“Thank you, dear,” Annie said. “I’d like to do that.” She nudged Estelle.
“Yes,” Estelle managed. “I’d like that, too.” She squeezed Sera’s hand. “I’m so proud of you.”
CHAPTER 32
Taking the plunge
Breakneck speed. Kanut seemed to be living a definition of the term as his mammoth charged up the steep hillside.
He leaned low over the beast’s shoulders, clinging to its long fur, feet tucked under the harness in a desperate bid to hang on.
Then they reached the top of the ridge and plunged down, sliding and lunging between spruce trees. Kanut shut his eyes to protect them from twigs whipping past.
His mammoth stopped, so suddenly that Kanut had to grab fur to keep from falling off.
The mammoths were milling around on the bank of a rock-filled river.
“You’re not planning to cross here, are you?” Kanut called.
Cortez was on the ground beside the cargo mammoth, digging something out of the sacks of supplies. “Not sure there’s anywhere better.” He nodded right. “Upstream, it just gets steeper. Downstream, another stream joins. At least it looks shallow enough here that the mammoths can walk instead of swim.”
“Can they? Swim, I mean?”
“Sure.” Cortez pulled out a bundle of rope. “I’m just worried about Jet—we may have to help him over the deep spots, or he’ll get swept away. Better put on your rain jacket, we might get wet.”
Jet seemed to be the littlest mammoth, if you could call something the size of a musk ox “little.” Cortez clipped a harness over him, then tied a length of rope from the little guy’s harness to the harness of his own mount, Ruby.
“Try to stay on the downstream side of Jet,” Cortez said. “That way Emerald can steady him if he gets spooked or loses his footing.”
“Like I know how to steer?”
Cortez gave an exasperated sigh, like everyone should know how to drive a mammoth. “Press forward behind the ears to go forward, push right foot forward to turn her head left, left foot forward to turn right. Rub your heels down her sides to tell her to stop.”
The bastard. “You couldn’t have told me this yesterday?”
“Keep an eye on Jet’s trunk—he can breathe through it like a snorkel as long as it’s above water.”
Cortez mounted his mammoth and yelled tcha over the roar of the rapids. The lead mammoth surged forward, picking her way down the bank to the rushing river.
Little Jet hung back until his twenty-foot tether to Ruby began to pull him forward. And, like any self-respecting creature, Jet dug his feet in, bleating like a goat, resisting being pulled down a slope he wasn’t ready for.
Time for a little incentive. Kanut slipped off his rain jacket and snapped it like a whip at Jet’s backside.
With a startled cry, Jet scrambled down the bank.
Kanut’s mount, Emerald, uttered a low growl.
“Don’t worry, sweetheart,” he said. “It was just a swat on the fanny.” Then he pitched forward and grabbed fur as Emerald descended the bank.
Water lapped at the lead mammoth’s belly, soaking her fur. Trunk held high, she didn’t look back.
The other mammoths milled after her, some slowly easing their way into the water, some plodding doggedly straight in.
Little Jet put a foot into the water, then backed up comically. Kanut couldn’t hear him crying over the rushing river but saw his mouth opening.
Ruby paused at hearing Jet’s call but waded in two more steps, the rope tugging on Jet’s harness.
As more of the mammoths entered the river, Emerald took a step into the water, but Kanut scraped his heels back to keep her with the little guy.
Kanut was about ready to give Jet another swat when the little mammoth got brave enough to jump into the water and scramble toward his mama.
So far, so good. Both feet forward, then steer left to stay downstream from the little mammoth. The icy water splashed over boulders, soaking Kanut’s boot.
Emerald paused in midstream, dipping her trunk in the water.
“Oh, no. Please don’t.” Kanut rushed to throw his rain jacket over his shoulders just as Emerald’s trunk came up and sprayed freezing water all over her back—and Kanut.
“Think that’s funny, don’t you?” he sputtered.
Emerald trumpeted. Probably gloating. Kanut kicked forward. “Stop playing and keep up.”
One of the mammoths had pulled ahead of Ruby and was already clambering up the far bank. It was steep—the mammoth slipped twice before reaching higher ground.
A harrowing scream came from behind as the huge, long-tusked male threw himself into the river. Diamond barreled ahead with maximum noise—trumpeting, splashing, and swinging his trunk, jostling the others like a teenaged boy showing off.
The other adult elephants in the water surged ahead, trying to get out of Diamond’s way.
Diamond plunged forward. As he passed between Ruby and Jet, his tree-trunk legs snagged Jet’s tether.
Little Jet stumbled. His squeal rose above the river’s clamor as he fell on his side.
Kanut’s shout was lost in the river’s roar. As Diamond splashed and thrashed at the tangling rope, Jet’s head sank under water.
With an angry trumpet, the big bull cleared the rope and clambered to the opposite bank, but Jet had rolled, snarling himself tighter in the rope. The little mammoth’s legs kicked wildly, but he couldn’t seem to find his way upright.
“Right, forward, stop!” Kanut kicked confused instructions, but his mammoth seemed to know where to go—she pivoted in midstream and stepped to the struggling youngster’s side.
But that was it. She
