Chapter 111
As Shannon walked through the door, she stopped almost immediately. Every single gorilla in the enclosure turned to look at her at once. They had not looked that large from the viewing area above, and they were all scarily skinny due to the lack of food. However, they were still averaging around six feet tall and having arms as thick as her torso. Taking a few deep breaths, she finally took her first steps forward toward the group of gorillas. She was so far out of what she knew, that her mind was spinning circles, not knowing what the first words to say should be. Sadly, she was not given much time to think, as she was already in front of the main group of them before she knew it.
Still unsure on how to approach the whole situation, Shannon just left the cart full of food and walked a small distance away. There she just sat down and leaned back against the log that had been set up to climb on. There, she just looked at the cart, more worried than anything that the gorillas would not eat any of the food. Now she knew how Nat felt whenever she saw animals being mistreated, as the visual of the malnourished apes caused Shannon to feel pain and sorrow. They always said that when you spend a lot of time with someone, they tend to rub off on you. As she kept her eyes on the cart filled with food, she kept trying to think of what to say.
While she did, a couple of the gorillas had gotten up and carefully sauntered up to the cart. They made some sniffs of the food on top, and poked the contents a few times with a finger before making some small movements with their hands. One of them shuffled off to the far wall and opened up a door. They came shuffling back, but the door opened up behind them. Coming in from the door was the four-armed ape from her dream, only far more covered in cuts and dried blood. He looked tired, and arguably seemed to be in a far worse condition compared to all of the others. He followed after the one that came to get him, coming up to the cart laden with fruits and nuts. He mirrored what the other two did earlier, sniffing and poking at the contents, before just picking up a grape and eating it. Waiting for a second, he turned to the two who watched him and made some grunts and gestures. All that they did in response was pointing directly at Shannon.
The entrance of the massive eight-foot tall, four-armed behemoth from her dreams had caused all of her thought processes to stop as she watched in awe. She finally snapped out of it when she saw them pick up the trolley with two of its arms, before approaching her. All that she could do in response was stare as the massive ape came towards her. It set the cart down right in front of her, before coming up and examining her. It sniffed, prodded, and tugged on her clothes lightly while making slight grunts and gestures. Nothing seemed too strong handed or invasive, but completely inquisitive. As if it was wondering where the fruit had come from. All that Shannon could do was stare forward at the gorilla, scared stiff at the size and strength behind the gorilla's fingers. When the gorilla finally looked at her eyes, it stared into hers for a second, before thumping its chest in front of her.
Or at least it attempted to, as when it lifted two of its arms to thump, it lost balance and started to collapse. Whether it was due to lack of food or its injuries, Shannon did not know. Regardless, she stood up quickly and attempted to catch the large ape. She was barely able to support the weight of the large animal, but a quickly and carefully as she could, she lowered it to the ground. Once it was down, she grabbed some of the fruit on the cart and offered it to the gorilla that was now laying in front of her. As she did, she thought she saw the gorilla's eyes light up slightly, as if it had just gotten a bit of hope. The gorilla lifted one of its arms up and clasped his hand around Shannon's and the fruit. Then he let out a loud grunt, before entering into Shannon, taking the fruit with it. Shannon was left just staring at the spot in front of her where a primate had just disappeared from. She had seen the canines do it with Nat, but experiencing it first hand was entirely different.
As she looked up, she noticed that six of the other eleven gorillas were coming her way. As they slowly approached her, five of them moved inside. The last one did a lot of the same actions as the four armed one, but instead of attempting to beat its chest, it just huffed loudly, before entering her with the cart of food in tow. At the huff, the other five gorillas started moving towards her. Seeing that they seemed far weaker compared to the seven that had already entered her, Shannon moved closer to each of them to speed up their time of getting into the Soulscape. She was not able to look inside, but she could feel their presences. Each seemed thankful, and seemed to go almost immediately to sleep. Thankfully Nat had already let her know about the accelerated recovery inside, so she was not too worried for the new family members.
Getting up, she went back and let Natalie know the good news. Then they proceeded to go around both the indoor and outdoor area for the apes, getting Natalie to store each and every item. As all of the gorillas were now sleeping and recovering, Shannon did not want to wake one to start getting stuff stored in her own Soulscape. It was not like she would be readily able to access it anyways. Once everything was packed away, they went back out the way they came, getting back up to the viewing area overseeing the pen. There they continued to move through the building, though that was only due to the fact that the snakes were now visibly moving around, causing Shannon to completely refuse that route.
Huge thanks to my Elder Wolves Selvaria, Viktor, Saganatsu, Eeleater, Lachlan, Adam, John, Nicholas, Jacob, Onean, Hades, Krimson, Jake, Neal, Sebastian, Ethan, Sir Hellington, and Kevin for supporting me and my writing! Remember that I keep Patreon ten chapters ahead at all times. Our next goal on Patreon will be getting up to 50 patrons, which I will then spend more time each month writing some side stories and shorts that show other perspectives throughout my stories!
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