elephants finding their home

"Where do you think the elephants live?", I asked the little girl sitting next to me.

"Forest?", To my surprise she answered not leaving me questioning the air again.

"No", I say to her and a smile paints on my face looking down at her. "Long time back elephants used to have homes. Although, they were supposed to feel comfortable being themselves yet they felt suffocated in there. They felt like their breathing if too big can break their home so they breathed just big enough to survive, small enough to live. They felt suffocated, exhausted and caged. Their skin felt ugly. They felt like they were too big for their home, it made them feel pathetic and sad. In their home, they felt big and undeserving.", I stopped as I felt a knot in my right neck and tears forming in the back of my eyes.
"Then?" the little girl next to me asked, seeing her so invested made me smile again and so I continued.
"Everytime the thought of running away crossed their mind they would breathe one big long breath as it would make them feel a little closer to their escape. It made them feel free. It made them want to breathe a long, big breath. It was addictive and the thought of running would chant their mind. So... after a lot of thinking the elephants left their once adored homes, started living in the forest and called it their home. A home where they didn't feel like they don't deserve to live, a home where could take their long breaths, A home where they felt free. The elephants realised that it isn't necessary for the house you built to feel like home, if the home you live in doesn't feel like one you make another, find another."

•••

The story starts with a young woman in her early twenties starting her journey by letting go of the people she once loved dearly and finding a little girl on her journey who reminds her of someone who she once used to love. A story about a family you wish to have. A story about an orphan and a runaway.