Rahul had heard elephants before. Dozens of times. In the wild. In reserves. Even during his years studying them abroad. He knew their calls. The low rumbles. The warning trumpets. The sharp bursts of aggression, but this time it was different. The sound tore through the forest. Loud. Raw. Uncontrolled. It wasn’t a warning. It wasn’t a signal. It sounded like something was wrong. Deeply wrong.
Rahul froze where he stood. The bellow came again. Longer this time. More desperate. It echoed through the trees, sending birds scattering into the sky. For a moment, his mind jumped to the worst possibilities. A predator. An injury. Or something else. In recent years, elephants in this region had been under pressure. Shrinking forests. Encroaching villages. And sometimes even poachers.
Rahul’s grip tightened around his camera. If this was that… Everything just became more dangerous. The sound came again. Closer now. And whatever was causing it wasn’t moving away. Rahul took a slow breath. Then started walking toward it.
Because if something had gone wrong, he needed to see it for himself. Even if he wasn’t sure what he’d find.
