Twoo

Chapter 4

 I haven’t been travelling for long but my mind is beginning to wonder. I think about the strange object that I came across not so long ago and of the implications that it may have on my life. Whatever created it is no friend to me, or to any other animal in this savannah. I worry that the noise it created may have attracted unwanted attention. Because of this, I seem to be constantly on the edge. Alert. Paranoid that I am being watched, I continue travelling. Every few steps I stop to look behind me as I have a constant feeling that I am being followed. I know that there is nothing behind me, yet I still feel obligated to look. It’s probably just the unearthly silence getting to me. Giving me strange thoughts.

Perhaps, as I a so very tired, I should sleep to relive the tension. If only.

I couldn’t close my eyes for even a second in fear of what creatures may find me. Forward is the only way as I am growing weak due to lack of food and water. Without sustenance I will not last long, so I continue on my way, trying to quicken my pace. Although my mind is unfocused, the constant drumming caused by my feet gives me a rhythm to move to.

In my head I compose a poem, it spurs me on and keeps up my speed.

I have been running,

It’s all that I’ve known.

Since the day I was born,

Till I get to my home.

I run with the sun,

I follow the trees.

Till my feet are worn thin

And I’m weak at the knees.

I ran from the fire,

I run to the water.

I look for my parents,

For I am their daughter.

I fear I am watched,

By foe and not friend.

I have to keep running,

In fear of my end.

I hope for the best,

But hope’s not enough.

I hope to be safe,

I hope to be loved.

Subconsciously, I have stopped moving. A tear streaks down my cheek and will be followed by many more. I cry silently and effortlessly to myself, alone, wallowing in my own self pity. Because I am unaware of my surroundings, I do not notice a small but hard object that comes flying into me. In shock I fling it away, slashing it with my trunk. I am brought back to reality. Twirling and twisting, it soars through the air and ends up smacking into a nearby tree with tremendous force. My heart stops. The world around me spins and I am unsure as to which direction I am looking in.  It was not an object that flew into me, but a bird. A very small bird with all too familiar markings round its eyes. After hitting the tree he falls down onto the hard dry floor. I grimace as he prises his beak out of a crack in the ground.

“Please let he be alright. Please let he be alright. Please.” I whisper to myself as he regains his balance. Noticing that he is having trouble walking, I tiptoe over to him [in the hope that I won’t startle him with the noise of my pounding footsteps]. I hold my trunk next to him so that he can steady himself if he wobbles. He accepts the offer and leans on my trunk, his limited weight causing me no discomfort.

After a few moments silence, he lifts his head and opens his small fragile beak as if to say something. Instead, all that comes out is a very soft and very quiet “twoo”. Looking strangely pleased with himself he lets go of my trunk and sits down at the base of a tree. Patting the ground around him he gets himself comfortable, wriggling slightly to mould the shape of the ground to his bottom. He then tips his head back to lean against the tree behind him and falls fast asleep in the space of barely a second. Although he snores loudly [far louder than an owl should snore] he seems peaceful, so making the most of the opportunity, I curl up by a nearby tree and fall asleep myself. I drift off easily and without trouble, partly because I am so tired but also because I feel as if a strange weight has been lifted from me. I am reunited not only with hope but with a friend. A friend who I believed to be non existent, but who is in fact as real as you get, if a little drowsy from the bump. Although he appears to have lost his mind at the present moment, I feel confident that at morning he will have returned to his former self. Come morning I will find out why he left and where he left to, but now I will sleep and await a new day of surprise ahead of me.