Part 2: The Transformation

Chapter 28

"The Elephant Hair Dare"

In a short period of time, Jane Porter had changed her life forever when she married Tarzan, the king of the jungle. Now, she was living and learning the ways of the jungle and Tarzan was teaching everything Jane needed to understand about what life in the jungle was really about. As her honeymoon progressed, Jane was starting to become more and more comfortable around Tarzan, far differently than when she first met him that day in the tree after the baboon chase. Today, her understanding of being around Tarzan continued when she went with him to do some fishing by the stream and unbeknownst to Jane, Tarzan was going to have her do something that he did when he was younger in order to prove herself as an ape.

As the sun rose on the second day of their honeymoon, Jane accompanied Tarzan to an elephant watering hole that was strikingly similar to the elephant hole that used to house Tantor and his family. It was here where the fishing was great and the water was perfect temperature wise.

"Tarzan," she asked. "I thought we came here to fish for food. What exactly are we doing again?"

"Tarzan going to teach Jane how to become an ape," replied Tarzan. "Tarzan did it when he was younger and became an ape because of it."

Jane didn't quite know what to think of what Tarzan was saying as she was still unaware of what Tarzan was planning to have her do. He led her to a cliff overlooking the watering hole and he pointed to a group of elephants who were bathing themselves by spraying water on themselves.

"Tarzan going to have Jane catch Elephant hair," he said. "Jane is going to catch it right off of tail."

Jane looked down and she was slightly appalled at what Tarzan was going to have her do. For she knew that it was wrong to get something off of someone's behind, let alone be a pickpocket like the little thieves that she and her father had to deal with back in England. However, knowing that she had to accept the ways of the jungle, Jane surrendered herself to Tarzan's request.

"Well, Tarzan," she said. "I don't like the idea of pickpocketing someone, especially an elephant. But because I have to accept life in the jungle, I will do it for you."

So, she stepped forward to the edge of the cliff and for a second she smiled at Tarzan much to Tarzan's confusion.

"Why does Jane look so happy to be getting Elephant hair?" Tarzan asked, remembering the time he did the Elephant Hair Dare and he had nearly killed several gorillas because of it.

"Because Tarzan," she replied. "I was a swimming champion back in finishing school and you will see me perform such a feat that you can hardly believe your eyes."

Although there was no diving board to support her dive, Jane jumped off the cliff like a graceful ballerina and plummeted towards the watering hole below, hitting the water with a tremendous splash. Tarzan looked on and thought that his mate was dead for a second and then she emerged from the bottom of the water and smiled up at Tarzan.

"Is Jane all right?" he called.

"Yes, I'm fine," called Jane. "The water's fine."

"Get elephant hair," shouted Tarzan and Jane set to work on her task. She scouted for the nearest elephant and found a large male elephant in the midst of bathing himself and Jane carefully swam over to him and tried to carefully take the elephant hair off of the gigantic beasts' tail.

"I'm sorry I have to do this," she whispered to herself and she found the biggest hair and quickly yanked it off causing the male elephant to trumpet in pain and pull Jane out of the water flinging her through the air and causing her to scream for her life. After a while, the young Englishwoman was thrown back into the water and all the elephants looked down at Jane and all began to trumpet in fear.

Frantically, Jane tried to swim away from the chaos, but the elephants were too large and too quick for her to properly swim away. Tarzan assumed the worst and jumped off the cliff to rescue his wife as the elephants ran out of the watering hole and trumpeting in fear, stampeded into the northern edge of the jungle, away from the gorilla nests. Tarzan gasped loudly as he found his mate lying face down in the water. He quickly dragged her out of the water and brought her to shore.

"Jane! Jane!" he cried. "Please be all right! Please!"

But, Jane didn't respond and Tarzan now feared his mate was dead. Fearing that she was indeed dead, Tarzan mourned over his mate's body fearing that he may have made a terrible mistake by having Jane take part in the Elephant Hair Dare. He knew the dangers of it, but he ignored it and allowed his mate to put in harm's way.

Suddenly, Jane coughed up some water and came around from her near death as Tarzan happily rejoiced over her quick recovery.

"Tarzan happy Jane is alive," he said and hugged her tightly as she coughed up more and more water out of her system.

"Whoo," she said, coughing up some more water. "I must have taken in a lot of water back there. But, I got this for you."

She handed Tarzan the elephant hair and right now, in Tarzan's mind, this did not matter as Jane's safety was much more important right now.

"Jane is an ape now," chuckled Tarzan. "Isn't she?"

"I guess she is now, isn't she?" giggled Jane and the two began to engage in passionate kissing before resuming what they set out to do to begin with now that the Elephant Hair Dare was over. After catching several salmon, they headed back to the tree house as soon the sun had set for the day.

Their honeymoon was halfway over, but the fun was just beginning…