going on?
Jack looked up. Suddenly a gigantic snake dropped down in front of him.
“AHHH!” Jack yelled.
“Yay!” Annie yelled from overhead.
The snake didn’t have the olive brown skin of a cobra. It was gray and wrinkled. It wasn’t a snake at all! It was the trunk of an elephant!
Before Jack could think, the tip of the elephant’s trunk curled around him. Clutchinghim like a banana, Morning Breeze lifted Jack up in the air. Jack clung to his bag so he wouldn’t lose the emerald again. The trunk curled back, and Jack could see the sky whirling above him.
The elephant uncoiled her trunk and let go of Jack. He plopped down into the straw carriage. Annie was already there!
“Morning Breeze!” Annie cried. “She came back for us!”
Jack was so small, he couldn’t see over the sides of the carriage. He tried to stand up to look for the cobras. But just then Morning Breeze bellowed and bolted through the forest. Jack lost his balance and fell backward.
Jack and Annie both laughed as they bounced around in the basket on the back of the elephant. They were safe from the cobras! They had their emerald rose! And Morning Breeze had risked her life to save them!
SHHHHHH-WISSSSSST!
I nstantly the straw carriage felt small and cramped. Jack and Annie sat up and looked at each other.
“We’re big again,” said Annie.
“Yeah,” said Jack, dazed.
“Where’s the emerald?” said Annie.
Jack opened his bag. The jewel looked tiny again, but it was there. “No problem. I have it,” he said.
“It was kind of fun being so little, wasn’t it?” said Annie.
“Yeah, until we nearly got killed by humongous, superpoisonous snakes,” said Jack.
“Thanks for saving us, Morning Breeze!” called Annie. She reached out from the carriage and patted the elephant’s wrinkled skin.
“Yeah, thanks,” said Jack.
Morning Breeze made a trumpet sound and swayed from side to side as she tramped through the low, scraggly brush.
“I wonder where she’s going,” said Jack.
The elephant slowed down. She sniffed the air with the tip of her trunk. Then she stopped near a clump of bushes and made a low purring sound.
A snuffling noise came from behind the bushes. Branches and leaves shook and parted.
“Ohhhh,
wow
!” breathed Annie.
A baby elephant bumbled out into the open. He had a fuzzy head and bright, shining eyes.
Morning Breeze lowered herself onto her knees. She stretched out her trunk and stroked her baby. The little elephant nuzzled against her.
“So
that’s
why Morning Breeze had to escapethe fort!” said Annie. “When they captured her in the wild, they took her away from her baby. She was desperate to get back to him.”
“Yeah,” said Jack, “and after she found him, she came back to help us.”
Annie climbed out of the straw carriage and carefully slid down off the elephant’s back. Jack followed her.
Annie patted the elephant’s back. “I guess you’ll be staying here now that you’ve found your baby.”
Jack rubbed his hand over Morning Breeze’s skin. Her huge, wrinkled body smelled of grass and heat and trees. The elephant actually looked as if she were smiling.
“I don’t think you need to wear this stuff anymore,” said Annie. She reached up and lifted the rope of silver bells off the elephant’s neck. The bells jangled as Annie dropped them into the grass.
“Or this,” said Jack. He took the fringed cloth off the elephant’s head.
“And especially this,” said Annie. Together she and Jack unbuckled the strap that held the strawcarriage in place on Morning Breeze’s back. They pulled the carriage off and set it on the grass.
“Doesn’t that feel better?” said Jack.
Morning Breeze stared at Jack and Annie. Her eyes were bright and clear. She trumpeted and rose to her full height.
“Before you go, can we pet your baby?” asked Annie.
The large elephant didn’t seem to mind as Annie reached out and stroked the baby elephant. “Whoa,” Annie breathed.