Swept Away

Rajah and his friends were playing on the banks of a river when a strong wave caused them to slip. The boys were too young to fight the current in the middle of the river and it swept them away. 

Long after the three boys had fallen unconscious, they washed up on a sandy beach bordering a forest. Rajah woke up first, coughing and spitting water, and rushed to wake up his friends. All of them clumped together near a tree and looked around. The forest was unfamiliar and the branches seemed to curl towards them creepily. As they sat there, soaking wet and scared out of their wits, a gorilla walked out of the tree line and approached the river. 

Sarthak whimpered before slapping a hand over his mouth; the gorilla turned towards them. All three of the boys shuddered with fear and screwed their eyes shut. However when they opened them a minute later, the gorilla was gone. It returned a little while later with fruits. The boys warily grabbed one each. The gorilla tilted its head as if it wanted them to follow. Rajah looked at his friends and decided that they weren’t getting anywhere by sitting under a tree. 

The boys warily followed the gorilla into tree cover. It guided them to a huge tree in the middle of a clearing. The tree had a hollow base and inside were little gorilla babies. It was warm and cozy inside. The gorilla nudged them inside and left. 

Over the course of a few weeks, the boys had adjusted to life with the gorillas. The mother would bring food and the babies and the boys would sleep or play the rest of the time. They learnt to climb trees better. They learnt which fruits were not poisonous. The gorilla were extremely good at picking healthy leaves. However, the boys still thought pretty much all leaves looked the same. 

One day, as they were playing with one of the gorilla kids (the others were sleeping), a tiger burst in. Rajah grabbed the gorilla kid and ran. The other two followed. Rajah was getting tired. So far only their size had kept them out of the tiger’s belly. They skidded around trees and jumped over trunks. Suddenly he spotted a crevice into a cave nearby. His tiny body slipped through easily and he quickly tugged the kid in after him. His friends ran through seconds later, the tiger’s claws narrowly missing Sarthak’s back. As they collapsed on the ground panting, the tiger growled and paced outside. 

After about two hours, the tiger left. The boys then realized that they had no idea where they were. Suddenly Yuvraj remembered how the mother was able to find them wherever they were. He suggested they simply wait and so they did, mostly for lack of better options. After another few hours, the mother gorilla charged into the clearing. She inspected the claw marks outside the crevice and roared loudly. The boys and the baby ran out. 

She carefully looked all of them over and then dragged them back home. After picking up the other two kids she motioned for the boys to follow her. She led them to a pond surrounded by rocks in the middle of a grove of trees. It seemed as if she had just found it that day. Rajah and his friends dived in and started splashing. The gorilla babies tentatively joined them a little while later.