Into the Valley of Bones
The eerie group of elephants stood in a circle with their heads bowed low, their bodies swaying slowly from side to side.
“The rain’s falling right through them!” cried Ty.
“What’s in the middle of the group? And why’re they making that sad sound?” wondered Chilli.
“Don’t make any sudden movements or noises that’ll frighten them, Chilli.”
Ty thought that being charged by living elephants would be bad enough; but dead elephants? He didn’t fancy the thought of his bones lying in the Valley of Bones.
“Okay” Chilli assured him as she walked towards the strange gathering. The elephants ignored her and continued rocking to and fro in unison as if they were joined together by an invisible thread.
The friends stopped short of the herd. Lying in the centre of the circle was the lifeless body of a baby elephant, not more than a few days old. It was lying on its side, its body so scrawny that Chilli could count the ribs poking through its skin. She now understood the sad song of the ghostly elephants. They were mourning the death of one of their own.
“I wonder how it died?” Chilli wondered sadly.
“A broken heart. Poor kid. Hunter’s bullet got his mother, right between the eyes. Boom! Her head’s most probably hanging on the hunter’s wall,” croaked a voice behind them.
Chilli swung round. Sitting on a branch was a large, ugly bird.
“Mornin’ sunshine” the bird said sarcastically, “name’s Skulk. Pleased to make your acquaintance, I’m sure. Sheesh! Youse sure took your time gettin’ here.”
The bird was perched on the splintered remains of a dead tree. He was a large, untidy heap of scraggly feathers in the shape of a vulture. Skulk sat with his balding head pulled deep into his hunched shoulders; with a dozen or so flies buzzing around his head. He should have been a frightening sight, but his huge belly resting on his claws made him comical.
“You’ve been expecting us too?” Chilli asked.
“Sure. Bad news travels fast in these here parts. Especially news about two skinny kids and a three-legged baboon. Had to see for myself, so I moseyed on over.” He burped loudly. “Pardon. Just finished lunch.”
“How do you know what killed the elephant?” asked Ty.
“Weeelll, it’s always the same old-same old story” the bird replied. “Only a few elephants die of old age. Most are either shot by hunters or poachers, die of starvation or are killed by the locals for bush meat. It don’t matter. They all end up here, eventually,” he said nonchalantly. He lifted a large, nasty-looking claw and dug around his beak for an elusive piece of rotting meat.
“So how come you’re here? I thought only elephants could come to the Valley of Bones?” asked Chilli.
“Well, I got kinda tired of having to fly around lookin’ for a meal. Too much like work ya sees. So me, I uses my nut,” he tapped his moth-eaten head with a vicious-looking talon. “I followed one of them here and ta-da! Here I am. More food than I can eat. As you can see, heh-heh” he chuckled, looking down at his ample waist.
“But this is a terrible place. Don’t you feel bad about so many elephants dying?” asked Ty.
“Whatcha want me to do about it? I’m just tryin’ to keep things tidy-like. It’s what we vultures do. Besides, I ain’t gonna change somethin’ that works for me. Whatcha tink I am? Stoopid?” he answered in his croaky voice. He shook his body and fluffed up his feathers in irritation.
“That’s too bad. We’re here to change that” said Chilli.
“Oh yeah, I heard about that too. Youse two are lookin’ for the Ivory Bow. Well, unless youse can resurrect yourselves a dead elephant, you’re gonna need some help on that score.”
“So you’re going to help us find the Bow?” questioned Ty.
“Now hang on a minute there, bud. I never said I’d...”
“But you have to help us. There’s nobody else,” Chilli insisted.
The vulture shook his head to chase off a fly that had settled on his scurvy scalp.
“Why should I help? I’ve got all the food I want, nobody bugs me and I can do whatever I want, whenever I want. Now, how bad is that, I asks ya?”
“If you don’t help us, soon there’ll be no more elephant, or kudu, or giraffes, or hippos, and then you’d have to eat bugs and spiders. And then one day there won’t even be those things to eat. That’s why.” urged Chilli.
“Are youse sure about dat?”
“We’re very sure about that” insisted Ty.
“Mmmm, I hadn’t looked at da sitooation from dat pointa view before. Dat dere is one dire consequation. I ain’t never been too partial ta bugs so I reckons maybe I got no option but to help youse. Besides, I got nuthin’ better to do right now. Okay, here’s the deal. I’m a little, well, shall we say, a little on the heavy side, so I’m gonna need your help here. I can’t fly none too good so you, boy, you’re gonna have to carry me. Den I’ll take youse to where youse needs ta go. Deal?”
“So you know where the Ivory Bow is?” Ty asked hopefully.
“Let’s just say, I gotta pretty good idea where it is, okay?”
“It’s a deal.” Ty reached forward, and let the bird climb up onto his shoulder.
“Ouch, watch it! Your claws are sharp. Don’t dig them into my shoulder,” complained Ty.
“Yeh, yeh, all right, all right. Don’t be such a wimp. Now, you twose, you – Chilli, and you... da hairy fella... the baboon, follow us. Head up the hill, and past dat hoid of dead elephants” Skulk directed, pointing a big black wing at the mourning elephants.
The small party solemnly walked past the huddled group of ghostly elephants. They left the herd behind, pushing and nudging the young elephant with their trunks, trying to get the young animal to wake up. But the baby elephant’s little head only rolled back to the ground again. Chilli had to swallow hard to stop herself from crying. But now was not the time for tears; now was the time to stop the cruelty.
“Ugh, just how high is this hill?” complained Ty, “my legs are killing me!” It didn’t help that the heavy bird on his shoulder was weighing him down.
“Ah, sharrup ya ninny and keep walkin’. Nobody said dat dis was a walk inna park. Dis here is a walk inna graveyard” Skulk croaked, chuckling at his sick joke. “Anyways, we’re almost dere.”
The bird’s words were barely out of his beak when the friends reached the crest of the hill.
They had finally reached the Valley of Bones, the legendary graveyard where elephants go to die.
“Is that snow?” asked Chilli, pointing to an expanse of white stretching to the horizon.
“Nah, dat dere’s bones, elephant bones. Dat’s why dey call dis da Valley of Bones, ya numbskull” came Skulk’s rude reply.
Normally, Chilli would have given the bird a piece of her mind, but she wasn’t listening to him. She was staring in horror at what lay in front of her. It was a sea of bones. Rib cages, big enough for Chilli and Ty to stand in, glistened in the mist, their ribs clawing at the leaden skies, while thousands upon thousands of ivory tusks lay scattered like a macabre game of pick-up-sticks. It was impossible to count the number of skulls that lay scattered amid the carnage, their empty sockets staring sightlessly skywards.
“The elephants’ graveyard. I thought it was just a legend,” murmured Ty.
“It better stay dat way, too, buddy. Can you imagine if any of your hooman compadres found out about this place? It’d be pan-da-mo-ni-yum, I tell ya. Cheez, they’d make us vultures look like angels compared to the scavengers who’d fight over all this ivory. Now c’mon, let’s move before I get hungry from all this yakking” Skulk complained.
They wound their way down the hill into the thick of the tangle of bones. It was only then that they could see what had killed most of the elephants – large shattered holes pierced the skulls. They were the marks of the large-bore bullets fired by hunters’ high velocity rifles; the grim reminders of the final bullet that had killed the elephants and brought them here.
Ty had to grab Chilli’s arm to get her to move. She had been struck immobile by the number of dead elephants she saw. She couldn’t believe mankind could be that cruel. There were just so many of them.
Ty reached out and touched the rough stumps on a skull where the tusks had been. The saw marks on their ends held the clue as why its owner had been killed – ivory; an elephant’s pride and its death warrant. Ty became angry as he thought of the stupid waste of a life. Just for the sake of two tusks that would be carved into silly trinkets and trivial nik-naks.
They trudged on through the bleak landscape along a makeshift pathway cutting through the piles of carnage. Sometimes they had to pick their way carefully through bits of skeleton that littered the path, making sure they didn’t crunch any bones underfoot. This felt like sacred ground, and to disturb the sleep of the dead would be to dishonour the magnificent creatures that had died such violent deaths. It was a small mark of respect, but it was the least they could do.
They kept following the path as it wound its way through the mountains of bones then down into a crevasse at the heart of the valley. Overhead, they heard the roll of thunder across a sky that was low enough to touch, the dark grey clouds fat with the threat of another rainstorm.
Ty was the first to spot something ahead of them.
“Look, a hut!” he announced, pointing at a dilapidated wooden shack with a rusted iron roof. It lay nestled amongst the mountains of elephant skeletons scattered carelessly around it.
“Dat dere’s da local tourist attraction, not that we no tourists, ya unnerstand. Nuttin’ else around here but dead elephants. So, I guess dat’s what youse been lookin’ for” remarked Skulk as he stretched his wings, scattering a few loose feathers onto the ground.
“What is that building?” asked Chilli.
“Dat dere is what is known as da Place of Healing. I dunno why, but dat’s what dey calls it.” Skulk nonchalantly plucked at his feathers in a futile attempt to smarten himself up. His movements disturbed his fellow travellers; the flies that kept him company. They buzzed angrily around his scruffy head.
“Who stays there?” urged Chilli.
“Hey, whatchoo tink I am? Bleedin’ Google? Dat’s all I know. You’re gonna have to find the rest out for yourself,” Skulk answered irritatedly.
The vulture drew his scrawny neck back into his fat chest again and sat sulking on Ty’s shoulder, refusing to answer any more questions. The truth of it was that Skulk was exhausted. It had been a long time since he had lifted a talon to help anyone but himself. And now his lazy brain wanted to lapse into its comfort zone – apathy. The bird shut his eyes, and assumed an expression that made it clear he didn’t want to be disturbed any further.
Chilli jerked her head towards the shack. “Looks like we’ve found what we came here for. Let’s take a closer look.”
Without waiting for an answer, Chilli headed towards the shack. She was just as keen to see the shack as she was to get away from the distressing sight of the dead elephants.