#queenoftheapes

CONTINUATION OF MY BROTHER 

Caesar gripped the spear tightly in his fingers, his eyes tracking the antlered beasts and their every move. A party of hunters surrounded him, each of them as deeply concentrated as he was, for this was the first time that they had located such large game in any great number. It was a victory beyond words that they had successfully tracked the herd, but it meant next to nothing if they returned to the hungry troop empty-handed. It was more important now than ever to make kills each day, for enough time had now passed for many females to be heavy with child and nearing birth, Caesar's own Cornelia among them. There was a lot riding on this hunt, even on a personal level.

To his left was Rocket, who had grown more loyal than Caesar could have anticipated, and to his right, his beloved Koba. The three of them had become skilled enough to lead these hunting trips, and with the three of them working together and a band of others backing them, they were a force to be reckoned with.

Brows furrowed in intense concentration, the lead ape motioned for Rocket to take a small number of chimpanzees around the herd on the left side. Caesar repeated this request with Koba, sending him and some others around the right side. The herd would be surrounded then, and with apes armed with spears high in the trees, they could attack without risk of being gored by those wicked antlers. Already several chimpanzees and a gorilla had been lost to such counter attacks, but now the apes knew of the danger and could prepare for it... Even use it to their advantage. In perhaps a cruel twist, antler points already tipped the ends of some of the spears which would be used to kill some of this herd; souvenirs of the few elk that the troop had managed to catch alone and slaughter.

The incident replayed on a loop through the tired ape's mind, each step taken with tense muscles and a deep furrowed brow over his eyes. As much pain and death as Caesar had witnessed the past two years, he never grew used to the sight or the smell, and he became more and more angry with each time he came face to face with it.

They had lost so many apes, and there was no end in sight.

The new information that the grizzled leader had gained from this particular event also gnawed at his mind as he made his way through the series of dark caves that his kind had been forced to hide in. He hated that they had to hide, to live in fear all over again, not in cages but in caves. But these humans were more ruthless than any Caesar had ever known, took great, disgusting pleasure in murder that rivaled a certain bonobo whose name had almost become taboo within the colony. The apes had had no choice but to hide. These humans would not stop until each ape was lifeless.

And now, he knew, there was more to it than that... more to it than any of them had thought.

For the sake of those within, Caesar forced his face into a more neutral expression as he entered this cave chamber, though frown lines had been deeply etched into his features the past two years no matter what expression he took on. Young eyes all faced his direction immediately and as though completely oblivious to the world they were growing up in, happy grunts and hoots greeted him and some imitated the palm up posture that they had seen their parents assume when the great leader entered a scene. He swiped each of them with gentle fingers, not for his benefit but for their own, for it sent them into excited squeaking and raspy laughing. It was a sound that had once filled his ears each day, when they had lived in their beautiful forest village. Here in these caves, the sound was increasingly rare.

When his eyes finally landed on his own blood, however, his softening expression grew sorrowful. Milo, once a quite happy and curious infant, had grown into an anxious juvenile who clung to Cornelia's arm as though his life depended on his doing so. This was not the life Caesar had wanted for his youngest son. For any of the apes. But it was the only reality they had available to them now.

The young ape just didn't know what to think anymore.

So much had happened in the past few days... Humans had brutally killed his father, and Koba had lead the apes to war against the humans to avenge their fallen king. Countless friends had been shot, burned, blown into more pieces than Blue Eyes cared to venture a guess towards. He didn't understand how so many could be taken from them in one mere night, his mind struggling to wrap itself around exactly what had happened even now. But the worst had been yet to come...

Koba's actions had shaken the former prince to his core. Killing Ash for disobedience, locking away Caesar's closest friends – apes that Blue Eyes considered family – he didn't know who to trust anymore. The tyrant that ruled over them with an iron fist was most certainly not the Koba that he had always known. The uncle that had always been there to comfort and reassure him when his father was not. There had been times where Blue Eyes had wished that Koba was his father... But now? Now, Blue Eyes feared him more than any other living being.

All of this had left him feeling empty. Numb.

It was all just too much for him. Blue Eyes had made a career out of trying desperately to prove to his father that he wasn't a child anymore. But now he sure found himself feeling like one. A scared, lonely white-tail with no one to turn to, and nowhere to hide, as an imaginable threat loomed over him, ready to strike at any given moment.

What was he supposed to do?

It seemed as though that terrible firestorm had been the last effort on the humans' behalf to eradicate the apes.

Even as Caesar rested perched high in a redwood tree, his burns were still healing. Hair hadn't yet had a chance to regrow in these areas, giving him a patchy and unkempt appearance that wasn't quite becoming of a young alpha male, but at least the worst of the pain seemed to have left them. Gone were the days of luxury where any scrape or scratch was tended to by Caroline. Now, all that Caesar had at his disposal were the thick, grooming fingers of his fellow apes.

The adjustment had been quite hard on all of them. They had lost a few in the fighting on the bridge and the ensuing battle for life in the forest, but most still clung to life even if the life they now had was much less padded and comfortable. Caesar had found, like many, that nests in trees were hard and lumpy even when lined with leaves. The food that was available was a far cry from the sweet fruit and other delights that he had previously only needed to travel to the refrigerator for. No meals were handed to them or even guaranteed. The water from the river wasn't quite crystal clear and clean, either. But he did not regret his decision to bring them here, to leave that life with the humans. Here, Caesar felt a sense of belonging. He always had.

A sense of unity was also growing. With strong allies like Rocket and Maurice and Koba, Caesar had seen little to no challenge to his place of power. The same could not be said further down the ranks, as the other males hadn't yet shaken the desire to attempt to fight their way as high up the social ladder as they could climb. Caesar was intent to break them of these primitive ways, because together, apes were strong. Not alone, and not divided. Certainly not battling amongst themselves.