Katie slowly minimized her physical presence, dropping her shoulders and keeping her hands visible to show she wasn’t a threat. The giant animal seemed to understand the gesture completely. It let out a soft, low rumble that vibrated through the lobby, its tense posture relaxing slightly. It was clear to Katie that out of everyone who had been in the lobby, the elephant only trusted her to step forward.
Nervously, she took a few agonizingly slow steps closer. The elephant began to slowly uncurl the tight grip of its powerful trunk, gradually revealing what it had been hiding from the world. At first, the object was incredibly hard to identify. It was a tiny, tangled mass of wet fur, so small and frail that it looked completely out of place against the gray, weathered skin of the giant holding it. Katie leaned in, squinting under the bright, humming lobby lights, trying to make sense of what she was looking at.