Really Bad News!
It’s been a long, long time since I’ve written anything in this journal. I’ve been using every spare moment searching for a path that will lead me to the edge of the jungle. And I’ve certainly made some weird and wonderful discoveries.
The Trufflegrumper
The Trufflegrumper is a distant relative of the pig, and smells like a pile of rotting cabbage leaves, only worse. It is meant to be delicious to eat, but it’s so smelly that nothing can get near enough to catch it!
The Slimeball
A transparent blob of slime that creeps over the ground, digging shallow scoops in the earth in which to hide. Any unsuspecting animal that steps on one is stuck fast. The Slimeball, which has no mouth, then ingests the animal through its skin, leaving its prey as a complete but hollow carcass. DO NOT STAND ON ONE!
But even though it’s great to have discovered these strange animals, I’ve come no closer to finding a way out. Until today!
I was out with Grip and Grapple, exploring a part of the jungle that the gorillas rarely visit when we found the cliff base! We were just swinging along, stretching our arms before breakfast, and suddenly, THERE IT WAS! A sheer wall of granite stretching away to left and right, and disappearing up above the thick foliage.
I whooped and thumped my chest with joy and Grip and Grapple danced about, sharing my excitement. But when I bent my head back and looked up the steep cliff, my heart sank. The cliff-face rose high into the sky and I could see neither a handhold, nor the cliff top.
The gorillas had been right: I’d never be able to climb out. Not even with the best explorer kit in the world.
Grip and Grapple tried to cheer me up. ‘Don’t worry, you’ll find a way out eventually,’ they said. ‘And, anyway, it’s not so bad here, is it? The jungle’s got everything a gorilla needs!’
And they were right, the jungle is a brilliant place. It provides me with food, water, shelter and friends. It has made me strong and fast and taught me what is good to eat and what is poisonous.
But at the end of the day, I am not a gorilla, I’m Charlie Small, and I don’t belong here!
If a plant is bright red and has spols, don’t eat it!
So tomorrow I’m going to take a trip back to the cliff, and I’m going to follow it from one end of the valley to the other. I must find out if there’s some way up, or if I’m really going to be trapped in the land of the apes for ever!
Really, Really Bad News!
I haven’t been able to go back to the cliff after all. And I may never get the chance. Because something terrible has happened, and as king of the gorillas I must lead my tribe into battle!
This evening, as I was relaxing on my platform, Nanog, the old white gorilla, came and sat next to me. She seemed troubled.
‘What’s the matter, Nanog?’ I asked.
‘The mandrills are coming,’ she said.
‘Who on earth are the mandrills?’
‘They are a tribe of blue-faced baboons that live in a far part of the jungle,’ said Nanog, and a shudder ran down my spine. I knew straight away that these were the same vicious creatures that had attacked before.
‘They are stupid, violent animals,’ continued the old gorilla. ‘They do not store food for the lean times, and if the jungle harvest is poor, they go hungry. First they turn on themselves, and then they attack us. When the mandrills come, they steal and eat our young. They are smaller than us, but they are fast and aggressive and have muzzles full of huge teeth. Now our spies tell us that the mandrills have developed a taste for small pink gorillas and they are preparing a raid. How can that be?’
Small pink gorillas? I gulped.
‘I did bump into some creatures with blue faces,’ I admitted, rubbing my bottom. ‘But that was ages ago.’
‘The mandrills never forget, Charlie,’ said Nanog with a worried frown. ‘It seems that the one who bit you has told his clan how wonderful small pink gorillas taste. They are plotting to come and capture you. And many of our young. What are we to do?’
How was I supposed to know? I was just a small boy, alone in a jungle many miles from home. But then I remembered: I was also the gorilla king, and it was my job to know. Well, one thing was certain, I wasn’t going to offer myself up as a starter at a mandrill feast! And there was no way those blue-faced monkeys were going to eat any of my friends!
‘We must stand up to them,’ I said. ‘We have to teach them a lesson they’ll never forget.’
Nanog didn’t look convinced.
‘How long have we got before they come?’ I asked.
‘They’ve already been seen near our city,’ said Nanog as she stood up to leave. ‘We think they will attack within the week. You must think of a plan, Charlie!’
As I watched the old gorilla swing off through the trees, I began to realize what being a king was really about. The whole tribe was relying on me to keep them safe.
But if the gorillas didn’t know how to defeat their old enemies, how would I be able to save the day?
Prepare For Attack
I sat alone through the night, staring at the stars scattered across the sky, trying to think of a way to save my friends (and myself!). By morning I had a plan.
I felt it was my fault that the mandrills were coming, and so I decided I should face them alone. After all, it was a pink gorilla they particularly wanted! I also thought that if one small, hairless gorilla could stand up to them, the mandrills might think twice before ever attacking our city again.
The gorillas weren’t very happy with this idea. They said they wouldn’t just stand by and watch such a deadly enemy attack me. But when I explained that I planned to lure the mandrills into a trap, they agreed to follow my lead.
First I instructed the gorillas to plait leaves and fronds and make a huge net. Then we bent hoops of bamboo into the ground beneath the city, and laid the long net on top of them. I had learned that the mandrills are natural ground dwellers, and I knew they would try and force me down from the treetops to fight on their home turf, and I wanted to turn their schemes against them.
We camouflaged the net with leaves and, using smaller and smaller hoops, created a long, hidden tunnel that gradually got narrower and narrower, until it ended in a Small exit hole with a drawstring attached.
This is what it looked like:
I felt pretty confident that we could catch the mandrills in it. But I wasn’t at all sure if I’d be fast enough to lead them into the trap before they could catch and eat me. Before I had a chance to practise swinging from the city down to the forest floor, a warning alarm sounded. The enemy had been spotted in the trees near the city!
A Rumble In The Jungle
I just had time to climb to the ceremonial platform when the mandrills appeared, their red and blue faces materializing silently amongst the foliage.
My tribe had hidden themselves below, some in lower branches, some down on the ground, so I faced the enemy alone and pounded my chest as hard as I could.
‘Here I am!’ I bellowed. ‘Come and get me!’ A large bull male reared up, baring his teeth, and with a scream the mandrills attacked. A swarm of them poured out of the trees, leaping for the platform and driving me down from the treetops.
Blimey, were they fast! I dropped, crashing through the leaves, only grabbing a branch occasionally to check my fall. The mandrills followed, barking and snapping their jaws.
As I hit the ground running, one beast was almost upon me! I could feel its hot breath on my back and hear its panting snarls. If it hadn’t been for one of my gorillas reaching out a powerful arm from a hiding place to send the mandrill flying, it would have all been over for me!
I heard a muffled cry as my pursuer sailed into the undergrowth, and I ran full pelt to the entrance of our trap.
The other mandrills followed, fast as greyhounds, pouring into the camouflaged tunnel behind me. As it narrowed, I had to crouch, then run on all fours, with the mandrills snarling and snapping at my heels.
When the last of them had entered the tunnel, the gorillas dashed from the undergrowth, growling and beating their chests, driving their enemies deeper into the trap.
I reached the end of the tunnel just in time, squeezed through the tiny exit and pulled on the drawstring, closing and tying it behind me.
The mandrills at the front of the pack couldn’t turn round in the narrow tunnel, and the rest piled in behind, squashing the lot into a tightly packed mass of frantic, screaming animals.
The gorillas quickly fastened the tunnel at the other end and we had them. Every last one!
We dragged the huge wriggling net back along the jungle paths to the mandrills’ distant village. The rest of their clan came out to watch as we dumped our catch in a heap.
Our message was clear. We had trapped the mighty mandrill warriors as easily as we might collect a bag full of fruit.
Then I climbed atop the net and, baring my teeth and thumping my chest, roared: ‘Nnga mowee mmwa mwa. Woopopomwadoomwa nyo!’ (You have been warned. Attack us again at your peril. The war is over!)
The mandrills squeaked in terrified agreement, and we knew that they’d never trouble Gorilla City again.
Run Away! Run Away!
We’re back from the mandrill village and a huge celebration is under way. Everyone is dancing and singing on the platforms below me, but I don’t really feel like joining in. You see, the gorillas have insisted on rewarding me for leading them to victory. And I really don’t want to accept their gift.
At first I thought they were going to give me some sort of medal, but then Nanog introduced me to a huge gorilla wearing a garland of purple flowers on her head.
To begin with I didn’t quite understand why the old gorilla wanted me to meet her. Then I realized—she was presenting me to her daughter, the lovely (but also incredibly hairy) Grunter. My reward was to be her hand in marriage!
Yikes!
What was I supposed to do? I knew that to refuse would be a terrible insult, but there was no way I was going to marry anyone. I’m much too young to get married! Especially to someone with armpit hair as long as my leg!
So I greeted her as politely as I could, then, with a big yawn, I pretended to be exhausted from the fight with the mandrills, and climbed up to my platform.
Now, lying here on my banana-leaf bed, I’ve decided I can’t possibly stay another night. I’ve made some very good friends amongst the gorillas and I feel really sad to be leaving Grip and Grapple. But enough is enough, and marrying one of them is going too far!
I’ve decided to slip away quietly before dawn tomorrow, because I’m worried that if I tell anyone my plans they might decide to bring the date of the wedding forward.
I’ll write more if I manage to sneak away!
A Fellow Explorer
At last I seem to be having some good luck! I managed to sneak away unnoticed this morning, and I’ve made it all the way to the cliff-face without being followed. Even better, I’ve made a brilliant discovery—although quite a grisly one!
I’d been walking along the cliff bottom, desperately searching for a way up, when I spotted a man leaning against the rocks. I could see he’d been there for quite some time because even though his pith helmet and walking boots were still in place, his bones were bleached white by the sun.
Gingerly, I crept up to the skeleton. The remains of a safari jacket were hanging in tatters from his bony shoulders. And the remains of a rotting leather water bottle hung across one shoulder.
I didn’t want to get too close, but I knew that I should check to see if he was carrying anything useful. Carefully, I felt through his pockets, and discovered some brilliant stuff:
A compass
A torch (windup)
A very sharp hunting knife
A slab of Kendal Mint Cake (as carried to the summit of Mount Everest in 1953)
Some diarrhoea tablets (who knows when they might come in handy?)
And best of all, still gripped in his bone-white fingers, was a map. A map that showed a route out of the valley, by way of a hidden pass! I was less than an hour’s walk from a way out of the jungle at last.
Home, here I come!
This is the very map that I found:
We Meet Again
But, oh no! I’m not at home. I am probably further away from home than ever, in a position even more precarious than the jungle valley I am in chains, in the middle of an ocean, and my life is in the hands of … well, let me explain what has happened.
As I walked along the path that would take me up the secret gully and out of the jungle valley, I began to sense that something was wrong. My gorilla training had taught me to notice all the little signs of danger in the jungle. Which was why my muscles tightened and the hairs stood up on the back of my neck when I saw that the stems of the plants ahead had been snapped and the foliage underfoot crushed. I crept forward cautiously, hardly daring to breathe, and as I looked through the leaves into the clearing at the base of the cliffs, I saw the last figure on earth that I wanted to meet: Thrak, the silverback!
He looked older, but if anything he seemed even stronger than before, and meaner too. And he was standing right across the path that would take me to freedom.
I decided to try and work my way around him and join the path further along.
Inch by inch, I made my way around the clearing, crouching low behind the bushes and rocks that littered the ground at the cliff base. My eyes never left Thrak as he busied himself scrabbling for termites and scratching his dusty hide. Just as I had passed him and could step back onto the path beyond, an animal crashed through the undergrowth beside me with a loud, piteous bellow. Typical. It was a Great Hairy Wazzock, another creature that I had named. And this one was really living up to its reputation!
Just so you know, this is what one of these beasts looks like:
The Great Hairy Wazzock
A ridiculous-looking animal of the antelope family. Unlike most antelopes, the wazzock is a forest dweller, rather slow and very clumsy.
Although his long hair should offer perfect camouflage amongst the trees, the wazzock is bright pink in colour and so easy prey for the jungle panthers.
The noise made Silverback spin round, and his face split into a grin as he saw me trying to hide amongst the low bushes.
‘So, we meet again, hairless monkey,’ he said, leaning casually against the trunk of a tree. Having spent so long amongst the jungle gorillas, I could easily understand his guttural grunts. ‘And this time your striped power berries won’t save you,’ he added.
‘You were beaten fair and square,’ I said. ‘Any gorilla who can’t take the heat of an old mint humbug doesn’t deserve to be king of the apes. You’re nothing more than a bully, a great big fraud, a sissy, a—’
The silverback roared and lunged at me. But I was faster. I swung up onto a branch and somersaulted over his head. ‘So long, sucker!’ I laughed, grinning over my shoulder as I sprinted down the path.
I was still grinning when my foot slipped on a loose rock and tumbled me into the dirt.
Thrak was on me in an instant.
‘So, I’m a sissy, am I?’ he spluttered into my face.
‘Phoar!’ I gasped. ‘Haven’t you heard of flossing, compost breath?’ Which was probably even stupider than falling over the rock! Because, with a mighty roar of indignation, Thrak picked me up in one hand and, spinning like an Olympic discus thrower, launched me high into the air.
I sailed above the top of the jungle and, in a blur of green and blue, streaked across the sky at what seemed like a hundred miles an hour.
I glimpsed flashes of sky, then, tumbling through the air like an out-of-control acrobat, I spotted sea and then sand, and then—
Boing! I bounced off a vast bed of spongy seaweed floating on the surface of the sea and landed, quite unharmed, on the white sands of a palm-fringed beach.
Where Am I Now?
I sat dazed and dizzy from my gorilla-propelled flight and wai
ted for my head to clear. After a few moments I got to my feet and looked around.
Where was I now? I couldn’t believe that stupid great interfering silverback had ruined my chances of getting home! The bony explorer’s map would be useless now. Sure, it showed me the way out of the jungle. But now I was nowhere near the jungle!
Instead, I seemed to be on a small island, one end of which was covered with palm trees, the other rising to a rocky hill. With a heavy sigh, I decided the best thing to do was climb the hill and get my bearings, so I scrambled through the scrubby bushes that fringed its base and started to climb the rocky outcrop. I was soon standing on the top of the hill.
I could see straight away that the island was almost completely circular, with tall cliffs rising vertically out of a rock-strewn sea. I had, rather luckily, landed on the only stretch of beach on the island, bordering the sea in a hidden harbour that was almost encircled by steep, rocky headlands. Anyone wishing to defend this island would find it a very easy task.
And defend the island is what somebody was obviously prepared to do, for when I walked out along one of the bluffs, I discovered a great cannon overlooking the entrance to the bay. There was a pyramid of cannonballs and a strongbox filled with gunpowder alongside it. And I could see a similar cannon at the end of the opposite bluff.
I looked around nervously. Cannons meant people, but they also meant people expecting trouble. And people who might not like a visit from a boy who’d arrived out of nowhere! I felt sure I was being watched—it was the same prickly feeling I’d had when I first entered the jungle all those months ago. But surely there were no grumpy silverbacks on this tiny island?
Gorilla City Page 5