“Woah!”

A wave of heat swept over her. Wow, talk about a heatwave. So far Camp had been mostly sunny with a bit of rain, but no one had said anything like this was coming.

Evie slowly opened her eyes.

But Camp had vanished. Instead, she was standing in the middle of a vast sea of yellow-brown grass that came up to her knees.

And there ahead of her, as large as a house, staring right at her and flapping its massive ears, was the biggest elephant she had ever seen.

2

DON’T MESS WITH MOTHER

Evie stood still. Very still.

Every elephant she had ever seen in a zoo looked friendly. But this one wasn’t just looking at her, it was glaring.

The elephant was about fifty metres away, but she could still see that its dark grey skin had more wrinkles than she could count. Then there were the two long, dirty white tusks, which were curved and pointed.

Behind it were more elephants, standing in the shade of some scraggly trees and bushes next to a muddy pool of water. They were making gentle, rumbling noises at each other. A couple of them were babies, though they were still almost as big as a car. Evie watched as one of the adults dipped its trunk into the water, then curled it back and sprayed itself. The air was so hot that everything seemed to shimmer.

None of the elephants in the pool seemed worried about Evie. But the big one was still staring at her. She knew she was in danger.

Just then, someone spoke quietly behind her.

“Don’t move,” murmured the man’s voice. “Just stay still like you are, and don’t look round. That beautiful creature staring at you is the matriarch – the chief mother of the herd. Elephants are very protective of their young, and it’s her job to move to the front if she thinks the herd may be in danger.”

Although she wanted to turn to see the man who had appeared out of nowhere, Evie did as he said. He sounded like he knew what he was talking about.

“Danger?” she whispered. She couldn’t think what could possibly harm an elephant. They were massive.

“She thinks we might be dangerous.”

“But we wouldn’t hurt her,” Evie said.

“Well, she just knows we’re humans – and in her experience, humans mean trouble. There are people around who’d shoot her to take her tusks.”

Evie stared at the enormous animal. What kind of cruel person could kill such an amazing creature, she wondered, just to get hold of a pair of extra big teeth?

“What should we do?” she whispered.

“We just back off,” the said simply. “We don’t turn around or make any sudden movements, but we make it very clear we’re leaving. Ready? Let’s go.”