“I wish we could do something,” she said.

“You can,” Bear said. “When you get home, tell everyone. The more people know about it, the more we can hope to stop it.”

Before long they came across some elephant tracks. A wide path of grass was crushed flat, and the ground was trampled with footprints the size of dinner plates. Every few metres there was a pile of green elephant droppings, the size of footballs.

Evie and Bear looked up and down the trail, but they saw no elephants.

“They’re probably heading for water too,” Bear said. “That’s a good sign.”

They carried on walking. The closer they got to the river, the more Evie imagined what it might look like. How many animals would there be gathered around the fresh, sparkling water?

As soon as they reached the river bank, the picture vanished like a burst balloon.

There were no elephants and no other animals drinking.

Because there was no water.

Bone-dry rocks lined the river bed. When the water was flowing, it was probably twenty or thirty metres across. But now the smooth rocks were parched by the sun, with not a drop in sight.

The elephant footprints showed that the herd had just marched across the riverbed and kept going.

Bear looked up and down.

“Water might have soaked into the ground,” he said. “If this wasn’t so rocky, I’d dig a hole and we’d probably find some. But getting through these rocks will take more energy than it’s worth.”

Evie suddenly felt about ten times thirstier.

The sun was hotter than ever.

There wasn’t much water left in the bottle.

This had to be very bad news.

5

PLAN Z

“Okay,” said Bear. He looked up and down the river bed one last time. “No water here, so it’s on to Plan B.”

Evie had to unstick her tongue from the top of her mouth.

“Plan B?”

“This way.” Bear led the way back up the other side of the dry river bed.

“Bear, we’re going off course,” Evie said. She didn’t need the compass – she could see they were heading the wrong way. “The mountain’s that way.”

“You’re right,” smiled Bear. “We’re taking a small detour to find water.”

He led them back to the trail left by the elephants. “Here we are.”

So, there was water here? Evie looked around. She couldn’t see it.

Evie stared at Bear as he bent down and picked up one of the football-sized elephant droppings. What was he doing? She almost squealed as he broke it open, showing her bits of grass and leaves all mixed up in it. The smell was revolting. “Elephants have very inefficient digestive systems,” Bear said, “but that means there’s very little bacteria. In fact, fresh dung like this is almost sterile. And it’s packed full of water. So …”