"Shaman, Shaman!" shouted the guards, looking agitated, almost toppling over as one of them pushed in the door, looking for the old chimpanzee.

  "What? Did someone eat something again that they shouldn't have? What's the ruckus for?!" The old one snorted at him, not even turning towards him, still leaning over his scribbles, searching for who knows what.

  "Niji is back!"

  "Who cares?"

  "With humans!"

  "Oh?" He raised his head, thinking, then turning back, looking up and down at the slightly trembling chimp. "Good. This is perfect!" Shaman ughed and went out, pushing the poor kid aside, who stumbled backward, not knowing what would happen next.

  At the entrance, or precisely under the giant trees serving as their homes, Niji was already walking in, and behind him, ready for any possible trouble, multiple humans followed suit. Those who stayed at home were still young, weak, and inexperienced, and, seeing only Niji return, they were holding their wooden weapons, standing guard against him, not knowing why he had returned with humans instead of the tribe's leader and warriors.

  "Finally, you're back. Took you long enough!" came the voice of Shaman, who dropped down from the trees, hanging onto a long vine before nding perfectly. Even though he had a hunchback, he still towered two and a half meters in height when standing before them.

  "Shaman." Niji nodded, a bit surprised that he came down, welcoming them.

  "You, too, can call me that!" He looked over at him, speaking to Ren and the others as his eyes fixated on Anya. "You are the leader?"

  "No." She answered, shaking her head, pushing Ren forward, who curiously scanned the giant ape up and down multiple times.

  "The kid?" Shaman blinked his eyes, scratching his head. "Or are you a dwarf?"

  "Dwarf? No, I'm just unique, compact, if you will! Anyway, are there dwarves?" Ren asked, excited.

  "Yeah, up in the north!" He nodded, "They are descendants of humans, I assume. The stories say they live in old mines or something. Dunno, never met with one, only heard about them because they are holed up under the ground trying to reach the core of the world or something." While mining his own nostril, Shaman expined, while finding another kind of… crystal that he flicked away. "Who cares about them? Let's talk about important things! I need new tools; I already made a list. I pnned on sending Niji to get them for me, but you are here, so it's all fine."

  "You wanted me to go to the humans' nd? Should I just stroll in and act like nothing, browsing their markets?" Niji snorted, being frustrated already with the old chimp, yet he had just returned home.

  "What, you just came back with humans in tow. It must be easy, then! Anyway, here!" He pushed a rough stack of paper with crude drawings and names scribbled on it, showing what he needed, right into Ren's hands, and watched as she flipped through them, sometimes turning the pages upside down to recognize what was on them.

  "No problem. We already made a deal with Niji. We will get them and transport them here." Ren passed it over to Leinor, who stashed it in his bag.

  "Great! I guess the others are dead, yes?" His question made the rest of the apes behind him, up in the trees, freeze immediately.

  "Yup. All of them." Ren nodded. "None survived, only Niji did."

  "Thought so." Shaman nodded. "I can roughly guess what will happen by seeing you here and not your army. I don't care! Do what you will. Just get my tools for me!" he scoffed, waving his hands.

  "Ahaha, sure thing!" Ren grinned, her eyes shining, "Can you show me what you are working on? Let's exchange some ideas, hm?

  "Sure! Follow me!" Shaman ughed as he quickly climbed the tree, and Ren just fshed by, quickly following him without reservation.

  "There she goes!" Anya sighed, shaking her head.

  "She was impatient since we were closing in on the vilge." Leinor smiled, now looking at the rest of the apes. "Hm... They are afraid."

  "Sure, they are." Niji nodded. "Usually, when the previous alpha is dead, the new leader of the tribe kills all the children, as they are mostly the previous boss's kids. Then mates with all the women and sires a lot of new little monkeys..."

  "Brutal." Isha grimaced. "And… What about you? Should we turn our backs until you finish?" She asked with scorn in her voice.

  "Nope. I couldn't care less about it. Bloodline means nothing to me." Niji said in a loud enough voice so everyone could hear, and the females were the ones who rexed first, holding firmly the young to their furry chests. "I'm here to reform the tribe, building it anew from the ground up. So there will be new rules that override the old ones. I need your help to secure the vilge for the time being, though. Other than that, just take it as we are your hosts, and you are the guests."

  "Rest assured. Ren trusts you. We will do so too." Leinor said with a calm voice.

  "Master ordered us to do so, so I'm fine with it. She is usually right on point on how to deal with things." Poli grinned while Zern only nodded.

  "Yeah, I remember once some idiots barged into a pce by her lead and were spanked badly by someone way stronger than you were." Isha giggled as she pyfully elbowed Zern.

  "Yeah, I remember that too." Leinor looked back with a smirk, shutting her up, then she just stuck her tongue out at him.

  "Okay, kids." Anya giggled. "Stop it! Especially you, Isha! You are twice their age, yet you always act like my daughter. Grow up a little!"

  "Ugh… don't bring that up! I look only sixteen anyway!" She grumbled, pursing her lips.

  "Add at least twenty," Poli stifled a ugh, receiving a kick to his butt, making him unable to finish his words, "Okay, okay, sixteen it is!"

  "Isha, take Zern and Poli, then go around the vilge, map its yout, then make a note of possible points of entry." Leinor interrupted them, "Lady Anya, can you keep an eye on the other monkeys?"

  "Sure." She nodded, and soon the ground dried up under her feet, and three water clones appeared next to her, scaring the monkeys who were still on high alert.

  "I'll accompany Niji." Leinor finished.

  "I feel you still don't trust me, even after what you said just now." Niji smiled at the young prince.

  "I just like to be double sure. I can't put my Ren in danger."

  Niji didn't respond, and he only kept looking into his eyes before climbing up to collect everyone so he could expin the situation to them. At the same time, Ren was already discussing deeply with Shaman in his shabby boratory.

  "Interesting, so you say I have one simir thing inside my brain?" Shaman asked, holding up the small core towards the light shining through the shabby shack's window frame.

  "Yup. Everyone had the same type of core inside their brains."

  "Now I want to open up some of the idiots' skulls."

  "Will you?" Ren chuckled.

  "If they take a shit inside my cauldron, again, that I left outside to dry, I fucking will." He grumbled, pocketing the core.

  "Hey, who said I'll give it to you?"

  "Here. You can have this." He threw the book at her as payment.

  "What's this?" Ren opened it curiously as the pages started to fall out. "Oh? Is this a diary of some kind?"

  "Yes. It was the st human Empress's personal diary, from the day she was crowned until the st week of her life."

  "Whoa, sounds precious!" Ren excimed while she started to flip through it, "Tsk... I can't read this…."

  "Hah, of course not. You are not speaking their nguage!" Shaman cackled, "Find an interpreter or someone who will transte it for you."

  "Can't you?"

  "Too much time." Shaman waved his hand at her.

  "So you DO speak their old nguage, huh?"

  "Sly. But I won't do it. Too much hassle. I've already forgotten many words; I'm not interested. I've got work to do!"

  "Okay, okay, got it." Ren rolled her eyes, pocketing it. "I'll give this to Feynor; he should be able to read it. Anyway, show me what you are working on!"

  "I thought you would never ask!" The ape ughed, inviting her closer and showing her a big bowl filled with stinky, slimy fluid that was bubbling all over the pce.

  "What's this? Did they take a shit in this, too?"

  "Very funny," he chuckled, shaking his head, "No! This is made from various fruits plucked from the treants, as well as some demons' internal organs. "

  "Sounds nasty. The treants… are those the-”

  "Yup, sentient trees. Don't ask if you know." Shaman scoffed at her.

  "So, what is it for?"

  "Treants or ents, as some call them, rule the inner part of the forest, the deep parts, the old parts. They are independent and don't like interacting with us at all... They aren't open to speaking with anyone else either."

  "Oh, are they that territorial?" Ren asked, curious.

  "Very much so. If a demon walks into their domain, it gets caught by the trees, and they turn it into a thrall. From then on, it tends to the trees until its life force is consumed."

  "Then how did you get fruits from them?"

  "I have my methods… and by some sacrifice. For science." Shaman said with a stern look.

  "Sure…"

  "Look. This is a sapling from a treant." He continued, "Their seed can survive hundreds of years or even more without being buried until it finds a spot where it can grow… and I found they usually grow inside the thralls at first. They use their life force and energy to supplement their rapid growth."

  As he dropped the seed into the bowl, it quickly started to grow, and soon a tiny tree appeared, like a miniature bonsai. It didn't take long for it to greedily slurp up the bowl's contents, but soon its branches swelled up before bursting into fmes, and the whole tree went up in smoke.

  "Damn…" Ren exhaled, watching it py out.

  "Still… something is missing…! A component that regutes energy consumption." Shaman continued without a flinch, checking the remains in the bowl. "I want it to not only burn... but spread. Infect the rest!"

  "The Demon Core."

  "Exactly!" He snapped his fingers, "Now I need to devise a new experiment. With this information, I could guess why they grow on thralls, too! They use their cores as regutors to prevent consuming more energy than they can handle as they grow. At least, that is my first theory..."

  "And your goal is…?"

  "Reverse engineer it. Turn it against them! Or come up with something that hurts them... They are dangerous and refuse to cooperate and consume us, using us as fertilizer!" He huffed and puffed, clearly agitated as something else was behind his sudden rage.

  "This sounds personal," Ren murmured, looking at him.

  "It is." He answered coldly, "What would you do if they ate up all of your family and you could do nothing, just stand there and watch as they rotted away while being alive the whole time?"

  "Burn down the whole forest." She answered without a thought, "Then turn over the nd and cover it with salt."

  "I want to do that. So very much, you couldn't believe it! So it IS personal. Don't help if you don't want to, but don't stand in my way, or I will kill you too!"

  "Whoa, easy there, oldie! It's your vendetta." Ren ughed as she raised her hands, "You do you; I'm only here to make sure the monkeys are on our side."

  "Help me with the research, and they will be. I can even help you absorb the nearby tribes, too."

  "Now we are talking!" Ren grinned, putting on a sweet smile afterward. "What tribes are nearby?"

  "Four major ones. The gorils, orangutans, another chimpanzee tribe, and the baboons."

  "Huh. Which one should we start with?"

  "The other chimps." Shaman nodded, "They would be easy to absorb; they are a smaller tribe with a young alpha at their lead. Honestly, they are our cousins and were chased off about... Hm... Two generations ago. It would take some talking to convince them, but it is doable. After that… it depends. The orangutans are calm and even a bit zy. They are the smallest ones, but don't underestimate them; they may be small, but you need to offer compelling benefits to get them to join us. The gorils are also pretty calm, but they are a close-knit group. They won't take kindly to intruding on their territory or family."

  "I can work with those who lean more towards the peaceful side. Let me guess, the baboons are problematic."

  "They are. They are only good for being a meat shield in a battle or sending them into enemy territory to cause chaos. They are easy to anger, stupid, and the one thing they love more than fighting is fucking. Maybe do the two at the same time. I hate those jackasses! But it's your problem to solve. I'll just point you in the direction."

  "You said you would help me absorb them." Ren countered quickly, but Shaman just grinned.

  "I didn't say how much help you would get."

  "I think we will get along well…" Ren sighed, holding her temple, smiling. "Okay, let me think it through and get me more details of the tribes! Once everything is in order, we can visit your cousins. Let us get over the easy part first."

  "Agreed. If you want, I can take you to them tomorrow!"

  "Sure." Ren nodded, then walked out of the house, looking down at the ground. A few other really young chimps were standing around Isha, all looking either at her breasts or her buttocks... which was unavoidable. "Tsk… no wonder they say we are reted species…." Ren murmured with a weird smile on her face.