The Hard Facts Of Life

Chapter 1

Mary and Karin are mine. Haley belongs to BlackenedLips.

Koba almost did not return home that night. The mood he was in, and after the human girl's attack on him earlier, Mary was not too surprised. Her Father sometimes sat up very late, brooding over things. But he had never looked like that. Even Mary dared not approach him to ask why. She figured she wait to get him alone at home, and then ask.

She tried to stay awake until he came back, but against her will, she drifted in to a worried sleep. Sometime later, the young Ape girl sat up and yawned as she heard her Father slinking in to their home.

As she yawned again, drawing in a very deep breath, Mary suddenly froze, shocked. She could feel the hair prickling along her back and neck, and she deliberately took another deep breath, praying she was wrong. But, the second breath confirmed it. Overlaying her Father's own very familiar scent was that of the human girl, Haley.

"Papa!" the young Ape girl cried, lunging to her feet, and startling her father who seemed to be in a world of his own. He flinched back as Mary rushed up to him, her eyes wide.

Mary raked him with her gaze, taking in absolutely everything, and drawing her own conclusions. The poor girl must have fought for all she was worth, Mary thought. No wonder she beat him so badly!

She felt so sick and angry that she was not sure she could speak.

"Papa?" she barely whispered. "What ... what have you done? "Why do you smell like that human girl? Why do you look like you've just survived a fight?"

"She attacked me. Now go to bed, daughter," was all Koba grunted. But, he would not meet her eyes.

Mary's own eyes suddenly filled with tears. She let out a small shriek of shame and misery.

"Why did she attack you? What did you do to her, Papa?! Oh, how could you?" she screeched.

Not giving him a chance to answer, Mary suddenly whirled and fled from their home.

She heard Koba calling after her, but she ignored him. As she ran, her first instinct was to run straight to Caesar and/or Cornelia and tell them what her Father had done. But she could not do it. She knew she would not be able to form either the words or the signs. She was just too horrified and ashamed. So, as always when she was troubled, she went looking for Maurice. The young girl prayed he had not gone off to visit with Karin tonight. But her prayers had not been answered. Was everything going against her?

She knew she would be in trouble for leaving the village after dark. Only the adults could do that, and even then, most of them never did. But she had to talk with someone.

Mary did not know what made her do it, but before she headed out towards Karin's house, she went and collected some few of the Apes healing leaves, and a small bowl of the salve they used on bad cuts

and scrapes. Trembling visibly, she approached the human girls hut.

Maybe she won't be in there and I can just leave this, Mary hoped. But again, her hopes were dashed. The girl was home. The scent was here, though fainter.

Maybe she washed in the river, Mary thought. The Ape girl shuddered, knowing how cold that water could get.

The trembling Ape girl tapped lightly on the front of Haley's hut before carefully poking her head and hands in to the structure. She sat the bowl down near the girl, then started to back away shyly.

"Don't ... don't eat that," Mary advised the girl, speaking out loud. Mary always preferred to speak out loud whenever she could. She was probably the best speaker in the village next to Caesar and her father. "You ... you put it, on your cuts ... like this?"