Athitaw Hla Aung - Night Hunter

Chapter (1)

The wind, which blows across the Kalahari desert, a thousand miles away, is a gentle breeze. When it reaches the rocky cliffs of the Zambezi River basin, it becomes fragmented.

A large elephant stands at the foot of a rocky outcrop. Its black body is only visible as a shadow against the sky. The trees are shedding their new leaves, and the rocks in the background are brown, making its huge body disappear into the surrounding environment.

He lifted his trunk about twenty feet high and sucked in the air. Then he put it in his mouth and smelled it. He could smell the sand from miles away in the desert, the flowers from the fields, the buffalo herds in the valley below, the oil from the ponds they had been drinking. He could precisely analyze where those smells were coming from and what they were. But the smell he was searching for was not that smell. He was searching for a more intense smell that covered up all the other smells.

He was just searching for the human scent, a mixture of the smoke from the local meat-eaters, the sweat from unwashed clothes, the smell of carbolic soap, and the smell of raw leather. The human scent was always there. It had been following them for days. It had been lingering in their nostrils ever since.

The anger he had carried since the time of his ancestors was rising up inside the elephant's body again.

The smell had followed them for generations, too numerous to count. He himself had been driven close to that place since he was a baby elephant, and he knew full well that he might fear or hate that smell.

However, in his long life, there was a brief interval when he was not pursued by the scent. That interval lasted eleven years. As a result, their herd of elephants was able to live peacefully in the Zambezi River Valley.

The reason why they were allowed to live in such peace was because their human enemies were at war with each other, but the elephant could not understand.

Due to the civil war, poachers and conservationists were not allowed to enter the Zambezi River valley. As a result, the elephant herds were able to live in peace, and the elephant population increased significantly during that time.

Now, humans are relentlessly pursuing them.

The elephant felt fear and anger at the same time.

He thrust his long trunk into the air once more. He sucked in the air again. He put his trunk in his mouth and sniffed. Then he turned and walked back towards the rock formation with a quiet step. His entire body was now visible against the sky. He could still smell the man who was following him.

He walked towards the herd of elephants spread out on the slope behind the rock. His herd numbered about three hundred. They were foraging among the trees. The mothers were with their children and their young. Some of the young looked like little pigs. They were still young enough to crawl under the mother elephant's belly. The older ones were playing noisily. So the older ones beat the young ones with branches. The young ones were separated into groups. The older ones were picking berries from the bushes with their trunks. Some were picking the bark with their tusks. Others were standing at the top of the trees, picking the young leaves like dogs begging for food. Some were beating the trunk with their whole bodies, tearing off the leaves. Two strong elephants were pushing down a tree about sixty feet high with their two bodies. With a loud "crack" the tree fell. Only then could they eat the tender leaves at the top to their hearts' content. A large elephant came across the rocky ridge. The herd of elephants that had been roaring earlier immediately fell silent, as if water had been sprinkled on a fire.

The baby elephants crawl under the belly of their mothers for protection, spreading their ears and stretching out their trunks to explore.

The big elephant, his two large, strong tusks raised, came down briskly towards the herd. His ears were spread out to the sides. He could still smell the scent of humans. So he stretched his trunk towards the nearest females and blew.

Suddenly, they all ran downwind. They instinctively understood that if they ran further downwind, they would always have the scent of the enemy on their left. When the rest of the elephants saw that they were running, they also ran in a group. The strong males surrounded the mothers and the calves. The older females, who were too old to give birth, surrounded them from the outside. The young and strong males led the herd in front, while the older ones guarded them from the sides. They ran away from the scent. The earth was covered with dirt along the way. Their footprints would remain visible for days.

I couldn't understand what was happening while running around in the big white elephant.

He had never seen such a pursuit in his life. They had been pursuing them for two days now. However, the pursuers did not fire at them at all, and the pursuers took up positions to the south. Their scent was always carried with the wind towards the herd. They did not even come within sight of the great white elephant, who was already beginning to wander.

It seemed like there were so many people following them. He had never been with so many people in his life. He had only ever encountered a few people.

People were spreading out a net behind them, and they were chasing them. He had only seen the pursuers once in eight days.

On the fifth day, he could no longer bear it any longer and ordered the herd of elephants he was leading to turn back. Then he tried to break through the onslaught of people.

However, his plan failed.

The people who followed them, waving blankets and banging metal drums, made a constant noise, and drove them back. In the end, they could no longer break through to the south, but continued to run in the direction of the people, heading north. In this way, the herd of elephants ran towards the vast river.

Between the rock formations, there are intertwined paths that their ancestors have used for thousands of years. Some of the paths are narrow, but they are still paths.

The leader, the Big Elephant, led his herd of elephants into a narrow path. The path was so narrow that the elephants could no longer run in a line, but instead ran in a line. After passing the narrow path, they entered a plain.

The elephant kept running all night long, without letting his herd rest. That night there was no moon. Only the stars were shining. The elephant herd kept its footsteps as quiet as possible as they passed through the forest. The elephant herd stepped aside from the elephant path and led the herd on. He watched from the side, watching the people following behind.

I could only smell the human scent. I realized that I had traveled a long way from humans. However, the human scent did not disappear. It was still there. After about an hour of sniffing, I finally managed to catch up with the herd of elephants that were already running ahead.

At dawn, he began to enter a region he had never visited in ten years.

It was a narrow riverbed. During the civil war, there were many people there. He had avoided the area because of the overcrowding. Now he was being forcibly driven into the area he had avoided.

The herd of elephants slowed down because they were following the scent of humans. They slowly moved along, picking and eating vegetables along the roadside. The forest there was greener and more leafy. Being a valley, food was more abundant.

As they were getting oil from the front, the leader, the white elephant, became thirsty. At the same time, he instinctively sensed that there was danger ahead, as well as danger behind them.

So he stopped and looked around frequently. He shook his head from side to side, his ears pricked up, and watched. He didn't move forward at all, but stared with his dull eyes, which were already weak.

Then, after walking forward with caution, he suddenly stopped. He saw something in the corner of his vision. So he focused his attention. He saw an object shining in the morning sun.

Therefore, he immediately alerted the herd of elephants behind him. The herd of elephants backed away in fear.

The leader, the big elephant, carefully examined the shiny object. As he did so, his anxiety eased a little.

She saw no movement except for the gentle breeze blowing through the forest. There was no sound except the chirping of birds and the chirping of cicadas.

But the elephant kept waiting. He kept looking straight ahead. As he did so, he gradually realized that the shiny objects he saw were not just one, but a series of them lining the edge of the forest.

He shifted his body from one foot to the other, stood up straight, and made an indecisive sound in his throat.

The metal that worries the elephant is iron plates. They have stakes planted in the ground and iron plates attached to the tops of the stakes. On each iron plate, a human skull is drawn on two crossed bones. And at the bottom

" Dangerous Mine"

The inscriptions and the skull are somewhat faded due to the effects of various weather conditions over the years.