The elephant’s wet eyes found Kanita’s, and she raised her trunk toward her. It was as though she could hear the elephant begging her for help. She looked at Kanita, and Kanita’s heart froze in her chest. She was straining to birth her calf into the world and tears seeped from her eyes. On the floor of the stables was the large white elephant. She moved a bale of hay to a stable window and climbed on top of it to get a better view. If the elephant-one of the sacred white elephants-died, the king would be displeased.

Her father had asked for his dagger! The poor elephant, Kanita thought. But they seemed incapable of being consoled, and each one trumpeted in distress.īring more hot water! Kanita heard her father call to one of his men. She snuck out of her bedroom window and ran through the village to the royal stables where the white elephant was in heavy labor.Įven though it was late at night, the stables and yard were lit with torches, and mahouts were running here and there, trying to calm the rest of the elephant herd. Even though her father-the king’s mahout-had warned her to stay away, she had to see what was happening for herself. Kanita could no longer ignore the elephant’s suffering. The cries of the elephant could be heard throughout the jungle. Kanita and Safi flee their village with the goal of redeeming Safi from her cursed reputation and cementing their bond, vowing to never be separated.īut the jungle is more dangerous than Kanita or Safi could have imagined.įollow Kanita and Safi through the jungles of ancient Siam in a story of friendship, hope, and redemption.

But Kanita's stubborn nature refuses to bow to her parents' wishes. Raised in the mountains of northern Siam, Kanita's idyllic life is shattered when she is ordered to marry a much older man and leave her beloved yet cursed elephant behind. With her own hands, she helped bring the baby elephant, Safi, into the world, beginning a lifelong friendship between a girl and her elephant.īut many of the villagers worried about the curse of the white elephant with the red birthmark across her face.

But Kanita, the daughter of the royal elephant trainer, refused to give up. One girl risks everything to save the life of her friend…Īll of the elephants wept as one of their own lay dying in childbirth.

The New Year Boyfriend by Zoey Gong