National Park

Chapter 18

The frail old rhino looked up at and managed to put on a weak smile. Niya lowered herself to the ground and gently stroked Dhinoo's head. He sighed and seemed to fall asleep. Raja's heart ached to see this old animal suffering and wished he could do something to help.

"At least he is alive. I believe we are probably close to the animal or animals that are behind this!" Niol voice was a fierce rumble as he bit his lip to hold back his anger.

The animals watched as the old rhino slept and slowly walked away. Raja and Sqwee inspected the chains attached to the trees and were about to attempt to loosen them when Niol whispered, "No, leave the chains for now. We do not want to alert anyone of our presence here, especially if the perpetrators are close by. We know where Dhinoo is now, and we will return to free him."

The four animals moved away, but much more carefully now so as not to disturb any of the surroundings and bring attention to themselves. Raja could feel his heartbeat increasing; as Niol had suggested, the perpetrators could be near. Now as they walked, they all continuously scanned the environment for any movement. Raja's heart raced at every little noise and it felt as if, suddenly, the park had come alive and every animal in it was screaming! Raja was so busy scanning his surroundings that he did not notice that the three animals in front of him had come to a halt. At the last moment, he looked forward, but it was too late to react and he walked snout first into Niya's leg and fell back on his behind. Although this did not make a loud noise, everyone held their breath. Raja stayed still, listening intently for any sound of movement, but there was none. He gingerly stood up on all fours, being extra careful not to make any noise.

Sqwee pointed to Niol's right and Niya and Raja turned to face the direction pointed. A group of animals were deep in discussion. Raja could only make out the shape of an elephant and a rhino, but he was sure there were more animals present. Niol dropped to the ground and began crawling closer. Sqwee and Raja looked at Niya, knowing that she could not follow, but received a nod of approval that she would stay behind. They then too went down onto their bellies and crawled to the strategic spot Niol had secured, within earshot of the animals, but still well hidden.

"Things are working out well," said the elephant.

"Perfectly, actually," agreed the rhino.

"Let us not become complacent, my friends. We are close to our goal and we should stick to our plan before celebrating."

Raja raised his head slightly to see the third member, a buffalo who had just spoken.

"We just need to wait for our last member. She was not keen, from what I heard, but I believe she has come around and has changed her mind," continued the buffalo.

"Well, let's hope she doesn't change her mind again!" responded the elephant.

The three animals laughed loudly and stared into the distance before changing their gaze in the direction of Raja and the group. Raja dropped his head quickly. The thick bush in front of them allowed for them to be well concealed from the gaze of the conspiring animals, but he still felt insecure.

"Where is he? He tells us to meet him here straight after the gathering and now he makes us wait! If we continue grazing around like this, we are sure to be noticed and the animals will question what we up to. I must admit, though, that I've been thinking about this quite a bit; this plan is ingenious! I've always had dreams of being part of the council, but was weary of waiting for any of the council members to retire, except for Dhinoo. The worst part is that I required a complete shift to occur, as the Entshona representative was Bheki, a buffalo! Being an elephant meant that Hhati had to retire at the same time as Bheki so as to create the gap for an elephant to be elected as the chairperson of the Entshona sub-committee and, therefore, council member." The elephant snorted in derision. "Now that I'm verbalising this thought, the idea of me becoming a council member any other way sounds completely impossible!"