Will Of Infinity

Spin - Part 2

They had made it past the creek when he heard it - the furious trumpet that was a little too erratic to be a one-off sound. He could sense his horse hearing it too, her hooves faltering midway between one step and another.

"Pull back," he said immediately, putting a hand out to signal the other two. It wasn't common for Jevadhi to have episodes of berserk elephants with the amount of understanding their leader had of the animals. For this to happen it would be -

"Hunters," Imay said from beside him and Val looked closer to see two men dragging one away from the rapidly approaching elephant. They had the spears he had seen before, now useless in the face of the danger they had dragged upon themselves.

"You can't fight that," Saakhi said, bringing her stallion to a halt on Val's right and he turned to see her staring at the unravelling scene with a calculating look, "We should run."

He agreed, it was the safe choice. There were certain situations that were best left unattended until they were manageable. However, he knew what lay in the direction that the elephant was going and Val couldn't let it destroy the place without doing something. The students at Ambaramanila were capable and trained but they were still kids to Val.

"We need to create a perimeter and steer it away," he said instead, gripping his reins tighter but Saakhi made a disagreeing noise.

"Rushing into danger isn't always heroic, sometimes it's just plain foolish," she said and Val was about to explain why he couldn't avoid this when he caught a movement from the corner of his eye. Turning to his right, he saw the figure and felt the breath leave his lungs in a rush.

"Who the hell is that?" Imay hissed as the new entrant barrelled past them, feet not touching the ground for more than a hit, black dhoti pants and a simple maroon tie-up shirt being the only visible things at her speed.

As they watched, she slowed down but kept marching towards the elephant that was now clearly visible outside the shelter of the trees, his eyes flapping with frustrated anger. Val could recognise the animal now, the familiar bell anklet on its front right foot telling him who exactly this was.

How did he get here from Swatan, he wondered with a new alertness but remained calm as the woman now approaching the animal kept her posture confident but relaxed.

"She's gonna get killed," Imay began but Val raised a palm to gesture him to pipe down. They couldn't divert attention to themselves.

Her hands raised, the woman showed her lack of weapons but also began speaking to the elephant, her tone steel wrapped in cotton and a song-like rhythm to her words. It was a memory of old tongue, the chiding lullaby that he had heard from only two people and he was watching one of them staring down the beast she had helped raise. There were questions and reminders intermingled in notes of stern admonishments with soft requests; she never took her eyes off the gaze trained on her by the animal and it was like watching an older sister calming her panicked sibling who had just gotten into a temperamental fit.

In a way, Val thought it was amusing to watch the past reverse, but he could see the elephant attempt to disobey while also try to focus on her words.

Why are you away from home , she was asking in that same lyrical tempo and the elephant seemed to be calming, You're scaring people, aren't you, my dear? Will you not let us take you back to safety, where there is no harm? Go away from here now, please, don't hurt yourself like this.

It sounded like a plea but Val knew her well enough to know the underlying anger that would come out later, at those who had dared to take the animal away from Swatan.