Chapter 5

  The Scare

  As Max got closer to the river, he saw that the same pattern he had seen before was true here. Though more of the small animals had come out toward the water, and birds were in the waters, swimming around or grabbing fish with their long beaks, Max still saw no large animals, no elephants. He looked out toward the grasses and passed the trees that were more frequent here as he was closer to the river. But there was nothing.

  Max was feeling better, so he got up on his back legs and looked around, giving himself a wider view. He took a few steps in every direction and saw nothing out of the ordinary, except for the missing elephants again.

  Max heard a bird squawk high in the air. He looked up as he dropped back to all fours and saw a very large bird flying overhead. It was one that he thought he should recognize, but it was one not native to the savannah.

  Max was so focused on the bird that he didn't notice the three-foot-tall creature come out of the water toward him. It was a large river otter. When the otter was less than a trunk length away from Max, he finally saw it. Max trumpeted out a warning and jumped back in response. The otter's eyes grew wide, and it ran back to the river.

  Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

  Max dropped and shook his head. Within the last day, he had stood close enough to a lion that if he'd ran, they could have been face to face. Now he was scared by a mere otter. Max shook his head. Couldn't believe it.

  Max looked out toward the water and was distracted by the sounds of laughter from the bird above. Max looked up, and the bird was flying a little erratically, and wondered if that was who did it.

  He heard laughing. But no, that wasn't possible. Talking animals knew that the lower plains were dangerous. Though it wasn't forbidden to go to the lower plains, he had never heard of anyone going there. Other than the legends of the few that were redeemed from the lower plains through coming up the Bridge of Hope, Max knew no one traveled here. It was dangerous. Dangerous because the animals here were not rational animals, but animals who acted just on their instincts. The animals here would attack anything that looked like prey or anything weak.

  Max knew that it could not be a talking animal. At least it didn't seem possible. But then he looked back at the otter whose head was just sticking out of the water, his eyes staring intently at Max. The stare was unnerving. The otter seemed a little larger than the other animals like it. Though in truth, he had seen very few. In fact, now that he thought about it, Max had never remembered seeing an otter in the savannah.

  Max looked up at the bird still convinced it laughed at him and said, "I'm glad I could give you a good laugh." and then feeling embarrassed looked over at the otter and said, "I'm sorry for scaring you." and then, after he considered everything he added, “but I do believe you scared me first.”

  The otter moved toward the shore, stuck its head all the way out of the water, and said, “Apology accepted,” then added in a stern voice, “but don’t you know it’s dangerous to be caught talking in this part of the world.”