Chapter 21 clearings, elephants and a mad bull

Chapter 21 clearings, elephants and a mad bull

That night, they ate the last of the beef, and slept peacefully at the base of the mountain. The next morning, they looked at the terrain. It was a long, unbroken clearing that stretched in every direction. In the middle was something big and grey, but Christina’s eye sight was not the best. Martha, on the other hand, was long sighted, which, in the end, turned out to be helpful in some cases like this one.

“Am I dreaming, or is that thing in the middle of the clearing a …..a …… an elephant?” Samantha asked, squinting at the grey lump in the middle of the clearing. Martha wolf whistled "it's a herd of elephants, man!" Christina didn't even bother squinting at the grey blot, even though she was slightly skeptical. If Samantha was having problems seeing it, then she stand lesser chance. 

"What are elephants doing here?" She asked, "not a single idea." Martha said positively." Or clue." Samantha chimed in. Christina frowned, thinking hard, "Martha," she said, "how far do you think those elephants are? As In, how long do we need to take to get there?" Martha frowned, calculating. "Looks like... Most of a day, at least." Christina uttered a few swear words under her breath.

"If we want to get to those elephants today, and not get them with our candles, or fall asleep, I advise we don't run." "Then what do you think we SHOULD do?" Martha snapped, she was still a bit grumpy over the whole' I don't appreciate you work' thing. Christina smiled, even though Martha might be more agreeable these days, driving up her blood pressure was still an enjoyable sport. 

"I have two ideas." Christina explained, "one, is to ride some kind of animal that could run faster than us, and two, is to make a kind of machine to those elephants. Lets have a vote. Who would ride?" As she said this, Christina raised her hand. Samantha, who have been watching intently, also raised her hand. "Sorry, Martha!" Christina said, "outvoted." 

Martha scowled. "Then where would our steeds come from?" She jeered, high  on the sarcasm.  Christina was expecting this. She silently pointed to a tree not far away, where three buffaloes were tied up, grunting and snorting. "I caught them last night. I was not exactly thinking about using theme to carry us through a clearing towards some damn elephants, i was just thinking about letting them carry us when we were tired." "Good thinking!" Samantha said. 

Martha looked grumpy, but decided against arguing. Instead, she walked over to the tree and untied the ropes. The buffalo was not happy about being tied up, and tried to escape. But Martha grabbed it by the tail, and after a bit of work, she managed to cling on to the mane like fur on the back. The buffalo ran around like crazy, Martha clinging for dear life. 

Christina gave the bull a whack on the shins, hoping to subdue the crazed creature, no such luck. It let out a roar that sounded like something between a growl, a moo, and a really loud belch. It turned on her, huffing out breaths that reeked of stale something. "Has anybody blathered to mention mouthwash to that guy?" Christina had no time to find out, for the bull was running at her and her only hope of not being grounded to a pulp was to run. So she did, rushing towards a long stick on the ground that would serve for a switch for the time being.

She flogged the bull as hard as she could on the rear end. The bull was extremely annoyed, it suddenly threw Martha onto the ground, and rushed at Christina! Somehow, in a blind whirl of blond hair, black buffalo hair, and...blood,Christina tie the bull onto the tree. 

Samantha had seen the blood, and rushed to her aid. Christina looked horrible. She reminded her of the king Terribus of spor, that she read in a book, that guy had a red face, I mean, scarlet skin, and Christina didn't look much better.she had long streaks of dark blood all over her face. "I'm ok" she insisted when Samantha ran at her. She gingerly touched a gash across her forhead. "Never mind," she said, "head wounds bleed big time. Just get me something to clean this up with."