Elephant Run: Part Three

Hannibal looked longingly toward the broken swath the young bull had cut through the bamboo.

He had been waiting for them in the secret room when they returned from their respective listening posts.

If we happen to encounter soldiers, they will be Buddhist themselves, or very familiar with Buddhist practices. To be convincing you must not only look like novices, you must act like novices.

After I cut your hair, I will give you the ten precepts of the novice, which you must try to follow.

"Repeat after me: Venerable sir, I respectfully ask you to ordain me as a novice in order that I may be free from the cycle of existence and attain Nirvana."

"Repeat after me: Venerable sir, I respectfully ask you to ordain me as a novice in order that I may be free from the cycle of existence and attain Nirvana."

"Repeat after me: Venerable sir, I respectfully ask you to ordain me as a novice in order that I may be free from the cycle of existence and attain Nirvana."

There were three other mahouts with Magwe, and they had already grabbed Mya and Hilltop. Mya struggled to get away, but Hilltop stood calmly with a bemused look on his face.

Hilltop told Hannibal to get to his feet, then cinched the saddle on tight.

"We spent the rest of that day and part of the night treating his wounds. We had to use other elephants to turn him over. It took three days to get him to his feet. No one thought he would live. Nang and your father built a crush around him and put slings under his chest and belly to help him stand. We did not leave his side for six weeks, treating his festering wounds several times a day."

He took a pod out of her bag and tentatively held it out to him.

The village was small, with only a dozen or so ramshackle houses that looked as if they would blow over in the next breeze.

Nick took furtive glances at the frightened villagers.

He scrutinized her for a long time, then let her head drop back down, to Nick and Hilltop's relief.

The captain nodded, then without warning, slapped one of the old men across the face with his baton, leaving an angry-looking welt on his cheek.

"People say he is as elusive and dangerous as a tiger's breath."

Small bands of guerrillas had successfully attacked supply convoys and depots, gun emplacements, and patrols.

Lined up in the center were the bamboo prisoner barracks—the roof thatching caved in now, the woven walls in tatters.

A sleepy sentry stepped out in front of him and asked where he thought he was going.

"I suppose you have to go to work soon," Hilltop said, feigning regret.

"Ahh," Indaw said with a conspiratorial smile, "unfortunately, Miss Pretty pulled a leg muscle just this morning."

Indaw returned in time to see the elephants saunter off into the forest, leaving Miss Pretty behind.

The men were gaunt, worn down by work, heat, lack of food, and disease.

Mya was ecstatic at the prospect of being reunited with Indaw, and overjoyed that he was well, but she could hardly share her happiness with Nick.

The camp was laid out like the plans Nick had studied in the vault, but the precise drawings had missed the oppressive hopelessness of the place.

He wasn't sure if he had heard something or had had a bad dream. He scanned the jungle and listened. Nothing seemed amiss.

"An elephant is the best sentinel on earth," he had told them.

The long bamboo barracks on the right side had a red cross painted on the thatched roof. This was to stop enemy fighters from strafing the camp, killing their own sick and wounded.

Mya and Nick recognized Sergeant Sonji's exuberant voice.

"I don't know, Taung Baw. I may not be a good soldier, but I am a good Japanese. What you're asking is treasonous."

Her consternation must have been obvious, because before Hilltop and Nick left for the camp, Hilltop took her aside and said, "Just remember this, Mya. We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make our world."

Hilltop squatted on his haunches directly below, using the trunk as a backrest.

The men started digging, but without his father to help, they were very slow, even with Sonji berating them.

Bukong merely smiled and made certain Indaw's manacles were painfully tight.

Bukong raised his cane and hit her across the shoulders. Indaw and Nick lunged at him, but both were thrown to the ground by the trackers.
Captain Moto ignored the altercation and walked over to the elephant saddle.

The only one of them who appeared unperturbed was Hilltop.

Beyond the steps lay a vast red-and-brown desert that at first glance looked barren and dead, but as Nick had learned, the arid land was actually teeming with life, if you knew where to look.

Nick took a deep breath, savoring the pungent scent of eucalyptus from the grove near the house and the incense burning in the natshin.

The locals had scoffed at the idea of nats and "dollhouses" to confine them, but the aborigine ranch hands had great respect for the nats and stopped by daily to make offerings of their own.

Mya was in the paddocks training a horse, her long black hair pulled back into a ponytail, a bush hat on her head.