They were following from the top of the canyon, an easy spot to view the entire herd without getting to close to frighten them off, or to have them attack. The crunch of their steel-toed boots was barely audible, even to the sensitive ears of the elephants, which was a another plus to being up so high. These people had been following for the past three days across the sizzling hot savannah of Africa. They had observed their actions, keeping close tabs on them, and the traveling patterns for future references, in case all didn’t go well.
The elephants were following a path that went into a deep canyon, most likely it was a path that was etched into the matriarchs mind, a possible a path to some elephant euphoria. They humans minds rejoiced at that thought. More to chose from.
The matriarch was probably one of the biggest females the owner of the boots had ever seen, and she was an older elephant and had some battle scars, lines of a lighter grey scratched across her face, and more noticeable, she had broken tusks. They were booth broken, one almost completely gone, and the other only half remained. Looking at them, you had to wonder what had caused such a violent fight so that tusks would snap off. Had it been an opposing herd that meant harm? A male elephant that was unwelcome? Or had it been that she just decided to tear down a tree? The stalkers crossed her off their mental list as a candidate.
They needed an elephant in its prime. One who was healthy, with large tusks. They continued scanning along the line of elephants, evaluating each, deciding if they were healthy looking enough. They saw about six and maybe even seven good candidates out of the group of ten. Some were young ones, about maybe five to fifteen years of age, which was indicated by the size of their tusks, which were small or non-existent. The other four were either reaching their prime or like the matriarch, just leaving. That included one other female, who appeared to have grown no tusks at all.
The eyes kept following along the herd, evaluating every elephant along the way, when sudden action and noise caught their attention. It sounded like an alarm. They quickly looked to the end of the marching line, hopping they hadn’t been spotted by the herd.
There was a calf, maybe not even a month old, stumbling over rocks that had fallen off the canyons walls. The baby was very small, its skin was still the new and dark grey of that of a newborn. The eyes watched at the baby struggled to get up and follow. It let out a high distress call again, calling for its mother. One of the elephants who was last in line stopped and started turning around to the baby. It was the mother. And she was exactly what they were looking for.
She was young, and healthy. As she turned, her long white tusks glinted in the sun, almost blinding the humans who were following. The mother continued to walk toward her young, and reached out with her trunk to assist the baby in getting up. It was a tear-jerking sight, the sight of a mother and baby bond. They entwined trunks and the mother lifted the baby up. The rest of the herd continued to move on, picking their way through the debris filled canyon, expecting the mother and baby to catch up. The baby quickly ran to the mothers side, giving off inaudible sounds, and the mother gave comforting ones back.
There was about twenty feet between the herd and the mother and calf, this was the moment they had waited for. The one human signaled to the others. One human lifted the hefty weapon they had brought along. He pulled the trigger, pushing out the bullet in return. It soared though the air hitting its target with a thud. The gunshot was followed by the slow fall and heavy thud of an elephant body.
The baby trumpeted, nudging the mother, curious to why she fell down. The herd raced back to the aid of the mother. They stroked and poked with their trunks, looking for signs of life. Some nudged with their tusks, trying to roll her and help her up to her feet. The baby was now trumpeting wildly. It sounded more like screeches instead of the regular elephant call. The herd joined in, and a chorus of grieving screeches echoed through the canyon for days. The stalkers smiled and congratulated themselves. They hit the jackpot, white ivory.
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