The intern straightened his back until he was standing at full height, bravely faced Lewis, and said, “My name is Charles.”
Lewis, not used to being stood up to, was taken aback. He looked straight down at the ground and said, “I’m sorry. Charles. Gather up our things.”
Charles lifted the pack and everybody made their way following Jack’s tracks.
Chapter 20
Deep within a cavern that was lit by the eerie purple glow of phosphorescent slugs that crawled along the walls and ceiling, Martin wept as he knelt over his dead son. He lifted the mangled form of his son off the ground and hugged it close to his breast as he continued to weep. “Bob,” he cried. “Oh Bob.”
Some ebu gogo approached Martin in order to comfort him, and put their hands on his shoulders consolingly. Martin cried in the ebu gogo language, “Lua. Lua died for nothing.”
An ebu gogo said, “Lua did not die for nothing.”
“But she died to bring Bob into the world, and now Bob has left it.”
Martin suddenly realized that there had not been any sort of funeral for Lua. He didn’t even know what had happened to her body. He had been so overwhelmed by her death and the birth of his son, and all of the varying and conflicting emotions that he had been feeling, that the thought of what had been done with Lua’s body after she died hadn’t even occurred to him until this moment. And of course, another reason it hadn’t occurred to him was because deep down, a part of him that he kept hidden from himself still considered the ebu gogo to be animals, and mourning the dead is reserved for the realm of humanity. He asked, “What… what do ebu gogo do regarding death? I mean, what are your rituals?”
“Death is not important to us. What is important to us is life. That is why when one of us dies her memory is preserved in new verses that are added to The Song of the Ebu Gogo, ones that celebrates her life.”
“Are… Are there verses about Lua in The Song of the Ebu Gogo now?”
“There are.”
“I would like to hear them.”
“Of course not every ebu gogo knows every verse of the song. It is too much for a single ebu gogo to remember. We all memorize individual parts of the song, which we sing to each other. Sanna can sing you the verses about Lua.”
The ebu gogo parted and the one called Sanna stepped forward, took a deep breath, and began to sing. Her song was a joyful one, and it recounted all of the important events in Lua’s life. As he listened to the song, Martin understood Lua in a way that he had never understood her before. He understood her as one who loved life and was full of joy. He understood her as someone who was very sensuous, and who lived for the enjoyment of pleasure.
Unlike other times, Martin did not have a sick or queasy feeling as a result of having such thoughts about an animal. It wasn’t that the verses about Lua humanized her for him though. It was that while listening to the verses, Martin threw off the last remaining vestiges of his humanity, and now identified completely as an ebu gogo.
As he listened to the verses Martin also understood that Lua had a serious side as well as a joyful and sensuous one. She was serious about the survival of the ebu gogo, and serious about creating a hybrid race with Martin, a race that would possess the superior attributes of humanity and be able to spread out around the globe and wrestle the earth from the human beings. She understood that there could only be one species at the top of the pyramid, and she wanted that species to be ebu gogo.
She also understood that once the ebu gogo became the dominant species, humanity would slowly sink into extinction, just as the Neanderthal, the Homo erectus, and all the early species in the genus of Homo sank into extinction after being thrown off the top rung by the species right behind it on the evolutionary ladder. Lua was a revolutionary in that she wanted to replace the current ruler of earth, humanity, with a new ruler, the ebu gogo, but hers was a sexual revolution, not a violent one. Once the ebu gogo had slept their way to the top, nature would take care of the human beings.
Sanna finished her song and Martin wiped the tears from his eyes. He said, “Thank you for that beautiful song. I understand now that Lua did not die for nothing. She lived, and that was something in itself. She experienced pleasure, and joy. She came up with a plan for the ebu gogo to follow. She accomplished so much in her life. I had no idea.”
The ebu gogo who had been talking before said, “And what is in the song is not all that she accomplished. There are now many pregnant ebu gogo who will soon die in order to bring new life into the world. This is Lua’s gift to us. This is her legacy.
Just then some weary, bleary-eyed ebu gogo stumbled into the cavern. They told everybody how they had chased Stephanie, and how they had run into the other humans who tranquilized them, and how when they awakened the humans were gone.
Martin said, “I will lead you after the humans. We are going to do things in a slightly different way this time, but one that will be much more effective than your usual hunting methods. The humans will atone for Bob’s death by contributing their own seed to replace him.”
Chapter 21
As everybody made their way through the jungle following Jack’s tracks, Linda, Clare, and Lewis walked side by side, with Clare in between her two parents. After walking a bit in silence, Lewis turned to his daughter and said, “I must say, I am more than a little concerned about you.”
Clare looked at her father quizzically and asked, “Why?”
“This yiffing sounds like high-risk behavior and... Now Clare, you know your mother and I will love you no matter what, but Clare... You’re not a furry are you?”
“No! Sheesh. Jeez.”
Lewis breathed a sigh of relief and then asked, “What exactly happened between you and Jack?”
Clare looked pensively at the ground and muttered inaudibly, “Muh-mmm-urr-muh.”
Lewis said gently, “Now Clare, we’re your parents. You can tell us. It’s OK.”
Clare, still staring at the ground, quietly said “He tried to rape me.”
Lewis dug a fist into the palm of his other hand and looked forward. He decided then and there that when they found Jack, he was going to kill him. Linda, still suffering from PTSD, stared straight ahead, displaying no recognizable emotion.
Meanwhile in another part of the jungle, a female ebu gogo that lay passed out on the ground next to a stream slowly awakened. Jack leaned over her, and when she saw him her eyes and mouth widened in lust. Jack was very gentle with her as he asked, “Yiff? Yiff?”
The ebu gogo looked up at Jack expectantly. Guessing his meaning, it answered back, “Yiff. Yiff.”
Jack kissed the ebu gogo on the lips, and she returned his kiss. The saliva of the two related species mingled in each other’s mouths. Jack removed his clothes and then kissed the ebu gogo on the lips again, and hairless human flesh pressed against ebu gogo fur. Then the ebu gogo breathlessly said, “Meh kear tahr wa-wa en mi coo-coo.”
Jack didn’t understand what the ebu gogo’s words meant, but he understood her tone of voice. He moved his hips, rubbing his dick against her vagina. But, his dick did not grow hard. It remained soft and flaccid. The ebu gogo gave Jack a confused, questioning look.
He tried to kiss the ebu gogo on the mouth again, but she moved her head from side to side so he couldn’t get a lip lock and said, in a more commanding voice than before, “Meh kear tahr wa-wa en mi coo-coo.”
Jack stopped moving his hips and said, “I don’t understand. This is what I have always wanted, my entire life. And now that I have it right in front of me, I can’t do it. Why? Why?” Then, Jack leaned in and whispered sweetly into the ebu gogo’s ear, “I know why. It’s because I am in my human form. Why would I want to do it as a human? You see, I’m a furry too, just like you are. I know I don’t look like one. My body is practically hairless compared to yours, but inside, I am one, just like you. All I have to do is change into my fursuit and become my fursona.”