Sons of the Oak

Where the sea ape ended and Rhianna began, Rhianna wasn’t sure.

She had no volition. She was not Rhianna anymore. Now she was a sea ape, a girl named Oohtooroo.

Oohtooroo walked where she wanted, ate what she wanted. She squatted and peed on the grass while others watched and thought nothing of it.

Rhianna could observe the world at times, her consciousness weak, as if she were half asleep. But even in her most lucid moments she could not do one thing on her own. She could not move one of Oohtooroo’s thick fingers or blink an eye.

She was merely an observer, peering out through the eyes of an ape, an ape who loved Abravael more faithfully than any human ever could.

She craved his presence. He was the one who fed her sweet plantains and succulent pork. He was the one who groomed her skin, as her mother once had.

If Abravael had wanted it, she’d have given herself as his mate.

He could not move without Oohtooroo watching. Her eyes followed him everywhere. Her nose tasted the air for his scent as she slept. Her hands longed to touch him.

Oohtooroo wanted to keep him safe, fed, protected.

Until she got her endowment, she had not realized how that might be done. He had made noises and she had done her best to understand.

But with a single endowment of wit, Oohtooroo’s eyes seemed to open and her mind to quicken.

“Oohtooroo, come here,” her love said softly, and she understood. “Come” was one of only seven words that she had understood, but until now, she had always been unsure of its meaning. Abravael might say, “Come here one moment,” and she would go to him. But when he said, “How come you’re so stupid?” a moment later, she would go to him, and he would slap her as if she had offended him.

Now, there were so many layers of meaning exposed. “Come quickly” meant to hurry. “Come outside” meant that she should follow him out onto the palace green.

Many times, Oohtooroo wept tears of wonder as she suddenly discerned the meanings of the tiniest of phrases.

Rhianna in her lucid moments had to remain content to watch.

She watched Abravael at his studies, watched him practice with the blade and ax, and even when he slept at night, Rhianna, in Oohtooroo’s body, would lie down beside him, tenderly watching him, her heart so full of love and devotion that she thought it might break.

No beagle ever loved its master as perfectly as Oohtooroo did.

And one day, Abravael sat stroking Oohtooroo’s neck, whispering sweet words. “Good ape,” he said. “You’re a sweet thing.”

Oohtooroo sniffed in gratitude, her eyes welling with tears, and Rhianna realized that after only three days with endowments, the ape understood everything that was being said. She’d learned quickly, perhaps because Rhianna had already known how to speak, and Oohtooroo was now just learning to use the pathways of Rhianna’s mind. It was a marvel in itself.

“Love,” the ape said, her lips stretching out into nearly impossible shapes as she sought to duplicate the human words. “Love you.”

Abravael smiled and quipped, “You’re becoming quite the orator, aren’t you?”

“Love you,” Oohtooroo repeated, then reached out and took his hand, hugging it.

“How sweet,” Abravael said. “Do you love me enough to kill for me, when the time comes?”

“Yes,” Oohtooroo said.

“Sweet girl.” Abravael hugged her, reaching up to put an arm around her, his face pressed against Oohtooroo’s small breasts.

Waves of gratitude and adoration swept through Oohtooroo, and in some measure, the ape’s feelings for him mingled with Rhianna’s, becoming one.