Julius was beginning to understand the human's expressions the longer she stayed. The one she had on now was complete panic but trying to keep it under control. She'd revealed something sacred, her name. He sat back and began to ponder that notion, a name itself was something that others could call to you to get your attention. Names could also convey identity, his own parents, God rest their souls, gave him Julius. His was a name that sounded kingly and grand, but the original meaning was lost long ago. He hoped it wasn't something like "village idiot", or "thinly hair".

Jayda, he wondered why this was her name, who gave it to her? It was widely known that humans couldn't speak, so it was unlikely that they could've given her a name that sounded apeish.

She could understand letters too, possibly even read. Julius started putting together some of these pieces in his mind. It was possible that an ape could've found her and taught her many of these things.

It made sense, especially remembering that all three of her parental figures died some time in the past. She wouldn't have made it far on her own as a child. But one thing he couldn't figure out was why she was alone now. He crossed his long arms and looked with a quizzical expression across the table at the human.

"Who gave you this name? Was it an ape?"

The human looked up and stared at Julius for a solid ten seconds- then she nodded.

A collective gasp was drawn from the three other apes. Brutus looked slightly disappointed, but Franklin looked positively giddy at learning another fact from the human.

Ziro, however, squinted, "if you'd been around apes before, why did you act so strange around us? Why were you so afraid?"

Franklin rolled his eyes back into his sloped forehead, "you, as strangers, save a human from drowning, she gets seriously knocked on the head and wakes up in an unfamiliar place, and you still ask why she was afraid?"

Brutus shrugged, "he's right."

If apes could blush like humans, Julius was certain Ziro would be a deep red at this point.

"Alright, but if she was owned by an ape before, that still doesn't explain why she was on her own when we found her," he said, rubbing his ear.

Brutus shook his head, "it's a mystery, and I don't know anyone in the city that would willingly take in a human child and raise it like an ape."

Julius pondered on that last statement. Perhaps not raising like an ape, but perhaps experimenting on it to teach a human to be like themselves. By all accounts, the ape had mostly succeeded.

"Who do we know that would be curious enough to try?" He asked the room.

They fell silent, each sorting through their own lists of apes. Jayda shifted uncomfortably, her hand reaching up to tug at the bandages. Julius noticed and rose from his chair.

"Jayda, come with me, it's time to change those."

She rose and followed Julius to the separate room in the back.

He crossed to a closet and pushed aside a few hanging ponchos. A box was stashed away in the corner, he hesitated, then pulled it out. Jayda watched curiously as he took off the lid and pulled out a long, orange tunic and decorative belt that would never fit his wide shaggy frame.

He held them for a moment before turning to her, "I don't know if you understand the meaning of husband and wife, but my wife's name was Camilla. She was kind and wonderful, and very smart."

Jayda looked on with confusion and sympathy. Julius figited before he extended the tunic and belt to the human.

"One of the last things she told me was to remember her by giving kindness selflessly to others, including humans."

Jayda looked at the clothes in amazement, then looked at Julius with such gratitude that he felt a tingling warmth in his heart. Slowly, she picked up the clothes and examined them.

Julius pointed to a door, "behind there is a washing room with water and soap, the little white bar. Can you wash yourself?"

She nodded.

"Alright, wash yourself and put these on, then we can change your bandages."

She clutched the clothing to her chest and retreated into the washroom, shutting the door tightly. He heard some fiddling before the sound of a stream of water could be heard.

Julius nodded satisfactorily and returned to the main room, closing the door behind him.

-

Ziro sat back in his chair. Something wasn't right here, and more than just an unusually smart human wandering around the place. He trusted his gut and something told him that she wasn't being completely honest.

He decided he wasn't going to tell Brutus or Franklin, they were too caught up in the excitement of it all.

He looked up when Julius came back in the room, "I thought you were changing the bandages."

"I will, she's just getting cleaned up first."

"Thank goodness," Brutus muttered, then he straightened up, "I mean, that's good, we wouldn't want them to get infected."

Julius chuckled, "True, but the first part is true as well."

The others cracked up, humans definitely gave off a powerful smell, but they'd endured. Ziro couldn't help but be curious then, what would a fully washed human look like?

When Brutus took Ziro to his mother's lab, the humans there were either dead, or they'd been cleaned by crude methods like just dumping water over their heads. A fully scrubbed human might look like a completely different beast.

He glanced at Franklin who was talking excitedly to Brutus. Ziro blamed himself for his brother being caught up in all this. He should've known that he'd follow him after the cryptic conversation they'd had that morning.

One brother mysteriously disappearing to Julius' hut was normal, but both? Sooner or later the human was going to be found and anyone involved would be questioned and possibly charged as heretics. He thought he could handle that, but Franklin…?

He thought of the few apes in the past that had been convicted of heresy- mostly scientists. If they weren't banished, they were shunned and ended up leaving anyway. Perhaps it was one of those apes who took this human in in the first place. At least, if she was telling the truth.

-

Jayda couldn't remember the last time she had a real bath, but the warm water and soap felt wonderful as she scrubbed the caked grim from her skin. She scrubbed her hair and body until the skin was pink and her long hair was free from oil and grime. She lifted the tangled strands and examined the ends, they were rough and dead from the years of starvation and rough treatment.

In all honesty, she wished she could cut it. She'd like to have it shorter like she had it when her birth mother was alive. Then it was long enough for her to braid it, but not so long that brushing it everyday was a necessity. Especially since she didn't own a hairbrush or had even seen one in years.

She got out, released the water and crossed to a shelf where a stack of clean towels were waiting. She wrapped up, considering the strange deja vu feeling that crept over body. Shaking her head, she dispersed the memories and held up the tunic Julius gave to her.

It was made for an ape, that much was clear. She slipped it over her head and let it fall. It hung around her ankle length and the sleeves extended past her fingers by several inches. She rolled them up, but even then they were completely covering her wrists. She used the belt to reign in the billowing sides.

A crude mirror hung near the door of the washroom and she examined herself in it. She looked out of place in the ape room, wearing ape clothes. It had been years since she'd been this clean.

"She cannot be disinfected, it's too late for that, she'll reduce the rest of us to be like those beasts!"

The sudden memory swept across her mind and sent a cold shiver across every nerve. She folded her arms against the unnerving feelings the flashback had brought on. She tried not to think of the faces of the angry humans that were yelling at mommy and daddy. The scary beings that melded together with another memory of the monsters that brought down the roof on their home.

She gasped like someone who'd had a bucket of water poured over their head in the middle of winter. She was back in the washroom. She looked down at her human clothes crumpled on the ground, she picked them up and left the room with a lingering feeling of foreboding.

-

Brutus held a roll of white bandage out to Julius as the orangutan applied a salve to Jayda's forehead and arm. He took the roll and wrapped it snugly around her head and arm. It was strange to see the human without black patches of dirt on her skin and clothes. Her pale skin seemed to glow in the sunlight that was coming in one of the windows.

After Julius finished with the bandage, she ran her hands through her tangled hair to try and make it lay neatly. His Father's words came back to him. "the humans ruled this land, apes had no voice. When apes rose against them, the humans lost their voices".

Is this what humans looked like when they ruled? she did look more intelligent, but he wasn't sure if that was from being cleaned up or if that was how she was naturally. She noticed him staring at her and he looked away.

He glanced at Franklin who seemed like he was going to burst. He sighed and stood, "Hey, Franklin, why don't you come help Julius."

The young ape nodded enthusiastically and, like a bolt of jittery lightning, circled the table and took Brutus' spot closest to the human. Brutus made eye contact with Ziro before jerking his head to the door outside. Ziro abliged and followed him out of the hut.

The sun was high and moving towards midday, so they decided to take cover under the trees at the edge of the woods not to far from Julius' home.

Once they were alone, Brutus addressed Ziro, "You have some concerns."

Not denying it, Ziro nodded, "Yes, what we're doing here, it's heresy. in the beginning, I was only afraid for the three of us, but now my younger brother is involved. If anything happened to him... We can't keep doing this forever, Brutus."

"I know, I know. But I just don't know what's the right thing to do," Brutus said, rubbing his already messed up fur on his neck.

Ziro shook his head, "Then just tell me this, why can't we just release her back where we found her and forget the whole thing?"

Brutus figited with his hands. He'd be breaking his promise to his father, but he and Ziro were conspirators together in this human business. His friend had been in deeper holes than this and he always managed to pull anything off, he hoped that applied this human situation.

Brutus sighed, "If I tell you, you must promise never to tell another living soul as long as you live."

"I'll swear it on my own head," Ziro answered, knowing that when his friend got like this, it was more serious than the forbidden zone.

Brutus looked at the ground for a long while before speaking, "My father said to me that humans were once the speaking species, and apes were silent. They lost the war and we were at peace."

He looked up and stared Ziro dead in the eye, "There are reports of humans growing in number, and having a human like her…?"

He glanced back to the shape of the hut, where the human still was, "She could change the tide of the war towards the human side if she chose to join them."

Ziro's eyebrows furrowed, "Then why aren't we doing something about it? Why is she still alive and in that hut alone with my brother? And Julius?"

"Because I don't know if he's wrong," Brutus said, "If she wanted to hurt us, she could've done it a long time ago. I honestly believe she's just scared and confused."

Ziro was quiet for a while, Brutus found himself picking through the fur on his own arm before his friend looked up to speak.

"We need peace of mind, and we need it from someone who is smarter than the four of us," Ziro took a dramatic pause before he finished, "We need your mother."

–

"No! No way am I letting you do this!"

Franklin was standing in front of the human, arms outstretched protectively as she looked curiously over his shoulder.

"Relax," Ziro said, "We just need to understand what's happening with her to make sure she's not dangerous."

"Dangerous!" Franklin repeated, "if she was, we'd all be dead already."

"Maybe that wasn't the right word," Brutus cut in, "But we need more help to find out where she belongs."

"She belongs where people actually care about her!" Franklin shouted.

"And you do? What do you think'll happen if the elders find her here! Do you think she'll be welcomed then?! What do you think they'll do to you? To all of us?" Ziro said firmly.

Franklin shuddered for a moment, he knew what his brother meant. He'd heard the stories of those who harbored humans and those who committed heresy, but still, he couldn't allow anything bad to happen to the human. He looked back at Jayda. Her eyes flicked back and forth between them.Julius was sitting in his comfortable chair by the hearth, watching the exchange. Franklin looked to him for help.

He raised his palm, "Franklin, so far I've encouraged Brutus and Ziro to make their own decision regarding Jayda, and even now I can do no less. I trust their judgment, but I will offer this advice: if she is harmed in any way, I will do anything in my power to make sure she is safe."

Franklin slowly dropped his arms. He trusted the old orangutan and Julius trusted Jayda in the hands of Ziro and Brutus. Franklin didn't drop his guard entirely, but he was beginning to see things from the others perspective. However, he wasn't going to let anyone do anything bad to Jayda, not when he had a choice.

"We'll bring my mother here first," Brutus said in a comforting tone, "that way Jayda can stay hidden in a familiar place."

Franklin's gut was still feeling queasy, but he knew ultimately he couldn't stop his brother and Brutus. All he could do was watch them.

–

Brutus left Ziro, Franklin, and Julius to stay with Jayda as he himself marched to the other end of the city where his mother's lab was. He knew no one should suspect him of heresy, but as he passed the other apes, he couldn't help feeling exposed. None of them knew what kind of traitor he was.

As he approached the lab, he noticed the outdoor cage and its dome shape at the top of the hill. He passed the bars and noticed with surprise there were two humans sitting silently in it, a male and a young female who could be his daughter. Their hair and clothes were soaked from the constant sprinkle of rain.

He wondered what they were thinking, if they could think. Their gazes were more animalistic like the rest of the humans, not like his human at all.

He stopped himself, Jayda wasn't his human. She was possibly a dangerous threat to life as he knew it. But that didn't stop him from wondering about the two other humans, and if they could possibly be related to Jayda, as unlikely as that possibility was. The male did have similar eyes, and his hair must've been dark once, but now there were silver streaks.

The young female clung desperately at the male's side. Her wild hair was flaming orange, brighter than an orangutan's, and her wide brown eyes closed in fear as he passed.

Poor things, Brutus found himself thinking.

He climbed down a set of stairs and entered the back door to his mother's lab. He was in a wide hallway that led to the main lab, but on either side there were doors for each doctor. He found his mother's nameplate and entered while rapping his knuckles on the door.

The office was empty, Brutus backed out of the room and turned to see a female chimpanzee coming down the hall. It wasn't his mother, but rather she was an ape about his age, clutching a stack of scrolls. She didn't look up, but kept on approaching without noticing him.

"Hello," Brutus said, hoping his voice didn't betray how nervous he actually was.

She looked up, startled, "Oh! Brutus, It's you!"

He tried to remember a name, but his mind drew a blank. He didn't have the foggiest clue of who she was.

"Uh, yes, it's me."

She looked from the door to him, "are you looking for your mother?"

He nodded.

"She's preparing the main lab. The gorilla's found two living humans on their hunt! We don't get very many living ones, It's so exciting!"

Brutus remembered the humans in the cage outside and pointed toward the door leading out, "Are they the ones…"

She nodded.

"Ah… alright."

An awkward silence fell between them, Brutus was about to say something before she perked up, "Well, I just have to, uh, put these away, if you'll excuse me."

"Uh, yes! Alright."

He watched her go for a moment before he remembered that he was on a mission. He straightened up and increased his pace down the long hallway.

Brutus reached the lab door and opened it enough for him to see inside. There were tables, beakers, tubes, and other equipment, but what hit him first was the stomach turning smell of disinfectant and preservative.

He spotted his mother's form in the corner looking over her lab wear.

"Mother!" He said in a voice loud enough to carry, but not enough to raise the alarm."

She turned and jumped, "Brutus? I thought your note said you were fishing all day."

"Well, yeah… but on another note, can I meet with you privately?"

She looked around at the nearly prepared lab, "Can it wait? I'm in the middle of something."

Brutus shook his head, if he waited any longer he might lose his nerve. She sighed and followed him to her office where he glanced up and down the hall before shutting the door quietly and turning to her.

"Alright," His mother took the lead in the conversation, crossing her long arms, "what is this about?"

The moment she asked, Brutus' mind drew a blank. How was he supposed to start this?

"Uh," He began, rubbing his fingers through the fur on his arm and picking at a few, a habit he thought he gave up a long time ago, "Mother, what have you discovered so far about human intelligence?"

"This is what couldn't wait?" She said, confused.

"I promise it relates more than you know," the young chimp said quickly.

His mother sighed and thought about it for a second, "I've found their brains to be developed much like an apes, but by all accounts there's some parts, specifically speech and comprehension, that just don't seem to want to activate."

Brutus began to feel elated and hurried on, "So, what would it be like if the human brain was as active as an ape's?"

Again, his mother took a moment to think, "I suppose in that unlikely scenario, they wouldn't be that much different from ourselves. But, why would you ask something like this?"

Brutus was about to let the penny drop when there was a knock on the office door and the chimpanzee from before poked her head inside.

"Is it ready?" Brutus' mother asked.

"Yes, it is, but we have another visitor, straight from the elders."

His mother closed her eyes, "of course, send him in."

"Yes ma'am," the other young ape withdrew.

His mother turned to him and sighed, "I'm sorry Brutus, but we can't ignore a visit from the elders. whatever you have to tell me, is it life threatening right now?"

He hesitated, "No, not right now."

"Alright, then come tell me after we're done with this."

She left the office and him with a guilty weight. If only he'd been more bold, he probably could've told her.