Love in the Wild: A Tarzan Retelling

by Emma Castle

  They do it so they can get to know each other. To decide if they want to be mates.

  He was a little embarrassed at his body’s response to that kiss. Before he met Eden, he’d felt no shame about his body, but being around her, a woman from another world, a woman who knew the ways of their people where he did not, did make him embarrassed. Surely a male who couldn’t control his body wasn’t worthy of being a mate.

  Thorne was terrified he would do or say the wrong thing and lose her. In his world, mating was about forming a relationship, a bond of trust and power.

  And sometimes they decide not to be mates.

  If he could not gain Eden’s trust, she would never want him. How could she trust a mate who did not know the ways of their world outside the jungle?

  Thorne was still puzzling over how he could win Eden over when he scented Keza’s band on the breeze that meandered through the dense jungle. They had climbed higher on the mountainside, and the canopy above them had thinned enough to allow the air to ruffle the trees.

  “Eden stay behind Thorne,” he cautioned. He pulled free of her hand so he could fight any gorillas if necessary. Sunya was distrustful of humans and never let his band travel south where they could be found.

  “What should I do?” Eden asked. She removed something small and black that was a little bigger than her hand and held it up close to her face. He wanted to know what that black object was, but now was not the time to ask. He had to focus on the gorillas in order to protect Eden.

  “Eyes down. Head down. Stay low.”

  They entered a small clearing where the gorillas had settled for a late-afternoon rest. They would be more receptive to visitors while they had full bellies.

  “Do not go to infants,” he cautioned as the first few female gorillas noticed them. “If infant gets close, back away. Mother will come for infant.” Thorne was whispering now, and he hoped Eden would hear.

  Keza was one of the first to spot Thorne. Her eyes softened, and his heart swelled at the visage of his mother—his second mother. Knowing of his parents from before and how he came to be here, he loved Keza no less. Perhaps he loved her even more than before. A mother’s love could go beyond all boundaries.

  Keza grunted and huffed as she approached, lumbering on her knuckles toward him. He bent forward and reached out one hand, knuckles bent in kind as he touched her chest, then her head in greeting. Her huffing increased in a way that almost sounded like human laughter. Thorne spoke to her in the language of the gorillas, telling her of the bad men and the many dead humans and how he had found Eden. He gently took hold of one of Eden’s hands and pulled her to stand beside him.

  His mother turned her reddish-brown eyes upon the young human female he hoped to call his mate. Keza hesitantly reached out and touched Eden’s chest, then her head, huffing softly as she did so.

  “Touch her like she touch Eden,” he encouraged. “Greet her.”

  Eden’s hands trembled as she curled her knuckles and greeted Keza. Beyond them Sunya, the dominant silverback, watched them. His dark eyes were wary, but he knew better than to fight Thorne. Both bore scars from their battles, but Thorne had always won. Though Thorne had no desire to be the dominant male of the band, his very presence put Sunya’s authority in question. But Sunya also knew that he could not chase Thorne away from his family. As a result, Thorne and Sunya lived in an uneasy truce.

  “This is my mother. Keza,” he said to Eden.

  “Your mother?” Such love was contained in those two words that Thorne’s heart quivered like the chest of a parrot as it began to sing. It was a feeling of joy, excitement, and contentment all at once.

  “She’s beautiful, Thorne,” Eden replied.

  Her lips came up in a soft smile, and her pale skin warmed with pink from the heat of the late afternoon. The loose tendrils of her sunlight-like hair tumbled around her shoulders. He wanted to sit behind her and comb his hands through the shiny gold strands and groom her the way mates did.

  His brother, Akika, now approached him. His black back was starting to show hints of silver in his fur.

  “This is brother. Akika,” Thorne said, then he greeted his brother. Akika stood still a moment before launching himself at Thorne, tackling him into the crushed nests the gorillas had been making.

  Thorne grunted at the impact, then laughed as he wrestled with his brother the way they had since they were small. Akika laughed as well, in his own way. He panted hard and lightly knocked Thorne’s shoulder as Thorne got to his feet.

  Eden raised the black object in her hands up to her face and held still. He didn’t know what she was doing, but he didn’t worry. It made a clicking noise, but it was not upsetting any of the gorillas around him. They were content to rest. Several new infants sat in their mothers’ laps and watched Thorne with bright, curious eyes. Thorne greeted each of the band. Akika followed close behind, showing his support of his brother. Then Thorne returned to Eden.

  “You and your brother were playing?” she asked him.

  “Yes. Most males do not play when they are older like me. Too much competition for mates. But Thorne not competition.”

  Eden was holding that black thing up to her face again. “That makes sense. Does Keza have a mate?”

  “No. He died when she found Thorne. Akika is son of dead mate. Sunya is dominant male now.” Thorne pointed at the prowling silverback who had just settled into his nest, grumpily watching them. “He is oldest son of Keza’s dead mate, but different mother.”

  “Is it unusual for a female not to have a mate?” Eden joined him as he led her into the shade, and they sat down in a soft bed of grass.

  “Most females find new mate, but not Keza. Taking Thorne as son made no males want her.” He watched his mother settle down and Akika play with his own juvenile son, who had recently been weaned from Akika’s mate.

  He pointed at Akika and his child. “Akika’s son.” Thorne called to his brother, who hoisted the infant on his back and walked over to them. The tiny black gorilla infant squeaked and hooted in excitement as Thorne took the child from his brother’s back and held him in his arms.

  “He’s adorable,” Eden murmured. Her eyes grew bright as she spoke again. “You are his uncle.”

  Uncle . . . The word he had learned for the brother of a parent.

  “Yes. Thorne good uncle.” He handed the infant back to Akika.

  “Uncles love their family,” Eden said, her tone heavy with meaning. “Your uncle, the brother of your father—he would want to meet you.”

  Thorne didn’t want to think about his human family. It was too much for him to understand. He tried to distract Eden by pointing at her black object.

  “What is this?” he asked as the box clicked again.

  Eden scooted closer to him and turned the object around. Something on its surface reflected his image back at him, like a lake but brighter. Only it wasn’t reflecting what he was currently doing, but rather it showed him pointing at himself. She pressed something, and then the box showed him wrestling with Akika. It was as though she had captured the past. He touched the image with one finger, only to find it had no depth. Its surface was hard.

  “This is a camera. It takes pictures. Pictures are images of what you see.” She pointed to the screen and then touched the camera. Suddenly he could see grass moving beneath them.

  “Here. Hold it like this and point it at me.” She helped him hold the camera so he could see her face in the hard surface.

  “Then press this.” She touched the silver circle. “When you hear a click, it will take my picture.”

  Thorne held the box in his hands, steady and quiet. Eden smiled, and he pressed the circle. A click sounded. He stared at the picture of her, frozen in place. He could have stared at it forever.

  “Like my parents and me.” He was focusing hard on the language again. He spoke full sentences when he thought about it, and he was trying to use different words like Eden did. He wanted to sound like her.

&nb
sp; “Yes, remember the picture we found in the white rock? A photograph. Someone took that of your parents and you.”

  Thorne looked at her picture in the camera before handing it back to her. “You have picture of my family?”

  “Oh, right. Yes.” She opened the dark animal skin pouch that she used to carry the camera. He saw his father’s journal tucked inside. She opened the journal and handed him the photograph. He gazed down in fresh wonder at his parents’ faces, and then he looked around at the gorillas resting in the shade.

  Two families. Two different fates. The life he should have had, and the life he had been given. His throat tightened as he wondered what his life would have been like if he’d never met Keza and hadn’t been raised alongside Akika. Yet at the same time his heart burned with rage that he would never know his human parents or have a life with them.

  He wiped angrily at the tears that coated his cheeks. He didn’t want to feel so helpless, so hurt by the knowledge of what he had lost. Eden gently took the photo from him and placed it back in the journal. She then curled her arms around him, resting her cheek against his shoulder. His arms went instantly around her in return, holding her close.

  A shiver of need ran through him. He wanted this female, wanted her in ways he barely understood. The weight of her body leaning into his and the sweet scent of her skin and hair left him breathless.

  Had she been a gorilla, he would have known how to show his interest in mating her. He would have held her gaze and stayed close to her, offering his interest and protection until she chose to accept or reject him. But Eden was from another world, one he understood only a little, and what little he knew frightened him.

  She moved so she could sit across his stretched-out legs and tucked her face against his throat. Her warm breath fanned against his skin, and he was blissfully tortured by the need to touch her more. Perhaps she would kiss him again. But even if she didn’t, it felt good to simply hold her.

  He caught his mother’s eyes. Keza hooted softly in approval. He hooted back, and Eden lifted her head, their eyes holding each other.

  “You’re speaking to them, aren’t you?”

  He nodded.

  “But how? The noises you make, are they words like what we’re using?”

  It took Thorne a moment to understand her meaning. He shook his head. “No. Not like us. Sounds, looks, moves all have meaning. Thorne understands.”

  It was difficult to explain. He understood the animals of the jungle in a way that human words could never convey, and they in turn understood him. He did not know why, since the gorillas could not speak to the birds or elephants the way he could. He simply could.

  “And what is she saying?” Eden asked.

  “Keza is happy.”

  “Is she happy because of me?” Eden’s lovely leaf-colored eyes seemed to glow.

  “Yes. Keza has waited a long time for Thorne to find a mate.”

  Eden’s face darkened to that pretty shade of red he saw so often. He reached up to brush the backs of his knuckles over her cheek.

  “Why do you turn red?” he asked.

  “What?”

  “Your face is red.”

  “Oh . . . That’s called a blush.”

  Thorne noticed that this blush happened to Eden a lot. “Why do you blush?”

  She laughed, the soft sound filling his heart with light.

  “People blush when they’re feeling shy or embarrassed, or excited.”

  “Shy?” He wasn’t familiar with that word.

  “Shy is . . .” She paused. “When you’re nervous about doing something or being around someone.”

  Thorne brushed his fingers down her throat, caressing her soft skin. “Are you shy with me?”

  “Sometimes. A little. We’ve only just met, and we’re strangers.”

  “Strangers?”

  “We don’t know each other. Not really,” Eden explained.

  Thorne understood. “So we date!”

  Eden looked shocked at this, but Thorne remembered her words clearly: Dating is where two people go do things they enjoy. They do it so they can get to know each other.

  She must have remembered as well, because she suddenly laughed. “Yes! So we date.”

  “Tell me. Make us not strangers,” he commanded.

  Eden’s fingers slid sensually over his bare chest now. “Just tell you everything, huh?” Her nose wrinkled, and she giggled. The bubbly sound delighted him.

  “Yes. Everything.” The deep heat of need settled low inside him, but he was still uncertain what to do. Despite her touching him, he knew she was not yet ready to mate. She would tell him; he was certain of that.

  He could have gazed upon her forever, listened to her talk as he stroked her skin. The forest around them grew quiet in a peaceful way as the birds of the air and the beasts upon the ground settled down as the evening skies purpled above them.

  “I grew up in a place called Little Rock. My father is a teacher, and my mother is an engineer. Um . . . she makes things.”

  Thorne already had questions, but he kept quiet, content to simply listen. She spoke of a quiet life, a happy childhood, a desire to see the world, a love for animals and the need to protect them. Conservation, she called it.

  The more she spoke, the more Thorne saw a tapestry of this woman’s life being woven. She was as brave as any lioness, loyal as any gorilla, and wise and thoughtful as any elephant.

  “My coming here was supposed to help the mountain gorillas. But everyone died, all those wonderful people. Those poachers killed them, Thorne. I would be dead too if you hadn’t saved me.” She burrowed closer, her body trembling.

  “Death comes to all,” he replied softly. It was the way of the jungle. Death was a part of life, and everything from the tiny ants carrying leaves on their backs to the powerful Tembo understood that.

  “But not like that, Thorne. There was no reason for it. It was murder.”

  He nodded. “They kill not for food or protection. They kill for the joy of death.” In his world, amid the bamboo shoots and the moss-covered hagenia trees, the joy of death held no place. As long as he lived, he would stop bad men like them. He would protect the impenetrable forest and all that lived in it.

  Thorne didn’t want Eden to be sad. He cupped her chin and lifted her face to his. He studied her eyes, such a bright green, and he saw something there that called for him to act. He lowered his head to hers, kissing her. Her lips were like the petals of a flower. He liked what she had taught him, this way of kissing.

  He gently bit her bottom lip and then kissed her again. His arms tightened around her as a hum of satisfaction came from her lips. He wanted to purr like a lion at the delight he felt of pleasing his mate. He may not have claimed her body yet, but she was the mate of his heart, the mate of his soul. He knew little of the world outside the jungle, but he knew this: Eden was his true mate.

  Eden pressed closer, moaning as he cupped the back of her head and fisted his hands in her hair. He liked this, holding her still so he could enjoy the taste of her. He’d held back his dominant side while he was learning to navigate this unfamiliar type of mating. Now he was confident, and with that confidence, his dominance was returning.

  He nuzzled her neck and stroked her back as he explored her body, but when he pulled at the white skin she wore over her torso, she gently held his hand still.

  “Not yet.”

  “More dates?” Thorne asked.

  “More dates,” Eden confirmed.

  She burrowed close again, and he sighed as he held her in his arms while she drifted to sleep.

  “Thorne dream of having mate for many years,” he whispered to her, unsure if she was awake enough to still hear him. “Thorne has wish . . . wish for love, for mate to cherish and care for always.” He wanted to tell her how much love he held in his heart for her already.

  He brushed a hand over her cheek, unable to stop smiling. “Thorne give all that Thorne has to have Eden, to keep Eden.”
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br />   His body was a riot of hunger and needs. He didn’t know what to do, at least not fully. His male parts ached with the need for release, a thing he had done often enough alone, but now that Eden was here, he wanted to ease the ache with her and give her pleasure in return. But she wasn’t ready yet. More dates.

  Twilight stole over the clearing, casting shadows on the sleeping gorillas, making Eden’s pale hair glow like moonlight. The leaf necklace around her neck glowed a dark gold.

  He closed his eyes. Memories, bright and beautiful, cut through his heart in an equal mix of joy and pain.

  His tiny hand curled around the leaf and held tight as he fell asleep on his mother’s lap. Thorne could hear their voices, Mummy and Daddy, their words too soft to hear precisely. But the sound of it, the familiar cadence, was a comfort that made him feel safe and loved.

  When Thorne opened his eyes, he was back in the jungle, the place that had been his home for almost all his life.

  He swept his eyes over the sleeping gorillas. Was Eden right? Did his human uncle care about him the way he cared about Akika’s son? If he did, did Thorne owe him answers?

  His heart told him yes, but he was afraid to leave the only world he understood. Bwanbale had tried to explain the world of men once, but it had confused and frightened him, so he had stopped.

  But if he didn’t leave, he might lose Eden. This was not her world, and he couldn’t make it her world. He had nothing to offer her except himself, but would it be enough?

  Jean Carillet stood outside the offices of Holt Enterprises in Fort Portal, about a hundred miles from Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park. Night was falling. His shirt was soaked in sweat, mud, and blood. His hands still shook. He had spent two days trying to find his way out of the forest and getting a ride to Fort Portal.

  Without Roger Cash to guide him, he was lucky to still be alive. Jean shuddered. All of the men from Holt’s treasure team were gone, Cash included. Slaughtered by some wild creature. Jean wasn’t sure what worried him more—hearing that animal’s roar reverberate across the jungle or breaking the news to Holt that they hadn’t found the treasure cave.