Hello! My Mum looks after us, though some of the others help. I don’t know where my Dad is, – somewhere else. You have some dads like that, too, don’t you? This morning, I walked along in my Mum’s shadow – it helps me keep cool.
I won’t be grown up for years. Not till I’m about 40. I’m a girl, and Mum’s the boss! She teaches me everything: how to comfort a friend; how to have a mud bath to protect myself from the sun; how to look after the paths down to water; how to use my tusks and teeth (for tusks are teeth) to help me eat and fight. And most importantly, how to hear with my feet. Yes! that’s right! Of course, I do hear with my ears like you, but I can also hear vibrations in the ground. That’s very useful with our enemies, the lions.
You see, they are the only animals that can hunt us, – except you. I am sorry to say this but you kill more and more of us for our teeth. Anyway, going back to the lions… they creep up behind to hunt us. But sometimes we hear a noise through the ground… Mum heard it today. She gave a warning call, so we all moved quickly together. You don’t want find yourself alone with a lion, do you?
Then I saw them. Two lions! That’s enough to kill one of us. We are much bigger, and we work together, – but so do they! We growled, but we didn’t charge: we avoid fights if we can. My older brother who was off with his friends came to join us. The more the better, if there are enemies… Our calves and girls were in the middle of the herd, – it’s safer there, and the big boys, were on the outside. We take care of our young! The two lions tried to separate one of us from the herd, and drag it to the ground…. But my Mum is a good organizer, and she saw we kept together. Then she pointed with her trunk. There was a giraffe! The lions saw it too, and they chased and killed it. I was so glad it wasn’t me! When it was safe, my Mum took us further off – you don’t want to stay near lions, do you?
Who am I? Byee!
You can find the audio version here:
(I hope you can guess the answer to this riddle, but anyway, I will let you know what it is next month.)
Charlotte's Wonderful Stories 