Running Wild: Oona

For literacy, my group has been reading 'Running Wild' by Michael Morpurgo. I have rewrote chapters 3-4 from Oona's, the elephant's, perspective.

Oona

I ran and ran, suddenly unaware of the boy on my back. Suddenly forgetting that I left Mahout at the beach. They were forgotten, cast from my mind. I only focused on running from the ocean, the sea, whatever you like to call it. Personally, I call it ‘The Wall of Doom’. “Run, run, run” my thoughts chanted to me. And that’s what I focused on. I could feel the thrown on top of me rock back and forth, but I paid this no mind. “Run, run, run”. I was running through the forest, branches were everywhere, hitting me, slashing at me, clawing at me, I didn’t notice. “Run, run, run”. There was muffled movement, presumably on top of all the cushions, on my back. It was as if someone was laying down. I didn’t think too much about the movement. “Run, run, run”. I was scared for my life, my shrill trumpeting filling the forest around me, knowing in the back of my mind that I knew not of where I was going. I was blundering blindly through the trees, but still, I did not care. “Run, run, run”. My terror was controlling my thoughts, I knew I had to look around and memorise everything for the way back, but I could not do anything except run. Or I would die.

Suddenly, the dark of the forest was gone, and the sun shone brightly but I did not slow down. We were in a clearing with high grass and scrubby trees, but that was not the thing in the forefront of my mind. I had to keep going. “Run, run, run” my thoughts reminded me. So that’s what I did. I ran. I didn’t even notice when the clearing changed into a swamp, and I was charging through the murky water until I was halfway across the swamp. It occured to me that there could be crocodiles in there, so I picked up the pace. I ran faster. With that newfound speed came the thought; “run, run, run”. 

Ahead of me, beyond a clearing, there was a wide rock strewn stream. Although, I barely noticed. I launched myself into the water, not caring if the boy on my back got wet, and water exploded around me, but I just ran. I didn’t stop for a drink, although that would’ve been wise. I was tiring, just a bit, but a couple more hours like this, and I would become so tired I couldn’t even walk. Once through the river, I saw a blurry mass ahead of me. I climbed the blurry mass, which turned out to be a hill when my vision cleared. I slowed, for the first time in forever, at least, that’s what it felt like. There was no way, not even if they were as amazing as me, that anything or anyone could run up this hill. I was now in a kind-of scurrying walk. I could think more clearly now, take in everything. I could smell things I didn’t before, hear things I didn't before, see things I didn’t before. It was a great effort, climbing the hill. The throne of my back wasn’t rocking around anymore, so I found it easier to balance myself. After a couple of minutes of peace, I felt something on my neck. It was as if someone was slapping me, and I heard an irritant, high pitched voice in my ear. They were trying to say something but it sounded like mumbo jumbo to me. But I did pick up on the urgency in their voice, and I gathered my strength and picked up my pace, now fastly shuffling up the hill.

My breathing was laboured, and my steps faltered. I stumbled and almost fell, but saved myself before I fell to the ground. I ran, trampling the undergrowth beneath my feet. I was barely aware that the throne tilted to one side, as if someone was weighing it down. I faintly heard something calling out to me, I recognized “Oona!” and “slow!”. I slowed. Now I knew why one side was slightly heavier than the other. The boy was thrown out of the throne, but managed to hold on to the side. I came to a stop. I turned my head and wrapped my trunk around his middle, depositing him back in the throne. He lay there limp, and I was worried I put him in too harshly. I moved, seeing that he was still breathing, and walked slowly at first, giving him time to recover. After a little bit, I gathered speed and was now in a full on run. 

I was exhausted, and my stamina was fading fast. I was more often, and my breathing came in puffs. From time to time, while still running, I would grab leaves from the tree’s with my trunk and munch on them. Although they weren’t enough to refill my stamina or make me less tired, they were helping with my hunger. I still had no idea where I was going, it was as if I was going in circles, the forest an endless loop. Just when you thought you were free, more trees. The world was a cruel place, but the forest was crueler. Don’t let the nice green, and the pretty flowers fool you, it has snakes and scorpions that are poisonous. It has big cats that are ruthless and fierce. The crocodiles, mean and vile. It was as if the birds had clones, for they were everywhere. Loud and obnoxious. While my kind, elephants, (that’s what I hear the humans call us) are majestic creatures. We are the real owners of the forest. Or so I thought, until I was in the cruel forest. No animal can own the forest, because the forest owns them. 

I had run through so many creeks and streams and rivers at this point, you think I would’ve stopped for water. I did no such thing. The thoughts of crocodiles kept me ploughing through, no stops. I didn’t really think about how the boy might need water, I guess I was too focused on the crocodiles. I kept eating leaves on the move, but no amount of leaves could stop my underside from rumbling, as if telling me to eat more. The boy leant down into my ear and yelled something in my ear. I recognized my name along with food but I didn’t slow. I flapped my ears to show him to stop being annoying and wait, that I got the message. But he kept wacking me, which didn’t hurt but it was annoying, and kept yelling at me, “water”, “Oona”, “food”, that’s what I caught at least. The rest sounded like fznhfd fbage buub wghgh tnbv. I think. He kept talking, soft, then loud and mean, then more whacks, finally he stopped. 

I stopped in a river, now desperately thirsty, the water up to the throne, so it was now like an island. This was his chance to drink, while I washed and drank and relaxed. The river swirled around us and the throne was now loose. I could feel it shifting sideways off my back, some of the cushions were already lost. I heard a ‘splash’ and the boy was off my back into the water. He got to land and started filling himself, making noises that sounded . . . triumphant? He filled the forest with his noise, and the birds scattered from the trees. I drifted further into the water, so now I was in the middle, where the current was strongest. He plunged into the water and almost came to me, but had to retreat when he reached the current. I ducked underwater, trying to play a game with him. The throne was gone, as it had sunk to the bottom while everything else was going downstream. I had been subconsciously moving forward, so when I got out of the water I was mere meters from the boy. Water was cascading wildly off me, and my trunk was flailing. I ducked under again, but left my eyes, and everything up, showing. This was an indicator that I was playing a game, and an invitation. He ran into the water, accepting my offer. I would lull to the side and that would create waves, and he would dive into them. I would also submerge myself fully and then rear up out of the water, where it all came cascading down off me, like a waterfall. He would stand under the water, making high pitched noises, but he loved it nonetheless. I swished my trunk at him, spraying him with water. He was making noises that didn’t sound high pitched, or irritating, but pure joy. 

Without any explanation, he left the river and sat on the rocks. I cocked my head to the side, asking him what was wrong, but he didn’t see. He had his head in his hands.  I waved my trunk at him, but if he saw, he showed no sign of it. His head lifted up and he looked to the hummingbird, that was a couple of meters away from him. He then turned his attention to the butterflies skimming across the river. Then his gaze met mine, and we stared at each other. I realised now, it was a random thought, that I hadn’t slept in two days and that this was my first stop. Just on the move, I had to keep running. I didn’t break eye contact with the boy, but I did ponder this. Maybe the leaves were helping more than I thought. I broke eye contact and cleaned myself up a bit more. 

Once I left the river, he went right up to me. I could tell already he would try to say something. He stroked my trunk and talked softly, softer than I was expecting, while looking me directly in my eye. “Oona,” I recognised, names were easy enough. He was talking mumbo jumbo again, but I think he said his name was Will. Will. Huh. The other things I recognized weren’t so bright. Mumbo jumbo, more mumbo jumbo, then I heard something like “Dad bombed” “Mum drowned”. Yeesh. After more talking, he said “ . . . food . . . eat . . .” I guessed he was hungry. He ran off, and I was oh so tempted to run after him, and he returned with a branch of leaves. He offered it to me, and I took a tentative sniff. It was fine. I wrapped my trunk around it and ripped off the leaves I wanted, and munched on them. I had a feeling when he got me that branch he was trying to say something like “I got you food, now you get me food”, but politer. While I chomped and chewed, my eyes never left him once. Once I finished my food, I explored his hair and his ears with my trunk. He pushed away my trunk, and was making loud, angry, noises at me. I picked up on “ . . . food . . . food.'' He looked around and spotted something. He started talking again, his tone desperate. I turned around and started picking leaves off trees with my trunk, and started chewing them, telling him to do the same. He could reach them if he climbed the tree. I watched him, as water leaked from his eyes, and he sat with his knees to his chest, arms clasped around himself. He rocked back and forth, and after a couple of minutes like this, he calmed down and stopped the water from leaking out of his eyes. He was watching the river, motionless.  

I moved forward, and put my trunk on Will’s neck, then moved it to his shoulder. I encircled his chest and pulled at him gently. It was time to go. Since he does not have the throne anymore, he will just have to sit on my neck. I turned the boy around to face me, I looked down at him and told him it’s time to go. I lowered myself onto my front knees, then laid down completely. I waited some minutes for Will to hop on, and when he didn’t I wrapped my trunk around his middle and drawed him in towards me. It took him a while to understand my motives for this, but once he did, it was quite a job to get him onto my neck. I nudged him, pushed him and supported his bodyweight, while he scrambled up. After a while, he was on the back of my neck, behind my head. I heaved myself, with my trunk steading the boy all the while, until I was standing upright again, on all fours. The throne was gone, so he had nothing to keep him steady or hold onto. He threw himself forward on my neck, clutching it. I raised my trunk and put it in front of him, offering it so he could hold onto it and keep steady. He clutched my trunk in his hands tightly for support, and I knew sooner or later I would have to remove my trunk from his clutches. But I need not think of that right now. I started walking slowly, although he had my trunk for support, he needed balance too. I walked gently, trying my best not to sway from side to side. I was also very cautious of the branches that hung low from the canopy. And all the time Will was holding my trunk tightly. My trunk wasn’t hurting at all, or uncomfortable, yet. But I knew I could not keep it up forever. After the boy got used to my walk, he took one hand off my trunk, but I kept it there nonetheless. He got a bit too confident sometimes, and lost balance, but there was only one time he almost fell.

After hours of walking, well, me walking, I could feel Will’s grip slacken a bit. I thought he must have been tired. He went in and out of sleep. How did I know? When he would fall under, his grip went limp. This happened quite often. I was walking, being extra careful as he was asleep, and I stopped. The sight in front of me was amazing at a time like this! I reached my trunk towards the figs, dozens of them! While I did this the boy woke and threw himself forward. After a couple of seconds he realised we weren’t moving and sat up. He noticed the figs, and marveled at them. I grabbed lots, for me and him. He gorged on them while I munched. It would’ve been quite average for one of my old feeds, but these figs were better than anything I’ve ever tasted. I don’t know if it was because I was starving or because they were jungle grown, but they tasted delicious! More delicious than usual. Time and time again, Will asked for more, giving me hand signals. I was happy to oblige, because I wanted more too. When he was finished, I kept going. I was hungry like never before. I finally stripped the branches of the last figs available and was still hungry. I stripped a tree nearby of its leaves, twigs and all. I did this for a while, I mean, an elephants got to eat. He tried to talk to me, but I didn’t understand him. Nor did I care. I was eating. 

I finished eating, and started to pay attention to the boy on my back. And not a moment too soon. I let Will down, and he ran away into the bush. I do not want to describe what happened next. It was for that reason that Will started walking next to most of the time, especially when the undergrowth wasn’t too dense. The forest was beautiful if you didn’t think too much into it. Peacocks of all green and blues. Toucans with their bright colours and surprisingly beautiful squawks. I’ve spotted lots of creatures following us, at a distance. I spotted a thing swinging through the trees, a monkey, but not quite. I had no name for it. The flies and mosquitoes were another story. A whole other book! The flies would flank me, and circle around me. The mosquitoes were sucking my blood, as a mosquito does, and some of them flew into my eyes. They were everywhere. I didn’t mind though, I just had to flap my ears and they would leave for a small amount of time. Even the snakes didn't bother us. I had a feeling this was due to my presence, once they saw me they would slither back into the shadows. When we were walking through swamps and rivers, not even the crocodiles bothered us! Although, I was still cautious. I paused, before we went through, and let Will on my back. Then he would get off once we were through. I was not safe for him. 

As we wandered deeper into the jungle, the rain came more often. Not that it hadn’t rained yet, but it was more frequent and lasted longer. The rain was thunderous and treacherous and pounded against the canopy of leaves above us that you couldn’t hear the humming of insects anymore, which always seemed so loud. Once it came, me and Will were both immediately soaked to the skin. We were offered some protection by the denseness of the canopy above us, so it wasn’t hitting us full force. When we came into the smallest of clearings, it was more like hail than rain. Strong hail. 

Will was talking more often, chattering more than the monkeys. I didn’t mind though. I didn’t recognize most of the words, but it was soothing, in a way. It was good to know I wasn’t alone in this jungle. I was on a quest for food, browsing constantly as I went. Sniffing, making sure they were the kind of leaves I liked. Now, I’m not a super picky eater, but some leaves don’t taste too good, especially the ones with bird poop. I had to watch out for that. My trunk seemed to have a mind of its own, going ahead and searching out the kind of leaves I liked, and the most succulent and ripest fruits. 

Rain in the forest can go on for days, I learned, and they could stop as suddenly as they started. I didn’t mind. I loved the feeling of the cold rain hitting my skin, it was kind of refreshing. Once the rain stopped, the noise picked back up. Insects, birds and animals. They were celebrating that the rain had finally stopped. 

Some nights were harder for Will than me. Most nights. He cried and rambled about ‘Mom’ ‘Dad’ and he would cry. Cry and cry and cry. This upset me, Will was my friend. I tried to comfort him by trumpeting, but that never worked. He would stop eventually, and go to sleep. He drifted in and out of sleep often. Before we’d even find our next spot to sleep, he would be under, I would have to wake him with a trumpet of my trunk. When we were ready for sleep to come, Will slept away from me. Not too far, but far enough to not share my flies and mosquitoes. I slept easily, knowing that the animals were scared of me. Apart from the flies and insects. The insects buzzed with life, a humming rhythm was distinct in the forest. You could hear them but never see them. They flew over my ears, buzzing. It was an easy matter to get them to evacuate though, I just flapped my ears. Although I did this quite often, it worked well enough. Lying down, you don’t even have to strain your ears to hear it, you can hear not just the insects, but other animals as well. The owls hooting and screeching, the rusle in the trees, the howling, the endless racket of frogs and crickets. It was an orchestra. It never prevented my sleep though, but once you fall asleep, you can still hear the jungle night faintly in your dreams. 

I tried to remember how many nights had passed, but I couldn’t. I had no idea. It was if, in this endless loop, time simply did not exist. If it wasn’t for the holes in the canopy, or the clearings, I would never know day or night. If I had to guess, I would say several months or so. In the jungle, you had no schedule, like I did before the Wall of Doom. You lost the sense of purpose in things you used to do, like eat at a certain time, sleep at a certain time, stuff like that. You only had one purpose every day, and that was to stay alive. 

When I would look up, I kept seeing the monkey, not quite a monkey though. It was fatter, and had orange fur, and it’s face was squashed into itself. I’ll call it a monkey for now. The monkey would be there, and I was sure he was following us. While I was making this assessment, we came upon a good place to sleep. Will went up into a tree, and made his little nest there. I just slept on the ground. It wasn’t super comfortable, but I liked it. In the morning when I woke, I had a bad feeling, like I did with the tsunami. Except, it wasn’t a tsunami this time. If it was what I think it was, then we had to go. I lifted my trunk and shook Will’s shoulder, a clear sign we had to go. He didn’t argue. He let himself down from the leaves and on to my neck. He said something, but I was beyond listening. We had to go. Once he was on the back of my neck, and steady, I started walking, but much faster than usual. My eyes darted around, watching out for the danger. Maybe the only creature in the jungle that wouldn’t stay away from me. My head also darted from side to side, to get a better view. I could feel it watching us, and I know it’s nearby. But I will not lose my cool like I did for the tsunami . . . hopefully. A toucan startled me, when it suddenly took off and shook the leaves. My stride did not falter though, we had to be fast. The jungle seemed to be aware of its presence, the monkeys chattering more than usual, the birds screeching and taking off. The jungle was on edge. No, not the jungle, the jungle was always calm. The animals were on edge. 

In front of us, there was a shadow on the treeline. The shadow padded onto the trail and suddenly evolved into the danger I was running from. A tiger. It’s orange fur, bright as day. It’s stripes, making it look fierce. It looked back at me and Will, hissing, showing all its teeth. I trumpeted, but kept my trunk raised with my ears displayed. Hopeful that, and my sheer size, would scare off the tiger. We stared at each other for several minutes but without ever making eye contact. There was no more hissing, or trumpeting. It was a standoff. I wouldn’t give way, and neither would he. But neither was threatening the other either. The tiger began to circle, I tensed all my muscles, but stood my ground. The tiger was right next to me now. He panted and I could feel his breath on me, that’s how close he was. I know he was looking at Will, but I couldn’t move. I wouldn’t. One pounce would end it all, WIll would die. I know he was thinking the same thing, but if he were to attack Will, I would attack him. I had a feeling he knew that as well. He went back to circling us, his eyes on Will, then me, then Will. I was terrified, yes, I’ll admit it. I am a prideful animal, but I will admit when I was scared. The tiger was circling us, no longer looking at me, looking at Will. When he’d come too close for comfort, I’d let him know by swishing my head, and swaying my tail. He hissed, showing his displeasure and padded off into the woods, his and my dignity still intact. I felt triumphant, although I didn’t do much for fear that the tiger would come back. I flicked my ears and kept walking. That was the best thing to do in these cases. Walk it off.