hide as you deserve!”
Shioni dashed out of the castle as fast as her game hopping on her stick could take her, earning herself a swat on the head and a curse from the gate guard on the way. Her feet slapped along the path; one loudly, one gingerly. The General misunderstood her. He had been tempted to hit her, back there. Why was he in such a fierce mood? But she had a good idea what she would find down at the pen. No elephant would choose to birth its calf in the full view of men.
Her urgency must have communicated itself to the elephants, for they were all lined up waiting for her–and pointedly, quite ridiculously, in fact, ignoring the elephant-sized hole in the fence right alongside the Chief Elephant. Like a group of naughty children who had enjoyed a stolen piece of honeycomb, she thought, they looked smugly pleased with themselves.
Right. Shioni summoned up the memory of her dream and let them have it right between the eyes.
The elephant handler was trying to tell her something when the Chief scuttled out of the pen, as well as a twelve-foot-tall bull elephant can be said to scuttle, twirled his thick trunk around Shioni’s waist, and deposited her on the back of his neck between his great, flapping ears. He gave her a testy blast from his trunk.
“We’ll go get her!” Shioni called over her shoulder.
The handler shook his head, obviously convinced she was a crazy girl.
Shioni, used to riding Thunder, felt as though she was perched up among the puffy white clouds dominating the sky, lightening even as she watched from the depthless blues of night into a radiant dawn. It was awesome. And scary. The huge male elephant was so bulky, she felt that once he began to run, he would be unable to stop. The handlers said Chief was the biggest elephant they had ever known. His tusks alone were longer than a man is tall.
Oddly, however, he had stiff hairs on his back that pricked her legs like thorns. Her leggings were no match for them. Struggling to find a comfortable position quickly become more important to her than worrying about falling off!
Choosing a path Shioni had seldom travelled, Chief thundered down-valley from the castle. He angled steadily away from the river, through a thicket of acacia trees and tall elephant grasses, until they were right up against the base of the cliffs. He kicked up clouds of red dust as he forged along through the tall but sparse tan grasses; but at nearly fifteen feet in the air Shioni was above all of that. She frowned. Was there a cave down this way? A shallow one, quite different to the one the Wasabi had used to steal into the valley, as she recalled.
Why had the elephants let Beauty give birth in private, knowing there were so many hyenas in the valley? Not that elephants ordinarily had anything to fear from hyenas. But a group of hyenas, especially Kalcha’s oversized pets, could make life very unpleasant for a mother and her calf. The witch’s hyenas had come so close to killing Anbessa…
“It’s the elephant way,” the Chief interrupted her reverie in his deep, unhurried tones. But his pace did not slow one bit. “The mother will find a secluded place. Calves are usually born at night.”
“Are you listening to my thoughts?”
“You aren’t hiding them. I can teach you, if–”
Remembering how the Chief had ‘taught’ her before, she blurted out, “No! Chief… I’m sorry. That came out wrong.”
“Well. You are learning.”
What she was learning, Shioni thought crossly, was how much the Chief elephant enjoyed having his own way! She remembered exactly how he had meddled in her mind before. What he meant was that she was learning manners, and he was nothing if not a stickler for good manners! But if she was patient in listening to his interminable stories, Shioni had found there were always nuggets of wisdom to be gleaned from the great pachyderm. And he had been so concerned about her after her near-drowning…
Lost in her thoughts, Shioni was
Shioni dashed out of the castle as fast as her game hopping on her stick could take her, earning herself a swat on the head and a curse from the gate guard on the way. Her feet slapped along the path; one loudly, one gingerly. The General misunderstood her. He had been tempted to hit her, back there. Why was he in such a fierce mood? But she had a good idea what she would find down at the pen. No elephant would choose to birth its calf in the full view of men.
Her urgency must have communicated itself to the elephants, for they were all lined up waiting for her–and pointedly, quite ridiculously, in fact, ignoring the elephant-sized hole in the fence right alongside the Chief Elephant. Like a group of naughty children who had enjoyed a stolen piece of honeycomb, she thought, they looked smugly pleased with themselves.
Right. Shioni summoned up the memory of her dream and let them have it right between the eyes.
The elephant handler was trying to tell her something when the Chief scuttled out of the pen, as well as a twelve-foot-tall bull elephant can be said to scuttle, twirled his thick trunk around Shioni’s waist, and deposited her on the back of his neck between his great, flapping ears. He gave her a testy blast from his trunk.
“We’ll go get her!” Shioni called over her shoulder.
The handler shook his head, obviously convinced she was a crazy girl.
Shioni, used to riding Thunder, felt as though she was perched up among the puffy white clouds dominating the sky, lightening even as she watched from the depthless blues of night into a radiant dawn. It was awesome. And scary. The huge male elephant was so bulky, she felt that once he began to run, he would be unable to stop. The handlers said Chief was the biggest elephant they had ever known. His tusks alone were longer than a man is tall.
Oddly, however, he had stiff hairs on his back that pricked her legs like thorns. Her leggings were no match for them. Struggling to find a comfortable position quickly become more important to her than worrying about falling off!
Choosing a path Shioni had seldom travelled, Chief thundered down-valley from the castle. He angled steadily away from the river, through a thicket of acacia trees and tall elephant grasses, until they were right up against the base of the cliffs. He kicked up clouds of red dust as he forged along through the tall but sparse tan grasses; but at nearly fifteen feet in the air Shioni was above all of that. She frowned. Was there a cave down this way? A shallow one, quite different to the one the Wasabi had used to steal into the valley, as she recalled.
Why had the elephants let Beauty give birth in private, knowing there were so many hyenas in the valley? Not that elephants ordinarily had anything to fear from hyenas. But a group of hyenas, especially Kalcha’s oversized pets, could make life very unpleasant for a mother and her calf. The witch’s hyenas had come so close to killing Anbessa…
“It’s the elephant way,” the Chief interrupted her reverie in his deep, unhurried tones. But his pace did not slow one bit. “The mother will find a secluded place. Calves are usually born at night.”
“Are you listening to my thoughts?”
“You aren’t hiding them. I can teach you, if–”
Remembering how the Chief had ‘taught’ her before, she blurted out, “No! Chief… I’m sorry. That came out wrong.”
“Well. You are learning.”
What she was learning, Shioni thought crossly, was how much the Chief elephant enjoyed having his own way! She remembered exactly how he had meddled in her mind before. What he meant was that she was learning manners, and he was nothing if not a stickler for good manners! But if she was patient in listening to his interminable stories, Shioni had found there were always nuggets of wisdom to be gleaned from the great pachyderm. And he had been so concerned about her after her near-drowning…
Lost in her thoughts, Shioni was
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