I jumped out and grabbed the next branch, swinging around with a chitter.
Now that spring was back again, I was eagerly looking for food other than those bland roots we dug up.
I had just completed my first full year as a monkey, going from baby to juvenile.
So, I can help the hunters and gatherers find food for the troop now.
I kept swinging and jumping from tree to tree, determined to find something to impress my father.
Birds sang as the bright sun beat down on the mountain face, melting the last of the spring snow.
There!
I could spy a bundle of the yummy green fruits nearby.
I let out a food screech, and I heard a few screeches back.
My family will be here soon.
My father will be so surprised to see I found some food for us!
I swung over, but as I made to jump onto the tree I screeched to a halt.
I shrieked danger.
A snake.
A snake had taken up residence in the tree, a big one.
I paced back and forth on the branch, looking at it.
It blinked at me with lazy eyes.
It was different from other snakes I’ve seen before.
It was a dark green that blended with the leaves, but its eyes were purple.
Its eyes caught mine, glimmering.
Oh, like fruits.
Tasty fruits I can bring back to my mother and baby brother.
I just had to reach out…
Something yanked me, tearing me away from the eyes.
My father spun my around so all I could see was him.
He growled, asking what I was doing.
I was about to growl back, but it died in my throat.
What was I doing?
Why had I reached for the snake?
Another shriek.
We both whipped to where one monkey was holding another back, who had locked eyes with the serpent and was desperately trying to reach it.
My father jumped over and grabbed him too, breaking off eye contact.
The monkey calmed down, confused.
Father gave us the order to retreat.
This snake was dangerous.
Everyone began obediently swinging away, but I cast one last forlorn glance at the fruit.
The snake hissed and I found myself jumping away as quickly as I could.
Unfortunately, I didn’t find any other fruits.
But some other monkeys had found some bamboo shoots.
But those had to go to the nursing mothers.
The rest of us ate roots.
Yucky roots.
They were bitter.
I sighed, thoughts of human foods springing to my mind.
I haven’t even seen any evidence that humans existed.
If they did, it was far away from here.
And I was still a monkey.
Despite the food, I liked it here.
I finished up my roots and looked out over my troop.
Some of my friends were playing chase, my father was spending time with my mother and my little brother, and all the aunties and uncles were spending time with their own families.
This was nice.
Even though I knew the world must be much larger than this, I felt no desire to move on.
I had everything I needed here!
Food, even if it’s just roots, family, friends.
And no silly human worries like money.
Admittedly, nature did fill that role.
But… I’ve done what I could.
Our territory was marked with slashes like a tiger’s to keep predators away.
And I showed my family how to construct little lean-tos using vines.
Fire was beyond me, as no amount of striking rocks can get me sparks.
Besides, monkeys with fire?
Our forest would burn down the first day.
I gave us some better shelter, and a clever way to keep predators away.
And no one had died this winter, which father told me was a first for the troop.
As for clothes, treasure, power… who needed all that?
Not a simple monkey living with other monkeys in the woods, that’s for sure.
In the end, there was only one thing I did that was different from the rest of my troop.
I went a little way away from the group and sat down.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.
I felt the world come alive around me.
Chi shimmered through the earth, the air, the water, the trees.
So much chi.
I had to be careful absorbing it.
I sought out the right kind of chi.
Unaspected chi.
I let my chi diffuse to the air around me and pick out the chi.
Then, I drew it in with my breathing.
Gently.
I’ve gotten better at cultivating.
Now my chi was like a fluffy cloud inside me, spread throughout my body.
It made me stronger, and more resilient than other monkeys.
My father praised me for being big and strong, and the other monkeys would chitter I would have no problem finding a mate when my first mating season came around.
So, I kept it up.
I kept cultivating, picking out unaspected chi.
I could cultivate other kinds of chi, but that chi made me feel… weird.
Like if I cultivated water chi, it would make me feel… wishy-washy?
That was the only way I could describe it.
It was like the chi was changing me to fit it rather than the other way around.
I didn’t want that to happen.
So, I kept cultivating only unaspected chi.
As I cultivated, I felt darkness fall around me.
I blinked, stopping, and yawned.
I should be getting back soon.
Father and Mother will get worried otherwise.
A danger shriek sounded from our sleeping ground.
What!?
I sprang up and started running towards our base.
Another sound.
This one meant snake!
I burst into the clearing and saw the large snake from earlier today.
It hissed at my father, who hissed right back.
He stood protectively in front of my mother, who was holding a broken, injured arm and sobbing.
No.
My brother.
My baby brother who was only born two weeks ago.
I desperately searched the clearing, praying.
To no avail.
I could see other monkeys scrambling up trees with their cubs, but not with my brother.
No.
I ran to my father’s side and joined him in hissing at the snake.
He grunted that I should take Mother and run, but I gave him a defiant look back.
He gave frustrated shriek, and we turned back to the snake to threaten it together.
The snake bobbed and stilled.
I wasn’t sure what was going on until my father took a step forward.
He was hypnotized!
I yanked him back, and his eyes cleared up after a moment.
He growled in frustration, and stood up, and beat his chest, trying to intimidate the large snake.
It couldn’t care less.
My father was forced to lower his eyes as it tried to meet his, a sign of submission.
Fuck that!
I growled and lunged at the snake.
My mother’s terrified shriek and my father’s panicked hoot couldn’t hold me back.
I was going to kill this snake, or I was going to die trying.
As I lunged at it, it whipped its tail around.
I pounded at it, but Its scales were too hard.
Instead it wrapped around me, squeezing me in place.
I bit down onto it, but even my teeth failed to penetrate.
Now I was caught in its grasp.
I looked up to see it unhinging its jaw, preparing to swallow me whole.
I would make you choke on me bitch.
I hissed at it using the last of my air.
A monkey launched through the air and landed on its head.
My father.
He clawed at its eyes, making it let go of me and thrash.
I dropped, gasping on the ground as the snake beat its head on the ground, successfully dislodging my father.
Then it struck down with its mouth, striking his torso.
Father!
Red filled my vision.
I had to save my father!
Instinct drove me forward as I grabbed a nearby branch, and used all my strength to snap the top off.
It made a rudimentary spear.
Its eyes.
Its stupid fucking purple eyes.
I growled and launched myself at it.
The snake was not happy to find another monkey on its head.
I whipped my spear around it’s throat and caught it on the other side.
I held it with both my hands, holding fast, even as the snake began beating the ground again to try and shake me off.
I growled and looked right in its eyes.
I opened my mouth.
And bit right down on one.
It popped with just a little force, the eye jelly filling my mouth, bitter and disgusting.
It hissed in pain and redoubled its efforts to beat me off.
Not yet!
I stubbornly held on and bit its other eye.
It hissed again, and its movement became far more frantic.
It couldn’t see now, and it couldn’t use its strange power.
I wrapped my legs around it’s neck to hold on and raised up my makeshift spear as it thrashed.
I thrust into its messy eye socket.
It jerked and went limp, crashing to the ground and taking me with it.
The wind got knocked out of me, and my vision went dark for a second as I landed on the ground.
I panted and pulled myself up.
Mother.
Father.
Joyful shrieks.
The monkeys climbed down from the trees, a few coming over to help me and my family, while another few poked at the snake with sticks to make sure it was dead.
My auntie helped me walk over to my parents.
My father was still lying on the ground, bleeding, my mother doing her best to stop it, constantly licking the wounds.
When I came over, she flung her good arm around me, chittering how happy she was that I was alive.
Father.
He was still bleeding.
Agh, what do I know about fixing wounds!?
I didn’t have any cloth to try and make the bleeding stop.
No antiseptics to try and keep infection away.
And his bites.
They were bad.
All over his torso.
What if he was poisoned?
A few aunties and uncles were around us, chittering.
Wondering what to do.
Finally, one growled and made a guttural sound for something gross.
I didn’t recognize the vocalization specifically, but it must mean something in particular because the other monkeys and Mother went silent at that.
Until she sighed.
And nodded.
Uncle called out and a few monkeys helped my mother.
I went to uncle, where the monkeys were preparing to carry my father, and chittered in confusion.
Uncle made the vocalization again and straightened up.
He began walking upright.
The way a human would.
Then he lowered himself and made the sound again.
Followed by the chirp for danger.
My heart started hammering.
A human?
That… that had to be a human right?
But as far as I could tell, we were in the middle of nowhere.
There were no humans around here.
But I helped them with my father anyway.
As long as there was hope, I wouldn’t give up.
My father was still breathing.
I helped them carry father up the mountain where we lived at its base.
It took about a day and a half, and my father had woken up.
He agreed he should try and receive treatment from the hairless one.
He was running a fever, his bites infected.
Finally, we stopped at a cave.
The sun was high in the sky.
The monkeys chittered, trying to decide who would help me father walk into the cave.
I volunteered, but my father protested.
Saying it was dangerous.
Of course, that didn’t exactly encourage the others to take him either.
Finally, I just helped my father up by his shoulder, and said that if he didn’t like it, he should punish me later.
He grunted that I got my stubbornness from him, and we ungainly walked to the cave.
Once inside, it transformed from a natural cave to something more man-made.
I carried my father further in, to a door.
I swallowed, looking at it.
Then I glanced at my father, all red and hot, not able to stand on his own.
I screwed my courage and knocked on the door.
After a few moments, it opened, and a young man peeked out.
He looked at us, then up, around, then back at us, utterly confused.
He said something, but I didn’t understand it at all.
I guess he didn’t speak the same language as me in my old life.
That just seemed to make him more confused.
He said something else and closed the door.
No!
Damn it!
I knocked on it again, pounding on it.
I wasn’t leaving until my father was treated!
A few minutes later, the door opened back up, and I stared, annoyed, at an older man.
He stroked his beard as he regarded us.
Then opened the door wider, inviting us inside.
I carried my father in.
The man said something, and I chittered, trying to ask him to please help my father.
The younger man was there as well, and he spoke.
The man responded, then seemed to beckon me to follow him.
I carried my father through the fancy home of the man and his son.
We made it to… a bedroom, but it smelled like herbs.
There was a futon in the center, and I automatically carried my father there, gently laying him down.
The younger man said something in alarm, but the older man laughed.
He went to some small drawers on the other side of the room and got out a small pill.
He brought it over and handed it to me.
I looked down at it, but it seemed like an ordinary brown pill.
The kind you might find in a cultivation novel.
I looked up at the doctor, then pointed to my father, holding up the pill.
This was for him, right?
He laughed, deep and hearty, and nodded.
Oh, thank God.
I knelt next to my father, chittering.
I brought the pill to his lips, and he swallowed it.
His wounds began repairing themselves before my eyes.
What the…
Within moments, he was the picture of health.
He bolted up, and shook himself, backing away from the two humans warily.
I chittered, calming him down.
Saying they helped him.
That helped, but he still seemed uncomfortable.
He asked me for the way out.
We should leave in case we angered them.
I nodded and turned back to them.
Erm… I wanted to thank them and ask to leave.
I bowed, trying to express my gratitude.
The young man’s jaw dropped, but the older one simply laughed.
He waved to follow him, and I told my father he was leading us out.
Sure enough, we made it to the front door.
My father wasted no time in bolting out, but I spared one last bow to our saviors.
The young one gasped and asked the older one something, and the older one just looked amused as he answered.
I turned and followed my father out, and we rejoined with our troop.
It took less than a day to swing our way back down the mountain.
As we landed, I heard my mother shout for joy, even as the monkeys surrounding her protested, she hobbled forward to greet my father, who hugged her fiercely.
I watched them reunite, the grief finally hitting me.
My mother’s broken arm.
My baby brother.
I looked over at the corpse of the snake.
It seems the monkeys had some success tearing it apart.
They had clearly eaten as much of it as they could as to not waste food.
A shiny ball caught my eye.
A shiny purple ball.
Where did that come from?
It was lodged in the corpse, with several gouges around it.
Hmmm.
I walked over and looked at it.
I killed it, but it was held fast, even in the torn-up flesh.
Wait… Was this a beast core?
I closed my eyes and meditated and felt the little ball.
The amount of chi threatened to overwhelm me.
So much!
There was so much chi in this little ball!
But it wasn’t unaspected chi.
This chi felt… slimy.
Manipulative.
I poked at it, and it shivered, and popped loose from in the body.
I opened my eyes and picked it up, looking over it.
What… what should I do with it?
Could I use it to cultivate?
I looked up at my crying mother, overcome at seeing my healthy father.
I smiled.
No.
I didn’t want anything of the snake’s, and I wanted its chi even less.
Instead, I already knew what I wanted.
I watched my mother’s arm fix itself after she ate the pill.
She hooted in delight, flexing it, getting her arm back.
Relief rushed through me.
My mother would be okay.
A monkey that couldn’t climb trees didn’t last long around here.
I was so glad the man had understood what I wanted when I mimed eating a pill and held out this beast core.
My father clapped me on the back, thanking me.
He said I was the strongest monkey to be born in the troop and I had a gift for dealing with hairless ones.
I told him I was just happy he and mother were okay, and that I wished I could have saved my little brother too.
My mother came over and hugged me.
She said I was still alive.
That she and my father hadn’t lost two children that day.
Maybe.
But… I couldn’t let this happen again.
This gentle life of simplicity had made me complacent.
There were dangerous things in this world.
Things that could threaten me and my family.
I needed to be stronger to protect them from those things.
I wouldn’t let myself be caught off guard again.
“Master, why is this monkey different from all the others?
I don’t sense anything special about this one in particular.
It’s barely stage one into Chi Gathering.
Yet…” The young pupil shut up, looking down at the troop of monkeys converging around the special one.
His old Master laughed.
“You have much to learn my disciple.
There are many strange and wondrous things in this world.
A monkey who knows its manners is hardly noteworthy.
I’m glad to see it used the pill well.
Quite the filial little thing, isn’t it?”
The old immortal looked down at the group, amused, eyes sparkling with curiosity.
“We’ll keep an eye on it.
Who knows?
Maybe you’ll even get a younger brother if it asks to become a disciple.”
The horrified expression that crossed the young man’s face made the immortal laugh in delight.