The air hung thick and viscous, stiflingly laden with an intimate heat. Utterly enthralled, the boys leaned forward on shallow, feverish breaths, surrendering themselves to an intoxicating obsession with the sheer act of touch. As the sweet, dense musk peculiar to the beast filled their senses, they moved as if encroaching upon a forbidden realm. With a trembling, almost reverent devotion, their soft, pallid fingertips slowly breached the contours of the orangutan’s fiery, russet, and fiercely untamed fur.