Ooh, I know I said short chapters but this one just had a lot more to cover and I couldn't split it up! Finally we get what is one of my favourite scenes if not my ultimate favourite scene in the movie. John and Aliya finally meeting!

Thanks to all who have reviewed so far, I love you guys lots! :D

The moment John had stepped into the jungle, he'd known he would never want to leave. The place was so alive! Sure, London had its merits and was certainly enjoyable in a number of areas, but it could never compare with the raw beauty and power of nature.

All around them were the sounds of the jungle's inhabitants. What a joyful ruckus!

"Isn't it wonderful, darling?" Maria asked him, and he just nodded, for once not quite able to find words.

"Sounds like a whole lot of annoying noise to me," Harry complained, holding his gun a little tighter.

"It's the jungle, man, did you expect it to be quiet?" Edmund asked him, and Harry just rolled his eyes and kept walking.

Once they passed the clearing where the ship's crew was unloading their belongings, it only took about ten minutes for them to find a gorilla nest.

"It is, isn't it?" John practically squeaked. "A real, genuine gorilla nest."

"And just like I thought, family groups! See the others ones just there, and there!"

Maria touched her husband's arm. "Just like we thought, Edmund." He nodded curtly, almost flushing. John figured the colour in his cheeks could also easily have been from excitement, which was fascinating because it was a word he had not thought his father was even familiar with until now.

As they continued to talk, John couldn't shake the strangest feeling that he was being watched. He glanced around, but saw no person or animal that could have been inspiring that feeling. Meanwhile, his parents and Harry had continued on through the forest. He was about to follow when he spotted an adorable little baby baboon perched on a nearby branch.

"Oh look at you," he said, grinning at it and bringing his face in closer, "You're as cute as a little button, aren't you?" A thought struck him and he pulled his sketchpad from his pocket. While praying the little guy didn't move, John whirled his pencil across the page until a sketchy but rather accurate drawing depicted the baboon in his book. He grinned and turned it around to show the animal. "What you reckon? I think it's not too bad. Not to blow my own horn or anything. If I had a horn."

The object of his creativity cooed at the piece of work and immediately snatched the book right out of his hands.

"Hey!"

He chased the monkey through the trees, trying not to cringe as he saw pages from the book fluttering to the ground in its wake. He eventually found the little rascal perched on another low branch apparently admiring the likeness of itself.

"Give that back!" John demanded. The baboon did not. "Oh wow, look at that!" The thing turned its head and gave him enough time to snatch the page from its tiny hands. It started making a horrible wailing noise, but he wasn't sympathetic. It was his sketch, after all. "Oh, shut up, it wasn't yours to begin with."

But a foul howling filled the trees above him and he saw a multitude of baboons baring their teeth down at him with rather obvious intent. He felt his heart quicken and cautiously began to step back, preparing to make a break for it.

"Now now, nice...colourful...evil...monkeys…" He stammered. They shrieked and began to pursue him, so he took off into the trees as fast as he physically could.

Oh dear god, I've not been here half an hour and already I'm in big trouble! I really can't take myself anywhere, he thought hopelessly.

He continued to sprint but could feel the horde of enraged monkeys gaining on him. All too late, he realised that the ground was about to disappear underneath him into a chasm and he could do nothing but fling himself forward and hope he would reach the other side.

When he did though...he found that he continued to propel forward, and not fall. That was when he realised something had grabbed a hold of the back of his coat and was carrying him. He twisted his neck only to see the most unexpected sight - a barely clothed blonde woman with one hand twisted around the vine that was carrying them and one hand firmly holding him up.

John heard himself yell with utter shock, and while the woman flicked a glance his way, she kept her focus on what lay ahead.

They flew through the air and landed on a huge branch of a tree on the edge of a cliff, with John in the strange woman's arms. He was about to protest and scramble to freedom until he saw that the baboons were still hot in pursuit. So instead, he gripped his savage rescuer tighter. They slid down the twisting and artful maze of branches and vines, with such speed that he felt himself getting queasy. A few times he was nearly dropped, but the woman always caught him and continued on without so much as blinking. One flight through the air resulted in him clinging to her back, which worked out well because she had more use of her arms after that.

A wrong turn had the monkeys at their heels - quite literally - and they found themselves tumbling down a great drop with the monkeys all around them suffering from the same dilemna. Luckily, the savage woman grabbed two vines and gripped them tightly until they slowed down and were able to swing to a nearby branch.

That must have hurt her hands, John thought with a flash of concern. Around them the monkeys fell down until they were well out of reach. Thank god for that.

That was when the log that had snapped above them and resulted in the fall of both them and the monkeys finally came down and snapped their current branch right off. Only a quick move on the mystery woman's part had them still safe and with steady footing. John was backed against a tree trunk with his rescuer's arms either side of his head. She was smaller than he was, but he could see subtle yet strong muscles all over her body. Her green eyes studied him intently, but a ruckus from below had her turning around and agitatedly yelling some incredibly odd animal noises of her own to the monkeys that had fallen.

Nearly half of John's curiosity transformed in concern in that moment. I'm in a tree with a woman who talks to monkeys. I most definitely did not see this coming. He tried to edge down around the tree. A small gap was to be crossed to get to the next tree, but he was reasonably sure he could make it. He stretched out his foot and planted it so that he was evenly split between the two trees and congratulated himself until he realised he was never going to get the center of gravity needed to actually make it all the way across. Still, he had to try. He brought his other leg across and kept his hands planted on the first tree.

"Oh dear," he said, feeling he'd only made the situation worse. "I'm stuck, aren't I. Yes, yes I am. Great job, John, excellent, you've landed yourself in the worst situation possibly imaginable under the circumstances." That was when the lightning crackled through the sky and the clap of thunder could be heard. A second later the rain began falling on him in huge and unforgiving drops. He was soaked in a matter of moments. "I should never say that! Why would I say that?! It's the worst possible thing I could do!"

He looked down with resignation and jumped a mile when he saw the savage woman below him. He lost his footing and would have fallen if she hadn't prodded him up onto the long and thick branch of the tree he had been trying to reach. She joined him on it, looking at him with an expression that quite plainly said that she thought he was an idiot. Fantastic. Now the monkey woman was judging him.

John took several steps backward until he felt his spine hit the upward tree trunk behind him. The woman moved forward - on all fours, walking at least partially on her knuckles - until their faces were inches apart.

"Could you please - er - not come so close?" He said quietly, rather unnerved by her unfaltering gaze. Was she smelling him? She grabbed one of his feet rather unexpectedly, and it was only then that he even realised he had lost one of his boots during their fleeing from the baboons. "Ah, no, not the feet-" The moment her fingers touched the underside of his foot, he couldn't help but start laughing because he was so ticklish. His reaction seemed to confuse her, so she put the foot back down, apparently satisfied with it. "Now, if you could, like a good little wild woman, perhaps stay just a bit further away-" Quite contrary to his plea, she leaned in again until she was close enough that he could count her eyelashes. Her hand reached out and touched his cheek with a surprising gentleness. He could feel the callouses on her palms.

One thing that was mildly comforting was that she at least seemed as wary about the whole thing as he was. But he couldn't be sure why that was.

For the first time, he properly looked at her. Under all the dirt which caked some of her hair and streaked her skin, she was actually rather pretty. Her nose was curved and elegant and her chin regal, and the fact that he could even think that under the circumstances really was a mystery. There was also a curiosity and determination in her eyes he had to admire. Her body - and he had to fight the urge to blush - was well muscled but still smaller than his both in height and girth. She was wearing the least amount of clothes he had ever seen on a woman, if you could call them clothes. Luckily, while tattered and plain, the loincloth and breast band did save her from complete lack of modesty and him from utter embarrassment. And while her hips were narrow, her legs were shapely enough that he had to pointedly bring his gaze back to her face where it belonged.

She grabbed his hand, and he watched with bemusement as she held it up against her open one, palm to palm, with their fingers perfectly aligned. Something passed through her eyes that he couldn't read, but it was indescribably powerful, he knew that much.

Unless...what if she's never seen another human being before? He thought. Suddenly, it all made much more sense and explained her reaction. Yes, that had to be it.

Their hands stayed connected like that, and the woman's eyes lifted to his, shining with what looked to be tears. Slowly she let her hand drop. She shuffled in closer and pressed her ear to his chest. After a moment of being apparently satisfied with his heartbeat, she grabbed his head and pressed it over the left side of her own chest. John felt himself turn completely red but knew that her intention almost definitely lay in the heartbeat so he tried to relax as much as possible and listen to the steady thumping of her heart. For some strange reason, the hollow rhythm did actually make him feel a little better about the whole situation, insane as it all was.

"That's a very nice heartbeat," he said slowly, pushing away from her gently but with enough force to be sure he would actually get out of her grip, "Good job. Definitely keep it."

She tilted her head to the side, considering something, before hesitantly saying with a wobble in her voice, "Keep it."

"Did you just-" He could feel his mouth hanging open. "Can you speak? I didn't think so, but then again what would I know about wild women in these parts anyway-" She clapped a hand over his mouth, effectively shutting him up. Then, slowly, she brought her hands to her chest and slapped it gently.

"A - lay - a." When he showed no sign of understanding, she repeated the gesture. "A - lay - a."

"Oh…" Her name, of course! "A...lay...a."

"Aliya."

"Aliya."

A huge smile broke out on her face and she half jumped in her excitement. Then, she leaned in and made a noise that sounded encouraging. Her hands indicated him this time.

"Oh, right," John said, nodding.

"Ohright," Aliya repeated, beaming again. She slapped her hands on her chest. "Aliya…" Her hand touched his shoulder. "Ohright." She seemed so pleased, but he had to shake his head.

"No, no, sorry, I'm John."

"No, no, sorry, I'm John." Her mimicking was certainly worthy of admiration, but it was not helping their cause.

"No." He sighed and gestured very grandly to himself. "John." He reached his hands out to her. "Aliya." He touched his chest. "John."

"John," she said, slowly, and he nodded. "John." Her hand touched his cheek again, just for a moment. The rain that had so quickly soaked their hair into clumps and plastered their clothes to their skin suddenly came to a stop around them. A gunshot went off in the distance.

"Harry," he said, sighing again. She scrambled to the edge and leant out on a vine to look at the shot that had been fired above the tree line.

"Harry," she repeated.

"You know, you're rather good at this," he told her, even though he knew she couldn't understand him. The compliment seemed due anyway. "Look, could you take me back to my camp?"

Aliya mimicked the gunshot noise. "Harry," she said, rather sounding like she was asking him.

"Yes, yes, exactly."

Without another word, she had scooped him up and they were flying through the trees at an incredibly reckless rate once more. It didn't take them long to touch down in the camp, where a bunch of gorillas plus an elephant had seemingly half wrecked the place.

But gorillas! John couldn't care less about the camp in that moment. Next to him, Aliya had gone back to her odd, monkey-like way of walking across ground and had taken off towards the group, making earnest noises that had to be her way of communicating with them. One of the gorillas spotted her and started ambling towards her too. They met in the middle and rolled around in the dirt like wrestling brothers, letting out peals of what could only be joy and fondness.

"She's one of them," he whispered, as the truth that had been somewhat obvious all along was made crystal clear. But her gorilla friend noticed John and stopped, no longer looking happy but unsure and wary. It was very similar to Aliya's initial reaction, with the fascination as well. It crept closer, staring at him. He reached out a hand to touch it when he noticed how Aliya and the gorillas had all stiffened.

Hot breath on his neck made him turn around only to see the biggest gorilla rationally imaginable right behind him. He yelled with surprise and scrambled behind Aliya unabashedly. The huge gorilla roared and most of them made for the trees, including the ones who had arrived with the large male. John watched them go, and stepped back as a soft featured brown gorilla grabbed Aliya by the arm and pulled her away.

John met her eyes and could see reluctance in them, but she went all the same. All he could do was stare at her hastily retreating form and curse the fact that he was wishing she had stayed.

I really really hope this lived up to your guys' expectations! I really enjoyed writing this chapter because wow Daliya withdrawals (though the new arc in IBTS should help fix that a bit :P).

Reviews and feedback are much appreciated!

-MayFairy :)