Decades dissolved into the rustling leaves, the vibrant tapestry of ape and human life woven by Alex fading into the hushed silence of the forest floor. Exhausted by a life well-lived, Alex, the elder ape with the wisdom of a thousand human years, closed his eyes for the last time. Anya's melody, a faint echo in the recesses of his mind, ushered him back into the swirling vortex of the Tapestry.
This time, a jolt of awareness ripped through the usual disorientation. A name, a place, a life – Adrian Blake, Earth, 2077 – flooded his consciousness. He wasn't reborn as an ape this time, but as a human, a young man of eighteen with tousled brown hair and eyes that held a depth that startled even him.
