Brutus burst through the door of one of the only stone homes closest to the town center. He hurriedly rushed back to his sleeping room and opened a large trunk sitting at the end of his bed. He pulled out a green poncho-like piece of fabric with brown leather accents and tugged it over his head. Next was a belt with hanging ornaments and a symbol at the clasp.

He shut the trunk and moved quickly outside to the main street where other similarly dressed apes were gathering along the sides of the road. Chimps wore green, gorillas wore red, and the few orangutans wore orange.

He pushed through the crowd of apes, making his way to the front. He resorted to running on his knuckles when room on the street allowed it. Ahead loomed the largest stone building with round windows and a set of wide steps. He slowed and stood upright, catching his breath in the shade cast by the structure.

He brushed himself down and prayed the smell of human was masked by his own musk. He caught sight of Ziro climbing the steps already, matching in his own green poncho. He rushed to catch up with him and caught his shoulder.

"You didn't tell anyone right?" He whispered harshly in Ziro's ear.

"I'm not stupid," he shot back, then catching the look in Brutus' eye he sighed, "don't worry, I won't tell anybody."

"Good, because then I might have to wring your neck."

Ziro snorted and pushed off Brutus' arm. Together they made their way up to the large, open double doors just as a second gong rang through the air.

Inside the building was a collection of benches arranged to face the front where three apes in ornate robes stood watching the rest of the population shuffle in. A chimpanzee on the left, a gorilla on the right, and an orangutan in the middle.

Brutus and Ziro found their place next to two elder female chimps in long green robes. One of them leaned over and touched Brutus' shoulder.

"Where have you been?" His mother whispered urgently.

Brutus touched her hand, "fishing, Ziro got us turned around on our way back."

He could feel Ziro's eyes on the back of his head and smirked to himself. His mother seemed satisfied with that answer and drew back, settling into her spot. Brutus turned forward as well and tried to calm his pounding heart. He hated lying, but he knew he couldn't tell his mother the real reason.

She was a ape of science, and he grew up hearing her theories about the humans and where they came from, many of them involved studying the internal systems of specimens brought in from the hunts- most of them were cadavers. She discovered the human's internal anatomy was almost identical to their own, and she thought that there must've been some evolutionary connection between apes and humans. As a child he'd taken her theories as fact, but even more recently, he was beginning to question them.

The chimpanzee at the front on the stage scanned the crowd carefully before spotting Brutus. His father's eyes bore into his, as if he guessed everything that his son had been up to that morning. Brutus nodded politely and signed that he'd been fishing, his father paused and signed asking if they caught anything. Brutus shook his head, his father chuckled, and signed that they'd have better luck the next time.

"What was that?" Ziro whispered after Brutus' father turned back to scanning the crowd.

Signing was the reserved language to a select few in the upper classes of the ape society. It was said it was the sacred language of the first ape elders and so it was only the elders and their lineage that learned how to sign. Ziro wasn't part of the line, and Brutus had been reminded of that responsibility every day of his life.

"He was just asking where we've been," Brutus whispered back.

Ziro nodded and Brutus noticed his hands were shaking.

"Brothers!" A booming voice caused the murmuring crowd to silence, "Sisters! Apes!"

The crowd shouted in unison, "Apes together strong!"

The orangutan who spoke raised his arms.

"We are pleased to see you all here today of all days!"

The crowd cheered, Brutus and Ziro along with them. The cheers died immediately after the orangutan raised a hand again.

"In the words of the first elder, Apes together, strong!"

He scanned the crowd who was waiting in awe for his next words. they all knew the next words by heart, but somehow the orangutan's delivery of them made them more exciting every year.

"Today! We commemorate a historic occasion like no other, today years ago the founding apes took the elder's truth and formed a new society. Together, all species of ape have come together as one!"

The crowd cheered again, possibly louder than before.

Then, the gorilla raised a hand, "Today! We have more than one thing to be grateful for! Today, even before the forming of our great society, we have driven out the humans from our lands! The pests who wither our crops and destroy our peace, are defeated!"

The cheers grew louder still, but this time, Brutus was less enthusiastic than that of his neighbors. He thought of the human's wide eyes and curious gaze, was there really anything so bad about them? And if he found one, would there be more like her?

His father raised his hand and the crowd fell again into an eerie silence.

"We remember the past! Remember the work and goals, but let us look to the future! Let us find answers to the questions we wrestle with and we will build an even greater society of apes than has ever been known on this planet!"

The crowd began chanting, "Apes together, strong! Apes, together strong! Apes, together, strong!"

The three elder apes raised both hands in fists and touched them over their heads and the crowd followed to tumultuous cheers. Then, they stepped back, exiting the stage and leaving the crowd of apes murmuring excitedly.

Brutus stood first and was at the back of the gathering hall before anyone else had the chance to stand. Naturally, his father would be looking for him to give a standard lecture of the importance of this day, but Brutus has more pressing matters on his mind. After this gathering would come the festivities, with apes filling the streets to partake in food and games, then it was easier to slip away unnoticed.

Almost stumbling down the steps, he only took a quick stop at his home to put away his poncho and belt, leaving a decorative necklace his mother made for him hanging from his neck. He strapped on his fishing belt which held the essentials for a trip into the woods. He hurried on all fours back to the edge of the village where Julius' house stood, he saw something that made him freeze.

The orangutan was sitting at his usual table, facing the window, with the human's bandaged head visible through the nearest window. He burst through the front door and noticed the human had a table setting in front of her. She was using utensils to eat the fruit and meat that was on the plate in front of her.

"What in the name of Caesar is going on here?" He said, bewildered.

Then he caught sight of the rest of the room. There were broken bunches of herbs strewn across the floor and a chair was overturned in the corner, and yet, the human and Julius were as calm as could be described.

"Breakfast," Julius said matter of factly, "she hasn't eaten properly in quite some time."

Brutus' jaw dropped comically, his mind went blank as to what to say. All he could do was stare at Julius, but behind him came the sound of someone stumbling. He turned to see Ziro picking himself up from the threshold. He still wore his poncho.

"Brutus!" He gasped as if he had been sprinting, "your father's looking for you, he sent Anthony to find you. I passed him coming here, he's going to show up any-"

He was cut off by someone else calling for Brutus outside the hut. Brutus turned and gestured to Julius to hide the human. She was frozen and the skin around her mouth turned white. Julius rose from his chair and gestured to the human. She dropped the utensils and ducked down, crawling around the table and following Julius to a back room.

Brutus turned and stepped through the front door to find a gorilla wearing a red poncho stumping down to the hut.

"Brutus!" He said in a gruff voice typical of a gorilla.

"Hello Anthony, what are you doing here?" He tried to sound as nonchalant as possible.

"Your father wants to meet with you," he grunted, "you'd better have a good excuse this time for why you ran off."

"I asked him to," Ziro piped up, "I had a question for him and he was able to answer for me."

Brutus let out a long breath in a single stream, thanking Ziro internally for his quick thinking. Anthony snorted, but left whatever questions he had unasked.

"Fine, but you'd better get your robe back on before we go."

Brutus nodded and glanced back at the hut. He couldn't see Julius or the human, but he felt their eyes.

He turned to Ziro and said so anyone in the hut could hear, "We'll have to go fishing again another time, back to that same spot as this morning. I have a feeling that we might have missed something."

Ziro nodded and ducked back into the hut.

—

Jayda watched as the ape was led away by the larger one and let out a shaky breath. She had crouched under the window in the back of the house, but now they were gone, she slid down and leaned against the wall, covering her neck.

She'd heard what the ape said, all she could think of was the group of humans by the river who were probably panicking wondering where she was.

She touched the bandage on her head. The part where it was bleeding before was dull, but she knew it would be where the stabbing pain would be. She didn't understand why the apes were bothering to hide her, or why they chose to bind up her wounds.

The orangutan who introduced himself to her as Julius was looming with the door to the back room cracked open. She smiled for a moment at the memory of his expression when she escaped the bed, the look of pure bewilderment was something she was going to keep filed away for a long time.

The word trust didn't come to mind when she thought of Julius. Jayda didn't trust any of these apes. But he had proven himself as someone who would help her, which she hoped would work to her end.

Julius looked back at her and beckoned, opening the door wider. She got up gingerly, she didn't have the pain anymore, but she could still feel a dull throbbing from her head and arm.

The other ape with black hair stood awkwardly in the middle of the room. Jayda wondered at the clothing he wore, didn't he have fur to cover everything? Perhaps the same shame was shared by the apes as well.

She realized the ape looked uncomfortable under her gaze. Perhaps she'd been staring for too long. She found something less interesting to look at and concentrated on not glancing back at the uncomfortable ape.

"Well, isn't this a party for a special day," Julius commented, breaking the awkward silence in the room.

"Why is she untied?" The ape asked.

Jayda jolted at the sudden question. She started wringing her hands, trying to keep them occupied and not take her freedom for granted.

A deep sound came from Julius' throat before he spoke, "she did it herself, and I figured if she could do that, she had the ability to be as civil as a human can be."

The ape scoffed at the notion, "A human? I'm sorry, what alternate world did I fall into where a human could be civil?"

"She's not hurting anyone, now, is she?"

The ape didn't have a retort for that. Jayda kept her eyes cast down to the floor, trying to look less noticeable. She felt a hand on her arm and she jumped, it was Julius.

"Come on, let's finish breakfast."

The ape drew the curtains across the window by the table. Julius set another plate and utensils and the three of them sat in an awkward silence that was only broken by the clanking of forks on plates.

Jayda chewed slowly, her hunger satiated for the first time in days but her mind turned over everything that happened in the last few hours. One thing she couldn't understand was why the apes continued to keep her around. Did they hope that she'd show them where the rest of the humans were? In that case, she'd never cooperate. She may want to be alone, but she didn't want to be the cause of the deaths and capture of the rest of the humans.

That would explain why they were feeding her, maybe to try and gain her trust. She gripped the fork tighter until her knuckles turned white. Well, she wasn't going to fall for it.