Angel Of Mercy

Chapter 24

The next day dawned crisp, clear, and bright. Everyone was up and occupied with various tasks, and with so many apes going this way and that, performing morning routines that were by now second-nature to them, no one noticed when Karin's little group left the village.

Glancing in the direction that Koba's hunting party had gone, Karin frowned.

"Looks like Mary's not too happy this morning," she worried as the back of the ape girl's blond head disappeared into the distance. "Anyone know what's wrong?"

Apparently, they all knew.

"Mary hates hunting," Maurice told her.

"Well, I'd don't blame her," Karin sympathized with the ape girl. "I'd hate it too if I was the only girl forced to do it."

At this statement, all the apes turned to gape at her in astonishment.

"What?" Karin protested.

"Mary. Not. Only female hunter," Maurice said. "Not anymore."

It was Karin's turn to gape at her companions before a slow blush crept over her features.

"You mean there are females in the hunting parties?"

They all nodded.

"Well, shows how observant I am, doesn't it? I guess I just assumed, I thought that—"

Karin trailed off, not sure how to articulate her musings without embarrassing herself even more.

Trying to come to her rescue, Maurice put his arm around her shoulders as they rode side by side through the forest.

"Koba. He force Mary to learn hunting. She good at it. Other ape fathers liked Koba's idea. They make some daughters learn. Some older women start to hunt. Some females. In each group. One hunting group. Nothing but females."

"Oh, I see," Karin murmured.

So it's not as obviously male dominated as things seem on the surface. Silly me, imparting my own human prejudiced ideas onto these apes, she thought. And given her own experiences, she ought to know better. Her father made her learn how to hunt, hadn't he, despite all her vigorous and loud protests.

Well, that crazy old man was right. It saved my daughter's life when she needed fresh meat, the woman sternly reminded herself as the pangs of grief for her father, her daughter, her twin, her entire family welled up inside her. And when Karin's mind wandered off the path into bad places,. It really wandered. Her thoughts drifted to the attack which she barely survived while hunting, and she shivered, the sudden force of those terrible memories overwhelming her so she shifted unconsciously nearer to Maurice for protection and comfort. The woman regained self-control quickly however, refusing to let her thoughts wander in that direction for long. She would not give that savage ape anymore of her emotional time or head space, not when she was surrounded by friends, and ones that could rip that other ape apart.

Good enough excuse to stayed glued to Maurice, though, she told herself with an inward satisfied grin. And, they don't seem to care.

Desperate to change the subject, she sorted through her brain for another topic, any topic, and she latched on to something easily enough.

"Luca, I never thanked you for the fence mending you did on your first visit," Karin said at last as she and Maurice, Luca and a few other gorillas drew nearer to the Grove and her home. They were there to collect the last load of supplies before the real winter set in. "You didn't need to go to all that trouble."

"You like fence?" Luca looked suddenly concerned.

"Oh, you bet. I couldn't have done it that well," Karin praised, "And certainly not so fast. My whole family couldn't have done it so well. Took my dad and those idiot friends of his three days to fence that yard, and it would have been four if I hadn't locked up all the beer and refused to let them have any until they were done."