Post by burntsmoke on Sept 14, 2007 10:03:20 GMT -5
(PLEASE COMMENT AND SUGGEST!! THANKS 
Chapter One: Man of the Jungle
A rich chorus of sweet, content laughs and giggles erupted behind the wooden door. On the other side, two siblings rolled about in fits of sniggers whilst their tutor, Mr. Iskandar, chuckled deeply. He rubbed his head with a heavy sigh as his single chuckles gradually rolled away.
“Oh, Mr. Iskandar!” Ratu wailed, clutching her stomach as she pulled herself straight. She sat on the edge of the shredded sofa and breathed weighty gasps until she could control herself. An uncontrollable smile stretched across from cheek to cheek, baring her long lips and neat teeth. “You make us laugh so much!”
“Unintentionally,” he earnestly added, turning on the oak chair to face the scratched table once again.
“I’ve never done it so much that I’ve felt sick,” Ratu’s older brother, Ethan, sat up and swallowed solidly. He exhaled a long breath before carelessly grabbing his cold glass of icy water.
“No, Ethan, you feel nauseated.” Mr. Iskandar hastily corrected. He was very alike a walking thesaurus, though their feature didn’t quite match up. Mr. Iskandar had, though very little of it, dark, shaved hair and a merrily chubby face which just happened to include a pair of deeply coloured eyes, a narrow mouth and a perfectly ordinary nose.
“Right,” Ethan tittered.
“Back to work then,” the tutor announced and flicked through a few pages of a tatty exercise book.
“Oh,” Ratu moaned, an unhappy look on her face. “Do we have to?”
“Yes,”
“But I was having so much fun! Besides, there’s only five minutes left!” she whimpered, dropping the backs of her hands beside her knees. Her dark, slender eyebrows burrowed and tiny lines crinkled along her forehead. Ratu’s sulking expression quite ruined her usual pretty look. Her familiar closed-lipped smile, glowing complexion and long-lashed, sparkly blue eyes never deserved to be grimacing.
“Well,” Mr. Iskandar’s eyes softened slightly as he glanced up to the clock. “Because you’ve been so sweet today, we can finish early.”
“Yey! Thanks!” Ratu leapt up and inappropriately threw her arms around his neck, squeezing her eyes shut with a broad grin.
“You should thank your sister, Ethan!” Mr. Iskandar grumbled from within the hug and he lightly laughed. With a brief smirk, Ethan stood.
“See you later,” he coolly smiled and opened the thick door. With a secret laugh, he casually wandered down the hallway to the kitchen where his mother, Belle, was tiredly chopping up some bananas on the work top.
“Did you have a good lesson?” she smiled, momentarily looking up. She swiftly brushed a fringe of rusty blonde hair from her light eyes and roughly pulled up her shirt sleeve.
“Yeah,”
“Excellent,” Belle replied, subconsciously licking the corner of her rosy lips. “Mr. Iskandar has got a present for your birthday tomorrow,”
“Great,” Ethan beamed, lightened by the thought of his anniversary.
“Honey, you wouldn’t mind taking this fruit out, would you?”
“’Kay,”
He took a plastic square tub from his mother that was half filled with brilliant smelling foods like the insides of durian fruits, sweet, fresh figs, and various soft shoots and buds. This being nothing abnormal to Ethan, he carried the tub through the French windows and stepped into the fantastic garden.
Glancing behind, Ethan looked up at his two-story house. It was modestly large and had the appearance of a very modern well-built house. Slightly stained by the rain, though, the walls were of a fading murky colour. Each of the five visible windows were locked open and gave a great view of the insides.
Taking this advantage, Ethan peered inside the low one to his left to see Ratu still chatting away to Mr. Iskandar. When she spotted him, he cheekily grinned and snappily moved away.
A pulse of glee and warmth ran through him as he looked about. The garden, which was rather more extraordinarily like a small field fenced up by the rainforest, was filled with forty orangutans and twenty carers. Their glossy orange hair vibrantly stood out against the dull green grass and their cheery hoots sounded through the area. How funny it was to see the young ones being swept about in ancient wheelbarrows and to watch as the monkeys mischievously fooled around with the workers! In one spot, a carer was lightly feeding a baby orang with a small bottle, whilst in another, three medium monkeys were clinging to someone’s trunk as they walked about.
Ethan gave a short, silent sigh; each orangutan here was an orphan. He delicately bit his lip in sorrow as he thought of the parentless monkeys. He and the orangs had one or two things in common.
He briskly strolled over the far side of the garden where there was a small platform of sticks and branches. One older orangutan was picking through them with long, elegant arms, searching for any leftover food. His murky reddish orange fur swayed as he crawled about and his round mouth quickly opened to take in any scraps.
Ethan softly smiled to himself as the monkey ignored his presence from a few metres away. I love it here, he happily thought to himself. And tomorrow I get to have yet another remarkable birthday party with monkeys! And he really did love it. He didn’t care that he had no school or internet or dog or anything else a child would normally have, because he had something that a child wouldn’t normally have. Ethan considered himself incredibly lucky to be living with orangutans. Real, exotic, unique orangutans.
“Hurry up,”
Startled, Ethan jumped around to see Ratu standing behind him, rocking on her feet with a beaming grin. She pulled her smooth, blonde hair back behind her ears and tenderly took the tub from his hands.
“I was just thinking about tomorrow,”
“Excited?” Ratu asked. She picked a few slices of fruit out and tucked them away beneath the branches. This helped the monkeys to learn that they had to find fruits in the trees.
“Yeah,” Ethan smiled.
“Cool,” she said. “You’ll love what I got you!”
“Really?”
“Hope so!”
“What is it?”
“You are such a spoil-sport,” Ratu retorted, continuing with the throwing of fruits.
“Ha ha! Who says spoil-sport?!” Ethan chortled in mockery. “That’s, like, two centuries ago!”
“Shut up!” A cheery pause passed over as Ratu emptied out the tub. She turned to examine her brother.
He was a little short, healthily slim, and had narrow shoulders. He had round baby face, clear azure eyes, unkempt, scruffy chestnut hair, peculiarly small ears and a pair of sweet modest lips which gave him a quirky little smile.
“Mm, definitely not the fourteen look…” Ratu concluded after a long moment of consideration.
“Excuse me?”
“Well, you’ve still got your baby cheeks for one. If you’ve had them for fourteen years, I have no idea when they’ll go.”
“What? I don’t have baby cheeks!” Ethan argued. “I’ll have you know, actually, that my cheeks are very evenly distributed and my jaw is lovely and sharp and I most certainly do not have a chubby face!”
“If you say so,”
“I do say so,”
“Well then, that’s sorted,” Ratu shrugged.
“It is,”
“Done,”
“Yes,”
“But you don’t actually have a sharp jaw…” she began again, determined to win the squabble. They paced away slowly and returned to the house to humour themselves for the rest of the afternoon.
As the mellow sun was slowly swallowed up by the horizon, the nocturnal forest awoke, bringing many more tropical animals to the surface within the sanctuary. Most magnificently of all, though, the majestic empire stalked into the night: the tiger.
This was certainly no ordinary home. It was in fact an Orangutan Sanctuary in the North of Sumatra.
* * * * *
Thin shafts of light shone through the cracks in the door and wafted through the gaps in the curtains. As the door slowly creaked open, Ethan turned over with a light grumble.
“Wakey wakey,” his mother’s warm voice urged.
Suddenly, the sun was soaring in at the sound of the curtains being pulled back. Ethan groaned as his eyes steadily adjusted to the scorching light.
“What time is it?” he slowly mumbled, considering throwing his head back into the snoozy depths of his pillow.
“Eight o’ clock, honey,”
Deciding it was best to get up, Ethan reluctantly pulled himself from his sheets, which horridly smelt of bug repellent, and he perched himself on the edge of his squeaky mattress. Exhausted, he rubbed his eyes and yawned dreamily.
“Happy birthday!” Belle broadly grinned, sitting beside him and ruffling his hair.
He abruptly stopped moving, slightly alarmed, and gave a loose laugh as a rush of thrill passed through him. How could he have forgotten?
“I’m fourteen!”
It was finally here, after a long, dragging year, but Ethan had gotten through it. He’d managed it. Three-hundred-and-sixty-five days since his last birthday. His last birthday with his father…Three-hundred-and-forty-nine since his dad had left. Gone to a better place, Ethan softly reassured himself. To watch us from above. He only wanted a better view.
Sensing his thoughts, Belle gently embraces him. She was moved by his fading excitement and swift realisation.
“You’ve got a big surprise downstairs,” she smiled.
“Is it Dad?”
“Ethan…”
“Then I don’t want to come,”
“But you know he’s never going to be down there. Never again,” Belle hesitantly retorted.
An icy silence broke over. Ethan pulled away from the hug and his face hardened with a frown. He was only a child, and it would just unequivocally always be hard to move on.
“Do I smell moping?”
They looked up to see Ratu standing at the door, her mouth stretched open with glee. She was wearing an old flowery dress which had been given to her on her eleventh. In her slender hands she held a chipped wooden box.
“Take that as a yes,” she shrugged. “I got you present,”
“Really?” Ethan said, lacking enthusiasm.
“No need to cry with joy,” Ratu smirked, wandering over to her brother. She eagerly thrust the box under his nose.
Ethan gradually forced his sparkling eyes upon it and an uncontrollable twitch flickered across his lips. As he continued staring at the box, a quick smile eventually flashed along his face as he keenly moistened his lips, taking the gift. Satisfied, his sister grinned.
On the small, square box, Ethan’s name had been carved in with a wobbly hand. All the more sentimental, he thought. A few other details had been decorated on, and even an attempted carving of a monkey’s outline on the lid.
“Did you make it?” he asked.
“Well duh!”
“Wow! It’s really quite good,” Ethan happily remarked.
Suddenly, and quite violently, Ratu snatched the box away. She pranced towards the door in a playful manner and only stopped to chant.
“If you want it, you gotta come downstairs!”
Too easily, Ethan was lured down. Much to his delight, though.
* * * * *
The day passed well and left Ethan full of gratitude. His mood heightened as the seconds ticked by and he even suggested an afternoon stroll! Everybody occupied, though, Ethan decided to go out alone.
The weather was perfect for his birthday. The sun was particularly placid and smooth and the normal sharp spikes had vanished from their regular positions. It was not too hot but faultlessly just right. During an hour’s walk along the dusty roads beside the edge of the forest, however, the warmness began to engulf Ethan and he started to struggle. Concluding to wander back, he turned around, his spirits not even dampened.
The journey back was swifter as seen as a lot of it was a descent. He pressed himself on with his excitement, anxious to return home for dinner. After a tiring forty minutes jogging along the dusty tracks, Ethan finally reached home. Beaming, he dashed up the large drive, up the two stone steps and through the battered red front door.
“I’m back!” he cheerily called.
The house was horribly still and an eerie silence shrouded the area. Thinking that everybody was waiting for him in the garden, Ethan trotted down the shadowy hallway. He suddenly stopped as a flash of people caught the corner of his eye. Turning, he contently entered his tutoring room.
Six solemn workers uncomfortably sat across the room, their movements oddly minimal. Mr. Iskandar was hovering near the table in the centre and Belle was squashed down on the ripped sofa. The workers dragged off their caps.
“Hi!” he exclaimed, breaking the tense silence. He wasn’t even dazzled by their presence in the normally empty room. Belle glanced up and her eyes rapidly widened.
“Thank God you’re alive!” she cried and leapt up to hug him. He nervously pulled away, incredibly confused.
“Why are you all in here?” Ethan lightly asked, finally perplexed.
“Where on Earth did you go?!” she breathlessly croaked, disregarding his question. He noticed how her cheeks were sore and red and that her eyes were slightly watery. Her hair was carelessly tied and taught with nerves.
“I-I told you,” Ethan frowned. “I just went for a walk,”
“For two hours?” she shrieked.
“Was it a problem?”
“Yes it was a problem! I was-I was so worried!” And in a moment, Belle broke down into a flood of dramatic tears. She covered her face, literally gasping for breath. Ethan merely looked at her in surprise. “I thought you were with Ratu!”
His heart began thumping and he felt nervous sweat settling on his brow. Ethan swallowed. How was he supposed to have known that Ratu wanted to come?!
“Ethan,” Mr. Iskandar broke in with a wavering voice as Belle continued to weep in the background. “Your sister’s dead.”
Chapter One: Man of the Jungle
A rich chorus of sweet, content laughs and giggles erupted behind the wooden door. On the other side, two siblings rolled about in fits of sniggers whilst their tutor, Mr. Iskandar, chuckled deeply. He rubbed his head with a heavy sigh as his single chuckles gradually rolled away.
“Oh, Mr. Iskandar!” Ratu wailed, clutching her stomach as she pulled herself straight. She sat on the edge of the shredded sofa and breathed weighty gasps until she could control herself. An uncontrollable smile stretched across from cheek to cheek, baring her long lips and neat teeth. “You make us laugh so much!”
“Unintentionally,” he earnestly added, turning on the oak chair to face the scratched table once again.
“I’ve never done it so much that I’ve felt sick,” Ratu’s older brother, Ethan, sat up and swallowed solidly. He exhaled a long breath before carelessly grabbing his cold glass of icy water.
“No, Ethan, you feel nauseated.” Mr. Iskandar hastily corrected. He was very alike a walking thesaurus, though their feature didn’t quite match up. Mr. Iskandar had, though very little of it, dark, shaved hair and a merrily chubby face which just happened to include a pair of deeply coloured eyes, a narrow mouth and a perfectly ordinary nose.
“Right,” Ethan tittered.
“Back to work then,” the tutor announced and flicked through a few pages of a tatty exercise book.
“Oh,” Ratu moaned, an unhappy look on her face. “Do we have to?”
“Yes,”
“But I was having so much fun! Besides, there’s only five minutes left!” she whimpered, dropping the backs of her hands beside her knees. Her dark, slender eyebrows burrowed and tiny lines crinkled along her forehead. Ratu’s sulking expression quite ruined her usual pretty look. Her familiar closed-lipped smile, glowing complexion and long-lashed, sparkly blue eyes never deserved to be grimacing.
“Well,” Mr. Iskandar’s eyes softened slightly as he glanced up to the clock. “Because you’ve been so sweet today, we can finish early.”
“Yey! Thanks!” Ratu leapt up and inappropriately threw her arms around his neck, squeezing her eyes shut with a broad grin.
“You should thank your sister, Ethan!” Mr. Iskandar grumbled from within the hug and he lightly laughed. With a brief smirk, Ethan stood.
“See you later,” he coolly smiled and opened the thick door. With a secret laugh, he casually wandered down the hallway to the kitchen where his mother, Belle, was tiredly chopping up some bananas on the work top.
“Did you have a good lesson?” she smiled, momentarily looking up. She swiftly brushed a fringe of rusty blonde hair from her light eyes and roughly pulled up her shirt sleeve.
“Yeah,”
“Excellent,” Belle replied, subconsciously licking the corner of her rosy lips. “Mr. Iskandar has got a present for your birthday tomorrow,”
“Great,” Ethan beamed, lightened by the thought of his anniversary.
“Honey, you wouldn’t mind taking this fruit out, would you?”
“’Kay,”
He took a plastic square tub from his mother that was half filled with brilliant smelling foods like the insides of durian fruits, sweet, fresh figs, and various soft shoots and buds. This being nothing abnormal to Ethan, he carried the tub through the French windows and stepped into the fantastic garden.
Glancing behind, Ethan looked up at his two-story house. It was modestly large and had the appearance of a very modern well-built house. Slightly stained by the rain, though, the walls were of a fading murky colour. Each of the five visible windows were locked open and gave a great view of the insides.
Taking this advantage, Ethan peered inside the low one to his left to see Ratu still chatting away to Mr. Iskandar. When she spotted him, he cheekily grinned and snappily moved away.
A pulse of glee and warmth ran through him as he looked about. The garden, which was rather more extraordinarily like a small field fenced up by the rainforest, was filled with forty orangutans and twenty carers. Their glossy orange hair vibrantly stood out against the dull green grass and their cheery hoots sounded through the area. How funny it was to see the young ones being swept about in ancient wheelbarrows and to watch as the monkeys mischievously fooled around with the workers! In one spot, a carer was lightly feeding a baby orang with a small bottle, whilst in another, three medium monkeys were clinging to someone’s trunk as they walked about.
Ethan gave a short, silent sigh; each orangutan here was an orphan. He delicately bit his lip in sorrow as he thought of the parentless monkeys. He and the orangs had one or two things in common.
He briskly strolled over the far side of the garden where there was a small platform of sticks and branches. One older orangutan was picking through them with long, elegant arms, searching for any leftover food. His murky reddish orange fur swayed as he crawled about and his round mouth quickly opened to take in any scraps.
Ethan softly smiled to himself as the monkey ignored his presence from a few metres away. I love it here, he happily thought to himself. And tomorrow I get to have yet another remarkable birthday party with monkeys! And he really did love it. He didn’t care that he had no school or internet or dog or anything else a child would normally have, because he had something that a child wouldn’t normally have. Ethan considered himself incredibly lucky to be living with orangutans. Real, exotic, unique orangutans.
“Hurry up,”
Startled, Ethan jumped around to see Ratu standing behind him, rocking on her feet with a beaming grin. She pulled her smooth, blonde hair back behind her ears and tenderly took the tub from his hands.
“I was just thinking about tomorrow,”
“Excited?” Ratu asked. She picked a few slices of fruit out and tucked them away beneath the branches. This helped the monkeys to learn that they had to find fruits in the trees.
“Yeah,” Ethan smiled.
“Cool,” she said. “You’ll love what I got you!”
“Really?”
“Hope so!”
“What is it?”
“You are such a spoil-sport,” Ratu retorted, continuing with the throwing of fruits.
“Ha ha! Who says spoil-sport?!” Ethan chortled in mockery. “That’s, like, two centuries ago!”
“Shut up!” A cheery pause passed over as Ratu emptied out the tub. She turned to examine her brother.
He was a little short, healthily slim, and had narrow shoulders. He had round baby face, clear azure eyes, unkempt, scruffy chestnut hair, peculiarly small ears and a pair of sweet modest lips which gave him a quirky little smile.
“Mm, definitely not the fourteen look…” Ratu concluded after a long moment of consideration.
“Excuse me?”
“Well, you’ve still got your baby cheeks for one. If you’ve had them for fourteen years, I have no idea when they’ll go.”
“What? I don’t have baby cheeks!” Ethan argued. “I’ll have you know, actually, that my cheeks are very evenly distributed and my jaw is lovely and sharp and I most certainly do not have a chubby face!”
“If you say so,”
“I do say so,”
“Well then, that’s sorted,” Ratu shrugged.
“It is,”
“Done,”
“Yes,”
“But you don’t actually have a sharp jaw…” she began again, determined to win the squabble. They paced away slowly and returned to the house to humour themselves for the rest of the afternoon.
As the mellow sun was slowly swallowed up by the horizon, the nocturnal forest awoke, bringing many more tropical animals to the surface within the sanctuary. Most magnificently of all, though, the majestic empire stalked into the night: the tiger.
This was certainly no ordinary home. It was in fact an Orangutan Sanctuary in the North of Sumatra.
* * * * *
Thin shafts of light shone through the cracks in the door and wafted through the gaps in the curtains. As the door slowly creaked open, Ethan turned over with a light grumble.
“Wakey wakey,” his mother’s warm voice urged.
Suddenly, the sun was soaring in at the sound of the curtains being pulled back. Ethan groaned as his eyes steadily adjusted to the scorching light.
“What time is it?” he slowly mumbled, considering throwing his head back into the snoozy depths of his pillow.
“Eight o’ clock, honey,”
Deciding it was best to get up, Ethan reluctantly pulled himself from his sheets, which horridly smelt of bug repellent, and he perched himself on the edge of his squeaky mattress. Exhausted, he rubbed his eyes and yawned dreamily.
“Happy birthday!” Belle broadly grinned, sitting beside him and ruffling his hair.
He abruptly stopped moving, slightly alarmed, and gave a loose laugh as a rush of thrill passed through him. How could he have forgotten?
“I’m fourteen!”
It was finally here, after a long, dragging year, but Ethan had gotten through it. He’d managed it. Three-hundred-and-sixty-five days since his last birthday. His last birthday with his father…Three-hundred-and-forty-nine since his dad had left. Gone to a better place, Ethan softly reassured himself. To watch us from above. He only wanted a better view.
Sensing his thoughts, Belle gently embraces him. She was moved by his fading excitement and swift realisation.
“You’ve got a big surprise downstairs,” she smiled.
“Is it Dad?”
“Ethan…”
“Then I don’t want to come,”
“But you know he’s never going to be down there. Never again,” Belle hesitantly retorted.
An icy silence broke over. Ethan pulled away from the hug and his face hardened with a frown. He was only a child, and it would just unequivocally always be hard to move on.
“Do I smell moping?”
They looked up to see Ratu standing at the door, her mouth stretched open with glee. She was wearing an old flowery dress which had been given to her on her eleventh. In her slender hands she held a chipped wooden box.
“Take that as a yes,” she shrugged. “I got you present,”
“Really?” Ethan said, lacking enthusiasm.
“No need to cry with joy,” Ratu smirked, wandering over to her brother. She eagerly thrust the box under his nose.
Ethan gradually forced his sparkling eyes upon it and an uncontrollable twitch flickered across his lips. As he continued staring at the box, a quick smile eventually flashed along his face as he keenly moistened his lips, taking the gift. Satisfied, his sister grinned.
On the small, square box, Ethan’s name had been carved in with a wobbly hand. All the more sentimental, he thought. A few other details had been decorated on, and even an attempted carving of a monkey’s outline on the lid.
“Did you make it?” he asked.
“Well duh!”
“Wow! It’s really quite good,” Ethan happily remarked.
Suddenly, and quite violently, Ratu snatched the box away. She pranced towards the door in a playful manner and only stopped to chant.
“If you want it, you gotta come downstairs!”
Too easily, Ethan was lured down. Much to his delight, though.
* * * * *
The day passed well and left Ethan full of gratitude. His mood heightened as the seconds ticked by and he even suggested an afternoon stroll! Everybody occupied, though, Ethan decided to go out alone.
The weather was perfect for his birthday. The sun was particularly placid and smooth and the normal sharp spikes had vanished from their regular positions. It was not too hot but faultlessly just right. During an hour’s walk along the dusty roads beside the edge of the forest, however, the warmness began to engulf Ethan and he started to struggle. Concluding to wander back, he turned around, his spirits not even dampened.
The journey back was swifter as seen as a lot of it was a descent. He pressed himself on with his excitement, anxious to return home for dinner. After a tiring forty minutes jogging along the dusty tracks, Ethan finally reached home. Beaming, he dashed up the large drive, up the two stone steps and through the battered red front door.
“I’m back!” he cheerily called.
The house was horribly still and an eerie silence shrouded the area. Thinking that everybody was waiting for him in the garden, Ethan trotted down the shadowy hallway. He suddenly stopped as a flash of people caught the corner of his eye. Turning, he contently entered his tutoring room.
Six solemn workers uncomfortably sat across the room, their movements oddly minimal. Mr. Iskandar was hovering near the table in the centre and Belle was squashed down on the ripped sofa. The workers dragged off their caps.
“Hi!” he exclaimed, breaking the tense silence. He wasn’t even dazzled by their presence in the normally empty room. Belle glanced up and her eyes rapidly widened.
“Thank God you’re alive!” she cried and leapt up to hug him. He nervously pulled away, incredibly confused.
“Why are you all in here?” Ethan lightly asked, finally perplexed.
“Where on Earth did you go?!” she breathlessly croaked, disregarding his question. He noticed how her cheeks were sore and red and that her eyes were slightly watery. Her hair was carelessly tied and taught with nerves.
“I-I told you,” Ethan frowned. “I just went for a walk,”
“For two hours?” she shrieked.
“Was it a problem?”
“Yes it was a problem! I was-I was so worried!” And in a moment, Belle broke down into a flood of dramatic tears. She covered her face, literally gasping for breath. Ethan merely looked at her in surprise. “I thought you were with Ratu!”
His heart began thumping and he felt nervous sweat settling on his brow. Ethan swallowed. How was he supposed to have known that Ratu wanted to come?!
“Ethan,” Mr. Iskandar broke in with a wavering voice as Belle continued to weep in the background. “Your sister’s dead.”
