Work Text:
Vin of the Jungle #2
by Pirate Turner
"You should not go."
"I have to go. I am the leader; it is my job to protect our people. How can I protect them if I do not know what we are fighting?"
The baboon gestured with a hand to the bookcase Vin had carved for him long ago out of dead wood. "You know what they are. You know what they bring: trouble, disease, suffering, death . . . "
"But in order to destroy them," Vin returned, "I have to learn them. I can only defeat them if I know their weaknesses."
The old baboon sighed and hung his head. He knew his son was right, but it scared him to no end to let the strange, little one he had loved since the first day he had come to their island go to face such deathly danger. Vin lifted his face in his hands and looked into his eyes. "I will come back, Father."
The baboon nodded. "Be safe, my son." They embraced, and he watched as his son left him to go face what he might never return from. He stood with tears in his eyes, then shook his head. He could not let him go alone. He called to their toucan friend, sent him with a message winging out over the animals who could help, and then followed his child at a distance. He would do whatever he could to help and protect his little one.
The End