A Crazy Day with Cobras (5 page)

“Oh, wow, elephants,” said Annie, her eyes shining.

“Shhh! We can’t talk,” whispered Jack.

Elephants, oxen, and horses all stepped in time to the beat of the drums and the blare of the trumpets.

Suddenly the music was interrupted by wild shrieks and bellows.

The Great Mogul, his guards, and the ambassadors all moved to get a better view. Jack and Annie stood on their tiptoes to see what was happening.

Jack could see that an elephant had broken out of line and left the parade. Guards were struggling to capture it. The elephant had reared up on its
hind legs, and its rider had tumbled from the carriage on its back. The elephant was making a terrible noise, like a screaming trumpet.

“What’s happening? What’s making that noise?” said Annie.

“An elephant,” whispered Jack.

“
Oh, no!
” said Annie.

Jack grabbed her by the arm. “Don’t say anything. Don’t do anything,” he whispered. “Think of Penny.”

“I am! I hate it when animals are hurt!” said Annie. She pulled away from Jack and slipped through the row of ambassadors.

Jack moved after her. “Annie! Come back!” he whispered.

One of the guards saw Annie heading toward the railing where the Great Mogul stood. He quickly stepped in front of her.

“Excuse me, sir, I’m worried about that elephant,” Annie said in a low voice. “What’s wrong with it?”

“She tried to escape,” the guard said. “They are capturing her now.”

“What’s going to happen to her?” asked Annie, trying to look around the guard.

“She will be punished,” said the guard.

“What?” said Annie. “Why?”

“She has failed to show respect for the Great Mogul,” said the guard.

“
What?
” Annie said.

“Annie!” Jack warned.

But Annie didn’t seem to hear him. “That’s crazy! She’s just an animal!” she said to the guard. Her voice was fierce.

“Annie, quiet! Please!” said Jack.

The imperial guards and the other ambassadors were looking at Annie with alarm. Worst of all, the Great Mogul was staring at her, too.

“Y
our Majesty, sir!” Annie called to the Great Mogul. “She’s just an animal! Please don’t let anyone hurt her!”

“Shhh! You can’t talk to him!” Jack whispered furiously.

“Please help her!” Annie said to the Great Mogul. “She doesn’t know how great you are. She doesn’t know she should respect you.”

The Great Mogul kept staring at Annie but said nothing.

“Don’t you love animals?” Annie asked.

The Great Mogul didn’t answer.

“Don’t you love
anything
?” asked Annie.

The ambassadors gasped. Two of the guards grabbed Annie by her arms.

“No, please, she—
he
can’t help it!” Jack explained to the guards. “That’s just the way my brother is. He can’t stop himself from talking. Please, tell your ruler that!”

The Great Mogul murmured something to a bodyguard. Then he turned and left the balcony.

The guard looked startled. He said something in a low voice to the men holding Annie. Jack held his breath. Were they going to drag her away? To his surprise, the guards let Annie go.

“Is the Great Mogul going to punish the elephant?” Annie asked.

“No, he is not,” a guard said. “He has given her to you as a gift.”

“
What?
” said Jack.

“Really?” said Annie.

“Given her to us as a gift? What does that mean, exactly?” Jack asked.

“It means you must take her home,” said the guard. “Back to your own country.”

“Take the elephant
home
?” said Jack.

“Come with me,” the guard said.

“Come on, Jack!” Annie called as she hurried after the guard, leaving the balcony.

“Take the elephant
home
?” Jack repeated.

The ambassadors were still gaping at him. “Who
are
you?” one of them asked. “Where are you from?”

“Jack, ambassador from Frog Creek,” said Jack. “Excuse me.” In a daze, he hurried after Annie and the guard. When he caught up to them, he whispered to Annie, “Have you lost your mind? We can’t take an elephant home!”

“We can’t let her stay here, either,” said Annie.

“They’ll punish her!”

“Okay. Then you can be the one who carries her up the rope ladder,” said Jack.

“Ha-ha,” said Annie.

“It’s not ha-ha,” said Jack, “it’s insane.”

“Look, let’s just get her out of the Red Fort first,” said Annie. “Then we’ll figure out what to do.”

Jack and Annie followed the guard until they emerged at the edge of the square in front of the Hall of Public Audience. Several guards were scuffling with the elephant. They had a rope around her neck. Her ears were flapping. She was snorting and stamping her feet.

The guards pulled on the rope, forcing the elephant down on her knees. Her eyes looked desperate and furious.

“Hey, don’t hurt her!” Jack blurted out.

A guard pointed his saber at Jack. “Climb on. Now. Both of you,” he said. “You have caused enough trouble this day. It is a miracle you are still alive!”

Jack clutched his bag and scrambled awkwardly into the straw carriage on the elephant’s back. Annie climbed in behind him. Crammed together, they gripped the sides of the carriage.

“Her name is Morning Breeze!” the guard shouted. “Take her back to your own land! Go now! Before the Great Mogul changes his mind!”

As if obeying the guard, Morning Breeze rose to her full height. She moved quickly across the square and headed down the stone road that led to the gate.

Jack and Annie bounced up and down. They clutched the sides of the straw carriage, trying not to fall out. Jack could hear the guards roaring with
laughter behind them. “Slow down!” Jack shouted to the elephant.

But Morning Breeze ran even faster, her big leathery ears flapping and her bells jangling.

“She’s more like a wind than a breeze!” shouted Annie.

“More like a tornado!” Jack yelled.

Morning Breeze thundered through the gate and over the wooden drawbridge. Jack and Annie held on to the sides of the carriage for dear life. After she’d crossed the moat, the elephant finally slowed to a walk.

Morning Breeze held her trunk high. She seemed to be sniffing the hot wind. Her ears spread out as if she were listening for a distant sound.

“We’re near the tree house! It’s right there in that row of trees!” said Jack. “We have the emerald rose. If we can just make her stop, we can jump off and go home. We can get out of this heat and away from this place—”

“I know, I know,” said Annie. “But—”

“Stop! Stop, Morning Breeze!” said Jack. “Let us off!”

“But what about
her
?” said Annie. “We can’t just leave her here by herself!”

Jack looked at Morning Breeze’s trunk waving in the air. He heard what sounded like crying coming from the wild elephant. She seemed terribly lost and sad.

Suddenly Jack wanted desperately to help the elephant get back to the wild, wherever that was. “All right,” he said. “Keep going. Go fast!” His voice rose to a shout. “Hurry! Go, Morning Breeze! Go!”

H
er trunk high in the air, Morning Breeze kept sniffing the hot wind.

“We’ll get her away from here!” Jack said to Annie. “Then you and I can walk back to the tree house!”

“Great!” said Annie.

“Go!” Jack yelled again at the elephant. “Go home! Go home!” He looked over his shoulder. He was afraid the Great Mogul might change his mind and send his guards after them.

Morning Breeze let out a long, deep rumble and
flapped her ears, as if she’d finally heard a distant call or caught a special scent. Her rumbling cries grew louder and louder—
rrrrrrRRRRRR!
She lumbered away from the drawbridge of the Red Fort.

Jack was sure the elephant would start down the street filled with horses and oxcarts. But Morning Breeze headed up the other street, the one that went through the bazaar.

“No, no! Go the other way!” cried Jack.

The elephant began to run. Her flat oval feet thumped against the road as she headed toward the tents and stalls of the bazaar. The street was crowded with merchants and shoppers—bearded men in colorful coats and women in outfits that completely hid their faces and bodies.

“Watch out, everyone!” Annie cried.

As the elephant ran between the busy stalls, everyone scrambled out of her way.

“Sorry! Sorry!” yelled Jack.

“Rogue elephant!” a banana seller shouted.

“Sorry! Sorry!” Jack kept shouting.

Morning Breeze knocked over wooden poles
that supported white tents. The tents collapsed onto burlap bags filled with figs, rice, and peas. She knocked over baskets of lemons, oranges, and pineapples.

Angry merchants yelled and shook their fists.

“She’s from the wild! She can’t help it!” Annie cried.

“Sorry! Sorry!” Jack said.

Morning Breeze pulled down hanging silk shawls and carpets with her trunk. The silk merchant shouted with rage. He and the other sellers grabbed sticks and charged at the elephant. Jack and Annie scrunched down in their small straw carriage.

“Hurry! Go! Go!” Jack called to Morning Breeze.

With the merchants all chasing after her, Morning Breeze bolted from the bazaar. She started down a narrow pebbled road that soon became a dirt path. She left the bearded merchants shouting angrily in the dust.

Morning Breeze kept running down the path,
passing farms with small mud huts. Sheep and goats bleated and scuttled out of her way. Chickens clucked and scattered.

Her bells jangling wildly, the elephant clomped past women and girls tending outdoor cooking fires. She lumbered past men and boys unloading hay from wooden carts.

“Hi! Hi! Excuse us!” Annie yelled, waving. Jack tried to smile as he clung to the sides of the swaying carriage.

No one smiled or waved back. Everyone stared in shock as the elephant thundered by.

Morning Breeze ran to the end of the dirt path. But she didn’t stop there. She kept running, cutting her own path through a sun-scorched field. Jack felt as if they were riding a big gray ship on waves of tall yellow grass.