Mountain King

On Chinese New Year,in the darkling of an absent moon, Greyback absent mindedly practiced his sleight of hand with an orchid and a walnut. The rank of Mountain King had been bestowed in an instant. Silverback trapped by poachers had sent the troup fleeing from their shouts and their scent.  While Silverback roared his indignation the females had followed Greyback up through the thickening vegetation into the mountain’s steep misted banks trusting him in that instant to lead them to safety and a new beginning. He considered his situation. It was the year of the golden Monkey.  Was this auspicious? He was to be the Monkey King.  He had spent his life following the rules: see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil, but these were considerations for those of lesser rank, without them he would be rudderless. Still he would be wise not to turn his back against such wise words if they could be applied with wisdom. “With rank came responsibility”. How often had he heard Silverback say this to him as he had flexed his adolescent muscles? He had never truly understood until now and he was saddened, knowing that he could never be one of the group in quite the same way.  From this day forward he would be with the group but separated from the host.  Still, rank had its perks.

He watched the harem beneath him in the grassy clearing, a mix of malleable younger females and more experienced dames. The shock of the days events sat heavily on them and they were watchful, alert, consoling each other with caring and closeness. There was a tension as they waited to see how the new reign would begin. Chi his favourite female was suckling the last of Silverback’s line while grooming her older infant. He grabbed a branch and chewed thoughtfully on its leaves. His eyes clouded as he remembered the loss of his own sibling to Silverback’s virility many moons before, the tiny limp body, back broken, after Silverback had flung it down across the roots of a tree in proof of his dominance. Had his mother not been so brave, he too might have lost his life that day, but she had soothed Silverback and given herself to him as she grieved the loss of her youngest babe. Greyback understood now these were the formalities of leadership, a way to secure the succession of your line, but times were changing. Their numbers were low and a bloodline other than his own would strengthen the group in the long run he ruminated.  He would take Chi for his own and discipline the infant; teach him all that he knew. The time had come to work together. 

Dropping the stick from his hand he reached for a leana and swung down on the group from his elevated perch instantly setting off a monkey madrigal of warning calls, mothers calling for their infants, older siblings seeking security in each other’s arms. For a moment the clearing was a carnival of high anxiety and then as he stood high on his back legs and beat on his chest the troop showed their submission.  He dropped back to his knuckles and swaggered through the clearing watching as each, juvenile male, each damme in turn dropped their heads and turned their eyes away at his approach.  Greyback paraded slowly through the troup until he reached Chi then lifted her infant onto his back and walked a little way from the group. Tension vibrated in the air and the birds killed their song but Greyback had all the assurance he needed. There was no further lesson required today. He knuckled his way to the nest he had seen Chi busy with earlier and took it for his own lifting the infant from his back into the nest.  The message was clear and Chi sidled up and began to groom his shoulders. The tension evaporated, a mere spectre in the mist.

Tomorrow he would lead the group over the ridge into the thicker trees and mark out a new territory, far away from the threat of man. If the luck of the year of the monkey was with them it would be the start of a golden age.  The stars had aligned their auspicious lights and the Milky Way glowed like a crown over the land he had inherited, a land where he would father a new generation of Mountain Kings.