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Barely audible above the raging river, the scream is still unmistakable. Lumbo looks quickly to his younger brother. Both of their eyes widen, silently asking one another, "Did you hear that?" Jimbo is the first to break the silence between them. "Lum, there is nothing we can do. It's on the other side of the river." Lumbo tightened his grip with both hands on his spear and reached out with his trunk to hold his brother's trunk. "We have to help. They will eat it." Lum stated matter-of-factly.

-2-

The brothers had begun Jimbo's Bojourn almost two months ago in the middle of Raous. Fifteen years earlier on that 15th day of the month of Raous in the year 4428 (as the lions count it) Jimbo had come into the world. The elephant queen Jamba had experienced a very difficult gestation. She became very ill about halfway through and then the king had been killed in a freak accident just three months before the birth.

Secretly, Jamba had wished for a daughter, a princess to dote on. But, Jimbo was born a boy and he was all boy. Lumbo had been so happy. He wanted a little brother so much and even more so after King Limbo had died. The two of them were nearly inseparable before Jimbo's weaning and completely inseparable after. The only extended time they had spent apart was about three years prior during Lumbo's bojourn with his grandfather.

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Bojourn (or boj) was the elephant male's rite of passage. In ancient days it was when the adolescent male elephant became an adult at 15 years of age. Back then, he and his male family members would go to another camp and "steal" a wife. Even back then, it was mostly ceremonial. But for the last thousand or so years, bojourn had been simply a walking vacation taken with a male mentor. It was considered an honor to be asked to join a bojourner. It was usually a young male's father, sometimes an uncle or older brother. So, it had been no big surprise, but still quite an honor when in the absence of the father he never knew, Jimbo asked Lumbo to join him on his bojourn.

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