply enjoying the quiet she found here.

Few ever came to this place due to the fact that most were either out fighting the soldiers or, in case of the females, making themselves busy at home with various tasks to keep the colony going. Gathering berries, roots and herbs was becoming essential now that it was only a small, select group that went hunting instead of the bulk of the colony's males, as they had been used to in the past.

Seeing as Lydia was damn near useless when it came to foraging and Caesar didn't want to risk her life fighting the soldiers directly (much to her chagrin), she was glad she could at least continue to hunt and provide for the colony as she had always done – though with the added pressure of not being able to rely as heavily on another hunting party as she had in the past.

In fact, she had returned from one such hunt only an hour or two ago, and had expected to train archery with Malcolm, Ellie and Alex when she had found that they were occupied elsewhere. The human couple were both out foraging with a group of females, learning from them a skill Lydia herself could never hope to teach, and Alex… Well Alex was spending time with Orion, as was becoming their custom during the afternoon.

To be honest, though she had come to greatly appreciate the human trio's company and found great joy in teaching them what she knew about survival, Lydia had to admit that she was happy to receive some time to herself and her thoughts.

It was a rare occurrence these days.

Well, at least I don't have to worry about Orion's safety, Lydia thought as she picked at the thick layer of moss on the log she was sitting on.

Orion was one of the few males who had been selected to stay home and watch over the colony, still considered young with his seven years of age on him, but as steadfast a follower of Caesar as his mother was.

Lydia also had a sneaking suspicion that Caesar had chosen to keep Orion in the colony with the intention of keeping him out of harm's way for her sake, sparing her the potential pain of losing the last family member she had left now.

Whatever the reason, she was glad Orion wasn't out there risking his life and limb, even if she knew he was itching to be with Blue Eyes and support him.

A sigh left her, and she looked through the treetops, up at the pale, blue sky above them all. Given the choice, Caesar would probably have liked to keep Blue Eyes home as well – but the oldest Ape Prince, with his eight years of age, was just about ready to enter the ranks of the adult apes and besides, Caesar couldn't very well keep his son and heir away from the fight when other apes had sons the same age out there as well.

Though Lydia expected that they'd have to call in the younger apes too at some point – including Orion.

It was a thought she dreaded, and it was one of the many that kept her awake at night.

Just then, the sound of rustling leaves near her caught Lydia's attention and she felt how every muscle tensed in anticipation – it couldn't be the human trio, the adults would still not be done with their tasks, and she knew for a fact Alex was down by the river with Orion. Besides, they would have made way more of a racket coming through the woods.

It couldn't be Tinker or any of the other females either – they were out foraging.

She didn't get to narrow it down further before the individual came forth from within the bushes to reveal themselves and Lydia's stare immediately grew hard once she saw who it was.

There, only about ten feet away from her, stood a huge, brooding male gorilla, covered in signature dark-red fur.

It was Red – one of Koba's followers.

Lydia was on edge the moment she laid eyes on him, not anywhere near having forgotten – or forgiven – what he had supported during Koba's short reign. She would never understand why Caesar had let any of them stay to begin with – an opinion she shared with many of the colony's apes, many thinking it something akin to a mockery of their fallen friends and family members.

But the Ape King was all about second chances…

Red kept his distance for now though, which was a relief to Lydia. She knew that if he actually decided to attack her, there was little she could do to stop him. Even the small females like Ivy were physically several times stronger than her, and Red was a large male and a gorilla to boot. The best she could hope to accomplish in the face of his wrath, especially at this proximity, was to grab for the hunting knife strapped to her thigh, and hope she'd be able to hit something vital – like his face, for example – before he'd manage to do anything worse to her.

Like ripping her apart, limb by scrawny limb.

"Red" She spoke formally, inclining her head towards the large ape while maintaining a calm, collected façade.

This felt so wrong… two-and-a-half months past, she wouldn't have had to fear any of the apes – she just didn't speak with those who didn't get along with her, and they had avoided her just the same.

Never before had she had to consider the possibility that any one of these apes might mean her harm. She had never had to even think about what they were capable of…

But Koba had taken that luxury away from her now, just as his hatred had taken away her lover and her best friend….

She would never forgive that the bonobo for that…

"Lydia." Red nodded his enormous head back at her, his voice deep and hoarse as he stared at her, an ill-favoured look in his eyes.

It sent a barely-suppressed shiver of anxiety down Lydia's spine, the way his green orbs seemed to drill right through her, scrutinising her like a piece of choice-cut venison. He had always stared at her like that, for as long as she could remember knowing him, though it hadn't been as obvious in the past.

Before Koba's betrayal, they had never spoken all that much together, though he had accompanied Lydia on several of her hunts. Red had usually avoided her gaze entirely and seemed content with just carrying out the task of transporting the kills she made back to the colony, though she had been able to feel his eyes on her ever so often when her gaze was turned away.

It wasn't something she had given much thought back then, and certainly never to the point that she had been searching his face for indications of a possible attack – or other… ill-intentions towards her person.

Now, however, she was on edge by the mere exhale of his breath, thinking each one might be made in preparation – for what, she could not tell.

"Did you… want something?" She ventured when he didn't say anything else.

It seemed to break him out of some sort of brooding reverie, and Lydia immediately regretted speaking up as he suddenly came forward, his steps heavy on the soft earth until he stood right in front of her.

Towering over her.

It was all Lydia could do not to lean back once he was less than a foot away from where she sat – but she was nothing if not stubborn, and so, the slighter human woman stood her ground and didn't move an inch. She would not submit to him!

"Why?" He asked darkly, his eyes staring almost accusingly at her as he spoke.

It was a simple question, though without meaning to Lydia. It lacked context as well as an elaboration.

Showing him that she had no idea what he was getting at, Lydia raised a challenging eyebrow up at the enormous gorilla.

"Why what, Red?" Lydia countered.

He inhaled sharply when she uttered his name, his gaze intensifying, if that was even possible.

"Why are you still here? Why do you… remain with the apes?"

Her dark brows knitted together in confusion at his inquiry. Why wouldn't she be? The ape colony was where she had her life. Her friends and her son were all here – where else did he think she was supposed to go?

"I'm afraid I don't follow… What exactly did you expect me to do?" Lydia questioned uncertainly, a slight frown on her face.

Red seemed almost annoyed with her as he replied.

"You could be… down there. With them." He spoke gruffly, his nostrils flaring ever so slightly with every word he uttered. "You could be. On the winning side. With the humans and their weapons… They would welcome you. Treat you as equal. Because of what you are."

There was a brief silence after Red had finished his sentence in which Lydia just stared up at him in utter disbelief.

It didn't take long for it to turn into indignation and then anger – a white-hot, seething fury that quickly bubbled up from within her gut and surged forth like a viper to hiss and spit at the ape in front of her.

"So that's it? You're here because you want to know why I haven't betrayed the apes yet? Like you did?"

The feral growl that rent from deep within his throat at her accusation should have sent Lydia running for the hills, it really should have. And it would have, if she hadn't been so incredibly angry at the mere suggestion that she betray the life she had known and loved for the last five to six years.

"I did not betray. The apes!" He argued aggressively, though his voice was still low and dark. "I did what needed. To be done… I did what Caesar. Never would… Never could…"

"Like hunt down and kill innocent humans? People who had done nothing to hurt you? People like me?" She challenged him further, an equally hard look in her eyes.

Lydia had never imagined she'd defend humans and their supposed innocence against an ape, let alone put herself in the same figurative group as them – she had felt completely removed from humanity for so long that the concept seemed ridiculous to her, even now…

But what she said was true all the same. The humans back in the city had been innocent of the crime Koba had accused them of. Heck, there had been children in there who had never even seen an ape, and Red damn well knew that! Were they to be judged for a crime they hadn't committed? Based on the sole fact that they were of a certain species?

The attack on Caesar's leadership didn't go unnoticed by Lydia either and only served to fuel her rage further.

"And all Caesar ever did was trying to avoid the situation you, Koba and the rest of those misguided apes put us in, and now, he's left to clean up the mess you've made, all because you couldn't look past your hatred." She spoke evenly as she stared directly into the red gorilla's eyes, not backing down.

At that, Red let out another loud, threatening growl and leaned down over Lydia, solidly planting a hand onto the mossy log on each side of her, trapping her and forcing her to lean back finally. His face was so close to her own that she could feel his hot breath against her face. See every fine, little wrinkle on his dark face.

But aside from moving her torso slightly backwards, Lydia didn't even flinch – she wouldn't give him the satisfaction of knowing how tense he made her. How he made her want to bolt.

She hated that feeling.

"You think much of him." Red commented gruffly, every syllable another hot breath across her face. He couldn't have been more than two inches away from her.

"Do you…" He stopped mid-sentence, a calculating look in his eyes as he took in her features. "Do you… want him? Is that why you. Defend him so much?" His voice was laced with something Lydia couldn't quite pin-point at that moment. A dangerous edge.

She couldn't focus on it, however, as the question sent Lydia's mind into a state of disarray and she stared up at the red-furred ape in a mixture of horror and indignation.

"W-what?!"

"What else could be. The reason? Other than you. Wanting to be his pet? Like with Roy…" The name of her dead lover curled around the gorilla's tongue in a vicious snarl – as if the mere mention of Roy was an insult.

She drew in a sharp breath and Red's eyes briefly ventured down to her chest as it expanded before he redirected his green gaze back to her face.

Then, the lid she had kept on her anger came off. Completely.

"He gave me a home!" Lydia countered once she had regained her composure, the fire in her eyes seemingly surprising Red as he recoiled a fraction at her sharp tone. "He let me stay with my family! Let me be part of the colony, even when he knew it was an unpopular decision! Should I repay him with betrayal and indifference now?! Like you're doing after all these years of peace?!"

He didn't move further away from her, though the hardening of his gaze told Lydia he was about to argue again at her accusation – she didn't give him the chance to defend himself a second time.

"And don't you ever talk about Roy like that! I loved him, dammit! He was my equal and my mate! And I will not let you degrade our bond to that of a pet and its master, you hear me, Red?! Don't you fucking dare!"

She was yelling now, right into his face. She was sure her eyes were wild and her expression livid, but she couldn't help herself anymore. He had crossed the line long ago, but to say something like that about Roy and her… To defile his memory and have the gall to insinuate that he had seen her as nothing more than a pet – a thing he kept close for his own amusement when nothing could be further from the truth.

It didn't matter what Red had implied about her, Lydia didn't give a damn about that.

But she would hear no one speak ill of Roy – especially not a traitor like Red.

He didn't seem too fazed by the fact that she was basically an inch from his face, yelling and hissing and cursing.

If anything, Lydia guessed it was what she had said that managed to get to him, his eyes widening a fraction as soon as the words 'love', 'equal' and 'mate' left her lips. She could literally feel how the softened wood underneath her gave way under the pressure of his clutching hands beside her.

"So, it is true." He spoke lowly, seemingly processing her words. Dissecting them. "You were his. Truly… A human and ape… Mated."

Lydia nodded defiantly.

She had expected such a revelation to disgust Red to his very core. Had thought that it would perhaps make him draw back from her in revulsion. He hated humans, after all.

Instead he sounded… intrigued.

Out of her peripheral vision, Lydia saw how Red slowly lifted his large, calloused hand up towards her face, and felt how every single muscle in her body was pulled taut in preparation to defend herself. She honestly didn't know what she had expected from him at that point – an attack? A chokehold? A slap across her face?

But whatever she had imagined, it was certainly not… this.

His fingers barely even touched the side of her face, only grazing the tiny hairs on her skin ever so slightly as he traced her cheek – all the while staring into her eyes with an intense, scrutinising gaze, as if he was looking for something. Searching for a trace of a certain reaction from her that he seemingly expected… or craved.

Lydia was beginning to get an idea of what this was about… at least partially.

Whatever it was he had hoped to see in her eyes, be it fear, anxiety, submission… or lust, she knew he would not find it.

She held none of these feelings for this ape and contented herself to return his stare with cold indifference.

Red seemed to realise this after a while, his gaze hardening as he huffed and straightened his posture in front of her, removing his hand from her face as if burned. The breath he had released as he stood had been so harsh it blew Lydia's dark bangs and loose strands of hair completely out of her face, and she resisted the urge to wipe her features clean of any possible traces of saliva that might have sprayed with the action.

"Was there anything else?" She spoke in a clipped voice. She'd about had enough of this conversation.

For a long while, he didn't say anything. Didn't give any indication that he had even heard her.

Did nothing except eyeing her with that unnerving stare, hungry and disdainful all at once.

Then he drew a heavy, deep sigh, seemingly all the way from the bottom of his gut and once again, Lydia expected him to… do something. Lurch forward once again, perhaps.

Only he didn't.

"This war… It will kill every ape here… you too, if you stay… The forest cannot protect you." Red informed her, his heavy brow lowered, and his mouth set in a deep frown.

"I'll deal with it when that time comes. That's what happens when you make a choice, Red. You deal with the consequences – whatever they might be." Lydia answered pointedly.

They both knew that she was hinting at the choices he had made as well. It was no secret that the apes who had followed Koba were now treated with suspicion and mistrust by the rest of the colony and it was clear many of them were not exactly thriving in that sort of environment – being ostracised.

It couldn't be helped, though. What they had done to the colony and what it had brought upon everyone now – it had been unnecessary, unjustified and unforgivable, and now, they were left to deal with the consequences of their actions. Of their betrayal.

The thing was though, it was clear many of them, like Red, still held on to these ideals and thought they had done nothing wrong.

They were still willing to turn their backs on Caesar's ten years of good leadership.

They would betray again, given the chance – of that, Lydia was certain.

Red let his piercing eyes rove over her form a final time, sending tiny pinpricks of unease up and down Lydia's spine. Then he huffed harshly at her words and finally turned away, stalking back towards the bushes from which he had first appeared.

Before he disappeared among the branches and leaves, he turned his head slightly back towards Lydia and spoke, his voice low, dark and foreboding.

"You will see. That I am right… You have chosen the losing side… and your consequence. Will be death."

And with that, Red was gone, slipping through the bushes as quietly as a prowling predator, leaving Lydia with a still-racing heart and clammy palms. She released a stuttering breath she hadn't known she was even holding but didn't dare close her eyes to try and focus on calming her breathing and heartbeat. Just because she couldn't see Red anymore didn't mean he wasn't still here somewhere, watching her. Observing her. Wanting to know just how much he had affected her.

She would not give in to him, even if it turned out he had actually left.

What exactly was this all about? She wondered as she got up, not feeling much like staying in the eerily quiet glade anymore.

It was about to get dark anyway…


"Gone? Where?" Caesar's voice sounded gruffly, a deep crease appearing between his brow and a suspicious frown on his lips. Lydia stood at the side lines, beside Maurice, as the Ape King interrogated the chimp in front of him.

Stone, Koba's former follower and close friend, bowed his head submissively before signing.

"They left in the night. I don't know where to." The grey chimpanzee replied. "Grey wanted to leave. Said Caesar is leading apes to their deaths. That he will lose against the humans and their guns."

Caesar's nostrils flared, and his eyes gained a hard edge as he looked down his nose at Stone. It was yesterday that Red had approached Lydia in the glade where she usually trained the human trio and today, nobody had been able to find him… or the majority of the apes who had followed Koba for that matter.

Only a small handful were still to be found in the colony, and one of them was Stone – Grey's constant companion. Lydia was surprised he hadn't left together with the others, honestly – he and Grey had always seemed damn near inseparable.

She still hadn't told Caesar – or anyone else – that Red had approached her yesterday. She had been too shaken by the encounter and honestly, she had thought it was a matter between her and the gorilla. A private albeit very uncomfortable conversation and nothing more.

Now, she was thinking that perhaps it had been a mistake not to tell anyone.

"Why?" Caesar inquired, a stern expression etched onto his face.

Stone kept his posture small and unthreatening as he explained it.

"They felt unwelcome. Unwanted. Mistrusted."

"Because you all are." Lydia interjected, a frown marring her features as she fixed Stone with a hard stare. "You guys following Koba is the sole reason we're all in this mess now – did they expect everyone to pretend as if nothing happened? Forgive and forget? As if nobody has died at their hands?"

Stone avoided Lydia's hard stare, seemingly uncomfortable with the woman's accusations. Unlike Red, though, he didn't deny them.

"They think we did nothing wrong. That we were right to do it."

"And you don't think so?" She challenged further, arms crossed tightly over her chest.

At that, he looked up at her, eyes tired, but sincere-looking nonetheless.

"No. I want to stay with apes. I will not run away like them." Then, his gaze turned back to Caesar, chest puffed out but still keeping himself submissive and smaller in the face of the large chimpanzee. "I know what I have done. I will not hide from it."

Stone then bowed his head and reached his hand forward, palm facing upwards. The supplicating gesture was one Lydia knew well, having seen it plenty of times throughout her life with the apes. Koba had used it too, so how much did it even mean anymore?

The Ape King stared long and hard at the grey chimp, studying his features – Lydia imagined that he was trying to decide if the sincerity he found there was genuine or just a ploy to regain his favour.

Personally, she still had her doubts. While it did have an impact on Lydia that Stone hadn't followed Grey, his oldest and closest friend, in leaving behind the colony and Caesar's rule, she couldn't let go of the fact that he had gone against the Ape King in the first place.

Then again, maybe she was just biased… After all, Stone had lost everything after Caesar regained power over the Ape Colony, mainly his position on the Ape Council, not to mention the trust of the everyone here. The only thing he had left would be his friendship with Grey, and even then, he had turned his back on that in favour of staying with his people – apes who had ostracised him for what he had done.

Perhaps he wanted to redeem himself? Truly?

In the end, though, it was never Lydia's decision to begin with.

Caesar seemed inclined to believe Stone, sighing deeply after what felt like several minutes of intense scrutiny. He then pursed his rough lips and nodded in acceptance at Stone's words, swiping his fingers across the other chimp's palm.

And very much unlike his former leader, Stone did not draw away the moment Caesar's hand met his own.

After a few minutes of further interrogation, Stone was dismissed by the Ape King, who then turned to Maurice, Lydia and Rocket with a tired expression on his face.

"Caesar, not that I am questioning your judgement or anything, but you do realise that he might just be feeding you a lie while Red and the others are in the nearby forest, waiting for us to put our guard down because we think they're gone?" Lydia spoke in a worried tone, arms still tightly crossed over her chest.

The way Red had snuck up on her the day before had, seemingly, made an impression on her, making her expect he might do something similar on a larger scale. It would be easy to make such an ambush if the entire colony thought them to be gone for good – out of sight, out of mind, as they say.

Beside her, Rocket nodded his head in agreement, his chin protruding into a serious pout.

"I agree with Lydia. We should not give them the opportunity to attack. They might not be gone after all. Stone could simply be a spy. A way to distract us." The balding ape signed, casting a lingering, suspicious glance towards the towering forest around them.

There was no shortage of hiding places out there.

Caesar nodded seriously and looked to Maurice for his opinion, noting that the orangutan had kept quiet so far. The soothing rumble that left him was accompanied by a slow nod of agreement.

"I think Stone is telling the truth. However, it will not hurt to be cautious. We have been lied to before." The aging ape signed with heavy movements.

It was nice for Lydia to know that others had the same thoughts as her – she had wondered more than once since Koba's betrayal, as the days went by and still no one had made a move to cause unrest within the colony, if it had perhaps been all in her head. Perhaps she had just been conditioned to expect such things since her days in the human colony back in Minneapolis, and her paranoia now was but a remnant of that?

What would they gain from it anyway? Lydia had asked herself more than once. If Grey, Red, or someone else decided to make a move to dethrone Caesar once more, all they would get was a tribe in the middle of a bloody war with humans and besides, it was highly unlikely that the colony would take kindly to such a scheme.

Still, it didn't hurt to be cautious, as Maurice had put it.

Caesar nodded with a deep, thoughtful frown on his face.

"Maurice, you must. Stay here today… Help Lydia keep. An eye on everything… Rocket will go into the forest. With Blue Eyes and I." The Ape King spoke. "If anything happens. Send Orion to the northern post. We will be there today."

Lydia and Maurice both nodded in agreement before the orangutan went off to teach the children for the day. Better to spread some knowledge around now that he wouldn't be out in the field, advising Caesar. The human woman suspected that the elderly ape was secretly glad to get a short reprieve from the fight with the humans, getting to spend time with the precious ape children instead. She knew for a fact the little rascals missed his classes.

Children who miss going to school. Who'd have thought? Lydia pondered to herself, a small, amused smile on her face as the old orangutan trailed off to find his pupils.

Just then, Rocket hooted at Caesar, who nodded and began following the balding ape as they made their way out of the colony's inner sanctum and towards the outer ridges of the forest.

A sudden impulse gripped Lydia as she saw the Ape King's retreating form. She still hadn't told him about her encounter with Red yesterday and somehow, she felt he needed to know.

She didn't know what good the information would do, as it had been a very… personal conversation, touching upon subjects she'd rather keep to herself – but something inside her told Lydia that Caesar ought to know anyway.

That it would be important to him to know this.

"Caesar!" Lydia called after the Ape King, her voice uncertain.

It was probably that which had made him stop dead in his tracks and turn around to face her as soon as his name had left her lips. Uncertainty was not something he was used to hear from Lydia, and his brow immediately knitted together in concern as his eyes met hers.

"Yes?" He spoke gravelly. A few feet in front of him, Rocket had also stopped to stare back at her questioningly.

"Can we… erhm… Can we talk? There's something I'd like to discuss with you." She managed to say, looking at him pointedly to indicate that she'd like to keep this private.

He was smart enough to get the hint, thank goodness, and signed for Rocket to go ahead without him. He'd catch up to his second-in-command once he was done here.

Caesar then inclined his head for Lydia to follow him, and they went to a secluded area at the very edge of the forest, a bit away from the main road into the colony itself. Once there, he turned to face her, still with that look of concern across his rugged face.

"Is something wrong?" He immediately asked, his voice deep and gruff.

"I don't know… I mean…" Lydia struggled to find her words, not exactly knowing how she should broach the subject. It's not like it was an urgent matter – at least she didn't think it was – but it had bothered her since yesterday and, more importantly, she felt it would somehow be going behind Caesar's back if she didn't inform him about it.

It was a ridiculous thought, really, and she argued with herself that he probably had better things to do than listen to a recount of her uncomfortable conversation with the very invasive gorilla. What use was it to him anyway now that Red was gone with the rest of Koba's followers?

Lydia sighed, gathering her thoughts. Her mind wouldn't rest until she had told him and besides, she knew Caesar would gladly listen to her, if only for the sake of making her feel better about the whole thing. That was the kind of ape he was, after all.

"I spoke with Red yesterday." Lydia said in a resigned manner, deciding to just say it like it was.

Caesar's brow curled in confusion.

"With Red? About what?" He spoke inquisitively, though Lydia could sense an underlying urgency in his voice.

"He… I was sitting in the glade where I usually train Malcolm and the others. You know? The one a few hundred yards south-east of here?"

The Ape King nodded, indicating for her to continue.

"Then he came out from the bushes all of a sudden. Began asking all sorts of… questions. Like why I was still here with the apes and not with the humans down in the city. Said I could be on the 'winning side' instead of here."

Caesar's breathing was heavier as he reverted his gaze to the ground, gold-speckled eyes turning harder as Lydia continued to speak.

"It came to a point where he got… very close… I thought he was going to attack me the entire time, but… then he just up and left, saying that me staying here would be my death…"

The sharp inhale Caesar did at those words had Lydia almost recoil, though she knew the anger he was clearly suppressing was not directed at her.

"And you were alone. With him? No one else around?" The Ape King inquired, his voice dark and borderline menacing. "No one to protect you?"

Under normal circumstances, Lydia would have huffed and rolled her eyes in exasperation, telling Caesar that she could handle herself and that she wasn't a child in need of a guardian.

But this had been different. His concern was well-placed, and she knew she wasn't fooling anyone. Red had frightened her, no matter how reluctant she was to admit it, and she hadn't even had Blaze and Storm with her, for crying out loud! She had basically been a sitting duck and had Red intended to harm her, he would have done so without much effort.

"Yeah… He caught me alone…" Lydia answered in a small voice, fighting to hold back a shiver at the thought.

She knew Caesar noticed it anyway.

"Did he do something. To you?" The Ape King asked, a hint of anger simmering right below the surface as he spoke. Lydia didn't even want to think about what he was hinting at.

She shook her head in reply.

"No. No, we only talked. It turned into quite an argument… I actually ended up yelling at him… Right into his face…"

Caesar seemed briefly taken aback by this revelation, the anger almost completely disappearing from his face as he eyed the human woman in front of him with an impressed look. Then, concern once again took over his features.

"Why?" He asked. "What else did he say. To make you so angry?"

Now, this was the part Lydia would rather Caesar had not asked about. She didn't want to lie to him, but she also didn't want to reveal how very… intrusive and insulting Red had been. How he had managed to get under her skin and how he had reached for her like… like that. Like he had wanted something… intimate from her. The memory still sent a chill through her.

Also, she didn't want to tell how he had so easily managed to guess at her attraction towards Caesar. She imagined he had meant it as an insult towards Lydia rather than actually believing it to be true, but it had startled her all the same.

There was only one truth in all of this that she could tell, really – so she did.

"He… insulted Roy. Very much so… I-I couldn't stand for it, Caesar, I just couldn't!" Lydia's voice cracked towards the end of her sentence, and once it was uttered, she gritted her teeth harshly in an effort not to let her emotions get the best of her.

To her surprise, Caesar reached forward and wrapped her in a gentle, comforting embrace, hushing her quietly as he wrapped his long arms around her.

Lydia released a soft, quivering sigh into the Ape King's shoulder and felt how her tense muscles began to loosen up as he held her. She hadn't expected the embrace at all, especially not here, out in the open like this – but it was welcomed by her nonetheless.

"I-I'm sorry, Caesar. I know you don't have time to deal with stuff like this. I just… I just had to tell you. It kept bothering me…" Lydia spoke into his fur once she was sure her voice was steady again.

Caesar leaned back from the embrace, though he kept his hands firmly planted on her shoulders as he fixed her with a soft, but no less reprimanding stare.

"I am glad you told me…But what you did… Yelling at Red like that… Being alone. With no one to help… It was very dangerous, Lydia."

"I know…" She replied, hating the implications behind his words.

Lydia was a very self-sufficient and independent woman – at least that's how she wanted it to be, anyway – and she absolutely hated the thought of having to depend on others to feel safe. This was her home, dammit! It shouldn't have to be like that!

Still, she knew Caesar was right – She was a human, frail and vulnerable compared to the apes, and she had been made very aware of that yesterday.

"Promise me. That you will keep someone near." Caesar implored, the large, calloused hands on her shoulders shaking her ever so slightly as he spoke. "Those apes… They might be gone… But I still want you safe… The forest is still dangerous… More than ever."

She nodded, releasing a heavy sigh as she did so. She didn't feel like arguing with him about this – it would be a losing battle on her part anyway.

"Alright, Caesar. I promise."

He seemed satisfied with that, nodding at her words before he let go of her shoulders.

"Thank you…" The Ape King said, sounding quite relieved that she hadn't argued with him on the topic.

Honestly, she might be stubborn, and she might be reckless at times, but after the scare she had yesterday, even Lydia could see reason behind his words.

"Is there… anything more?" He asked then, his intense eyes searching Lydia's.

Of course there was more but she would not divulge into that now. Couldn't do that now.

"No… No, not really" Lydia spoke as sincerely as she could, flashing the ape in front of her a weak smile.

She knew he didn't buy it. It was clear by the way he raised his brow at her, but he seemed to decide against prying. Perhaps he thought she'd had enough for one day? Maybe he just didn't have the time?

Whatever the reason, she was glad he didn't question her further, even if the look in his eyes told her that he would do so at another time. She could probably come up with a plausible excuse until then.

"Right… I will go, then… Remember, if anything happens. Send Orion to the northern outpost."

"Will do." Lydia replied with a single nod, watching as Caesar turned to head towards the forest, on his way to catch up with Rocket.

"Oh, and Caesar?" Lydia called, making the Ape King turn around to face her for the second time that drearily grey morning, an inquisitive look in his green-and-gold eyes. "Thank you for listening…"

He cracked a small smile back at her at that, soft and genuine like she hadn't seen on him in… well, it seemed like forever by now, really. She returned it with a soft tilt of her head, which only seemed to make him huff out a short laugh before he turned towards the forest again and disappeared between the huge redwood trees.

And with that, Lydia began walking back towards her home, hands buried deep in the pockets of her deerskin pants as she pondered on what to do today. Hunting was out of the question – it was way too late to begin a hunt now – perhaps she could do some training with Malcolm and the others? It'd be a nice distraction, after all and she would be able to keep her promise to Caesar about not going around alone that way.

She sighed at that.

I seem to be doing a lot of promising lately…, Lydia thought as she passed underneath the arch that marked the entrance to the colony's inner sanctum, the waterfall roaring as she approached the main cave.

I hope I can keep them all…