Chapter 20

The background noises of the elephants comforted Ally, knowing they'd alert her to any possible intruders in plenty of time.

It didn't take too long to collect a small pile of the tubers, once she located the first trailing vine shoots. She suspected them to be variations of potatoes, probably a staple crop to these areas long ago, because the vines looked strikingly similar to the potatoes they grew at home. Using a fat stick she'd stripped of all its leaves, the end sharpened to a point with her pocket knife, she dug, pushing the pointed end deep beneath the soggy surface till she felt the lumpy tuber and flipped it out. While she worked at seeking them, she became aware of an encroaching presence. Twisting to look, a hand on the ground to balance herself where she crouched, she saw the baby elephant regarding her intently. Ally grinned at it and clicked her tongue like she would at a new dog. The baby jerked its head back, ears flapping. It lifted its trunk and trumpeted, the sound not alarming but almost playful. Several of the adults inclined their heads to look, but turned back, focused on the tall dense clumps of grasses. The crunching sound of them chewing filled the air, muffling most other noises.

But the baby appeared much more interested in what Ally had.

She watched in amusement as it tentatively shuffled closer, its trunk extended and waving at her as if to test her response. Ally stayed where she was, keeping her body and mind calm.

The baby reached the pile of roots where they sat on a broad green leaf, in easy sight, and wandered its trunk across the leaf like a child might walk their fingers. Ally grinned, close to laughing and waited to see what Baby did next.

With its trunk poised, ready above the closest root, Baby flapped its ears and looked straight at Ally then touched the tuber.

When she didn't react, Baby tried again, running its trunk all over the tuber then feinted a jump to the side, trunk drawn back, body tense and ready.

Ally burst out laughing.

The sound again drew the adults' attention and realizing then how close their baby stood to her, most of them turned to watch.

Moving slowly both to reassure them and to not startle Baby, Ally crab walked to the pile and picked up the tuber Baby touched. She offered it to the tiny elephant, who stood quivering only a meter from her. To be so close to the infant thrilled her, and she studied it, marvelling at the features, all a perfect miniaturization of the adults. Baby had a light covering of hair across its head that made it look almost like a funny old man. Turning her head slightly, Ally quickly observed that Baby was a boy.

A rather timid one.

Trumpeting at the offered root, ears flapping hard, Baby backed off a few steps. Ally stayed still and clucked her tongue again while smiling. 'Here, you can have it.'

Her voice made the adults pause, reassessing the situation and they shifted a little closer.

Ally kept calm, offering the root as Baby took a step forward before jerking back. It took a good five minutes before he crept close enough to snatch the tuber, cramming it in his mouth just as his mother reached to check it. The adult wasn't pleased by that and seemed to scold Baby, prodding and tapping at his head with her trunk while he greedily gulped the tuber down.

Ally stayed very still when the adult elephant came over to examine the other tubers on the pile. Rolling them around with her trunk, the adult lifted one to her mouth. Crunch, crunch, crunch and gone.

Regarding the three tubers left, Ally kept still, while hoping she'd have at least two to take back to the lab to eat with dinner.

Apparently satisfied with the root, the adult turned, its heavy swaying gait sending tremors through the earth as it ambled back to the dense clumps of grass. Baby followed it, his little trunk reaching to touch the adult's back leg before he put on a burst of speed, rushing to the grasses.

With a silent sigh of relief, Ally returned to following the trailing vine, digging up several more of the lumpy roots, adding them to her now replenished pile.

The sound of small feet approaching her again made her grimace, casting a regretful look at the pile before turning.

There stood Baby, tail swishing behind back and forth like one of the perpetual devices Eoin kept at his laboratory back home on his desk, clutching a length of the dense grass. The ragged ends suggested he'd snapped it off. Shuffling closer to her, Baby proudly presented the grass, holding it toward her with his trunk.

Surprised, Ally turned properly. 'Is this for me?' she asked, offering her hands out palms up.

Baby dropped the offered stem, more like the trunk of a sapling in density, before turning and dashing back to the side of his watchful mother.

Holding the grass, surprised at the hardness of it, Ally studied the repeating ridges in the green tan surface then lifted the end to her nose and sniffed.

The sharp sweet scent instantly made her mouth water and she delicately touched her tongue to the end, eyes widening at the taste. Like freshly squeezed apple juice, just somehow cleaner, purer in flavour.

'Sugarcane!' Ally exclaimed when she realized and smiling she wrapped it in another of the large palm leaves she'd set aside for the roots. This would be a treat to surprise Eoin with.

Humming away happily, Ally stashed the wrapped roots and sugarcane in her pack, shrugging it on before standing, peering for a mango tree. She could have gone back to the other one, but wanted to scout this area anyway so set off when she spotted a similar shape in the distance. Unexpectedly, several of the elephants followed, not Baby though, who stayed at his mother's side while munching away on the sweet stems of the sugarcane bush.

It started to rain lightly as Ally moved through the jungle, feet almost silent against the leafy sodden ground while behind her the elephants made surprisingly little sound themselves, until the bushes and trees grew denser. The shape she'd spotted in the distance was indeed a mango tree and Ally looked up, delighted to see many heavy ripe fruit hanging from its limbs. The elephants following hurried in as she climbed the trunk, using both feet on either side of the trunk to push up and up before she reached the dense branches a good eight meters up. Climbing into the branches she quickly began collecting the fruit when she realized the elephants wanted the fruit too. The sense of urgency distracted her from recognizing the sound that drifted innocuously on the breeze.

Seconds later, the sound of human voices drummed home like a dash of cold water.

Reacting instantly, Ally threw her pack on and scrambled higher into the tree, up where the heavy foliage concealed her presence. Perched in a V of strong branches, she carefully adjusted her position, watching the jungle below.