Once Upon a Time in Africa

Chapter 1

Howls of terror echoed through the jungle, dripping down the vines into pools of steaming gorilla blood. Tarzan darted among the tops of the trees, jumping from limb to limb and using the occasional vine to propel him along. This was no normal shrieking. Though Terk commonly entered into squabbles with other females, this was different. She was in danger. Tarzan braced himself as he landed on the bough of a fig tree. He paused to get his bearings and listen. He could hear the gorilla whimpering and could smell blood. He must be cautious as he approached. Leopards had been seen in these parts and even the male gorillas could be troublesome. He had shown them all countless times that this was his territory but they didn't respect him and frequently challenged his authority. Terk had left the troop they were raised in a little while ago and had joined another. But she was having a hard time adjusting to the new social order. None of the other females were friendly to her and their silverback often scorned her advances. She often wandered dangerously away from the troop. Perhaps she believed Tarzan would be able to protect her from all the dangers in the jungle. She was naïve.

He had tried his best to unite the troops in his territory but none were interested. Often he had to break up fights over food or water sources. If it weren't for him, the gorillas would likely kill each other.

Tarzan knew he wasn't a gorilla. As far back as he could remember he knew he was different. Very little fur, limited mobility, and body and facial features, distinguished himself from them. Even though he was clearly the dominant male in the whole vicinity, he had not taken over as silverback of any troop. Though he had every right to, he had no desire to mate with the females. Most of them avoided him anyway. They saw him as a protector, a friend, and a leader, but nothing else. They knew he wasn't one of them. He smelled different, he looked different, and he was far more intelligent than any of them.

Tarzan slowly lowered himself to the jungle floor by a vine he had tied to the outstretched limb of a tree. He often went along with a coil of woven vines over his shoulder. But Terk wasn't on the floor. She was suspended high above the bushes in a cage. Not one of his own cages that he had learned to make out of rods of wood and vines. This one was gray and cold. It looked hard and unnatural. Terk was shaking with terror, her eyes wide, and her lips whimpering. She jumped up at the sight of him and grasped the smooth, perfectly rounded bars with her hands and hooted to him.

In a flash he leaped into action, darting up the tree she was suspended over, he grappled across the branches and dangled down next to the cage. Clicking his tongue and grunting gently, he assured her that she was safe. Pulling out Stone Fang from a strap on his waist, he maneuvered on top of the box shaped cell. The rope holding it was thick and had many cords of fine hairs all woven together. He began sawing at the rope. It was tougher than he thought but soon began to unravel as threads broke apart. His concern was that Terk would be injured from the fall in the heavy cage. They were at least two elephants up and she had already sustained an injury on her hand when it had grabbed her. He paused, unsure how to continue. Maybe he could break the cage open?

Terk began to whimper again and Tarzan barked at her to be quiet. He was afraid that she would attract carnivores. He didn't need to kill another Sabor. He also didn't want whatever made the trap to come back, likely hungry for whatever they had intended to catch. With Stone Fang in hand, he stabbed at the bars of the cage, warning Terk to stay back. It clanged and clattered. Sparks flew up but nothing happened. The material was just too strong. Tarzan crawled across the outside of the cage, looking for a week spot he might pry open. He found what looked like it might be an opening underneath the cage. Seams lined the edges while bulbous, rock-hard knots held it in place. He tried to make Terk understand that he wanted her to hold onto the bars but she didn't understand. His knife found a spot which seemed easy enough to break open and he prepared himself. Pulling from within himself that force that he called the Fury, he felt a surge of strength fill his limbs and pulse through his pounding heart. His teeth gritted and he yelled to the sky, releasing the power in his body. With one yank of his Stone Fang he loosened and broke the hinges that held the cage closed. It fell along with Terk. But he was quick. With a yank, he grabbed her arm as she fell. He clung on to her while maintaining his hold on the vine rope. She struggled against him, not understanding that he was saving her. The Fury coursed through his body but it would not last. He knew that soon his strength would fail and he would drop her. He barked at Terk to stop struggling. Finally she scrambled up his body and pulled herself up the vine and into the tree.

When they were both on the ground, Terk nuzzled Tarzan's face momentarily to thank him before hurrying off back into the jungle. Tarzan wasn't a novice at using the Fury, but it did have his limits, and he worried that whatever had come into the jungle and set up traps may be more than his strength can muster. But then again, it had never failed him before. With it he had broken the back of the leopard, Sabor. He had once stopped an elephant's charging by grasping its tusks and holding it back. The Fury had even allowed him to wrestle and defeat the largest gorilla of the jungle, Kerchak.

Looking back at the cage, hanging from the tree, Tarzan thought about what creatures could have done such a thing. He was the only one smart enough in the jungle to build anything like that. Gorillas could build nests and he had taught some of them to use simple tools to perform menial tasks, but he had never encountered anything as smart as him. From the look of this cage, whatever they were, they were smarter than him. What worried him is that they might be a danger to his troop, or to any of the troops in the area that he considered under his protection. He felt that none of the silverbacks alone were sufficient to protect their troops against so formidable an opponent.

Tarzan glared at the cage and felt the Fury bubbling, still hot in his veins. Forcing himself to relax, he climbed a nearby tree and, grabbing a few fruits for a needed snack, perched himself out of sight to wait for the creatures to come back for their broken cage.