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Chapter 10
A New Adventure
She didn’t really care what direction she was headed in: eventually, she knew she would turn south to make her way back home, but for now all she wanted to see was what was over the horizon that she hadn’t seen before. A cool wind blew in her face, wisping her hair from its braid and blowing away all Tabitha’s heated emotions that had sustained her through her climactic exit of her Great-Aunt’s house. She supposed—vaguely—that her Great-Aunt Hilsida might write to her parents and tell them that Tabitha had run off, but Tabitha didn’t much care about what might happen after that. Her parents had shown themselves to be careless individuals when it came to their only child (sending her away to live with their most horrid relation definitely qualified in Tabitha’s mind as not caring about her at all), and their only child had decided to even the score and stop caring about how they felt about her actions. They could call out the police for all Tabitha cared, raise a manhunt, get Great-Aunt Hilsida committed into an Asylum (Tabitha did rather like that idea), or even not do a single thing—Tabitha was content to let them do what they wished, now that she was able to do as she wished.
Right at that very moment, that included racing Wulafric across various wide stretches of moor and laughing terribly hard when he won every time.
Feeling a bit tired and more than a little thirsty, Tabitha rummaged around in her bag for the canteen of water she knew to be in there. Taking a long swig of water she nearly choked when a loud cry not unlike a trumpet blast sounded right behind her. Whirling quickly Tabitha scanned her eyes over the moor (which had humped itself up into a hill-like protrusion behind her) and was greatly surprised when she didn’t see anything. She looked at Wulafric, who stared at the hill with great interest, then turned to her and cocked his head as if to say, ‘Well, there’s certainly something over there, if you wanted to know. Shall we go see what it is?’ Tabitha smiled. Yes, she would like to go see what it was. Stuffing the canteen back in the sack, Tabitha hoisted it over a shoulder and sprinted up the hill with Wulafric bounding by her side (Tabitha didn’t usually mind it when Wulafric outraced her, but when going up a hill it seemed distinctly unfair). They topped the crest of the hill and the most astonishing sight was revealed to their eyes: at the bottom of the other side of the hill, its bulk defying Tabitha’s powers of description, was a large grey elephant.
Tabitha had never seen one in person before (her mother had attempted to take her to the zoo one day when Tabitha had been about four, but that had been the day Tabitha had broken a particularly hideous vase that her mother absolutely adored, so there was no visit to the zoo. Although young Tabitha had wished to go to the zoo, she had realized that living without that vase was much better than going to a fun place for one day) but having read many travel journals and seen several pictures she could confidently say to herself, “That’s an elephant!” It was a bit out of its natural habitat, but Tabitha was never one to let a thing like that diminish her excitement at seeing it. Exchanging a look of wild delight with Wulafric she proceeded to run as fast as she could down the hill only to stop abruptly about ten feet away from the elephant, perhaps remembering that it is a bad idea to run up to a strange animal, especially one that is so very large. It only regarded her calmly, however, and Tabitha’s courage being what it was, she very soon was patting it all over and giggling when it sniffed about her with its long trunk. It didn’t even take too badly to Wulafric, who was quite intrigued by this, the largest animal he had ever seen that clearly wasn’t human. They all happily went through the introductory period but Tabitha didn’t waste any time before asking it all sorts of questions such as, ‘where did you come from,’ and ‘how did you get here,’ and so on and so forth. The elephant didn’t answer and only looked at her with its calm wise eyes.
(If it had been inclined to answer—which is unlikely, as elephants aren’t the most chatty of creatures, certainly nothing like birds who chatter all the time, or even most dogs who just repeat everything they think five times—the elephant may have remarked that it was a bit soon to be getting into things like that, but since Tabitha was clearly a calf, a certain inquisitiveness was permissible. And then it would have gone on to say that it really didn’t feel like saying anything yet until a better time presented itself. Elephants are like that).
Smiling broadly Tabitha gazed up at the elephant’s tall back and wondered, “I wonder if I could get up there,” and she pointed. Then she sighed from the realization of the improbability of the wish, and patted the elephant three times on the shoulder as high as she could reach. To her great astonishment, the elephant kneeled down and Tabitha realized that if she stood on its bent leg like this, and hoisted her other leg up like this, and pulled herself up like that, and there! She was up on top of the elephant! Tabitha patted it (rather possessively) on the shoulder, and apparently this was also the command to rise for it did rise and Tabitha now felt like a queen on top of the world she was so high up. Down on the ground Wulafric whined a little but he stopped when Tabitha leaned over and shushed him, then reassured him. This was a much more splendid way to travel then by foot and Tabitha meant to make the most of it. Settling herself back on the elephant’s broad shoulders, she slapped it once on the side and the great beast lurched into motion. Tabitha didn’t concern herself with details such as steering—she was willing to go wherever the elephant would take her.
And so the three of them—girl, dog, and elephant—journeyed across the empty moors while the sun shone overhead, and the day was filled with laughter for it was a grand way to begin an adventure.
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