text: FALL The fall had arrived. There stood in one of the corners of Greentwig, Clementine ready to bid adieu to her once green and corpulent children. Her wailing wafted through the forest just as gently as Jerry who collapsed all brown and baked the other night enmeshed with the brown soil. The wailing reached the ever excited being of the jungle tiny Eve. She ran to her mother who was bathing in the sun, trunk sucking and curling upwards to pour water on her old, battered Asiatic elephant skin. Eve leaped with a thud on the puddle nearby “Mother do you hear someone crying, because I do, it’s one aching sound”. Lily looked at her naïve, one year old daughter with eyes soaked with fear, “ yes I do it’s Clementine, she must have lost one of her many kids” she said looking about with wide eyes, “ hers is the saddest life any being could be subjected to on this planet of ours; raising hundred many kids every year only to see them die ,dead and baked during fall” , sighed Lily while climbing up to the land. Eve thought while being clueless about the concept and the reason behind losing a loved one. She couldn’t imagine being detached from her dear parents and her brother George. “What’s fall?” enquired Eve. Lily pretended to have unheard the words wrapped in inquisition and moved on and asked Eve to follow on. Back at home Eve met her father trying to teach George about “them” who come all geared up in khaki mostly, sometimes colorful apparels never missing out the shade of blood while leaving, “now listen George I want you to grow up all brave and astute, ever ready to escape while also protecting your little sister once you grow up like me, for I won’t always be around to ensure a safety net over you guys”. Eve listened intently and asked “papa who are these people you are talking about and what do they have against us?” John looked at her all flushed by the innocence she emanated and said “ they are these beings who walk on two legs and talk a different language than ours, they venture into Greentwig once or twice every year to snatch away kids like you from their mother”. Eve at once knew it’s the fall he is talking about but didn’t question further for she had already framed the next plan of action in her head. She slipped away when her parents were busy talking about Mrs Whiskers, the beaver best known for her cakes in every corner of Greentwig. Eve was the kind of explorer who wouldn’t let things as trivial as her birthday take up space in her head which was tomorrow. Presently she had her goal right before her, chasing the wailing in the air to reach Clementine. She wanted to meet her and talk to her about fall for she cared for her family and knew George to be a laggard who wouldn’t move an inch to save them from their enemy. She ran as fast as she could, giving no fig to the panting and the mud slinging at her due to her tiny yet heavy footfalls. She could feel the wailing getting closer and closer to her and finally she stood before the source of the heavy, sadness drenched crying. A huge tree touching the amiable azure, with a wide network of branches, left with a few dried up leaves clung to her, all on the verge of giving in. Eve raised her head with sheer difficulty for her tiny structure stood way below Clementine’s tear stained face. She finally shouted out “Hello Miss Clementine, I am sorry for your loss, could you please take out some minutes from your mourning for my inquisitions?”. This was followed by a sudden silence; air relieved for some time from soaking gigantic tears, the birds could be heard chirping at last. Though the silence had a weird harrowing effect around the area; the grass below, the birds around, the insects around were all completely immersed in a sea of wailing since many days, the sudden dryness felt to be something out of the daily routine. Clementine bowed her head, squinted for a while and finally saw tiny Eve below. Eve continued “I am here to know about fall and how is one supposed to tackle it, I see you have clearly lost the battle against it but it would still be great to know how it looks like and what sort of weapons it wields to take away your kids. I love my family and would do anything to save them”, a leaf fell from one of Clementine’s branches as she was speaking, now the tree left with just two. It took poor Clementine some time to wrap her head around all the happenings - a baby elephant scared of fall, fall wielding weapons, fall being a threat to an elephant family and finally tony her last third kid leaving her. She then sighed and told Eve “fall is no foe for you mobile beings, it is us the immovable, branched beings that it comes for every year, you clearly are mistaken kid”. Eve then told what her father had talked about in the morning hearing which Clementine broke into a fit of laughter; her laughter was as earth jolting as her crying. She laughed and laughed till her trunk started to pain. Eve stood baffled just like the air processing Clementine’s mood swings as she lost her last second leaf. Clementine at last spoke “listen kiddo the fall you and your family needs to be scared of is far more ferocious and heartless than the fall I am subjected to every year. They are called humans, they walk on two legs and wield weapons of all sorts, axe for us trees and a blasting stick like thing for you animals, the stick blasts with a bolt and sends the animals into immobility, all blood clad. Humans are the fall you are in search of” and suddenly they heard two gunshots in the air, “that’s the kind of bolting sound you need to be scared of”. She stood erect and heighted as she was, peered through the forest to see Eve’s parents dead, her father without his tusks and her mother lying in a blood of pool as little George ran into the forest away from the fall of animal world. She looked upon a clueless Eve and said if only I could swap places with your mother to sacrifice my existence for my dear children, tears rolling down her face as she said this. Her last leaf wafted down gently in front of Eve, kissing the ground all dried up.