In the morning light, the jungle was alive with noises. The birds chirped from above, the monkeys were howling playfully in the trees, and a green tree frog croaked on the forest floor before jumping into the pond for a swim, as Thunder and Soma walked past the waterfall. The egrets were resting on Soma’s back. Penelope had chosen a perch on Thunder’s head.
Thunder looked at the frog within the water and walked closer to the edge. Penelope jumped off Thunder and flew onto a branch overhanging the pond as Thunder lowered his head to watch the frog skirt across the water’s surface.
Soma stopped at a berry bush and gobbled them up. Her jaw gnashed together and the juice from the berries ran down her face. “Delicious.”
Cedric spotted Thunder about to fill his trunk like a long watering hose and squeaked. “Oh no! Not again! Didn’t you just have a bath?”
“Just when we thought we were on our way to paradise,” Persius lamented.
Thunder sucked up a trunk full of water and let it spray into the air over his back. Penelope got splashed in the process. Her feathers were now sticking up in disarray. “All wet. All wet.” She made a strangling gurgle sound. “Eek!”
Thunder giggled. “Sorry, Penelope.”
“Towel?” Penelope squawked. “Towel?”
Thunder snickered. “How about a blow dry, Penny?”
The parrot tightened her grip on the low hanging branch in preparation. Thunder blew hot air from his trunk and started to dry her feathers.
“Penelope. Penelope. Not a coin. No copper. Feathers flying.” She tilted her head at him.
“Sorry, Penelope. What was I thinking?” Thunder replied.
“Ding dong! Doorbell. No one’s home. Elephant dryer.” She squawked aloud and chirped like a baby bird.
Thunder giggled at the parrot. He still had trouble understanding the bird from time to time. “Okay, okay, Penelope. Whatever you say.”
Thunder peered down into the water and noticed small tusks starting to bud on his face. “Oh no, I’ve changed. Look!”
Penelope’s gold eyes flashed red in excitement. She seemed to understand the implications of the ivory starting to grow on her friend. “Tusks for trinkets. Tusks for trinkets. Eek! Watch out!”
Soma shook her head solemnly. “The end of innocence.”
Thunder gasped. “Oh no! Does that make me a target now?”
Soma tried to console him. “Look on the bright side. With big tusks, you can spear anyone who comes too close.”
“I don’t want to do that!” His ears flapped anxiously behind him. Thunder touched his new tusks with his trunk, wondering how they had come so close to the surface overnight. Maybe this place was magical.
“A new look. Uh-oh, uh-oh,” quipped Penelope.
“Uh-oh is right, Penelope. Now I really have to hide. I better get back to my herd soon.”
Penelope flew up to a tall mahogany then strolled across a high branch. She could hear a buzzing sound that reminded her of a swarm of locusts. It was the sound of vuvuzuelas being blown by the uprights. She had heard that sound before.
Thunder perked his ears up then splayed them out wide. He strained forward to listen. “What is that sound?”
“Nothing. Forget it.” Soma too was familiar with that sound. Uprights. This was not the time to look for any kind of danger with them. She lumbered over to a burned out tree trunk and sharpened the jagged edges of her horn on the bark.
Penelope trained her ears on the loud noise. “Playing music. Not Mozart.” She whistled in disappointment.
“Go scout for us, Penelope,” Thunder suggested.
Penelope flew off and soared above the forest canopy toward the village. In the distance she saw villagers banging on pots and pans. Some were blowing into the long horned vuvuzuelas that made the humming sound. They were purposely making loud noises.
The parrot watched as a herd of elephants were startled by the ruckus. Some ran wild away from the frightening noises. Two elephants ran into a Jeep and tipped it over sideways in their dash to get away. A few others bumped into huts, breaking pieces off the walls and pulling down portions of the roofs. One elephant stepped on Mosi’s bicycle before tearing through a clothesline near it. The rope remained attached to him and clothes fluttered in the wind around him as he raced away from the scene.
People were screaming and scattering in all directions. They tried to avoid the charging elephants as they scrambled past them.
Panicked, the elephants made a beeline past the shacks and out through the electric fences that had been put up in hopes that it would keep them out. The elephants ran toward open land with sparks flying all around them. The sharp biting pain of the electricity did nothing more than shock them. They continued their mad scrambling.
Penelope’s eyes widened as she soared through the air. She said to herself, “Back to their rooms. Back home. Tirrred. Tirrred.”