Remembering Darkness

Always Run Down Hill From An Elephant

Melanie's POV

I tumbled out of the portal and landed on top of Tristan. He let out a curse in what I think was Gaelic (how he knows how to speak that I'm not completely sure).

"Well if you two are done snuggling up to each other then I suspect that you take a look at where we are," Miu said rather cynically. I blushed, suddenly realising that this position was very... intimate. I quickly got off of Tristan and took a couple of steps back from him.

It was then that I realised we were in the middle of the savannah.

.

.

.

Hold on a second.

.

.

.

HOW THE HELL DID WE GET IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FREAKING SAVVANAH!?

The scenery around us was actually very beautiful, we were on top of a hill and in the distance you could see these beautiful cliffs looming up against the sky. The ground was red and dusty, but tall grass poked its way up everywhere. The trees didn't seem very nutritious, but they had to be enough for the animals as not to far away I could see a large group of elephants feeding on them. The elephants were eyeing us warily, which was understandable considering we had literally popped out of nowhere.

"Congratulations Melanie, we are now in the middle of South Africa if I am correct," Tristan told me, sarcastically clapping.

"I'm sorry, I don't really know how to use a portal, much less make one!" I retorted, raising my voice slightly at the end.

"Well next time try and chose a place for us to land so we don't end up somewhere like here!" He basically shouted at me, gesturing to the land around us.

"I didn't know where we were going!" I screamed back at him, in the midst of our argument we had somehow become extremely close, so close that we'd be kissing if I was any closer.

No Melanie. Do not think about kissing Tristan. You are annoyed with Tristan. I don't care about how cute he is, he has irritated you. And now you're talking to yourself. Great going Melanie, great going.

"Well I though you would remember-" Tristan was cut off half rant by a trumpeting noise. We both turned around to find the source of the noise.

Around four dozen elephants stood in front of us. They were the group who had watched us as we fell out of the portal. When Tristan and I were having our quiet, ok pretty loud, screaming match we must have made them restless. A large male (I think we ALL know how I could tell) stepped forward and trumpeted again. Tristan and I slowly started to step backwards.

That was when they charged.

I hope that you never ever have to face a charging elephant, much less a fifty charging elephants, in your life. I can assure that I have rarely ever seen anything more terrifying. They run straight at you, seven tons of body mass, their ears pushed forward to intimidate you. Don't think for a second that a tree will stop them. If that's what's in the way between them and you, they will simply keep running.

"Quick! This way!" I called out to Tristan, grabbing his sleeve I yanked him to the left, where the hill's slope was steepest.

Now many of you may be wondering (although none of you may of had this thought and I am wasting my valuable time sharing this bit of information with you) why I chose this particular pathway and didn't just run like crazy in any random direction. Elephants find it difficult to run downhill. They may be able to catch you if you are one hundred meters away for them on an almost ninety degree angle, but it is one of the hardest things for them to be able to run down a slope. Even the tiniest little hump in the ground they don't like walking down. There is a very simple reason for this (don't tell Ica that I told you this else I'll never here the end of how much of a 'nerd' I am) , which is that for elephants to be able to run downwards, they must be able to support their own weight in order not to tumble down and down until they eventually reach the bottom or smash their heads on a rock or something.

Still, you have to run pretty damn fast.

And believe me, that's what Tristan and I were doing right now.

The two of us sprinted as if our lives depended on it (which it kind of did). Both of us jumped over bushes, scrambled over rocks and ducked under the branches of trees. At this point heaven knows where Miu had gone. That though, however, wasn't able to cross my mind. We dashed and darted through the undergrowth in record and soon we were nearing the bottom. This was pretty bad news for us considering that if we were on flat ground the herd of elephants would catch us like that. On the plus side it was good for the elephants. And it would mean that I wouldn't get a massive lecture from Mum about missing school and going off with a strange boy. And I wouldn't get a lot of teasing from Ica about how stupid I was to leave school with a boy I barely knew. And I could win the Darwin prize (for all of you who don't know, the Darwin prize is awarded to a person who dies one of the most stupid deaths).

Way to think positive Melanie. Oh shut up, I am not arguing with myself again.

Tristan and reached the bottom of the hill, the elephants were looming behind us and although we were running as fast as we could they were gaining on us every single second. I mean, let's face it. We were tired, hungry and no match for the speed of fifty elephants. Just as we were about to give up all hope of survival a familiar voice sounded to the side of us.

"Need a ride?"

Miu, looking as cocky and lazy as ever, was beside us.

And he was on the back of a lion.