Chapter 8

Writer's Note: This is the last time we're with Lisha for a while. I really concentrate on Conner after this, partly because there is only so much I can do with her being by herself and in the woods. I already had to break down and put in a pet for her to rescue. I also think I broke the record for the use of the word "monkey" in one paragraph. A few notes for ease when reading: ignore the fourth wall and there is a journal entry at the end. It's denoted by a different typeface.

“Stay there little birdie, do not you go flying off,” I muttered under my breath. The trogon considered me while I slowly raised my blow gun near my mouth and aimed. One quick puff of air and a dart through the neck and I had some meat for the night. I had spent the entire day trying to find some sort of plant to tide me over but now I could feast with the bird and what I had gathered. As I was gathering up the body of the trogon I noticed a whimpering animal at the base of the same tree – a fallen spider monkey making small monkey noises.

“What happened to you, little guy?” I said as I picked up the tiny little body and turned it over so I could see the coloring. Mostly black, with a white mane of fur around the head and face that, even as a baby, looked old and wizened and wise.

“Spider monkey, what are you doing on the ground out of your tree? If I remember correctly this is not normal spider monkey behavior,” I sad in a low voice to the terrified baby. Then I found it: slowly bleeding cuts on one of his arms, “oh, did you get attacked by an owl?” I considered my options. Spider monkeys were tasty and hard to get. They were small and quick and knew that trees blocked darts. Hey enjoyed mocking hunters until even the best were throwing their blow – guns to the ground and stomping away, defeated, they were considered a delicacy, and it would be more of a treat that the trogon.

I looked at the damage on the poor thing’s arm and considered my options.
Okay seriously Jackie? I did not complain when you started capitalizing random nouns and adjectives but now you are adding a freaking monkey? Seriously?
Hey hey hey, there will be a future reason for the freaking monkey. Maybe it will help bring you to an injured Conner. Maybe it will be able to get through some vents or through the bars on a jail cell.
Uh huh, sure. Because in the, what, seventy fifth century they would not have figured out how to not have bars but a solid wall? And why would I need to be brought to Conner? Is he running into the forest? Will it be after he

“You know, you wouldn’t be more than a mouthful, you are so tiny. Not nearly enough to be worth the skinning I would have to do, and I do not need any hide right now and I’m pretty sure I could fix this. Na made sure to include needles and some cat gut for stitches. The twine would probably do far more damage than the actual cuts,” I muttered to myself, rising with two tiny bodies in my hands, one far more than I had ever expected to have.

‘I suppose I will have to gather some more fruit for you. What I am I doing little spider monkey? Am I crazy? I can barely keep myself alive and fed out here. How does anybody survive by themselves? I mean, look at me! I am talking to a monkey, somewhat expecting it to talk back, and taking it back to stitch together some of its wounds I’m going to be giving it food from my own mouth. I really am going crazy, are not I?’ I asked the bundle in my hands, considering. Well, if I were going insane I might as well do it right and fully, not half – way.

‘ I think I will name you Samantha. I think you are a girl, at least. We will go with you being a girl, alright?’ I could be hallucinating, but I think I saw Samantha’s head nod … no, just her shifting to find a comfortable spot.

Are you going where I think you are going? A talking monkey?
Only certain hand signals a few voice ones. I like the idea of monkeys evolving over the five thousand years. Just shove it up creationists asses. Mua haha.
Okay, creepy villain laugh is kind of scary coming from you, even through text.
I will try to stop but I make no promises.

‘well, we are almost home. Home being a place up in the trees. It is always safer up above things, if you can be. I know there are still the poisonous bugs up there too, but I am above the ground crawlers and the birds can not see me as well there, ironically. But I guess you and yours know that, is not that why you rarely come down. I am sorry, but there are not any fruit trees nearby, that is a flaw and maybe someday soon I will move to a ripe part of the forest. It is almost time for that anyways, because you do not want the cats to figure out where you sleep during the day. I know you are mostly a day time animal, but so am I. That might have to change, because there is no way we can survive by sleeping at night. That is when all the predators are out. In good conscience I can not let you get eaten just as I managed to find you and try to fix you. That just is not an option,’ I babbled to the now sleeping Samantha. I realized that she was asleep and everything was coming out of my mouth and got it to shut for a time. Living by myself had made me realize just how much I could miss the company of people. I had hated all my time in the tribe, always being mocked and little, snippy comments passed about me and Mentor’s supposed sexual relationship. How hilarious that is now. Mentor is my father, was my father. There was nothing there, not like what they thought. Now I would never have either type of those relationships. Mentor was forever lost to me and the teachings are that there is nothing past these forests other than monsters and wars and oceans for the rest of the earth. I had never put much stock in them but that was when I was safe and cozy in my hut, not dancing at the edge. Everything seemed possible and scary here. There was nobody to look out for me, like Na had and nobody to talk with and no time to study the plants. There was no time to build a hut, even in the trees, forcing me to move from tree to tree and to stay fairly covered in mud to make sure my scent did not stick where I did not want it to.

‘We are here, little Samantha. I know it is not much, but it is a safer place to sleep than on the ground bleeding. I am sorry, but you are going to have to wake up and hold on to me while I get us up there. I ill build a sling tomorrow to get you up there with out having to be in pain but for tonight this is how it has to go. Come on, now,’ Samantha put her arms around my neck where I was holding her and I slid her around so she was half – laying on the back of my neck and her little arms made a fuzzy and warm necklace around my throat. I managed to get up the tree with out her falling off, for which I was grateful. There was a tense moment when I had to turn upside down to be able to swing onto my normal branch when I felt her hands slipping but I got us both up with out any more moments to panic in.

‘Home sweet home, Samantha. It is not much, but it is what we both now have. Now let me find my kit and get you fixed up, alright?’ I said to her and started rummaging around in my pack for the gut string and finally found my fingers meet the leaf they were wrapped in.
‘here we are, baby, got the string. Suppose the needles are in here too?” I asked and opened it up. Both were in there and I got to work stringing it, ‘I think you are probably going to be needing ten or twelve stitches total. Six on this big one here and three on the other two, going by one stitch per three centimeters. Now, this is going to hurt so if you are able to pass out, now would be the best time. I will rub a little anesthetic from this leaf here on it but that will not last long, it never does. Maybe through one stitch. And I can not put more on there; otherwise there could be tissue damage. And we would not want that, there would be no point to put the stitches in there if we just go and ruin it otherwise. I am sorry, but I can not make a fire either. There is just no way to do that in a tree and alerting every animal from here to the far side that we are here and perhaps easy pickings. Because, truthfully, we are amazingly easy pickings.’
I threaded the needle and looked down at the creature who was staring up at me with trust in its eyes. I had saved her from certain death and the abandonment of her troop. In many ways she was me. I could not leave her behind now, no way.

‘alright, little baby, like I said, this is going to hurt,’ I warned her and rubbed the broken leaf over the deepest cut and she whimpered a little but stopped when the numbness set in. I stuck the needle through as quick as possible and managed to get two stitches set before it wore off. Somehow, I am not sure how, but she seemed to understand, though, that it was for her own good and tried to not make more noises than necessary. When I was finished with all three cuts I gave her a small lick of the powder that is supposed to help a person go to sleep. Samantha is so much smaller I was afraid of giving her too much but she would be in so much pain from the stitches and sleep was needed to allow her to heal. She would naturally want to try to work them out or scratch them and that would just make the worse as well. I pulled out my journal to pass the time and to keep awake to watch over Samantha until morning, when I could maybe sleep safely. It was time to describe my new home as well.

I just moved into this tree yesterday. Kapok, I believe. It took forever to scrape off all the thorns on the branch but it is the biggest of some of the surrounding trees and thus safer. It’s also harder to climb for the cats. The trunk is huge! I had to carve out some hand – holds. I know this is not necessarily fair to the tree, but at the moment I’m considering myself more important. Mentor would slap me but I’m the one stuck out by myself in the wilderness without a tribe to help me. He’s dead too, so he can kiss my ass. He doesn’t need to feed himself and now a spider monkey. Back to the tree, it is flowering now so there are all these little white flowers hanging down. It is beautiful in its own way, but it makes me wonder why they grow down. Does this help with pollination? Or is it just because of the way the pods need to grow? We did not have many kapok trees near the tribe so I never got to study them in detail and I will not get to now either. There are many other kapok surrounding us along with a few flowering abiu and ilama trees. There would not be fruit around here for another two weeks so Samantha and I will have to find trees that actually have fruits farther from the house. I am not sure if that is good or bad at this moment. Only time will tell. I can hear the night life coming up around me. There goes the quiet time that I crave every day, when there are few predators around and you can see the smallest prey scampering around the lower foliage. I can see some snakes wandering around the trees as well but so far none have come near me. They make good food as well so this is bittersweet. As far as I know I am at the edge, or very nearly the edge, of the forest. Although I wonder that there is not more forest past this break that is only a few hundred meters away because I can see lights at night. However there might be a large group of some bio – luminescent animals or even just a trick of my imagination. I can not be sure until I was to investigate, but to tell the truth I am a little afraid to cross that clearing. It was always the one thing I believed in the teachings. There were always trees as far as I could see or travel with in a day, or even the odd two. And I never went in the direction past the Orin, not for long. The Orin were my one true love, so there was no reason. I did find and capture several lizards and bugs that lived in the plants that were growing around and on them but not much more than that. But now, I do not know. I just can not. And I am too afraid to find out. Perhaps I was foolish to have left the tribe.