Chapter 35: Shaman

“Shaman, Shaman!” rushed in one of the guards, looking agitated, almost toppling over as he pushed in the door.

 

“What? Someone ate something again he shouldn’t? What’s the ruckus for?!” snorted the old monkey, not even turning towards him, still  leaning over her scribbles, searching for who knows what. 

 

“Niji is back!”

 

“Who cares.”

 

“With humans!”

 

“Oh?” raised his head, thinking then turning back, looking up and down on the slightly trembling chimp “Good. This is perfect!” laughed and went out, pushing away the poor kid, who just stumbled backwards, not knowing what's gonna happen.

 

At the entrance, or precisely under the giant trees, serving as their homes, stood Niji and behind him, ready for any trouble, the others. Those who stayed at home because were still young and weak, inexperienced, held their wooden weapons, standing guard against Niji not knowing what will happen and why did he returned with humans in tow instead of the tribe’s leader and warriors. 

 

“Finally you’re back. Took you long enough.” came the voice of Shaman, who dropped down from the trees, hanging onto a long vine. When standing up, even though he had a hunchback, still towered over 2,5 meters tall. 

 

“Shaman.” nodded Niji, a bit surprised 

 

“Call me that.” looked over at him, saying to Ren and the others as his eyes fixated on Anya “You are the leader?”

 

“No.” answered, shaking her head, pushing Ren forward who curiously scanned over and over, the giant ape. 

 

“The kid?” blinked, scratching his head “Or are you a dwarf?”

 

“Dwarf? No, I’m just unique, compact if you will. Anyway, are there dwarfs?”

 

“Yeah, up in the north. They are descendants of sentient crystals. Or so they say. Dunno, never met with one, only heard about them, because they are holed up under the ground trying to reach the core of the world or something.” explained, while mining his own nostril, for another kind of… crystal. “Who cares, let’s talk about important things! I need new tools, I made a list already. I planned on sending Niji to get them for me.”

 

“You wanted me to go to the human's land? Should I just stroll in and act like nothing, browsing their markets?” snorted Niji, being frustrated already with the old monkey

 

“What, you just came back with humans in tow. It must be easy then! Anyway, here!” pushed the rough paperstack, that had crude drawings and names scribbled on them, what he needed, as Ren flipped through them.

 

“No problem. We already made a deal with Niji. We will get them and transport them here.” passed it over to Leinor who stashed it in his bag. 

 

“Great! I guess the others are dead, yes?” his question made the rest of the apes behind him and up on the trees, tens up immediately 

 

“Yup. All of them.” nodded Ren “None survived, only Niji.”

 

“Thought so. Anyway, seeing you here and not your army, I can roughly guess what's going to happen. I don’t care. Do what you will, just get my tools for me!”

 

“Ahaha, sure thing! Can you show me what you are working on? We may change some ideas, hm?”

 

“Sure! Follow me!” laughed Shaman as he easily climbed up the tree and Ren flashing by quickly followed, without reservation 

 

“There she goes.” sighed Anya 

 

“She was impatient since we were closing in on the village.” smiled Leinor, now looking at the rest of the monkeys “They are afraid.”

 

“Sure they are.” nodded Niji “Usually when the previous alpha is dead, the new leader of the tribe kills all the children as they are mostly the previous boss’ kids. Then mates with all the women and sires a whole lot of new little monkeys.”

 

“Brutal.” grimaced Isha “And… What about you? Should we turn our backs until you finish?” asked with deep scorn in her voice 

 

“Nope. I can’t care less about it. Bloodline means nothing to me.” said in a voice so everyone could hear and the females were the one who relaxed first, hearing his words, holding strongly the really young to their furry chests. “I’m here to reform the tribe, building it anew from the ground up. So there will be new rules. I need your help to secure the village for the time being. Other than that, just take it as we are your hosts and you are the guests.”

 

“Rest assured. Ren trusts you, we will do so too.” said Leinor with a calm voice 

 

“Master ordered us to do so, so I’m fine with it, she is usually right on point on how to deal with things.” grinned Poli while Zern only nodded 

 

“Yeah, I remember once some idiots barged in and were handed their ass by someone stronger.” giggled Isha as she elbowed Zern playfully 

 

“Yeah, I remember too.” looked back Leinor with a smirk shutting up her, then she just stick her tongue out at him 

 

“Okay kids.” giggled Anya “Stop it. Especially you Isha, you are double their age yet act like my daughter all the time. Grow up a little.”

 

“Ugh… don’t bring that up! I look only 16 anyway!”

 

“More like 26.” stifled a laugh Poli, receiving a kick to his butt “Okay, okay, 16 it is!” 

 

“Isha, take Zern and Poli then go around the village, map out it’s layout then make note of points of entry.” cut in Leinor “Lady Anya, can you keep an eye on the other monkeys?”

 

“Sure.” nodded and soon the ground dried up under her feet and three water clones appeared next to her, scaring the monkeys who were still on high alert. 

 

“I’ll accompany Niji.” 

 

“I get the feeling you still don’t trust me even after what you said just now.”

 

“I just like to be double sure. I can’t place Ren in danger.”

 

Niji didn’t respond, only looked into his eyes before also climbing up, to collect everyone so he can explain the situation to them while Ren was already in a discussion with Shaman in his shabby laboratory.

 

…

….

…..

 

“Interesting, so you say, I have one similar thing inside my brain?” asked Shaman, holding up the small core towards the light, shining through the shabby shack’s window frame. 

 

“Yup. Everyone had the same inside.”

 

“Now I really want to open up some of the idiots’ skulls.”

 

“You will?”

 

“If they once again take a shit inside my cauldron that I left outside, I fucking will!” grumbled, pocketing the core 

 

“Hey, who said I’ll give it to you?”

 

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“Here. You can have this.” thrown a book at her 

 

“What’s this?” opened it curiously as the pages started to fall out “Oh? Is this a diary of some kind?”

 

“Yes. It was the last human Empress’ personal diary, from the day she was crowned until the last week of her life.”

 

“Woah, sounds precious!” started to flip through “Tsk.. I can’t read this…”

 

“Hah, of course, you are not speaking their language. Find some interpreter or something who will translate it for you.”

 

“Can’t you?”

 

“Too much time.”

 

“So you DO speak their old language huh?”

 

“Sly. But I won’t do it, too much hassle, I forgot a lot of words already, I’m not interested. I’ve got work to do.”

 

“Okay, okay, got it.” rolled her eyes “I’ll give this to Feynor he should be able to read it. Anyway, show me what you are working on!”

 

“I thought you would never ask!” laughed the monkey, inviting her closer then showing her a big bowl, filled with stinky, slimy fluid, that was bubbling all over 

 

“What’s this? Did they take a shit in this too?”

 

“Very funny. No. This is made from different fruits of treants and demons’ internal organs.”

 

“Sounds nasty. The treants… are those the-”

 

“Yup, sentient trees. Don’t ask if you know.”

 

“So, what is it for?”

 

“Treants rule the inner forest, the deep parts, the old parts. They are independent and they don’t like interacting with us at all.”

 

“Oh, are they that territorial?”

 

“Very much so. If a demon walks into their territory it gets caught by the trees and they turn it into a thrall. From then on it tends to the trees until it’s lifeforce is consumed.”

 

“Then how did you get fruits from them?”

 

“I have my methods… and by some sacrifice. For science.”

 

“Sure…”

 

“Look. This is a sapling from a treant. Their seed can survive for hundreds of years or even more, without being buried until it finds a spot where it can grow… and I found they usually grow inside the thralls. They use their lifeforce and energy to supplement their rapid growth.”

 

As he dropped the seed into the bowl it quickly started to grow and soon a small tree appeared, like a mini bonsai one. It didn’t take long to greedly slurp up the bowl’s contents but soon it’s branches swelled up before finally bursting to flames and the whole tree exploded.

 

“Damn…” said Ren, sticking her head out as she immediately hid behind the old monkey for cover and this way only he was showered with black sludge. 

 

“Still… the something is missing is a component that regulates the energy consumption.” continued Shaman without a flinch, checking the remains in the bowl 

 

“The Demon Core.”

 

“Exactly. Now I need to devise a new experiment. With this information I can guess why they grew on thralls. They use their cores as a regulator to not consume more energy they can handle while growing. Fascinating.”

 

“And your goal is…?”

 

“Reverse engineer it. Turn it against them. They are dangerous and also they refuse to cooperate and consume us, using us as fertilizer!” huffed and puffed, clearly agitated as something else was behind his sudden rage 

 

“This sounds personal.” murmured Ren, looking up and down at him

 

“It is.” answered in a cold voice “What would you do if they ate up all of your family and you could do nothing just stand there and watch as they rotted away while being alive the whole time?”

 

“Burn down the whole forest.” answered without a thought “Then turn over the land and cover it with salt.” 

 

“Exactly. So it IS personal. Don’t help if you don’t want to, but don’t stand in my way or I will kill you too.”

 

“Woah, easy there oldie. It’s your vendetta, you do you, I’m only here to make sure the monkeys are on our side.”

 

“Help me with the research and they will be. I can even help you absorb the nearby tribes too.”

 

“Now we are talking!” grinned Ren putting on a sweet smile afterwards “What tribes are nearby?” 

 

“Four major ones. The gorillas, orangutans, another chimpanzee tribe and the baboons.”

 

“Huh. Which one should we start with?”

 

“The other chimps. They would be easy to absorb, they are a smaller tribe and have a young alpha at their lead. Honestly they are cousins of ours, and were chased off two generations ago or so. It would take some talking to convince them, but doable. After that… it depends. The orangutans are calm and even a bit lazy. They are the smallest ones but don’t underestimate them, they may be small, but you need to come up with some inciting benefits to make them join us. The gorillas are also pretty calm but they are a close knit group. They won’t take kindly to intruding on their territory or family.”

 

“I can work with those who lean more towards the peaceful side. Let me guess, the baboons are problematic.”

 

“They are. Easy to anger, stupid and the one thing they love more then fighting is fucking. Maybe do the two at the same time. I hate those jackasses. Honestly, they are only good for being a meatshield in a battle or sending them into enemy territory to cause chaos. But it’s your problem to solve, I’ll just point you in the direction.”

 

“You said, you would help me absorb them.”

 

“I didn’t say how much help you would get.”

 

“I think we will get along well…” sighed Ren, holding her temple, smiling “Okay, let me think it through and get me more details of the tribes. After everything is in order, we can go and visit your cousins. Let’s get over with the easy part first.”

 

“Agree. If you want I can take you to them tomorrow.”

 

“Sure.” nodded Ren, then walked out of the house, looking down as on the ground a few other, really young chimps were standing around Isha, all looking either at her breasts or her bottocks “Tsk… no wonder they say we are related species…” murmured Ren with a weird smile on her face.

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