๐๐ฒ๐ต๐ญ๐ช ๐๐ช๐ฎฬ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ข๐ฒ๐ต๐ฎ๐ท๐ฝ
A Mission in the Name of Mother Nature
The afternoon sun slanted across the tall grass, which barely stirred in the breeze. A young male gorilla sat alone on a small rise in the middle of his spacious enclosure. Around him, flowers grewโcarefully planted and tended: lilies, grasses, ferns. Everything looked like the jungle. And yet, it was not the jungle.
He didnโt look toward the visitors beyond the barrier. Not toward the keepers. Not at the ropes or the rocks built for him. His brow was furrowed. Something stirred inside himโsomething he couldnโt name.
Not hunger. Not pain.
Something deeper.
An instinct that seemed to whisper: You are hereโbut you do not belong here.
Then, something moved among the blossoms. At first barely visible. Then clearer. Something upright. Too bright to be an insect. Too small to be a human.
The gorilla slowly closed his massive hand. Not harshly, but gently. When he opened it again, there sat a tiny figureโbarefoot, bare-skinned, with delicate wings and eyes that seemed to pierce through everythingโmischievous and wise all at once.
Hilda Maรฉ.
She didnโt smile, but she didnโt look surprised either.
โYouโre one of the silent guardians,โ she said, almost whispering. โAnd you feel it, donโt you? That this isnโt quite real. Not wrong, but not fully right either.โ
The gorilla gazed at her for a long time. No anger. But no peace either.
Hilda gently placed her small hand on his nose. Her voice grew firmer.
โYouโre not where your ancestors lived. And you feel somethingโs missing. Thatโs not imaginationโitโs memory without pictures. Itโs in your bones. In your genes. In your breath.โ
He didnโt move. But something flickered in his eyesโa shimmer, a spark.
โYouโre not free. I know that. But youโre not forgotten either. The people hereโnot all, but manyโdonโt just see an animal. They see something theyโve lost: a connection. To roots. To the earth. To a time before all this noise.โ
She paused. Not out of fear or uncertainty, but to let the silence settle.
โThe jungle isnโt here,โ she said quietly. โBut you can stand for it. Not as an attraction. But as an ambassador. A living reminder of whatโs at stake.โ
The gorilla breathed deeply. Slowly. Heavily.
โIfโand only ifโyouโre treated with dignity. If your family is protected. If people listen to you, not just look at you.โ
She glanced at the humans along the edge. Children, parents, grandparents. Some laughed. Others stood silently, reading the signs about these magnificent beings in the wild.
โSometimes,โ Hilda said softly, โwe have to make compromises to save something. No zoo replaces the rainforest. But sometimes a good compromise is better than doing nothing and always complaining. As long as we preserve knowledge and pass on respect, there is hope.โ
She gently placed a flower in his hand.
โYouโre part of that hope. Not because youโre here. But because you are seenโand because you awaken something that must not be lost.โ
A gentle wind stirred through the trees of the enclosure.
Hilda Maรฉ spread her wingsโlight as air, translucent, shimmering in the fading light of a long day.
The gorilla let her go.
No fear. No resistance.
Just a quiet understanding.
-Samara Blue/Kerstin Ellinghoven
Wings ยฉSadriel/3DShards/
https://3dshards.com/store/sadriel-xv/
Made with DAZ Studio I Iray I No Postwork I Krefeld 14.06.2025
3dshards.com
- kerse(1).jpg (78.19 KiB) Viewed 549 times
Wild Hilda visiting the local garden center
Animsakari
Baby Cacti
Bad Seed
Csubbi
Sleepy
Tanci
