CRYBABY CHAPTER 1: The Thief, the Mahout and the Holy Man

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CHAPTER 1: The Thief, the Mahout and the Holy Man

The first time the thief had seen the elephant, he had coveted it supremely, like a gimlet-eyed rat discovering a fresh trash heap that would feed it for years. The cunning thief was new in the village and disguised as a beggar to scope out opportunities to burgle and rob by violent intimidation. His entire life had been lived around the giant creatures, and it had never occurred to him to want one, but he felt it suddenly and sharply. Across the square, the huge painted elephant carried what must have been the entire population of the village’s young children on its broad and hairy back. The thief had been about, the nature of his business and his fairly extensive experience meant he generally knew when to move on before he was caught and imprisoned, which also happened fairly frequently.

The thief, wary that in his current guise as a cripple he couldn’t exactly leap to his feet, very slowly stretched to a shaky stand and sat on the low, uneven mud-brick wall he had been begging from. A…