From Simian Eyes *Being edited*

The Liberated

Because of these changes, Patch now never seemed to have young Arvo out of his sight and always appeared to be glowering at him. He was also grooming Harambee, Ash and Amos more often. Being groomed by him was a great privilege but he seemed to be tense and focused. Even if one of the others was grooming him in response, his gaze would not leave Arvo, who would be glaring at him from afar. Despite keeping her distance from him, she had noticed that he was displaying more often and they were becoming far more impressive and many of the females were now submissive to him. This obviously annoyed Patch as he'd pull those females over to groom them, even if they didn't want to. She didn't know what was going on.

There were other things happening within the group. There would be times when she would gain quite a lot of attention from the males of the group who would follow her around and try to groom her, even when she didn't want them too. And in this time, Patch seemed to become more and more possessive of Keena. He'd snarl at any other male who came close to her. Especially Arvo. He seemed suddenly determined to take her from Patch. Not that Keena wanted to be with him, anyway. She knew that Arvo was a male with a hostile and maverick nature. It was a surprise that Patch had tolerated him for as long as he had.

Eventually, one day, Keena was sitting on the grass, bathing in a patch of sun, when she suddenly heard the rustling of leaves. Alarmed, she looked around, but noticed that it was Patch, standing next to a tree on all fours, but shaking a branch towards Keena. She stood up, looking at him curiously. He then took a few steps towards her, gesturing to her. Wanting her to follow him. She looked around again before walking towards him. Patch, quickly checking nobody was watching, took Keena and led her away to the back of the enclosure, which was coated in long grass and bushes, concealing them.

After a few minutes, the pair re-appeared. Keena now knew why Patch wanted them to go somewhere private.

After a while, Keena started to notice some changes about herself. She suddenly had a more vigorous appetite and would eat much more than she would have before.

She had noticed this with Molly. Over the last year, she ate much more than she usually did, and over time the size of her abdomen increased to a large size. And after quite a few months, she came from her nest holding a tiny figure clinging to her belly. A baby. Harambee's baby. Patch did occasionally allow Harambee and Ash to couple with some of the females, for backing him up when he needed support. Keena had been very interested in Molly's infant, and accompanied her wherever she went. She watched the female closely, taking mental notes as she cared for her infant. Maybe the same thing was happening to her.

One morning, Keena was begging the others for scraps during their breakfast of the sour fruits that grew on the trees. She gives up and sits on a stump, her arms folded across her knees alongside Freckles and Jacob as they waited. She had gotten used to the poor treatment of the dominant females but she wasn't very happy about it. But what did help was when Ling-Mai clambered onto the stump with her and started grooming the back of Keena's neck as well as letting her take some of her fruit. At this point, Keena's stomach was now rounder than it had been a couple of months ago, and she was getting quite a lot of attention from the females and Patch.

Speaking of Patch, he was patrolling the perimeter of the fence along with Harambee and Ash. The trio appeared to be very tense and Harambee, in particular, was keeping a close eye on the surroundings and keeping close to Patch. Arvo was nowhere to be seen, but that didn't seem to comfort Patch as he kept his gold eyes on his surroundings, all of the hair on his back and arms were erect. He must have been anxious about something.

Suddenly, Keena noticed something sitting on one of the lower branches of the nearest tree. Arvo was perched on the edge of it, his eyes boring down onto her and Ling-Mai, who started squeaking fearfully as she watched him. The male looked down at Ling-Mai and shook one of the branches vigorously, making a loud noise. Keena suddenly realised something. She remembered how Patch had shaken a branch at her when he wanted her to mate with him. It looked like this is what Arvo wanted with Ling-Mai, who had come into heat several days ago, but as a low-ranking female, wasn't getting as much attention as Keena had with Patch, but they had a close relationship. But surely there was no way that Patch would allow him to do that. Right? Keena looked around but Patch seemed to be out of sight. The only reason that Arvo was doing it now so that Patch couldn't see. Ling-Mai glanced at Keena nervously before making the mistake of actually going to him. Arvo, with a smug smile on his face, grabs the female harshly by the arm and yanks her away. None of the other dominant females seemed to be around to tell her off, something that Keena wanted –for once- to happen. She did not like where this was going.