The Last Elephant Keeper

Part 62

In the chaos, Abel was pushed off balance, his footing slipping on the slick surface of the cliff. He tumbled over the edge, his body rolling down the rocky slope as he fought to regain his balance. As he came to a stop at the bottom of the cliff, battered and bruised, Abel struggled to make sense of what had just happened

Flash reacted quickly, tugging on Thunder, Whisper, Hope, and Khumo to alert them to the conflict that had erupted. It was a sudden, vicious attack that had caught them off guard, as Dave - the lone gunman - rained bullets down on Blaze and anyone else in his path. Determined to help her friend, Flash sprinted towards the fray, his heart pounding with fear and adrenaline hopelessly attempting to save his mother from death.

As Blaze crouched beside the body of her fallen friend, Pete, Dave spotted the approaching elephants and raised his gun, his finger tightening on the trigger. But Blaze, despite her wounds, let out a piercing trumpet, signaling to her son not to intervene.

The sound of the trumpet was all the warning Flash and Khumo needed. Flash darted forward, moving with lightning-fast speed as Khumo charged alongside her. Dave took aim at Flash, but his shot went wide, barely grazing Khumo who fell to the ground. Whisper quickly providing assistance to Khumo, and Thunder rushing over to assist Flash.

With Dave distracted, Whisper took advantage of the moment and snatched up a large rock with his trunk, and in one swift motion, he hurled the rock at Dave, striking him square in the face. The impact was enough to knock him off the ledge and send him tumbling down the side of the cliff, as the thunder rang all around them.

As Dave hurtled towards the ground headfirst, the group could only watch in horror and amazement. But there was no time to dwell on what had happened - they had to tend to their wounded and press on with their mission, no matter what dangers lay ahead.

As Abel gazed at the lifeless bodies of his two friends lying beside him, anger surged within him. The memory of Pete's last words haunted him, "This is all your fault!" It shattered him to think that those were the final words his friends ever spoke to him. But at least one elephant was down, and with Pete lying motionless and his antique rifle just a meter away, Abel was consumed by the desire for revenge. Blaze, despite her injuries, sensed the dark thoughts brewing in Abel's mind and stood alert for her last great charge.

Flash and the rest of the herd had made their way through the heavy rain to reach Blaze, with Thunder and Hope following closely behind. As Blaze struggled to get up, her wounds that had been a deep red, were washed off by the rains. Abel crawled towards his antique rifle, his eyes locked on Flash and the chance of solidifying his legacy with an Elephant kill.

Blaze could sense the danger that her child faced, and prepared to make her last stand. As Abel managed to reach for the fallen rifle near him and had placed Flash in his crosshairs.

A sudden bolt of lightning blinded Abel, and in that moment of confusion, Blaze summoned every last bit of energy within her to charge at Abel with all her might. Despite being heavily wounded, her maternal instincts and desire to protect her child had given her a renewed strength inorder to protect all she had valued.

Abel, soon recovered from the bright glare of the lightening, but had been to late to predict that Blaze was still able to move, suddenly he was struck with the full force of Blaze's ivory tusk - the very same ivory he had coveted and stolen from so many elephants before.

He may have been a brute pulled by revenge, but Abel was a terrific shot, and in that split second had been ripped apart, Abel fired his rifle in unison with a thunder roll. The bullet found its target, piercing through Blaze's eye and lodging a bullet into her skull. She collapsed to the ground, her lifeless body laying still in the rain together with that of Abel; a man who fulfilled himself with a killing shot.

The herd mourned the loss of their beloved friend and protector, Blaze, but there was also a sense of justice and relief as Abel's greed and cruelty had finally come to an end. As the storm continued to rage, the wind howled through the twisted curves of the eroded mountain range, adding to the somber atmosphere. The young child left behind by the men's greed was a tragic reminder of the consequences of their actions. Khumo, Whisper, Hope, and Thunder were all rocked by the sight, their hearts heavy with sorrow and anger.

Through it all, Flash remained steadfast in his determination to save his mother. He could feel her presence, despite the cold and the storm, and he refused to give up on her

Flash, however, refused to give up hope. Despite the danger and the odds against him, he remained insistent on trying to save his mother. He turned to his grandmother, Hope, and Khumo, hoping they could use their magic to heal her. His trumpet rang out through the storm, calling on the rest of the herd to help save his mother.

The storm, while providing Blaze with the opportune moment to preserve her child's life, had remained unrelenting as it poured down on the survivors. Khumo had gotten up from her feet with a wound, and had no understanding of what she could possible to do fix the situation, and elephant had died on her watch, and she had broken her mother's promise.

Hope couldn't bear to see one of her children's dead bodies and decided to keep a safe distance from Blaze's lifeless body. Meanwhile, Khumo tried to comfort Flash by reaching out to him, but he was inconsolable. Suddenly, Flash remembered the yellow box in Khumo's satchel that she used to heal his mother's wounds. He quickly grabbed it, stomping on the ointment canister and rolling out the bandages recklessly around hoping placing it near her mother would give some chance of recovery.