Before anyone says anything, yes, I know that The Jungle Book takes place in India and Tarzan is in Africa. However, this is fanfiction and I can do what I want, so while they are a distance from each other, they are not divided by an ocean.
This is going to be mixed between the 1967 and the 2016 movie and Shanti is the main star. No one has made her a jungle child, yet, so I'll be the first. Don't like, don't read.
It was not easy being a single mother in the village, Shanti's mother not only had to cook the food, take care of the house, and look after her daughter; but also provide the food for them. Luckily, the people of the village have helped out with supplying food for them. However, making sure Shanti was safe was her first priority and she is starting to think that the village is not safe anymore. A tiger has been attacking the village lately, it has killed a couple of villagers and keeps coming back.
The villagers that she confided with told her what she already knew, but didn't stop her from considering.
"Leaving the village with the tiger and other animals out there is going to get you killed."
She knew that.
The other villagers would drive away or kill the tiger before it could reach her house. Still that didn't stop her from worrying about what could happen to her daughter. There is a young man planning on traveling to another village maybe-
"Ami?"
A young voice interrupted her thoughts and she turned to her 6-year-old daughter.
"Are you ok?" asked Shanti, looking at her mother with questioning eyes. Her mother smiled lovingly at her child.
"I'm fine, Shanti." Assured the woman. "I was just thinking."
"Thinking?" asked Shanti, tilting her head.
"Yes, sweetie." Said her mother, before ushering her daughter to her room. Now time for you to go to bed, it's getting late." A groan was her response.
"But I'm not tired!" whined Shanti, looking pleadingly at her mom. "Can I stay up a little longer?"
"No, you cannot." Giggled Shanti's mother.
It was the silence that woke up the woman. This wasn't the usual silence that accompanied the night. There were no bugs chirping and the air was still.
Something is not right.
She rose from her bed to check on Shanti. Thankfully, she was sleeping peacefully. She went to a window to look at the front of their house. What she saw stopped her heart and sent waves of fear throughout her body.
A tiger prowled in front of their house with nobody noticing the threat. All of them sleeping peacefully in their beds. She had to alert them before the animal could get in a house and attack someone.
"TIGER! TIGER IN THE VILLAGE!" shouted the woman from out her window, waking the people inside their homes and drawing the tiger's attention to her. She ran away from the window and went to Shanti's room and closed the door behind her; both the front and bedroom door were just wood that wasn't reinforced. Nothing that could hold back a tiger.
True to that thought, there was a crash at the front and she ran to Shanti, who was sitting up in bed with a look of fear, and hugged her to her chest.
"Stay quiet, Shanti, Amis got you." She whispered to her daughter, tiny hands grasped at her sides in response. Men were shouting outside the home, the light of their torches moving around the room through the window, low growls coming from the other side of the door. Shanti was silently crying into her mother's chest through all of this. Time seemed to move so slow; it seemed like hours had passed before the shouting reached the inside of the house; accompanied by roars and cries of pain. Shanti was now loudly crying and screaming into her mother's chest. Finally, things went silent and there was a soft knock at the door, which caused Shanti to yelp in fear; her mother consoled her and slowly they walked together to the door.
The tiger was gone; it escaped back into the jungle. The first thing young Shanti saw was a young man being held up with the aid of a couple of other men, his leg was bleeding profusely from the claw marks. The little girl has never seen so much blood before; the wounds and the look of pain on his face is something she knew she will never forget.
Her mother just got done with talking with the guy that knocked on the door when she looked down at her daughter; she noticed where the child was looking and knelt down and crushed her to her chest. Thinking about all that happened tonight and her daughter trembling in her arms, she made her decision. A decision that will change everything.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" asked Messua in concern. "It is going to be dangerous for both of you."
"I know that." Said Shanti's mother with a weary sigh. "But last night was just too close. The village doesn't feel safe anymore, I know the travel is dangerous but I have to find a safe home for us."
Messua nodded in understanding. "I understand. If it was my child…" She let the statement trail off, they both knew she would do the same thing.
"He is an experienced traveler." Shanti's mother reassured. "We should be fine."
"Miss!" alerted the Traveler. "We should head off. The sooner we leave, the more ground we cover."
"Yes, of course." The women hugged while Shanti groggily said goodbye to her friends who came to see her off; the sun had just rose and she was sleep deprived from lack of sleep.
They set off, waving goodbye as they walked away.
Three days had passed; they kept walking except during breaks and at night. Shanti didn't know how far they have traveled and what direction their village was due to all the turns and naps she took. She wondered how much longer they had before they reached their destination; she asked but her mom and the man said that they'll get there when they get there. It was part of the adventure.
She missed her friends in the village, but she also was happy about not having to worry about the evil tiger anymore. Though it is weird to her that they were trying to get away from the dangerous animals by going into the jungle where the animals live. They traveled along the river to find a village easier; the man said that people build their villages near rivers so they have easy access to drinking water and fish.
It was approaching evening and they decided to take a break.
"Shanti, hand me the knife." Ordered her mother, as she took out some fruit she had gathered earlier. Shanti grabbed the knife from her waistband; it belonged to her father and ever since she saw her mother take it out for the first time on their first day of traveling, she had been drawn to the way the light reflected off of it. She wanted to have it and her mother allowed it as long as she did not play with it and gave it to her mother when she asked for it.
Her mother cut the fruit for them and gave Shanti the knife, which she wiped with a rag. The man looked at the sky as he made his way over to them.
"We should be able to get more distance before we need to look for a cave."
Shanti, not interested in the conversation, went to the river's edge; fascinated by the fast movement.
"Shanti, don't get too close!" ordered her mother, noticing her daughter's interest. "I don't want you falling into the rapids!"
"Okay!" said Shanti nonchalantly, without a glance back. She kept her eyes on the rapids, the adult's conversation a muffled noise in her ears. A scream pierced her ears, along with a shout from the man. When she whipped around she noticed a big yellow cat with spots on top of the man, biting him, the cat was between her and her mother. Shanti could not help the scream that left her mouth, the leopard snapped its head in her direction and started stalking toward her; causing her to take steps back. Her mother screamed and jumped on top of the leopard, distracting it from Shanti, and it began flailing around to try to get her off.
"Ami!"
The last thing Shanti saw as she took that last step and fell into the rushing water was the leopard throwing her mother off and pouncing on her. Then all of her senses were engulfed in water.
Water rushed into her nose, roared in her ears and she could not open her eyes as she flailed. Her head broke above water and she gasped for air and screamed for help. Before going back under again, then breaking water and doing the same thing.
"Do you hear that?"
"Hear what?" asked a gorilla, Terk, looking at the elephant.
"I hear screaming coming from the direction of the river." Said the elephant. His companions looked at him thoughtfully; intrigued.
"Is it some kind of bird, Tantor?" asked a man with shoulder length brown hair. Known as Tarzan, the man raised by Gorillas.
"Or a monkey?" asked Terk.
"No, I can't recognize what it is." Answered Tantor, with his ear up in the direction of the sound. "It's some kind of animal."
"Let's check it out." Stated Tarzan with a grin, hopping into a tree.
"What?" asked Terk, before she stopped to think, then she shrugged. "Eh, why not?"
"I don't know, Tarzan." Said Tantor reluctantly. "What if it's dangerous?"
However, Tarzan was already swinging in the direction of the river.
"Tarzan!"
Shanti was starting to get tired, she found out how to keep her head above water but she was losing the strength to keep doing that. Still, she kept screaming; holding on to the childish hope that someone will save her. She was lucky not to hit any rocks and hurt herself, sadly, her luck seemed to have run out as she got more and more sluggish. She stuck her arm up every chance she could; hoping to catch something that she could hang onto. With one last thrust she stuck her arm up again and, almost immediately, something grabbed her arm and she was ripped from the water and carried to the other side of the river.
She was gasping for air and when the two finally got a good look at each other they both did a double take. Shanti for how strange the man before her looked and the other at finally seeing a creature that looked like him. They both were frozen, just looking at each other, taking in the other's features.
Shanti has never seen eyes that color before, his skin was lighter and he only wore a cloth around his hips; the strangest thing was the crouch the man was in. It was like the way a monkey stood.
Tarzan looked at the creature before him. It looked like him except it had darker skin and fur with brown eyes. Still a child judging by the size and had a ripped purple cloth covering its torso and legs. It was shaking from the river and fear, eyes big and pleading for comfort. Tarzan felt a pang and knew that he couldn't leave it alone.
Shanti getting over her shock felt a rush of relief and sadness over the events that have happened and rushed forward to hug the man in front of her.
Tarzan stiffened in surprise at the action before relaxing and hugging back. He smiled softly and wondered if this is what his mother felt for him when he was a child. At that moment he wondered where its mother was and if she was nearby. An elephant's trunk horn sounded and Tarzan looked across the river to see his friends there.
He pulled the child away from him and gestured for her to get on his back, after a little bit of gesturing and nudging she understood and climbed on. Once he knew that she was on tight enough, he climbed a tree and swung over the river. The child gave a small yelp of fear and tightened her grip on him at the jump.
"There you are!" said Terk. "We ended up further up river and you won't believe what we sa-" Her comment was cut off by the sight of what was on her best friend's back. Shanti, Terk, and Tantor let out screams of shock and fear. Shanti hid her face in Tarzan's back and the other two stumbled back. Tarzan let out a chuckle at the reaction of his friends.
"It's okay, Guys, it is not dangerous." Reassured Tarzan before he moved to comfort Shanti. She lifted her head slowly to look at the animals and man with caution. Her mother warned her about wild animals in the jungle and how they are dangerous, but this man was not scared of them and they didn't look mean.
She slowly got off of Tarzan's back and moved a little to the side looking at the animals warily. They just stared at each other for a minute, gauging the other's reactions before Tantor broke the silence.
"Aww. She is kind of cute." Said the elephant in a doting voice.
"She?" asked Tarzan.
"Yep." Said Tantor. "It is definitely a girl. Just a child to."
"I thought so." Said Tarzan. "I wonder where her parents are."
The two animals looked uncomfortable then.
"That was what I was going to tell you." Began Terk. "We ended up further up the river and we found creatures like you but they weren't alive."
"What?" asked Tarzan rhetorically.
"Looks like a leopard did it." Added Tantor sadly.
"So, she has no one to care for her." Said Tarzan sadly, looking at the girl who was looking at them with curiosity. She was fascinated at how they all seem to be talking to each other even though they were all different species and wondered if she could do that someday.
Tantor, trying his luck, slowly reached his trunk out to the girl. Wanting to see if she was still afraid of them and if they could get along. Everyone stilled and waited with a baited breath to see what will happen, Shanti stared at the trunk; curious but cautious. Eventually, she gathered the courage and hesitantly grasped the trunk with a hand; feeling the strange texture of the skin. After a moment she relaxed and allowed the elephant to guide her closer so she could pet more of it's trunk. Tarzan smiled at the sight, so did Terk but she tried to hold it back.
"We can't leave her." Stated Tarzan resolutely, his mind made up. "She'll die." His friends looked at him in confusion, wondering what he had in mind.
"Obviously." Stated Terk slowly. "But what are we going to do? We got to head back to the family."
"And we will." Said Tarzan matter-a-factly. The others stayed silent, Shanti pausing to look at him in curiosity; the fear she had was gone now. Terk was the first to understand what he was saying.
"Oooh nooo!" she half groaned in protest. "You know that won't end well!" It was a futile comment because she knew her best friend's mind was set.
First chapter done!
This is a couple of years before the movies take place.
Tarzan is 16, while Shanti is 6. I wanted there to be some time for the two to grow close and for Shanti to have more time to acclimate to jungle life. There will be no romance between the two! It will be a father-daughter kind of relationship!