Jack Vettriano The Remains of Love

themselves forward and leaned and turned.
As they came to the top of the rise, they stopped, and Will and Lyra heard the leader say, "Mary close. Mary there."
They looked down. , or worked among the trees.
"Now ride again," said the leader.
There wasn't far to go. Will and Lyra climbed up once more, and the other creatures looked closely at their balance and checked the stirrups with their trunks, as if to make sure they were safe.
Then they set off, beating the road with their lateral limbs, and urging themselves forward down the slope until they were moving at a terrific pace. Will and Lyra clung tight On the horizon there was the blue gleam of the sea. A broad, slow-moving river wound through rich grassland in the middle distance, and at the foot of the long slope, among copses of small trees and rows of vegetables, stood a village of thatched houses. More creatures like these moved about among the houses, or tended crops