He returned to the small clearing and crouched behind the survivor, and his breath caught in his throat.
This human was female. He had never seen a human female before, at least from what he could remember aside from puzzling dreams of a female who’d held him in her arms and sang to him. He’d refused to come near the part of the forest where Bwanbale had said humans visited. His only experience with other humans had been violent and dangerous, aside from Bwanbale.
But now he wished he had ventured closer to other humans much sooner. This female’s hair was the color of sunlight. He ached to touch it. He crept closer, staying crouched lest she attack. Female gorillas would sometimes snarl and attack males who crept up on them when they did not wish to mate.
He grunted in the tongue of his
