Week 12 Story: The Elephant Girly-Face

 The Elephant Girly-Face

Once upon a time there was a rich king living in a land far away, and he was very kind and revered by all of his citizens. His most prized possession was a beautiful elephant who was named Girly-Face because she was the most beautiful and feminine looking elephant that anyone who saw her had ever seen. She had long dark eyelashes and seemed to be able to communicate through her deep brown eyes. 

 

She was by nature very gentle and never bumped her keepers too hard- which is very easy for an elephant to do. Children from around the palace would frequently play with her in the big field located in the middle of the grounds, and their parents trusted her to take care of them as she never picked them up too quickly or got cross with them when they pulled on her tail or ears. She enjoyed it because they would bring her sweets in exchange for the use of her massive frame as a jungle gym, swinging them up onto her shoulders with her strong trunk.

 

 Her only fault was that she was very impressionable. The children had from time to time told her tall tales which she would invariably believe and her keeper would sooth her anxieties at the end of the long days spend playing and romping around. Then one night a group of thieves were gathered on the other side of the pen where she slept, and were ranting about their violent intents for the king, whom they were planning to steal from. Their talk of violence lit a fire in the Girly-Face:

These men are saying that violence is the way of the world- that all sentient beings take part! I guess if that is the way of the world then I must protect my King, he is very kind, and if he were to be killed I would be very sad. 

She sprung into action, and busted through the walls in her pen- she had never been violent so they were not built sturdily because no one thought she would bust through them. She stomped and snorted and crushed all of the robbers until they no longer posed a risk to the king.

 

For weeks after she was irritable, and attempted to stomp anyone that came near. Finally the King risked going to talk to her, sneaking past the attendants charged with keeping him away from Girly-Face. When he approached Girly-Face she immediately relaxed at the sight of him, as she always did. He asked her what had worked her up so much- and read in her eyes the residual emotions from the robbers and understood everything:

Listen, sweet elephant, I know that the robbers you killed talked a lot of violence and confused you. You did well to deter them and everyone in the palace is grateful to you for halting them but you never need to be violent like that ever again- I am hiring a guard for the walls to protect us better than before. You can relax and go back to your peaceful life like before. 

 

Girly-Face relaxed and the King saw the anxieties and worries melt from her eyes. He returned to his quarters and slept peacefully. The next morning Girly-Face’s keepers went into her pen cautiously to find her sat down relaxing, having rearranged all of the hay and fixtures to be where they were before her rampage and she seemed to be completely back to her normal self. Life in the palace returned to normal and everyone was happy.

The Elephant Girly Face

 

 Author’s Note:  I wanted to make the elephant a girl, and I wanted the story to be very similar just told more in my words with my sentence structures and vocabulary- and to add dialogue. I am happy with how it turned out. Adapted from this story in the Jakata Tales.