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** Mongooses rarely use personal pronouns. Their name for their species as "flawless," and they refer to themselves and others as "this flawless" and "that flawless."

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** Mongooses rarely use personal pronouns. Their name for their species as is "flawless," and they refer to themselves and others as "this flawless" and "that flawless."
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* CrisisOfFaith: The bull Tall Time has memorized so many links, or superstitious rules, that he's known as the link bull, and cows go to him for advice. When his links fail to predict either the droughts or the slaughters inflicted on the elephants by humans, he loses all faith in them, as well as in the She, the goddess who supposedly created the links.

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* CrisisOfFaith: The bull Tall Time has memorized so many links, or superstitious signs and rules, that he's known as the link bull, and cows go to him for advice. When his links fail to predict either the droughts or the slaughters inflicted on the elephants by humans, he loses all faith in them, as well as in the She, the goddess who supposedly created the links.
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* DueToTheDead: When an elephant dies, her family stands around the body and sings mourning songs.
* EvilPoacher: The humans massacre entire families of elephants and saw off their tusks, preventing them from entering the afterlife.

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* ThirdPersonPerson: She-Soothes likes her name so much she refers to herself in the third person.

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* ThirdPersonPerson: ThirdPersonPerson:
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She-Soothes likes her name so much she refers to herself in the third person.person.
** Mongooses rarely use personal pronouns. Their name for their species as "flawless," and they refer to themselves and others as "this flawless" and "that flawless."
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* HandSignals: As the She-S's search for the missing Date Bed, a cheetah named Me-Me approaches with the smell of Date Bed's dung on her paw. There are no mind talkers available to communicate with her, so She-Screams launches into an elaborate series of gestures and noises to [[spoiler:offer her She-Snorts' unborn calf in exchange for helping them find Date Bed]].


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* MagicCompass: The white bone is the rib of a newborn elephant massacred by humans long ago. If an elephant tosses it into the air, it lands pointing in the direction of the Safe Place. In times of darkness, it starts appearing in circles of boulders or termite mounds. If an elephant finds it, it stays in that elephant's possession for exactly two days, long enough to set a course, before disappearing and reappearing in a different circle. Long ago, the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_forest_elephant Lost Ones]] were guided by the bone to forested areas where they were unbothered by humans, but now humans are starting to encroach on their home, and they hope the bone will point them to a new one.
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* {{Seers}}: Mud is a visionary, which means that she sometimes have visions of things that happen in the future or things that are happening elsewhere. She also has [[SuperSenses very sharp eyesight for an elephant]].
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* CrisisOfFaith: The bull Tall Time has memorized so many links, or superstitious rules, that he's known as the link bull, and cows go to him for advice. When his links fail to predict either the droughts or the slaughters inflicted on the elephants by humans, he loses all faith in them, as well as in the She, the goddess who supposedly created the links.

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* {{Telepathy}}: Date Bed is a mind talker. She can read other elephants' minds as well as communicate telepathically with all species besides snakes, insects, and humans.

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* SeeingThroughAnothersEyes: When Date Bed is lost and thirsty, she asks a swarm of flies where she can find water. They answer, "That way," which doesn't help, since they're all facing different directions. Instead she enters the mind of one of the flies and watches from his perspective as he flies to where the water is.
* {{Telepathy}}: Date Bed is a mind talker. She can read other elephants' minds as well as communicate telepathically with all species besides snakes, insects, and humans.most other species.
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* {{Telepathy}}: Date Bed is a mind talker. She can read other elephants' minds as well as communicate telepathically with all species besides snakes, insects, and humans.
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Mud is a young African elephant who travels with her adopted family, the She-S's. Droughts and poachers have destroyed many families, and the She-S's only hope is the White Bone, a magic artifact that can point the elephants to the Safe Place, a rumored land where all creatures can live in peace.

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Mud is a young African elephant who travels with her adopted family, the She-S's. Droughts and poachers have destroyed many families, and the She-S's many elephants feel that their only hope is the White Bone, a magic artifact that can point the elephants to the Safe Place, a rumored land where all creatures can live in peace.

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* MamasBabyPapasMaybe: Not only do the elephants not know who their fathers are, they don't even know that a bull's seed is needed to get a cow pregnant. They believe that a cow becomes capable of giving birth by mating with a bull, but produces the calf by herself.

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* MamasBabyPapasMaybe: Not only do the elephants not know who their fathers are, they don't even know that a bull's seed is needed to get a cow pregnant. They believe that a cow becomes bull digs a cow's calf tunnel, making her capable of giving birth by mating with a bull, birth, but she produces the calf by herself.


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* RiteOfPassageNameChange: Every calf is born with a name given by their mother, usually a LineOfSightName, like Date Bed, who was born on a bed of dates shaken from a tree, or Tall Time, who was born in the morning when shadows are long. Bulls keep that name for their entire lives, but when cows reach sexual maturity, they receive a new name with the format She-Verbs selected by the whole family. Mud's newly-received adult name is She-Spurns due to her aloof personality, but she hates it and still thinks of herself as Mud.
* ThirdPersonPerson: She-Soothes likes her name so much she refers to herself in the third person.
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[[quoteright:240:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/white_bone.jpg]]
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''The White Bone'' is a novel by Barbara Gowdy.

Mud is a young African elephant who travels with her adopted family, the She-S's. Droughts and poachers have destroyed many families, and the She-S's only hope is the White Bone, a magic artifact that can point the elephants to the Safe Place, a rumored land where all creatures can live in peace.
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!!''The White Bone'' contains examples of:
* LeftForDead: Mud was born into the She-M's. Her mother was bitten by a cobra while giving birth and collapsed on top of her. The other elephants tried and failed to free her, and eventually gave up and went on their way. Later rain softened the ground, allowing Mud to get out from under her mother's corpse, and she wandered until she was discovered by the She-S's.
* MamasBabyPapasMaybe: Not only do the elephants not know who their fathers are, they don't even know that a bull's seed is needed to get a cow pregnant. They believe that a cow becomes capable of giving birth by mating with a bull, but produces the calf by herself.
* NoInfantileAmnesia: Mud's memory starts at birth. She experienced everything at the time as an incomprehensible barrage of sensation, which she was only able to make sense of later.
* PhotographicMemory: The elephants perfectly remember everything they've ever noticed until they start to go senile.
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