MidReal Story
Secrets of the Amazonian Ape-Humans
Scenario: An African folk story about children born by half ape half human parents living in the Amazonian forest.
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I didn’t understand why my mother was screaming, until I saw her.
She was a big, big animal with dark hair and piercing eyes.
And she was frightened.
Everything went in slow motion as I clung to Leo’s back.
He was my older brother and I trusted him to keep me safe.
Even though I was only four and he was six, I knew he would never let anything bad happen to me.
But even he couldn’t protect us from the giant creature that came barreling out of the trees and grabbed Maya’s arm in its jaws.
Blood sprayed across the forest floor and everyone started screaming.
Except Liya.
Liya is our mother.
She’s not like other mothers.
She’s a little bit human and a little bit ape.
Her skin is the color of tree bark and she has a gentle face with deep brown eyes.
But when she’s scared or angry, her pupils grow large and dark, and she makes a series of barking sounds that echo through the jungle.
When Liya saw Maya being dragged away by the creature, she went berserk.
She leaped on top of it and wrenched its jaws apart.
It fought back, snarling and thrashing, but Liya was stronger than it.
With one final yank, she freed Maya’s arm from its mouth and scooped her up in her big, powerful arms.
Liya held Maya close to her chest as their blood mingled together in a sticky red mess that dripped onto the ground below.
Then she ran faster than any animal I’d ever seen.
Leo raced after her, with me clinging to his back, while our father stayed behind to guard the tribe from any other threats that might be lurking in the trees.
He didn’t have to wait long before Liya came crashing back out of the forest with Maya in her arms.
Maya was coughing and gasping for breath, but she was alive.
I watched, stunned, as Liya put her mouth over Maya’s and blew air into her lungs.
She did this over and over again until Maya was able to breathe on her own.
Maya’s mother was so grateful that she wept, and she wasn’t the only one.
I had never seen anything like this before, and I couldn’t look away.
As I watched Liya, my heart swelled with pride.
Liya is a hero.
But not everyone thought so.
The next day, while we were playing with Maya in the forest, three of our tribe members were killed by poachers.
Their bodies were left to rot on the forest floor while their babies wailed for their mothers.
Our father sat with them until they stopped crying.
Then he carried their lifeless bodies away into the forest to bury them.
When he came back, his eyes were red and swollen, and his fists were clenched so tightly that his knuckles turned white.
I’d never seen our father this way before, but I knew what he was feeling.
He was angry.
And he wanted revenge.
“Whoever did this will pay,” he growled.
“I swear it.”
I could feel his rage boiling up inside him, like a pot about to boil over.
But as soon as he saw me, he took a deep breath and calmed himself down.
“What’s done is done,” he said softly.
“We must focus on what we can control.”
I knew what he meant.
We are not fully human, and we are not fully ape.
We are in between.
And that means we don’t belong anywhere.
Our tribe lives in a secret cave hidden deep inside the jungle.
We only come out at night, and even then we have to be careful.
If the human tribe ever discovered us, they would kill us without a second thought.
Which is why we had to sneak home without being seen.
Leo went first, and I followed close behind.
We moved quickly but silently, careful to avoid stepping on any branches or dry leaves that might give us away.
When we finally reached our cave, I breathed a sigh of relief.
I didn’t think anyone had seen us.
But Leo knew better.
He grabbed me by the arm and pulled me back into the shadows, where we huddled together with our mother and the rest of our tribe while we waited for our father to return.
“How could anyone do something like that?”
I asked, my voice barely more than a whisper.
“Why would they want to hurt us?”
Leo didn’t answer.
He just put his arm around me and held me close.
I knew he was worried about our father, but I didn’t know what to say to make him feel better.
So I just stayed close to him and waited for our father to return.
We didn’t have to wait long.
Our father came back with our father came back with our father came back with two more bodies in his arms.
He laid them down gently on the ground, and then he sat with them while we said a prayer for their souls.
When we were done, he gathered all of us together in a circle, and we ate a meal of fruit and nuts that our mother had gathered for us earlier that day.
Even though we were sad, it felt good to be with our family.
And for a little while, we almost forgot about what had happened in the forest.
Almost.
The next few days were hard for all of us.
Our father was busy taking care of the babies whose mothers had been killed by the poachers, while Leo helped our mother with whatever she needed.
I wanted to help too, but I wasn’t much use in situations like this.
I spent most of my time outside with the herd, keeping watch for any sign of danger.
That’s where I was when I heard it.
The sound made me jump.
I turned around just in time to see my father walking through the entrance of our cave.
I nearly ran toward him then and there, but I remembered at the last minute that I wasn’t supposed to be out here.
I should have been inside with Liya and Leo and the rest of our tribe.
But I hadn’t been able to stand it—the thought of being cooped up inside that cave all day long while everyone else worked hard to take care of things around here.
So I’d come out here instead.
I’d promised myself I’d only stay for a little while, just long enough to stretch my legs.
But then I’d gotten distracted by a group of monkeys playing in the trees nearby, and I’d forgotten all about going home.
I knew my father was going to be mad at me for disobeying him, but he didn’t even say anything as he walked past me.
He just motioned for me to go inside, which I did immediately.
Liya was waiting for us with a big smile on her face.
“Hi, sweetheart,” she said, giving our father a kiss on the cheek as he sat down beside her.
“I hope you’re hungry.”
We all sat down together to share a meal of fruit and nuts, just like we always did.
Maya was surprised when she saw what was on her plate.
“Is this really what you guys eat?”
she asked, eyeing her food warily.
“It’s so…green.”
Liya laughed at that, her eyes twinkling in amusement.
“Yes, darling,” she said, reaching out to ruffle Maya’s hair.
This is what we eat.”
“You get used to it after a while,” I said, popping a grape into my mouth.
“It’s not so bad, once you get past the taste.”
Maya didn’t look convinced, but she picked up her fork and took a tentative bite anyway.
“You guys are so weird,” she said, shaking her head as she chewed her food slowly.
“Weird,” she said with a shrug.
“But in a good way.”
When we were finished eating, our father stood up from his chair and clapped his hands to get our attention.
“All right, everyone,” he said, his voice deep and booming even though he was trying to whisper.
“It’s time for bed.”
Liya smiled at him over our heads as she gathered up our plates and put them away.
We all brushed our teeth with a homemade paste that Liya had made out of baking soda before climbing into our beds for the night.
But I wasn’t ready for bed yet, not really.
I’d been cooped up inside that cave all day long, and I needed to stretch my legs before I went to sleep.
I waited until everyone else was asleep before sneaking out of bed and tiptoeing quietly through the cave.
It wasn’t hard to find my way to the entrance; we’d lived here for as long as I could remember, and I knew every inch of this place like the back of my hand.
I’d just stepped outside when something caught my eye.
I turned around, and that’s when I saw them.
I’ll never forget that sight, no matter how hard I try.
The images are burned into my memory forever, seared there by a fire that will never go out.
I still have nightmares about it sometimes, even now, all these years later.
The sound of their screams still haunts me, echoing in my ears even when all is quiet.
Some of them were already dead by then; others were on their last legs, barely clinging to life.
There was blood everywhere, so much blood.
It was splattered all over our cave, splashing against the walls and staining our floors.
They were all covered in it—our mother, our father, our brothers, our sisters.
We were a family, and now we were torn apart.
My brother was the first to go.
He was playing outside with the other kids when they came, and they attacked him before he even knew what was happening.
I’ll never forget the look of shock on his face as he fell to the ground, his blood falling with him in a rush of red.
Our sisters tried to fight them off, but there were too many of them.
They were overwhelmed in a matter of seconds, their bodies crashing against the ground like ragdolls.
One of them tried to run, but they caught up with her soon enough.
She didn’t get far, not even a few feet away before they dragged her back, kicking and screaming, into the cave.
I was about to turn around and go back inside when I saw my mother.
Her body was lying on the ground, motionless, but I could tell she was still alive by the way her chest was rising and falling with each breath.
She was in shock; I could see it in her eyes, too dull to be anything but that.
And then I saw my father.
He was on the ground too, but he was laying on his back, his eyes closed as though he was already dead.
There was a woman on top of him, her face covered in blood as she screamed at him over and over again, but he didn’t move, not even a muscle.
I don’t know how long I stood there, watching all of this happen, but it felt like hours—eternity in the span of a heartbeat.
The only reason I didn’t go back inside right away was because my mother was standing there with me, holding my hand so tightly that I could hardly breathe.
So tightly that I couldn’t move at all, even if I wanted to.
“Don’t look,” she whispered to me, though I could tell that she was just as scared as I was by the way her voice was shaking.
“Close your eyes.I’ll tell you when it’s over.”
But I didn’t want to close my eyes, not really.
I wanted to see, even if what I saw hurt me in the end.
There were more of them now, carrying guns and knives and all sorts of other weapons I couldn’t even imagine using, let alone seeing up close.
My father was getting to his feet now, finally, while the woman screamed at him so loud that I felt like my ears would burst from hearing it.
Then she took out her gun and shot him twice, one bullet for each of us, and he fell right back down again with a soft groan that would haunt me for years to come.
And somewhere in there, I saw Leo get up too, finally letting go of his friend’s hand so that he could run back to us as fast as his legs would carry him.
All the while, the woman kept screaming at my father, telling him how she’d been looking for him for years and how he wasn’t going to get away from her now.
He was trying to get away, though, I could see that, even in the few moments he was still alive.
He was trying to get back to us, because we were more important to him than anything else.
But there were more people now, and they were all holding guns, and they all shot at him at the same time.
It was all over in an instant—just like that.
The moment they finished, they dropped their weapons on the ground before walking away as though nothing had happened.
The only thing left was a trail of blood leading from where my father was lying to where I was standing, frozen in place while my mother still held onto my hand.
Leo was standing beside us now too, though he wasn’t looking at anything at all.
He was just staring straight ahead, his eyes wide open while his mouth hung slackly down.
It didn’t take me long to realize that he was in shock; I was pretty sure that I was too.
At some point, I must have blacked out or something, because I don’t remember much after that—I don’t even remember what happened next.
The next thing I knew, I was waking up in the cave, surrounded by everyone who was still alive.
Leo was there too, of course.
He was sitting beside me on the ground, holding my hand so tightly that I could hardly breathe.
He had been crying too; I could tell by the way his eyes were red and puffy, and how there were tear tracks down his face that were still wet with tears.
I was crying too, though I didn’t realize it at first.
It took me a while to realize that I was crying so hard that I couldn’t even breathe.
“Did you see?”
Leo asked me after a while, once I had calmed down enough that I could finally look up at him again.
“Did you see what happened?”
I didn’t answer; I didn’t need to.
I could tell by the way he was looking at me that he already knew the answer.
“I’m sorry,” he said after a while, once it was clear that I wasn’t going to answer him.
“I didn’t want you to have to see that.I didn’t want any of us to have to see that.”
