There was once a young girl. She had long, sleek, black hair.

She wore white flowers in her hair, and she rode an elephant. The elephant was very large, and it was very well trained, so she rode it easily. The elephant and the girl were very skilled; and people liked to see her pass with her elephant.

The elephant helped the girl build houses, and it was given bales of hay to eat; and it needed many bales of hay a day, but it could find and select it's own hay to eat.

One day the young girl told it to build a very large house. It was for the local community, who had no leader, or chief official, so that crime went unpunished, and disagreements were sometimes never resolved, and no one overall cared about the general running of the place, so tasks were left uncompleted or not done at all, because no-one understood the overall picture, or how necessary these tasks were.

So the girl and her elephant began to build the large house, better than any in that area, where the houses were generally small. Because the country was warm and the sun shone almost every day, people did not need large houses as they spent a great deal of time out of doors, and only retired indoors when it was time to sleep. In that area, there were leopards prowling at night, so the people went indoors to evade them. Except for some of the young men, who were not as frightened of the leopards. Some of them thought it would be quite an adventure to meet one, possibly fight it, and slay it, and perhaps have a leopard coat to wear afterwards.

The elephant had belonged to the girl from birth. They had been born on the same day and they grew up together, and the girl had a mark on her shoulder, clearly visible against the neckline of the pink shirt she wore, that looked like an elephant; and the people revered her, and regarded her as special, and understood that she and the elephant were a special team.

So together they began to build the house. They built out of wood and stone, but the house was delicate, ornamented, very strong and stable but there was much about it that set it apart; it was painted a pale red and gold, and, as it slowly went up, people would watch in fascination as the girl controlled the elephant, who obeyed her every command; because, while the elephant was very strong, and had many capabilities, it was an elephant, and had an elephant's understanding. The girl commanded it, with many small phrases, so that it could build what it did not understand. Because by itself the elephant, while it was wise in the way elephants can be wise, was incapable of building anything, and especially could not build such a wonderful house, without the girl to command it.

So the house was slowly going up, day by day, and people began to be excited, and to speak of who they should elect as their leader. "That we should have such a fine house in our community!" They said to each other. "We will be the wonder of the region, and the envy of all!"

They began to look about for their new leader, and to name people, and some men began to tell everybody of their qualities of leadership, and their comparative wealth there, because no-one in that place was really much more wealthy than another; except of course, widows, or men who were not able to work, who were very poor, and dependant on the goodwill of their neighbours; because they had no leader to devise a system where such individuals might receive assistance from the general community.

But one day a young man passed by. He lived in the area but did not get to the central piazza very often, he lived in an outlying district, and he worked hard for his mother and younger brothers. He was one who's name had been mentioned, as being suitable to be their new leader. But when he saw the young girl on her elephant he stood stock still and stared open mouthed at her, and the people nearby laughed at him, and explained what she was, and what she was doing, because they liked to show off their knowledge of this wonder that was being raised for them; but he said, no, you don't understand. It is the girl I am looking at.

And in fact, the girl had a lovely face, and she was very graceful, fine boned and elegant in all her movements.

So the young man forgot the errand that had brought him to the piazza, and hung about, watching her, but she did not look at him once but went on with her work, commanding the elephant to fetch wood and stone and to put it in position; because the girl had the plan of the building in her head, and it was a very good and thorough plan, so that the house would have everything needed when it was finished.

The young man became impatient, and he called out to her, "Hullo, my name is Lao! Will you come down and speak to me?" And she turned her head and smiled at him, but she and the elephant went on working, and he realised the day was growing late, and he should get on with his errands, so he left the place, and went on with his work; but he made sure to be back at the place by sundown, when she and the elephant finished their work for the day.

He came hurrying to the place in the evening, and he saw her, with the long shadows of the trees all around her, and the dust hanging like a veil in the warm air; and he called to her again, but she walked away, leading her elephant, going back to the place where they slept, and she did not look at him but seemed concerned only with herself and the elephant.

So, though he had to work very hard, because he was all his mother and his two younger brothers had, he would take time to visit the piazza, and he always called out to her, and though sometime she turned and smiled at him, in the evenings she would walk by him as if indifferent to him.

Lao was a handsome young man, with large eyes, and had a very good manner too; and he could not understand her neglect of him, usually girls liked to talk to him. One day, another young man came and stood beside him, and he was of a different kind. He was shorter than Lao, and very squarely built, and he had a squint that narrowed one eye when he spoke. Lao knew his name was Vale; and Vale said to him,"Looking at the elephant girl, eh?" And he nudged Lao, and winked at him with his squinting eye. "There's many that do," He said. "Just think of it, if you had the wealth that such an elephant would bring to your family! If someone were to marry her, he would soon be rich," And he laughed, raucous as a crow.

'But she does not work for profit," Said Lao, rather dismayed; because he had not thought so far ahead as marriage. He was impulsive by nature, and had only thought as far as getting the girl to speak to him; in fact, he was a little obsessed with her, and her image filled all of his waking thoughts and his dreams when he went to sleep at night, too. He was very put out to think that she was desired by others, it had not occurred to him that he might have rivals. "What a fool I am," He thought to himself. 'Why, of course others must look at her and find her beautiful. She is here everyday, and many must see her and covet her attention."

"Not for profit!" Said Vale, and he laughed again. "Any family that would allow that to continue deserves to remain poor."

So, as Lao went slowly home he was feeling rather depressed. It had seemed so simple before, just to make her speak, and to go on from there; but now it was all different. He had never considered himself as poor, because many people lived exactly as he and his mother and brothers lived; they all wore the same kind of clothes, they all shopped the same way, they all lived in the same kind of house, they all ate the same kind of food, and being less or more wealthy had never been an issue, in that region; for anybody, so long as there was enough to eat,and clothes to wear, nobody was very worried about any little extras that set them apart from the others. But lately, with all the excitement of the house being built, people had begun to look at each other, and themselves, more critically. At the beginning, they had talked of who might be best as leader, and they discussed how fit people were for the role, how generous, but not too generous; their new leader would have to possess a balanced generosity that would not give all away foolishly to any unworthy case. Their leader must be wise, and honest, so that he did not take and keep for himself.

But apart from that, they had begun to say,as the house went up, stone be stone, and board by board, he must be someone we can be proud of, our representative, who is fit to live in such a house.

"Pol," Several had offered. "He is wise, in fact he has a finely balanced cunning that will serve us well, but for all that he is kind and willing to serve all; and he is always ready to listen to the views of anyone, and to accept their opinions; he has been a good friend to many, and his advice is always sound." And everybody agreed, until one said,"But Pol would never do, in such a fine house, his dress is always untidy and sometimes he forgets to change his jacket,so that it becomes stained with soup, or some such. And he keeps his hair and beard long, often he looks no better than a beggar. We could not possibly have him as our representative, what would the vising dignitaries think? They would think we were poor, and had no better to be our leader."

"We could buy him a fine suit of clothes, to wear at such occasions," Said another, one of Pol"s firmest supporters.

There was a general murmur of assent at this, because Pol was extremely well regarded, but Vale spoke up. "And be forced to pay for an extra expense like this? Are you all crazy? Such a suit would not come cheap. Let our leader buy his own clothes."

So they put Pol's name aside, and mentioned other people. "Dek is exactly right, for the appearance of the part," One said. "He dresses very well, and is tall and noble looking, and a kind and generous man,"

"And a complete fool," Another muttered. "Kind he is, but he is also very vain, and spends too much time admiring is own reflection; and also, he is putty in the hands of any nice looking woman he chances to meet."

So peoples minds had altered. The enough they had was no longer enough, and they looked at each other with different eyes, and still the question arose, who would be good enough to live in the wonderful house?

The building of the house was going very well. Every day the girl worked with her elephant,and they never hurried, and they were never cross with each other. They just worked quietly together, and it was amazing to see how, when they never seemed to hurry together, the house was being built very quickly; though, as it was a big house, it was still quite along way off finished. But the people could go inside the main hall, and walk around what would be the parlour where the visiting dignitaries would be brought, and already the fine staircase spiraled up the as yet absent upper floor. And all gasped, and were overawed at the airy, golden tinted space contained under the high roof; and how the hot, bright sunlight seemed muted yet gilded in that wonderfully cool and spacious hall.

The building was beautifully proportioned. There was a great sense of balance and harmony there; and the people began to be restless, and to look about for who might be fit to live there, as it's lord. For none of them even had an upper floor to their own houses, which were small, dark, and modest, but perfectly adequate. But attitudes had changed. Many of them knew that to live in the fine house was a definite possibility, and it made their own houses seem small, and they became discontented. Around the place, outside the houses the women congregated and the only subject was, who would be the one? The women put down their water jars to talk of it, and disregarded their small children who were running in to mischief and trouble; and the men let their cattle stray, as they stood oblivious together, to talk about it. Passing the houses there could be heard raised voices, as people argued, and as women harangued their husbands, to dress more properly, to impress people more, so that the woman could have the position of the first lady, the aristocrat, of the whole area. It was a great prize, and everywhere feelings were rising.

Meanwhile, Lao had been made very anxious by his conversation with Vale. He did not regard what Vale had said about the girl and the elephant bringing wealth to a family, because he did not see her at all that way; but he thought to himself, "I have not been thinking. Of course other young men will be looking at her, she is out there every day and many must see her and want to attract her attention. I must find some edge, something special, that will put me above the others in her view, make me seem more than they are, otherwise she will never take any notice of me."

He thought and thought until one night, as he lay in his bed tossing and turning, unable to sleep, he heard a noise in the bushes. Rising to look, he could find nothing, but he thought to himself, "A leopard, I am sure it was a leopard," And straightway he had his idea. "I will find and kill a leopard," He thought. "That will make me more than all the others, and will draw attention to me."

So he set to work, planning how he might find a leopard; and in the next few nights, when everyone else was asleep, he crept outside and went into the woods, where no one went at night and he hunted for the leopard which would make him more than the other young men.

The moon was very bright and the woods were filled with magic and with marvel.

"I live so close to this," He thought, as he rustled through the undergrowth. "And I never saw any of it before. My life has really been very narrow, very ordinary." He loved his nights in the forest, though he was frightened, too.

He had no-one to tell him what to do, so he had to discover for himself how to move softly around the forest; and sometimes he thought he heard a leopard close by, but always he made too much noise, and the leopard heard him coming. So he thought for a while, and then he decided he would devise a trap for the leopard.

He made a trap; his first efforts were clumsy but he improved them, he was clever and diligent, and in the end he had a good trap, which he laid in the forest in the evening. All the time he had his usual chores to do, and he neglected nothing. He told nobody what he planned, he worked as hard as usual, and he played with his brothers as usual. If, in the mornings, his mother commented that he seemed tired he would say he had not slept very well last night. Though he was sometimes fatigued he felt a great sense of vitality, "It is almost as if I have never fully lived before," He thought. "The colours all seem brighter, and everything seems so sunlit, so bright, and I thank heaven that I am alive, here, at this time." And he sang softly to himself as he went about his work, and his mother ceased to worry about him looking tired sometimes.

He felt quite guilty as he set his trap in he forest. His skills as a huntsman had not been enough, and he felt he should have fought the leopard one on one; but he realised he would never be able to do that, because the leopards were too cunning, and kept away. A trap would be his only chance.

So he set his trap and he waited. On the first two mornings there was nothing, and on the third, again nothing, but on the fourth, he woke in the early morning with the moon still bright in the dawn, and he went into the forest and he found he had a leopard in his trap, and the leopard was chewing frantically at it's paw to escape. When Lao arrived the leopard stopped and he looked at Lao with great golden eyes and the Leopard said; "Set me free."

Lao was very shocked. "I had no idea you could speak," He said.

"We can speak," Said the leopard. "We are the leopard people and you are the man people. Set me free. You do not know how terrible a thing it is for me to be trapped."

Lao was very much concerned at the creatures plight, as he had no idea the leopards could speak, but he said, "I cannot let you go. Much depends on my being able to prove myself more than the others, and besides, there is an ancient enmity between your kind and mine. We fear you so much that no one ever strays into the forest at night, and you have taken our children."

"That is not so," Said the leopard. "We avoid you, as you have discovered over these last days. We have no quarrel with you, we wish only to be allowed to live our own lives, with no interference from you. And we have never taken your children; it is a myth."

"It is no myth," Said Lao. "It is a true story, for I know myself a woman who had a baby taken only last year, she is a neighbour of ours."

"Not so," Said the leopard. "We watch you and we know what you do; and that woman had a dislike for her child, and she could not bear him near her. But she did not want anyone to know of this so secretly she and her husband arranged an adoption with a distant family who were childless. They came and took the child away at night, and then the woman told the story of the leopard because it would bring sympathy to her, and not condemnation as being a mother with an ill feeling against her own child."

Lao could not help but believe the leopard, because he had heard his mother say of the women "It is strange, it is almost as if she cannot bear to be in the house since the birth. She goes out all the time and leaves her husband alone with the baby."

His heart sank, as his dreams of bringing a leopard skin back to his village in glory were dashed.

The leopard watched him with its golden eyes, panting from the pain of the trap. Then it said, "If you let me go I will return home and bring you a fine leopard coat.It belonged to my sister, and is a most beautiful coat. My sister has no need of it any more."

So Lao agreed, and he was very relieved, because he knew that he would have to let the leopard go, and he could see that this was a way he might salvage something from all his hard work. He set the leopard free, and the leopard sprang away into the trees, but so quickly and quitely, Lao was amazed to see that hardly a leaf quivered.

Lao waited while all around him the mists of the morning cleared, and the sunlight beat down on the roof canopy of the forest. Then something attracted his attention, a movement against a tree branch, and to his surprise he saw it was the leopard, but it moved so softly he had not seen or heard it until it came close. It seemed made of dappled shadow and spilled sunlight; and it took him a moment to realise that it carried with it, between its sharp teeth, a leopard skin.

The leopard laid the skin at his feet. "There you are," It said. "Enjoy wearing it. Oh, and one good turn deserves another; for I would be first to admit that you men with your clever hands and sharp minds are more than a match any day for us leopards, and so in thanks for your forbearance and mercy, if ever you need my help just call for me." And then it was off, bounding into the green forest, and Lao was alone.

He picked up the leopard skin. "Still, It would be wrong to let people think I had killed a leopard," He thought. "And I don't really see how I can possibly tell anyone the whole story, I should never be believed." So he went slowly back to resume his day's duties, thinking all the time of how he could win the elephant girls attention.

When he arrived home, he hid the leopard skin under the eaves of the house; he did not have time to examine it, as he heard his mother calling him.

His mother came hurrying to him. "Where have you been?" She asked, and, when he was about to say, for a walk, she waved her hand. "Oh, never mind, never mind. There is a big fuss going on; some of the families most eager to win the role as leader have been fighting over the house, and one has occupied it, and the girl and her elephant can no longer go on with the work!"

There was great excitement and agitation everywhere, as Lao and his family hurried to the piazza. As they passed, they saw men fighting and squabbling, and they saw two men rolling over and over in the dust, hitting each other, until one gained the upper hand, and punched the other repeatedly in the face, while the other tried to protect himself. Telling his mother and brothers to stand back, Lao went over to see if he could part the pair, but a neighbour held him back, saying "Leave them to it, there is nothing anyone can do. We have been trying to talk some reason into them all morning but they will listen to nobody, and each is as bad as the other."

"But they are injuring each other, and they will most likely be the worse enemies the more they hurt each other now," Cried Lao. "This is the way family fueds begin, we must stop them." But even as he spoke the one who had been crying out for mercy and help wrestled the other away, and in his turn, began hitting his assailant with an equal ferocity

"Let them be," Said the neighbour. "All the damage to their former friendship is already done. Perhaps this way, if they tire themselves out, we will be able afterwards to talk some sense into them."

So Lao was forced to leave them, and go on his way; but as they passed houses they could here women shrieking venomously at their husbands, and even saw one man being thrown by his wife from his home, with his coat and personal belongings thrown after him.

"What a good thing it is that we are not ambitious," Said Lao's mother, holding her hand to her mouth. She was very shocked; she had never imagined that the people she had known as friends all her life could ever act this way. "It would be so terrible to think of our little family at each others throats like this. As it is, we have been lucky, because we have always been satisfied with what we have."

As they neared the Piazza,They saw the handsome Dek walking out of his house, and with him he carried a large stick. "Join with me!" He roared. "I am going to tear down the house of the elephant, because it has caused us to fight with each other like this!"

He was wild eyed and pale and anguished, and Lao could see, despite his vanity, he was a good man in his heart but could think of no better solution to their problem. But Lao did not want the house torn down; if it was torn down, the lady would leave with her elephant and he would never see her again. But Vale was standing by, his face creased in an unpleasant smile which narrowed his narrow eye still further. "Ha!" He said. "If you do that you make yourself out to be the leader and they will all want to fight you! Don't you see?" And he put back his head and laughed, mockingly, until Lao's mother said. "And how much of this trouble has Vale stirred up, I wonder?" And there was a general growl of agreement, and some of the men moved threateningly over to Vale; while Dek stood by, an expression of grief and shock on his face, because he had thought he had found a solution, no matter how desperate it was, and now he thought that there could be no solution. For Dek hated to see his neighbours at odds like this, and would have done anything to calm them.

Lao's mother was, in her turn, very upset to think that any words of hers would cause Vale to be attacked; so she said, quickly. "No. no! Truly, I meant nothing! No single individual could have stirred up such and uproar; please, do not hurt Vale." So the men drew back,and Vale, who was looking scared, joined Lao and his family. "Let me walk with you, I beg you," He pleaded. "They will get me for speaking my mind, otherwise." So reluctantly they let Vale walk with them, as they made their way to the piazza.

When they got to the piazza they found a large crowd there, and some had picked up hoes and spades to use as weapons. there seemed to be three extended families and their friends and supporters facing each other down, and many others who had gathered to watch; and some of these were shouting, first for one candidate and then for another. It was most unpleasant to behold. The onlookers were chaotic, unreasonable, indecisive but aggressive. It seemed that at any moment each one of them might fervently support one, and then change his allegiance in the wink of an eye, and as fiercely lend his vocal support to another, and vow to fight to the death the supporters of the man, just seconds before, he had been vowing his eternal allegiance.

In the midst stood Pol, looking more dishevelled than ever, just managing to keep the warring factions apart. "Let us have some reason here! He said. "At all costs, we must keep from harming each other!"

"You are only saying this because you want the post for yourself," Said one man, waving his rake threateningly in the air. He was a big man,and burly; and so angry his already thick neck looked thicker than ever.

There was a shout of support at this, and one man near Pol pushed him, so that he nearly fell from his stance at the top of the three shallow stairs that led into the house.

"No, no," Said Pol. "I would never want to be leader of such an unruly mob as you." He took out a cloth and mopped his brow; and then he went on. " I know of no one that could handle you, and, for myself, I shall be happy to remove myself from this place after peace is restored; because, in one morning, you have destroyed centuries of the good will we have shared with each other and I feel as if I never want to look into your faces again; you, who I have known since the day of my birth. I feel cheated of something that has always comforted me; the kindness we had towards each other. I shall, as soon as possible, find some other place to settle and I shall take myself there; and I hope in time that my belief in the kindness of mankind may be restored."

At this, a depressive silence overwhelmed the group, and in fact some began to look a little ashamed. But others tossed their heads, and stared defiantly at Pol, as if they did not want to be reminded that their behavior was wrong, and as if they clung to their violent opinions because by doing that, they could think to themselves that Pol was wrong, and that they were good people with a righteous battle to fight.

Vale broke the silence by shouting, " So, just going to leave us In a fix, are you? some wise man you turned out to be," And there was a roar of approval at this, and some of the people closest to Pol began to move towards him.

But Pol raised his hand. "Hear me," he cried. "I am not wise. If I had been wise I should have seen this day coming,and I should have prevented it. But I know one who is wise, and this is my suggestion," And as he spoke he pointed to the lady, who, while all this had been going on, had been sitting unregarded at the back of the mob, on her elephant.

"The lady of the elephant built this house and it is her house," Pol went on. "I suggest that she does not gift it to us, as is usual, but remains here, in the house she built, and be our leader; because to build such a house I know she must be the only one wise enough to live in it,"

The mob was silenced; and so surprised many put down their weapons to stare open mouthed at first Pol, and then the lady.

"It"s true," Called out Lao's mother. "What Pol says is correct. Now matters have come this far, the only one fit to live in this house and to be our leader is the one who built the house."

Other voices followed hers because, now the crowd had been stopped in their violent surge towards battle, many of them felt weak, and rather ill, as if they did not know what had come over them. Many of them felt their own anger drain away, and looked wearily at each other, as if to say, what, was I ready to kill? Or be killed myself?

"So what do you say, Lady," cried Pol. "Do you accept my judgement?"

The lady spoke softly to her elephant; and then she rode into the center of the crowd. To Lao's delight, she began to speak, in a crystal clear voice which was light, like a waterfall. "I accept your judgement," She said. "In truth, there was only one man ready for the post when I first began the house and it is for him I built the house, and that man stands before you now, and he is Pol. He was the correct choice. But since there has been so much quarreling Pol is himself unwilling and he will no longer be happy here, so there is no one, and now you, who have gone without a clear leader for so long, must have a leader to resolve your differences. And, as the house is mine, as I built it, then, when it is finished, I will move into it and I will give you all the best council I can."

Pol smiled gratefully at her; and there was a shout of disappointed agreement from the families, who were loath to see their prize wrested away from them; but all the others thought, what a village we will be, with the lady of the elephant as our leader!

Just then Vale spoke up, again. "She cannot be there alone," he said. "Look around you, You can see how many faces are just waiting to turf her out of here, and to move in of their own account. She will not be safe in that house; and, with feelings running so high, she will not be strong enough to break up the fights there will be, before all the ill feeling had died down."

Pol glared angrily at Vale; but everybody could see it was true. The lady was wise but she was of a graceful and elegant build; and she would need a protector.

But Vale laughed. "She will have to a marry a strong man to help her," He said. "Which brings us back to the original problem so you all might just as well start fighting again."

Lao's heart began to beat very fast; because he wanted to be the one to marry the lady; and also, because he became very afraid that her hand would be given to one of the warring factions men.

"Vale!" Shouted Pol, despairingly. "Will you not rest until you have brought destruction on all of us!"

And, looking into Vale's face, Lao could see the satisfaction there; and see that truly Vale had wanted nothing but to cause as much trouble as he could, and to see the people all clamouring against each other gave him a secret joy and contentment.

"I must speak now," Lao thought. "Otherwise, I may lose the lady of my heart forever."

So he stepped forward,and cleared his throat. Those that knew him well all respected him; and, though his nervousness made his voice tremble, he said in the best tone he could muster; "Sirs, ladies, I am only a simple person, and I am happy to be simple for the rest of my life, and I had no ambition for the role of leader or for the house. The life we have has always been enough for me and my family. But I would like to suggest a fair challenge for the elephant lady's hand; because I would like to win her hand, and I am sure I am not alone in this." He was thinking feverishly that the challenge must be one he could win by producing his leopards skin; but he could not think how to put it forward, without his ruse being discovered. "So I suggest that someone other than myself think up some challenge," He said, "Some task that will be difficult to fulfil."

Dek had joined the group, and he spoke up. "This is a good idea Lao has put forward," he said. "I am not in the running, as I am already married, so I can freely speak. And despite what Vale says, we are not in the same position as before, because the lady will be our leader and none other, and she must have the final say in this." Dek did not look his usual well groomed self; his clothes were torn, where he had been pulled about when he tried to quell fighters, and his hair was all tousled. "And the lady must not be expected to marry someone she cannot love," He said. "No matter who wins this challenge, it is up to the lady to say whether she wants him for her husband or not."

They all looked questioningly towards the lady, who, of all of them, was the only one unruffled, her hair sleek, the white flowers still as crisp as if she had just picked them and put them in her hair; and her expression pensive. "I agree," She said. "I would not have agreed if you had not given me a choice in the matter, as I can never marry anyone I do not think I can love. And I will set the challenge."

Everybody was silent,watching her expectantly; because the way she had built the house had much impressed all of them, as well as her modest demeanor.

"This is my challenge," She said. "I will marry the man who brings me the finest coat, and after we are married I will put on the coat and I will become your true leader, and we will live in the house together and i will lead you and he will protect me."

A cheer went up, because this gave all the unmarried men a chance, and all were clearly happy except the married men and especially their wives, who knew they had no chance now of becoming the first lady, and living in the wonderful house. But some of the women who had been most angry with their husbands for not showing enough ambition in going after the position of leader were seen to be looking aside at their husbands, in a manner which was almost apologetic; and their husbands were in their turn looking relieved, as if they had not really wanted such an onerous task.

Still there were many couples who would obviously find it hard to mend the damage done to their marriage. Some of the woman stood tall and proud and injured looking, and refused to take their husbands hands, when offered; and shook off their husbands attempts at conciliation, as if they had lost a great prize, and nothing would ever make up for it; so the husbands were left standing sadly by their sides, thinking of the contented life that had once been theirs.

And in other cases it was the husbands who looked with anger at their wives, as if they felt that she had been at fault. And other couples were still argumentative. "You called me a bad name," Said one woman. "I will not forget that."

"You have fought so hard to make me try to win the position;" Said the husband. You thought it might go to your brother and his wife, and how you have always hated his wife! You could not bear to think that she might gain the great prize over you, and you have nagged me so hard I wished I had been born deaf."

But Pol begged for silence. "Anything you need to say to each other, say at home," he said. "The truth is, almost nobody has been right here, certainly not I, for I should have prevented this from happening. I have been lazy and I have neglected a duty that was mine from the beginning, and now it is too late for me. This is a time for remorse and for forgiveness. If we began to remind each other now of our transgressions, we are lost and we have no future together. Forgive each other, try to do better, and show kindness to the injuries you have caused each other. Be generous and not mean. And try to forget the injuries caused to you, no matter how much you feel you were injured; because anyone who harbours resentment will find it hard to regain the friendships he has lost."

"But supposing," A woman called out to him, "We have discovered things about each other that we never knew before?" As she spoke she looked daggers at the women who lived next door to her. "I never wanted the post of Leader for my family, I was happy to see it go to the most fit. But for all of the last weeks I have had to put up with that woman's appalling airs and graces, and her speaking of how her life will be when she is in the house; and she has even stolen my fine silver cup that was gifted to me by my mother, because she said it should be hers, for the new house."

Her neighbour flushed and began to bluster, but Pol said, "Let it lie for the moment. Whether this woman has stolen from you or you have lost the cup some other way will be determined after the elephant lady has become our leader. She will hold public sessions here where all grievances of this kind will be justly examined and you will await her judgement; for she is wise and much to be trusted. Until then wait until the marriage ceremony is completed."

Lao was ecstatic. The one thing he had that he could offer! He thought. It was wonderful, almost as if some kind spirit had put the idea into her mind; it could not be better. But Pol was speaking again. "We should resolve this matter as quickly as may be," He said. "But many of the men here need a little time to find a coat that may give them an opportunity in the challenge. So now I ask you all to return to your homes, and to repair what damage you can to your friendships and acquaintances, and I know some of you need to repair damage to your properties. Return here tomorrow, with your offerings for the challenge, and as many of you who wish to witness this marriage return also."

So they went to their homes, some still arguing with each other, but most silent, thinking on all that had passed. And many felt that a terrible calamity had befallen the place, and were fearful of the future, and wished whole heartedly that the matter might easily be resolved on the morrow, and that their lives would continue on afterwards as they had before; because it seemed to them, that they had never before realised how happy they had been, how content, and how secure.

Lao wished to hurry back to his home, but his younger brothers were tired and could not walk as fast as he could, so he was forced to be patient; and he had to wait until his mother had made the evening meal, because his brothers needed his care. So it was not until after they were in bed that he went outside and reached into the eaves of his house and took the leopard coat, and shook it out; and, in the dusk and the little light that spilled from his mother's lamp, from the window, he saw to his surprise that the coat was already made up into a sleeved coat.

He had expected to find it leopard shaped, but his was a coat shaped for man; and it was thick, the fur surprisingly soft, and its colours were glorious, so rich he gasped with the beauty of it.

"This is fit for the lady of the elephant as nothing else is!" He thought to himself. "There will be none that can match it!" And he went to bed more excited than he had ever been in his life, because his life had been on the whole quiet and uneventful, each sunlit day following the next in an orderly progression. He hardly slept at all, and it was not the tumult of the day that kept him lying awake in a fever of impatience to see whether his coat would be to her liking.

In the morning they rose and he told his mother of his intention to enter the contest. She was surprised,and tried to persuade him out of the idea. "We have so far not been touched by the terrible events of these last days," She said. "It is much better that we keep out of the way of it all, until the matter is properly resolved. Now, anyone who puts up their coat will be cause for comment and argument."

But he explained to her how he felt about the lady, from the first time he saw her, and his mother smiled at him and touched his face gently with her hand. "If it is that girl you want," She said, "Then we will all try to get her for you, and place no obstacle in your way."

She dressed herself carefully in her best clothes, and she put small, red flowers in her hair, and she painted a black line around her eyes and she came out of the house looking so beautiful her sons all said, "We did not know you could look so wonderful!"

"Mother," Said Lao, "I think of all the community, you most deserved to be its leader." But she only laughed at him, and spent a little while getting the two younger boys looking their best, and she cut Lao's hair for him, and she stood back and looked at them all, and said, "There, I do not think anyone will laugh at this family for putting forward Lao's suit to the elephant girl today."

When they arrived at the piazza they found most of the populace there, but they were fairly quiet, and many were dressed for celebration, and wore their smartest clothes. But of all of them Lao's family, looked the most handsome, and were distinguished from the crowd as being set apart; their qualities were apparent, both of personal beauty and refinement of character.

So that the contest would be as fair as possible, a screen had been erected in front of the doors of the elephant house, and the men who wished to marry the elephant girl filed behind the screen, one at a time, and each laid down his coat, and then left, so that the next might enter, so that none would know who had laid the gift, and the elephant girl should choose in ignorance.

There were, as well as the young men who might be expected to be looking for a wife, some older men, and some widowers, and even one or two who had divorced their wives the night before, in order to have a chance at the hand of the elephant girl, and the fine house and the prestige that went with it. Some of the families had in fact disregarded Pol's words of the day before, and, being unwilling to see their prize vanish so thoroughly, said to each other that it did not matter, it took a man to lead such an unruly people, and once they were married and safely in the house the girl could be quietly put out of the way while the husband took over the role as leader.

When all the men had laid down a coat behind the screen, the screen was removed and the elephant girl came walking softly into the piazza. She had her head down and her eyes lowered, and Lao felt a sense of shame, why, he thought, she is modest, and shy, and this is hard for her; and now I see why she never answered me, when I called to her.

The elephant girl picked up each coat laid there for her and she looked carefully at each one, and as she did so she lifted each one up, and showed it to the people. The coats were all beautiful, some had been in the property of the family for many years, and some were quite splendid; and some had been hurriedly made out of the best material the family could find, or beg, or steal, and many of the mothers and aunts there bore the worn, haggard look of women who had been up all night stitching for their sons, nephews, or grandsons. So the elephant lady looked at each one, and then she came to the leopard coat and she held it up and she shook the coat out and it was revealed in all its splendour. The golden sunlight rippled over its supple surface; with its black markings it looked most like a blaze of sun on dappled water, and the whole crowd assembled took an indrawn breath, because of all, this was indeed the most glorious, and could be matched by none.

And the elephant girl ran her index finger along the fur, and then she stroked it, as she might a cat, with her open hand, and then she seemed to weigh it, because, despite its size it was very light; and then she put it aside and went on to the next coat. But everybody assembled could see that the best coat had been seen, and that the rest was a formality, and many of the men there turned away, disappointed.

She looked at the rest of the coats, and there were whispers all around, the leopard coat, who's is the leopard coat? And somehow, it came to be known that the leopard coat belonged to Lao; and all around his name was whispered, "Lao, the coat is Lao's. Lao will be the husband to our leader, the elephant lady."

And strangely, most appeared satisfied, for they knew that Lao was not the kind that would push himself forward, and that he would support the elephant lady, without trying to take the reins of leadership from her.

When the elephant girl had looked at all the coats, she went back to the leopard coat and said, with a tremor of anxiety visible to all, "I will marry the man that laid this coat here."

Lao stepped forward, and he said, "The coat is mine," And he was very pleased when he saw that she looked relieved. "Perhaps she has noticed me, after all," He thought.

But Vale said, "How do we know the coat is his? And how did he come by the leopard coat?"

Pol, who had been standing nearby, watching the proceedings to see all was fairly done, had also been looking very relieved and pleased, because he knew Lao's family, and there was none he would have selected as being so well suited for the role of leader's consort than Lao. So he said "No one disputes that it is Lao's coat," And he looked around at the whole crowd, and no one else stepped up, to claim the coat as his. "And no-one said the man had to explain how he came by the coat. The marriage will go ahead immediately, as planned, if the elephant lady and Lao are willing."

So the elephant lady and Lao were married, there, in front of everyone, and Lao was so happy he could not keep from smiling; though he looked into his wife's face, all the time, hoping that she was at least some part as happy as he was, and to his delight she smiled too.

"In my wildest dreams, I never thought such a day could come to me," Thought Lao, as the people threw flower petals over them. "I promise," He told them all, "That I will be a good and a proper husband to the elephant lady, who is my wife; because I love her dearly, and wish for nothing other than to serve her, and the people here, as best I can; because I know that in fact I am not worthy of her, and I am very glad she has agreed to be my wife."

Then he introduced his mother and brothers to the elephant girl, who seemed very pleased to meet them, and she told them all that they must come and live in the elephant house, with herself and Lao.

Then the elephant girl picked up the coat. "And now," She said. "Now that we are married, I will put on my husbands gift to me, as I promised." And she took up the coat and she smiled as she slid her arms into the sleeves because it was as if the coat welcomed her, and fitted her like a glove, but in an instant her expression changed to one of terror, so that Lao looked at her in alarm and said, "My dear wife, what is wrong?"

But in an instant all could see what was wrong, because the elephant girl, wearing the wonderful coat, went down on all fours, and she became a leopard, with a leopard's long tail, and a leopards sharp teeth; only her eyes, which were brown, still, though now they were large and golden brown, a leopards eyes, looked at all like the girl she had been.

She had the sensibilities of the leopard, and gazed around at them all in fear, lashing her long tail; and then, while all stood thunderstruck at this turn of events, she took a great leap from the dais on which she had been married, and ran off towards the forest; and, in an instant, Lao was after her, shouting, "Wait for me!"

He ran and ran after her, and, once they were in the forest, he feared he had lost her; but he found her cowering under some bushes, and though she seemed apprehensive when he caught up to her, she allowed him to stay and talk to her, as he tried to calm her.

"Oh, I am sorry, I am so sorry!" He said, tearfully. "All this is my fault, I wanted you so much I gave you the leopard coat and I had no idea this would happen! My love, can you speak to me? I know the leopard kind can speak."

But it seemed she was mute; and she looked around her as if bewildered, in such a way that Lao could hardly bear it. "It is my fault" He said, as he thought of her as she had been, riding her elephant and building the house with such skill, and great big tears ran down his face as he looked at her now, confused, in her leopard coat, but without the skills she needed to be a leopard.

"I should have known you were too good for me," He said. " I should have known you were far above me. I have been selfish, I should have accepted I could never have you, and look at what has happened."

His tears were as big as thunderdrops, and as they fell on to the forest leaves, he heard them splash; and he looked round, as if seeking help; and he saw,standing just a few feet away from him, a young woman.

She was wearing a dress made of a thin veil of veined, withered leaves, and the dress was very ill made and came only to her knees. She was tall and slender but muscular and very strongly built, and her face was very wide; her hair was quite short and she wore it stiffly brushed back from her face. Her eyes were very large and they were golden,and she had a small scar on her right hand, and straightaway, Lao recognised the leopard he had set free from his trap, the leopard who had given him the coat.

"So it is you," He said. "I had no idea you were female. I know very little about the leopard kind. Was this your revenge, all along?"

The leopard lady moved towards him, but nervously, as if ready for flight, and she put down her head and regarded him with her golden eyes. "I have been waiting for you," She said. "And this was not revenge, it is an accident that was not supposed to happen. I thought that it would be you that wore the coat. It would have been different if it had been you that had put on the coat."

"Please tell me." Said Lao, speaking through his tears, which rained down his cheeks; "Please, if there is any way you know to restore her to her original form."

But the Leopard lady shook her head, still nervously hovering beside her tree, but her large golden eyes seemed to express a degree of compassion for Lao and his bride. "I do not know," She said. "But there is one who will know, but he is far from here. It is our leopard king, and it was he who asked us that live in the forest next to your people's lands to find someone to wear the leopard coat; he has seen how your people are numerous, and are spreading deeper into the forest and the leopard territory year by year, and he has been much concerned, and wished to find a way to make a peace between our people, a treaty which might enable us to live side by side; so that the men might better understand the leopards, because we wish only to be able to live our own lives. We are not as adaptable as man, and it is hard for us to change."

Lao hardly heard any of this, so desperate he was that his bride might be returned to her former self. "Your king?" He asked. "He might be able to help?"

"Yes," Said the leopard lady.

"Where is he?" Asked Lao, looking all around, as if he expected the leopard king might be found close by.

"He lives a long way away," Said the leopard lady, and she pointed in a north easterly direction, "You must take your bride there." And she turned and vanished swiftly into the forest.

"Wait!" Called Lao. "I need to ask you..." But she had gone; with no sign that she was ever there, as if she might have been a trick of the unsteady sunlight in the forest.

So Lao set off, with the leopard that was his wife. He had no idea of how much she remembered of herself in her changed form, but he was very glad to see she seemed to like him, and was content to stay with him,and not stray from his side. In fact, she seemed frightened to leave him.

Lao thought of his mother and brothers. "What will become of them without me to protect them?" He wondered. He was very concerned for them; but he dare not take his leopard into the places where the people were, because of their ancient fear and hatred of the leopard kind. "They would kill her, for sure," He thought; but he was so frightened for his family he felt as if his heart twisted inside of him, so that he could barely breathe; but, just when he thought he must turn back and find some means of communication with them that did not put his wife at risk, he felt a little wind blowing his face, a soft, gentle wind, and it seemed to him that he heard his mothers voice, and her voice had a smile in it, as if she said, "It is all right, Lao. We are perfectly safe. Now go and find some means of bringing your new wife back to her true form."

Lao remembered all at once how strong his mother had always been, in any time of adversity, and he was very comforted. He felt sure they were alright, but he wondered what had occurred after he and the leopard had left the piazza; and he felt that an ill time had come for his people, who were now without a leader, and without hope of a leader.

As he travelled on, he talked constantly to his leopard bride. He had no idea if she could understand him or not; at the beginning, he thought she did understand something of his meaning, but, after a little while, he began to despair, for it seemed to him that she was growing into her leopard appearance, and losing her sense of her own humanity.

His only comfort was her obvious, and increasing affection for him. She was, as time went on, quite playful, and would come to him and rub her leopard cheek against his knee. While she seemed, to his consternation, to becoming more leopard like she did not seem to have any of the natural skills she might expect, as a leopard. If he had not hunted for her,she would have starved; and much of his time was spent looking for small animals that might feed her, and, as they journeyed, he became skillful as a hunter.

"Well," He thought sadly one day, as they sat beside a river together, "At least I have the comfort of knowing we get along, and would have probably made a good husband and wife, if this terrible misfortune had not occurred."

And then he would blame himself, because always he felt a sense of guilt so immense that it was an affliction to him, day and night. "If only I had not acted as I did," He thought. "If only I had thought harder about the consequences of my actions, my family would not now be parted, and my lovely wife would not be a leopard."

And he felt he would do anything for a chance to have his life back as it was, with her riding her elephant and building the house without hurry, but so speedily, and she and her elephant working together with such assurance. And himself, watching her, longingly from afar; and hurrying home to his family, to get on with his daily chores, and the memory of the elephant girl being a sweetness in his mind that made his daily tasks easier. "I have been foolish, and so many people have been hurt by me," he thought. "If only I could make some of it right!"

And all the time there she was, a living embodiment of his guilt; a leopard, playing about him, chasing the frogs at the rivers edge and lapping at the water; and not a noble, dignified young woman, as she should be.

As they travelled on, the days became cooler, and there were plants and animals about that he had never seen before. He had avoided people for a long time, but he met a group that he had never seen before; their skin was a different tone, and they wore different clothes. It seemed they travelled, buying and selling and providing entertainment; and they did not seem put out by the leopard at his side.

They too, carried news from everywhere, and eagerly he asked them about his home. It took them a little while to recollect, and they did not have the full story, as it had been handed to them by word of mouth at several times removed, but they told him that Pol had left the area, and had taken with him the family of the young man that had gifted the leopard coat to the elephant girl. Eagerly he heard this; it meant that his family were safe, though they must have lost everything. But the travellers went on, "There is one named Vale in charge now, and he is in the house that is not quite finished,and he lords it there, and has some of the strongest men to help him; and he levies cruel taxes, and everybody is very unhappy."

Lao"s relief turned to consternation. Vale in charge! It was a calamity! And he reflected, as he said his farewell to the travellers and went on his way, that this is what Vale had been after all along; to divide and rule, and to take over the role as leader.

"How could we have all been so easily guiled by him?" Wondered Lao,as he walked, his leopard by his side.

The weather was becoming colder. In the distance, he could see high mountains with white tops, and in the mornings, when he awoke, everything was white with frost and the leaves were all brown and withered; but the cruel north wind stripped the leaves of their substance and left them thin shadows of themselves, giving the trees a strange, otherworldly quality, as if they were all drawn on the air in silvery white. He recognised the same leaves as he had seen on the leopard woman's dress.

He shivered, and looked enviously at his leopard's coat, which was becoming thicker; "It is alright for you," He said. "But I have no thick fur coat."

He shivered: and he set about hunting again, until he had found enough of the smaller animals to make himself a suit of fur. His people had not been very skilled this way, so he had to rely on his own invention, in scraping, curing, and stitching, but in the end he had a fine and very warm suit, and shoes to match. Then he found that the bark stripped easily from a certain kind of tall sapling, and he could make it supple, and weave with it. It was ivory white and its threads were fine, and he made himself a rough loom; and he made himself a shirt with it, to wear under the fur suit, so that the fur did not chafe his skin.

He was very pleased with his efforts, when he was done. "There," he said to his leopard, "Not so bad, is it?"

But she had no response for him, as she never had a response; she continued in her leopard ways and he was beginning to fear that she was losing herself in the leopard and might be lost forever if something was not done quickly.

Whereas at first she had been docile, and very nervous, and he could still see the nature of his shy and modest wife apparent, lately she had become more assertive, and, while she continued to keep close to him she would often show her leopard nature at him, becoming greedy for the meat he hunted for her, and, when it arrived, siezing it and pouncing upon it and snarling him away; and once, when he attempted to stroke her, she clawed his arm. The gash was not bad, it could have been much worse; but he looked sadly on his own red blood that dappled the recently fallen snow and thought of the love they might have shared, if she had kept her human form.

So he bound up his injured arm, and they went on together, the man and the leopard, through the gently falling snow, between the ice white skeletal leaves on the fragile grey trees. He felt as if he was in a disintegrating world, he had never seen snow before; and it perfectly matched the sadness of his own heart.

"Leopard or lady, I will not forsake her," He thought to himself. "I love her too truly for that."

The weather became even colder, and he was surrounded by a barren world of white. It seemed incredible to him, but still there were small animals to be had; and he could not imagine how they came to survive in this place.

He was anxious that he might have lost his way, because nothing broke this white and desolate landscape, no house, no tree; but he came upon a large cave, and, seeking warmth, he entered it and he noticed a very strong scent of leopard, so he went on further in. To his astonishment, the cave opened out into a large and wide valley, snow covered, but with the same spindly and fragile leaved trees he had seen before everywhere; and there were rough, tumble down huts, and people moving amongst them.

The people were the leopard kind, and he knew he had found the place of the leopard king.

The leopard people came to him, with their natural reserve apparent; and he was careful not to startle or surprise them in any way, while his own leopard ran about, excited at being amongst her own kind.

He noticed that the people were very poorly dressed, in the same dead leaf clothes as the leopard woman had worn; only they wore them in shabby layers, in an attempt to keep the cold at bay. Their houses, too, he saw, were very poorly made, and from none reeked any thread of smoke.

The leopard people guarded Lao and his wife very carefully until they came to one house that was larger than the rest, and, ducking in under the leaning lintel, Lao found himself in the presence of the leopard king.

The king was very tall, strong, and imposing. He sat in a rough chair, and his eyes were large, and his head was large and heavy. Like all the leopard kind, his face was wider than it was long, and he wore his hair brushed stiffly back from his head; but his hair was striped, brown and white, as if he was unevenly greying.

He gazed at Lao and his leopard with an unblinking stare and it was very difficult for Lao to decide what he was thinking; so Lao asked him, very politely, if he might speak, and the king gave a half nod of assent, still gazing all the while at Lao with his unreadable eyes. He was a powerful and alarming figure, and if it had not been that the leopard king was the only hope for his wife, Lao would have turned around and fled the place.

So nervously Lao told his story; and he was very respectful to this figure of obvious personal power and authority, despite his dilapidated hut and his ragged clothes. When he had finished, the leopard king, still watching him with his unblinking stare, Said; "I will help you, when you have helped my people."

His voice was low, but harsh, as if he did not often speak, and it was very deep and resonant.

Lao was perplexed. "I do not know how I can help your people, your majesty," He said. He found himself really quite frightened of the leopard king; who gestured towards Lao's clothes,and said, "You stand before me fully clothed against the cold," He said. "And bearing a spear with a head of cold metal; and you wear at your waist a knife of whetted stone. All this you have done by yourself, my people have watched you as you worked. Your skills are entirely beyond our grasp. Stay with us and teach us your skills, and I will help you and your wife." Lao was very disappointed. When the king had said he would help, his heart had leapt; but the work he was assigned seemed very difficult, and he had no means of knowing if he could effect any change in the circumstances of the leopard people.

Looking dispiritedly out of the gap in the ill made wall that served as a window, Lao could see the slender trees and the slowly falling snow; and the leopard people moving gracefully about in their usual silence; and he could see their unkempt huts.

"The world is changing," Said the leopard king. "We used to live proudly in the great forests, beside the wide rivers of the land to the south. But we have been driven north, and now I see that we have to change. If we try to fight your people, you will win. Perhaps for a while we would fight with the dignity and the savagery that is the honour of my kind; but in the end it would all be the same, because you would win. It is for this reason I asked the leopard people to find one of you who was suitable to wear the leopard coat; because I thought to make a treaty between us, but to do that I had to make you understand us better. But now I accept that we have to learn new skills, because our old ways though ancient will not serve us in this changing world. Your people are numerous and will be more so; and more change is coming, my leopard senses detect some of them. So tell me now, will you help us?"

"I have no choice," Said Lao. "I love my wife dearly, and I must try by any means I can to bring her back to her true form."

So they agreed, and Lao went to work with the leopard people, and he showed them all the skills he had learned. He quickly discovered that they had no natural ability for the tasks. Their hands, which were long and elegant and strong, would clumsily let fall the tools he put into them, and he had to show them everything, even how to hold so much as a needle, and the smallest task they found difficult. But in time he found a few that had more aptitude than the others and, though the teaching was still very slow, he found with these few that they did not require the same task to be taught new every day, as if it had never been learned before. They retained some memory of the action; and so, by working with this few, slowly they began to make clothing, and to build huts that would not blow over in the first gale, or be buried by the next blizzard. "We are a hardy people, and our needs are not as excessive as the needs of man," The leopard king told him, "But we have to learn what skills we can."

When he was showing them how to erect a better hut for their king, Lao thought sadly that this was his wife's work. "If she were here now," He told the leopard king, "She would build you a palace," But the leopard king looked at him with his watchful eyes and said, "I have no need of a palace. My people will always respect me for my own qualities."

So when Lao was satisfied that the group he had been teaching knew how to make a suit of clothes, and how to strip the bark and how to weave it, and how to build a strong dwelling that kept out the winter wind, he said to the king; now it is time for me to show you fire.

The leopard people were standing, grouped around their king and Lao; and many were now wearing woven cloth, and shoes, and warm coats; but from all of them he heard a sharp hiss, and he saw them look at each other, and saw the wild fear in their eyes.

Then the king spoke. "Fire is our ancient enemy," He said, in his low but harsh voice. "Fire is not for the leopard people"

"Without fire" Said Lao. "You cannot learn to cook your meat so that it will keep for many days. Without fire, you will not learn how to keep out the wildest winter; without fire, you will never learn to smelt metal."

So the king rose form his chair, and Lao saw, standing, he was even taller than Lao had imagined; taller, and stronger built, than any man Lao had ever seen.

"I will learn the uses of fire,' He said.

He went with Lao to a small, dry, cave; and Lao showed him how to strike flint, and to feed the fire little by little, and to blow the flame. But as soon as the first spark was struck, the leopard king drew his head back and showed his white teeth; and all around him there were sparks of light, bright gold; and, whenever Lao struck the flint again, around the king he saw the tiny golden sparks, and he saw, too, that this was very difficult for the king, who was extending all his authority over himself not to run away from the fire. But he learned, and when Lao had finished teaching him, he took the flint and struck it himself, and made his own fire.

Then Lao said to the king, "I have taught you all I can."

The king took Lao and his leopard wife out onto the snowfield before his fine new, hut, and he brought with him, out of the hut, a large and very beautifully leopard coat. The king put on this coat,and he straightaway became a leopard, but a leopard much larger and more powerful than Lao had ever seen. He was used by now to seeing some of the leopard people in their leopard clothing, but he was amazed at the magnificence of this creature.

The leopard king made a rush at Lao's wife, and he tore at her with his sharp claws, while Lao, very alarmed, shouted "No!" But the leopard king only clawed once, and to Lao's surprise the coat was peeled away from his wife, and there she lay, a woman again, in the snow, wearing the clothes she had worn on her wedding day, all those months ago; and she looked older, and very bewildered, and her hair was all matted; but she looked strong, too, and in perfect health.

"My dear wife!" Cried Lao, taking her into his arms; but she cowered away, locking around her as if she understood nothing she saw. But patiently, gently, he got her up on her feet, and she was unsteady because for along time she had run on four legs; and he led her to his hut, and washed her, and dressed her in a suit of warm clothes he had prepared for her, if this day should ever arrive.

Once again, he was very pleased to discover that, when her initial shock had worn off, she seemed to trust him and to want to stay close by his side; but she was still very confused and as yet did not remember speech or any of her human skills; so Lao watched her, and cared for her, and fed her, until he saw some recognition come back into her eyes, which were the beautiful dark eyes he always remembered, but with this difference, that forever afterwards her eyes carried a flash of gold in them.

After some days she was sufficiently recovered for him to think of travelling with her, and so he packed his few possessions, and they went together to say farewell to the leopard king; and Lao"s wife said a fond farewell to several of the leopard women that she had come to know as a leopard herself.

But the leopard king held out to Lao the leopard coat that had caused all the trouble in the first place. "It was gifted to you," He said. "Put it on."

But Lao refused. "It has caused already so much terrible trouble, I cannot think of putting it on," he said.

"Your wife has worn it," Said the leopard king. 'Now it is for you to try it."

But Lao still refused. "I cannot," he said. "I must remain as I am,"

The king was insistent. "Despite all, I think we have become friends, Lao," He said. "And it gives me great hope for the future of man and the leopard. I ask you, as a friend, to put the coat on."

And though Lao was profoundly reluctant, he realised he did trust the leopard king, and that he respected him, too; so he looked at his wife, who was standing without comprehension next to him, because she still had not recovered the use of language; and he held her to him for a moment, and then he reached for the leopard coat and he put it on.

His first thought was that the coat was wonderfully warm and comforting; like being held in a kind embrace; and then he felt very alarmed; but, looking at himself, he saw that no alteration had overtaken him. He was a man, still, but a man wearing a leopard coat; and he felt a rush of exaltation; and he opened his arms to the whole snowy world around him; and for a moment, until he took off the coat again, he saw as the leopard kind saw, with their finely attuned senses. He saw great distances as if near or far, it was all equal to him, and he felt that he would be able to see even after darkness fell. And he felt, too, a sense of understanding of the world around hm that he had never known; and it altered his mind, forever.

He took off the coat, and handed it to the leopard king, who refused to take it. "It is yours," He said. "Wear it whenever you need it. You know now it cannot change you, or alter you."

So Lao and his wife said good-bye; but before they left, the leopard lady who had given Lao the coat came to him She knelt down in the snow and she brushed his feet with her forehead and her stiff hair. "I had children to feed when you released me," She said. "And I thank you, for giving me their lives as well as my own."

As they travelled south, slowly Lao's wife became more conscious of herself, and her memory returned. Though Lao suspected that she remembered something of her time as a leopard, she did not want to speak of it, so he never questioned her on the subject. As always, she seemed to trust Lao implicitly, and, as their journey went on, he came to realise that she loved him, and had loved him from the first moment she had seen him, and together they were very happy, though both of them anxious for the future, and for what had happened in their absence.

They noticed, too, that as they moved further and further south and west the spring was laggard in coming; and it was not until they were only a few days away from home that the winter released it's icy grip, and the days became warm and sunny.

When they arrived, they went first to Lao's house. It was dilapidated,and had been ransacked; his mothers cooking vessels were broken, and the table overturned. Lao looked at it sadly. "It seems so small," He said. "It hardly seems possible this was such a happy home, with so much love in it." His wife was still rather feline, sometimes; and she rubbed her cheek against his shoulder. "The love is still there for you, when you find them again," She said. "And for me, too, I hope."

They went past the houses he had known as a child, all his life; and it was all heartbreakingly familiar, and also heartbreakingly altered. This was where Pol had lived, and here was Dek's house, now empty; and this was his old boyhood friends home. But so much was shattered and broken.

"I wonder where everybody is," Lao said, apprehensively.

"Do not worry, my love," She counselled him. "They are probably all safe somewhere. Perhaps many have left."

But he was very worried, both for all his old friends, and because he felt a great weight on his heart, as he felt a great responsibly for the people of the place.

They saw a small group of people, but they turned and ran from Lao and his wife. He called out, "Hello, it's me, Lao!" And they turned, surprised, and came cautiously over; they were people he knew well, but they had not recognised Lao, bearded, in his new clothes.

They were very nervous as they spoke, looking everywhere, as if in great fear. "Yes, Vale is in charge," They said. "It got so bad and he was the only one who could salvage anything. He brought in men from outside to control us."

But there was some emotion within their fear Lao detected, but did not understand. They were all so dispirited, and they said, "It was where we were all bound," and they would repeat the phrase, sadly, to one another."Where we were bound," And they hurried off.

Further on, they saw people sitting, idly, outside their houses, but they were surly and barely spoke, and some of them had their heads bowed in sorrow. There was one woman sitting beside the path, on the ground; she had her shawl over her head, and leaned her chin on her fists, and stared blankly forward, as if into a nothing that filled her with despair; and her mouth was dragged down at the corner, as if in a perpetual expression of misery. She answered them shortly, as if even to speak was an effort too hard for her. "Yes Vale's in the big house," She said. Her voice was flat and without expression. They could get nothing form her; but after a while, she said, in the same, flat voice,"To think there was a time when I wanted the house for my nephew and his wife." She raised her hand to her mouth and bit the edge of her thumb anxiously. Then she glanced at Lao and his wife. "At least I don't want things anymore," She said.

They could do nothing for her, so they left her there, beside the path, staring into whatever badlands only she could see.

And there were other people, in the same kind of state; staring blankly ahead of them, as they walked, and they barely spoke to Lao and his wife. It was as if nothing was interesting to them anymore.

And out of some houses they heard the sound of quarreling, a man bad mouthing his wife for his dinner being late, and the sound of weeping. Even worse, from some of the houses there was the sound of a rough and a callous laughter, as if to feel, or to be sensitive, or even to love, was so out of tune with the times that it was to be mocked; and they heard the shrill laughter of woman, too, as if they, too had joined with the young men in the ridicule of all that life held precious.

Passing one house, a man ran out to greet them. "It is you!" He said, embracing them. "I am so glad to see you! Vale has been telling everybody you were dead, or else had forgotten about us."

It was Dek; and he was greatly altered. His once thick, richly coloured hair was dusted with grey, and there were weary lines in his face; but his eyes were clear and, though sad, their expression was true as steel; and he had none of the vanity that had once been his.

'You have moved your house" Said Lao, after they had embraced Dek, and told him how glad they were to see him. "Come within," Said Dek, "And I will tell you all."

The house was different form any that Lao had known; it had been extended, to take in the houses either side, and accommodated several families. Here, at last, there was order, and harmony; though the people were subdued and obviously nervous.

"Pol has left, with your family," He told them. he bustled about, making a small meal, talking all the time, while his wife sat and beamed at them. "She has been on her feet all the day, so I will cook," Said Dek; to Lao's surprise; because it was very unusual to see a man caring for the domestic needs of a family; Lao himself had helped his mother in this way, but almost no one else. "Yes, there have been some big changes," Said Dek.

"It was a grey day for us, when Pol left," Said Dek's wife. "Despite what he said, it has always been my opinion that he could have pulled the people together, but he had no will for it."

But Dek said, "He had his own choice to make and who's to say he was not right. He was concerned for your family, and some others that Vale rose the ill will of the people against, so he got them away to safety; but many of us think he should have stayed."

"Why did you stay?" Asked Lao's wife; she had been silent, as was her wont; showing her pretty teeth in a smile because she was glad to see Dek and his wife, but speaking very little.

"I could not leave while there were still so many people who I knew in my heart were good people," Said Dek.

"Dek believes in us all, even when we have lost belief ourselves," Said Dek's wife. She looked at Dek with great fondness and pride. "So many people wanted to come to us for safety, we had to extend our house, as you can see."

Over the meal, Dek told them more. There had been fewer deaths than he had feared there would be, but many injuries, and it was difficult to get things done.

"Vale has his bullies," Said Dek. "We have had them round here, but since we have become such a large group, they keep away. There are so many old hurts still festering, it just seems as if people cannot get along any more. We need a true leader, to help us resolve all these differences, otherwise it will just get worse and worse."

He asked Lao and his wife their plans, and they told him, to confront Vale. Dek was very pleased. "I will go out just after dark, and gather all the people I can trust," He said.

"Be careful" Said Dek's wife. She explained to Lao and his wife that Vale had recently imposed a curfew. "It's hard to know why he does these things," She said. "Sometimes it has no rhyme nor reason. He is capricious."

"He doesn't have enough people to impose a full curfew, "Said Dek, wrapping a shawl around his head.

"That is thanks to you," Said his wife. "When people saw what Dek was doing, they took heart and some that would have given in and joined Vale for the sake of bringing some sort of peace and order back did not join him; they do not fight against him, but he was weakened by that. And by the time he realised it was because of Dek, it was too late; he moved against us here, but there was too many of us by then and he did not have enough support to burn the house as he wished. So he went away and did not come back."

"Fortunately for us, he is fundamentally a very lazy man," Said Dek, as he went out of the door.

When he was gone, his wife told them; "Vale made one big mistake. He never truly understood the kind of man Dek is. After he had made it impossible for Pol to stay, he thought all the opposition there could be was at an end. But he had underestimated Dek. Dek berates himself for not being the leader Pol was, because things are still so bad for most people here, but in fact I know that while Dek is here, Vale knows he has not truly won."

When Dek returned, he had about twenty people with him; and they were armed with staves and thick cudgels.

"I would leave my dear wife here," Said Lao. "But we need her, now, most of all." And his wife held his arm tightly, and said "I cannot be left out of this."

So it was agreed, and they set off together, walking stealthily, taking odd, out of the way paths; but from every window and door, there were the bad sounds, of weeping, of women being struck; of a cruel and wanton carousing; and people drunk in the streets, shouting aimlessly and throwing small stones at anything they passed. And many times they saw people huddled in the darkness against the walls, sitting in an attitude of absolute despair. They could not be roused; all that could be got from them were the words, "We were bound for this. It was all bound to end in this."

Lao had with him his spear; and he had made for his wife a spear, so that she could hunt with him, and indeed she showed a great aptitude for the hunting, and many times it had been she who had provided them with their meals while they travelled. Now they gripped their spears in one hand, and with the other they held to each other tightly.

At last they came to the house of the elephant. While it was still a very beautiful house changes had come upon it. The door place had been empty before, as the house was unfinished, and now there was a door in place, big and heavy, and badly made of knotty wood. It was the door to a bandits lair, and it did not fit the rest of the house at all.

Some of the decorative work on the outside had been deliberately attacked, and was broken. As the wood and stone were hard, it must have taken a considerable effort to break some of the pieces; but broken they were, and it gave the house a dilapidated air. There was refuse strewn everywhere and some of the men Vale had brought in from outside, an ill looking crew, lounging about, and watching the street with a calculating air.

They seemed almost pleased for a break in the monotony when they saw Dek and his friends. They sniggered to each other, look at this, and one came and stood over Dek, and told him to clear off. "Our lord Vale is too busy," They said.

"You have not asked him, if he will see us or not," Lao said.

They had not observed Lao, as the road was very badly lit; but, as he stepped into the circle of their light, they watched him carefully. They were mercenaries, and when they saw Lao's spear, they said to each other, "What have we here." And, "He's not from round here, not by a long chalk." And, "Not one of those soft, fat, little she-men," Which is how they spoke of the local men, who they despised. "They could have bought him, to help them out," They suggested.

"Ah, he doesn't look up to much," Their leader said, and swaggered forward to confront Lao. "Tell Vale we are here," Said Lao.

The mercenary leader had decided to pick a fight with Lao, as he was bored and had nothing better to do; but just then, a voice called from the doorway, "If that's a delegation led by that fool Dek, send them in. Vale says he could do with the diversion," So they were given entrance to the hall.

It was all so sadly different inside. Vale, had erected a temporary second floor to house his men; and the rough beams were dark, and as the winter had been cooler here than any within memory they had lit a fire on the beautiful decorated flags of the floor, and the fire, though it was not lit now, had left a hard gash of soot and cracked stone across the center of the floor. The lamps were not lit because Vale did not trade with the people who provided the good oil; and torches burned against the wall, and the place was dark, cavernous, and altogether unappealing.

Vale was sitting in a big chair on a platform. They had torn down one of the interior walls to make a cavernous hall; and below him, in the hall, there were the remains of an unappetizing feast set on a long table. At the table, there were still a few people sitting, guzzling the remains of the meal, and drinking deep from the cups. Many were drunk; and there were women in the hall, too, and much lewd and licentious behaviour; and both hall and table were also neglected and unkempt as though these were not people who cared for any of the refinements of life.

One man was shouting something, amid much ribald laughter; he had his arms around a women, and her clothes were torn, so that she was naked to the waist, and he was offering her, or forcing her, to drink more wine from a dirty cup he held. It was hard to say if the woman was a willing participant in these festivities or not ,as she seemed incapable of independent action, and indeed, hardly seemed to be able to stand alone. She fought the man but her movements were uncoordinated and sometimes she herself laughed on a hollow note that might have been either despair or an empty exuberance, and as she looked around the room, her eyes were blank as if she hardly saw her surroundings, and her mouth was slack and fell open, as if she tried to mouth words but her capacity for language had deserted her.

Vale was watching all these proceedings; he had filled out a good deal, and his clothes were of the best fabric available, but he was dirty and his dress was careless. Because his face was fatter, his narrowed eye was narrower than ever, and he smiled mockingly at the entertainments offered, shouting directions to the man holding the half naked woman.

When Vale saw the delegation he laughed and slapped his leg delightedly. "Why, it's Dek!" He said. "Pull up a chair and grab a cup, why don't you."

Then his eyes alighted on Lao, and he recognised Lao very quickly. "And the erstwhile groom, too, why this is too good! He has returned! And what of your pretty wife?" He spotted the smaller figure of the elephant girl, still wearing her fur hunters clothes and he laughed again. "Well, well. last time I saw you, you were running about on all fours," He said, and he laughed again, as if all of this was a huge joke which he found most wonderful. "If this isn't the best entertainment ever!"

Lao was reflecting, rather dispiritedly, that he could not imagine such a scene happening among the leopard kind; and Vale caught his expression, and he said, "I don't know why you're looking so down in the mouth, Lao. They were all always like this, didn't you know? Not one of them any good, and you, Lao, you're just the same as they are, if you look within yourself and are honest. Not a good one amongst the lot of us, we're all the same as pebbles on the beach." He waved his arm around the room in a wide, careless gesture. "All this, it was where we were all bound, it's where we are allways bound. There's only one thing that keeps us from tearing each other apart and that is we like to seem better in the eyes of others but we're all animals, below the surface."

"No," Said Lao, sadly, "I do not think that is true," But whatever else he had to say was lost; because, from her place in the shadows behind him, his wife came leaping, in her hunter's clothes, and she made a sound which was halfway between a hiss and a snarl. She held her spear pointed outward before her, and she leapt with the speed of the leopard straight for Vale, and alighted the steps to his dais in a single bound; so swiftly she moved, that none had any chance to stop her.

As she approached Vale the golden flecks in her eyes reflected the torchlight so that her eyes seemed on fire; and she showed her pretty teeth in a snarl of rage; and swift as she was, Vale had time to understand what was happing, and his face lost its smile, his narrow eyes widened and he looked at her but not with fear, though there was a kind of terror in his gaze; but his fixed expression held a look of extreme shock, which was not undiluted with something that was almost a kind of awe, as if at last he learned a truth that had been with him all of his life that he had not respected until this moment.

The elephant girl took one leap up the steps; and one more and she had reached him, while his slow, musclebound, drunken mercenaries failed to reach her; and she took her spear and she thrust it deep into Vales' heart, and he was killed instantly.

The mercenaries stood uncertainly, and Lao raised his own spear threateningly, and when the men behind him saw this, they raised their own homespun weapons.

"Leave or fight, it will be all the same in the end," Said Lao. "There are far more of us than you, beyond these walls; and even if you win here, as I do not think you will, you will not go very far."

So the mercenaries looked to one another, but without Vale they had no clear leader, as Vale had been careful to take men in to his service singly, rather than as a group; and some were local men, criminals, he had elevated to his staff. Vales way had always been to divide and conquer, and there were divisions among his men.

In the space of a second, a few of the mercenaries broke and ran for the door, and the others, seeing their numbers diminishing, followed them, fled the hall and were seen no more in that place.

Lao went over to the half naked woman, and tried to see if he could help her, but she was incapable of speech. "Take her somewhere where she may rest" Said Lao. "Perhaps we will find any family she has , to help her."

Dek walked over to Vale, who's body was still supported as if he still sat in his large chair. Dek looked into this face and said; "Poor devil. He was not always like this, you know. He was a quiet child with a sense of mischief, but his parent's marriage failed and he lost his belief in people then, I think."

But Lao's wife, who was standing nearby, said in her clear voice which was like a cool waterfall, "Waste not your pity for him, Dek: for he was always like this, only you did not understand him well. And he had chances along the way to change his heart, but he never took them." And she turned away, to assist in setting the hall to rights.

But Dek continued to look into Vale's face. "He has an expression of revelation," he said. "As if he finally understood," He shook his head. "I wish it had ended some other way, but I concede we finally have our leader, and I think she truly is the only one fit for the role."

They set to work, and it took may days to set the hall right. Lao's wife was reunited with her elephant, who was unsure of her at first, as elephants and leopards do not usually get on; and he waved his long trunk curiously all over her, recognizing but not entirely happy. But she persisted with him and in the end they formed their old working relationship. They set to work and she built the house of the elephant, and while it was as beautiful, if not more beautiful, than before it's decorations were different; she had seen much on her long journey, and all around the hall there was the theme of the wild, of green and growing things, instead of the more abstract decorations she had put there before. She and her elephant built much bigger, and she made the walls very strong, and she built on many more rooms, so that, in the end, many people could live in the house of the elephant. And she built a wall around it so that the whole area enclosed everything a large community might need in times of difficulty or crisis.

Lao met his mother and brothers again; he was amazed to see how much his brothers had grown, and they stood and looked at him open mouthed, saying he was greatly altered, too. His mother had been given new responsibilities as Pol had recognized her qualities, and bore a new air of authority. It was a wonderful reunion.

Rumours came to them of trouble everywhere, and the climate remained cooler. Stories came to them of attacks on other places; but they were secure, as the elephant house could keep the entire community safe in times of crisis.

Lao's wife took up her duties as leader. There were many disputes to be resolved, and everybody praised her wisdom.

One day, two woman came before her. One said the other had stolen the sliver cup gifted to her by her mother; and the other denied the charge. "It was when she thought she would be queening it, in the elephant house;" Said the woman who's cup was missing.

"She was just jealous, because she had no chance as leaders wife," Said the other woman.

Dek was standing nearby; there had been so much to resolve, and he was dismayed that some of the rifts caused by the choice of leader had not yet been resolved.

But the elephant girl looked at the two woman, and her eyes were flecked with sparks of gold.

She pointed to the accused woman. "You have stolen it," She said. "You have stolen this woman's cup, just as she accuses."

Everyone in the hall was very disturbed; this had seemed a complex matter that would take some time to unravel. "I have always been well respected in this community." The accused woman expostulated. "This is outrageous!" And she turned to leave the room: but the elephant girl told the men to bring her back. "You have stolen the cup," Said the elephant girl. "And you now must return it, or suffer the penalty of the court." At this the woman was very frightened, and she confessed that she had taken the cup,and buried it in the undergrowth beside her house. "I did it because that woman was cruel to me, and laughed at my aspirations to be leader's wife." She said.

But the elephant girl did not believe her. "You stole it because you have coveted it for a long time," She said. "You hid it because you thought that if you were the leaders wife, none could prevent you from keeping it; you are acquisitive and if you steal again, the full penalty of the court will be on you."

The woman was clearly every much afraid of Lao's wife; and she was shaking, when she left the room.

The elephant lady was regarded by all as being the best leader and judge they could wish for; and Lao was greatly loved and the breadth of his understanding meant that many came to him for advice if they had a particularly difficult problem.

The was trouble in the whole region; the weather became cold, and that winter they had the first snow ever seen in that area. The people had to adapt, and look for different ways of feeding themselves, and Lao's expertise was of great value to them. In time the weather became even colder, so that there was much snow in the winters.

Lao and the elephant lady had four very beautiful children. The elephant lady was a wonderful mother, and fiercely protective of her children, so that woe betide any who caused them any harm.

One winter day, Lao was outside watching his daughter playing in the snow; she was warmly wrapped in furs he had hunted, and her long, black,sleek hair was flying in the wind, and she was laughing. Watching her fondly, Lao thought, "I thought of it only as catastrophe, but now I see we have many reasons to be thankful to the leopard coat!"