The morning came way too early and unexpectedly for Maurice. One minute, Karin was lying peacefully next to the orangutan in the Healing nest. The next moment, she bolted upright with a gasp.
"Karin, what—" was all Maurice managed to get out before she was up and gone, dashing next door. In a few seconds, Luca's Aunt Sonya was out the door, running for the Healer, sparrow, and nearly trampling over little Mary, who was apparently up early to check on one of her favorite Uncles and her human charge.
"Uncle Maurice, what's going on?" Mary demanded, seeing he was wide awake as she stuck her head in the door. "Oh no! Don't you dare!" the ape child exclaimed, bounding forward, and pushing her uncle back on to the bed with uncharacteristic force.
"Go see what is wrong, Mary, please?" Maurice signed to the child.
"I will if you stay in bed?" the little ape girl demanded
Maurice simply nodded, and Mary headed next door.
The poor old Orangutan lay there helplessly worrying, suffering the sounds of female excitement or was it distress from next door.
Soon enough, everyone entered the hut where Maurice lay, even Cornelia and tinker were there now. The first thing Maurice noticed was that Karin's clothes were gone, and she was now wrapped from head to toe in a large animal pelt. The second thing he noticed was that their dear healer was in tears.
"Sparrow, please, it's not your fault," Karin was insisting. Maurice watched as she hugged the groups healer then turned to the others with a pleading look. "Will someone please tell her it's not her fault?"
A flurry of signs and soft pants and grunts followed as Karin let go of Sparrow and came to lean wearily against the healing nest.
Normally, he would never be so bold. Normally, he would ask permission. But these were not normal circumstances. Maurice reached out and took Karin's hand in a gentle but firm grip.
"What is not her fault?" Maurice demanded. "What is wrong?"
"Nothing to worry about, Maurice," Karin told him even as she fidgeted endlessly. "I've just had a tiny little reaction to some of the healing medicines put on my scratches. I should have asked what they were made of to start with. And I think I ate way too much good food last night. That's all it is, but poor Sparrow thinks she's poisoned me."
Maurice gently pushed back the pelt to expose Karin's arm, and gasped involuntarily. Lots of tiny angry red bumps covered Karin's pale skin. He had seen some few apes have reactions similar, but never that bad.
"Maurice?" Karin protested, pulling the animal skin back down again. "You're not helping! It's not that bad. I'll just run back home and get some medicine. I need to go home and get some things, anyway. I wasn't ready for a sleep over."
"No," Cornelia interceded, stepping forward firmly.
Karin blinked.
"NO?" Karin asked. "You mean, you won't let me leave?"
Cornelia shook her head.
"Not go… alone," she insisted out loud.
"Cornelia, honestly, I'm a big girl. I did make my way here in the dead of night and in a total panic to boot," Karin reminded them all. "I think I can get home and back again safely in broad daylight."
"No! Will not go alone!" Cornelia insisted, her pretty chimpanzee face set. She signed something to Tinker, and Rocket's wife left quickly to fetch someone.
"Now where is she going?" Karin demanded. "Maurice?"
Suppressing his amusement, Maurice only looked at his human friend and shook his great head.
"Thanks for the support, Maurice," Karin scowled, and he patted her hand comfortingly, which only made her scowl even more.
"I will go, too," Mary suddenly offered. "I want to go, too?"
"NO," Karin, Maurice and Cornelia all said flatly.
At the sight of Mary's crestfallen little face, Maurice beckoned the little ape girl to them, and Karin put her arm around the child.
"I don't think you and I are supposed to leave the village together, honey," Karin explained to her gently. "It was your Father's only condition to you helping me that we not leave the village, right, Cornelia?"
The Ape Queen nodded, also coming over and gently grooming Mary's bent head, and Karin's as well.
"But Aunt Cornelia, she needs me to sign for her?" Mary protested.
"I will go instead," Tinker signed as she came back in with a few huge shapes striding firmly at her heels.
"What the—" Karin gasped.
Maurice laughed out loud at Karin's incredulous expression as his human friend looked over the three hulking gorillas who waited patiently by the door. Luca, another called Ajax, and a third called Oak. All very mature very capable protectors. Maurice approved of the selections. He knew that Karin would not.
"Now, wait just one darn minute, Cornelia. This is too much! I do not need a Gorilla army as an escort," Karin protested. "I'm just popping back home, not fighting through battle lines."
Cornelia smiled, signed something firmly then pointed to the three gorillas. This made Mary laugh out loud. Maurice gave a low chuckle as well. He ignored the glare Karin sent his way.
"She says relax. No gorilla army. She says pick one," Mary translated.
Maurice chuckled even more then, ignoring the ominous glare Karin shot him.
"I don't need one," Karin began to complain. "Cornelia, please, this is unnecessary. Don't these guys have better things to do then follow me around?"
But the Ape Queen held firm, and Karin reluctantly subsided. Privately, Maurice wished he could get such easy compliance from her, sometimes. He was relieved that she had not sought his opinion on the matter, however. He knew she would not have liked it, but he was thrilled that a gorilla protector would be going along. He would rather be going himself. He certainly knew the way by now, though maybe not so well on foot. But if he could not go, the gorilla guard was the next best thing.
"Oh, brother," Karin gave in with a resigned groan.
Maurice looked on in silence as she pretended to study the three gorillas, but he already knew which one she would pick.
"Okay, I guess you're it, King Kong Junior," Karin pointed to Luca but used the nickname she had already decided to call him.
Maurice relaxed even more that his friend would be the one to go. He knew for certain that Tinker and Karin would be quite safe with Luca watching out for them. He did not envy either of his friends with such an unwilling charge to care for, however. He knew how Karin could be when her jaw was set and she was stubborn, which was almost all the time. They were about to learn this for themselves-especially poor helpful Luca. Maurice knew that the brunt of her resistance would be focused firmly on the big silver-back.
Tinker was a little nervous, not about traveling with the human woman. She already liked and respected Karin a great deal. But she secretly wish that Mary could accompany them, just for the sake of easier communications. Still, feeling as if she and Cornelia had already developed a good connection with this human female, Tinker was certain they'd manage well enough.
The first minor misunderstanding occurred even before they had left the apes village. The gorillas who had not been chosen for Karin's excursion had instead brought around two horses. Tinker and Karin were to share one while Luca took the other. One gorilla held a horse as Luca easily lifted Tinker onto its back, and Rocket's wife half turned to watch as the silver-back moved automatically towards Karin. He reached out to lift her up behind Tinker. Almost without noticing his gesture, Karin sidestepped him, choosing to hoist herself up behind the little chimpanzee female on her own. The movement opened a couple of minor scratches she'd received during her head long charge towards the village the night before, and she almost slid off the horse's rump before she got settled, but she did not seem to take much notice of these things, either.
Tinker and Luca noticed, however. As Karin was getting herself settled, Tinker shot Luca an apologetic smile. The big gorilla did not seem to mind and kept his usual straight face, but the little chimpanzee only hoped her big friend was not hurt too deeply by Karin's actions. She was sure the woman had not meant anything by it. This human female was obviously long used to doing virtually everything for herself with no strong hands around to help her, and tinker was sure that her reactions were out of habit, not deliberate thoughtlessness.
And, truthfully, Tinker was fully capable of mounting a horse on her own, just as Karin had done, too. But Luca seem to enjoy being so helpful with the females that she did not have the heart to correct him on it. Let the males use their strength, especially if they volunteered to do it.
"Ready?" Tinker said out loud. The chimpanzee's speech did not make Karin jump, but Luca gave a visible start of surprise. Tinker almost never spoke out loud, and the few times she did speak a word here or there it was usually privately with her son Ash or her mate, rocket. And even then, it was rare.
"Sure, I guess so," Karin told her ape companions as Tinker patted Luca's arm reassuringly. "Let's ride."
The odd little group started off at a slow walk at first, then once they were through the gates and Karin seemed more relaxed and accustomed to the horse's motion, they gradually increased their speed to a comfortable rolling trot which ate up the distance fast enough.
She really did seem to know her way. Given her head-long charge at the Colony, Tinker had not figured on the human woman getting herb bearings so well. But Karin directed them easily and attempted to make some conversation as they rode.
"You ride horses a lot" she asked either ape who wanted to answer.
"Some. Never so far," tinker answered carefully.
"Rather walk," Luca admitted with a grunt, and it was Tinker's turn to look surprised. She had never heard Luca speak any words before now. Maybe communication would not be so awkward after all. And just how many of her ape friends could speak? Was this an effect the woman was having on them all or had they always been able to and simply never made the effort?
"I'm sorry you have to go so far from home on my account," Karin apologized, but both apes huffed away her apology as if it were nothing to be so concerned about.
"I protect," was all Luca grunted out.
Turning to Tinker, Karin asked, "You aren't worried about your young son?"
"Why worried?" was Tinker's only surprised response.
"Why, um, well, because you're leaving the village without him, and, uh you aren't there to watch him, and, uh—" Karin trailed off uncertainly.
Tinker only shrugged. "Ash play with friends. The village always watch young," tinker explained patiently. "Ash safe."
"the village, really?" Karin marveled. "I've always heard that it takes a village to raise a child... but, well, okay, if you say so."
Tinker could tell the human woman was astounded by her answers. Were all human females so possessive of their young that they let no others look after them at all? Then she remembered... This woman had been virtually alone for years, the only adult, just her and her small child, with not even a mate or a neighbor or a friend to help her tend her youngling. Even with eh village's help, Tinker could not imagine first baring then raising Ash without Rocket's steady presence beside her, and she wondered not for the first time since she had met this human just how the seemingly frail female had done it all.
she is much stronger than she looks, Tinker thought for the millionth time.
'You meet Ash?" she inquired of Karin.
"Yeah. Mary introduced him and Blue Eyes to me yesterday. Your Ash is a real darling," the human complimented and Tinker beamed with Motherly pride.
"Caesar and Cornelia's boy-oh sorry I mean son, seems quite shy, though," Karin commented a little sadly. "Was it something I did or does he just not like humans."
"He listen to Koba too much," Luca put in and both women looked at the big gorilla. "He does," Luca insisted, then shut his mouth tight and went back to being watchful and supposedly inconspicuous. Not easy to do for a big silver-back, but he managed it somehow.
Tinker sighed sadly. Luca had brought up something that she and Cornelia had talked about a lot. Her husband knew, of course, but Tinker hadn't realized that so many of the other males apart from Maurice who saw everything, noticed it as it seemed that Blue Eyes paid more attention to what Koba said than what Caesar said, sometimes. Cornelia fretted over it a lot, Tinker knew, but no one knew what to do about it, least of all the young ape's parents.
Maybe Karin's being here will be good for Blue Eyes, Tinker hoped.
"I'm Sorry. I didn't mean to bring up a sore spot," Karin put in, noticing the ape's slight tension. "After all, it's none of my business, is it."
If she's going to keep seeing Maurice, it will be her business, Tinker thought, but kept it to herself as they rode on.
Tinker and Karin chatted off and on as they made their way through the forest. Their big gorilla guard stayed mostly silent, only sometimes having to jump in and remind the females that he needed some directions to get to where they were going. Karin hid her smile, but Tinker laughed out loud at the last incident and Luca's irritated huff that said it all without words.
Females! Both women knew the gorilla was lamenting. Never mind that gorilla females chatted just as much, and orang girls did too, though many of the orangs were a bit more reserved.
"Keep your mind on the road, huh," Karin quipped aside at the big gorilla. "Sorry, King Kong."
They stopped at a huge seemingly endless thicket that stretched off into the distance before them. "It's through there," Karin pointed down to the ground.
Both apes looked uncertain.
"Yeah, this is it," Karin confirmed. "I know. There is a path, really. The path's real overgrown now. It didn't used to be, but well, you know… It's been years since I had to take a car or a horse off our property.
The human woman eyed the big gorilla worriedly.
"Uh, listen, King Kong, There isn't much room in there. If you want to wait out here with the horses, Tinker and I can go on ahead, and—"
But Luca immediately shot that idea down with a low grunt and a firm head shake. This was out of the question.
Karin dismounted the horse she shared with Tinker and found herself a long sturdy branch. "Back the horses up a bit, and keep hold of them," she warned. "They might get spooked."
The apes followed her advice, watching her keenly. Karin beat the thicket firmly with her big stick, and soon four long thin snakes came shooting out of the thicket past them all. The poor horses gave frightened whinnies, but Luca had a firm grip on them both.
Then, Karin knelt down, this time with Luca literally leaning over her shoulder. She almost told him to back off but caught herself at the last minute. Finally, she scraped some moss from the base of one of the huge redwood trees and grinned.
"There it is," she exclaimed, then stepped aside to let the gorilla crouch down to se. She watched with slight fascination as the big ape traced the letters cut so neatly into the trees' trunk. Karin Elizabeth.
"Yep, that's me," she said proudly as Luca straightened and looked at her. "My Dad carved this in the day I was born, I'm told."
Luca did not like it, but Karin insisted on taking the lead. She led the apes and horses into the thicket. The path twisted and turned and looped back on itself more than once, but the human woman's footsteps never faltered or slowed. By the time they entered the small clearing in front of the house, the big gorilla and the two horses looked particularly ruffled.
"You okay?" she asked.
The stoic gorilla shrugged as he picked bits of brush, briar, and other greenery out of his hair.
"How Maurice do this?" Tinker finally asked, going over to help Luca with the more stubborn pieces of plants that clung ot his body.
Karin smiled. "He doesn't. "Maurice usually comes in through the canopy." She pointed upwards. "Through the trees, and not on the ground," Karin explained. "From that tree mostly," she added, pointing to an especially huge tree at the corner of her front yard. "Lord, can you imagine how messed up he'd be if he tried to get through that stuff?"
Luca began securing the horses to the giant tree.
"Please make yourselves at home, both of you," Karin told them. "Luca, there is an old barn out back. If you wanna get the horses a lot more shade, you can put them in there. There's a water trough too. Maybe fill that up and give them a good drink? I've got rain barrels scattered all over to collect water. I'm just gonna have a quick wash, slap some medicine on the worst of my rashes, and put some water in the house for when I get back."
But as she started forward, Luca put his hand on her arm. He pointed to her front door, which was slightly ajar.
"Oh, that? I probably left that open the last time I ran out," Karin told him, though she could not be sure. All she was worried about at the time was finding help to save Maurice's life. "But you're welcome to inspect the place inside and out, Luca."
Both apes entered the house with her, but Luca would not let her and Tinker out of the main room until he had a thorough look around from one end of the house to the other. Karin was experiencing serious echoes of Maurice's behavior.
"All clear?" Karin grinned.
To her astonishment, Luca gave her a thumbs up sign.
She laughed. "Oh my God, Luca? Where in the world did you learn that?"
"Humans at zoo," Luca grunted.
"You're from the San Fran zoo then?" Karin asked.
Luca nodded.
"You are incredible," Karin exclaimed.
The big gorilla fidgeted and actually blushed. And she could see Tinker struggling to contain her laughter as well.
"All of you are incredible, I mean," Karin added, attempting to ease the big guy's embarrassment from her sudden praise.
The big gorilla just gave a low grunt and stepped outside, giving the two women some privacy. When he was gone, Tinker touched Karin's arm and pointed to her large over-stuffed sofa.
"Yeah, that's where we usually sit," Karin told her, noticing how the female chimp's eyes went to the vaguely orangutan sized impression at one end of the sofa. Karin had not realized just how pronounced that had become.
She wondered if they would ever sit there again.
Karin immediately stepped out of the house and came back later lugging a large heavy bucket of water. She staggered a bit under its weight but managed not to slosh any on the floor.
"What?" she asked in response to Tinker's openly surprised look.
The little ape female just shrugged but did not attempt an explanation.
Karin set about her business, and Tinker helped wherever she could, even putting Karin's rash medicine on the spots that the human woman could not reach.
They heard Luca making some noise outside, and Karin wondered what he could be up to out there. But she simply wanted to get back to the village, and back to Maurice as fast as she could. Besides, she was relatively sure the big gorilla was not tearing up her property. Well, almost sure.
Once Karin was washed and treated and suitably dressed, she began carrying more water into the house from the large barrels out back. This process was painfully slow and tedious. Even with her large wheeled handcart that held several big buckets at a time, moving that amount of water around was not easy for the woman. On her third trip around the house, as she leaned heavily on the handles of her cart, beads of perspiration on her brow as she tried to catch her breath and mop the sweat from her face, the gorilla approached her. Luca's stride and the set of his jaw was determined. He had clearly seen more than enough. Reaching down, the silver-back took hold of the handles of the cart. Karin started to protest, but Luca just grunted. When she continued to protest, the big ape set his jaw and took a firmer grip on her cart handles. Then, Tinker appeared at her side and put a hand on her arm, drawing her from an argument she was not ever going to win. The female chimpanzee looked at Karin with pleading eyes, then she glance to the patiently waiting Luca and back to Karin. When Karin still looked ready to argue, Tinker mustered her limited speech and added, "Luca strong. Get back to Maurice faster if he helps."
Karin threw up her hands. It was enough to convince the woman to put her pride and habits aside, and with Luca's help, the procedure went so much faster. Soon the huge barrel in the corner of the kitchen was filled, and the smaller barrels that sat in the two bathrooms situated on either end of the house were also filled, along with the two bathtubs.
Karin went to her bedroom at the back of the house, threw some clothes and other necessities into her brother's old army duffle bag and came back out again.
"Thanks for all the help guys," Karin told her companions. "You want a bite to eat? I have plenty of dried meats and fruits, and—" She winked at Luca. "Lots of water, too, thanks to King Kong here."
Both apes shook their head.
"Are you sure? Well, okay, I… I just need to visit with my daughter a second, then we can go."
She saw the apes give one another a confused look as she walked past them and out the back door, heading through the big backyard and towards the fenced in area where the graves of her Father and daughter were placed, stopping only long enough to snatch a set of garden sheers off the huge stone picnic table out back. The two apes followed, but they kept a respectful distance and watched as she tended to her Father's grave, then sat down by the much smaller one, and rested her hand on the homemade headstone that read simply, Lisa Lee Evans, forever My Little Angel,
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the apes standing just outside the low fence. She gave them a wan smile, and when she turned back to her daughter's grave and began to sing softly, she heard a sound that made her look back again. Tinker's eyes had welled up with tears, and Luca stood stiffly but with his head bowed, one of his big hands resting lightly on Tinker's shoulder.
"It was one of Lisa's favorite songs," Karin sniffed as she got up. Rubbing furiously at her wet eyes, she re-joined her ape friends.
"Thanks for waiting," Karin murmured, putting an arm around tinker, and handing her a handkerchief. She made swiping motions over her own face, and Tinker got the hint and dabbed at her own wet eyes.
"Hey, it's not even near noon yet," she commented with a faint smile. "Midday," she added for the ape's benefit. "We made better time than I thought. If you two are sure you don't want a bite, guess we can head back now. You probably ought to at least water the poor horses though, Luca," Karin suggested.
"Did while you inside," Luca grunted.
And that was not all he had done while she and Tinker were busy inside. To Karin amazement, as they left, she saw that Luca had found a hammer and some nails and had patched a hole in her battered old fence and straightened two leaning fence posts.
"Ah, Luca! You didn't need to do that?" Karin protested, her face going red as she realized just how badly the outside grounds of her home needed repairs.
"Need a wall," Luca said, pointing at the tall but drooping fence and half-broken gate that had seen much better days not so long ago.
"Oh, I can't build a wall, Luca," Karin laughed, thinking he was was an absurd notion.
"Apes could," Luca said. "Apes build good walls, strong walls. Apes help Karin build her wall."
Karin laughed again until she saw the gorilla was serious.
"Oh Luca. You're very sweet, but apes have better things to do than build a wall for me."
Luca only gave a noncommittal huff, and Karin had the nagging feeling that he would not let this go. She could already imagine him going straight to Maurice and the two of them making plans for a wall.
"Come on Frank Lloyd Wright," Karin teased the big gorilla. "Let's go."
"Was he your brother?" Tinker piped up.
"Who?" Karin asked.
"The Frank person."
She laughed gently yet again. "Nope, never met him. He was a famous architect... I mean, he was a famous builder that died long before I was born. One of my brother's was a huge fan of his."
They walked the horses out through the trees and the undergrowth this time. Once free of all the foliage, Karin let Luca set her down behind Tinker on their mount, but when the gorilla started to mount his own horse, the small she-ape hooted in distress. Karin's eyes grew wide and frightened as she looked around, trying to see what was wrong. But when Luca mounted his horse and immediately jumped down again with a loud grunt, she saw the trouble, and had to bite her lip hard to stifle a laugh. A large thorn had attached itself to the poor silver-back's backside, and all unaware, the poor gorilla had sat on it.
Tinker was still gently hoot-panting with laughter even as she jumped down from the horse and moved to help. Blushing, Karin also reached out and held on to Luca's horse while Tinker rid the gorilla of the sharp prickly intruder.
"Tinker, don't laugh at him," Karin gently scolded her, her own mouth twitching as she struggled to hide her smile. "Luca, are you alright? Now you see why I don't really want that cleared out?" Karin gestured back at the thicket. "That's my wall. I-I didn't realized how badly overgrown it was, though."
Luca just grunted. He set the still chortling Tinker back on her horse then mounted up on his own steed beside the two females, and they all set off for the ape's village.