Over on the Western Rim, Lord Fidium rubbed his hand along the red dragon emblem on his brown shield. He liked the symbol of his people. He looked up when he heard a group of gorillas approaching on horseback. His squad had reached Ape Town in less than a day.

The lead ape was Togris. He was a large black-haired male. His back was just starting to silver, which happened to most gorillas after they passed mid-life. Togris was tough, but had a fairly good disposition, for an ape man.

Togris and his raiders came to a stop a few feet away from the yule patrol. The raiders wore leather armor and leather helmets. They were a fierce looking group.

Their primary choice of weapon was the short spear, which could be thrown, or used for hand-to-hand combat. Several of them had six to eight of these spears strapped to their backs.

“Friend Fidium, what brings man to Tuggle City?” Togris grunted out, recognizing Lord Fidium from previous encounters.

 “Greetings Raider Togris. I need to see King Gorin. It is of utmost importance,” Fidium responded.

“What is important to man, is not always important to ape,” Togris replied, but after a moment’s thought, added, “Man Fidium is friend to ape. Follow me.”

Lord Fidium’s patrol followed the ape raiders towards the city. The ape men liked Lord Fidium, or more accurately, liked his reputation. They knew the story of his Quest, which had occurred about ten years ago.

Fidium had climbed up Timber Lake Mountains, looking for adventure. Within a few days he had become disorientated. He wandered about, lost for three weeks, encountering neither goblin nor man.

He exhausted his food supply, and fearing starvation, had eaten an unknown variety of purple mushrooms. They had a bitter taste. His memory of what had occurred after that was blurry.

Fidium could remember dancing naked around large bonfires and howling at the moon, causing some goblins in a nearby village to flee in terror, thinking him to be a possessed mountain spirit.

Still, the majority of his memories were random and unclear, and time had seemed meaningless. Fourteen months later, he had walked into Sev Village, naked and covered in green goblin blood.

It caused quite a ruckus, because he had been thought long dead. It was even more odd that he had went up into the mountains from Tortle Village, nearly on the opposite side of the Upper Glen.

Lord Fidium had babbled incoherently for several hours, and then fell into a deep slumber that lasted a full day. The only thing that he had carried out of the mountain were two brown sacks, both filled with goblin heads from the Black Eye Tribe, numbering fifteen in total.

People had reported that for the next several days he had a blank stare on his face, and although his memory of who he was eventually came back, he never recovered much memory of what had occurred during his fourteen-month Quest. Since then, he had flashes of memories that made no sense to him.

Another oddity that occurred was that Fidium had not been considered a very intelligent man when he had gone up into the mountains, but when he came down, his ability to reason had grown considerably. Lord Fidium attributed this as being a side-effect of the purple mushrooms.

The smell of Tuggle City interrupted his reminiscing. Tuggle City was basically a series of thatched huts, about twenty in all, ranging from small to quite large.

The first thing one noticed when approaching the city was the smell, which came from a large trench that surrounded the entire village. It was about twenty feet wide and twenty feet deep.

The ape men used it for both sewage and garbage, so it was quite rank. There were two rope and plank bridges across the trench, one on the west side of Tuggle City, and one on the east side.

These bridges swayed and slightly buckled under any weight, yet seemed sturdy enough. Still it was somewhat nerve wracking to cross over mounted. Both bridges were always guarded by ape warriors because they were the only way into the city.

There were several hundred ape men living in the village, along with an equal number of women and children. The ape warriors had tried riding yules, but the larger, less intelligent animals were more temperamental than horses, and did not like the apes on their backs.

So, the apes rode horses, like the men of the Lower Glen, broken into four Raider Patrols. One of the four Raider Patrols was always out patrolling the Western Rim.

The apes and men crossed the eastern bridge and headed towards the largest hut located in the center of the city. Two very large black ape guards leaned against the wall near the entrance of the giant hut.

“Man Fidium enters alone,” one snarled, while the other pulled back a large cow hide, exposing the interior.

Lord Fidium climbed off his yule and followed one of the big ape guards into a large room. It was actually more of a lair than a room, for lack of a better word.

Several male apes lay about on piles of animal hides, with several female apes feeding them various foods. Numerous animal skulls adorned the walls, giving the room a primitive, almost savage appearance. The whole thing was lit by large barrel fires.

The most impressive sight in the room was a giant silverback sitting on a throne made from various animal horns and hides. He was easily twice as large as any other ape in the room. A young female ape was hand feeding him grapes.

“Greetings Gorin the Gorilla King, my respects to you and your mighty people,” Lord Fidium said as he bowed low and averted his gaze.

It would be considered a challenge if he looked the Gorilla King in the eyes, and Lord Fidium had no intentions of challenging the huge ape, ever. The giant gorilla gave off an aura of strength and power, creating fear in all but the strongest of men.

“Lord Fidium, friend to Tuggle City, what brings man here?” King Gorin’s voice was gravelly, yet booming.

“Trouble in the Upper Glen your Greatness. Many goblins are advancing into our shared lands,” Fidium answered.

“The green man are always in our lands, which may be trouble for man, but not for ape,” King Gorin scoffed. “We kill all green man we see. They are no match for strength of ape.”

“Your Greatness, it’s more serious, because we believe that goblins from all seven tribes are invading our lands. We seek an alliance with apes to deal with this threat,” Lord Fidium pressed.

“Man seeks alliance with ape? What has man done for ape? Ape raiders kill green man in all the Upper Glen. Does man respect ape for this?” the king growled. “No, man calls our village Ape Town and avoids ape when man sees him. Alliance with man? There will be no alliance with man!”

Lord Fidium had not known that the Gorilla King knew what men called Tuggle City. He thought about his response carefully, before answering, “What has men done for apes? I’m not blind, your Greatness. This chamber has quite a few hides lying about. Cow hides, I believe? The very armor that your raiders wear is made from cattle, yet apes aren’t herdsmen. Men herd cattle.”

Fidium paused, deciding that he needed to be firm. “Apes have been raiding cattle from our herds for years, yet High King Tronin has decided not to respond to this, out of respect for the treaty between our ancestors. The destiny of apes and men are intertwined in the fields of the Upper Glen!”

“Grrrrrr!” King Gorin let out an angry growl as he charged Lord Fidium, pounding on his own massive chest.

The man took a knee and looked at the ground, fighting his instinct to run, or to look into the eyes of the monstrous ape hovering over him.

Apparently pleased with Lord Fidium’s passive response, King Gorin returned to his throne and after settling in, continued, “Ape is no thief. We only take what we have earned for killing green man, your enemy. Man King Tronin respects ape for that, as we respect Tronin.”

The apes actually feared the high king because they believed he was a wizard, and the apes had no love for magic. Tronin had used that fear on several occasions to keep them in line.

Tronin allowed the occasional cattle raids, because it kept the aggressive gorillas busy. Besides, he would have freely given the apes the cattle if they had bothered to asked.

“Consider the hides payment for keeping the Upper Glen safe,” the Gorilla King said, and then let out a series of snorts, with the other apes in the room quickly joining in for what Fidium recognized as being the ape’s way of laughing.

“Your Greatness, my king only wishes to warn your people of the danger, and seek your aid, if you see fit to grant it,” Lord Fidium replied, and then continued, “Also King Darian suggests that you move your females and young to Hogarth Hills, until this danger passes.”

“Ape respect man Fidium and his king. We know of your many months in the mountains. Ape does not like the mountains,” King Gorin grunted out, matter of factly, then continued, “Out of this respect, ape will accept the warning of man, but ape and man will not fight together, nor will any ape retreat in fear to Hogarth. I will send out my Raider Patrols, and they will rid the Upper Glen of man’s problem. Then, maybe man will be more generous, and give ape more hides.”

The Gorilla King turned to his side, ignoring Lord Fidium, as if they had not just been talking. It was the apes’ way of ending a discussion. Lord Fidium bowed low and backed out of the room.

A short time later, Lord Fidium and his patrol left Tuggle City at a good pace. These meetings with the Gorilla King always drained him, so he and his men would camp nearby tonight in the fields of the Western Rim.

Lord Fidium could not imagine sleeping in Ape Town, not that the hospitality was offered. In fact, apes had little manners, nor showed much concern for the welfare of the other races. It was not the apes’ way.