The Girl Who Stole an Elephant

by Nizrana Farook

  “We need to go,” said Chaya. “Come on, Neel.”

  She ran towards the jungle with Neel, trying not to scream with the pain. Nour followed them with her bags. “Come on, it’s just here.”

  She found the place and stopped at the clearing. And there it was. Her rather unusual getaway vehicle.

  Neel turned to her in shock. “Oh my lord, Chaya. What on earth have you done?”

  “I didn’t have much of a choice, you know! I was in pain and blacking out, and had to get out of there without the use of my foot!”

  Nour shrieked. “What the— What kind of a kleptomaniac are you?”

  “Shut up! I just said I had to steal him to get away. Get on, Neel, we need to go now.”

  But her friend was staring in horror at the gentle bulk of Ananda, the King’s own elephant.

  “I’m not getting on that thing,” said Nour.

  “Good,” said Chaya. “We’re not asking you to.”

  Neel held up a hand to quieten Chaya. “Miss Nour, I don’t know why you came here. Thank you very much for helping us, but your joining us is really dangerous. You must go home.”

  “It’s a bit late for that.” Nour snorted. “I’ve already been seen. They’ll be looking for me now.”

  “Oh please. This isn’t some picnic by the river.” Chaya didn’t think Nour was taking this seriously. They were in so much danger, she didn’t want an innocent like Nour, however idiotic, to be dragged in. She went to Ananda, approaching him from his right side, and stroked his grainy hide. “Er, Neel, can I talk to you for a minute?”

  Nour glared at Chaya and walked away a little. She dumped the two bags on the ground and turned her back.

  “We’re not taking her,” Chaya whispered when Neel came to her. “No way.”

  “You heard what she said,” hissed Neel. “She can’t go back now.”

  “But she can’t come with us! It’s out of the question.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because…” Chaya cast around in her mind for a good enough reason. “Because, well, because she’s a meat eater.”

  Neel frowned. “So?”

  “So? What if she gets hungry? She might take a bite of Ananda.”

  “Oh, don’t be ridiculous.”

  “Fine, but it’s all on your head then.” Chaya patted Ananda’s back leg and commanded him to kneel, just like she’d seen the mahouts do.

  “He might not respond to you,” said Neel.

  “Sure he will. He’s very friendly. I see the palace elephants having their bath in the river all the time. I know Ananda’s mahout too.” She’d only spoken to him once, but whatever.

  Ananda bent down and angled his leg dutifully. Chaya stood on it and hoisted herself on to his back, moving up so that she was sitting at his neck. It was good to be off her foot again. Ananda felt warm and reassuring under her.

  “Miss Nour,” said Neel, turning to her. “You next.”

  “Wait a minute.” Nour looked from Neel to the elephant. “Where exactly are we going?”

  “Into the jungle, Miss Nour. We’ll be able to escape from the King’s guards in there.”

  Nour’s eyes widened. For the first time it looked like she realised what she’d got herself into.

  Serves her right, thought Chaya.

  “D-deep into that? Isn’t it dangerous?”

  “Well … not as much as people think,” said Neel. “We have no choice really. The King’s men are bound to be searching the roads out of the village right now. We have to go somewhere they wouldn’t think of looking immediately.”

  “But is there no other option? This can’t be safe for humans.”

  “It’s not that bad, Miss Nour. Really.”

  “Yeah,” said Chaya, from atop Ananda. “Except for the leopards.”

  Nour went white.

  Neel glared at Chaya. “Leopards don’t attack humans unless they feel threatened. As long as we keep away from them we’ll be fine.”

  “True,” said Chaya. “A leopard hasn’t killed a villager in like … a whole week.”

  Nour whimpered under her breath.

  “And the bandits,” said Chaya. “Don’t forget the bandits.”

  “Chaya! You’re not helping,” said Neel.

  “What, are we trying to convince her to come with us now?”

  “We’ve been over this,” said Neel. “She can’t go back.”

  Nour looked slightly ill.

  “Miss Nour, trust me, this is the only way.” Neel nodded towards the two sacks in Nour’s hands. “Do you have salt in there?”

  “Salt?” Nour looked from Neel to Chaya. “Why would I have salt?”

  Chaya and Neel exchanged a glance. “It doesn’t matter,” said Neel. “We’ll be fine.”

  Chaya groaned. “Look, Neel. She won’t be able to stomach a journey like this.”

  “Oh, stop it,” said Nour. “I’ve gone on camel journeys through the desert that last for weeks.”

  “What’s a camel?” asked Neel.

  Nour’s mouth fell open.

  “Don’t you dare!” said Chaya. “Neel had to stop going to school to help his family. And who cares about a stupid camel anyway?”

  Nour surveyed Ananda with something like suspicion. “How fast can this thing go?”

  “This thing is an elephant, and he has a name. Ananda can go faster than you think.”

  “But how do you hide an elephant from people? It’s going to be more of a problem to us than a solution.”

  Chaya laughed. “Ever been inside a rainforest? You’re going to be so surprised, desert girl. The trees are like a canopy around you, so much so that sometimes even the sunlight can’t get through.”

  “But won’t he leave a trail? Of broken trees and stuff.”

  “There are herds of wild elephants in the jungle. It’s a place of, you know, wildlife.”

  The sound of horses’ hooves rent the air, much closer this time. “We need to go,” said Neel. “Guess I’ll be mahout then, since no one else is volunteering.” He picked up a stick and went to Ananda’s side. “Please get on, Miss Nour. We don’t have time to lose.”

  Nour looked stricken and she backed away. Neel tied the two sacks together and flung the whole thing over Ananda so each sack hung either side of the elephant’s back. “Come on, Miss Nour. Please get on. We need to get into the jungle.”

  The horses were getting closer and soon they could hear shouting.

  “Miss Nour, we’ll have to leave without you.”

  Nour scrunched up her eyes and stepped on to Ananda’s bent leg. She flailed her arms at Chaya, who yanked her up on to the elephant’s back. Neel hopped up nimbly behind them.

  “Go, Ananda!” shouted Chaya, rubbing her feet on the back of Ananda’s ears.

  Ananda straightened his leg and rose up with a great swaying motion, making Nour scream and grab at Chaya’s hair.

  “Stop it!” Chaya yelled. “Don’t be such a baby.”

  Ananda moved slowly through the wilderness, picking his way to the forest. Behind Chaya, Nour squealed and rocked as if she was on a boat, and grabbed on to the elephant’s hide. Chaya wasn’t sure if Nour was scared or happy, but she was making a lot of strange noises.

  “Will you shut up?” she yelled over her shoulder.

  Ananda lurched towards the jungle, gradually speeding up. He crashed through the foliage, his powerful tusks smashing their way between gaps. Chaya ducked as branches scratched and tugged at them. With the jungle appearing just ahead, Neel tapped Ananda gently on the side and urged him on. Ananda gathered speed and barrelled his way into the undergrowth with Nour shrieking loudly as they plunged into its depths.

  “You do realise we’re making a getaway, don’t you?” Chaya yelled over Nour’s shrieks.

  Nour was hysterical. She had tears running down her cheeks but was laughing as if she was on the rocking cart at the village fair.

  Neel looked behind them, checking to see if anyone had followed. “I think we�
�re all right now,” he said.

  They rode on for fifteen more minutes, until they were quite deep inside the jungle. The trees became taller and malkoha chirps echoed from their tops.

  “Stop, Ananda,” called out Chaya, squeezing her legs together gently.

  Neel slid down Ananda’s side. “Chaya, you’d better stay on. Miss Nour and I will walk.”

  He helped Nour off the elephant. She practically skipped down as if she couldn’t wait to get away.

  Chaya watched Neel and Nour’s heads bob beside her as they walked. They kept a leisurely pace now. The air was thick with the smell of lush greenery and damp earth. The forest was getting denser, although Ananda made short work of knocking down any obstructing foliage in the way. One foot crunched through a rotting log on the ground as easily as an axe through a plantain tree.

  “OK, we need a plan,” said Chaya.

  “Yes, we’re as safe as we can be for the moment,” said Neel. “But once the King’s men realise that we’re not on the High Road they’ll start to search the jungle.”

  “I have an idea.” Chaya rubbed Ananda behind his right ear with her foot, steering him gently round to the left of a fallen tree. “If we keep heading south we could get to Galle. It’s far enough for us to be safe from the King’s men, and we can hide there till we work out how to fix things. That’s where Vijay and his family are now.”

  “That’s this boy who got attacked by a crocodile,” said Neel, for the benefit of Nour. “He’s being treated by a medicine man there.”

  “And hopefully getting better,” said Chaya. “We can trust Vijay’s people to take a message to our families, so we could let them know we’re safe.”

  Neel nodded. “That makes sense. I know Galle. I’ve been with Master; he does a lot of trade there. There are plenty of tiny fishing villages nearby we could go to, where nobody would have heard of any of this.”

  “Great. All we have to do is get there without being caught. And then figure out what to do.”

  Chaya sneaked a glance at Nour. She hadn’t the faintest idea what they were going to do about her.

  They kept to the sparser parts of the jungle, well away from the thick undergrowth. After an hour of walking Chaya’s stomach was growling.

  The sun was high in the sky when they stopped to rest.

  “I’m starving,” said Chaya, sliding off Ananda. She gently put her weight on her foot to test it, and it felt only slightly tender.

  “I have some food in the bag,” said Nour, seating herself on a fallen tree trunk, as far away from Ananda as possible.

  Neel fetched one of the bags. Inside were two combs of ripe plantains and a bag of flatbread, and the fried sweets from the sideboard in Nour’s house. Chaya took a handful of the sweets and stuffed them in her mouth. They were sugared and crunchy, and she ate ravenously. She noticed Neel do the same, although he threw one of the combs of plantains to Ananda first.

  “Mmm,” said Chaya. “I’ve been dying to taste these ever since I saw them on your sideboard the other day.”

  Nour looked up from picking at her food in astonishment. “You didn’t take any?”

  Chaya laughed. Nour didn’t know her at all. “No. I didn’t.”

  There was a sound of gentle rustling and Chaya turned to find Ananda picking leaves from high above with his trunk.

  “Aunty must be furious,” said Chaya.

  Neel looked down at the ground. “I keep thinking of my parents, too.”

  “That’s the first thing we should do when we get to Galle safely,” said Chaya. “Send word to them.”

  “Mine will be glad I got away, though.” Neel leaned back on a large upright stone. “They must be finding it so hard without my wages. Your father promised to help them but I need to figure out how to get back to them. How we can all get back home.”

  “We have to find a way to undo all this. Make the King forgive us, or disregard everything that happened.”

  Neel said nothing to that, and Chaya didn’t blame him. Just saying it out loud sounded so ridiculous.

  She licked her fingers and munched on a flatbread.

  “How about you, Miss Nour?” said Neel. “Your family must be so upset. They don’t even have any idea what you’re mixed up in.”

  Nour nodded and looked down at her shoe. Something unreadable – like fear or guilt – flitted across her face.

  “We’ll think of something,” said Neel. But he didn’t sound convinced at all.

  Chaya looked at Nour, who was smoothing the beadwork on her shoe with a fingertip. She had gone quiet, and didn’t eat any more.

  Neel stood up, looking much better after the meal. “Come on, we need to keep moving. We’ll stop again when the sun goes down.”

  Nour sighed but got up too. She dusted sugar from her dress and trudged after Neel.

  Chaya climbed on to Ananda and they moved off. The sun beat down as the day got hotter and hotter.

  “Once Chaya’s foot is properly healed you can ride the elephant, OK?” Neel said to Nour.

  Nour nodded towards Ananda. “I thought they could carry loads of weight.”

  “They can,” said Neel. “With their trunks. You should see the place where the Master and I go to buy wood. Once the trees are cut down it is elephants that lift and move the logs. And they get the elephants to put them into the river to transport them downstream.”

  “That’s remarkable,” said Nour. “I didn’t know you could train them to do things like that.”

  “Oh, they can do all sorts; they are quite intelligent. But I don’t think too many people are meant to ride them. That’s why Chaya and you need to take turns.”

  “What about you? You should have a turn, too.”

  “Oh, I’m used to walking long distances. I take cinnamon from my father to traders in different parts of the island when I’m not working for the Master.”

  “Is your father a cinnamon peeler then?”

  “Yes. I used to do it too, until the Master gave me the job in his workshop.”

  “What’s it—”

  “Will you stop talking, Nour?” said Chaya. “Honestly, we’re on the run here.”

  Nour glared up at Chaya. “We’re in the middle of a jungle. Miles away from anyone.”

  “Still. You never know who’s listening. And anyway, Neel doesn’t want to talk.”

  “I don’t mi—” began Neel.

  “He’s just being polite,” said Chaya to Nour. “Now, keep quiet.”

  Nour rolled her eyes.

  Ananda padded soundlessly through the jungle, his muscles moving under his rough hide.

  “Do you know if we’re going the right way, Neel?” Chaya asked.

  “Yes, I’ve been watching the shadows changing,” said Neel. “We’re heading south.”

  “Is it going to be jungle all the way?” asked Nour.

  “About half of it,” said Chaya before Neel could answer.

  “Serendib has a lot of jungle,” said Nour.

  Chaya huffed. “What would you rather? Horrible dry deserts?”

  “I was just making conversation.”

  “No need. We’re fine without it.”

  When evening fell they came upon a cave, set above the ground on a thick ledge of rock.

  “Finally.” Chaya slid off Ananda and stretched. The day was much cooler now and a chilly breeze blew through the trees.

  She stepped up on to the ledge. It was smooth and even, perfect for a fire. She looked in at the mouth of the cave and found it in near darkness. “Hopefully no leopards,” she said, savouring the gasp of horror from Nour. “This is a good place to stop for the night. There’s the river too, for drinking and washing.”

  Neel hunted on the ground and picked up a rock. “Let’s make a fire. That way if anything’s in the cave it should come out.”

  While Neel struck rocks together Chaya went and found sticks and branches for the fire. She laid them for him on the rocky ledge and soon he’d got a fire roaring.

>   He took a torch of burning wood into the cave. “All clear,” he shouted, his voice muffled and echoey. “It’s a very small cave, actually. No animals.”

  Nour had gone to explore their surroundings and came back with some wild jambu in a cone she’d made out of a large leaf.

  Chaya pounced on them at once. “Woo hoo, jambu. But this isn’t enough for our meal. What else have you got there in your bags?”

  There wasn’t much left. They gave Ananda the remaining comb of plantains, which only left the sweets from earlier. The rest of Nour’s supplies consisted of things like bedsheets and toiletries.

  Chaya sighed. It was a wonder Nour didn’t bring her maid.

  Neel came back with a wild breadfruit, which he cut up using his carpentry knife. He sharpened the ends of some sticks and passed them to Chaya and Nour, and they stuck chunks of breadfruit on and toasted them in the fire.

  “Mmm,” said Chaya, popping a piece of hot breadfruit in her mouth. It was toasted and crispy on the outside, moist and pillowy inside.

  “They are nice,” said Nour, nibbling hers delicately.

  Neel threw Ananda a chunk of breadfruit, which he caught neatly in his trunk and polished off in a second. Neel laughed. “It’s probably like eating a peanut to him. He needs something more substantial.”

  As if in answer Ananda knocked down a plantain tree with his tusks. He began stripping off its foliage bit by bit, eating almost the whole tree in a short time.

  “There you go then!” Chaya laughed and rested on her elbows, munching on the toasted breadfruit.

  “Father must be so worried,” said Nour. “I wish I could let him know that I’m OK.”

  Neel stared into the fire. “I think we all wish that.” He threw another branch on the flames and the fire sparked up. “What about your mother?”

  “She died three years ago,” said Nour.

  Chaya looked up.

  “I’m sorry to hear that,” said Neel.

  “Thank you,” said Nour. “What about you, Chaya?”

  “No mother either. Died when I was a baby. Father will be worried, but at least he knows the situation.”

  “Really?” Neel stared at her. “He knew you were breaking into jail? What was his reaction?”