The Amazon Untangled
With utmost curiosity and dexterity, the monkeys swung through the numerous branches to see the special reason for the commotion. As soon as they reached the place they saw each other and squealed in multiple ways.
Fed up with the excessive curiosity of the group, the older female, the one who had given birth, raised her new baby so that everything would end immediately and she would be left alone.
The astonishment was resounding. As would happen with similar species, the reason was the unusual. This new offspring had a "crest" on its tiny head that caused all kinds of emotions in its congeners.
Given the mother's discomfort, the father used his dominance over the group and gradually chased everyone away.
Days of intense rain passed until a bright morning showed all the carnival splendor of the Amazon to "Crest" for the first time in his life.
Days, months, years followed that first wonderful sight, but Cresty, as he was known later, never stopped thinking about it. His astonishment took him to explore with his long limbs and tail every possible space that the rainforest had for him.
On a normal day, Cresty would compete with other young monkeys in the group to see who could reach the fruits at the top of the trees first. He would also imitate the sounds of different animals and his family would hug him as a show of pride. He would jump up and down, do somersaults at all angles and sometimes annoy the older monkeys until they decided to chase it away and Cresty "flew off", at last, to take a dip in the rushing river.
That was generally how Cresty's early years were every day. Just fun. But something into him changed drastically early one morning when he went to breakfast.
He had an unparalleled hunger and looked longingly at numerous fruits on the surrounding trees. He thought about eating them all. His mind was full of fruits until something very heavy fell on its head and caused it to lose its balance for a few moments. By the time Cresty came back to his senses, he saw something really big in the leaf litter. It was a fruit almost as big as he was.
His excitement showed in his jumping and the short, intermittent sounds he made. He couldn't believe his luck, and wasting no more time, he took a leap from the middle of the tree he was descending.
The giant fruit and he, an unexpected love blessed by the Amazon. Cresty walked around it with the greatest curiosity, touching it from time to time to confirm that he was real. As if it were the river itself, Cresty then took a few steps back and ran to dash with the greatest joy towards his feast.
This would have been the happiest moment of his life, but he was suddenly attacked by several spider monkeys. Among them was a cousin who was always bothering him.
Cresty tried to do something to take the big fruit with him, but it was impossible since they were five against one. With extreme brazenness, his cousin and the other monkeys began to eat in front of Cresty the blessed fruit that the Amazon had recently given him.
Cresty felt something very strong in his chest. It was an internal heat that gradually took over his body and incited him to do things he had never even thought of before.
However, the new will inside Cresty did not last long, and he then chose to lose himself in the thicket of trees that was full of fruits but because of the disappointment he had just experienced, they were invisible to him.
Cresty remained somewhat distant from the group of spider monkeys over the next few days. It didn't matter much if they encouraged him to play or annoy the older ones, he didn't seem to care about any of that.
Meanwhile, the Amazon continued to be a space filled with all kinds of shapes, colors and sounds that Cresty was familiar with. One night, however, he heard something different in his sleeping hours. It was differently terrifying. It was a terrible mixture of snapping branches, deafening roars and screams from his family.
As if it were daytime, Cresty passed through all the branches of the place in the blink of an eye and saw in horror, the scene that interrupted his sleep.
A jaguar, with a spider monkey in its mouth, surrounded by a dozen others, was trying to escape to eat peacefully. The group of monkeys would not let the jaguar to escape, much less kill the poor victim, who was none other than Cresty's cousin.
Cresty hesitated on doing something, but then the popular spider monkey pounced on the big jaguar as if there was no tomorrow. It was something that none of his species would risk doing even in the greatest urgency. He quickly positioned himself on the feline's back so that it could not reach him with its teeth. It was an almost hopeless fight, but Cresty managed to hold on and dodge the danger. While the other monkeys distracted the jaguar, Cresty attacked its eyes, trying to get it to let go of his cousin and let everyone else go.
Everyone, including his cousin, now missing an arm, was amazed at Cresty's bravery for attempting something that many in their right minds would never attempt. Even Cresty himself could not believe what he had done. He acted under the force of a feeling similar to the one he had that time his fruit was taken from him.
Because of that event and all his qualities, Cresty ceased to be in the following years just a mere agile and intelligent monkey. Cresty became the alpha male of the group, being admired, respected and even imitated.
Cresty was proud of himself and the whole group because no matter the species, they were all dominated or outwitted by them. This tribal security was maintained, let us say, until a midday when a strange silence engulfed the Amazon.
As Cresty shared with his companions a feast of fruits and leaves, several unusual noises could be heard in the distance. The leader of the spider monkeys soon became alarmed and wanted to find out what the creatures were, but it was impossible.
The rumor of danger was approaching, but the spider monkeys did not know exactly what to do. Suddenly, the rumor turned to anguish when, like ripe fruit, the monkeys fell to the ground one by one without no apparent reason.
In panic, the monkeys still standing wanted to flee, but several creatures on two legs, with strange skins and elongated things in their hands, showed themselves and began to block all the exits, throwing colorful darts at the monkeys' bodies.
As Cresty contemplated this sudden chaos and experienced a new pain inside him, he knew he must move or he would fall to the invaders, too. In fact, his agile body was already in readiness to leap to escape, when Cresty felt a tug behind him before he was stuffed into a large backpack. In the blink of an eye, Cresty's reign was over.
"Paulo, did you get one of them?"
"I told you I did not! All the monkeys I captured on my own were also sold."
"You'd better, boy. Don't lie to your father. Remember, we're not a zoo and money's tight."
Paulo thought about saying something else to his dad, but he preferred to go to his room so as not to listen to him anymore.
This irreverent young man was in charge of going wildlife hunting in the northern Amazon with his father and about ten other hunters. This group of hunters usually sold the animals as food or as pets to people from all over the world.
After several years in this business, Paulo did everything almost mechanically until he came across Cresty, whose unique appearance caught his attention. Paulo felt the need for affection and thought he could find it in a pet.
For about two weeks, Cresty secretly interacted, with ups and downs in his mood, with his new companion. Some days he thought about escaping from that cage with no trees or fruits, but Paulo kept a close eye on him. Cresty knew that he was always three steps ahead of his plans.
The relative tranquility with which the three of them had lived together up to that moment was interrupted when one evening, while Paulo and his father were having dinner, Cresty had a fit of urges to go out of the need for freedom, for finding himself in the wild again.
"What on earth was that, Paulo?" asked his father who rose in anger from the table and picked up his rifle.
"That would be the wind knocking over my lamp. There is gonna be a problem if you come into my room," shouted Paulo at last.
"Already all the trouble is upon you, idiot!" his father replied briskly.
Then by the time Paulo's father opened the door to the room, Cresty immediately jumped on his face, not letting any bullet hit him no matter how much the crazed hunter fired.
When Paulo saw that his father had no more ammunition, he went to where he was and took the rifle from him, smashed it against the floor and took Cresty by force. With barely something to eat, Paulo ran away with his pet as far as he could and never again had contact with his father or any hunter.
Even as a teenager, Paulo was clear that he no longer wanted to hunt animals, but to protect them. He saw that there were fewer and fewer of them and that the time would come when there would no longer be any trade related to animals or even the Amazon itself.
At first it was difficult, but after half a year, the Paulo-Cresty duo succeeded in founding the first conservation group in the Amazon, which gained numerous collaborators in just a few days.
On a morning of special carnival splendor like that when he was an offspring, Cresty accepted the fact that he would never see his group again, but as co-leader of the conservation project he could regain some home sense he once had while interacting with the other species, who soon recognized him as the most joyful and protective of all.
