Monkey Wars Read Online Free PDF Page B

numb with shock, there was no point dwelling on what had happened; a lot of wailing and hysteria helped no one.
    So he led them to a roof that overhung one of the street markets and announced, “Now, this little place is
the
business for breakfast on the move.” He twitched his ears excitedly. “Anyone care for a bite?”
    The rhesus nodded hungrily.
    Twitcher cracked his knuckles. “Excellent.”
    The market had an array of large canvas sheets strung chaotically across it, offering shade from the burning sun. Underneath, traders were already setting up their stalls, selling everything from sweet pastries to cheap jewelry and gaudy makeup.
    Papina leaned over the parapet, watching Twitcher as he navigated his way through the rigging until he emerged by a fruit stall where the owner was busy unloading boxes of apples and bananas from his handcart. Audaciously, Twitcher sat himself down on the stall and looked directly at the owner with an unashamedly cute expression.
    Papina couldn’t believe he was hoping to charm his way to breakfast, but she had underestimated Twitcher.
    The owner spun round to dump a box of fruit on the table and suddenly saw the monkey. Impatiently he barked a rebuke but Twitcher stayed put, made his eyes bigger and sadder, and then slowly started to waggle his ears back and forth.
    Despite himself, the owner gave a gruff laugh, picked up a bruised apple and tossed it to Twitcher, who caught it and started eating hungrily. This, however, was all cunning misdirection, for the instant the owner’s back was turned, Twitcher stole two bananas and quick as a flash hurled them up onto the canvas stretched above the stall. Just as the owner turned back, Twitcher changed his expression again, his big honest eyes earning another affectionate smile.
    Getting into the spirit, Papina started to clamber over the roof ledge.
    Willow grabbed her. “Stay here!”
    “He needs a hand.”
    “He said to stay here! We don’t know how things work yet!”
    But Papina disentangled herself from her mother’s grip. “I think breakfast is served,” she said defiantly; then she swung down the side of the building, made her way across the canvas until she was next to the growing pile of fruit, and began tossing it up to the roof so that the others could eat.
    —
    By the time the monkeys had finished, the heat of the day was starting to build. Willow knew they still needed to find shelter, but at least none of them would starve today. She looked over to Twitcher, who was licking a few last bits of mango from his fingers.
    “Thank you,” she said quietly.
    “No worries.”
    “You’re the first good thing that’s happened to us,” Willow replied, and all the other monkeys murmured their agreement.
    Twitcher gave a stoical sigh. “You’d be surprised how many monkeys are in trouble these days.”
    It was not what Willow wanted to hear and it didn’t bode well for their chances, but it prompted Papina to spring over to Twitcher and clasp his hand.
    “Could we live with you?” she asked.
    “Don’t be rude,” scolded Willow, but Papina had only articulated what all of them were thinking.
    Twitcher looked down at Papina and smiled. “Well, that depends,” he said, “on whether you’re ready to be gods.”
    —
    By midmorning they had arrived. Twitcher led them along a quiet backstreet which unexpectedly opened up on to a lush, circular park, in the center of which was the biggest statue Papina had ever seen.
    It was a huge figure, as big as a building, and incredibly, it had a human body but the head and tail of a monkey. Its legs and arms had powerful, carved muscles; perched on its head was an ornate crown; and its right arm clutched some kind of golden scepter.
    Even more remarkably, there were hundreds of real monkeys, all of them rhesus, lounging in the dappled sunlight of the small park. Some had found resting places in the nooks and crannies of the statue itself, others lay stretched out on the grass,