Several hours after her peculiar incident with that young tribal boy and the assault of the wild uturuncu, Y'shaati still couldn't believe what had happened... the kid talked to her in an unknown language. She had never heard anything like that before. The boy looked so much like her, but he was definitely not a monkey. The anatomy of his body was similar to hers, but his skin color contrasted completely; the boy simply ran away, losing himself deep in the jungle, moving in a different way from her... these and many more ideas fluttered inside of Y'shaati's mind.
The doubts caused her desire to meet these strange creatures to vanish that same day. Y'shaati felt saddened and preferred to leave the place to return home.
The poor girl traveled through the jungle at night again, disconsolated to know that her journey had been in vain, and worried to know what punishment the elder Naka'i would impose her upon realizing that she left the rainforest without their permission.
Later in that same night, just when she was about to take a quick nap in a tree branch, she felt something odd in the environment. Her instincts told her that she was being watched by someone... or something... She even could hear something slipping in the branches of the tree she was sitting.
Startled and without thinking twice, Y'shaati decided to leave that place quickly, because she knew better than anyone that there could always be someone stalking at any time in the jungle.
The next day, after crossing the border of the Madre de Dios river, Y'shaati finally returned to the great tree of the Naka'i.
Just at moment of her arrival, she noticed that the monkeys were upset, some bouncing from one branch to another, rampant and howling loudly, while others sobbed as if they were mourning a tragedy.
When Y'shaati approached her brothers and sisters monkeys to find out what was happening, they were surprised to see her back. All the monkeys surrounded her and embraced her, as if they were relieved to know that she was safe and sound; however, it also seemed that they were begging for help as well.
At that moment, seeing that the elder Naka'i also approached her slowly, the monkeys cleared the space around her so that they could stand face to face with Y'shaati. The expression on their faces denoted great anger and disappointment.
Y'shaati bowed to them, lowering her head in respect to the elders. Then, they told her what had happened during her absence.
—"Ooh-ooh ah-ah... ook-ook, ooooh ooooh...?" (Where have been... in these terrible moments of anguish, young lady...?)
—"Ooh-ooh ohh... ah... ooh..." (Y'shaati... Y'shaati went out... Y'shaati wanted to know...)
—"Ooh ah-ah, EEEK EEEK EEEK!! AHH-AHH OOH-OOH OOOOOH!! OOK-OOK EEEK EEEK, OOH-OOH-OOOOOHH!!" (We understand, BUT YOU SHOULD HAVE REQUESTED OUR PERMISSION!! THOSE ARE THE LAWS OF OUR TROOP, YOU DO NOT KNOW HOW DANGEROUS IT CAN BE!!
—"..."
—"Ooh-ah-ah... ook-ook, oh-ah-ah..." (Five of the youngest have followed your example... and now, lost the youngest are...)
—"Ook-ooh-ah!?... Ooh-ooh, eek eek!?" (Lost!? The little ones... have followed Y'shaati?)
—"Eeek eeek, ooh-ooh. Ahh-ahh-ah, eek eek..." (We searched nearby, without success. We lose hope...)
—"...ooh-ooh ah!" (Y'shaati will help find them!)
Suddenly, she ran out of the rainforest at full speed, and jumped to grab a vine to swing back into the depths of the jungle again.
As she traveled through the treetops as fast as she could, she couldn't stop thinking about what the elders told her: the morning after she escaped in the night to travel to the village of the Terena tribe, five young inexperienced monkeys disappeared. During the next two days, the rest of the Naka'i went looking for them in the vicinity of the rainforest, but they could not find them. Noting also the absence of Y'shaati, and thanks to their great wisdom and ability to deduce events, the elders came to the conclusion that the five little monkeys probably saw her go and decided to follow her, but due to their young age, once when they lost trail of her, they didn't know how to return home and ended up lost. The elders scolded Y'shaati for her imprudence and ordered her to go out and find the missing little monkeys.
She couldn't help feeling guilty for what happened, so she immediately accepted to go to look for them. She began to fear the worst about what could have happened to the helpless monkeys, however, she didn't let herself be overcomed by fear and determined herself to find them... even if it would cost her own life.
Y'shaati spent all day looking for the poor lost monkeys everywhere, without any success. When the sun was about to set, she reached a big swamp. Y'shaati deduced that the monkeys couldn't had gone beyond the Madre de Dios river because young Naka'i can't swim, so she decided to search somewhere around that place. She descended from the trees and started to crawl in the muddy soil, trying to find a trace of the monkeys.
But then, a few minutes later, she suddenly stopped her movement... she felt that something wasn't right... it was the same feeling she had the previous night, like if something were watching her. She proceeded to keep looking with extreme caution.
Then, all of a sudden, among the uncertainty, she heard a familiar noise... little ape howls. Y'shaati had hit the spot on her deductions. She quickly began to run around the place, guiding herself with the sounds. On the spur of the moment, Y'shaati looked above her, and finally breathed a sigh of relief... she at last found them; the little monkeys were right in front of her, hidden inside a hollow tree.
She rapidly climbed the tree and went inside it to meet the little ones. The monkeys were scared, but once they recognized her, they jumped onto her and hugged her, happy to see their big monkey-sister. She was also happy to see them safe. However... there was a problem... there were only four monkeys.
"Ooh-ooh ook... ah-ah, ooh-ooh?" (Where the other little one be?), Y'shaati asked.
"Ooh-ooh ohh, eek eek ook!" (Brother left behind while running away!), one of the monkeys replied.
Y'shaati asked the young monkeys where their lost broher was, but they told her the last time they saw him, they were by the skirts of the swamp. Without hesitation, Y'shaati ordered the monkeys to stay hidden inside the tree. Then, she started to climb up higher until she reached the top of tree. Once there, she watched on the horizon, hoping to find the last missing monkey. When she gazed at a puddle of mud, she noticed something... a little black spot on a rock.
Thinking that that point could be the lost monkey, she jumped from branch to branch down and ran quickly to that place. The feeling of being observed, felt increasingly overwhelming.
Once she got there, she finally knew what that was... her expression changed from one of hope, to one of complete horror... that was a fresh stain of blood with ripped fur. Y'shaati sniffed the fur to confirm what she feared: it had the same smell like the Naka'i 's fur.
Trembling with sorrow and the horrible sensation that had been invading her senses, Y'shaati glanced at the swamp water to see if she could see the poor little monkey's body. But, from one moment to another, that "something" appeared...
From the depths of the water, the head of a giant anaconda came out and attacked Y'shaati. Thanks to her good monkey reflexes, she was able to dodge the lethal bite of the snake, quickly back-stepping away from the wild animal. When she saw the complete body of the anaconda, she understood who that huge, fierce beast was: It is called "Mai D'goa, the legendary Titanic-toothed Serpent".
Y'shaati, now with an enraged look on her face, quickly adopted her Tahuayo battle pose, crouching and planting her knuckles firmly on the ground while letting escape a great ape growl. Mai D'goa also snarled at her, showing it's long sharped teeth.
In her irrational animalistic reaction, just when she was about to jump and fight the titanic anaconda, she remembered that the four little monkeys were still close from there. She wouldn't let anything bad happen to the young apes... so, instead of launching herself to attack, she turned around an quickly sprinted towards the hollow tree where the monkeys were. The titanic anaconda followed Y'shaati at demon speed.
When she reached the tree, Y'shaati told the young monkeys to jump on her back and hold tight to her body. Once the little monkeys were ready, she jumped from the tree, landing safely in the ground and rapidly started to run on all fours, carrying the little monkeys on her back. The giant serpent charged at the hollow tree, destroying it completely.
Y'shaati kept running as fast as she could, alternately and acrobatically jumping between branches and swinging through the vines. Mai D'goa kept chasing them closely, obliterating everything in it's path.
In just a couple of minutes, the titanic serpent suddenly lost sight from it's preys. Everything stood silent for a couple of minutes. Frustrated, the anaconda snarled and began to slowly slide back into the swamp. Y'shaati, with the young monkeys, had hidden in the thick foliage of the treetops... staying quiet... until they saw the large anaconda retreating...
They were, at last, safe...
Later at night, Y'shaati finally returned to the Naka'i rainforest with the little monkeys. When they arrived, all the monkeys received her like a heroine, grateful for having rescued the defenseless apes... but Y'shaati wasn't smiling.
When the elders approached her, they asked her why she returned with only four monkeys. Sobbing, she explained them the terrible fate of the fifth young monkey and then walked alone towards her bed of leaves. With tears on her face, she layed on her bed to sleep, crying the loss of the little monkey.
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