Orion

"So, it's settled. We're leaving tomorrow at dawn." Blue Eyes signed with an air of finality about him as he sat in front of the small campfire with Rocket and Orion, the two other chimps nodding in agreement to the Ape Prince's statement.

Orion leaned back, supporting himself on his long, hairy arms as he stared into the dancing flames in front of him. The night was cool and the sky clear and filled to the brim with twinkling stars above their little camp – right in the middle of paradise.

At least that's how Orion would describe what they had found.

They had trekked through the dry, unforgiving deserts for months now, only occasionally stumbling upon a small patch of trees and grass to resupply before they had reached the end of their search.

On the map of Nevada they had received from Ofelia's group months prior, this place was marked as Great Basin National Park – he would have to inquire about that name when they got back to the colony – and though the journey had been long and difficult, even downright dangerous at times, the three of them had all agreed upon seeing this place that it had been worth the trouble.

The soldiers would never think to follow the apes here, Orion was certain the distance and deserts alone would be enough to deter them.

And the land they had found was nothing short of perfect. Deep forests and rolling, grassy hills, high mountains and open plains, lakes and rivers with clear water full of fish to catch.

Honestly, Orion could only find one thing wrong with it – one very important thing.

But, starting tomorrow, he was going to ride all the way back to get that one thing and bring it here.

His heart soared at the thought of going back to them. To Mother and Ivy and everyone else waiting back home – for he knew they were still there, alive and waiting. He could feel it in his heart.

And he had no doubt they would love this place too.

The trio had found it a week ago and had stayed here since then to inspect the area more closely, making sure it was free of humans, hostile as well as friendly, and with enough resources to sustain the apes for years to come. By now they had all agreed that it was nothing short of perfect and that this would be where the apes would rebuild their lives.

Orion reached up and traced his left ear in thought… Well, what remained of his left ear, anyway. It had healed up rather nicely now, if he did say so himself, but he also knew that it was quite noticeable still.

Mother will probably be furious when she sees it, the young chimp thought with a subtle, amused grin passing over his lips. But in all honesty, by now he just wanted to hear her voice again, no matter what tone she would choose.

Orion had, despite the hardships and his now partially missing ear, thoroughly enjoyed this adventure with Blue Eyes and Rocket, and felt that he had really grown into himself with the experience. He had become more independent and truly gotten to explore the talents he possessed, be it his advanced speech, his great hunting-skills or his steadfast support of his young leader.

He had wanted to find his place in the world with this journey. To grow into a useful ape to his colony – and an ape his parents could be proud of.

Not that he doubted that both Mother… and Father had been and still were proud of him, but when he had left the colony with Rocket and Blue Eyes, he had felt that he still needed to find his… 'niche' as Mother would put it. His calling.

Something that would make him a valuable asset to the ape colony and give him a sense of accomplishment.

It was only fair, Orion figured. He had been given a second chance at life way back when Mother had rescued him and Father from the human military lab. More than that, he had been gifted with two devoted, loving adoptive parents who had crossed a distance far greater than Orion himself had just done, just to be able to give him a home among his own kind. He had pets, unlike most other ape children, great friends and elders to look up to, and now, he had a potential future mate waiting for him at home. A female who was beautiful, sweet and unwavering all at once.

Yes, Orion had been given much in his life, and he intended to make the most of it all. To become an ape worthy of all of this.

"We should get some sleep, then. It will take a long time to get back… But hopefully less than it took getting here, now that we know the way." Rocket signed, looking quite tired himself.

No doubt he was longing just as much for home as Orion was. And Blue Eyes too, for that matter.

He didn't say much about it, always having been very private about such things, but the young chimp could tell that his childhood friend thought about home a lot – and probably also of what they could expect to find once they got back.

"You two go ahead and sleep. I will go down to the lakeside and sit for a bit." The Ape Prince signed just as Orion had gotten up and begun unfolding the rolled-up skins he had slept on this entire journey.

Rocket was doing much the same but stopped dead in his tracks and shot Blue Eyes a wary look, nodding a few seconds later.

"Just don't go wandering by yourself, okay? This is a wonderful place, but there are still predators here as well." The oldest ape signed as he sat down on his makeshift nest, looking imploringly at the young prince.

Orion nodded in agreement. They had seen coyotes already, as well as some mountain lion tracks just a couple of days ago. These hadn't been recently made ones, but it was enough to tell the apes that the feared beast did lurk around these parts as well.

Going alone in still largely unfamiliar territory was, therefore, quite a risk.

Before Koba's betrayal and everything that had followed, Blue Eyes might've scoffed at such a warning and, just to prove a point, wandered off into the night alone anyway, determined to prove that he could take care of himself and that he knew exactly what he was doing.

Now, however, he nodded seriously at his honorary uncle, accepting the warning for what it was – a show of concern and care.

"I will just go down to the lake. If something happens, you will hear it." The prince replied and, seemingly to reassure Rocket, picked up the gun that the older ape usually carried.

An amused huff left the balding chimp at that, and he waved dismissively at Blue Eyes before lying down to sleep, obviously wanting to get as much rest as he could before they would have to set out the next morning. Orion couldn't fault him for it. They all knew it would be a long journey back to the ape colony and if he was honest with himself, despite the fact that he enjoyed riding, he wasn't looking forward to several more months in the saddle.

Actually, he would have liked to get some sleep as well, if truth be told, but the way Blue Eyes had then nodded at him and unceremoniously left after Rocket had pulled his deerskin blanket over himself and gone to sleep prevented him from doing so. He had lied down afterwards, stargazing with his hands resting on top of his stomach, as was his wont when going to sleep, but no matter what, his mind wouldn't let him find rest.

He didn't like that Blue Eyes had gone off alone, no matter how close he had said he would be to the campsite, and besides, there had been something in his eyes which had told Orion that being alone wasn't what Blue Eyes really needed right now.

So, after a long while of staring up into the twinkling heavens with sleep continuously escaping his grasp, Orion hurled himself onto his feet and began walking in the direction the Ape Prince had gone. He wasn't too worried about Rocket sleeping alone – the campfire was still lit, and predators feared the fire. The oldest chimp would be fine.

And with that reassuring thought in mind, he put the soothing, orange and yellow light of the campfire behind him and turned to the moonlit night in search for his childhood friend.


As it turned out, Blue Eyes had meant it when he had said that he wouldn't go far, and Orion had only had to walk few hundred yards through a field of scattered trees before he found his friend and leader, sitting against a tree near the shore of the lake, with the gun he had taken carefully laid on the ground just beside him.

The younger chimp made sure to make as much noise as possible with his approach to ensure that his friend wouldn't mistake him for a prowling predator, and quickly came down to stand beside the Ape Prince, receiving a nod of acknowledgement from him before sitting down himself as well.

The bark of the tree, which was large enough for them both to lean on as they sat beside each other, felt rough and unforgiving against Orion's back, but he paid little attention to it as he sat there, focusing on the soft earth and grass beneath him, the cooling breeze going through his fur as he waited for his friend to speak.

And, contrary to what Orion might have expected of him, it didn't take long for Blue Eyes to reveal what was on his mind.

"Ash would have liked this place…" The Ape Prince signed slowly, carefully, as his pale eyes fixed on the reflected light dancing across the gentle waves of the lake's surface.

Ah yes, of course this would bother him, Orion thought, nodding in agreement. It bothered him too, that their friend was not here with them, and it was something the two had discussed at length already.

Even so, it was a topic that never really seemed properly resolved, no matter how often they spoke about it.

"He would have." The younger ape replied softly. "And he would have loved to come with us too."

Blue Eyes released a heavy sigh, his shoulders slumping with the action as his expression turned openly sad.

"He should have been." The prince replied, still with gentle movements. "He should have been with us on this journey. He should have helped save the colony…"

Again, Orion nodded, folding his hands on top of his lap as he let his friend speak his mind. Blue Eyes had always been quite private with his innermost thoughts, often preferring to mull them over in seclusion rather than asking others for advice or to simply have them listen. But Koba's betrayal, Ash's and Cornelia's deaths and the war with the soldiers had brought on a change in the young ape's behaviour and ever since their talk right after his mother's funeral, Blue Eyes had opened up a lot more to Orion. He was still very discreet and subdued whenever they discussed something that troubled him, but he had gotten a lot better at accepting help from others.

Well, from Orion, at least.

"When you think about it, in a way, he is helping." The younger ape replied thoughtfully, causing his older friend to turn his head to face him with a doubtful look.

"How? He isn't here, remember? Koba saw to that." He reminded with a sharp edge to his signing, as if the mere thought of the bonobo and what he had done almost had the prince bristle.

Orion shrugged. He resented Koba just as much as Blue Eyes did, really. Had he not betrayed Caesar and taken over the colony, then Father might still be alive and the war with the soldiers would never have happened. And had he not taken over and completely destroyed the human colony, then Cornelia might have gotten the medicines she had needed to get better and would still be alive today too.

Directly or indirectly, Koba's usurpation had claimed a lot of lives already. Lives that were dear to both Orion and Blue Eyes. It was the very reason why they were even here, so far away from home. To stop this taking of lives. To keep the ones they loved alive.

And it was things like their childhood friend's death that had spurred them on to want to accomplish this.

"The reason we are here is that we do not want anyone else to get killed like Ash." Orion explained patiently.

His speech had become almost as fluent as Mother's during the past year, the result of him practicing it daily and coming to prefer it over signing, despite the fact that his two companions barely ever spoke out loud themselves. Adding to that, his voice had also become much smoother, and it was much less of a strain to speak over longer periods of time now.

"He is our motivation… and by remembering him, we keep him with us too."

Blue Eyes gave a soft smile at that.

"He would have teased you endlessly about your ear." He then signed after a few moments of comfortable silence.

And Orion couldn't help but chuckle. Of course Ash would have done that. He had always been a jester.

"True. And he would have told you over and over to believe in yourself." The younger ape replied amusedly. "And teased you about Lake all the way here."

The two huffed out fond laughs and continued to come up with more and more things that their late friend would have done on this journey of theirs – most of them things that would aggravate the two but which they knew would always have been in that friendly, caring manner that Ash had never failed to communicate through his jokes and his teasing.

After a long while of this, their chuckles and reminiscing soon ebbed into an easy silence as they both quieted down and stared out across the large lake in front of them. The water's movements were relatively gentle tonight due to the light breeze, and had it not been for the large, bright moon and the billions of stars that accompanied it, the horizon would surely have melted into the darkness of the sky. Adding to the serenity all around them, the moonlight cast a silvery glow onto every little swaying blade of grass, and the smell of earth and fresh blooms permeated the night's air.

Yes, Ash would have liked this, Orion had no doubt about that.

A grunt from beside him pulled Orion out of his quiet reverie, and he turned to the Ape Prince to see what he had to say. Was something still bothering him?

There must have been, for the look on his face still seemed somewhat burdened.

"Orion… Do you… Do you think they will all still be there when we get back?" Blue Eyes asked, a sudden uncertainty in his pale stare that Orion hadn't witnessed since their clash with Ofelia's group of humans months prior.

The younger ape, still with his hands clasped in front of him, pursed his lips as he thought that question over.

"Not all of them… No..." He answered, feeling that he needed to be honest with his friend. There was no point in entertaining the illusion that every single ape of the colony would still be safe and sound by the time the three of them returned.

There was a war going on, after all, and some had already died when the trio had left to find the apes' new home. To think that it had stopped with their departure from the colony would be foolishly naïve.

Blue Eyes turned his head away to stare out across the lake once more, and Orion could, with the help of the pale light from the moon, see that the Ape Prince was biting his bottom lip with his blunt teeth.

"But-" Orion continued then, laying a hand on Blue Eyes' shoulder. "I am sure most will be. Your father and brother. My Mother and Ivy. Tinker, Maurice… and Lake."

He couldn't help but let a hint of a tease slip into his voice as he mentioned the Ape Prince's love interest – something that didn't go unnoticed by his peer and which earned him a playful shove in the ribs by Blue Eye's rather pointy elbow.

It didn't really hurt – it just threw him slightly off balance for a brief moment, before he managed to stabilise himself once more and grinned brightly at his childhood friend.

"I am sure they are alive, Blue Eyes." He spoke sincerely

"How?" The older ape asked, obviously confused, but also with a barely-visible, curious smirk on his face." How can you be sure? You sound almost as if you know."

Orion clasped his hands in front of himself again, lifting his eyes to the star-strewn sky with a pondering look. How indeed? It wasn't like Orion could know such things for certain, having been so very far away for so very long, but…

It was something in his gut. A calm, easy feeling whenever he thought about his mother, and what she might be doing right then. It had been the same back when they had been separated during Koba's betrayal. The young ape had been scared and worried for his mother, but even then, something had told him that she was alright, and Orion knew it had had nothing to do with Father's continued attempts to ease his worried mind at the time.

No, he was sure that, had she been in danger or the colony found and destroyed, his gut would not be calm, but instead a churning, uneasy mess as a dreadful feeling would wrap around his heart. Just like it had done during the fight between Caesar and Koba, when threats to her life had been all around. She could have fallen to her death, she could have been purposely thrown by the bonobo's followers, she could have been shot… So many threats so close had whipped up a storm inside Orion's chest until it had all been over and he had seen that she had been left largely unharmed, safe for a bruise or two.

Yes, the young ape male was sure he would know if something was amiss, even if he was not there himself – yet.

But how to explain all of this to Blue Eyes? How to make him understand, when Orion couldn't even properly word it inside his own mind?

In the end, he opted for the simplest reasoning in the hopes that Blue Eyes would somehow get it.

"I just… I think I would know… If something was wrong…" He spoke somewhat slowly, knowing that these words didn't quite make sense, even to himself – and yet, he was sure that it was the truth. "If something… bad had happened to Mother, I am sure I would feel it."

Then, he returned his green gaze to his childhood friend beside him, a crooked smile playing on his rough lips.

"I know she is looking up at these stars too. Maybe not right now… But sometime tonight, she will be."

It sounded incredibly vague and entirely too emotional, even by Orion's standards, but he honestly had no other way of putting it.

Blue Eyes nodded all the same and, to Orion's surprise, it seemed like he actually understood.

"I like that thought." The Ape Prince signed, the barest hint of a wistful smile gracing his pale face. "Perhaps my father is doing the same?"

"I would believe so." Orion replied easily, leaning back against the tree trunk behind the two.

Blue Eyes turned from him then, to look up at the starry sky, the billions of tiny lights reflected in his pale gaze.

The two young chimps sat like that for a long time, once again letting themselves be surrounded by the sounds of the night. Chirping of crickets, rustling of leaves brought on by the gentle breeze, and water softly lapping against the lakeshore.

It was a nice spot Blue Eyes had chosen for gathering his thoughts, quiet and tranquil, much like the clearing his mother had been buried in, where they had had their first true heart-to-heart about their lost ones over a year ago. And this was probably why Orion was all the more startled when he heard the Ape Prince's raspy, unused voice all of a sudden, piercing the tranquil air of the night.

"Orion." He spoke as softly as he could, though it still sounded loud in comparison to everything else around them.

The younger of the two apes quickly recovered from his initial surprise and gave a curious, questioning hum to indicate that he was listening, turning his head to look at Blue Eyes in case the prince chose to sign his next words.

He did not. Instead, Orion found that his leader was still staring up at the stars above with a solemn look on his face.

"When it is my turn... To lead the apes… After my father…" He rasped out as best he could, with less difficulty than months prior, but still clearly unpractised. "I would like you… On my ape council."

Honoured as he was, Orion still had to grimace slightly at this sudden declaration.

"Why?" He asked, perplexed.

Sure, he had known Blue Eyes since they had been children, and he was the closest friend he had, with this journey only bringing them closer still… But what qualifications did he possess that justified such a high-ranking position? What did Blue Eyes think Orion could contribute with?

Sure, Orion was a brilliant hunter, anyone who had ever lead a hunting party with the young ape in it would readily say so. But there were many good hunters in the colony, and quite a few who Orion still had yet to surpass.

He had been loyal to Caesar during Koba's betrayal and had, too, lost a parent during this difficult time. It was something which the two had bonded over, but was that really enough to warrant a future council position? Such an honour demanded more than just close friendship, after all.

Then there was his ability to speak, which was beyond that of most, if not all others in the colony. Well, except his own mother that is… But seeing as the apes still relied heavily on signing and were actively trying to get away from the only other species capable of speech, Orion didn't see how that would be a useful asset either.

What else was there, then? What other qualities did Orion possess?

It was then that Blue Eyes finally decided to turn his head and look Orion straight in the eyes and the younger ape barely managed to keep himself from inhaling sharply in surprise at the pale orbs' intensity.

"Because you always know… What words to say. When I doubt." Blue Eyes spoke grittily then, a serious look on his relatively smooth face. A face on which Orion could detect nothing but sincerity. "And you are not afraid. To say them either."