I looked up at the bright light peering through the canopy.
Insects hummed in the air, and the scent of new leaves told of the bloom of spring.
I was still trying to make sense of it all.
My mother hooted and caressed my face, a young monkey with brown fluffy fur and eyes.
I turned towards her, and she pulled me into a soft hug.
I heard plenty of other monkeys around me doing the same.
I was… three.
Not three years.
Three days.
So… how was I even aware enough to think?
Ow!
A sharp pain jabbed into my head at the memories.
Right.
I did my best to shut them out again.
When I was born, an influx of painful memories flooded my head.
Urgh.
I had to become aware just to try and filter through them to stay sane.
I gently opened my mental door and let a trickle through.
Just like the past two days, I started sorting through them.
Understanding them.
Now that I had gone through the most important memories, I think I had a little more context for what was going on.
Reincarnation.
I’ve been reincarnated.
As… as a monkey.
I thought I had good karma.
From my last life.
I had been a rather energetic young woman.
A human.
She enjoyed reading, and spending time with friends.
Meditating.
She tried to recycle.
But here I was.
A monkey.
But as my mother looked down at me with loving eyes, I couldn’t find it in myself to curse my rebirth.
At least I was alive.
I closed my eyes and snuggled up to her.
This wasn’t so bad.
I loved her.
Being human was overrated anyway.
I had hands.
I could think.
That was what was most important for me now.
Well, that and something else.
I took a deep breath, smelling my mother’s earthy scents, and felt my core.
It was just below my sternum, sitting like a little ball of energy.
I hadn’t had anything like it in my previous life, which was why I could sense it so easily.
A completely new sensation to me.
It felt like a little ball of power, sitting squarely inside my guts.
It sent vague whispers of power throughout my body, making me feel stronger.
I took another deep breath, feeling the energy in my lungs.
My core could sense the little clouds of power as I drew them into myself.
It took a lot of focus, but I could use my vague little feelings of energy and power to sort of… grab the power in my lungs.
It was tricky to get the hang of, but being a newborn I didn’t have many other duties.
I took the piece of energy I managed to wrangle and stuffed it inside of my core.
It sort of… captured the energy for me.
Making it mine.
Then it spat it back out and it began to wander around my body with the rest of the power.
Cultivation.
At least, I’m pretty sure this is cultivation.
I think.
I read about it in my previous life.
In… books.
A person meditates and breathes in chi from the air.
Then they keep the chi.
And my core was called… a dantian.
Huh.
I was glad I knew how to do all this stuff.
From the memories, it seemed like this cultivation thing could help me live forever and grow really powerful.
I wouldn’t mind that…
I cultivated a little more but stopped when I felt stuffed.
It only took about ten minutes, my dantian left trying to process all the chi I’d gotten.
I could hardly take all the chi that circulated into my lungs.
Moreover, some chi just seemed… to like me more.
I wasn’t sure how to explain it, but some chi felt different from others.
Some felt hot, some felt cool, some felt… hard.
The bits that liked me felt… friendly.
Welcoming.
I had the easiest time pulling that kind of chi into myself.
A hoot.
I opened my eyes again to see my mother smiling down on me.
She pulled me up, and my hands automatically grasped onto her back, instincts flaring to life.
I held on as she moved with the rest of the troop, and we headed out.
I blinked, squinting and trying to get a good look around to see where we were going.
But most of what I could see were just other monkeys…
The alpha was at the head of the troop, leading us forward.
He had pale fur, and vivid gray eyes.
They watched our surroundings carefully, watching for danger.
The other males did too, circling around the females with cubs.
We were in the center of the troop, then it was the younger monkeys, the elders, and then the monkeys with no cubs.
We were… big for monkeys, I think.
If we stood up to our full height, the males would be around four foot five.
Females were typically just a little shorter, ranging from four foot to four foot five.
My mother was on the shorter side, only around four feet.
And we were lean.
Agile.
We moved swiftly on the ground of the forest, but as I looked up I could see a few monkey-shaped shadows in the trees.
A type of leaf monkey?
My mother has eaten quite a few pieces of fruit…
There was a wide range of colors as well.
Some monkeys had golden fur, some had pale blonde, almost white, like the alpha, and some even had red fur.
But the majority of us were a chestnut brown, like me and my mother.
We were pretty fluffy too, our fur poofing out whenever we got embarrassed or scared.
Our faces were long, with strong jaws, and long incisors that could be bared when we got angry.
Short squat noses, and large expressive eyes in a wide variety of colors.
Our skin was paler, more like a human’s.
sort of… peachy.
And the tone could also vary, some monkeys darker than others.
We also had a kind of claws.
Our hands were plenty dexterous, my mother able to gingerly pinch stalks of grass in her hands and pick berries.
I’ve even seen some monkeys using tools to flush rabbits and squirrels out of burrows.
But our nails were long, thick, and hard.
At the ends, they got sharp.
Like… well, like claws.
Our tails were also long, and very dexterous.
Not only could we use them for climbing, but even to hold things.
My eyes caught a pair of elderly monkeys, their fur greying, and the male was gently leading the female, who was almost blind.
With his tail, holding hers, and she followed the sensation.
Which led to another important aspect I was trying to figure out.
Were these pairings for life?
Or were they yearly?
I wasn’t sure.
But…
A hoot.
From the alpha.
We had reached our destination.
The monkeys scattered, breaking into smaller groups, more male and female pairings, some younger monkeys who didn’t have mates sticking with each other or finding their parents.
Families, friends, mates.
All relaxing as they stepped towards the cool river.
It flowed down the mountain I was born on, and here it pooled into a small pond.
A chitter.
My mother turned and I saw the alpha, smiling at us.
He came forward and affectionately nuzzled into her, and she returned it with an amused hoot.
Once he greeted her, he looked up at me, and smiled.
Reaching up, he gently lifted me off her back, and pulled me into his chest, holding me.
Mmm.
He had to be my father.
I looked out and saw the elderly couple again.
The male led the female into the pool, and now he was helping her groom, going through her fur.
She hooted in appreciation, expressing her gratitude, and he leaned forward, nuzzling into her back.
A male who looked like the female came forward, and the males greeted each other warmly, hooting and hugging.
Then the male got behind the older male and began grooming him, since I guess his mate couldn’t with her bad eyesight.
I had a feeling we mated for life.
I shifted in my father arms as he lowered me into the pond.
I squeaked, and shivered as I touched the cold water.
Suddenly, my mother was there.
Cooing at me, encouraging me.
Saying everything was okay.
I felt her gentle hands begin brushing back my fur, looking for parasites.
Ah.
I was getting my first bath.
I calmly let them bathe me, thinking.
Wondering.
Why do I have these memories?
Was it just… a coincidence?
As far as I can tell, there’s nothing else that distinguished me from the other monkeys.
Just my memories.
What… what did I want to do?
I looked up at my mother, thinking.
I could cultivate, but… I don’t think any of them could.
And I can’t exactly teach them because that would require detailed instructions on how to meditate and cultivate.
We can convey sentiments like gratitude.
Love.
Comedy.
But nothing as complicated as explaining we had a core in our torso that gathered energy.
I yawned, tired.
My mother rumbled, making a guttural sound, admonishing me.
My father hooted in laughter, and adjusted me in his arms, so I could be more comfortable, and my mother could still bathe me.
I was used to the water, and now it felt pleasant, on this warm spring day.
This was too much thinking for my little brain right now.
I’ll just keep cultivating when I can.
See what I can do with it.
Sift through more memories.
It was a nice day.
I was safe and sound with my parents.
I was just a little cub.
I had plenty of time.