CHAPTER 5: SHANTI

Somerai had been walking in the direction of the mountain for over an hour now and one of thestraps of her backpack was starting to dig in to her left shoulder. It must have been due to uneven weight distribution she thought.

She moved a few things around in the bag and put it on her back, that was better. She continued on.

All of a sudden about 100 metres away, Somerai saw a colossal, moving mass behind an Amarula tree.

Somerai imagined life as a self-driving car would experience the world, as a simulation through its sensors. A sequence of experiences filled with streaming information, video, sound and sensations.

When she observed an animal from the video feed of her external environment she identified it by matching the visual image to a stored concept by making an internal connection to the associative, tree-like structure in her brain under the category mammals.

Due to it’s sheer size and noticing it’s long trunk, the concept “elephant” was fired up. This retrieval was done automatically and unconsciously through System 1 of her mind which governed her instinctual reactions.

Almost like she was wearing augmented reality glasses to overlay information over the real-world, she could now pull up a description of it’s characteristics and habits knowing that the favourite foods of the African elephant were Marula fruit and baobab bark. After a day of heavy grazing they could be tracked all the way from Mars due to a trail of musky flatulence.

The elephant had only one tusk and looked underweight for an animal of her size. Somerai reached in her backpack for the banana and walked towards her slowly holding out her hand. As she approached, the elephant looked her dead in the eye and began moving towards her quickly.

She picked up speed gradually and all of sudden she was trumpeting and charging straight at Somerai. Cortisol filled her body triggering a flight response with blood pumping to her limbs pre-empting a survival reaction.

Somerai ignored these internal stimuli prompting thoughts of fight or flight but instead remained calm and stood her ground. At the last moment, the elephant suddenly stopped and kneeled before Somerai and gently plucked the banana out of her hand with it’s large trunk.

Somerai followed this up with a volley of apples and the elephant was wagging her tail. Somerai had made a new friend. The elephant began to follow her everywhere she went.

Due to her sense of peace and tranquility. Somerai decided to name the elephant Shanti. The two set out together towards the mountain.

After walking kilometre after kilometre in the baking savannah, Somerai was getting tired. It would be sunset in a few hours and as they neared a large baobab tree, she tapped Shanti on the side of her front leg signalling her to stop. She began setting up her tent for nightfall.

Somerai had learnt to swim by going to a swimming pool with her friend when she was younger. The richer kids used to go for swimming lessons so she would stay after their lessons to watch them swim. While holding on to the side of the pool she would watch the rich kids underwater and repeat their movements. That’s how she learnt to swim.

Somerai was doing the same thing now out in the bush. Figuring things out on the fly, by asking questions, thinking logically and visualising how something could work based on what she already knew. She looked at the folded aluminium tent poles in her bag. And from her previous camping experience with her family at the sea-side, she reasoned with herself, how she expected the poles to fit into the loops of the nylon material to create structural support for the tent.

She loved camping, it reminded her of attending music festivals with her parents and siblings when she was younger. They’d given her early exposure to music and culture, which was not common amongst South African families of Indian origin. She had taken that love for the arts with her into her adult life.

As she unrolled the tent. Somerai noticed Shanti stand up suddenly, her tail standing at attention. Something was wrong.

Shanti stared into the surrounding thicket and noticed movement straight ahead of her. She kneeled down hurriedly, grabbed Somerai in her trunk and swung her carefully onto a branch of the adjacent Baobab.

Shanti then moved around hastily and charged furiously at the movement. A lioness retreated from her position at 12 o’ clock. Shanti looked around vigorously to her left and right flank as well as behind her, She realised that she was now surrounded by seven lions.

One by one the lions charged and retreated trying to tire her out. Somerai was scared and didn’t know what to do. She grabbed her Swiss Army knife from her bag but what could this do?

The big Alpha male with a thick blonde mane grabbed Shanti’s back leg and the others follow suit. Within a few minutes she was on the ground.

The big male then grabbed her by the throat trying to suffocate her while another lioness secured her front legs so she couldn’t kick out. A third blocked her trunk so she couldn’t get any air. Somerai clutched her spade and threw it at the lions to no avail. If she got off the tree they’d kill her too.

After ten minutes of blood-curdling trumpets, groans and squeaks, Shanti lies lifeless on the ground.

The lions start to feed on her, tearing through her thick hide. Somerai begins to cry, she can’t believe what she’s seeing. How could this be real? Did this really just happen or were her eyes deceiving her?

After what feels like an eternity, she falls asleep on the baobab.