In a daze, I lowered myself from the tree with generous help from the Chinese elephant and stood still, taking it all in. It had been one thing to hear grandpa advise me to keep my nerve and go ahead with the plan. It was another to face a sea of beasts, each bearing an ancient grudge so bitter, so justifi ed.
"Shall we make a move then?" asked the Chinese elephant with a grin. "I... " I faltered. My stomach clenched unpleasantly.
"Come on, i'’s going to be just like a play! All the world’s a stage!" he quoted cheerfully.
Before I could say anything, his long trunk swept me off my feet and I was on his back in a trice. "
Onward we march!” I shut my eyes tight. I felt like a coward. There’s nothing more I wanted to do than run…run away and face nothing. The drum beats became louder and louder…and then…a death-like silence.
"The human has come." I heard Mayuri’s high and cold voice.
"Set him down!” exploded a gruff voice. "Already, he sits on one of us like a king!” muttered the unmistakable voice of the Nile crocodile. I willed myself to open my eyes. And nearly fell off the Chinese elephant in shock. I had been prepared for the worst. But nothing had prepared me for this. The first eloquent thought that struck my brain was,
"Wow!” For before me, there stretched life, so diverse, so immense, so alive, that in one great moment of epiphany, I felt myself...at last... at one with the animal kingdom. The separation between humans and beasts that had been drilled into me for so many years, the superiority of Man, the glory of civilization, all these slipped away like soft snakes. I was an animal. These were my people and I was one of them. The look of joy that erupted on my face, however, was lost on my audience. A big bovine-looking creature with immense, sharp horns (a variety of prehistoric cow, I assumed) stepped forward. She stood next to Mayuri in silence. I watched her huge nostrils bristle. Here was a being that knew power. In her time, she could have fl attened a house by relaxing her hoof on the roof. I felt like bowing low out of respect.
