Page 45 - Dark Matter Issue5 Part II

When they became rambunctious, he turned abruptly and left. We followed but he went

off into the bush.

We were finding him an interesting bull Elephant, but on the third day he astounded us.

Then we began to consider that something extraordinary was happening and we were,

and were not, peripheral to the event.

We had spent a good part of the afternoon unsuccessfully tracking desert lions along the

small dunes, always slightly behind the new footprints in the sand. Then we turned back

to the sand river to look for Elephants. Pausing to determine our next move, we saw the

Bull Elephant approach the hillock above us and we turned the truck to watch him.

He came slowly and determinedly, tore away some branches and threw them aside as if

to extend the space. As was the case seventeen years earlier with the Ambassador, his

actions seemed conscious and deliberate. To our astonishment, he then carefully eased

his great weight down onto the sand and went to sleep, facing the direction of the lions

and allowing his back to us.