Pierre pulls up against the steel strut with great force. He releases his hand, and moves up, catching another strut with his left hand. The gray gorilla keeps moving up and up. He goes up past the platform near to the top to the thin pole at the very top of this metal tree.
And from here, Pierre can look at the now-empty Toymaker village called the Paris.
There are so many buildings, most of them with vines growing along the walls. Between the buildings are pathways of stone. The gorilla sees a river winding through the village, with many bridges. There are even wider stone pathways.
A chimpanzee with brown fur reaches the top. "So you reached the top of the Eiffel," says Hector. . "We can;t dilly dally; let;s get down with the others and take these toys back."
"Isn't this wonderful, though?" asks Pierre. "I mean, look at what the Toymakers built. Imagine how many apes could live here."
"Imagine how far they'd have to walk or ride a horse to get food. We're having to go all the way here to get new toys."
"We are not alone here." Pierre looks through a toy that consists of two cylinders joined together, allowing him to see things far as if they were up close. He can see a wagon pulled by a team of oxen, with an escort of chimpanzees on horseback.
He hands Hector the toy, who looks through it. "That's the Levain," he says. "We have enough toys; we don;t need trouble from the Levain."
The two apes scamper down the Eiffel as fast as they can. In a few minutes, Pierre and hector reach the bottom of the great metal tree.
Their two steeds await, both with saddles. Pierre and Hector sit on the saddles.
Hector looks and sees some horses on a bridge over the river, running towards them them, carrying chimps.
"We have trouble," says the chimpanzee.
"All right," replies the gorilla, holding the reins of the horse. He pats and makes sure his dagger is secure, and a spear with a metal top is tied to the left side. The Levain claim the whole of the Paris, and would kill to stop outsiders- which they are- from taking toys. However, they are unable to spare enough apes-at-arms to surround the whole place, let alone have regular patrols within.
And so the two apes ride along the rock pathways between the buildings of the giant Toymaker village. Hector glances backward and sees the their pursuers are keeping up with them. They need to get clear away.
Hector hears a whistling sound less than a second before he falls. He looks and sees that his brown house has a long, thin stick stuck into her.
"Hector!" yells Pierre. Pulling the reins, he turns his horse around. He extends his arm. The chimpanzee grabs it and pushes against the ground with his legs. Hector manages to get on the back of the horse, who is know carrying them both.n
"Come on," whispers Hector. The horse is now carrying two apes, which means she has to work harder to stay ahead."
"We have to hide somewhere," says the gorilla. They approach some tall buildings.
Time seems to dilate for Pierre.
He looks at the buildings lining the stone path.
He sees a metal branch.
"Watch this," says the gorilla.
He leaps up from the horse and grabs on.
He looks down at his pursuers.
He leaps down, knocking a chimp off a horse and taking the reins!
He glances back and his pursuers stop to tend to their fallen comrade.
"That was awesome," says Hector.
They make a turn. Pierre notices the horse runs a little faster, and quickly figures out the Levain have more and better food to feed their horses.
After maybe ten minutes of their horses running along the paths in the Paris, they notice they are not being pursued any more.
"We're not worth pursuing anymore," says the chimp.
Their horses turned, they continue along the cracked, stone pathway, lined with thin branchless metal trees.
"there they are," says Pierre.
There are several more apes on horseback. The eldest of them, a bonobo with black fur riding on a white horse, approaches them.
"So you gotten to top of Eiffel," says Joseph. "Congratulations."
"Thank you, sir," answers Pierre. "
We just had a little trouble with the Levain," says Hector.
"The Levain cause problems," says Joseph, "They want Paris as their turf."
"There's still a lot of toys in Paris," says a black-furred gorilla. "The Levain and their alpha want all the toys."
"King Louie awaits us," says Joseph. "Let us ride."
Pierre, Hector, and the other apes ride along a stone path leading out of the giant Toymaker village as the sky above turns darker.
Oooooo
Pierre and Hector can see the outline of the buildings. Fires burn from torches atop a wooden palisade. In the distance are fruit orchards with trees that bear apricots, pears, and apples.
The gates are opened, and there are several apes at the entrance. Among the apes is a large, orange orangutan.
"Welcome back, Pierre, Hector," says the orangutan.
"Thank you, King Louie," says Pierre.
"Thanks, sir," says Hector.
They both look at King Louie. They had known him since they were born, before either of them could talk. From what they had been taught, he was an original ape, one of the first created by God fifty years ago.
They all follow King Louie into the clearing in the middle of the settlement, which is surrounded by log buildings.
"All listen!" exclaims the alpha of the clan. "Pierre and Hector have climbed to the top of the Eiffel in the Paris!"
The gorillas and chimpanzees and bonobos and orangutans all cheer.
Joseph approaches King Louie. "Sir," he whispers, "Hector and Pierre were attacked by the Levain."
"Yes, they claim the Paris, and the toys there."
"So much to do sunup. Let's feast in favor of our apes who return from the top of Eiffel!"
ooooooo
"And we thank Lord our God," says Antoinette. "who created ape in His image and blessed us with bounty like he blessed us with thinking, talking, and knowing good and bad."
The apes of the Clan all sit at a long, wooden table, originally made by the Toymakers. A pig, one of many raised here, had been roasted over the open fire. The guests of honor, Pierre and Hector, get the choicest cuts of the pig. Aside from pig meat, leaves and grains are served for consumption; fruits are not yet in season.
"This is the great," says Pierre, after eating a piece of pig meat. "I thank the cooker. Of course, it's not as good as that boar I hunted in the forest."
"You mostly ran away," says Hector, after swallowing a piece of pork. "I was the one who speared it."
"You wouldn't have been able to kill it if I wasn't there," retorts the gorilla. He fells something rub up against his leg. He looks down and sees an orange dog. "Okay, Rusty, I'll give you your share."
Pierre gives a piece of pork to Rusty, who happily eats the moist meat.
It is about forty minutes before all of the meat from the fatted pig is consumed. The apes all leave, either returning to the log houses or just enjoying the night under the stars.
Pierre and Hector sit around a campfire circled by rocks. Many of the ape children gather around them.
"So I just knocked one of those Levain off the horse and rode it all the way here!" exclaims Pierre.
"Wow!" exclaims a mandrill. "Sounds funner than going to the top of the Eiffel."
"Too bad you didn't get seeds," says a gorilla named Nicole. "It'd be cool if we could grow our own Eiffel, right here."
"I heard that it takes a hundred years for trees to grow tall," says a chimpanzee child.
"Now, here are some toys we got from the Paris," says Pierre, taking some things out of the bag. He hands a plush frog to Nicole.
"A frog," says his sister, feeling the strange cloth surface.
Hector takes out something else out. It is a figure that has lateral symmetry, with two arms, two legs.
"An ape," says a male bonobo. "No, that's a man."
"Yeah, the Toymakers like to make toy animals," says Nicole.
The bonobo holds the toy man. "It feels weird," he says. "Not cloth, not wood, not metal."
"Some of the toys in the toy shed feel like that," says the mandrill. Not just toy animals, but toy wagons and toy boats too."
"I heard the Toymakers used to grow fruit inside buildings," says Nicole. "They could have fresh fruit all year long."
"They could draw pictures that look real, like really real," says the mandrill.
"And these squares which allowed you to see things very far, far, away."
"They even drew pictures of talking, of what they said."
"Pictures of talking?" asks Pierre.
"What would be good about that?" asks Hector. "Why look at pictures of someone's annoying babble?"
"I can see the point, bro. I mean, what if we want to say something to someone but they are busy. We can draw a picture of our talk, give it to them. And then after they're done, they can look at our talk."
Hector thinks. "Picture of talking," he says. "I think I saw something like that." He pulls out a rectangular object. It unfolds, and there are extremely thin rectangles made of a flexible substance.
The ape children see strange shapes. They are not pictures of objects, nor simple shapes like circles and squares and triangles, but tiny, complicated curves.
"That's what talk looks like?" asks the mandrill. "What is it supposed to say?"
"Toymakers were weird in many ways," says Pierre.
"I heard God took them all to this place where they got to play with toys for all time," says a bonobo. "I can't remember what Big Sister Antoinette called it."
"Hi, Rusty," says a chimpanzee.
"Rusty wants to join us," says Pierre.
"I heard that toymakers actually had pet mans," says Nicole.
"That is so silly," says Hector. "A man as a pet?"
"Maybe Rusty here would like a pet," says Pierre. He looks at the dog. "would you like to have a pet man, my little Rusty?"
ooooooo
"The Levain have been making moves," says a gorilla named Thomas. "A Clan just a six hour ride from here swore to the Levain."
Thomas ands some other apes meet with King Louie at the back porch of the main house, a structure built by the Toymakers, made of materials the apes themselves could not find except in other Toymaker buildings.
"Ah, the Levain," says King Louie. "Those Clans who swear to them. They hand over fruit and grain and meat so Levain eat and play with toys all day."
"They offer defense," says a chimpanzee named George. "Defense from them. We need to join other Clans to defend against Levain."
"We fought some of them just five years past," says King Louie. "To get their apes to fight with our apes."
"We hear stories from traders of entire farms destroyed by Levain when the Clan would not give food," says Antoinette.
"Still, the Levain too far from here. It take a lot time for them to get here," says King Louie.
"Anything else to talk about?" asks Thomas.
"I remember dreams," says King Louie. "Dreams of being kept like a pet."
"Like a dog or a horse?"
"There were dogs and horses and bears. I was in this pen. Most animals in dream are mans. Strange."
"Yes, it would be," says George.
Oooooo
The next morning, a cream-colored horse named Sir Lancelot trots on a stone pathway, his hooves protected by leather. Sitting on a leather saddle, with his feet in stirrups, is a mandrill named Arthur. Several other apes ride on horses. They all have weapons such as sabers and crossbows and hammers.
The mandrill had been on the road with with entourage for at least four days, having to sleep in tents. He figures he must have traveled at least forty kilometers.
Now they are here, to yet again show to the world and to simianity the power of the Levain.
"Is everything ready, de Gaulle?" the mandrill asks a chimpanzee adorned in leather.
"Yes, your Majesty," replies de Gaulle. "We see if these giant toys work."
There are several large objects, all on four-solid wooden wheels, pulled by oxen. There are structures attached to these structure looking like giant wooden spoon. Several chimpanzees stand by these catapults.
Arthur raises his hand.
The chimps pull wooden levers and the spoons suddenly snap up, releasing large boulders into the sky.