Elemoont/Chapter 27

in which the moon’s elephants tell about their arrival to the Moon and what came of it.

"Victory! Victory!" joyfully sounded the elephants surrounding the Martian Mosquito and the Hunter, "They have yielded themselves prisoner!"

"These elephants behave themselves too emotional, like they are not the elephants," remarked the Hunter.

"They take off excitement," explained the mosquito.

Here the Oldest Elephant lifted his trunk and all became silent, "What animals do you fly here to hunt, Mosquito?"

"I want to hunt lunar caterpillars," answered the Mosquito.

"Oho!" said the elephants all together, "You are a dare devil!"

"Yes, I'm not a coward," modestly confirmed the Mosquito, "When I'll catch any lunar caterpillar, I immediately bite it!"

"The caterpillar can bite you before," remarked the Oldest Elephant, "but it doesn't refer to us. The main thing, you got ready for hunt caterpillars not the elephants."

"Not a bit of it!" exclaimed the Mosquito, "Did you ever hear that mosquitoes hunt elephants?"

"It happens," apathetically answered the Oldest Elephant, "Although we try don't allow it."

"People always accuse us, mosquitoes, of something," said the Mosquito, "Lunatics even had written in their history that one day some mad mosquitoes attacked them. But I'm not a mad mosquito!"

"Lunatics' History!" cried the elephants, "It's nonsense!"

"I also think so," remarked the Hunter, "They wanted I learn by heart all twenty–five million chapters of their History!"

"All lunatics suffer from megalomania," said the Oldest Elephant, "They, probably, talk you that there was no any Moon but lunatics already had existed?"

"Yes, they said it," confirmed the Hunter.

"It's absolute rubbish! All is just the other way out. There was the Moon always, but lunatics did not dwell on it."

"And who was on it?" asked the Hunter who was with a taste of knowledge.

"There was no anyone on the Moon at that time. Possibly, only lunar caterpillars lived on the Moon, but they dwelled deeply under the lunar ground. But, there was nobody on the surface of the Moon. The elemoonts had fallen on it the first."

"Had fallen?" was astonished the Hunter. "But where from?"

"The herds of elephants made furrows in the cosmic expanses in free flight. They looked closely at all planets, which they came across on their way and chose an uninhabited one. You see if there are some people on the planet, the elephants should be very careful. You should be on the alert in order to don't tread on somebody's foot, and here there was nobody! Of course, the elemoonts immediately fell on the Moon and became their inhabitants."

"Excuse me!" said the Mosquito. "I think you were not as elephants that are to say as the Moon elephants yet. When you made furrows in the cosmic expanses, you were anybody doesn't know who!"

"What? We were anybody does not know who?" made a noise the elephants, that is to say the elemoonts, "Why were we anybody doesn't know who?"

"It's because…Well, how may I say it? Because any elephant that make furrows in the cosmic expanses is not the elephant. It is there is no making head or tail of it."

"But the Martian Mosquito is not ‘there is no making head or tail of it’?" again made a nose the elephants.

"No!" answered the Mosquito pompously.

"We shell not agree," said the Oldest Elephant, "I know, our ability to furrow the cosmic expanses astonishes people. But the fact is the fact!"

"Let it's so!" muttered the Mosquito noticing that the elephants–hunters cast glances at him without any liking and as if taking aim at him. "It is precisely so," nodded affirmatively the Oldest Elephant. "The elemoont that furrows the cosmic expanses is the cosmoelephant, and it's all!"

"So simply?" was astonished the Hunter.

"It explains many things," unwillingly said the Mosquito.

"It explains all things!" severely said the Oldest Elephant, "So, the elephants settled on the Moon and became the elemoonts. They lived a happy life until lunatics appeared on the Moon from nowhere." "From nowhere?" asked the Hunter.

"And where lunatics have to appear besides the Moon?" added the Mosquito.

"They appeared and stated that the Moon belongs to them," continued the Oldest Elephant, "But we can't agree with them since the Moon, of course, belongs to us." "The Moon belongs to us!" stated Lunatics. "No! The Moon belongs to us!" we answered. "Many thousands years passed in useless arguments. Meanwhile lunatics (Oh, insidious creatures!) secretly wrote twenty–five million chapters their ‘The History of Moon’ filled all sorts of nonsense and began to use it as the argument in scientific debates. They said that all was going on precisely so as it was described in their so-called ‘History’. However, in it is written that lunatics had made the Moon! It's impossible to agree with such nonsense, since in the reality all took place just the wrong way round."

"Do you want to bring if any one string of our most reliable History in question?" was heard an exasperated voice.

The Martian Mosquito and the Hunter looked around and saw that the stone with which they closed the entrance into the Lunar Labyrinth was pushed away and the Insidious Lunatic stood near it and waved his small magic stick.

"One!" said he and trunks of all elemoonts–hunters were tied up into knots. "Two!" and the same thing happened with four trunks of every elephants–pathfinders. "Three!" and lunatics began to jump out of the holes in the lunar surface.

"Now we'll start the scientific debates!" declared the Insidious Lunatic. However, what kind of discussion it was be and what was the end of it, you will know out of the next chapter.