Toki is running for his life! He is being chased by that fire lord. But no matter where he ran that thing got up to him.

Suddenly he is surrounded by flames and they started spreading over his body. He rolled on the ground to stop the flames and is screaming for forgiveness. He is so intensely trying to stop them! He started hearing a word

"toki",

"toki"

"toki!"

Toki jerked open his eyes. His is submerged in water inside a huge bath-tub made out of rock. Four stone gorillas are holding his legs and arms so that he will stop struggling. An elderly ape is holding Toki's head up with an arm placed under his neck to support his spine, while the other hand is placed upon his heart.

The moment toki saw this elderly ape, he felt relieved. If there is anyone in the tribe that save him now it this,

"Master jambu", weakly said toki. Jambu laughed letting go of toki's head, "what were you doing toki? jumping on the trees all around the island?you look horrible child."

Toki weakly laughed whil seating in the tub

Ah! master's horrible sense of humor. I want to see how much of it will be left after he meets this ---

Toki suddenly stood with so much force that water splashed on everyone except jambu, toki started screaming, "MASTER JAMBU WE ALL ARE BIG TROUBLE THIS TIME! THAT DUMB-FUCK KAEPI HAS ENGRAGED A FIRE LORD! HE TRACE PASSED INTO THE THE FORBIDDEN AREA AND BROUGHT THE WRATH OF A HIGHER BEING, WHY ARE YOU LAUGHING AT ME MASTER? DO SOMETHING!!"

Jambu did not say anything, he simply raised his hand at toki. Suddenly toki felt much calmer than before, he lost all the anxiety and fear.

Jambu asked with a smile,"toki why dont you tell me what happened exactly? dont leave out any detail."

Toki then sat on a wooden chair and started describing how kaepi's sub-ordinate discovered a weird creature near the volcano, then kaepi's attempt at capturing it, their massacre at its hands and toki started trembling when he described his close encounter with it.

After hearing all that jambu did not ask for any further inquiries,"You must be quite tired, why dont you sleep for some time?"

As jambu is leaving the wooden house toki asked,"master what about this fire lord?".

Jambu turned back,"toki since you went through such nightmarish experience i am letting this slide for now. Are you forgetting everything i and nakala taught you? Fire lords or any of their brethren do not descend into mortal realms when-ever they want. Only true elemental lords can appear like that. For fire lords to descend into mortal realm they need to make ample preparations. No matter what you saw last night it is not a firelord. Eat and sleep toki. I will come back to you once you are ready."

Jambu walked out of the house. As he came out, two stone gorillas are guarding the house. Compared to this two guards kaepi will look like a scrawny little teenager in front of a bulky body builders. They were armed with a metal sphere and shield. They were wearing cotton clothes on which they were wearing the metal armor. Jambu ordered them,"do not let him outside till i comeback. Feed him and cloth him."

Like that he started making his way towards the king residence. In stone gorilla's tribe heir-achy is strictly maintained. For a ape to be named here it has to at least cross lvl 10, or it should have valuable skill other than providing basic necessities to the community. When an individual is shown great talent he or she will provided a wooden house, they do not have to worry about their basic necessities. The only things they have to care about is further developing their skills, fulfill their duties to the tribe and heed to the royal decree. Even among this talented individuals, if there were exceptions, they will be moved to the chain of caves that are reserved for the royal family. As he crossed residency area he approached the entrance to a huge cave. The entrance is heavily fortified with king's personal army guarding it. After walking for few minutes he reached a cave where entrance is guarded by the two personal champions of the king. After walking into the cave you will notice that entire floor of this cave is covered by soft fur. Instead of darkness the room is brightly lit by hovering light balls. A elderly gorilla very similar to jambu in appearance is studying a leather parchment while sitting in a corner. He noticed jambu and got up. In the centre of room stood a ape. At a staggering 10 feet height, with bulking muscles and a thin waist, this ape is more humanoid than a ape.

He is wearing a silk cloth around his waist as a make shift Pantaloon. He is bare chested, wearing ornaments with precious stones embedded in them. But what is truly striking is the tattoos on his shoulders and the diamond kind stone on his forehead.

There is bright sun tattoo on his right shoulder, while full moon on his left. If you observe these tatoos you will notice that they are actually moving on his skin as though they are alive! But what was really eye catching is the stone on his fore head. With all the luminescence it is brightly shining. If you observe closely you will realize that the stone is not supported by any string or any such device. This ape is born with a precious stone on his fore head. His name is Vajra mastika, king of apes. In-front him is a large table. On top of it is the item toki found after that thing left him alive. It is kaepi's head. Kaepi's neck seemed to be severed by a flame blade, because the entire flesh at neck has been cauterized. Because of that blood and its brain fluid could only flow out its mouth and ears. As kaepi mouth is hung open in gaping shock its tongue is dangling out lifelessly. Where his right eye should have been there is a circular hole of 3 centimeters wide, boring out of his head. Even that injury is cauterized. What is surprising is that the precision it was done with. The cut to the neck seemed to be one smooth strike, there were no jagged edges to it. Same has to be said about the injury to the eye, it is a perfect circular drill right through the head.

As he is observing the head, he saw jambu coming towards him.

"Well master jambu, what did toki say." Jambu articulately told the king what he heard from toki.

Vajra mastika asked the other elderly ape,"what do you think master nakala?"

"All i can say for sure is that thing is not a fire lord. But a species with very high affinity for the fire. Also from the descripton of things it has very high intelligence. It is only keeping itself to the cave where we cannot approach."

King listened to this explanation and asked,"mater jambu, should we retaliate?"

jambu was calm for few seconds and answered,"this creature is showing great efficiency when it comes to killing. It seems to be well versed in war tactics, for example", he pointed at the severed head. "This is not some crude payback, but a well planned warning message. If it is mindlessly killing our kind it would have killed toki also. It would have displayed their bodies to scare us or entice us into fighting it. But no, it left toki alive who begged for mercy and only killed kaepi because he tried to capture it. He left the head to tell us not to hunt it. Also my king", jambu laughed and continued,"kaepi broke the ancestor's rule.Hunting near volcano is forbidden. Entry into the volcano is forbidden. By the ancient pack between our race and fire lords this agreement was made. We don't break them and in every generation fire lords will bless atleast one young one and make them into fire shamans."

After hearing all of this vajra mastika came to an decision,"alright, inform the entire tribe that from today onwards no one is allowed near the volcano, anyone who is found loitering around will be thrown into the dungeon for six months irrespective of their status."