by Bear Grylls
Anil panned the camera around, but there was no sight of the young elephant. He glanced at a computer screen, which showed the drone’s position on a map. A wriggling line represented the movement of the aircraft since it had been tracking the elephants, and there was no mistaking a sharp U-turn in the herd’s path.
‘They’ve turned round!’ Anil exclaimed.
Diya zoomed out of the map until they could see their own location twenty kilometres away. The herd had plainly been walking away until they’d recently turned back on themselves. Diya traced a finger in a straight line from the herd’s trajectory. It headed straight back to the logging town.
‘Why would they be coming here?’ asked Mak.
‘They’re not,’ said Anil, but there was doubt in his voice. ‘It looks as if they’ve turned to search for Hathi.’
Mak’s mother spoke up. ‘Is that common behaviour?’
Anil hesitated before answering. ‘They are very protective of their children. Just as we are.’ His eyes shot to Mak as if to emphasize his point. ‘But I have never witnessed this before . . .’
Mak pointed to a network of black lines running through the jungle. The elephants had crossed over a couple of them. ‘Are those roads?’
‘Trails made by the loggers,’ Anil growled. ‘They cut down anything in their way to get deeper inside.’ He pointed to a spec on the map that lay near a distinctive V-shaped valley. ‘The roads were originally used by farmers here. They use the flanks of these limestone hills to grow fruit and rice; they’re harsh slopes that they call Spiny Ridge, but the land is fertile. The farmers are no friends of the elephants, though,’ he added darkly. ‘To them, the elephants are a threat to their crops and land.’
‘Do you think the herd knows where Hathi is?’ asked Anula, engrossed in the drama.
Anil sighed. ‘It’s so sad to lose one so young, but sometimes it is nature’s way. He could have had an accident, been attacked . . . Who knows? Unfortunately, it happens. It can’t be helped. That is the law of the jungle, after all.’
‘But surely if that had happened, the rest of the herd would know and wouldn’t be looking for him now?’ said Mak.
Anil shook his head. He didn’t know. Yet somehow Mak had a horrible feeling he knew. He gripped Diya’s arm and gently pulled her to the hut door where he spoke softly to her.
‘This might sound crazy –’ he checked the others were not listening – ‘but do you think Hathi may have been elephant-napped?’
CHAPTER FOUR
The sad news of Hathi’s loss cast a sombre atmosphere over the camp. Darkness fell and they settled down for supper. Mak’s family were all yawning before the meal of rice, chicken curry and coconut had finished. Jet lag was catching up with them.
Mak, on the other hand, was feeling energized. It was as if an electric charge was coursing through him, unleashed just as the trees around them came alive with frogs, bats and insects in their nightly chorus. The air smelt sharp, damp and fresh – completely unlike the stale streets of London. And with it came clear memories of sleeping with wild wolves and running through the boughs of mighty trees.
He felt alive here!
Hathi’s disappearance weighed heavily on Diya’s shoulders, and she had said little all evening. She hadn’t questioned Mak’s fears about Hathi, and they’d both agreed to talk later.
Mak’s parents settled down to bed, while Anula made constant whimpering noises from her cabin every time she heard an insect scampering through her room. As for Anil, he was back inside the building containing the drone controls, poring over the data.
Mak and Diya sneaked to the edge of the camp, desperate not to draw attention to themselves. The slightest thing would set off Mak’s parents worrying.
‘Buldeo doesn’t have elephants any more,’ Diya said in a whisper that was almost as loud as her normal voice.
Mak waved his hands to indicate she needed to be quieter. ‘All I can tell you is what I saw when we drove past this afternoon. There was something inside. At first I thought it was a horse.’
‘Horses and elephants look very different!’
‘I know that!’ Mak sighed. ‘It was only a quick glimpse before the gate shut. And it looked a little hairy, so I thought of a horse . . .’
‘Young elephants have a lot of downy hairs,’ Diya said thoughtfully, ‘but they still don’t look like horses.’ Mak could see that she was starting to feel curious. ‘And it sounds like a coincidence,’ she added, as if to convince herself.
‘All I’m saying is I think it’s worth checking it out. You said he’s taken elephants before. What’s stopping him from doing it again?’ He could see she was torn. ‘You saw the dirt roads on the monitor. What if Hathi stumbled down one and has been taken by a bunch of passing loggers?’
Diya sighed. ‘OK. Let’s go and investigate. But we can’t do anything stupid.’
‘Cross my heart,’ Mak said, licking his finger and crossing his chest.
Diya led the way across the camp.
Mak noticed that she’d changed from her sari to a pair of sensible jungle trousers and shirt. He couldn’t help but think that Diya hadn’t needed persuading. The scent of the jungle had rekindled a thirst for adventure in Mak.
And now he was determined to have one.
It wasn’t exactly difficult to break into Buldeo’s paddock. Aside from some barbed wire along the top of the fence, placed there more to keep mischievous monkeys out than people, there was no security. The main gate was locked from the inside by a wooden bar drawn across the middle – not that it mattered, as the wood on the bottom of the gate had rotted away so Mak and Diya could easily scramble underneath, flat on their stomachs.
Inside, Mak and Diya crawled for cover behind a wooden trough. The smell of fetid water coming from it made them gag. A pair of floodlights attracted swarms of moths and cast a faint light on a sorry-looking circle of dried grass and mud.
A heap of mouldy hay lay to one side. They crawled over and peered round it. At the edge of the circle of dried grass, they then saw it. A miserable young elephant stood in the shadows, head down and gently swaying. The animal was hardly as tall as Mak.
Mak and Diya could see that the poor elephant was tightly shackled round one leg by a rusty chain, the other end of which was fastened to a stake in the ground.
A sudden noise made them jump.
The gate swung open and the pair watched as Buldeo strode purposefully into the compound.
They both ducked down low behind the trough and held their breath.
Buldeo then approached the elephant with two muscular Indian men. One was drinking a beer from a bottle, while the other held a long pole, tipped with a spike and a cruel-looking hook-shaped blade. He poked the baby elephant with it, causing it to give a squeaky bellow and raise its trunk defiantly.
‘Stupid animal!’ the man muttered. ‘You have to learn who your mahout is!’
‘Easy, Girish,’ said Buldeo, pushing the man’s weapon down. ‘We don’t want to damage the merchandise. Nobody wants pictures of their children riding a half-dead elephant. And, remember, if this doesn’t work out then I’m broke! And if I’m broke, then you two won’t get paid and we’ll all be on the streets!’
‘You want it trained or not?’ huffed Girish.
From behind the trough, Mak and Diya watched as Girish poked the elephant again.
‘That’s definitely Hathi,’ said Diya through gritted teeth. ‘And if he pokes that goad into him again, I swear I’ll . . .’ She took a deep breath to calm herself. ‘We have to go back and tell my father.’
‘But we can’t leave Hathi like this,’ said Mak as Buldeo yanked on the chain, causing Hathi to stumble. The man yelled abuse at the elephant for not following instructions. ‘And, anyway, all your dad will do is go and notify the police, and it doesn’t look like there are many out here. It could take days for them to arrive.’
‘Then what do you suggest?’ Even in the shadows, Diya could see the gleam in Ma
k’s eyes.
‘I suggest we wait . . . then we spring him loose!’
CHAPTER FIVE
As much as they hated to sit and watch Buldeo, Girish and Lalu, the drunk bully, shove and poke Hathi, there was nothing they could do to stop them.
Using the cruel goad, they were attempting to train the elephant to raise his foreleg and salute his trunk on Buldeo’s command, something the men no doubt thought would encourage tourists to part with their money.
It was close to ten o’clock before the thugs gave up and left the compound. The lights were extinguished, leaving Hathi standing on his own in the darkness, mewing pitifully.
As soon as they heard the receding put-put of the men’s scooters beyond the gate, Mak and Diya emerged from the shadows, shining their torches to illuminate both the elephant and themselves so that Hathi wouldn’t be too alarmed.
Mak was surprised that the elephant didn’t react badly. Instead Hathi regarded them from behind his long eyelashes, allowing them to get close.
‘Don’t be afraid,’ cooed Mak in a soothing voice.
‘He’s not,’ Diya said. ‘Elephants have an amazing sense of smell. They can even sniff out water. And they’re smart too. He knew we were here from the moment we arrived.’
Mak followed the end of the chain to the spike in the ground and tugged at it. ‘Smarter than those idiots, that’s for sure.’ The spike wouldn’t budge. He turned to see Diya and Hathi watching him.
‘Smarter than you, it seems,’ Diya said teasingly as she began to loosen the chain round Hathi’s knee, instead of wrestling with the large spike in the ground.
The loosened chain dropped away from Hathi’s leg and clattered to the floor. The elephant pulled its leg free but didn’t move, eyeing the children with caution. Diya waved Mak over.
‘Come and say hello.’
Mak warily drew closer. Hathi stood almost as tall as he did. Fine hairs covered his body. Ears gently flapped to cool himself in the humid night, while a slender tail twitched to keep flies at bay. Mak stopped in his tracks when he was close enough for the elephant to raise his trunk and snuffle it across his chest. He couldn’t stop chuckling as the trunk brushed over his face.
‘It’s like being kissed by a vacuum cleaner!’
He tentatively reached out a hand and gently ran it across the soft bristles on Hathi’s head. The elephant responded with a cute warble. Mak couldn’t believe he was actually touching an elephant.
‘I think he likes us,’ said Diya as the trunk rummaged through her hair. ‘So, we have an elephant. Now what?’
Mak shone his torch around the stark compound. ‘We get him out of here.’
‘He could come back to our camp.’
‘He could,’ Mak said slowly, ‘but it wouldn’t take long for word to reach Buldeo. Then what? Your father’s organization would have to fight those idiots just to keep Hathi safe.’
A different plan was already forming in his head. It was daring, risky and he had no idea how Diya would react to it.
She shone her torch directly into his face, forcing him to shield his eyes and look away. ‘I know that look,’ she said. ‘You promised me nothing stupid – and we have already broken into private property and unchained an elephant!’
‘It’s not stupid, honestly!’
‘Then what are you thinking?’
‘What if we took him straight to his home?’
Since arriving back in India, he was feeling an ever-growing desire to return to the jungle. The very thought of it filled his stomach with butterflies. Now he had a proper excuse to do so.
Diya had temporarily ruined his night vision when she’d shone the torch into his eyes, so he couldn’t see her reaction. But he could hear her voice.
‘Our parents would go crazy!’
‘We could keep in touch using a satellite phone, and Anula could cover for us.’
‘I doubt your sister would want to do anything to help you.’
‘She’s not that bad,’ replied Mak. ‘Anyway, if she lets on that we’re missing, then my parents will be just as mad at her as they would at me. She’s supposed to be keeping an eye on me.’ He gestured around. ‘And the first night she’s already done a terrible job. She’s more worried about getting bugs in her hair!’ He paused. ‘Anyway, we won’t be gone long, and what choice do we really have? We can’t leave Hathi here like this.’
Now that his night vision was returning, he could see Diya was thoughtfully stroking Hathi’s trunk, and the little elephant was responding by coiling it gently round her arm.
‘I’ve been spending a few days in a nearby bird hide, a kilometre into the jungle, cataloguing species for my father. He even allows me to sleep there sometimes . . .’
Mak was struck by a sudden doubt. ‘Although if my dad did find out, this might be the last time I ever get to come back here. I wouldn’t see the jungle again. Or you,’ he added, blushing as he did so.
But Diya wasn’t listening; she was forming her own plan.
‘So, if we pretend to have gone off birdwatching, then we could get away with it.’ She looked at him with a flash of excitement. ‘I bet we’ll only need a day to get Hathi to the herd. Maybe we tell your sister we’re going and will be back by the end of the day.’ She paused. ‘Then if we’re any longer, we’ll just say we got a bit lost!’
Mak smiled slowly. ‘That sounds like a plan,’ he said. ‘But the first thing we have to do is get Hathi out of here!’
CHAPTER SIX
The splintering wood sounded unnaturally loud in the quiet street. The wooden hinges split with a piercing crack, and then hung limp, swinging gently on the remaining strands of wood that held them in place. Mak held his breath waiting for somebody to run out and yell at them, but was greeted by silence.
They’d found the paddock gate secured from the outside by a thick chain and rusty padlock. When it showed no sign of giving way, Mak started looking for another escape route, but he didn’t need to bother.
Mak had hardly turned his back when Hathi had simply pushed hard up against the gate and they’d burst outward like the floodgates of a dam being breached.
‘Well, we’re out!’ exclaimed Diya as they looked around the empty street. ‘Now what?’
Hathi stood there swinging his trunk with a look of wild excitement in his eyes. It was the first sign of the playful nature that Diya knew young elephants should have – and it had helped them too!
But Mak was already planning the next steps in his head. ‘First, we need to go back to camp for a few supplies.’
‘That means cutting across town,’ Diya warned.
‘But will she follow us?’ Mak asked.
‘Let’s find out.’
They didn’t need to worry. As soon as they moved out of the paddock, Hathi started to follow them.
‘Good boy, Hathi. Keep coming now!’ Mak praised as they walked.
There were no street lamps, but they still kept to the edge of the road, avoiding the occasional pools of light cast out by the buildings they passed.
Mak and Diya noticed almost at once that they were both making much more noise walking down the street than the elephant did. Their boots scuffed on the tarmac and they kept kicking bottles and plastic rubbish that they didn’t spot in the dark. Meanwhile Hathi’s steps were strangely silent.
The roadside was filled with litter – discarded cans, bottles, rolls of wire mesh and bits of corrugated iron destined for buildings that were never made. Yet Hathi negotiated them all silently.
Suddenly they saw bright lights about two hundred metres ahead. The loud chatter of raised voices and thumping Hindi pop music made them stop in their tracks.
‘It’s the local bar,’ Diya warned as they stopped in the shadows and stared down the street.
The road ahead was thick with parked scooters. It seemed that every truck driver and logger in the town was crammed inside. People spilled out of the doorway clutching beer bottles and attempting to cool down from the sickly h
ot interior.
‘The track is about fifty metres past that bar.’ Diya pointed ahead. ‘There’s no way we can smuggle an elephant past them!’
As they stood there trying to think what to do, Mak suddenly grabbed Diya.
‘Look – there’s Buldeo!’
Sure enough, Buldeo and his two henchmen were standing on the porch, holding drinks and talking animatedly to a group of mean-looking loggers.
Diya sighed in defeat, but Mak was already looking around for a solution.
‘I’ve got an idea!’
If Mak’s hobby as a magician had taught him anything, it was that the best distractions always worked when they were in plain sight.
So when Lalu happened to glance in their direction, all he saw were two kids carrying a large sheet of plywood between them. Just a couple of street kids carrying whatever they could to make a shelter for the night.
It was only when he noticed four big feet under the wood that Lalu peered drunkenly at his bottle, wondering if he’d had enough. When he looked back into the street, the kids and their walking plank had disappeared into the darkness.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Anula lay in her bed with the thin sheet tucked tightly to her chin to prevent any insects from joining her in the night. Although she was exhausted with jet lag, the oppressive heat and constant strange chirping from the darkness outside was keeping her wide awake.
She’d found an internet connection in base camp, and had spent most of the evening listening to music and looking up what all her friends were doing on Facebook.
‘Go away, Mak,’ she said from under the sheets.
‘I’m just seeing if you’re busy.’
‘Oh yeah, sure. I mean, there’s soooo much to do here.’ Her voice was laden with sarcasm. ‘Go to sleep, Makur. It’s the middle of the night. Babysitting you is the worst.’
Mak bit back his natural instinct to argue the word ‘babysitting’, and instead put forward his idea.
