Once upon a time, long long ago, there was a time before elephants had their long, magnificent trunks. Instead of the protruding mass, there was simply a flat surface with two pointed nostrils sticking out. There was a certain little elephant who changed her herd forever. Her name was Lola. Lola was a naughty elephant, and was often caught telling lies to the fellow elephants in her family. Lola liked to explore and always managed to get herself into trouble. Lola liked to scare the other small elephants. This always made the adults very upset with her, but Lola only wanted the attention. One day, Lola wandered off from the rest of the herd as they surrounded a small lake. No one had paid much attention to her that day, and she was feeling extra mischievous. TheJre was nothing but desert and grassland around them, so the elephants were not worried about predators for they assumed they would be easily seen. Lola came running back to her family. "Lions! Momma, there are lions coming!" All of the adults ran to find their children to protect them from the danger. When they finally got a chance to look around, there were no lions anywhere in sight. "Lola, why would you make up such a story to scare everyone? That could be very dangerous." Lola looked around. All of the elephants scowled at Lola, but she only felt more distant and deprived of attention. Lola wandered farther out. Being only a small elephant, the tall grass took away some of Lola's ability to see. She was not paying attention to how far she was going out. This time, Lola was not looking for trouble or attention. She felt sad and lonely, and the angry faces of her family would not leave her mind. Slowly, Lola made her way across the vast, deserted grassland. She wrapped in her thoughts. Back at the watering hole, Lola's mother looked around for her baby. "Have you seen Lola?" She went around asking all of the elephants to see if any of them had noticed where Lola had gone. "Oh do no worry about her," they all said. "She is probably hiding to get a rise out of us. If we act like we do not care, she will be back before sundown. Baby elephants do not like to be out past dark." Lola's mother hesitantly agreed with them, and resumed enjoying the water. By now, Lola was far from her herd. She finally noticed just how far she had gone, but had no idea where she was. The only thing fr miles was tall grass and sparse trees. "Momma?" Lola waited for an answer. She could not smell or sense any elephants with her short snout. All of a sudden, a pride of lions surrounded the little elephant. Lola ran as fast as she could, but she had no idea where she was going. The poor little elephant could not yell because she was out of breath. She tried and tried to make some sort of sound so her family could save her. She heaved and heaved, when all of a sudden, and huge, low tone exploded from the snout of Lola. It could be heard for miles! Lola persistently made her new sound, warning the herd of the pride. The lions were so startled by the sound that they ran away, but Lola was not the same when she came back. A massive trunk hung from below her eyes where he nose used to be. Lola took her place as the "protector" of her herd, and after many years evolution allowed all elephants to have the trunk.
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