Elephant

You are surrounded by warmth and darkness. It's comfortable, but there's a pressure slowly building. The squeezing gets stronger and stronger until it's almost unbearable... then you fall and land on a hard surface. You blink your eyes open, but that's about all of the strength you can muster. This new world is bright and hot. You feel something big and hard nudge your bottom. Despite the many looming figures circling you, you know that it's your mother who has gently kicked you. She continues to prod and poke you with her feet and trunk as if to say "stand up!" The other giants hovering around you begin to join in.

"I have to stand up! I have to stand up now!"

You don't know where the thought comes from, but as soon as it enters your head you begin struggling to get your legs under you. You manage to roll onto your stomach. It takes all of your might to push up onto your front legs. You feel someone's trunk slide under your rear end and lift you onto all fours. You wrap your trunk around your mother's for support and balance, and you take your first unsteady steps...

The first twenty years of your life pass by without incident. Lately however, there have been some minor mishaps, the most recent one leaving your father with a large splinter in his front left foot. It had swollen to the point that he was left limping around on three legs. Then one day he returned from the forest walking on his injured foot again. Apparently some humans had helped him by removing the splinter and washing his wound. For the next few years, your father would always return to the forest to help the humans pull trees out of the ground. One day he came to you and said, "Son, I'm getting old. The humans in the forest have done me a great service and ultimately saved my life. However, I am unable to continue to carry their trees as fast or as far as I used to. It is time you take my place."

You have always wanted to meet these forest humans, so you agree and follow your father into the forest the next day. You assume your father's duties and even play in the river with the little humans each night. They enjoy climbing on you and their giggles and shrieks bring you such joy!

One day, however, a new human appears on the bank and watches while you work to pull up trees. At the end of the day, one of the forest humans takes your trunk in his hands and gently leads you to the shiny man. He takes your trunk and begins to lead you away from the group. You glance back at all of your tiny human friends splashing in the water. You hesitate, but the forest humans have given you no reason to not trust them so you turn and follow the man.

The next few years aren't unpleasant, but you are very lonely. Sensing this, the shiny man takes you to a new village and leaves you with an older lady. She is just the sweetest and lets you play with the village children every day while she works! "She works very hard," you think to yourself one day. "I wonder what I can do to help?" You notice that she brings home little shiny pieces of metal every day after work.

As luck would have it, a man and his oxen were stuck in the river the next day. You wade into the cool water and slowly drag all of his carts out. When you finish, the man pulls a bunch of that shiny metal out! As you wonder how you should carry the metal back home, one of the children yells at the man. She seems upset so you stay to make sure she is alright. The two argue back and forth for a bit before you see the man pull out even more metal! He puts it in a bag and ties it to your neck. The little girls smiles at you and holds your trunk as the two of you walk back home.

The look on your older lady's face when she opens the bag made it worth all the hard work you did, so you go back out and help the villagers every day from then on out.

Life is good going forward. One night you are snoozing by the fence when you hear men talking. You can't understand them, but something about the tone in their voices sets you on edge. You open your eyes, but hold still so it will seem like you're still asleep. Suddenly the men climb over the wall and walk right past you. They're all carrying shiny objects that look sharp. You slowly get to your feet, extend your trunk so that it's right behind their heads, and let out the loudest trumpet you can muster. The group immediately drops to the ground covering their ears as lights come on in the house. Your instincts must have been right, because the old lady gives you the biggest watermelon you've ever seen the next morning!

The rest of you life is peaceful and pleasant. The children grow up and soon you have new tiny humans to play with. As time passes, it gets harder and harder to stand up in the mornings. One day, you know your time has come. You lay down and let out a small trumpet to get your family's attention. The old lady had passed a while ago, but her children had stayed with you. They come out and give you lots of hugs. They seem to know what you do: there isn't much time left. They all lay on you in a big group hug as you close your eyes and slowly drift off into nothingness, feeling the love of your humans in your final moments...

Author's Note: I've been having way too much fun researching the birthing processes for different animals for this project. The miracle of life is just so beautiful! I'm a little afraid of what my YouTube recommendations will look like after this class is over though... This story is written in 2nd person perspective to give the reader the experience of living as an elephant. All of the events in this story are based on Ellen C. Babbitt's Jatakas Tales (in order of appearance) The King's White Elephant, Grannie's Blackie, and The Elephant Girly-Face. See if you can recognize the individual stories! The King's White Elephant tells the story of an elephant who is saved by some carpenters when it gets a splinter stuck in its foot. The elephant is so thankful that he starts helping them cut down trees and taking them to their carts. Since the elephant is older, he brings his son down and shows him how to help. That's when the king sees him working and buys him from the carpenters. This whole tale follows the life of the elephant's son. The second section is based on Grannie's Blackie and is mostly the same. I rewrote the aspects that gave the elephant more human-like qualities to make it more realistic. The last story is the one that's the most altered from its original. Rather than being with the king, the elephant is still at the old woman's house. Also, rather than being influenced by the robbers to turn bad, the elephant shows its less gentle side to deter the robbers and protect its family.