SHIFT

Chapter 12: Tusks

Martina Cain

Alaska

Martina watched in horror as the huge mammoth rose, shrieking.

"Did they touch it?" Adrienne asked.

"I don't know! I can't see properly," Martina said.

They watched as Arno stumbled back from the massive animal. The other two mammoths also woke, stood and huddled together behind the large bull. Arno had to dive away as the bull began to charge him.

Frustrated, the bull trumpeted and turned, ready to charge again. Martina saw the shape of Arno dive again, this time only just escaping the trampling feet of the mammoth.

"They can't keep this up!" Alec said.

"Run, Arno!" Adrienne screamed.

Arno began to run, zig zagging this way and that, but the bull mammoth was gaining on them. The mammoth came down on Arno, and suddenly a huge cloud of dust obscured Martina's view.

The wind blew the dust away, revealing the mammoth pressing its head and tusks against a large bull elephant. It was Arno.

The mammoth hesitated for a moment, shocked at the appearance of the elephant. Arno was not as big as the mammoth, but they held their own as they threw their weight against the larger animal.

The two bulls grunted and trumpeted as they continued to butt head, pushing against each other with all the force they could muster. Arno had to be careful of the mammoth's larger tusks.

They continued to struggle; the whole time Martina watched in a stunned silence. Alec was taking photos and Adrienne was yelling at the top of her lungs her support for Arno.

Suddenly Adrienne gasped as Arno was knocked to the ground. They lay on their side, panting. Blood was spreading across their shoulder from a large gash from the mammoth's tusks. The mammoth reared up, ready to stomp onto the prone elephant, but Arno rolled away.

"We have to help them!" Adrienne cried.

Martina shook her head, "I can't shift into anything big enough to take on a mammoth. What about you?" Both Alec and Adrienne shook their heads in dismay.

Arno lay still, and the bull walked over to the other mammoths. It reached out with its trunk and stroked the head of one, while the other placed its trunk on the bull's back.

"Come on," Alec muttered. Martina could see Arno on the ground, their huge stomach rising and falling with exhausted gasps. Moments felt like hours as they waited for them to do something.

Slowly, the elephant got its feet underneath them and stood. They shook their head and, with a slight limp, began a charge at the bull mammoth. The two smaller mammoths ran clear, and the bull began to turn just as Arno ran into him, knocking him off balance and onto the ground.

The mammoth trumpeted loudly as Arno pinned him to the earth with their forelegs, putting all their weight on the side of the hairy animal. Arno trumpeted louder and reared up and stomped down onto the mammoth, which let out a shriek of pain. After a few long moments, the mammoth stopped struggling.

"Is he dead?" Martina asked.

Alec looked through the lens of his camera, "No, he's just lying there."

Arno had the mammoth pinned, looking him straight in the eye. Then, slowly, they let the huge bull up. He shook himself off and reached out to Arno with his trunk, feeling his way around Arno's head. Arno returned the gesture, and the two other mammoths walked up. They greeted Arno in a similar manner, and suddenly it seemed as though they had been accepted.

Arno began to walk back towards the car, leaving the three mammoths waiting. Shifting back into their human body, they said, "They have accepted me as their leader." They winced and clutched their shoulder, and their fingers came away bloody.

"You're hurt!" Adrienne gasped and stepped forward.

"I will be okay; I just need to rest a moment." With that, they collapsed to the ground.

Alec helped Adrienne and Martina lay Arno out on a sleeping back and Martina cleaned the wound in their shoulder.

"How bad is it?" Alec asked.

"They will heal, it just needs stitches."

They looked at each other for a moment. Out of any of them, Arno was the one with the most experience in these things. But they were the one who needed help this time.

"Here," Adrienne crouched, holding the med kit that had been packed into the car. "What do I need to do?"

"We need to clean the wound first," Martina pulled out the saline and poured it into the cut. Arno woke with a loud cry, causing Martina and Adrienne to scream.

After a very long, tense moment, Arno began to laugh. This caused further blood to spill over their shoulder and Adrienne told them to stop before they lost any more blood.

Arno reached over to their shoulder with their right hand and winced, "I won't be able to stitch this myself. You'll have to do it for me."

Martina looked at Adrienne who went pale. Martina said, "We can give them something so they won't feel it, you can do this."

Arno told them how much of the anaesthetic to use and Martina injected that amount into their shoulder, in intervals around the gash. Then, Adrienne sat cross legged, with Arno's head and shoulder in her lap. She snapped on latex gloves, threaded a sterile needle and took several deep breaths.

"Now," Arno said, "You want the stitches to be approximately five millimetres apart. Make sure you take enough skin that the thread will be secure, but not so much that it will bunch when pulled."

Adrienne looked like she was going to vomit. Arno reached up with their right hand and grabbed Adrienne's wrist. "You will do fine, my friend." They let go and wriggled a little until they were more comfortable.

Adrienne closed her eyes, and a sense of calm came over her while she breathed deeply. Then, opening her eyes, she said, "Okay, let's do this."

Martina watched as she pinched skin together and, as if she had done it a hundred times before, stitched it together. Martina helped by using saline and gauze to wipe away the fresh gushes of blood that came to the surface. Alec was standing nearby, not looking at the bloody wound.

Arno kept their eyes to the sky. The sun was beginning its climb above the horizon and light reached across the land towards them.

"Done," Adrienne said. She was covered in Arno's blood and had a dark look in her eyes that Martina had never seen before.

"You did really well," Martina told her.

"I hope its good enough," Adrienne said.

Arno reached up and lightly fingered the stitches, "They feel even and secure. I will be fine." With that, Arno fell asleep. Adrienne wrapped their shoulder in bandages and then walked towards the river to clean herself in the freezing water.

They set up camp where they were, laying Arno in one of them wrapped in warm blankets. Adrienne, now in clean clothes, checked the injury regularly, making sure that the stitches weren't tearing, and that Arno didn't get a fever. The mammoths stayed nearby as if waiting for Arno to be ready to lead them to safety.

Martina collected firewood and thought about the long road they had before them.