Jayda was directed to the bed that she'd been tied to that morning. She curled up under a large blanket Julius gave her and fell into a numb sleep. Her dreams were uncomfortable. She hadn't thought so deeply about her parents in a long time and now every memory was pelting her like a fat mountain rainstorm.
A large room that was made entirely of concrete, and a woman who poked her with needles and swabbed her mouth while her birth mother held her hand. There was a fight where her father shouted at another human man with increasing volume. The cold snow pelted her face as both her parents encouraged her to walk just a little further. A place with a wooden roof and crumbling walls with a fire blazing in the fireplace, and her mother was sick. Jayda begged her to sing or tell her a story, but her mother just smiled sadly and wiped the blood from her own nose.
There were screams from outside and the sound of horses. Her father rushed inside, pushing heavy objects against the door as the red firelight flickered on the outside. He shouted to her mother to grab Jayda and run, but she grabbed a gun instead. The roof started collapsing and her father pulled Jayda while she watched her mother fall to the ground.
Jayda felt someone shaking her awake and she opened her eyes. Julius was holding a lantern and shaking her shoulder with his large, hairy hand.
"You were dreaming," His voice came quietly.
Jayda looked around at the windows and saw darkness outside. She sat up and held her head which began pounding again. Julius set down the lamp and felt her forehead. He took off the bandages and replaced them with fresh ones. Then the orange ape handed her a bottle of the sweet medicine and she drank a mouthful.
"Bad dreams?" He asked after she handed back the bottle.
She nodded, the memories were still fresh and burning against the inside of her skull, but they wouldn't last. She hadn't thought about the time before the wooden roof in many years, she was only a small child then. Even at the present, she couldn't remember why they had to leave the cement place.
"Why don't you tell me about them?" Julius encouraged.
Jayda stared at the ape. She wasn't sure if she could tell him about the dreams, she didn't even have everything in order in her mind. The details of the memories in the dream were slipping away from her as quickly as water through her fingers. She shook her head.
"Is it too hard to explain?" the ape said with a knowing smile.
Her stomach dropped, this ape was insightful, and that might be dangerous.
Julius sighed deeply and stretched his long arms "Alright, Let's try something else."
He stood and crossed the room at a lope, searching for something in the stacks of scrolls he had in the corner. He straightened up and returned holding a flat board with a piece of paper stretched across it and a long chunk of charcoal.
He sat next to Jayda on the bed and positioned the board where she could see it. He drew a small figure that looked somewhat like an ape if it had lines for arms and a circle for a head.
He handed her the charcoal and the board, "You try."
She gripped the charcoal piece and held it over a fresh spot on the paper. She began by drawing the shape of what she could remember her father's head being and filling in his scratchy beard and wavy shoulder-length hair. Her mother's face was a different story. She racked her brain for what she looked like, but the only thing she could remember was a braid of dark hair hanging down the side of her face. So she drew it alongside an oval with two dots for eyes.
She also thought of her other mother, the silent one her father asked to take her before he was killed. Her scraggly blond hair stuck out in all directions, but she had a kind face and she cared for Jayda like she was her child. Jayda wasn't sure if what they had was love, but she liked to think it was.
When she finished the three faces, she held out the board, studying her handiwork. Julius leaned closer, studying the clumsy impressions of her parents.
"There's three," He observed, "Is one of them your sibling?"
She shook her head, which fed Julius' confusion. She scribbled over her birth mother's face and looked up to make sure the ape was paying attention- his small eyes became sad. She then scribbled over her father's face and drew an arrow to her silent mother's picture, then scribbled over her face too.
The paper was left with an inky black smudge over the faces of her parents. Something cracked inside her chest and her eyes welled with hot tears. She dropped the board and charcoal and wiped her eyes furiously, trying not to show her weakness around the ape.
Suddenly, a pair of strong, hairy arms encircled her and held her gently. She gasped but found she didn't want to pull away. The warmth that was filling her chest seemed to break a dam of tears that she'd been holding back for a very long time.
"I'm sorry," said Julius, "I wish things had happened differently."
—
Brutus lay awake on his bed. After the human fell asleep, Julius sent both he and Ziro home, claiming that it would be more suspicious if they stayed around his place.
His father wasn't home yet, which wasn't unusual, and his mother was in the main room looking through some papers from her research.
He couldn't help thinking about the human and the anxious thoughts that flitted around his mind like a flock of frightened birds. He began imagining the horrible possibilities that could happen when he wasn't right there. What if Julius had an emergency patient and they found the human? Or, what if Anthony or his father grew suspicious about where he'd been? What if Ziro…?
He quickly shut the last thought away, Ziro may have had some doubts, but he'd proven himself as a loyal fellow conspirator time and time again.
After a long time of tossing and turning, he sat up. Noticing the light coming from the main room, he stood and opened the door. His mother was sitting on a long couch and making notes on a paper that was sitting on a low table in front of her. She rolled up the scroll she'd been reading and stuffed it into a bag sitting on the floor.
He came out and sat next to her, putting a long arm around her shoulder. She touched his hand and looked up into his face.
"It's a holiday Mother, why are you working?" He asked with a knowing smile.
She let out a short laugh and squeezed his hand, "Science never stops, Brutus."
She stretched and turned to face him more directly, "and what about you? I didn't see you at the festivities."
"I was there in the beginning, then I was visiting Julius, you know how he doesn't get out much anymore. I thought it would be good," he hoped she wouldn't notice how he couldn't meet her eye.
"Well, that's good, he's a bit of an odd ape, but I'm sure he appreciates the company," She patted his shoulder and stood, moving towards a table where a bowl of fruit stood.
"I also talked to Father," Brutus added nonchalantly, combing over the papers she'd left behind.
He heard a soft thud and saw a round mango roll across the rug to stop by his foot. He picked it up and looked up at his mother who was scrambling to replace a few other fruits that had fallen from the bowl. Brutus stood and carried the mango to place it on the pile.
"Sorry," she said softly.
"It's fine mother, are you alright though?"
He looked at her face and saw that she was searching for something to say.
A thought struck him and he asked cautiously, "You already knew what he was going to say to me, didn't you?"
She sighed and nodded, "Yes, I did. but I didn't know he was going to tell you about it already."
"Why? And how did you know about everything going on?" Brutus remembered the promise he made to not tell a soul.
She chuckled, "There's more than one reason the council decided to put resources into the scientific pursuit of studying humans- Not just for the interest of knowledge."
She put her hand on his, "and this is something you'll learn as you get older, you can't keep secrets from your wife if she's also head of the human studies department."
He patted her hand and smiled grimly.
—
Ziro woke early and sat up. He looked at the bed next to him and saw that his younger brother, Franklin, was fast asleep, twisted like a pretzel. They'd shared a room for as long as his brother had been alive.
Twelve years ago Ziro fought his parents when they said that he'd have to have the baby's cradle in his room. Now, he couldn't imagine having his own room, even if his parents could afford it.
He slid out of his bed and peeked out the window, the sky was dark with low hanging clouds. He hoped it wasn't some sort of omen.
He reached for a rain poncho and strapped his own fishing belt to his waist. A stirring made him turn and he saw that Franklin was sitting up, watching him.
"Where are you going?" He asked.
"Fishing," Ziro responded quietly.
"Can I come?" Franklin's face lit up.
Ziro shook his head, "Not this time."
His brother's face fell into a pout, Ziro sighed and crossed the room to ruffle his hair.
"I'm going to a place where there may be humans, I can handle myself, but you are still short on one end."
Franklin puffed out his chest, "if it's so dangerous, you might need me for backup."
"I'll have Brutus for that this time, but if anything happened to you, mama would kill me, then dad would revive me, then kill me again. So if you stay, you'd be saving my life."
Franklin sighed and looked at his long toes, "Fine, but you'd better come back."
Ziro smiled and hugged his brother, squeezing him until Franklin tapped out. Ziro released him and his brother gasped as he reinflated.
"I'll see you later," Ziro said as he closed the door.
He slipped out of the house quietly and was met with a misty rain that bypassed his rain poncho, soaking his fur and cutting straight through to his skin. He turned towards the town center and made his way through the streets to a collection of stone homes. He circled one to the window of a back room and brushed the curtain aside. He saw a lump on the bed that was snoring loudly.
"Brutus," he said quietly through the window.
The lump stirred a bit before falling still again.
Ziro sighed and hoisted himself through the window. He approached the bed and began shaking Brutus' shoulder.
"Go away," Brutus' voice slurred into his pillow.
"Come on, we need to check on Julius," Ziro said urgently.
"Why?" Brutus muttered sleepily.
Ziro straightened up and looked around for something to try to wake his friend up more thoroughly. A cold drop of rain slid from his poncho and worked it's way into the fur on his neck, and an idea struck him.
He held his hand out the window in the misty rain until it was wet and cold. He carefully brought it to Brutus's drowsy form and wiped the cold water on his friend's forehead. Brutus shot up like he'd been electrocuted and looked wildly around until he spotted Ziro.
"That's just low, my friend," Brutus groaned and fell back, wiping the moisture from his brow.
Ziro crossed the room and pulled Brutus' rain poncho from a hook by his storage chest and tossed it onto the bed.
"You'll need this," he said, tossing his fishing belt to him as well.
Brutus pulled on the poncho and fastened the belt. The two of them climbed out the window and dropped onto the wet ground beneath them. Brutus landed hard on account of him still waking up.
Together they moved quietly through the streets of the city. The aftermath of the festival was still present in the bits of trash and fruit peels laying in the street.
They made their way into the outskirts and spotted a light in Julius' window. Ziro shot a glance at Brutus and they picked up the pace.
—
Brutus' heart was beating wildly when he and Ziro finally stopped at Julius' door. He could hear a voice talking inside the hut, so he knocked on the door.
"Julius! It's us!"
Brutus could hear shuffling inside and the door swung open. Julius' massive shaggy shape was silhouetted in the doorway. His small eyes looked tired, but he seemed happy. He let them inside and quickly shut the door behind them.
Brutus looked around and saw the human, awake on the bed with fresh bandages on her head and arms. Her eyes were red and puffy paired with dark circles beneath her eyes. There were also streaks down her cheeks. Scattered around her were scrolls and pieces of paper with pictures of different plants.
"What in the name of the lawgiver have you been doing to her?" Brutus said, crossing to the bed and examining her face.
Julius drew up a comfortable chair next to the bed and sank into it, "she had a nightmare and couldn't fall back asleep, so I decided to show her some of my collection."
The human nodded and started gathering papers into a stack. Brutus knelt and began picking up some of the scrolls that fell to the floor.
"I wonder what kind of things humans have nightmares about?" He said to himself.
"Probably something about the dark," Ziro replied.
Brutus glanced at him and saw that he was studying a writing tablet in his hands. Brutus extended his hand and Ziro turned the tablet so he could see. The surface was colored black in three large blotches, the scribbles were deep and purposeful.
"I suppose growing up without fire makes the dark seem more frightening," Brutus said, glancing at the human to see if she'd been listening.
The human didn't look like she had but was instead rolling up the scrolls to the way they were and making a neat stack next to a pile of paper.
He wished that she would say plainly what was going on in that mind. He was certain that he heard words coming from her direction the day before. But Ziro seemed to think that Brutus misheard something coming from the falls where she'd fallen in. After all, the sound of water falling was almost overpowering their own voices.
He recalled the fresh memory and the strange instinct that activated when he saw the human's life in danger.
He'd heard a shout and saw the creature's head getting swept under the strong currents. Normally, he wouldn't have jumped in, but he had Ziro hold his legs as he grasped the human by her strange clothing. His arms were still sore from holding her dead weight.
The human finished straightening the papers and was looking at Julius. Brutus followed her gaze and had to stifle a laugh. Julius had fallen asleep in his comfortable chair and low rumbling came from deep in his chest.
"He's totally passed out," Ziro muttered to Brutus, then he looked over his shoulder, "the human doesn't look much better."
It was true, she had dark shadows under both her eyes and she was nodding off until she finally dropped onto the bed and curled up into a deep slumber.
"Julius must've stayed up with her all night," Brutus said, picking up a stack of papers and crossing the room to place them on a shelf next to the mantle.
"I'm glad we got here when we did, he probably didn't want to leave her alone in the dark," Ziro said thoughtfully, gathering the rest of the scrolls and putting them on the same shelf where Brutus was.
The two of them stood next to the fireplace, watching the sleeping ape and human for a while in silence.
"I wonder what makes that human so special," Ziro voiced after a while, "I've never seen you two so invested like this with anything."
It took Brutus a moment to realize that Ziro meant him and Julius. He pondered on that statement for a moment, what made this human so special? Was she a mutant? Or something else?
He wondered how his mother would handle the human. He didn't think that she'd kill her, she was too unusual as a specimen. What would probably happen would be that she'd be subjected to repeated intellectual tests, or possibly encouraged to mate to see if the intelligence was hereditary.
A sick feeling erupted in his stomach as he pictured the different scenarios. One certain thing would be that she'd be reduced to a test subject- a mear number on a lab report.
He didn't want to imagine the kind of thing his father would do. With the threat of the growing population, he'd probably exterminate her and any others in the area. If that didn't happen, she'd probably be turned over to his mother's department anyway.
Brutus suddenly noticed that Ziro was looking at him, waiting for his response. He sighed and scratched his neck, "This is the first time we've seen something like this, I just wanted to make sure she was alright and then send her back to where she came from."
"Wanted?" Ziro asked.
Brutus' stomach sank lower, they were getting dangerously close to the topic he was forbidden to talk about.
Suddenly, he stiffened, listening intently. Then he heard it again. A scuffling noise from outside the window above the table. He turned to Ziro and he saw that he was glaring at the same window.
I'm not hearing things then, Brutus thought to himself.
He crouched and moved silently on all fours under the window, listening hard for signs of movement. The rain had stopped, but the sky outside the windows was still grey, Ziro glanced over at Julius and the human before moving to poise himself in front of them. He nodded to Brutus.
Brutus drew out a set of three stones attached with rope from a pocket on his fishing belt- a Bolas. Clenching his fists, Brutus tensed, then sprang up, pulling up on the sill before launching himself in the direction of the noise. A dark shape began sprinting swiftly from the side of the hut in the direction of town.
Brutus aimed, and with a flicking motion, threw the Bolas at the eavesdropper. The rope tangled the creature's legs and it dropped like a stone into the grass. He ran to see his prize, and his pounding heart turned to relief, then anger.
"Franklin!"
The poor chimp was struggling against the bindings with a look of panicked confusion. Brutus huffed and helped to unwind Ziro's brother from the ropes. Once free, Brutus grabbed Franklin by the scruff of his neck and glared into his eyes.
"What in the name of the lawgiver are you doing here? What were you thinking!?"
The young ape gaped for a moment before stammering, "I-I… I thought you were going fishing."
Looking down, Brutus indeed saw Franklin's own fishing belt strapped to his waist. He'd known Franklin for most of the young chimp's life, but he wasn't certain of what kind of conspirator he could be. Brutus' next question had to be asked carefully, he wasn't sure what Franklin had heard or seen.
"Why did you hide? Were you eavesdropping?"
Franklin bowed his head, "yes."
"What did you hear?"
His eyes searched before he answered, "I heard about the human."
Brutus closed his eyes and let out a slow breath, the worst thing in this situation that could happen, did. The only thing to do at this point was to make sure he wouldn't tell anyone.
"Listen," Brutus put on his most serious and threatening tone, "you can't say a word outside our group, not even a single breath about it. If you do, I'll make sure no one will ever find you."
Franklin's eyes widened and he nodded furiously, he didn't speak for fear of breaking the not a word rule. Brutus released him and Franklin scrambled onto his feet.
Brutus looked back at the hut and sighed., Ziro was probably wondering what was happening, and truth be told, Brutus didn't trust Franklin entirely to be out of his sight.
—
Ziro was in the hut, heart pounding. The commotion hadn't woken either Julius or the human. He worried about his friend out there alone with whoever was listening, and he hoped that Brutus was alright. His mind was racing, making plans of what to do if suddenly the ape calvary was upon them.
He heard footsteps in the doorway and stood up straight, ready for someone to come through the door, guns blazing.
Then he saw Brutus dragging someone by the arm and he breathed a sigh of relief. The next second he realized who was being dragged and his chest constricted in rage. He marched up to Franklin and smacked the back of his head.
"Are you deaf! What did I say!?" He scolded him in a low voice so as not to wake the other two.
His younger brother rubbed where he'd been hit and hung his head in shame, "I'm sorry."
Ziro's anger cooled immediately, he noticed Franklin was holding back tears, he often tried to be brave. But his brother was a sensitive soul, more so than others. Ziro sighed and reached out and held him close.
"idiot," he said endearingly as he felt Franklin's shoulders shake.
Brutus looked over and waited a few moments before kneeling down in front of Franklin and nudging his shoulder.
"Hey, do you want to see her?" He said.
Taking a deep breath, Franklin nodded.
—
Franklin could hear his heart in his ears as he approached the sleeping human's form. Despite her baggy covering, he could tell that she was thin, much too thin for a healthy animal. He carefully avoided Julius' feet and drew right up to the edge of the bed.
Her head was strangely round and her eyes were bigger than an ape's. In an ape-like way, Franklin thought the animal was kind of cute. She let out a sleepy huff and he smiled. He turned to see his brother watching the interaction with a deeply scrutinizing gaze every muscle must've been tensed. Brutus was more relaxed, but he was still looking anxiously from the human to Julius and back.
Not wanting to disturb the sleeping ones, Franklin backed away and Brutus and Ziro followed. The three apes gathered at the table and the older two began to fill Franklin in on what happened the day before.
"So, now you just have to figure out what to do with her, after she heals of course," he said thoughtfully.
"That's the gist," Brutus said.
Franklin thought for a moment, "well, it could turn out bad if the public knew, or even your parents Brutus, no offense."
"None taken," Brutus said, shaking his head.
"But, why not just send her back to the woods where you found her? It is her home," Franklin asked.
Brutus shifted and Franklin noticed his movement, but decided not to say anything.
"Because, She's alone," a deep voice said from behind them.
Franklin jumped out of his skin and whipped around to see the shaggy mountain of hair that was Julius standing behind him. Ziro laughed quietly and Julius and Brutus joined in. Franklin covered his face, embarrassed.
When he looked up again, Ziro motioned to him to join him and Julius, "Come on, we haven't eaten yet and decisions are best with food in our bellies."
–
Jayda opened her eyes to see the apes crowded around the table, but something was wrong. She counted in her mind, 1…2,3…4?
She rechecked, but her eyes hadn't deceived her, there were four apes. She lay perfectly still, assessing. They didn't seem to be arguing and there wasn't tension in the air between them, so the fourth must be a friend, to the apes at least. There was no telling the danger that lay ahead for her.
She watched them, trying to determine the personality of the fourth. He was young, that was the first she noticed, but his manner was mature.
"Ziro," the new ape said after Julius ended a long rant about something Jayda didn't understand, "do you really think humans can think like apes? I mean, from what all of you have told me, she still hasn't been able to read, write, or speak. For all we know she could be copying something she's seen apes do."
Ziro shifted and looked at his hands clasped in front of him, "I think she is more intelligent than other humans, I've seen enough to understand that, but if she's like an ape… I don't know."
The new ape turned his head and Jayda realized that he was looking at her. Their eyes met and she knew that she couldn't feign sleep any longer. She sat up and the other apes turned to look.
"Hello! You're awake!" The new ape said brightly.
She reeled back, unsure of what to do. Brutus got up and circled the table to put his hand on the new ape's shoulder, "it's alright, this is Franklin, he's a friend. He'll keep our secret."
He squeezed Franklin's shoulder until he flinched. Jayda noticed how different this ape was- smaller, more gangly limbs. It occurred to her that she'd never seen a young ape, it was always the adults who came into the woods.
Suddenly her stomach let out a noise like an elk mating call. Her face flushed red in embarrassment and she tried too late to stifle it. Julius made an amused coo from his throat and he gestured for her to come sit next to him.
She moved quickly and sat in a chair, next to the mountain of orange fur. There was a prepared plate of fruits and dried meat. She began to eat and looked up at the others who were watching her. Her face felt warm again and she kept her eyes downcast.
—
Franklin watched the human with fascination. She was so active now she was awake. He never imagined she'd have icy blue eyes, even among apes, blue eyes were rare. Green, amber, and brown were more common.
He noticed the way she would eat the fruit by scraping clean the inside of the skin and taking out the seeds and pits first. He was curious if she'd touch the meat, he couldn't remember if humans were vegetarian or not. His peers would swear up and down that humans would eat you before you had time to think, but that always sounded wrong.
But he was here, at this moment, having breakfast with a real, living, breathing human. Even better, a human who could use a knife and fork.
He watched her cut a piece of meat and scoop it into her mouth and she chewed it for a while before swallowing. A sense of triumph filled his chest, but he wasn't entirely sure why.
He had a million questions he wanted to ask her. Ziro told him she could only say yes and no easily so that limited his options. He opened his mouth and blurted out the first one that came to mind.
"Do you have a name?"
The moment he said it he regretted picking that one, even if she did have one, she couldn't tell them.
The human looked up in surprise and the others around the table were either shaking their heads or stifling laughs behind their fingers. She looked at Franklin like she was seeing him for the first time. In her eyes, he saw the understanding spark of thought and She nodded.
His chest leapt with excitement, it was satisfying to see that his words had an effect and she could answer.
"I didn't know you had a name," Brutus said, surprised.
"Did you ask?" Franklin found himself asking before he could stop.
Brutus cast his eyes downward in shame and a guilty weight fell in Franklin's stomach. He hated making people feel bad, and honestly, he understood Brutus would have a lot on his mind. It was an easy thing to forget.
"Does it start with A?" Franklin said, focusing back on the human.
Ziro rolled his eyes, "she's human Brother, I don't think sh-"
She shook her head, sending Ziro into a humbled silence, so Franklin tried again, "B? C? D? …"
He continued down the alphabet until he got to J. When he said it, she nodded repeatedly. his smile grew even wider at having guessed something right.
"J… ok, maybe a Vowel next?"
She tilted her head in confusion.
Alright, she knows letters, just not something like vowels and consonants, Franklin thought.
"A?"
He'd hardly said the letter when the human nodded.
"Okay, J…A…," he wrote them in the air with his finger.
He tried to put together some names in his mind that he knew started with Ja-.
Jason, Jack, Janus…
Then he noticed the human was tracing something in the air.
"Y?" Brutus suggested, and the human nodded.
"Jay?" Franklin guessed.
She shook her head and began tracing the air again, Franklin was getting even more excited and started guessing.
"B? No? Oh… How about D?"
A nod from the human and she traced something else.
"A! So… Jay-da, Jayda!"
—
For the first time in many, many years, Jayda heard her name spoken aloud. The last time was the final word her father ever said. A shockingly comforting warmth spread through her chest at the picture of his face. She was no longer a nameless human, side-eye, or frantic shoulder tap, she was Jayda.
The warmth spread to her face and she felt the moisture build up. She sighed and closed her eyes, willing herself not to cry. She promised herself she'd do it later, when the apes weren't around.
"Jayda?" Brutus said, his thoughtful expression would've been appropriate for someone trying a new food and appreciating the taste, "where did you get a name like that?"
The realization crashed around her, she'd accidentally revealed one of the most dangerous pieces of information about humans. She didn't have a lot of memories of the early days, but in each one was permeated with one warning. Do not speak around apes.
While she never did speak, it would be logical for them to assume that her parents gave her a name, and therefore had voices. And if they guessed that, the rest was history.