In a mysterious and ancient time, life thrived beyond imagination on every level on our planet.

“So, this is an eighty-five. I have been waiting for so long to finally see one in action. This is incredible. They sure are hungry” he thought to himself.

“That poor runner didn’t stand a chance.”

Amazed by the agility and the speed of the eighty-five, his thoughts wandered off.

“I wish I was that fast. All I can do is climb, climb, climb. Not even walk or run properly. What good does that do me?”

Sitting on the lowest branch of his big family tree, a tree that reaches out into the vast rainforest, he watches as a leopard devours his fresh kill. An adult male antelope that tried to run for his life, but ultimately failed in the race of survival.

In the distance, a variety of animals can be heard talking, roaring and howling towards one and other to express their territorial dominance. It is mostly an attempt to persuade the females to fall for them and to choose them to carry their offspring. All the males are sure of themselves that their genes are the ones that will be the strongest and give their cubs the best chance to survive in this hostile environment.

But he is so engulfed by the hunt of the leopard that for him it is complete silence. It is as if the wind had stopped blowing and time stood still and all that mattered was this moment, right now. All he could hear was the tearing of the antelope’s flesh from its still warm carcass but out of nowhere a voice emerged that could somehow pierce through the silence.

“…come up from there, it’s dangerous... How many times…” he vaguely hears somebody yelling in the distance. Wondering to himself how that voice could somehow penetrate his moment of admiration for this hungry beast, but he shrugs it off. Thinking that it must be for somebody else, he remains still and watches with his big brown eyes.

Suddenly something hits his head.

“Waaa, don’t hurt me!” He screams for the bottom of his lungs. His scream echoes throughout the trees.

“Marcus, what are you doing? Do you not you hear your mother screaming? All the tribes in the jungle can hear her” Chim says with a huge smile on his face and laughs at him while poking at him with his furry tail.

The screams from Marcus were so laud that the leopard stopped eating and turned his head towards the tree that they were sitting on. He stared over at Marcus and Chim and made a threatening roar. Blood was dripping from his mouth onto his majestic rosettes that were now covered in red. Were it not for the dead antelope, they would both be in danger right now. Fortunately for them, the leopard was not a fan of an audience and took his pray by the neck and started to move inside the dense forest leaving nothing but a pool of blood in his wake.

Marcus was now annoyed that he got disturbed from watching and learning about the eighty-five, but he knew that he had no choice but to follow his best friend, Chim, up towards to his yelling mother.

“I’m not four anymore. I have done far worse than sitting and watching leopards” He thought to himself and started giggling. Marcus also knew that if he did not follow Chim, the Guardian of the tribe will lecture him again. As he has done so many times before.

“We are not meant for sitting and watching the carnivores, maybe you want to be next? They can rip you into pieces in a matter of seconds.” He knows his father’s words in and out.

While climbing slowly on his way up the family tree he starts naming all the fruits that he knows and sees and grabs an orange and starts eating it.

“Cauliflory, Manni, Yucatan. There are so many, and I only know so few. I need to go down to the ground again, but this time somewhere more secluded, where nobody can find me” he contemplates. “I remember that I saw some water falling not so far away. Maybe 50 to 60 swings away.”

“Marcus, I’ve told you a thousand times that we don’t belong on the ground. It is not safe for us there. We need to stay up in the canopies. Don’t make me go and tell your father.”

His mother says with a firm but concerned voice. Trying to hide that she is more worried than she is angry.

“Mom, it’s alright. Nothing happened.”

Unsure of how to tell his mother that he is eager to learn more about the ground animals and to see for himself if all the stories that he has heard from The Tribe about Red Mountain and the jungle are true. There are so many stories, particularly about the big blue and grey tuskers that roam the rainforest. He feels that exploring this jungle of his and discovering new lifeforms that live together in what he calls home, may if be friend or foe is far more interesting than picking lice from Chim or jumping from tree to tree eating the same fruits all day long.

That night Marcus was lying on his favorite branch facing the limitless sky, with nothing but the stars above his head. Some shining more than others and emitting different colors throughout the night sky. The branch he has been sleeping on since he was a child was made from small branches and sticks out from the family tree and was entwined together to make it more comfortable to sleep on and amazingly, it was still supporting his now, mature body. The sky never seemed to attract his interest to the same extent that the ground life did. But somehow, he had always felt drawn to it, as if it would hold the answers to all his questions.

”The shimmering lights in the sky, are they all for us, to guide us in the dark?” He contemplated.

“Are they as alive as the ground below us, full of different animals and thinks to eat? I better get some rest for tomorrow is the ritual and all I can think about is well... everything else…

Before he knew it, his big brown eyes closed, and he nodded out while the whole enlightened sky became dark.