Hello everyone, thanks for the lovely reviews! My theatre job has just finished so I have a bit of free time before I find the next one hence lots of chapters being posted! Glad everyone is enjoying it and how I have written the characters.

Yes Sunrise19, we use the word 'grounded' in the UK too, not that I know much about it as I was a real goody-goody as a kid/teenager, not the rebellious type lol! Enjoy the next chapter xxx

Chapter 25 - Family Feud:

The group trekked for hours through the jungle in what seemed an interminable silence, Tarzan leading followed by Keke, Annabelle and then Tantor at the back, none of them daring to make a single sound. It looked like two gaolers leading two commended convicts to the scaffold with the animals in the trees and bushes making grim spectators. Annabelle could feel a large painful blister forming on the sole of her foot but bit her lip for fear that if she winced she would face another bout of her father's wrath.

She had never seen her father so angry before and it was the first time in her life that she feared him. The only other time that he properly shouted at her was when she was four as she touched the hot range and burnt her hand. But he was soon cuddling her and kissing her sore hand better. She knew that she would be in trouble for running off but she never expected him to be as angry as this. As they got closer and closer to home her stomach began to emit sharp stabs of pain and a ball of nervous bile rose up in her throat.

"Tantor!" Tarzan barked out so suddenly that the others nearly collided into the back of each other and Annabelle almost vomited up onto the broken knapsack in her arms! Tantor scuttled forward to his friend, looking as guilty as the two girls.

"Yeeeesss Tarzan?" he hesitated, afraid of his friend's expression which was stone cold as a statue.

"Take Keke back to her parents… my daughter and I need to talk."

Annabelle shrank behind Keke who gently squeezed her hand to give her courage but none came. Tantor came over to them and held out his trunk for Keke to hold. Before they turned to walk away he whispered sadly to Annabelle, "Anna… it's been nice knowing you kid." Annabelle forlornly watched the pair walk away, Keke looking back over her shoulder, her eyes silently wishing her good luck.

"Annabelle!" Tarzan snapped loudly and she turned round to see that her father had walked off and was crouching at 'Porters' Ledge.' It was a vantage point where the jungle ended on a sheer cliff that had a spectacular view overlooking the waterfalls and the lush jungle below with the sea in the far distance. It was a beauty spot frequented often by the Porters for family picnics, Jane using it as inspiration to sketch and paint and Archimedes to watch the stars through his telescope. A place of such happy memories, laughter and joy was now going to be tainted with anger and punishment.

Annabelle put down the knapsack and hung her head as she slowly walked over to her father and sat down next to him, hugging her knees up to her chest. Tarzan stared straight-ahead, watching the moon disappearing and reappearing behind the scudding clouds. The tension between them was as sharp as a knife blade, Tarzan's deep and heavy breathing as nerve-racking as a ticking clock.

"Papa," Annabelle couldn't bear the silence any longer, "please say something."

"I don't know what to say you Annabelle," Tarzan stopping looking out and turned his head to face her. "I'm so, so…. disappointed in you."

That word felt like a brutal kick in Annabelle's stomach. She thought that her father being angry with her would be the worst thing possible. But now knowing that he was disappointed seemed so much worse. He was always saying that he was proud of her and now… Annabelle buried her head into her knees, fighting back hot tears.

"Why did you do it? Did you do it for attention? To punish your mother and I for not letting you out on your own?"

"No… and yes. I just wanted to have some fun and find the -"

"Find the what?"

"The Unataka fruit… one of the gorillas told me that when you eat it, it grants you a wish. I wanted to wish to be future leader of the gorillas and Keke was gonna wish that she could swim but then…. I decided to wish for a baby brother or sister." That caught Tarzan completely off guard and he stared at her wide-eyed in disbelief.

"I heard you and Mama talking," Annabelle continued with her face still buried in her knees, "that you really want a baby but can't have one so I decided to wish one for you." Tarzan's heart instantly melted at learning of his daughter's altruism. He couldn't believe that she really would go to all that trouble and danger for him and Jane.

"Oh Belle," his tone softened and used his fingertips to lift her chin up, "that whole thing about the Unataka fruit is just a story, a story that the animals tell their young at bedtime. Your Grandma told it to me several times when I was little."

"So… it's not true?" Annabelle looked up at her father, her eyes brimming with hot tears.

"I'm afraid not. Even though it was very sweet of you, you shouldn't have gone off by yourself. Your mother and I have been worried sick. You were nearly killed by that leopard today."

"I know!" Annabelle cried in frustration, "I tried hard to escape but Keke had to help me climb the tree. I couldn't do it! I cannot do anything Papa! Why can't I learn jungle skills?"

"Your mother and I are just trying to protect you -"

"I'm nearly ten and I cannot even climb a tree Papa AND I live in a jungle! Why does Mama mollycoddle me so much? She's not helping! She's making things worse!"

"Your mother is just trying to do what she thinks is best for you. You see… when you were a baby we were attacked by a leopard and your mother just doesn't want anything like that to happen to you again… like it nearly did today."

"But it will happen again if I don't learn."

Tarzan took this in and eventually nodded. Enough was enough he decided, no matter how much he loved Jane things were going to have to change.

"I know, I'll talk to your mother," he said as he put his arm around his daughter and gave a her a gentle squeeze. "But don't think you are off the hook young lady, you are still going to be punished." Annabelle nodded and managed to make a little smile as her father's anger relented. But as her father stood up and held out his hand to help her up she hesitated.

"Belle?"

"Can we not go back?" she whispered softly.

"Why?"

"Mama's gonna kill me!"

Tarzan couldn't help making a little smile at that. "Don't worry you'll be fine, I'll deal with your mother." Annabelle took her father's hand and they walked towards the nesting area. As they entered, all the gorillas whooped and hollered in relief at the sight of them being safe and sound.

"Tarzan!" Kala cried as she rushed over to them, "Anna! Thank goodness you're safe!" Kala swept her granddaughter up in her arms and hugged her as tightly as she could.

"ANNABELLE FLORENCE PORTER!" Jane's voice sounded through the nesting area like the sharp crack of a bullwhip! Annabelle gulped, her mother had never used her full name before and she instantly knew that she was in serious, serious trouble! Jane marched over and arrived in front of her daughter as just as Kala released her from their embrace. It looked to Annabelle as if her mother had aged ten years in the space of a day. Her skin was the colour of vellum, her hair a mess and her eyes were red raw from crying.

"WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?!" Jane yelled furiously at her daughter, the anger inside her so strong that she had to restrain herself from slapping her across the cheek. "What the hell has happened to your clothes?" she demanded as she took in her mud caked daughter who feebly clung onto the broken knapsack.

"I, I, I… fell in the swamp," Annabelle admitted timidly.

"The swamp!" Jane shrieked and frustratingly clasped at her wild and matted hair.

"Jane, she's safe now," Kala soothed, trying to act as peacemaker, "that's all that matters-"

"You stay out of this Kala!" Jane snapped sharply, "Do you have ANY idea at what you have put us through Annabelle! We have been worried SICK about you! You are in SO much trouble young lady! You are grounded for a week, no a month, no two months! All schoolwork and chores and NO playing with Keke and the gorillas!"

"Jane," Tarzan took a deep breath and stepped into the breach, "that's enough. She's sorry and she's learnt her lesson. Maybe you're being too harsh on her."

"Harsh! HARSH!" Jane was incredulous; "I'm going easy on her Tarzan! Why do you always have to contradict me! This is just SO typical of you! You're always spoiling her, making her a daddy's girl! She's not a baby anymore, she needs to face the consequences of her actions!"

"That's rich coming from you Jane!"

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

"You know exactly what I mean! You're the one that treats her like a baby! For God's sake Belle cannot even climb a TREE Jane! She should have learnt what I know years ago! She almost died from a leopard today! If anything had happened to her then we would be responsible, we would be to blame not her! If you had let me teach her then none of this would have happened!"

"How dare you! I am her mother and I decide what's best for her!"

"And I am her FATHER! I have just as much a say in raising Belle as you do!" Tarzan bellowed back whilst Annabelle whimpered as she watched her parents tear into each other like rabid dogs.

"Well I am SOOOO sorry Tarzan!" Jane snapped back sarcastically, "I guess even after all these years I clearly don't know how to raise a child in the jungle! Back in England a child wouldn't have to face any of these dangers! If Annabelle lived in England we wouldn't even have any of these problems!"

Tarzan let a deafening, silverback like roar, beating his chest with his fists. "LEAVE THEN!" he bellowed loudly, "YOU AND ANNABELLE LEAVE! GO BACK TO ENGLAND!"

"Papa!" Annabelle cried as the gorilla troop stared on in complete disbelief! Even though Tarzan and Jane had been arguing in English, they could all sense exactly what Tarzan had said. Jane stared at her husband, her body shaking and her blue eyes wide with shock. His words, those terrible words felt like a cold, hard stinging slap across her face!

"Jane," Tarzan stammered, his eyes widening in absolute horror at what he had just said! "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean-"

"Annabelle!" Jane called out, her voice trembling! "Home! Now!" Annabelle came out from behind her father, Jane roughly snatching her hand and started to march out of the nesting area.

"Jane!" Tarzan called out desperately as he ran after them, "Please forgive me! I am so, so sorry. I didn't mean-"

"DO NOT FOLLOW US!" Jane screamed as she whipped round to face him, her finger pointing menacingly at him like Clayton's gun. Tarzan stepped back and watched his wife storm off into the jungle with his daughter in tow. Annabelle silently looked over her shoulder at him, her green eyes filled with fear as her father disappeared into the distance, her family lying in tatters on the cold, dark ground.