No young person deserves to go through what he went through, Noa used to think. But now, that he lay in his bed of hay prepared by his loved ones on the high towers he had built. He can no longer say the same, as he looks amongst his children and their children for his successor, he is conflicted.
From losing his father as a teenager, watching his people get kidnapped and enslaved, he was dragged to the parts of the world he never knew existed.
He was made to confront things he thought were never possible, and about the apes as being themselves. Even parts of himself that he had to make peace with.
Being made the chief of his people at a young age. He did what he could to lead his people in the way he knew best.
He created and built from the scourge of the beings that ruled the earth before him. The beings that he knew, one day would come and claim what they believed was theirs.
Noa spent 9 years of his life as a chief in peace, or the illusion of peace that he had created in the shadows of Eagle Valley. He married his childhood friend, bore three children. Regardless of everything he had learned and created, the ghost of the past stayed on the back of his head.
So when the rumours of a deadly weapon-yielding creature started spreading, he was afraid but not unready.
But with it came droves of apes from all across lands, some of them he recognized, he had once saved them, led them to victory. They recognized his wit and intelligence, and also his kind and gracious nature, as he had asked for nothing in return for saving them, not even for slaves or wives.
Now these same apes have come looking for a leader who can lead them once more, and they have brought along others for shelter.
Noa understood that they couldn't win against a weapon that leaves mass destruction; he had seen it before, but he never had a chance to learn or understand it.
So, he had to ask for help. And received it.
They came in their tanks, killing and destroying, and uprooting nature. Covering their face with things that hide their likeness to destruction.
The fight lasted 6 months and took many lives, humans and apes alike, but they retreated. And Noa claimed victory in his village; they chased them off to the land beyond.
Though younger than he is now, Noa had seen the destructive nature of both creatures and thus his skepticism about using the weapons that were left lying on the battlefield.
The constant need for power and greed, and to rise above all and rule, lies dormant in the hollow of the chest of all the great apes.
Proving him true.
The apes from far-off land went rogue, started looting villages, taking slaves, and killing. With the weapons that could kill on sight, the fellow apes had swiftly invaded many clans.
And Noa had found himself in the midst of war again. Only 6 years after the first.
He won at many cost.
Years of fighting aged him beyond his years, his body visibly older and his soul tired. Noa learned that apes, after all, aren't much different from things that they are afraid of and constantly worry about, as he continued to fight 2 more wars with his fellow apes along the course of time.
But it also made him wiser; many looked up to him and respected him in his older years.
He brought peace, resolution, made chiefs of clans, acquired unoccupied lands, and created new villages. He tied knots between the young apes of one village to the other, as the elder, he thought his fellow elders to lead and guide.
But many despised him, those who wanted him gone, and many who sought his place.
Noa was dragged back to his last and final war at an old age of 41 years of his existence.
Shattered from his last hope by his fellow apes, and in his attempt to keep peace.
Noa created the resolution of the Kingdom, combining all the lands occupied by the apes.
The kingdom without the king, but one elder to guide, upon whose death will be replaced by another wiser elder.
And Noa the first elder of the kingdom, banished many who betrayed and hurt their fellow apes, but also welcomed many others from different lands that had come looking for shelter and protection. From whom he learned and also thought many things from each.
He brought forth new laws of the land.
"No kings, no leaders, only apes."
As he lay welcoming his death, he knew better. That the world he knew and was leaving behind for his bloodlines will be gone someday.
Because every ape, like their predecessor who ruled these lands before them, is capable of lies, deceit, brutality and dishonesty, and betrayal.
Even Noa himself.
He harbored some things unimaginable in his heart.
He never forgot about her; he had looked for her face in death, in birth, in war, and in all his victories. But most of all, he had lied, for her to protect her.
Noa feared for the coming generations; he prayed and hoped they might never find themselves in his position of loss, hurt, betrayal, and heartache.
May they never have this confliction.
But he had always been right in his convictions.
Because a young ape that will come from his bloodline will dismantle everything that every generation of apes has built, created, and had set forth in place, for those same conflictions.