Evie took a step backwards, feeling the long grass brushing her legs. The sun was baking hot and it felt like every part of her skin was slowly roasting.

Suddenly the elephant’s behaviour changed. She stopped flapping her ears and shaking her head. Instead she flattened her ears against the sides of her head and stopped sweeping the ground in front of her with her trunk. She curled it up between her tusks.

“Uh-oh,” said the man, still just as calm as ever. “She’s going to charge. We can’t outrun her, so just follow me and do exactly what I do …”

The elephant charged.

“This way!” said the man, spinning her round.

Evie followed as they sprinted through the burnt yellow grass. She could hear the thunder of the elephant’s footsteps behind.

Suddenly Evie tripped and the ground fell away. She tumbled down a grassy bank and gasped as her elbow scraped against the dry ground. The man took the slope with long strides. A moment later, they were both standing at the bottom of a dry ditch, gasping for air.

The matriarch elephant had stopped at the top of the slope. Her ears were flapping again and her trunk was uncurled. She threw back her head and gave a loud trumpeting blast.

“Translated, that means ‘I win and don’t you forget it’,” said the man. He grinned down at Evie. “Elephants don’t charge downhill. They’re too heavy, so they overbalance and hurt themselves. Coming down here was the quickest way to safety.”

The man helped Evie stand up while she clutched at her hurt elbow. She looked around.

“What is this place?” she asked.

“This is a dry river bed,” he said. “Probably leads down to the water hole that you saw. In the rainy season, this place will be flowing.”

That wasn’t what Evie had meant. She had meant, where am I? And why isn’t it Camp? And who was this man who had appeared from nowhere and was helping her like this?

She looked at him carefully. He was tall and suntanned, wearing a battered, wide-brimmed hat, tough-looking clothes and scuffed boots. He had a backpack, and there was a knife with a long blade hanging in a scabbard from his belt.

He nodded at her hurt elbow. “May I check that for you?”

Evie nodded.

“We should get this seen to,” he said, examining her grazed skin. “I saw something this way that will help.”

He turned to hike up the side of the ditch away from the elephants. “Come on,” he said and Evie followed. She didn’t want to do anything to make the matriarch angry again.

When they got to the top, Evie slowly turned a full circle where she stood. Now that she wasn’t being charged by elephants, Evie could concentrate on the big picture.

“Where am I?” she said.