Rotating Head

"You're shitting me, right?" Harambe's response was one born from his bewilderment about his current situation. "That sack... and not this table... is your real home?"

Erikson rolled his eyes at what he felt was a useless, redundant question. "That table is for when the rains are here. This sack is for when I can enjoy the stars without the damned acid rain crippling my skin."

Harambe, who had experienced the countless vicissitudes of two lives, had no immediate response to that logical answer.

"Who exactly are you?" Harambe's lone response was a question.

"Who exactly are you?" The spry old man's gaze felt like it could peer into Harambe's very soul, which was of Draken Alpha's.

"I am Crown Prince Harambe II of Ubwiza, son of Harambe—" 

"That I know." He peered ever so closer until his nose was inches away from Harambe's. "What I'm asking is, who exactly are you?"

Harambe's honed acting skills kicked in. His face became a blank, emotionless mask, also peering into the old fogey's very being. 

"I am what I am." 

"Pretty good answer, earned you the right to be invited inside the sack!" 

At first, he thought, 'how the fuck are we gonna fit in there? I'm massive, and you could barely fit in there.' However, upon closer inspection, now that the sack had been freed of all the garbage in it, Harambe saw the marking of an old, lit lamp, inscribed in it. 

"You're a Seeker?"

"Jump in after me, young man." Old Erikson neither agreed nor denied it. He just entered the sack with a small smile. For Harambe, who was watching him, it appeared as if he was descending down a flight of stairs. 

This time now that Harambe seemed to have gotten wind of what the old man's real identity must be, he followed suit into the sack without any hesitation. 

It was like entering another dimension. The space was not that large, enough for barely a single, albeit enormous apple tree and its above ground roots. Apples are abundant, there were even several shelves of books underneath the tree, a small couch, a lit gas lamp hanging on one of the branches overhead, and an active grandfather clock.

Harambe also noticed a strange phenomenon. The moment he arrived inside the space, he transformed into his gorilla form. His quick thinking skill honed through a thousand battles, allowed him to deduce that his suspicions must have been right.

The old man was a member of the Seekers.

Draken's knowledge of the Seekers was small and outdated. 

The Federation regarded the Seekers as a terrorist Ani-shifter organization bent on destabilizing the world through the use of its members ani-shifting abilities, among other things. 

As the commander of the Eighth Legion, he had been sent to eradicate Seekers' nests numerous times. Bloody battles almost always break out, leading to huge loss of life on both sides. 

King Harambe was confirmed not a member of the Seekers, amid widespread speculation of his allegiance. However, he was a known supporter, and collaborator for the longest time. 

Underneath the World Tree, the Seekers were a beloved organization made up of proud sons and daughters of the animal kingdoms. Harambe's forays into shifter kingdoms proved just that. This was supposed to be a secret society that every single shifter wanted to be a part of, but only a select few manage to enter. There was graffiti of lit gas lamps on every dark alley wall.

During his first few years in the Legion, Draken honestly believed that the hostility against the Seekers was exaggerated, and unwarranted. Since it was always the Legion initiating attacks against the Seekers unprovoked, and not the other way around. 

But as he got entrenched further and further into the system and unending cycle of hate, his thoughts have changed. 

Attacking them became a creed. It became a new obsession for him. Some sort of a reason for living, a reason to fight.

If we don't wipe them out, we'll get wiped out.

"What are you doing spacing out there for?" Out of nowhere, he heard Erikson's voice echoing throughout the space. He was nowhere to be seen, or at least, Harambe can't see his form.

Harambe was already thinking if he's one of those rare insect shifters. "Show yourself, old man! Why did you invite me?"

An apple fell to the grass and rolled towards Harambe. Upon picking it up, he noticed its deeper red hue which struck him differently than average apples.

"Don't fret, young heir, for I have several questions I want your answers for as well!" Harambe can't catch wind of wherever the old man's voice was coming from. Was it on the blades of grass? Was it in the air around him? Was it on the tree itself?

He munched on the apple as he circled around the tree. For the first time in this new life, Harambe felt true warmth. He stopped on his tracks, and feverishly ate the apple. His countless wounds closed up, his body glowed with pulsating light, his mind cleared up, and his eyes… teared up with his repressed emotions…

"This tree, and in conjunction, that apple, is from a seed of the World Tree." Now, Harambe saw another glowing being inside the space. 

It was a white owl, with its head rotated halfway to face Harambe. 

"You see, the tree must've acknowledged you as Harambe's son and heir, thus the fall of that apple." Erikson's long gash was also present on the owl's face. "But I want you to indulge me about this small curiosity of mine."

On all fours, the gorilla walked towards the branch where the owl was perched.

"Where do you stand on everything that's happening around us?" Erikson asked without much embellishment.

"Of course, I stand with the animals." Harambe was caught off-guard again, and uttered what he thought would resonate the best with the owl.

"We owe the existence of the Seekers to the World Tree, the same way all of us shifters owe everything to the World Tree." Erikson started on a topic Harambe always wanted to hear from a Seeker. "What the first shifter had done had nothing to do with what the shifters that came after him. What the Seekers were doing had nothing to do with what the first shifters had done against the humans." 

The owl hung itself upside down on the tree branch. 

"If you wanna fight the humans, if you wanna help both sides, if you instead prefer to not care at all, it's your choice." The owl's discerning eyes were fixed at Harambe, like he's reading his every move. "Don't let your father's legacies stop you from doing whatever the hell you want."

'What's the point?' Harambe thought to himself and gave a little smirk. "I'm gonna fight the humans, like my father always took great pride in."

"You don't even know what your father truly fought for."