Elephant Dreams

The great orb hung in the sky as I stomped through the jungle. There are fewer of us then there once was, but we make do. We have no other choice really. We wander, consume and when we return new life has sprouted among our leavings. Our task, as ever, has been to guard and replenish the jungle around us. We are the planters of seeds, the carriers of hope and the keepers of memory. Our kind has walked this earth for millions of sun turns. We are long lived, and our memory stretches even farther than our lives. We remember when the jungle was vast and though there were dangers, our place among them was assured. Now we watch as our home becomes smaller and our numbers fewer, we trumpet for our dead and the dead of our brothers and sisters. We weep for the furred and clawed, and for the small and stinging. We mourn the gentle and big eyed and all the others. When the last of us take our final steps in this place, who will be left to remember us?

               A shadow fell across my path as lumbered towards the rising place. The water hole should be full now, the rain last night was heavy and oppressive. How I longed to pour water over my sweaty head and feel the coolness and freshness of it. My trunk swayed side to side as I picked up the news of the day. There had been loss of life and the beginnings of it. During this season, many found themselves in the thralls of the mating. I, myself, had not yet felt the sting but I had seen others succumb. I would scoff at these. No great bull in my tribe made my tusks itch and so I was content.

               “kippy, kippy kippy” twittered the feathered creature who had decided to use my ample head as a perch and personal buffet “ Kippy, there is someone new, someone new! Aren’t you excited? Isn’t it fantastic? Can you even believe it? It's so great, so great! Someone new!” I took a deep breath and exhaled through my mouth. Sometimes when this little one would speak it was so fast and chittery that it gave me a tusk ache.

               “slow done, little one. What do you mean someone new?”

He flopped down to my eye level and did a few aerial acrobatics, then he landed on my trunk to catch his breath.

               “There is a small creature by the water. It's got fur but only on top, and its skin is all different colors. It sings but I don’t understand its song and it uses strange tunes I have never heard. It smells funny too, oh it's so exciting. Something new!” he flew up and around my head in excitement. I felt my trunk run cold. This description meant trouble. Though my feathered friend had never seen one like this my family had and our stories do not usually end well when we come across the hairless ones. I sighed heavily. We were all meant to be gathering soon to continue the great march across the land but with a hairless one about, we were in danger.

               “You be careful little friend. They may look small and harmless, but they are not. Stick close to me and we will see what this creature is. “

We made our way to the water hole, as quietly as possible. Through the lush leaves I spied a small hairless one sitting at the edge and wailing at the top of its little air pockets. It was only a child I thought, those really were harmless. I took a step forward and the child spotted me. It blinked and suddenly smiled. I took another step, now nearly in the clearing and the child giggled and reached its chubby little hands towards me. I was mesmerised by the tiny creature. I reached my trunk towards it and felt around its tiny little face. All the usual smells were there, salt and sweat and urine. A very young child I decided and lifted the tiny thing by the scruff. It screamed and panicked. I put it back down. Once back on the ground it tried to stand but could not keep its balance. It fell onto its tiny rump and began to howl again. I nudged it with my trunk and the child wrapped its arms around me. It quieted and began to suck on one of its digits.

               “Now what am I going to do with you?” I thought as I began to play with the child. I wondered where its mother was, these creatures rarely left their young unattended, but accidents happen. My own mother had been killed when I was just old enough to begin foraging for myself. I put these thoughts aside. This little one was innocent.

               “Kippy, Kippy, Kippy what will we do with it? Wont it be hungry?” He plucked a small annoyance off my head and ate it with delight. Of course, I thought, children are always hungry. We would need to bring it back to its own kind, but how? It doesn’t like to be lifted.

               “little one,” we need to find this child’s people. They do not stay in one place for long, find the place with light that shines from the ground. Find them and come back to me. It’s a big task for one so small I know but be brave. I know you can do it.” He landed on my tusk and shook out his feathers.

               “Kippy, Kippy, Kippy, I will try. Stay, I will be as fast as I can.”

I curled my trunk around the child, and it curled itself into a ball and went to sleep. Its warm rhythmic breathing lulled me into a meditative state, and I opened my mind to our ancestors.

 my vision three sentinels stood before me to offer their wisdom.

               “Leave the child to its fate. It cannot survive on its own and will die. It will not grow to be an adult of its kind and kill more of ours. So say I” The largest elephant took a step back now that his piece had been said.

               “Care for the child, it will grow and then die but it will have lived, it will not mate or bring more of its kind to the world so our kind will be safe. So say I “the female Elephant stepped back.

“Return the child. It will grow and mate, it will make more of its kind, but perhaps your act of kindness will begin a new chain of them. Perhaps they will convince others to stop killing our kind. So say I. “The smallest yet oldest of the elephants stepped back.

I found myself back at the water hole, the sleeping child still nested in my trunk. I looked down at it. So small and vulnerable and I knew in that instant that I could never harm it. I would take it back, for no creature should be deprived the gift of the mating. I chided myself for my earlier scoffs at those who had succumbed. What I did not want for myself I could not deny the choice of to this child. I would take it back. Though it may cost me my life, I would take it back.

“Kippy, Kippy, Kippy!” screeched feathers as he came back to me. “I found them, I did! There were some but not so many, they were all sitting around a ground light and eating strange things. They smelled funny, like the child. I flew towards the setting sun, they were outside the jungle, so I did not get too close, but they were there. Poor little child all alone, but we will bring it back hurray!” He landed on my tusk and went to sleep. He had flown a great deal that day and I knew he was tired. I thanked him though I do not think he heard me. I extricated my trunk from the child’s grasp and found a large leaf. Since it did not like to be lifted, I gently rolled its sleeping form onto the leaf and began to drag it slowly across the jungle floor.

It took the rest of the night to get to the edge of the jungle, when I felt the changing wind from the open land I knew was in danger. The child awoke and began to cry.

I understood that I had two choices. One, to leave the child and hope that its people would come for it. Two, continue to drag the crying child closer thus ensuring it was found. I continued to pull. Out in the open now, exposed, I heard a great trumpet in the distance and raised my head far enough to see a great big elephant bull running towards me at great speed. On his back I noticed another hairless creature and for a moment I was appalled. The child grabbed hold of my ear for a moment and the pain brought me back. It let go and I stepped between it and the charging bull. His expression when he was close enough to make out, was that of concern and confusion. He was being, led and herded by the tiny creature at his head. I felt sure he would crash into me, knocking me down and then trampling the child and I bellowed for him to stop. To my amazement he did. We eyed each other cautiously and touched trunks briefly in greeting. I had never seen him before, and he was beautiful.  “why did you come?” he asked, “you are in danger here” he looked at me in earnest and I stepped away from the child. Revealing it to the elephant and his rider.

“I couldn’t leave this little one to die” I said quietly, trying not to disturb the child, who had gone back to sleep in all the confusion. The rider slipped from the elephants back and gathered the child in his arms. The child made small noises but remained asleep. The large elephant looked at me and then down onto one knee he bowed to me. My tusks began to itch and a vision of us together, in the jungle with a calf began to flood my mind. I blushed the way only an elephant can blush and caressed him with my trunk.

“you love these small and hairless ones, don’t you?” I asked and sheepishly he nodded to me. “Have you never been with your own kind?” I asked and he nodded again.

“When I was a calf, I was abandoned, and these hairless ones raised me. I owe them my life.” He patted the man on the head affectionately. Then he caressed my face, as if trying to commit it to memory.

The rider looked at us both and nodded, He took the gear from the Elephants back and scratched him behind one giant ear. He said something in their strange language and the two touched heads in a display of affection I had not realized was possible for those not of our kind. Then the rider and child began the walk back to their camp leaving me and this beautiful bull in the darkness.

“has he abandoned you too?” I asked, feeling sadness that I did not understand, but the elephant only nuzzled me with his trunk and pressed his frame against mine.

“He let me go” he said kindly. “they are not all bad. Some of them are kind and gentle and brave.”

“Come on” I said playfully, batting him with my tail. “let’s get you home.”

Together we stomped back into the jungle, my mate having finally found me, our numbers could increase once more.