The bare necessities
It was a clear afternoon; the Black Panther strolled through the jungle. It was during his time of journeying through the jungle, the panther then heard some snoring coming from just ahead. The panther stopped as his ears continued to catch the sound of slumber. He turned and looked leftward to the strongest origin of the sound.
"Now what could be making that noise?" He asked himself.
The panther began to walk in the direction where the sound was coming from. Continuing for what was a very short time before the sound had come to its loudest state. The trail had brought the leopard to a darkly lit cave, where the snoring was echoing out into the jungle.
Bagheera rolled his eyes knowing very well of who was making that sound.
"What is that fool doing now?" He asked himself.
The panther walked toward the cave entrance and as he entered, he found a familiar brown bear, sleeping with honey combs around him. His muzzle was covered with the sweet sticky substance.
"Bare necessities, the simple Bear about your worries and your strips." He said in his slumber.
Bagheera sighed and shook his head at the sleeping bear. The condition of the brown bear was but a nascence sight of the immaturity of Baloo. The fool was fast asleep and his fur was drenched in honey. Bagheera approached the bear and tapped his paw upon the Bears side, trying to wake him up.
"Baloo?" The panther said.
The bear only snorted in response, still fast asleep.
"Baloo!"
The bear gave a snuffled before he finally woke up. He raised his head from the ground, moaning. He then turned and saw Bagheera standing at the mouth of his den.
"Oh, morning Begie." He said.
The bear came up on his four paws; the honey combs that lay against his sides fell underneath the brown then opened his mouth wide and gave a load yawn.
"Sorry for the mess." He said as he closed his mouth.
"I've just been catching up on some nice, relaxing hibernation."
"Why do you have any need to hibernate?" The Panther asked curiously, knowing full well there was no need for it.
"You are in the jungle. Bears have no reason to be sleeping through every passing day."
"Well I like to have some long time of shut eye you know." Baloo said as he sat down.
Bagheera just groaned and shook his head. Baloo was never a very reliable bear to be relied upon, especially at this time for Diata. It had already been a few weeks since she had lost her cub, and since she had found the girl-cub that is named Elsa. Baloo had been absent for sometime after Pora's death. Not surprising though. He and Pora were very good friends. In fact, they were so close where Pora considered Baloo to be an uncle. When Pora had been taken by the Hyena's, Baloo was as torn as Diata was. Now here the bear lies, sleeping in his den with countless cones of honey chewed to bits.
"How long have you been in here?" Bagheera asked.
"Oh, well, ever since the..."
When thinking of the answer, Baloo frowned and narrowed his head.
"Since Pora..."
The Panther stared at the bear in utter shock.
"You've been in this cave since then?!" Bagheera said.
"Well..." Baloo said, but couldn't find the right thing to say.
"You know I..."
For a while, the bear was completely silent as he tried to find what to say. However as he thought of the facts that would prove the answer, he come to feel the great depression that he had felt through this time. All the memories and all the times he had with Pora, made the bear only sink deeper in his pain. The bear let out a sigh and sat down before the panther.
"I don't know, Baloo." Bagheera said, having no idea of what the bear referred to.
"I just..."
"You what?" Bagheera asked.
The bear narrowed his head, as he finally drew some strength to say what troubled him so much.
"I just... I miss my little cub!" He spat out, looking up to Bagheera.
"I miss my little Pora."
The bear got up and turned himself around as he walked deeper into his cave.
"Baloo." Bagheera said as he stepped into the cave with him.
The brown bear sat down with his back faced back from the panther. He kept his head narrowed as he thought of the young lioness cub he had come to love. He was without a single word to say. Much like Diata, losing Pora was a loss that was too heavy to be carried. Bagheera for one knew of the pain that both Baloo and Diata are going through. The sloth bear could always be seen as family to both Pora and Diata. He and the white lioness were close friends much like Kala.
When Pora was born, Baloo felt as if he was the luckiest in the jungle. He felt much like an uncle to the little white cub. They often played together, Baloo taught her the joys of the jungle, or as he called it the bare necessities of life. Those were times that the bear couldn't imagine living without. Now it seemed he would have to endure that tragic factor as much as it pained him inside.
"I don't know what you expect from me." he said.
"I expect that you be there for you friend." Bagheera said.
"And what could I do?" Baloo asked turning to him.
"I wasn't there to stop those hyenas and that poor kid..."
Bagheera came up to the bear.
"Baloo, there wasn't anything you could have done."
The bear moaned and repositioned his heads forward. To know that was but the worse part for him. He would have done anything to prevent anything from happening to Pora. The panther walked up to the bear's side.
"What are you going to do?" The panther asked sternly.
"Just sit inside this cave all your life?"
"Well, why not?" Baloo asked, seeing that there wasn't any reason not to.
"Got enough honey here for the winter."
Bagheera groaned at the bears inconvenience of setting aside the past. Instead he was too enwrapped with his pain and sympathy for himself that he'd rather spend the rest of his left sulking in his cave. He understood his plight to have the friend he had lost so long ago, but that was no reason to just give up on life.
"This is entirely selfish of you, Baloo." Bagheera said, seeing him kept to himself in the layer while Diata had gone through a time of sorrow.
"You left your friend to sleep and eat honey for over a few weeks? Now you are just going to remain here the rest of your life because you can't just let go of one single tragedy."
"Oh yeah, well..." Baloo said, trying to think of what to say.
"Well..."
Bagheera raised his left eye brow in curiosity to what he would say. He was eager to hear what ever comeback the bear came up with. But Baloo had but very little to combat the panthers words. As he continued to think more, he could only draw blanks to be his conclusion of his thoughts. Finally he gave in and let out a groan, slamming his head downward to the ground. He was being selfish; he knew it to be true. There wasn't anything he could say to suggest otherwise.
"Alright, your right." He finally admitted to his choice to Culp with the pain.
"I've been selfish."
The panther nodded his head in agreement.
"I'm glad to see that you've come to your senses." Bagheera said.
Baloo sighed.
"You're right." He said looking up to the panther.
"I shouldn't be here feeling sorry for himself. I have to help her through this."
"Well you are a bit late." Bagheera said, knowing that the pain had far passed Diata.
"Diata's no longer so concerned with her Daughters death.'
"Oh..." Baloo said narrowing his eyes.
Somehow he felt a bit embarrassed to know that he was the only one that was still depressed over Pora's death.
"But there is something that you can help her with." Bagheera said, recalling that Diata did indeed need assistance with something in particular.
Baloo stared up to Bagheera curiously.
"And what's that?" He asked, eager to hear what it was that he could help his friend with.
"Well, lucky enough for you, it's does involve your position as uncle." Bagheera said.
"Diata need for the jungle folk to be equated with Elsa."
The bear tilted his head in confusion.
"Elsa?" He said.
"Uh... Who's Elsa? Speaking of that, what kind of name is Elsa?"
"She's Diata's new cub." Bagheera answered.
At the mention of new cub, the bear widen his eyes. He was shocked and completely speechless at what Bagheera had said. Diata has a new cub? If that was true, then I would have had to have taken several months for that to happen. He was beginning to think that his sleep had far exceeded what he thought.
"New cub?" He asked, trying to fathom what the panther had told him.
"New cub? Did you just say...new cub? As in, she had a new kid?
"Yes I did." Bagheera answered.
The bear stood with his mouth wide open. His eyes looked left and then shifted back to the sight of the panther.
"I'm sorry." said the bear.
"How long has it been again?"
The panther just rolled his eyes.
"She didn't exactly have another cub." Bagheera explained.
"She has adopted one. A girl cub named Elsa."
Even more was the bear completely left in astonishment. He knew quiet well as to what a girl cub was and was shocked to know that Elsa would come to adopted one.
"A-a girl cub?" He said.
"As in-"
"Yes." Bagheera said.
"A man's cub."
For a moment the bear just stared. It took what was a short while before he spoke up.
"So you are telling me... A Man's cub is here I the jungle?" Baloo asked, trying to gather and make sense of all the facts he had been given.
"An actual man's cub?"
"Yes." Bagheera answered the bear once more.
"And now she needs help with trying to raise her. She needs for Elsa to have friends here in the jungle."
Baloo nodded his head as he thought of what opportunity this presented for him. It was as if all those times he had with Pora seemed to have been given another chance to make more. While not with the cub he had come to love as a niece, it was a new cub that was an empty vessel when it came to knowledge in the jungle in need of teaching. Even with her being a cub of man, this would mean that she would have some abilities that a monkey would have, without being a coward.
"Yeah." Baloo said, nodding his head yes.
"Bagie you just might be on to something."
Baloo came upon all four of his paws. He then dashed out toward the entrance, passing by Bagheera along the way. The black leopard turned to the departing bear and watched as departed for the jungle outside.
"Baloo?" He said, turning around.
"Where are you going?" He asked curiously.
"I think that it's time for old uncle Baloo here to meet his new niece.' Baloo said as he came out through the cave.
"Wait!" Bagheera said as he scampered after the brown bear.
The panther dashed out of the cave and raced up from behind of the bear. He passed by Baloo can then came in front of the brown bear, stopping him in his tracks.
"Now hold it!" The panther said.
"You don't even know where you ar going."
"What are you talking about?" Baloo asked, knowing very well of where to go.
"I know where the lair is."
"No." Said Bagheera, seeing that the bear was misunderstanding what he was trying to tell him.
"I mean you are going in the wrong direction. The lions aren't at their den at the moment; they all left for the grass lands."
"Oh!" Baloo said.
"Thanks Begie."
The bear turned right and continued to race through the jungle. Bagheera stood and stared in his direction. He sighed and shook his head in annoyance to the bear.
(I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, If there are any requests or ideas you wish to share, feel free. And as always, please comment and review!)
