look inside and read...

chapter one

blood red sun

Shulara and her family awoke every morning as the blood red sun began its slow rising dance over the horizon to warm the African plains and all that inhabited the earth. Upon rising, the six kordofan giraffes stretched their long legs and gently tugged upon their breakfast leaves hanging from the web of tree branches. Shulara walked the short distance to her favourite acacia tree, which promised the most luscious leaves before the sun's heat stole their sweet juice. She walked by the elephants and the pink flamingos quenching their thirst at the waterhole. Her walk was slower of late because she was heavily pregnant with her first calf, to be born in a matter of weeks. Shulara's long bluish tongue was soon feeling for the most succulent leaves high in the tree canopy and she savoured each and every green leaf as though it was a gift from nature.  The sharp shooting pain in her thigh came suddenly and without warning and the blunt sound of gunshot broke the tranquil peace of a new day dawning. Panting, Shulara stumbled backwards and fell to her knees on the parched orange earth. As the sound ricocheted, hundreds of birds flew towards the sun and the elephants pushed their young calves to safety. Shulara frantically tried to rise to her haunches when the man stepped out of the rustling bushes, but it was already too late; the sleepy haze had deadened her limbs and it would not stop there. She drifted in and out of the blackest sleep she had ever had and through the dark haze she heard a terrible sound that made her beloved Adanya crash to the ground as he was frantically galloping towards her. When Shulara's sleep stirred, she was fastened down in a dirty iron cage. Through th iron bars and the small window beyond the cage, she saw Africa and her home disappear. The trees became thin matchsticks and the animals looked like ants and soon they disappeared completely under the blanket of white cloud. Shulara was in the rumbling belly of a plane and as her tired eyes explored her surroundings she was in no doubt that she had been captured by hunters. A young bull elephant and a black rhino lay lifeless among the wooden crates. Shulara's eyes turned towards the voices coming from a small opening in the nose of the plane. There sat two men with their backs to her.

look inside and read ...

tilly the giraffe