Chapter 3: Who Are You Calling a Monkey King

Edited by: Chrome Masquerade, PonyDragon

“We must have done something wrong.” A High Shaman announced to all the others present.

“Inconceivable! The stars were right last night. Only once every 1000 years the planets and stars are aligned in such a perfect way that would allow this Ritual to even work. Failure should have been impossible,” another butted in, a mare if her tone and smaller muzzle where any indication.

“You do know that the Ritual itself doesn’t really do much besides giving the magic the stars provides a gather -and arrival- point, right? We just might have made some slight miscalculations and created the gathering point out somewhere in the desert instead of right here in the council chamber as we had planned,” another High Shaman pointed out, which in turn caused the entire room to burst into murmurs.

Some of them agreed and some of them felt worried instead. The entire council room became momentarily divided.

“I agree with High Shaman Narzukar over there. The magic was going to happen one way or another. So failure rates were pretty minimal to begin with,” High Shaman Akunezzar called out as he and another stallion entered the council chamber. The entire hall immediately went quiet as all attention was fixed on the two new arrivals.

“How can you be so sure, Akunezzar?” an elderly mare questioned, which was agreed upon those around her.

“Simple,” Akunezzar replied as he and his equal stopped and stood right in front the assembled council. “High Shaman Gilganash of the Sand Hunter Tribe over here has managed to sense the location where the magic coming from the cosmos has touched down,” he explained, which instantly earned everyone’s attention.

“Also, yes. That also means that our calculations for the ritual were off as well. Like… really off,” Akunezzar quickly added with a frown. Only a single cough was heard from deep within the group.

Committing such huge mistakes as a High Shaman, especially as a group, was more than just embarrassing. They should be the total experts of both magical and even natural phenomena and forces, after all.

“Anyway,” Akunezzar began, as he gestured towards Gilganash to his right. ”High Shaman Gilganash, can you please tell the assembly what you sensed and tell them what you saw?” he politely requested, to which Gilganash nodded.

He stepped up right at the center of the council chamber before clearing his throat. “A shooting star is what I saw in my vision, its path clear to the East of here. I saw a light erecting from that direction, a clear feel and sign that something has gathered there. We must gather forth, East from where we now stand. There we will find the missing hand,” Gilganash explained in his trademark speech that still held true to the ways the Shamans of old used to converse with one another.

The entire assembly began to murmur once again as Gilganash’s words registered in all of them. One of them was about to speak up when, suddenly, a knock on the still-open double doors caused everybody within the room to switch their attention to it.

A lone palace guard stood there within the door frame, bowing respectfully to the assembled hierarchy. “Respective members of the Zebra High Council, I have come with an urgent message,” the guard announced into the hall with his head still bowed.

Akunezzar raised an eyebrow as he stepped up towards the lone guard. “What news would that be?” He casually asked.

“A guard out stationed at the east gate of the city has spotted something that matches the description you had given us about the ancient Monkey King.” The guard informed stoically while raising his head.

This news caused a lot of wide eyes within the assembly, including Akunezzar, a rare feat given his usual stoic ways.

“Quickly! If the reports of that guard are true, then we must tell him to escort him here!” He quickly ordered after his shock wore off.

“Long done, High Shaman. The guard is escorting him and his companions over to the Council room as we speak.” The guard replied, which again caused Aku to rub his chin.

“The Monkey King has already companions?” He asked, which was answered with a nod.

“Two Zebras, one male, one female. Two market thieves, if the reports are correct.” The guard answered.

“Ah yes, I see. How clever this one must be. Just arrived, nearly in our hands and already making companions throughout the lands. Even thieves seem not immune to his wise ways. Surely the King, on this day of days!” Gilganash exclaimed as he retook his spot beside Aku.

Akunezzar nodded. “Indeed. We all know what to do then. We must prepare for the arrival of Zebrica’s - possible - new King. Quickly, guard. Gather your fellow guardstallions and -mares to properly receive his new highness in front of the palace gates. We must make first a good and strong impression to him if we want to show him that we are worthy of his rule, just like his ancestors before him.” Akunezzar ordered which was meant with a salute and bow before the guard went off to carry out his orders.

The room itself also quickly went into motion as all the other members of the high council prepared themselves for the arrival of a species that they had only heard from written works and tales of their ancestors.

“This is it. This is what all of Zebra-kind has been waiting for since our great demise in the past. A chance to finally rise up again with the help of a new human ruler, the new Monkey King, as from days long past.” Akunezzar thought to himself.

……………………………………………………………………………………….......................................................................................................................................................

“Oooh, look what’s over there! And over here! Look at all these fluffy little Zebras running around!” I cried out loud over and over again while I moved with my escort - and the two chuckle-fucks behind me - through the crowded city streets of, well… the bloody city.

Seeing and witnessing all of this ancient Mesopotamian architecture and even the Zebras around me was truly awakening the child in me. For the huge history buff that I am.

And speaking of kids, the moment I stepped into the very first markets of the city was the moment when I had started seeing a lot of these tiny little Zebra kids zipping about. And let me tell you, they were adorable as FUCK.

You think those little kids on Earth are cute? Well, these tiny - and over energized - quadrupeds where diabetes to my poor bastard of a heart. I could practically feel the sugar levels rising in my bloodstream just by watching them play without a care in the world with those big wondrous smiles on their tiny muzzles.

It was taking all of my willpower to not just run after them, catch them, pick them up -like how I would my cat-, pet them and try to keep them as my own while giving them all the name George. Yes, that included the girls as well, for some insane reason.

“Hmm... how about Georgette for them?”

My crazy antics and behavior had the unfortunate side effect of attracting all sorts of onlookers on our odd little caravan as we passed by. And by unfortunate I mean my poor companions, as they did clearly seem to be a bit embarrassed at how supposedly un-kinglike a creature of my size was behaving in open public. Minus the guard who was leading us. Either he was very good at hiding it through his helmet, or he just couldn’t bother to give one quarter of a damn.

“I am mostly positive that it is the later, just for the fun of teasing me.”

I even went as far as whipping out my tablet from the confines of my sweaty armpits to snap some photos with it, much to the confusion of the Zebras - and whatever else had four legs - around us. I even almost gave a local elderly mare a heart attack with it, after I literally shoved the camera on my Tab directly to her face to take a pic of the perfectly well-kept golden tooth in her mouth.

That was the shiniest golden tooth I ever saw. Of course I had to immortalize it, knowing that she wouldn’t live forever anyway.

A guy’s gotta love his bling-bling. Or in this case, someone else’s.

And some people criticize me for being completely strange out of the blue? The nerve of some people.

All of my vigorous picture taking was swiftly interrupted when something small and furry bumped into my left leg while I was busy immortalizing two kissing Zebra guards in an hidden alley who clearly didn’t want anyone to see them.

Nope. Not going to use it to blackmail them in the future. I am not that kind of a person.

I blinked, turning my gaze downward to see who or what it was. It was none other than a small Zebra foal that must have accidentally bumped into me while playing.

I smiled as the little girl (guessing from the eyelashes) was too busy rubbing her tiny head with her tiny hooves to even notice me.

“Greetings there young native, what brings you to headbutt my leg in the most unsuspecting way possible?” I say in a gentle and firm tone - to not scare her - while also trying to make myself sound as if I was an alien visiting other aliens on an alien world.

“I might very well be an alien on an alien world, now that I think about it.”

The little filly below me immediately froze when she heard my voice, before she slowly cranked her head along my leg, towards my torso and all the way up to where my personality is with her eyes going wide. First in shock, but then in wondrous curiosity, just like how kids are.

“Wow… you’re HUGE.” Was her first response, which just made me smile even wider.

“That’s what all the ladies say.” I reply with a stupid grin while making a proud pose. Yeah I know that she’s just a little girl but the inappropriate joke was too good to pass up, so I had to do it.

Plus she was too young to get it anyway, so no harm was done.

To my pleasant surprise, the little missy below me started to giggle at my silly antics.

“You’re silly, mister.” She said with a smile, which I gladly returned.

“Pfft. You don’t even know the half of it.” I said as I bent down to pick the little filly up from the filthy, FILTHY ground her rump was sitting on.

To my surprise again, all she did was giggle at me even more when I slowly picked her up from the ground, even going as far as making a ‘wheeeeee!’ sound when she realized just how high up she was.

“Your highness, please. We need to get going, to get you to the high council as quickly as possible. The assembly of High Shamans from all over Zebrica is all anxiously waiting for you as we speak. We have to get going.” My guard and escort, whose name I had recently learned is Bakuss, urged me as he stepped up.

“I still don’t see what the rush really is, here. Can’t I get myself better acquainted with the locals first, before taking my supposed ‘rank’ of ‘Monkey King’? I am sure taking such an approach first would be most beneficial for the kids than an assembly of 50 year olds.” I argued back which in turn made the guard in question look up it me with a tilted head at my weird way of wording it.

He was about to retort when a new speaker suddenly entered our ears from all the ruckus around us. Quite the feat, given the chattering and clopping of Zebras all around us. In fact, I suddenly could hear and see better like never before, now that I thought about it. I am normally wearing glasses to see, but for some reason my vision has been crystal clear ever since I got teleported here by unknown methods.

How didn’t I notice this before? I blame N&N for that. Their fuckery from earlier had clouded my already enough chaotic mind with even more distractions.

“Damn you two. Also, where are they?”

“Tillac? Tillac, where are you? Tillac!” A female voice shouted about within the audio clutter of the crowd around us.

I managed to pinpoint the direction the callings came from and swiftly found a - surprisingly fancy - white dressed Zebra mare with a swept-back light blue mane. She was surrounded by little Zebra kids of all stripes and sizes as she frantically searched around for the one that was making herself comfortable on my arm.

The little filly’s ears perked up when she noticed the mare’s calls herself before laying her gaze on her and pointing her hoof at her.

“This is Lady Susara, our caretaker.” The filly exclaimed while looking up at me.

“Lady Susara! Over here!” She called out while waving her tiny hooves.

The mare known as Lady Susara noticed that, as she looked over in our direction. She slowly snaked her way through the crowd directly towards us with her tiny herd following close by.

She eventually stopped right in front of us with a friendly smile on her face, even more curious was the fact that Bakuss next to me bowed respectfully to her, which immediately gave me the impression that whoever this mare was in front of me must be pretty high up in the food chain.

Bakuss did not disappoint. “High Priestess Susara, I see that you are taking your foals through their daily walk and play schedule from the orphanage. How has been your day been faring so far, High Priestess?” Bakuss greeted respectfully before slowly rising again.

The now named Susara smiled over at the guard next to me. “It was quite nice and productive as usual, guard. Both at the Temple and at the orphanage, foals can be quite a hoof ful but it’s always so worth it just to see them smile and so full of energy.” She answered before her gaze eventually landed back on me, or more precise up on me.

Even these Zebra adults only can reach me at mid torso on all four legs. This is also going to take some time in getting used to, having to constantly look down to talk to someone. But hey, at least now I can say that I am the BIGGEST in the group.

“And you must be our new future king, if my memory serves me correctly. It is such an honor to personally meet you and your kind in person, your highness.” Susara announced which a bow, which made me pucker out my lips a bit.

“This is also going to take some getting used to. All these girls bending over backwards for me.” I thought to myself as she rose back up to look at the filly that I was still holding onto my arm.

“I’d also like to personally apologize if Tillac over here was any disturbance to you, your grace.” She said, glaring at the foal briefly. “She is just a foal after all.” She quickly added with an apologetic tone.

I waved my mug-holding arm at her dismissively. “Nonsense. She was nothing but a little sweetie the entire time. I actually enjoy kids to some extent. Their careless smiles and energetic laughs are quite... intoxicating.” I responded which made her smile even wider while tilting her head curiously at me.

“Intoxicating. What an interesting way to phrase that.” She said with a giggle.

“So she is a High Priestess, then. A priestess of what would be the question. Makes you then wonder what kind of pantheon they believe in here, or if it’s all ancestral based? We’ll have to wait and see, I guess. Just like with everything else here so far.” I thought to myself as I gently placed the little filly back down with the others.

She was immediately flooded by the rest of her furry herd and assaulted with questions about me as if she would know them.

“I would guess that these kids are in range of 5 to 6, by the looks of it.” I pondered before Bakuss had to ruin my Zen once again with his ‘Hurry, hurry! We are late!’ attitude.

I know the guy was just doing his job, but at this point his whole ‘getting to the council’ thing was starting to get annoying. He was somewhat like a North Korean tourist guide in that regard. All planned, no fun.

“Oh, so you two are heading to the council, then? I am so sorry for having withheld you from that task. But, may I request that I could join you and your guides up to the old king’s palace on the upper levels? I wanted to educate these foals on some of our ancient history anyway, and show them around the old Palace complex built by our last king.” Susara asked politely with her rather sweet-sounding voice and behavior.

I simply grinned. “Sure. More black and white is quite welcoming. The larger the caravan the better.” I announced, with a dramatic pose at the end which again made the mare in front of me giggle and the guard… rolled his eyes?

“How dare he? This isn’t even remotely close to justifying an eye roll. What a noob. I shall educate him in the proper situations of eye rolling later, but for now I got a bunch of old people.”

“Speaking of people, where are N&N anyway?”

“Wait a sec. Where are Nami and Najero, anyway?” I asked out loud while looking around myself, having sworn that they used to be just behind me a moment ago when I was taking pictures.

Did those two see these two guards from earlier too and get horny from that again? Did they sneak off for some more R&R when I wasn’t looking? Good, because I had seen enough of that shit already and wished to stay away from it for a good while longer…or even forever. I am not into that kind of fetish anyway.

“They are here, Sire. We caught them trying to sneak away.” Two random guards suddenly came up from behind a group of citizens with the two siblings in tow.

“Ahh, so I was right, just couldn’t hold onto your urges for the rest of the day, now can’t you? And here I thought that you two had already learned your lesson. I am very disappointed.” I said, trying to mimic a very disappointed tone.

Najero gave me a lower tier glare for this, while Nami just blushed, looking off to the side. “We were not... We were just trying to get away from the guard when he wasn’t looking. As you can guess... It didn’t go so well.” Najero explained, as he and her sister got herded back to our little caravan of different classes and sizes.

I smiled. “Brilliant, which means everything is, once again, in order now. Come then, we have a Palace to crash into.” I said with much enthusiasm. That even surprised me, as I held my tablet at the ready for more immortalization (and heart attacks on my part) of the locals.

All the present guards simply nodded as they all followed me further into the maze-like streets of the city, followed by Susara and her herd of every adult’s worst headaches.

“Wait…you said something about a lessons. What lessons was THAT supposed to be?” Najero asked in a cautious whisper, despite the fact that two guards were hounding his ass.

I simply kept my gaze in front while replying in a hushed tone.. ”That you two should just get yourselves a room instead of doing it out in the open when some random crackhead can just stumble upon you two.” I said, before I grinned. “Oh wait no, you can’t. You two don’t have a room.” I quickly added, which gave me a groan in response by the guy and silence from the other.

Yes I know that joke was SUPER uncalled for, given the current situation of the two. But if I was truly going to be King of these striped equines, then the first thing I would do, I decided, was to get them out of poverty by giving them a place to stay and actually call home.

Without them I would have most likely never found my way to civilization anyway, despite being it relatively close to where I started. But I didn’t knew that and I was genuinely considering going north at the time, which meant that I would have missed this city entirely, and most likely died in the desert somewhere.

I am an ass but I am not an ungrateful one.

The rest of the trip up into the citadel of the city was pretty ‘meh’ in comparison to the first few starts I got so far. For some reason, word has quickly spread throughout the citizens that a strange, hairless monkey on two legs was trying to shove a strange flat device into every Zebra’s - or non Zebra’s - face, which meant the moment I pointed my tab at them they dove for cover as if it was a weapon or something.

One pussy of a stallion even hid behind his daughter while she simply smiled and waved at me. A true disgrace to all beings with testosterone on this planet or the whole universe at large.

Shame on you, unnamed stallion I will most likely never see again.

I do have to say that the view on the upper levels was quite interesting. Not only did the architecture and level of detail improve, such as more vivid colors and overall more artistic depictions of animals, landscapes and whatnot, but from here the entire east portion of the city was clearly visible, for all the houses and maze-like streets, that is. The large river bordering the city from the east wall was obviously also clearly visible from here as well with the green fertile fields just across it and - of course - the sandy wastes beyond it as well.

The entire trip up to the ancient Persian-style palace was surprisingly quiet. Except for the kids, who made a lot of ruckus and ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’, as kids usually do. N&N were mostly quiet as well, because of the two guards keeping an eye on them, which forced me to stay silent as well because I had nothing to talk or tease about.

We reached and passed through a large plaza and past a large gate, until we finally found ourselves at the luscious gardens that surrounded the palace compound itself.

I already knew from when I observed it from down on the streets of the city that the citadel-like position the palace compound had been placed atop a large and wide cliff overlooking the entirety of the city. I knew that it must have been big, but not as big or grandiose as THIS!

“Those columns are HUGE even for someone my size. Who knows how big this place must feel for these Zebras.” I wondered to myself as we passed through the main entry hall and out into the first courtyard of this Palace compound.

The courtyard itself was, once again, dominated by a beautiful collection of flora and fauna, even water fountains… and… oh, you know what? Just see it for yourself.

Yes. that is what I saw and I have to say, it’s absolutely magnificent.

Najero and Nami were just as awestruck. In fact, even more awestruck than me, since I would imagine that the Palace itself beforehand must have completely inaccessible for them their entire lives. Seeing so much beauty and luxury in one giant place must have been a whole other world for them.

My own awe was, of course, short lived as I just went back to taking pictures like the annoying dumbass tourist, that I am, to the overwhelming enjoyment of the little fellas, as they found my zipping and poking around from place to place to be quite amusing. I even took a selfie with one of the very colorfully dressed palace guards who found my sudden closeness to him really, REALLY awkward, which was totally planned.

I am not positive if all this talk of ME being their long lost king was true or not, but if in case it turns out nothing but a fluke then I at least have some nice, clear photos to take with me of what the interior of a Persian style Palace actually looks like.

Those historians and archeologists’ back home would pay a fortune for these, if not in fact directly murdering one another for it.

If I could somehow get back home, that is.

“Ugh. Your highness, could we please keep going? The council chambers are just around the corner here and the collection of High Shamans and priests are already anxiously waiting for you as we speak.” One of my guards pleaded while I was busy examining and poking the armor of a Palace guard up close by looking past its robes. The poor guard obviously felt quite uncomfortable with the close-up attention I was giving him. Very visible sweat was running down his helmeted head and down his snout.

Again, the little ones obviously found this absolutely hilarious, and even Susara was smiling under her hoof behind me. I think I might like her already.

“Yeah, yeah. I know. Formalities and all that. Sure let's go and see what the assembled councilors really want from me, then.” I replied with a dismissive wave as I left the palace guard alone, to his relief.

But one thing still struck me.

“Wait… I thought that only the so called High Shamans were waiting for me, and now a group of High Priests as well? When did they come into the mix?” I asked, with one of my escorts stepping up.

Did I ever mentioned that their completely covered heads and faces made it infuriatingly hard to distinguish who from who? Or if the Persian underneath all that steel and bronze was either a massive dick or a pussy? Well I didn’t, I guess. Completely out of random impulse.

“They were Informed and gathered here to attend the meeting to the arrival of the new Monkey King of Zebrica while we were busy making our way up. One of the Palace guards at the front gate has told me.” Bakuss explained, I could tell that it was him because I could recognize his whiny voice with the tone of “Let’s go, let’s go now!” anywhere by that point.

“Huh… so besides Voodoo people I am going to be meeting with the religious collection of harems as well? Seems legit.” I thought to myself.

“That is interesting. you Zebras must be pretty quick to organize, then?” I wondered out loud.

The guard shook his head, to my slight surprise. “No, with the utmost respect sire, but the thing is that they all had plenty of time to organize and make their way over to the Palace in the first place. It’s just that your grace has taken so much time… ’exploring’ the city - in your own unique way - that we are practically late for the meeting now.” He explained, which in turn just made me scoff a bit, because I felt it to be appropriate.

“Well, it is true that I have a thing for ‘procrastinating’ a lot when something important has to be done.” I explained while looking as if I was deep in thought while stroking my chin for effect.

The guard was about to say more to this when Susara suddenly stepped in.

“Well, it was pretty interesting, to say the least, your highness. I do hope by the gods and ancestors that your evaluation with the high council goes well. I would technically have to attend as well, being a High Priestess myself, but I have foals to look after and show around. So again, I bid you goodbye. May we meet again soon.” Susara explained as she and her gathering of munchkins filed themselves into a different hallway of the palace.

I simply watched her and her little herd leave for a while before I was once again hurried to following them back to the room that contained the ones who, more or less, hold my entire future in these lands in their black colored hooves.

Hooves I will most likely have to please, if they eventually dubbed me as their new Primate Overlord of the Deserts, in which case things would be both fun and probably very stressful pretty soon.

And I hate stress.

It was then when I noticed that both N&N were - once again - not present anymore, which caused me to pause, to the visible frustration of mister hurry.

“Where did diddle dum and diddle dee go to this time?” I asked out loud.

“They were momentarily taken to the Palace barracks for questioning and such. Do not worry. No harm will come to them as long as they behave.” Bakuss explained, before he went back to leading the way, which forced me to follow.

The key word is ‘forced’ because I had no clue where to go and had absolutely no plans on getting myself lost here on my first day. These maze-like hallways all looked the same for me and the rows and same-ish looking red and blue columns and banners didn’t help either. In fact, most of the palace interior was held up by rows and rows of oversized columns, but that was honestly to be expected, given what type of architecture and culture this whole complex was mimicking.

Those ancient civilizations LOVED their columns. These ones just happened to be red, sometimes with golden highlights but all ending in two depictions of blue bulls on top holding the ceiling.

We passed a couple more guards and even came across a few palace servants (I think that’s what these well dressed mares running around are for) before finally reaching a set of double doors. Two guards stationed in front of it wasted no time in opening them, which eventually revealed… yet another well decorated and very spacious courtyard behind it.

Me and Bakuss stepped through it to the outside, which made me frown. “Well, we just stepped into another courtyard/palace garden similar to the first. I thought you were leading me to the galactic senate?” I questioned, which made Bakuss look at me funny for a moment, thanks to that last statement I made.

He quickly recovered, though, before pointing a hoof at the other end, which had another beautifully decorated structure with a golden dome on top of it on the other side.

“This is the council building on the other end. That’s where every representative of every Zebra tribe in all of Zebrica is waiting for you, sire.” Bakuss explained as we continued to move once more.

I looked around myself as I followed him. “For a council building it’s actually located pretty deep within the Palace itself. How is the average citizen going to get here is they first have to go through the ‘Forest of columns’?” I asked.

“Well, that is very simply sire, it’s because we through the front main gates that lead directly into the Palace complex instead of the Gates that lead onto to the Council chamber at the back.” Bakuss explained, which immediately made me frown more deeply when a thought crossed my mind.

“So you’re basically saying… we just took the long way, then?” I asked as we quickly reached the so-called council chamber.

“Basically, yes.” Bakuss casually answered which made me grumble silently to myself.

We eventually reached another set of huge double doors, which were guarded by even more palace guards. Go figure.

The two guards didn’t hesitate for a second as they immediately went over to open the double doors as we approached. It was then when a really stupid but ultimately fun idea entered my bronze cranium. I smiled at this as I quickly handed over both my tab and my trusty mug at Bakuss.

“Here, can you hold these for me for a second, im going to blow these old guys hair off with an entrance they will never forget.” I exclaimed as I practically shoved my items directly onto the completely confused Bakuss’s hooves before quickly whipping out my phone from my pocket.

“What… what are you going to…?” He dried to ask as he was struggling to keep my stuff from falling off his hooves.

I mostly ignored him as my thumb quickly glides through the touchscreen of my phone, trying to find the exact song that would be most appropriate for this idea.

“When they see THIS they will wanna make me their new king for sure. Nobody can resist such sweet moves, even a bunch of Voodoo hoodoo and pop wannabes.” I exclaimed as I finally found the song I was looking for and quickly got into position.

The doors quickly opened, which revealed a full room of Zebra’s.

“Why didn’t I think to this sooner?” I thought to myself as ‘I got the power’ song by Snap started playing.

………………………………………………………………………………………

“No, no. The Steppe Riders tribe will not trade away the Northern Savannas for the Karack Plateaus, no matter how much silver might be there in these desolate lands.” High Shaman Ukahp Khan argued back at another High Shaman by the name of Sharzat seated across from him.

The old stallion in question frowned with a huff as he fixed Ukahp with a level headed glare. “Your foolishness in bargaining with us is quite astonishing. Only fools such as you lazy Savanna hoarders can be that dense. You know very well that your tribe isn’t even using the northern regions of the grassy steppes for anything. Why not just give it to us, the Tashika Tribe? We have great need for these fertile lands to cultivate, and in exchange you have the Plateaus to the west filled with silver, which we have no use for.” The old High Shaman argued back, his tone clearly filled with annoyance.

Ukahp Khan glared back at him for his words. “For starters, those lands have been with us and our deep ancestors for many millennia. We will NEVER trade them for ANYTHING, especially not to such greedy Zebras from the Tashika Tribe. And furthermore…” He began before leaning over the table dangerously towards Sharzat. ”What did you call our tribe back there?” He queried with gritted teeth.

“I can say the same to you.” Sharzat hissed back, as his and Ukahp Kahn’s muzzles were almost touching each other.

“By the gods, would you two QUIT IT?! We are here to await the arrival of the one who will solve such issues, not to start another-” Akunezzar tried to argue, before his speech was stopped when the large doors leading into the council chamber were slowly being pushed open. Not only that, but a strange tune was coming directly from the slowly opening doors which literally caught the attention of every mare and stallion in the room.

“What in the God's name is that Music?” one High Priestess asked as it was getting louder.

“I have… no clue. Is there maybe a band playing nearby?” A High Shaman mare asked with her Zebra ears at full attention.

Everybody in the room was confused and momentarily lost. Even Aku, as he was forced to recover quickly as he spotted a bipedal figure slowly emerging from the intense light of the outside world.

“I think that must be him… the Monkey King himself. Everyone, quick this is the-” Aku tried to say but was stopped when he saw the so-called Monkey King strolling into the room as if he came back from a victorious campaign with his arms wide, his head held high with a huge smile and a straight tall and proud walk. The music seeming to come directly from him.

“Behold, behold, the King of Monkeys has come and has heard your pleas for aid on your trouble times so that I can… oh SHIT…” The new Monkey King tried to announce before his proud stroll got interrupted by the rather very well polished surface of the council rooms floor.

He tripped and fell forward like a sack full of corn and comically slid the rest of the way into the chamber, face down with the odd music still blaring from his form.

The entire room was silent, minus the still playing music as everybody within the chamber watched in shock and awed silence as their new King made his way to the round console table in the most un-kingly way imaginable.

Sliding along the floor, face down, while groaning.

“Well… at least he was enthusiastic at the start.” One of the Zebra’s blurted out as the song was slowly coming to an end.

Author's Notes:

In case some of you are wondering how Susara looks like, she is actually featured ON the cover art of this fic. The mare on the right.

Also the Image I used on this chapter is obviously not mine, just found it randomly in the internet and immediately liked it as a perfect representation of a Ancient Persian Palace. But I found the guy who made it on Deviantart, so all credit to him for the pic.

http://ircss.deviantart.com/