Chapter 5

Evelyn woke the next morning feeling cold. Coming to, she groggily realised that Charity was nowhere to be seen. The smells of sweat, stale milk, and unwashed sex reminded her that heir torrid night together had been no dream. The clattering sound of a metal pan told her that Charity was up and already preparing breakfast. Unzipping the tent, Evelyn was immediately assaulted by the pungent smell of wet wood and paraffin from Charity's makeshift fire.

Evelyn scrambled out of the small tent and stretched her aching muscles. The hard ground, combined with leftover adrenaline, had made sleep difficult. Charity did not look up from her work so Evelyn wandered around their makeshift camp site and to her delight found a quite substantial pool of crystal clear water, most likely left by the night's storm. Going back to the tent, she gathered her wash bag and then returned to the pool. Quickly, with her back to Charity, Evelyn stripped naked and scooped the freezing water over her slender body, raising goose bumps and erecting sore nipples. She washed quickly, trying to warm herself with rapid movements.

After drying, she looked around for cover as she felt the demands of bladder and bowels. There was nothing but coarse grass for privacy. Still naked, she moved away from the pool, and, carefully placing her towel clear squatted down and began to urinate, hoping that the stream would not soak her bare feet. Her bowels moved, and runny excrement gushed out of her. Squatting there, Evelyn wondered whether her insides would ever return to normal. It seemed that ever since she'd been operated on, and her subsequent illness, her system had not functioned as it had previously.

Looking up, she realised Charity had finished with the fire and was watching her activities intently, but as expressionlessly, as ever. Blushing furiously, she wondered why she felt always felt so vulnerable in front of this woman.

In an effort to break the tension she called, "Bring me some paper; it's in my rucksack!"

Charity rose and went to the tent, returning with some torn up newspaper. She handed it to Evelyn without a word, but instead of turning to leave, just stood there and continued to watch.

Evelyn wished Charity would turn away, but, as she wiped herself, she was determined to behave as if she wasn't there. She squinted up at Charity again.

"Why are you watching me?" Evelyn tried to keep her voice level, "Why do you always watch me?"

"Madam, I have never seen a white woman naked before". Charity replied simply.

Evelyn thought back to how intently Charity had watched her raped by her husband - "doesn't she think I'm a real person?", she thought

"Well," demanded Evelyn, "Am I so different to you?"

Charity laughed for the first time that Evelyn had ever heard. It was a magical, musical sound. Despite the lovely sight of Charity laughing, Evelyn felt excluded, as if from some private joke.

"Oh, Miss Evelyn!" cried Charity, "Visibly trying to contain herself, "I am still not sure if you are a man or a woman!"

Evelyn smiled too, her body was indeed very different to Charity's. She had none of the big curvy features that Charity had; despite the illness her body was still slim and toned. But what Charity had said also had a double meaning. What was it that had attracted them to each other last night? Evelyn had never had any feelings for women before - had Charity's overt femaleness pushed her into a male role? Or was it her own ambiguous sexuality in Charity's eyes?

Later, as they sat by the fire drinking black coffee, Evelyn wondered what to do with Charity. Now that they were getting close to the area where Evelyn expected to find the Mountain Gorilla troupe, it had become an immediate problem. One thing was obvious; Charity could not be with her when she made contact with the troupe again. Evelyn had spent a lot of time getting the confidence of these extremely shy but very dangerous creatures, and she knew that any mistake might be fatal. The more she thought about the problem the more certain she was of her decision.

"Charity, this morning I will go on alone; if the troupe is still far away, I'll come back and we'll move camp," she explained.

"I should not leave you, you may need me" Charity answered.

"Look, you're quite safe here, I'll leave you the gun, just in case," she offered, referring to the Browning nine millimetre pistol she kept.

"Have you ever fired a gun before?" she asked.

"No Miss Evelyn, I have seen many guns, but the men always had them. There are too many guns." Charity shivered at the horrors she had witnessed, but kept buried at the back of her mind.

"Well, I'll leave it for you anyway." Evelyn said.

"Please Miss Evelyn, I don't want to be left alone." Fear showed in Charity's eyes.

"I'm sorry Charity, but there's no way I'm going to take you with me today, absolutely not, and I don't want to hear any more about it." she said, and to show that her decision was final she got up from the fire, and walked over to the tent. Silent tears glistened in the corners of Charity's eyes.

The afternoon sun felt warm on Evelyn's shoulders as she crested the peak that she was so familiar with. Looking down from the bare ridge into the densely wooded valley she wished she hadn't been forced to trade her binoculars for antibiotics. This was the home of her troupe; and a sudden butterfly feeling flipped her insides as she thought of seeing them again. Was it the troupe she really wanted to see or was it Barney and the anticipation of what he may do when he saw her again?

She set off down the steep upper slope and within an hour, Evelyn was moving into the edge of the forest; stopping and listening for the familiar sounds of the gorilla family secure in their territory.

Her heart pounding, Evelyn spotted gorilla droppings that looked fairly fresh, and knew she was close. Stopping again, she heard the unmistakable grunts of a large male, possibly Barney.

Evelyn placed her rucksack on the ground and began carefully undressing. This time she would not confuse the gorillas by appearing with clothes on; let them see her skin and smell her. Very slowly and carefully, she moved, naked, in the direction of the sounds.

Crouching slightly and looking down to avoid threatening them, she moved forward. From the corner of her eye she saw a family group sitting in a flattened circle of grass. She moved closer; making sure that she did not look into the eyes of any of the adults. She was barely able to resist shouting her elation as she realised that the Silverback receiving all the attention of two grooming females was none other than Barney. She moved closer, and sat at the edge of the group. There did not seem to be any concern shown by the group at her presence; one or two of the troupe looked up but then returned quickly to their grooming. Pleased with her acceptance, Evelyn gently slid her right hand down to her crotch, and started to tease her clit. Her idea was to make herself wet enough that Barney would smell that she was 'on heat'.

Evelyn's fingers reached into her vagina, and she realised that she was already wet with anticipation. With her new vagina it was easy to reach in with her hand and scoop out some of her juices. She smeared her face, lips and breasts to make sure that Barney would know she was the source of the exquisite smell. As she finished wiping the remainder of the juice on her thighs she heard Barney grunting, and, looking from under her fringe, watched as he pushed the two females away. Carefully, she turned around until her back was to him and then got on all fours so that her buttocks faced him. This was the classic gorilla 'submission' position; even male gorillas adopted this position when they were about to lose a fight to a more dominant male. The signal of the naked, exposed buttocks changes the animal's behaviour from anger to lust and even a male gorilla would prefer to be buggered than risk death.

As Evelyn crouched on all fours, naked in the grass, surrounded by the gorilla troupe, she wondered whether she was really doing this for science or her own personal gratification. Maybe they were one and the same thing. She parted her legs slightly further; Barney must meet no resistance...