Healing brought Ashwin another share of troubles. Males were expected to hunt and patrol the borders. The boy participated in hunts a few times with his father and other nobles but compared to apes' style it was as different as day and night. Several dozen servants and dogs chased game towards horseback riders to shoot them. That's the kind of hunting Ashwin was used to. However, here he had to walk into the forest on his own to set traps or combine his efforts with others for a driven hunt. Both choices had their own benefits. For now, Ashwin chose the first option. Hegat showed him how to create a couple of simple traps. a few simple traps. They couldn't catch large animals, but at the time, even a small game was enough. The boy needed to start providing meat for his "family" to stop all the whispers and snickers surrounding him and those who share the roof with him.

Yesterday he set several traps in the closest grove and near the animals’ trails to the water. the animal trails to the water. Getting up early, he headed straight for the grove, ignoring the intense stares from young apes. Slowly, he started to get used to their interest in him. At first, it was hard to shake off the feeling that some of these gazes were evaluating human as a possible source of food. But after the feast, their interest turned into much more peaceful curiosity. From time to time, children couldn't hold back their questions any longer and poked at him, demanding answers. Their silly and naive questions were like "Why don't you fall when you always move on two legs?" or "When will you grow fur now that you're part of the troop?". The second one took Ashwin by surprise, so much so that he couldn't hold on to the honest answer: "I hope never."

Fortunately, there was no pack of young apes following the boy today. He checked the traps one by one: two were empty, one was broken. But in the fourth one, near the lake, he found a strangled stork hopper. Ashwin was hoping to catch at least some honey squirrels, so finding even a larger prey got him in a good mood. Pleased and singing, he freed the hopper's neck from the rope. A rustling in the bushes made him stop. The boy looked up, looking into the shrubs and listening. His only weapon was a small stone knife, and he was sure it wouldn't be enough if a predator stepped onto the trail.

But when the branches with leaves moved, another ape appeared before him. For a moment, Ashwin just stared at the newcomer. The male was wearing a necklace with colorful feathers and the paw of an animal with long claws. His long muzzle was covered in the same ochre paint as Scarface's troop, but his general disheveled appearance and the necklace made him stand out. The ape gaped at him, then slowly moved out of the bushes.

"I haven't seen you around," Ashwin decided to speak first. "Are you from another settlement?"

The ape scrubbed his head, then answered clumsily: "No. Was away, busy study. Want to rest, returned. You?"

The beast's voice sounded hoarse, as if he had been silent for a long time. His single question started the boy's quick story

"I came with others. We crossed the wall, and they brought me here, so..."

"Wait," the ape said, raising his paw before Ashwin could continue, "Speak more. Can’t create sound we know not. Tell, what are you?"

The boy shook his head. He wanted to go back to his catch, not make friends with some new ape. Reluctant at first, he started to talk, and before Ashwin noticed, he told the odd ape everything he had been holding back for the past few months. How his family had been wrongly accused, how his mother and probably father had been killed. How he had been thrown into the pit to be shrewd to pieces by the man-eating apes...

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When he reached the part of their return to the settlement, it became harder to contain his anger.

"How could he drive away the weak ones? What is this, this..." Ashwin stopped. Calling apes savages straight to their faces probably wasn't a good idea. The beast, who had been quietly listening all this time, grinned.

"Humans! Think you know all. Choice is important. You get spouses and they have your cubs. That's good. Those who left, are still alive. Before cubs were killed, now they live and can go anywhere." The strange ape's speech didn't change Ashwin's opinion. 'What good does it do to slightly improve cruelty? It's still an inhuman thing to do.'

"It looks like people saw your kind only as animals for a good reason."

Somehow, the boy's bitter words that could easily be taken as an insult led to a wide grin on the beast's face. Hooting and slapping his sides with his palms, he laughed so loudly that the birds began to leave the branches of nearby trees.

"They were wrong. They were wrong about many things, such as Scaled Ones. Humans were right about one thing. Scaled Ones killed human girl, and tried to hide it, offering a gift. Humans got very angry."

"But why did the chief kill her?" Ashwin had heard this story before, though not from an ape. And every time the same question arose that he could not ask. "I mean, the relationship was good, why ruin it with murder?"

"Because wench rejected Scaled One. She had weak spouse, but chief wanted her. She should have just submitted to stronger one. It's all because of humans' weak nature."

Ashwin clenched his fists. The ape clapped his sides and pointed at the boy.

"See? You are angry too. Why?"

"How can I not be? You have just accused a virtuous woman of being the reason for the Retaliation War, not a bastard who betrayed her trust and killed her without remorse. But I can't even be sure that you are telling the truth."

"I am. I have no reason to lie. It was not our war. We do not like both kinds, but humans are at least edible."

The boy felt sick just listening to the ape's arrogant and cruel words. He picked up his catch and headed for the village. The ape laughed and talked endlessly, while Ashwin walked away. The first hope that at least this beast, who listened to his story could be a sane ally disappeared.

Right outside the grove, the boy met Hegat. The male was also returning from checking his own traps, carrying an eyeless underground animal of some kind. He instantly noticed Ashwin's bitterness and asked what had happened.

"There was an ape with feathers and a kind of paw hanging from its neck". As the boy explained who he had encountered, he thought that the Hegat might consider him insane, but the beast listened with a grin, and then said: "It's Ngu-gu."

Though it was good that he wasn't labeled as a madman, Ashwin was not satisfied with the ape's meager response. "Ngu-gu" could be the beast's name or a term like "gwaza".

"Is he a shaman?" Looking at the puzzled expression on the ape's muzzle, the boy explained, "Is he someone important?"

"Khh," laughed Hegat. "No, he isn't. Ngu-gu is just weird. We call him 'Odd One' sometimes."

'Just great. Now I'm going to be known as an acquaintance of a weird ape,' thought the vexed boy.