Yawns. Oh man, this chapter took quite a bit longer to do than I thought. I'm going to have to take a serious break to attend to my academics though, so I thought you readers deserved an especially nice portion to tide you over. At this point, I must admit that it'll take another chapter or two before Jack and Ann finally meet Simba and Nala in their cubhood, so do bear with me. Still, the experiences Driscoll and Darrow will have until that time will be anything but boring... Finally, in this chapter, I've tried to probe into Ann's way of thought and outlook, at least as I see it. If you readers enjoy it, then I've done my job just fine. And last but definitely not least, I'd like to give a big shout-out to my reviewers!
Disclaimer: All characters in here belong to Weta, Disney, and Universal except for Indlovu (elephant in Zulu) who is my own creation.
The forest provides food to the hunter after he has been utterly exhausted. Zimbabwean Proverb.
"This officially rates a 9.0 on my Weird-Shit-O-Meter." Will Smith, Men In Black, Amblin Entertainment, 1997.
As a hollowly chuckling Jack grasped her right hand, sitting down with her in the Rhodes grass, Ann felt her body quiver as she just dumbly stared at the great elephant. She wondered if she was going to scream her lungs out in hysteria, then faint, just like she'd done when the ape first took her. Don't lose it girl, don't lose it girl, don't lose it girl. she chanted in a mantra inside her head.
Perceiving something with your senses and knowing that it's occurring is one thing. Accepting and believing it is another thing entirely. This was like being plopped right into a fairy tale, or the stories about Dr. Dolittle. Kipling, Lofting, eat your hearts out, Ann thought.
The elephant sighed, saying "Perhaps it would be less intimidating if I sat down," which he then did.
Next to her, Jack exhaled hard, and closed his eyes, saying, "Ann, I know it's not very manly, but I am seriously wondering if this moment would finally be a good time for a complete nervous breakdown. But don't worry, even if I have gone wacko, I would never harm you."
"I know you wouldn't, Jack. And since you and I are undergoing the same experience, at least we've both gone mad together."
"Let's take this one step at a time," the talking seated elephant patiently told them. "As far as I can see, neither of you is insane. And if you humans have any doubt about my existence, feel of my trunk," the bull said, sticking the wrinkled gray appendage out at them.
Coming forward on his hands and knees, Jack tentatively touched the elephant's trunk first, giving a grunt as it lightly snaked around his wrist, then let go as the playwright nodded. Ann was next, reaching out and feeling the warm, leathery, supple, creased tube of muscle slide along her hand. Yes, this was very much a real animal, not a figment of her imagination.
"May I ask you two humans some questions?" the elephant pressed.
"You're an elephant. Elephants can't possibly speak or ask questions," Jack said flatly. "This isn't a Dr. Dolittle story."
At this the bull thought for a moment. "If I'm not supposed to be able to speak, and what you are hearing is the product of madness, then what harm would it do to converse back in turn?"
He has a very good point, Ann decided as she and Jack briefly gave each other considered looks.
"None, to be frank," she answered softly.
Getting back to his feet again, the bull stated, "That's correct. My name's Indlovu by the way, and I am the 12th ranking bull in the Pridelands. What are your names?"
"I'm Jack Driscoll, a playwright from New York City in the United States of America," Jack responded. "If those locations mean anything to you," he wryly added with a faint smirk.
"And I'm Ann Darrow, a former vaudeville actress, also from New York City. I've worked on the stage for much of my life." Might as well accept what I cannot change, she thought with a mental shrug. Besides, the elephant seemed nice enough.
"Now-Indlovu right?-I have a question of my own," Jack asked. "Why did you charge us?" Ann remembered the terror of thinking that her hero, her love, was going to be impaled or crushed before her eyes.
"The two of you just spooked me while I was browsing, that was all," Indlovu replied, shrugging his massive gray shoulders. "Plus, I could smell that you'd been in the Elephant graveyard, and had the scent of my dead kin about you, which greatly upset me. But I'm sorry for giving you humans such a scare."
"And do not worry Ann," the elephant gently interjected as he turned to face her, "I would not have harmed your consort unless he'd injured me in some fashion as well. I only meant to drive the two of you away, not to kill. You were brave to stand by him."
"No harm done," Ann said with a smile.
Indlovu continued. "Speaking of which, it is quite rare for humans, especially unarmed ones such as yourselves, to appear in the Pridelands. How did you arrive here, Jack and Ann? Were you both in an accident? Did you get separated from your band? Or did you both agree to make a new life for yourselves out here?"
Ann's eyes met Jack's green ones, then they both looked into the soft brown ones of the elephant. What should they tell him? That in her case, she'd gone on a tramp steamer to a hellish isle named Skull Island, tempted by money and the fact that Mr. Driscoll would be with them, been kidnapped by hateful, terrifying savages, sacrificed to a giant gorilla which had made her almost into a living doll, defended her from three tyrannosaurs at risk to his own life, and then suddenly showed up here just after, thankful wonder of wonders, Jack had shown up to rescue her?
Perhaps the best thing to do with a creature like this one was to keep things simple. "To be honest, we were both on a mountain top, escaping from-another huge animal-when there was a flash of light, we had a feeling of falling, and we just ended up in the elephant graveyard," Ann supplied.
"But ultimately, we don't really know," Jack chimed in.
"I do know that I don't like being lost," Ann quietly said.
"From what you just told me, I suspect that some sort of accidental magic was involved," Indlovu stated, nodding. "But that is a matter for the future. What matters now is the present, and I can see that not only are you lost Jack and Ann, you both must be very hungry, thirsty, and tired also."
Accidental magic? What the hell? Ann thought in groping puzzlement as she and Jack exchanged a look. Oh, she was too tired to even begin to tackle that right now. But she filed it away all the same.
"You hit the nail right on the head," Jack dryly responded after briefly blinking once. "Not to sound like we have no social graces, but could you please direct us to a place where we could take care of those needs?" Ann couldn't have agreed more.
"Certainly I can lead you to one," came Indlovu's response. "Just follow me." Suddenly, the bull hesitated, and began gently rocking back and forth in indecision. "Come to think of it though, I can see you humans are just in such a bad way you might not be able to cover the distance on foot. Plus, you both are very weary and worse, smell of blood" (and at this Ann self-consciously looked at her abraded, scratched, oozing feet)"which would make it too easy for carnivores to have their way with you, and I hate to think of that happening.'
"So" the elephant proposed, "how about if old Indlovu does something he's never done before? How would you like to be my passengers for a while?"
"That would be wonderful!" Ann cried, excited at such an enchanting idea. Imagine, riding on elephant back like an Indian prince!
"I have no problem at all with that plan," Jack agreed, and she swore she could briefly see the same boyish glint of adventure even in his now deathly pale, sunken face.
"Then, just let me place you on my back, and I'll bring you to this beautiful stream I know about. There are lots of fruiting trees there right now, and the water is clear and sweet, so you'll enjoy yourselves," Indlovu stated.
Ann was going to go first, but Jack stopped her, saying "Ann, let him pick me up first. That way, if something goes wrong, it'll be me who gets hurt, and not you." How gallant and gentlemanly you are Jack, she thought with pleasure.
Wrapping his trunk gently but firmly under Jack's shoulders, the elephant picked him up in one smooth, fluid motion, and placed him on his broad back. "Get a good hold and keep your balance," Indlovu advised.
"How is the weather up there Mr. Driscoll?" Ann playfully asked from 11 feet below.
"Just great! You can't see the whole world from here, but quite a bit of it, and the whole thing makes me feel pretty important too. Sure is a lot more impressive than a taxi," he said, grinning as he ran his fingers through a head of black hair. "But now if I'm going to play the great prince, it would be a crime for my princess to remain on her own two feet. Keen to travel in style Ann?"
"Most definitely," she said with a laugh. Warm and muscular, Indlovu's trunk then gripped her around the armpits, and she again felt the odd feeling of being propelled through the air by something with a strength beyond her understanding before feeling the rubbery creased dusty skin underneath her and sat in front of Jack, her legs clamped against the elephant's neck.
Like the elephant's trunk had, she felt the reassuring sensation of Jack's arms curving under her shoulders, and she allowed him to pull her to himself, lightly nuzzling her hair with his big nose. "I'm so thankful that I have you safe again," he told her in a tired, yet triumphant voice.
"And I'm thankful that you came, risked everything to rescue me," Ann gratefully said in return.
There was so much more that needed, demanded to be said. But, being so terribly tired in every way, Jack and Ann both resigned themselves to lightly, warily dozing in a half asleep state, leaning against each other for support and keeping their legs clamped around Indlovu's thick neck. They stayed like this for maybe fifteen minutes as the elephant walked, feeling the sun on their bodies and nudging the other when they began to go limp. Ann did the great majority of the nudging.
She had to fight the urge to laugh often during the journey. It wasn't just about how unexpected and surreal the whole thing was, but also that already, no more than half an hour after encountering a wild elephant with the honest-to-God, impossible ability to speak in English, she (and apparently her boy too) had come to accept and be comfortable with both the fact and the beast.
Then, at last, she felt leafy branches swiping against her smooth legs, heard flowing, rushing water, and their elephant mount calmly told them "We've arrived." Sitting upright, she and Jack saw that they were in a forest lining a river, the dappled sunlight shining through the leaves. And what a river it was! Clearly spring-fed, it was fifteen feet wide and four feet deep in the middle of its course and almost as clear as glass, jumping and rushing and burbling over the rocks as tilapia, catfish, killifish, and frogs could be seen swimming over the bottom. It was like the fish were encased in crystal.
Knowing what they wanted, Indlovu reached back to wrap his trunk around Ann's torso, lifting her up and putting her down on the soft leaf litter. He did the same with Jack then, who appreciatively patted the bull's right tusk before joining her. Ann didn't hesitate.
She didn't care if the water hadn't been treated, or that it was extremely unladylike to act in such a manner. She cupped water in her palms again and again as she kneeled in her slip at the river's edge, drinking pints of it like she had never had water in her life. She'd never had water that tasted so good and was so welcome!
As Indlovu used his trunk to drink himself several yards away, Jack joined her in sucking down water with the same enthusiastic abandon, occasionally looking out over the water before scooping up more.
"Just checking for crocodiles," he explained offhandedly. The sheer force of the refreshment the water provided practically made Ann weep.
When they finally had enough water, she decided to look a bit more civilized, and washed her face and head in the cool water.
"Good idea," Jack droned, "because I sure look even worse." As he tossed water onto his thick black hair, causing it to go limp and droop, Ann was dismayed to see a fair amount of clotted gore work its way out from his lacerated scalp. Oh Christ above, poor Jack! When the elephant said that they both smelt of blood, he wasn't lying.
"Jack, you're hurt," she said in a tone of sympathetic distress.
Looking at the results being swept downstream, Jack hissed in disgust at the sight, then visibly winced when he touched the back of his head. "It's all right Ann, I'll be fine. It's just a flesh wound. And it's better to deal with it now than have the smell go announce to the lions that I'm easy prey," he said as he continued working his fingers through his scalp.
At that point, Ann felt her stomach twist tightly in that feeling of hunger, something she'd been all too used to back in New York.
"Would you like me to lead you to some food now?" Indlovu offered.
"Yes, we'd really appreciate that," Ann replied. She was amazed by this creature's generosity. Oh, food…
"Follow me then," the elephant said. "It's not very far to go."
Only several hundred yards away, their pachyderm guide-strange to think of any wild animal that way-Ann considered, led them to a large shrub about 14 feet tall. On its branches were large, fist-sized fruits in rinds that looked and felt like dead oak leaves in winter.
"These," Indlovu told them in his rumbling voice while gesturing with his trunk, "are wild custard apples. They are very good and sweet to eat, and you'll enjoy them."
As disgusting as it was, Ann Darrow couldn't help but feel saliva pooling in her lower jaw.
A tasty fruit lunch was served.
Plucking one of the custard apples off the bush, she peeled and discarded the rind, letting it drop to the ground. The first bite proved that the fruit was quite worthy of its name. With a soft consistency to its flesh, the fruit tasted much like an apricot, with just a bit of pineapple rolled in.
She tried to remind herself that she was a modest, respectable lady, and a lady should always conduct herself with at least a minimum of decorum. She wasn't a gluttony-crazed beast after all. Oh, to hell with it.
Ann gave up to the urges, and flung herself on the bush. For the next several minutes, all she knew and all that mattered was plucking, peeling, biting, tearing, chewing, swallowing, of food filling her empty, desperate body.
She hadn't eaten for the past twenty-four hours, and it showed. Dimly, she was aware of Jack too, with a focus and ravenousness he would've never dared show around his colleagues in theater, peeling off rinds and bolting down bites of fruit with equal speed.
Soon, both of them had eaten all the custard apples that were ripe enough to consume. And Ann still wanted more. She knew Jack did too.
Turning back to the browsing Indlovu, she asked of the elephant, "Is there some more fruit we can eat? I mean, we're really starved and badly need more."
"I know just the place," Indlovu answered with an accommodating smile, and they followed him another several hundred yards to a huge tree.
This one had lots of small, bare branches on it, each laden with orange and yellow fruits. "Fig tree," Jack said thoughtfully.
"Correct," Indlovu said. "These are sycamore figs, and they taste quite good too. The redder they are, the riper and sweeter." Once again, but this time with the elephant's help as a harvester, Jack and Ann took care of the rest of their hunger with the ripe figs. They weren't as sweet as the cultivated figs Ann had tasted before back in New York, and often had insects in them, but were still quite good.
Several minutes later, Ann contentedly laid back against the fig tree's trunk, controlled a rising burp in as ladylike a fashion as possible, smoothly wiped off her lips with the back of her hand, and yawned, finally full of delectable wild fruit.
Jack voiced her sentiments, sighing before saying, " Ahhh. Good grief, I badly needed that."
"Me too," she agreed with another yawn.
At this point, Indlovu gave another deep belly rumble, catching their attention. "Jack and Ann, do you feel refreshed and recovered now?"
"Yes we do," Jack replied, "thanks in no small part to you."
The elephant seemed to mull something over for a few seconds, and then told them "Glad to hear that. And now I must leave the two of you to your own recognizance."
The words shocked Ann right out of her blissful, tranquil state. "WHAT?" she cried. "Indlovu, you can't just abandon us!" she said with shock.
"We don't even know where we are, and we still need you to help us as a guide," Jack added in bemusement.
"I am sorry, but I can't take care of two humans forever," the elephant regretfully told them. A crushing, familiar mantra came to Ann's mind. Good things never last, and everyone goes away, she thought as the bull's words sunk in.
"Why not damnit!" Jack desperately argued. "Was it something we did, or are we just too 'different' to fully accept? Do you not like humans?"
"That is not it at all," Indlovu said with mild irritation. "Humans, I travel over this land for much of the day, and deep into the night. My legs take steps that are longer than yours, and I don't need as much sleep as you both do. You'd fall behind quickly, no matter how hard you tried to keep up."
"Well," Ann countered, "then just let us ride on your back like we did when you brought us here."
"A very good idea Ann, but you still can't go with me. You'd be able to accompany me on my travels-but would you be able to eat my food?"
"What do you mean by that?" Jack asked. "Surely we can both eat any fruits or nuts that you would also eat."
"Certainly," Indlovu replied. "But I also eat quite a lot of grass, leaves, bark, bushes and twigs. I got a good look at your teeth as you ate, and I have heard other things about what humans eat for food. There is no way you could stay alive on most of my diet. You would starve to death Jack and Ann, in what to me is great plenty."
A nice paradox there, Ann grimly thought. Of course, everyone spouts the reasons before they betray and abandon you girl, she mentally added.
"Finally," the bull softly told them, "there is a reason, a deep one, that just has to do with my nature. I am a male you see, and it is simply our destiny as bulls to live alone. We aren't used to, nor even know how to shepherd and look out for others. That is a cow's job, not mine. But the worst part for you two would be when I underwent musth."
"What is that?" Jack asked. Indlovu said matter-of-factly, "It is a state we bulls go into where glands between our eyes and ears just stream a musky fluid, and we become very, very aggressive. Why I don't know, but I always want to just kill another bull and attack other creatures if they encounter me."
At that disturbing comment, Ann and Jack said nothing, and just gave each other wary that's-more-information-than-I-wanted glances. Nice, he turns psychotic for a period what, once a year?
"Therefore, I would be a danger to the two of you, and it would do you no good to trail me. Besides, I'm sure you'd both prefer seeing your old homes again in New York-wherever that strange land is-than having to roam around with the likes of myself. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that I was able to help you Jack and Ann, and you're both very likable" at this Ann blushed-"but I hope you understand why I cannot look after you forever"
"I don't like it at all, but I suppose I understand," Ann answered disappointedly.
"Well if you're going to walk out on us pal, you should at least tell us another place where we can find other help," Jack demanded.
Indlovu nodded. "Since you are in their lands, I think the best thing to do would be to speak to King Mufasa and Queen Sarabi at Pride Rock. They should be able to take you in, or at least know what to do. You'll have protection at any rate."
"Where is Pride Rock exactly?" Jack asked.
"To find it, first walk against the current of the river until you encounter a smaller one flowing into it."
"Then," Indlovu continued, "follow that one upstream to its source, which is a waterhole and a marsh. From there, you will be able to see Pride Rock close by, and then just take a game trail right to it."
"Follow it upstream," Ann repeated, putting the knowledge into her brain. "I've got it."
"In that case," the great bull elephant stated, "I'm going to go now. It was a pleasure to help the two of you Jack and Ann, and if fate wills it, I hope to see you again." He extended his trunk, embraced her in its firm, yet gentle, grasp, and then did the same thing to Jack.
Then, backing up and wheeling around, Indlovu cried, "Farewell Jack and Ann!" before loping off into the forest on his pillar-like legs, giving a loud trumpet of goodbye.
"Farewell yourself!" Jack and Ann answered back, waving and listening until he was gone.
Suddenly Ann felt very tired indeed. "Jack, I need to sleep before we go on. I feel like I'm going to drop from exhaustion," she pleaded.
"I do as well, Ann," he said with a deep yawn, and she was again aware of how truly worn-out he looked. "In fact, I think I'm 20 minutes away from passing out with a thud."
"I'll try to keep my eyes peeled for a good spot along the way," he continued, gripping the elephant bone once again as they both began to wearily walk through the dappled riverside forest, Ann feeling the slick leaf litter bouncing and giving beneath her bare feet. More staggering than walking, Jack looked like a dysentery sufferer, and a large part of Ann was terrified that if he fell, her boyfriend might never get up again, the thought slicing painfully at her heart. The pair walked in silence for a few minutes, weaving through trees, listening for danger, jumping over fallen logs, and yawning to keep themselves awake.
In a flatter area, there was a good amount of thorn trees mixing in with the forest. There were a few kopjes, or rock mounds, mixed in too. Suddenly, Jack said as he looked around, the blessed words. "Ann, I think we've found a safe spot to sleep."
Turning her head, Ann saw a small kopje about three hundred yards away abutting a dense thicket of acacia bush with sharp thorns. There was a small tunnel going into the juncture between the rocks and the bush, just big enough for someone to go into without being jabbed by the vicious spikes. She'd take it.
"Looks suitable enough," she commented, and Jack began to lead her toward it, using his shoes to remove any thorns that could stab into her bare feet as best he could.
When they arrived, he clutched his bone club lightly, and told her softly, "Just wait a moment. There could be an animal in here." But there wasn't this time, and he nodded, giving her the go-ahead to crawl into the vaulted thicket ahead of him.
A few thorns scraped her bare skin or briefly caught on her slip, but Ann had little difficulty in entering the chamber. Jack crawled in after her, the dappled light playing over his shirt and pants. They took up positions alongside each other, and without any words, kissed slowly in their own little corner of this fierce paradise, sending a thrill through her body. Then Jack laid down on the grass and leaves, stretching out to face the entrance at an angle.
So he can better protect me if need be, Ann thought as she lightly smiled to herself. Then she joined him, pressing her body against his back. One of his arms lightly reached back to caress a shoulder, and she felt him apply body pressure back to her. Maybe, she dared to dream, not caring about where she was or how she got here, maybe, he finally will be the one, and he won't go away. Sleep took her in that thicket then. And Ann Darrow was happy.
They slept for two or three hours. Then, Ann woke to high, chittering, squeaking cries. Birds, she sleepily thought. She started out to look at them, but Jack was woken then. Hearing the noises, he hissed to Ann, "No. Don't go out there unless I'm in front of you. Wait a moment."
Taking up his bone club, he crawled out into the open, warily looking out into the savanna woodland, walking a few yards away as he did so. Not knowing what was going on, Ann came out into the sunlight too, trying to focus her ears on the twittering. Jack motioned to her to stay back and stay down.
Then, the door-hinge twittering reached a fever pitch at their right, and a whole bunch of doglike creatures, colored in random huge patches of black, white, ochre, and buff, with white tail brushes came loping at them from out of the brush. Seeing the approaching canines, Ann's mind groped for their names even as she backed away. Then it hit her. She and Jack had caught the unwanted attention of a pack of Africa's painted wolves, the infamous African hunting dogs.
There were more than a dozen, and they were coming at them fast, even though they were only moving at a canter. Some briefly sprung up into the air, on all four or just their hind feet, in order to get a better look. Under other circumstances, it would've put Ann Darrow into a spin. Nothing funny here.
As the pack came within ten yards of where they were standing, Jack roared out, "Stay BACK!" brandishing the elephant bone at the dogs.
The display of force unnerved the predators. They stopped and fidgeted in indecision, muttering words she couldn't hear to each other and themselves. Then, laying back their absurdly huge Mickey Mouse ears, the pack shifted gear, and came at them again.
Ah ha, a cliffhanger. Will the wild dogs prove to be curious allies...or lethal enemies? As always, please review! Kong will get angry if you don't. :)