At first the morning stroll was pleasant and refreshing. Finally finding himself on a solid ground after so many months at sea Leo experienced what sailors called the ‘illness of disembarkment’. It made him feel as if he was still on the ship that kept swaying in the ocean waves, but while walking he got the impression as if he continuously was going up and down a hill.
It was a fun experience and he enjoyed it for some time, but the growling belly brought him back to reality. Immediately he was reminded of the tribe of tuckers that stole his provisions and his own inability to find anything edible in the wild. Leo became a bit upset, but the perspective of finding other people soon pushed worries to the back of his mind again.
Unfortunately he didn’t see any signs of civilization along the way, but since he was not too thirsty, he could persist for a while. In addition, the sun was currently behind the jungle again and cast a nice shadow Leo could hide in making the walk bearable.
He was completely confused about the cardinal directions and all he remembered from his father’s teachings was that sun was in the east, but that didn’t help him one bit. The ‘east’ was currently behind the trees and high up in the sky, so it probably was midday.
‘Sigh … I guess it’s time to turn back.’ Leo thought to himself in disappointment, but then his eyes lit up.
Not too far away, maybe two hundred yards or so, there was another brook! And that meant he could camp here and then continue on his way tomorrow! Delighted with the thought Leo rushed towards the small stream, drank and washed again.
Unfortunately the rumbling belly didn’t let him enjoy the well earned rest. Leo had no clue where in the middle of nowhere he could get something to eat if one didn’t count the boxes of provisions that tribe of tuckers took.
Out of pure desperation he even tried to catch a couple of small fishes, but those were quick and slippery and in the end Leo could only give up while calling them ‘slippery tuckers’.
Then Leo got another idea. He didn’t spend much time with the apes, but he remembered seeing few of them eating some kind of fruits. And fruits were also food!
‘Mother tuckers!’ Leo cursed and got up again.
Fruits grew on trees or bushes – he knew as much. Thus the main task became looking for something eatable up above.
Unfortunately the only thing he could find were small yellowish berries that grew on few bushes a bit further upstream. They were not particularly tasty, but after eating several dozens the sour taste lessened his hunger by quite a bit. Since there was nothing better to do, he continued to eat the berries until dark, then slept and the next morning went on his way again.
Currently Leo considered himself to be an experienced explorer. He had traveled across the sea and on the land, he could survive in the wild and camp. The fact that he was lucky also counted – after traveling for half a day he found another brook.
This time he already knew the procedure and immediately after quenching thirst went upstream to gather berries. Just like the last brook, this one had similar bushes growing on its banks, but for some reason they had much less berries growing on them.
Leo picked the ones that were there while cursing the empty bushes when slowly a realization struck him. He had already been here and picked berries from these exact bushes before! Not similar, but exactly from these particular bushes!
In distress he began to look around, found the branches he broke last night, the spot where he was forced to relieve himself after getting a slight case of diarrhea ... this was the same place! And the brook … was the same!
He was not very smart, but this was not the science of alchemy! He was obviously returning to the same place every day!
At first he wanted to blame the tucking ape tribe for placing a curse on him, but then the common sense won and he realized there was only one reasonable explanation – he camped at the brook, in the morning went along the beach around the island only to return to the same place after half a day of walking.
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At this thought Leo finally broke down. The hopes of finding a town or even a village on such a small island were delusional and the only village that actually existed was that of the tucking apes!
He sat on the ground hugging knees with both hands, slightly swaying from side to side while mumbling curses towards the apes and at the same time begging his father to finally show up and take him away. Tears rolled down his cheeks and the principle ‘the Renaud family men don’t cry’ that Lyam taught him as a mantra from the day Leo was born was the only thing that prevented him from loudly weeping.
Who knows how things would’ve turned out if not for a sudden commotion somewhere in the jungle.
The last couple of days while literally running around the island in circles Leo didn’t hear anything but the ocean waves washing ashore, trees rustling in the wind and birds chirping. But now terrifying screams of agony startled the boy bringing him back to reality.
Purely on instinct he jumped on his feet and looked up only to see an enormous shadow flying over the treetops right above him, carrying two silvery figures that continued to convulse and scream in pain. With mouth wide open Leo stared at the sight of an eagle with a wingspan close to twenty yards carrying siver-back ape in each of its claws like those were common sheep.
“Hahaha! There you go! There is justice in the world!” Leo suddenly laughed and shouted energetically punching the air, “That’s what you get for taking the food from a child! Heavens are just, you mother tuckers!”
Even if he was stranded in the middle of nowhere, a thought of a couple of apes having it worse than him warmed Leo’s heart. He watched the eagle carry its prey until it became a small dot on the horizon and then disappeared, and for some reason Leo’s worries disappeared along with it.
He washed his face, gathered and ate the rest of the berries he could find nearby and went to sleep.
The next morning Leo woke up with a resolution. He would go and demand the tucked monkeys to return his things. Yesterday he witnessed how Heavens were protecting him, so there was nothing to be sacred of.
After drinking to his fullest, just in case, Leo bravely went right into the jungle. He was not afraid to get lost since in the worst case scenario he would come out somewhere on the beach again and start over.
It didn’t take long to find the familiar meadow, but the sight he saw was something new. The neatly stacked boxes and barrels were no more. The leftovers were scattered around while several ape babies were feasting on crackers and licking pieces of barrel wood enjoying the remnants of the Firewater.
It was obvious that the largest ape and his buddies blamed the smaller ones for the tragedy that transpired yesterday and currently were punishing several of them at the same time. Leo already witnessed the procedure when he was here few days ago, but there was no way he would feel pity for any of the apes. The supplies he came to fight for were all gone! He couldn’t even decide what pained him more – the fact that all the cracker boxes were broken or that the Firewater was spilled.
With a sigh Leo squatted down near a place with more crackers scattered around. Yes, he was upset, but he was hungry even more and the fact that he was eating food from the ground didn’t bother him at all. The ape babies soon noticed him and came over to join as if the crackers here were in some way superior to those on the previous spot they were at.
Leo was too busy eating to notice the hilarious sight of a human child feasting at the one side of a meadow together with a bunch of ape babies while their mothers were humped by the other tribe members. Only when he was finally full a thought ran through his mind that the apes were so energetic because they drank all of his Firewater, but the pestering of the ape babies was never ending thus Leo quickly focused on escaping.
Or course, it was not possible to actually escape – he was on an island after all. During the upcoming days Leo slowly got used to the life in the silver-back ape tribe and the apes got used to him quickly as well.
It was not all bad. While observing apes Leo learned where one could actually find food around here and which sprouts and fruits were edible. Thanks to his father’s mast-scaling training during the voyage he was capable of climbing most trees and soon managed to feed himself independently.
Obviously the getting down part was still an issue and the whole tribe watched Leo’s performance in amusement commenting his falling skills with loud ‘U’s!’ and ‘A’s!’ and, according to Leo’s understanding, openly laughing at him. Unfortunately the only thing he could do was to grumble and curse the apes promising, “One of these days I’ll hump every last one of you, tucking monkeys!”.
Of course, the food he found was far from being enough and because of the fruit diet Leo’s nice round shape soon turned into a slim, athletic body. While he was clearly upset about the change, because of the transformation the ape tribe lost interest in their daily game of throwing the boy around and ‘the ape volleyball’ was soon forgotten.
Leo would’ve welcomed it, but then for ten or so days the baby apes found another form of entertainment and a way to pester him. Either because of him slimming down or because it had been so long, the black, hard substance that covered the whole body began to slowly come off. To their delight the baby apes underneath it found pink and glossy skin and their main activity of the day became scrubbing off the black layer only to see if they can find something even more interesting.
The poor owner of the body found the procedure itchy and often even painful, thus tried to escape, but the ape babies were strong and fast and always managed to overwhelm him with numbers. Even in the rare cases when Leo managed to hold his ground for a while, the ruckus the bunch caused annoyed the patriarch and he simply smacked Leo to the ground allowing the little apes have their fun. Fortunately Leo’s body was not that big and he was soon picked clean, and to their displeasure the ape babies had to return to their previous hobby of finding bugs in each others hair.
At first Leo thought apes did nothing but lazed around all day and from time to time stole provisions from helpless children, but on the fourth day of staying with the tribe he was forced to realize they actually had a job – they were real masters of alchemy!