For Mico it was like entering Paradise-one moment he was clinging to his mother, Surrounded by all the frantic noise of the city, the next he was in the cool,green tranquility of the Cemetery. Whetever the Humans had meant this strange place to be, for monkeys it was perfect. High walls kept out the chaos of the city, there were upon row of small stone buildings to scramble over, and a thick canopy of banyan trees was just about to be explored.
Dropping down from his mother's back, Roman scampered exactly up to Central pathway, following the rest of Langur Troop as they processed in. "Roman, stop!" Kima called after him,but it was too late. Hopping into a tombstone, he reached up, grabbed a low hangiy branch, swung himself round the corner...and skidded to an astonished stop.
Towering in front of him was an imposing mausoleum. The walls were lined up with carving pillars, and each corner of the long, rectangular building was adorned with magnificent stone tiger .On the roof of this Great Vault, all the Langur leaders were lined up waiting for there time to chaos to click on the watch.
In the center stood the head of the Langur, Lord Ruler, large and handsome with a coat of pure grey and a striking flash of white fur crowning the top of his head, making him to shine attractively. Crouched next to him was his advisors, the Troops Deputies,and ranged on either side of them in two long, brooding lines,were Lord Ruler's elites.
Roman gazed up at the Elites in silent awe; he had never seen the fighting monkey in his entire life time, all gathered together like this. Powerful built, with longer limbs and even longer tails,many of them had tramlines in their grey fur, the marks of battle, which they wore with pride. But to Roman young eyes,the scarred faces and ragged ears made the Elites look grotesque.
Instinctively he edged backwards, and suddenly felt a hand grap of him.
"How many times do I have to tell y u about running off?" Said Kima as he slung him into his back, and for once, Roman grateful to have been caught by his mother.
By now the last of the troops had arrived, and spontaneously the monkey started expressing their elation by thumping the ground with their fists. It sent a wave of excitement surging across the crowd.A huge smile spread across Lord Ruler's face as he bathed in the euphoria, until finally raised his hand to speak.
"My fellow monkeys, this is a day when right conques wrong !"he boomed. " A day when courage is rewarded!" A huge cheer went up from the monkeys. " As we admire our magnificent new home," Lord opened his arm, embracing the Cemetery, " there should be on thought in our mind. WE DESERVE THIS!
The howls of approval were deafening. Entralled by the ahher energy of the spectacle, Roman started loughing.As he gazed up at Lord Ruler standing on the mausoleum, so full of conviction, suddenly he understood why everyone loved the leader, and why the trusted him. Encouraged by the adulation, Lord monkey started by reminisce."those of us who are older we remember it was just three Monsoons ago that we were Islam monkeys, scavenging around in the field of the city. I spend my youth not playing of laughing, but but trying to fight off the pangs of hunger..."
With dismay, Roman realised that the speech was going to go on and on, "can we go now?"he whispers in his mother's ear.
"Shhh!"which left a simple choice boredom or escape Roman eye gazed up at the tangle tree canopy so many tempting runs to be tried out, he looked across at the men's of strangling shaped miniature building surrounding them, and made up his mind.
Gently letting go of Kima ears, is slide down her back and edgedhis way through the mass of monkey until his tooth at the very edge of the crowd. He surveyed the network of shoddy parts leading off into the cemetery, give a final backward glance to check he wasn't being watched then slipped away.
Other young monkeys would have found the dump, decaying structure in the cemetery unnerving, but to Roman they were fascinating.
He wondered why there was strange marking on all the stones, why do humans have many buildings that were too small for them to live in, and why the whole place had been abandoned. Roman there were always question to be asked.Intrugued, he scrambled up the side of miniature pyramid, launched himself onto a dome,dropped down between some stone columns and instantly fronze.
Up ahead something was moving in the shadows. Quickly Roman darted behind a tombstone, been very cautiously peeped out. At the end of the pathway you could see her like a group of Langur foot soldier working in the shadows. They seem to be dragging something through the dirt. Suddenly a gruff voice boomed angrily at them, " kill like thunder, clean like the rain!"
The footsoldier snapped to attention is general Alluta emerged from the shadow."Monsoon rain".Not a spring shower," he said,glaring darkly at them.
"understood sir wonthappen again."
They had good reason to be nervous nervous. Alluta was a warrior with a fearsome reputation, backed up with an admirable scar that slash across his face, right over the empty socket that had once contained an eyeball.
"next time I say clean everything up, I mean everything,"he said, rolling his eyes only from one soldier to the next "we have rules for a reason."
"we think he may have come back, sir.
Come back, he seemed puzzled.
"We I caught him hiding,Sir."
"More for him."the general solitary eye rolled down in his socket, scrutinizing the lamp on the ground.
"Well," he shrugged, "better get rid of it before it starts to rot.
And with that the general lounge himself in the tree canopy and was gone.
Part of Roman wanted to run too,but his feet didn't move He peered into the gllom and watched as two of the Footsoldier scrambled up the perimeter wall and perched themselves on top.
"Come on then, let's have it."
The others picked up the lump they'd been dragging and Roman suddenly run cold as he saw the flailing limbs, the lump tail,the head lolling lifelessly. They were carrying a dead monkey.
Roman dropped onto his haunches, unable to tear his eyes away from the gruesome site, his stomach knoting. As the soldier hauled the corpes up the wall, Roman saw that it had suffered horrendous injuries. There was a gaping wound in his chest, one of this year's had been bitten off, the limbs were slashed and blood was still dripping from the torn flesh.
Trying to recognise the scent of the victim, Roman drew a deep breath and realized the corpse wasn't a Langur at all. He blinked,lookea again, brown fur,short tail...it wast a Rhesus.
Indifferent I the horror, the footsoldier on top of the wall started swinging the corpse by its feet.
"And here's what we think of peace," one of the other sneered, and he threw a stone at the corpse, hitting a white pomegranate smear that had been made on its forehead.
The other laughed, then with one great heave tossed the dead monkey over the wall as casually as if they were disposing of an unwanted three branch.
Suddenly Roman lost his curiosity.
With pounding heart he darted back across the tombs,swerving past mossy statues and sliding between headstones, untill he reached the main path. He scrambled across the cobbles and snuggled into the safety of the crowd, worming his way through tangle of legs until he found his mother standing near the front, listening with rapt attention to Lord Ruler.
Roman clambered up onto her back,gripped her fur and tried to blot the ghastly images from his mind. Perhaps if he listened to the speech, joined in with the cheering, everything would be all right.
"... because we, the Langur,Are the only troop that has the courage to fight for peace..." Lord Ruler was still in full flow, and his grand words were stirring Langur hearts.
All hearts except Roman's confusion turned to fear as he saw General Alluta drop down from the tree canopy and silently take his place on the roof of the great vault. Lord Ruler threw a questioning look at the general, who gave a silent, reassuring nod.
They were both in on it.
Which is when the guilt gripped Roman. He had witnessed a disturbing secret, and even though he was clinging to his mother, surrounding by all the members of the Langur Troop, suddenly Roman felt very alone.
As they staggered, bewildered, through the streets, the Rhesus survivors realized with shame that they were strangers in their own city.
Food gathering had always been the responsibility of the Rhesus males, and as the generations passed, the female had become increasingly detached from the hurley-burly of city life; many of them had never even ventured outside the cemetery walls. But the males had been the first to die in the slaughter, all their knowledge dying with them, leaving the females to rue their seclusion.
Out here everything was chaos: crumbling buildings josted for space, piles of rotting garbage lay in the streets as if deposited by some monstrous tadal wave, and the noise was everywhere hawkers haranguing passers by couples arguing in shappy apartments,cars blasting their horns.
The Rhusus wandered, dazed, through street after confusion street, searching for somewhere to shelter until finally, wretched and exhausted, they arrived at the banks of Hooghly River.
Allan had never seen such a large body of water.
"Look how it ripples!" He exclaimed, mesmerized by the river dark, quivering energy.
None of the other monkey shared her fascinating.