We see a small green field and zoom closer with two fonts reading
"65 million years later"
And
"15 years ago"
We see a small carpenter ant loosening a piece of grain from its stock and drops it to the ground where we see several more in the background. We then see the grassy floor as we see a line of carpenter ants as they one stone a time catch a dropping piece of grain, while one has a red raspberry dropped in him. We watch as we see the carpenter ants with small pieces of plants like grain, peas and small berries as they head to their anthill where we see it as an animal reserve for insects as we see primitive insects doing their normal shtick, the rhinoceros beetles jousted by clashing their horns, the ant lions laid patiently in the dirt until they emerge to catch their meals, and the giraffe weevils are from the tops of high plants
We see a small pen made up of leaves and sticks the ants made with a blue and yellow rhino beetle inside. These species were very rare due to their bright colors and this one was ready to be released back into the wild. The carpenter ants open the stick cage as the rhino beetle sniffs the air and opens its armored elytra revealing its brightly colored translucent wings and takes flight
The beetle flies through the grassy fields before flying in raise a hollow log and through the other end as we see majestic central Africa with Mount Kilimanjaro overlooking the landscape
The beetle flies down to the ground and flies under the bellies of a herd of grazing plains zebras and over a colony of meerkats on century duty. It then proceeds to land on a small branch and munches on the plant it is on before noticing another plant on it and goes in to investigate. The branch lifts up to reveal a small trunk attached to it. The beetle steps back as a small 5 year old African bush elephant reveals himself. The beetle backs away but realizes the small calf was showing no thread and proceeds to walk onto the leaf it was on as it sees about 47 other insects of vibrant colors on him with a few of them being rhino beetles themselves. This makes the beetle smile and crawls up his trunk and onto the calf's forehead where a female was
The young elephant, who was named Tembo laughs to himself before sprinting in tops speed through the landscape passing many other animals, like a territorial black rhinoceros, a quartet of giraffes munching the leaves off an Acacia tree, and a herd of Thompson gazelle jumping around, like gazelle and antelope always do
We then see a small Acacia tree on a hill with some bark scratched off the middle where we see a large African female elephant named Amani tossing dirt all over her body in order to cool off from the hot summer heat, like all African elephants do
Well, most anyway, as we zoom down to see a small oxpecker by the name of Kichaa tossing dirt all over himself but constantly coughs due to some getting into his beak.
The oxpecker simply sighs as he falls flat on his back and proceeds to make a snow angle in the dirt. Eventually he hears voices and looks up to see a pair of oxepeckers arguing on the dead end of a nearby Cape buffalo
Oxepecker 1: it wasn't uneven a bug! Your blind!
Oxpecker 2: it was right there!
Oxpecker 1: I would know if it's a bug or not!
Oxpecker 2: you wouldn't know a bug even if it but you in the ass!
The two then look to see a tick and proceed to tussle over who would have it first. Eventually the two overhear Tembo passing by yelling to Amani
Tembo: mom! Kichaa! Look, I did it! I did it look!
The two overhear and look to see Tembo, or particular the bugs all over his hack, the top of his ears and his forehead. It was a smorgasbord with legs and their beaks salivated on all the menu options on the back of that young elephant.
Tembo then makes it up to Amani who notices him
Tembo: mom look you won't believe it! Look how many friends I got!
Amani; ohoh, I knew you could do it!
Tembo: it's like forty eight! I broke my record mom!
Kichaa: nice work little bro!
Tembo: first, I crawl into this cave,
As he speaks, the oxpeckers look to one another and both agree on having the walking smorgasbord. Oxpecker 1 spits out the tick who at this point was dried out and they both make a being straight toward Tembo, but that didn't go out of the watchful eye of kichaa who spots the oxpeckers
Tembo: oh, but then I broke my stick, that was bad. But juju reached me a better one. Oh! I gotta show butu!
Tembo then sprints off to the plains and just before the oxpeckers could reach tembo's back and feast on all the insects on his back, kichaa leaps right in front of them and they crash right into them. They all land to the ground with oxpecker 2 wrapped in kichaa's arm and oxpecker 1 right below him
Oxpecker 2: well if it isn't everyone's favorite elephant
Oxpecker 1: (breathes) you mean adopted elephant
Oxpecker 2: actually I really meant bird-
Kichaa proceeds to choke hold him. when he hatched his egg fell out of the nest and he imprinted on Amani, ever since then Kichaa had always thought he was an elephant, but just so happened to be small, have feathers a beak and walked on too legs, and embraced it head on, and hates it when everyone called him a bird
Kichaa: I'm gonna assume you meant to say "brother", as in brother to that little walking ball of cuteness over there
He then points to Tembo running in the distance
Kichaa: the next time you parasites see that tiny bundle of bliss, your gonna fly right on by. Ya got it?
Oxpecker 2: ahh, are you sweating right now?
Kichaa: I'm always sweating
He then picks up a pile of dirt with one hand, but then stops when he notices Amani standing right over him
Amani: kichaa, making friends?
Kichaa: oh yeah! Dirt buddies!
He then shoves the dirt into oxpecker 2's face and wipes it all over him. We then cut to Tembo heading over to the watering hole where butu was, wrestling with many other older elephants just starting to grow their tusks
Butu was tembo's older brother who when Tembo was born, a pack of lions came, but butu fought them off but not before getting a tear in his ear, which made him looked up to as the strongest in the herd. This earned him respect from many other teenager elephants in the herd and they all wrestle on the hill overlooking the watering hole
Butu: bring it on big boy!
One of the teenagers charge at butu but he head butts him and he rolls down to the bottom where the spectators including a pair of teenage female and calfs older than Tembo watch
Calf: awesome butu!
Teenager: I was supposed to keep my chin down wasn't I?
Butu: yeah! And don't forget to flare your ears
Butu proceeds to walk off and co tongue wrestling the remaining teenagers
Teenagers: gotcha
The teenager then passes out as we see the calf's head butt one another. We then see Tembo burst out of the foliage and rush right up to his brother
Tembo: butu! Butu look! Look how many friends I got! I broke my record! Forty eight!
Butu then stops nuggying one of the teenagers and they both look at Tembo in silence for a moment or so
Teenager: that's just weird
Butu continues wrestling while acknowledging Tembo
Butu: nice. Alright that's- that's good Tembo
Tembo: I-I got ones I've never even seen before! There's scrunchy, his name is wiggles, that's jiggles, this one's flower face, and I call this one stinky, because he stinks. Hey! You wanna name some too? You can use my friend stick!
Butu: tell ya what little brother, hold on
He then stomps on the trunk of an ambushing teenager and proceeds to kick him back towards a berry bush
Butu: listen Tembo right now I'm kinda in the middle of something here
Tembo: ya wanna do some bird watching instead? A family of spoonbills just
Butu then head punches the teenager he's holding and proceeds to use his leg to stop a younger calf with pimples all over his face named tsavu
Butu: remember! Ears flares! It's like talking to a rock
Tembo: or maybe we c-
Butu: or; maybe you'd wanna mix it up with me and the guys. Look, tsavu here would be perfect for you!
Tembo: uh...no, I don't think I could-
Butu: here!
Butu then let's tsavu charge. Tembo wasn't a big fan of fighting, he never did and he had no intention of doing so, so when tsavu charged, Tembo didn't even defend himself. Instead tsavu charged at him making him collapse and all the bugs on him flew off. Tembo gets back up and reaches for the bugs only for them to fly off into parts unknown, making Tembo sigh in disappointment with butu watching, and tsavu just laughed
Tsavu: hahaha! He's so stupid!
Butu: hey! That's my brother!
Butu then shoves him away making tsavu tumble down with the rest of the beaten up teenagers. Butu then walks up to his little brother
Butu: listen, I know your nervous Tembo but, someday your gonna have to learn how to fight
Tembo: but why?
Butu: cause fighting is everything. Look down there
He then looks to the females waving to him
Female: hi butu! He's my hero
Butu: ya see that? That's respect
He then looks to the females
Butu: 'sup?
The females proceed to faint with butu chucking and looking to his brother
Butu: you prove to everyone how strong they are well, one day, they'll all be looking up at you
They both then look down and butu is shocked to see the teenagers charging
Teenager: come on you punk-yderms, let's get him!
All three of them charge at butu making him back away, only for him to fall off the edge of the hill and fall into the water. He then sprays water out of his trunk and then feels the ground beneath him moving around. Suddenly, a massive hippopotamus reveals himself and tosses butu off making him tumble off and right into the cliff. Butu was cornered. The hippo marches forward to the elephant who tries to back away
Teenagers: come on butu! You got this!
Butu then watches the hippo make landfall cornering him, but then look to see other animals in the area including giraffes zebras and wildebeest watch him, including his teenager friends. This gives him the courage to try and face the hippo
Butu: okay. We're doing this
The other hippos in the river watch as well as their matriarch circles butu and roars, alerting Amani who was on the other side of the plains talking to her friends, which makes her head over to the water hole. Meanwhile tembo meals sit down the hill and looks through the legs of the other animals to see the hippo and butu circling one another
Teenager 1: do you know who your messing with? Huh? Huh?? HUH??
Teenager 2: yeah! Show him what's what butu!
Tembo then looks to see butu growl at the hippo and paws the dirt with his hooves. The hippo proceeds to back up stomping the dirt. Butu then proceeds to flare his ears
Teenager 3: uh oh. The scare flare
Tembo then watched butu and the hippo back away from one another and then ponders on how he could help the situation. He then gets an idea and squeezes through the crowd of animals until he is in the front. At that moment butu and the hippo charge toward one another at top speed, Tembo then snaps off a twig and at the last second, Tembo is right in between the two, facing the giant mouthed mammal and lifts the stick right up to him. The hippo stops as well as butu as the throw crowd watches in dead silence, just as Amani comes to the scene
After a moment or so, the hippo snorts at the leaf and unleashes a mighty bellow at Tembo, before ultimately laughing and looks to him
Hippo: your one brave little kid Tembo. Take it easy butu. The little fellas looking out for you
The hippo then heads back into the river laughing in adoration, while butus pals have their jaws dropped on what they just witnessed
Teenager 3: what just happened?
Teenager 1: I think bug boy just saved him with a leaf
Teenager 2: how is that even possible?
Butu is now flabbergasted by this and looks around while he tries to explain the situation
Butu: he-he didn't actually saved me, per say. He- he just saved me the trouble do hurting the hippo!
Teenager 2: my- my whole world! It's just been turned upside down!
With that then teenagers leave, but not before Amani sniffs the air and looks to see a group of all too familiar creatures over the hillside
Man
Natures worst enemy
The zebras giraffes and wildebeests look in horror as they knew man was the most terrible enemy as they would come to hunt them for their skins and ivory and all stampede before their tripped and spotted coats would be taken, as well as the hippos would submerge before they could take their blubbery meaty skin and ivory teeth, but the ultimate prize was the elephants ivory tusks, which Amani knew right away
Amani: man. We're leaving everyone
Amani scoots Tembo as they proceed to walk off. The elephants then proceed to leave as Tembo looks back to the men who proceed to leave, curious about why everyone made such a big deal about them
We then cut to night as we see a herd of a hundred or more elephants migrate across the barren flatlands with the light of the full moon guiding them. At the very front of the herd Amani was leading the herd with Tembo holding on to her tail with his trunk. Amani then stops and looks at him
Amani: what is it Tembo?
Tembo: I don't know. I guess I've been thinking
Amani: about back at the watering hole?
Tembo: I never meant to make butu look bad. I just wanted to help
Amani: I know that. And butu knows that
Tembo: but I still don't understand why those two legged things scared everyone
Amani: that was man. And man is our worst enemy
Tembo: why?
Amani: well...you see
That's when it happened. Just as she was about to try and explain to her son the danger men brought. She sniffed the air as it had somehow changed. She then raises her head and trunk into the air
Amani: Tembo, go back and walk with your brother
Tembo: oh. Okay
Tembo then walks away, only to walk into tsavu and his buddies
Tsavu: hey bug boy!
Tembo: oh, hey tsavu
Tsavu: where ya going?
Tembo: uh, no-nothing
Tsavu grabs a branch with leaves and waves it in tembo's face
Tsavu: ooh is whittle big boy gonna wave a weaf at me?
His pals laugh as Tembo then notices butu walking toward him and looking at him. Remembering what he said and wanting to make up for the hippo incident, he puffs out his chest, raises his head and looks tsavu in the eye
Tembo: well are you gonna wave a leaf at me?
Tsavu and his friends chuckle
Tsavu: what?
Tembo: yeah that's right! Now you just walk away right now!
Tsavu: but I'm standing right here
Tembo: oh yeah? And I'm standing right here! With my feet!
That was not the right sentence he meant to say. Tsavu slaps his forehead
Tsavu: seriously, why are you so weird?
Tembo then looks to butu and then back to tsavu. He then rolls up his trunk, closed his eyes shut, and punched tsavu where his trunk met his face, which was uncoincidentally a sore spot making Tembo gasp in shock as butu stopped in his tracks. Tsavu shed tears of pain as he placed his ear in the sore spot
Tembo: oh, I-I'm sorry
Tsavu: why'd you do that?
Tembo: oh uh, I didn't mean to-
Tsavu: everyone knows I've got a sore spot right there!
Tembo: I'm so sorry!
Tsavu didn't want any of it as he charges forward at Tembo who ran the opposite direction straight into the herd startling many, and ran around butu twice
Tsavu: don't you run away from me!
Tembo: I didn't mean to!
Tsavu: I'm gonna destroy you you son of a-
Butu: hey!
Butu shoves tsavu aside as he is shocked to see Tembo running out of the protection of the herd and chases after him
Butu: Tembo! Tembo get back here!
Their yelling caught Amani's attention as she turns to see Tembo and butu charge toward the mangrove forest
Tembo: it was an accident!
The two stop as they see something that made their hearts race and their muscles stiff.
It started as a simple orange light from the forest, and soon it came. The horror that every animal that has ever lived on earth has ever feared the most
Man's red flower
It started out as a simple bloom, and then suddenly, an entire infestation of red flower circling them. The entire herd is shocked as Amani sprints toward her sons
Amani: Tembo! Butu!
She tries to reach them but the red flower blocked her path trapping Tembo and butu
Butu: Tembo get behind me!
Tembo does so as the red flower grew larger and larger
The rest of the herd tries to find a way around but suddenly sticks fall around them bursting red flower making them stop and trumpet with terror and flee, accept for Amani who stood right in front of the wall trumpeting for her sons. Kichaa proceeds to leap off and makes it through a hole in the red flower grove toward his brothers
Tembo frantically looks around and sees shadows in the red flower until finally, came the reason behind it
Man
They leapt right out of the red flower with masks and patterns on their skin pounding their masks with pounding sticks shouting at them. Tembo backs away to butu who growls in intimidation and charges forward at the men with Tembo backing away in horror.
So this was why his mother was so scared of men, because they controlled the red flower like it was nothing. Soon two more men came up from behind him and threw a net right above him and trapped him. Tembo trumpets getting butu's attention terrifying him. Seeing his brother in danger butu bellows with rage rearing on his hind legs, only for the men to get out thick black vines and grab his front legs forcing him to fall on his chin, tossing a net over him as well
Butu then reaches for Tembo and they both embrace trunks tightly as butu tries to pull Tembo towards him
However them men were strong and Tembo didn't have the same amount of strength as his older brother and loses grip of his brother. Tembo is then dragged away as butu trumpets for Tembo, who screams at the top of his voice toward his brother, but the men continued to drag him off as butu was out of sight being covered by the red flowers pollen
We then cut to next morning as Tembo is out inside a cage made of bamboo rods tied together with vines with a tarp over it. He then hears a familiar voice
Voice: Tembo! Tembo!
Tembo: kichaa! I'm in here!
Kichaa then pokes through the tarp and enters the cage to his brother
Kichaa: thank goodness your okay little bro. We gotta get you outta here!
Tembo: what's happening? Where's mom and butu?
Kichaa: mom's okay-
Suddenly the ground shakes as the tarp is taken off to reveal the African docks as tembo's cage was being carried up by a crane
He then looks to see the beautiful Mount Kilimanjaro No longer inside as they are out inside the large ship. The ship then moves forward as they glide through the oceans and into a terrible storm rocking tembo's cage back and fourth. Then, days later, after what seemed to be weeks or months, Tembo heard a small sound and woke up from a long sleep. He looks up to see a small brown beetle resting on the window and lifts his trunk
Tembo: hey little guy
The beetle sniffs his trunk and crawls up onto it
Tembo: what are you doing way out here?
The beetle then moves away form Tembo and flies out the window as he sees a docks with sounds familiar from his land, and sounds he never heard before
Tembo: kichaa look!
Kichaa wakes up and climbs onto the window
Kichaa: what is it Tembo? Oh...
Tembo: where are we?
Tembo is then taken out of his cage and a man puts a rope around his neck and drags him with him. Tembo is taken to a large place where hundreds of thousands of men are taking and giving away strange foods like squid, fried snakes frogs and grasshoppers. Tembo and kichaa observes that when men takes objects, they give men who give objects to them, they are given silver brown or gold circular objects and flat rectangular leaves with strange markings on them. He then sees animals in more cages like striped cats which terrified him, and enormous lizards, and buffalo pulling strange things men ride with circular things under them
What also shocked Tembo was that there are elephants just like him, but different, their heads were bumped and not flat and their backs were round and not humped, they had trunks with one finger and their ears were small and squared. This made them realized wherever they were, they had animals of the same species, but different
They are then taken to a place where men gather with a large platform where a large man in yellow leather shows young elephant calves and men take them away. The man that was holding Tembo ties him down next to a female calf next to him and gives him a dish with liquids in it. As the man leaves Tembo the proceeds to try and break free of the rope tying him down
Kichaa: hey, that's never gonna come out. Let's just stay c-
He looks to see a basket of what looked to be birds and a man grabs one
Chicken: hey guys look at me! I'm upside down!
The man proceeds to pluck all the birds feathers. Kichaa looks around and sees men cooking birds without feathers under red flower and the men eating them. That's when he realized that man eat animals and use the red flower to cook them. With that kichaa faints. Tembo then picks him up and tries to wake him up with the female calf watching
Tembo: kichaa, kichaa wake up. Kichaa, come on kichaa. Oh no
Calf: why are your ears so big?
Tembo: I don't know. I was born with them. Come on kich, please wake up
Calf: did your bird die?
Tembo: come on kichaa wake up!
Two men come along hauling another of the wheeled objects and flips the female calf's dish
Calf: oh great
The female calf looks down in despair. Tembo then looks to his dish and then to the calf. Tembo knew that she deserves something in her stomach, and proceeds to use his trunk to scoot his dish to the female who looks in surprise
Tembo: hi. I'm Tembo
The female looks to the dish and smiles to Tembo
Calf: I'm zara
Tembo then smiles at zara before they hear a louder trumpet. They look to see the crowds of men make room as a large herd of elephants lead by a strong and mighty bull with a broken tusk with silver armor on their bodies with men riding atop them. Zara then looks to Tembo and straightens up and raises her chin and puffed out her chest
Zara: Tembo, stand up straight and look tough
Tembo: why?
Zara: it's the army. You want them to pick you
The large bull marches forward and looks down at the two calves
The bull looks to zara who salutes him, but looks right at Tembo and knew very well who he was
Bull: hmhm. A big ear. This one will grow large
As he finishes that the yellow leathered man grabs tembo's rope and pulls him onto the pedestal speaking to the gathered men as kichaa regains consciousness
Kichaa: hey, w-where are-
The man proceeds to flick off kichaa and he lands into buckets of rice making them fall all over the floor. The man then grabs tembo's ears facing the men
Man: feast your eyes! Behold the big eared elephant! The strongest and largest of all elephants! With this, your work will be faster than any mule or cattle! I shall pay you $20,00 to purchase him!
Tembo struggles to flee but the man than grabs his trunk
Man: and with a trunk like this, he'll Cary twice as much as any farmer or carpenter, so I'll charge an extra $15:55!
Tembo tries to flee but continues to struggle but the man pulls him by the rope. Zara watches as the man grabs a bamboo rod and beats him on the head. Tembo tries to run away but the man pulls strangling Tembo. Zara then breaks free of her rope and charges forward and hits the man making him land in a pile of rice with Tembo able to breath. Zara looks to the crowd trumpeting in protection. The man atop the bull the comes forward
Man: that's enough. I'll take the female for $5000
The man puts a bag full of small circular objects on the man's chest. Zara pulls kichaa out of the rice and puts him on tembo's forehead. The man then walks up to her and grabs her rope
Man: come along young ones. Let us go
Zara takes a look to Tembo and honks to him, with Tembo doing the same
Man: don't worry. I'm sure you'll see each other again
The yellow wearing man grabs tembo's rope and drags him off the platform
Bull: a few years on the farm'll toughen up that one
They proceed to leave as we cut to a mighty storm as a few men the yellow wearing one have to take Tembo into a large stall and puts a chain on his ankle and ties it to a wooden stake on the ground. The men leave Tembo and kichaa all by themselves in the freezing cold
Kichaa: don't worry Tembo. I promise that we'll find a way back home
Tembo: I hope so
Tembo then looks to the night sky hoping that butu and his mother were okay
________
Authors note- and now I have completed the origin story for Tembo
A few things, there will be moments in the story where there is no dialogue from the animals to make it more engaging. There will be times where either humans can't speak, or animals or both. But the animals and people still will speak most of the time
With that we should talk about the red flower, by that I'm of course referring to fire, as that's a reference to the jungle book as no animal calls fire other that the red flower. And only refer to humans as man or men
As for the broken tusked elephant, his name is Sargent khan. Humans rule the world but it goes into the point of view of the animals in tembo's story so sarge is basically the voice of the humans for anyone who was wondering
Now what do you guys think about this? Was this what you were hoping for or did you expect something else. I will be co ringing the story but I will have occasional breaks as to make you relieved as to why this took a while
But whatever your thoughts and opinions are on the subject, I'd love to hear them
In the comments down below