Low Land Gorilla

Soon a park ranger appeared and casually approached Ted and James. Ted had made an appointment on their walk over.

"Hello, are you the ones who wanted a pet, today?"

"Yes! I am Ted, this is my friend James."

At the ranger's question Ted excitedly replied and even labeled James as his friend.

This was a startling revelation for James, he had always thought of himself as part of the out group. He had friends, but they were arms distance friends. If James did anything weird or uncool they could have plausible deniability. So to have Ted just declare openly a friendship left James feeling uncertain. Not because he didn't think Ted was a good guy, but because he was not used to friendship and was not sure how to be a good friend.

"Great! I can see you are excited. Good, do you know what pet you would like? I am Fang Yuan, by the way."

The ranger introduced himself and offered his hand to shake theirs.

"It is nice to meet you, Yuan."

"Nice to meet you."

Ted and James each in turn shook hands.

"I want a low land gorilla."

Point blank Ted just said what pet he wanted.

"Hmmm, good, ..."

Yuan trailed off looking at Ted a little differently now.

"You know that gorilla's are finicky with their care, right. They are a hard pet to raise. Any predator is, but especially an intelligent and emotionally volatile silverback..."

Obviously it was part of the park ranger's job to vet each trainer and make sure that they were aware of and had the ability to be a good master.

"Oh, no, no, I don't want a male. I want a female."

Answering Yuan's question Ted seemed to want to sweep any concerns away.

However, the opposite happened. Instead of being relieved Yuan seemed to actually be even more upset.

"Oh, a female, very few owners choose females. It is true that they are easier to raise, but they still have their own needs, not as volatile, but for that reason they don't do well in the arena. Do you want to raise her as a battle pet?"

Yuan gave a hedging answer. It was his job to provide pets to any of the campers, but SPAM also asked their employees to prevent incompetent or exploitative campers from contracting pets. James could see the dynamic that Yuan was forced to walk immediately.

However, Ted was oblivious and instead of directly answering Yuan's concerns he just laughed and then opened his backpack to reveal a pet.

Sleepily a prairie dog raised his head up into the light. The back and left side of his head was metal, with a little metal ear that twitched just like a normal ear would as the prairie dog adjusted to his changing environment.

"See, no worries about her social needs, she will have me and my first pet Hub. He is evolved from a prairie dog and has become a Terror Hub!"

Ted explained and then seeing that Yuan was still not convinced he went on.

"And with the funds I can produce from having Hub here join the internet as a node and what I can ask for from SPAM, I will be able to evolve Cerei, that will be the name of my new gorilla pet, into a Cerebral Titan. See everything is planned out and prepared for her. No worries."

Finally Ted saw the need to assuage Yuan's fears and smoothly went ahead and provided a general plan.

"Alright, come on let's go."

Without any further pushing the ranger nodded and gestured from them to follow him into the jungle.

"Come in, Zulu base, this is Weeping Willow. I have a camper here looking for a low land gorilla pet. Please advise. Over."

Yuan unhooked his radio from his belt and called into the jungle base camp.

"Willow, this is Zulu base. Please confirm that you are looking for Commodore. Over."

A woman's voice replied back.

"Zulu base, yes, I am looking for Commodore. Over."

"Roger that, Willow. Commodore is in the clearing with the two Mimosa trees, section niner. Over."

"Thanks Zulu base, that is section niner, the clearing. Over."

"Roger, Willow. Happy hunting and remember we have a date tonight. Don't be late!"

The ranger blushed and walked a little farther to regain control of his face. Then he turned back to Ted and James.

"Well it looks like we are out of luck. Commodore and his troop are on the other side of his range. Which means for us that it is about a three hour walk. We can set up an appointment for tomorrow where I can have you delivered by helicopter or if you really want to do it now they only way is to go by taxi. Are you up for it?"

Yuan gave them a couple options after giving some bad news.

"Are you kidding me? We can take a jungle taxi? Of course we are going by taxi. Oh my god, this is incredible. I wanted to tame a chimp, but the cost for evolution to [Genius] is just too much. I can't believe this!"

Ted was overjoyed which left James a little confused. He was already starting to understand that Ted was far more informed about everything SPAM related than he could possibly imagine.

Putting his hands to his mouth Yuan made a few sounds modulated by his hands that sounded roughly similar to some of the jungle noises around them.

As soon as Yuan finished making sounds the entire jungle went completely still. So quiet that James was a little spooked.

And then a single call came back from the distance deeper inside the jungle. They were already about a hundred yards inside the tree line, but James already had the impression that he was surrounded.

This time Yuan made a few more sounds than before and ended with an embarrassing sort of noise that was more fart than any kind of spoken language that James was aware of.

They held still in the silence that ensued and waited. And waited. After a few minutes into the pregnant pause a high pitched shriek was heard. At which point the jungle exploded or seemed to explode. James had already thought that it had been loud earlier, but now it seemed like thousands of birds exploded from the cover above them and flew into the air squawking and calling out their displeasure.

First one and then coming in twos or threes dozens of chimpanzees charged into the trees directly above them. Tree branches shook with their arrival. At about a dozen monkeys James thought that it would be done. Instead more and more Chimps arrived at a faster and faster pace. Until every branch and every trunk had at least one monkey hooting and hollering down at them.

Finally a group of twelve much bigger chimps arrived. In their wake entire trees shivered and swayed with their weight. These chimps didn't take a perch amid the trees, instead they landed right in front of Yuan. Each these chimps had a yellow taxi hat on with a black and white checkered pattern circling their head.

When they had arrived and the taxi chimps seemed satisfied the lead chimp swung over to Yuan and unexpectedly screamed right in his face. Some saliva flew out and landed on the ranger's face.

Casually Yuan ignored the spit, only giving his head a quick shake to rid himself of most of the glob rolling down his cheek and then lifted both his hands up at a right angle above his head to the left and right. Three pills were between the digits of each hand. Seeing the pills, the lead taxi chimp gave out a pleased and much quieter couple of hoots.

Evidently the bargain was struck and Yuan gave the pills in his left hand to the spokeschimp.

In exchange the monkey waved to his troop and three of them stepped forth presenting their backs to Yuan, Ted, and James.

"Get on, I will make sure you are strapped in tight."

The ranger checked that Ted and James had boarded their chimp correctly and were safe amid the straps. Many of these Taxi chimpanzees wore harnesses on their backs large enough for an adult to climb into. When not in use the harness was packed up into a little backpack. As everything soon was to Yuan's satisfaction he strapped himself into the harness of his own chimp and called the the leader.

Before James was ready his chimp literally jumped twenty feet straight up into the air and grasped a limb that was already well worn. This tree and this limb had been used many times in the past and now that James was seeing it and the path ahead from this new angle he could see where his ride was taking them.

Surprisingly while there was a lot of momentum shifts the ride was smooth. When ever the chimp had to shift direction or change height in the forest she did it smoothly and gradually. Sometimes she would even back flip or twist in the air. The first time she did it James was terrified, but the movements were not showing off. Instead it was just the natural result of twisting and pushing off of the trees on their way. 

Among the three Chimps that the humans rode, James' was the only one that was female and James had an extra passenger. A young Chimp probably half James' size clung precariously to his mother's front. The baby treated the ride as an opportunity to play. It loved the twirls and rolls. Each time the baby would hoot and do a monkey like giggle where it covered its face with one hand and retreated into its shoulders. After it became more used to James the baby started peaking over his mother's shoulder at James trying to get a look at the human.

Becoming more used to the ride, James eventually started playing peak a boo with the chimp, who absolutely loved it.

After about half an hour the monkeys slowed down and stopped their mad swinging through the trees. Yuan unhooked himself first and presented the other three pills to the leader, but only after negotiating their ride back. This return journey would be four and four. One extra pill at the start and one extra pill at the end. The chimps loved it, because it meant that each one of them would receive a pill.

"They will only take us this far, but will wait for us for a certain amount of time. Commodore is up ahead about a ten minute walk from here. The taxi chimps will only encroach on Commodore so far."

Helping Ted and James get down off their respective chimps Yuan explained a few things.

The baby chimp jumped up on James when he was about to leave and then screamed at his Mom who had been holding the baby back.

Of course James was not prepared and was squashed flat by the weight of the baby half his size. At first James thought he was being attacked, but Yuan quickly interposed himself into the situation and explained that the baby chimp only wanted to go with James.

"Sure, but I can't hold him. He is too big!"

James finally agreed to entertain the baby chimp for a while.