Here you go, ChuGirl- posted at 2:22 this morning. Told you I'd stay up till I finished. Enjoy, everyone.

Jungle Boy

Bryan ended his tour early. He felt that the child he had taken from the massacre would need a stable home as soon as possible, one out of the way where the strangeness of his situation wouldn't really become known to him. Bryan's forest retreat, though a flimsy house made of bus tickets, would be perfect for that.

The boy sat in indignant silence. Bryan had been told his name was Vincent Noir, and he was the youngest of an aristocratic family.

He was also an illegally adopted orphan who didn't speak the same language as his new benefactor. But Bryan would face that problem when it came to it.

Having finally arrived in the forest, Bryan carried the child to his home, sat him down on the bed and tried to explain to him what was going on, but his exaggerated gestures and mimes got him nowhere with the boy, who responded with frightened and angry French gibberish. In the end Bryan settled for hugging the child, because there was no other way he could think of to make himself understood.

He shuddered as he felt a smooth coil wind round his arm. Kalooni, the sneaky, two-faced cobra that Bryan made a habit of avoiding, slithered across him and wrapped himself around Vincent. Bryan tried to stop him, but held back as he realised Kalooni was speaking fluent French. He listened to the conversation, not getting a word of it, and eventually Kalooni slithered back to him.

"What did you say?" Bryan asked.

"What you were trying to," replied Kalooni. "That he's safe, you're his new guardian, and you need him to learn English."

"Nothing else?" asked Bryan.

"Nothing else," Kalooni confirmed.

Bryan looked at the bewildered child.

"I want you to stay away from him, you know," he said to Kalooni.

"Understandable, knowing you," quipped the snake. "Still, if you ever change your mind, need a translator, you know where I'll be."

"Of course," said Bryan, silently vowing never to call on the snake's translation services as long as Vincent was still in his care.

The next day Bryan showed Vincent the forest. He was afraid at first, and wanted to be held, but Bryan made him walk. He had never seen a four-year-old so dependant on the touch of others.

Once he got over his initial apprehension, Vincent started to enjoy himself. Bryan was surprised at how adept the sheltered French duke was at climbing trees once he put his mind to it.

He introduced him to his forest community of misfit animals, who escaped from zoos, homes, slaughterhouses and the like, and again it took Vincent a while to discover his confidence, but once he found it he used it to the full, and Bryan suspected the majority of his animal friends thought Vincent was a bossy, precocious little brat. Which he was, to be fair, but he was a damn well cute one.

As Colto the deaf horse, who used to be shot out of a cannon at the circus, trotted around with the laughing tot on his back, Bryan noticed another less welcome figure striding towards them.

"Jahooli," Bryan acknowledged, looking at the leopard with a little apprehension.

"Bryan," smiled Jahooli. He looked at Vincent, utterly at ease on Colto's back, and smiled wider. "Is this the child?"

"No, that's my mother," replied Bryan.

Jahooli arched himself. "I'd like to see him," he growled.

Bryan didn't know why he mistrusted Jahooli. He had never offended Bryan, or caused any trouble at all, yet for some reason he couldn't help thinking of Jahooli with a sense of dread. It wasn't like Kalooni. Everyone knew Kalooni was cheating scum.

Bryan sighed. "Alright," he said. "Colto!" he called, waving his arms madly, and Colto ran over to him, and allowed Bryan to pick Vincent up off his back and put him on the floor before Jahooli.

And of course, right when Bryan would have liked Vincent to be a little afraid, the cocky tot walked right up to Jahooli, no fear whatsoever, pushed him and said "salut".

"Salut, mon chere," replied Jahooli. He turned to Bryan. "He only speaks French?"

"Of course, you nut job, he's four years old," answered Bryan.

"Damn," muttered Jahooli.

To give him his credit, Jahooli made no attempt to even pretend to harm or steal the boy. He played with the boisterous child until Vincent became too tired, and asked, through the medium of jumping, pointing and shouting, to be carried up to the top of a tree, a request which Bryan firmly denied.

Despite his begging French protestations, Bryan carried Vincent home.

Vincent picked up English surprisingly quickly, and by the time he was six he had stopped interjecting French words when he couldn't think of the right English one. To Bryan's immense relief, he never asked what became of his family. He knew Bryan wasn't his father, but it never seemed to occur to him to find out where his father was. In fact, after a few years, Vince, as he had requested to be called, seemed to have forgotten his infancy in the snob quarter of Paris entirely.

He was an extraordinarily energetic boy, and at times annoyingly clumsy. If Bryan took him to a river, rest assured he would fall in. Several times on most occasions. If Bryan showed him how to make a trap to slow down unwanted foes, it was a cert that Vince would get caught in it himself. Many a time Bryan, too blasé to bother freeing his charge, carried Vince back home tied to a pole or in a net. Vince seemed to enjoy it, but then when he wasn't hyperactive, he could also be a very lazy boy.

Still, Bryan couldn't complain. Vince listened to him, most of the time, and generally tried his best to please, and spankings were hardly a regular occasion. Vince respected him, and in return Bryan respected his young friend.

The one thing that disturbed him, however, was a growing fascination with Jahooli. Bryan knew Jahooli was dangerous; he was a killer, but the more he warned Vince of him, the more attracted Vince became. Bryan tried his best, but he knew physically keeping Vince from Jahooli could cause his reckless charge to do something stupid.

Like the time Bryan had tried to prevent Vince from getting to close to the quicksand, and the idiot had slipped away and tried to swim to the other side.

Bryan had learned since then that forcing Vince to do things never ended well. So all Bryan could really do was warn the boy of Jahooli, safe in the knowledge that given the respect he enjoyed, Vince would do as he was asked.

Vince looked up at Bran with his big blue angel-eyes, and Bryan hoped he wasn't half as devious as he could be.

For all the time he lived with Bryan, Vince kept to his word and never tried to sneak of with Jahooli for reckless fun. This made it particularly embarrassing for Bryan when, as he prepared for his latest tour, he realised all his usual childminders were otherwise engaged. Karpax the platypus had a tennis injury and wouldn't be able to keep up with a manic nine-year-old, Lubiro the goat had his ex-wife over, and Colto was going away with the Happy Hooves Club.

Jahooli was the only animal in the forest that physically could look after Vince.

"Vince," Bryan said to the boy with a slightly pink face. "When I go away, I'll be leaving you with Jahooli."

"Yes!" cried Vince, jumping up and grinning. Not a particularly encouraging reaction, as far as Bryan was concerned.

"Now Vince-"

"I knew you'd see sense."

"I'm not seeing sense, I'm seeing necessity," countered Bryan. "Vince, listen to me; I don't want you doing anything with Jahooli that you wouldn't do with me. I know he does some things that I am opposed to, and I do not want to hear that you've joined in with them. So, when I get back, I want a blow-by-blow account of the whole time, and I will know if you're missing anything, do you hear me."

"Yeah, yeah, I won't," said Vince, looking up with his sweet eyes. The boy could have you under his thumb with one glance. It was a good thing Bryan knew him too well to let him.

Bryan took Vince to Jahooli's current home that evening, him anxious, Vince ecstatic.

"Keep him out of trouble," Bryan warned Jahooli, a little more sternly than he needed to, Vince thought.

He gave Vince a hug and kissed his head. "Be sensible," he warned before he left. As he left the forest and entered the forbidding realm of civilisation, Bryan realised that he really should have found another word.

The first words Jahooli had said to Vince once Bryan had left were "Thank God he's gone," and Vince had laughed out loud. To give him his credit, Jahooli did seem to be trying to treat Vince as Bryan would have wanted him to. For the first week or so, they had only done things that Vince did with Bryan; they had climbed trees, gone skateboarding down valleys, and gone out in the middle of the night to make strange noises and annoy the parakeets. No one seemed to like parakeets.

After a while, Jahooli started encouraging Vince to do things Bryan had warned him about, like allowing him to swim in the rapids near the bears' den. "Well, he never forbade you to do it, did he," Jahooli had reasoned. So they had gone swimming. And Vince loved it. The rapids sent him flying in every direction, and a few times he went under, but he always managed to come back up. Vince couldn't really understand what Bryan had been so worried about.

A few days later, Jahooli took him to spy on the rabbits, which Bryan had never really mentioned before. This confused Vince a bit, but Jahooli seemed to enjoy it, so it must have been good.

And then, after a month or so had passed, Jahooli showed Vince a strange object.

"What is it?" Vince asked, eyeing up the smooth silver and tiny appendages greedily.

"It's a laser," answered Jahooli. "Want to see what it does?"

"Yeah," cried Vince, a huge grin lighting up his face.

"I'll show you," smiled Jahooli, his many sharp teeth glinting.

He led Vince silently through the undergrowth. Vince, quiet like he may very well have never been before, could hear nothing besides his own heartbeat. He liked being secretive and sneaking up on people. He just wasn't very good at it because he liked singing a lot.

"There," whispered Jahooli, indicating a solitary gazelle whom Vince didn't recognise, standing still, eating some grass and pondering. "Watch this," murmured Jahooli, teeth glinting again.

He pointed his laser at the gazelle, pressed something, and then a thin red beam, like one that Vince had seen in a picture of Bryan on stage, came out from the end of it. The gazelle dropped to the floor without a sound.

Vince was confused. "What did you just do?" he asked.

"Come and see," replied Jahooli, in a loud voice that startled Vince after all the quiet. He emerged from the undergrowth, making no effort to conceal himself. Vince followed nervously, and watched Jahooli prod the gazelle with his claw.

Vince pushed her with his hands. She made no reaction. "Is she dead?" he asked.

"Of course," said Jahooli.

Vince was horrified. "You mean you… you killed her?"

"Yes," Jahooli replied offhandedly, slicing a gash into the gazelles torso with one claw. "Come here; try this."

He buried his face into the cut and pulled it out with gore streaming down is face.

Vince thought he was going to be sick.

"Come on, it's good, honestly," Jahooli coaxed, smiling, the glint on his teeth now dulled by the scarlet stain. He pushed in a paw and removed a handful of meat and passed it to Vince. Vince could only stare at it in horror as blood ran down his hand.

"Try it," encouraged Jahooli, digging his own face straight into the gazelle's body. "You know you want to."

The words seemed to have a hypnotic effect on Vince. He knew this was wrong, but… it was bad, and it felt good.

He brought the hunk of meat up to his mouth and took a small nibble. He didn't vomit. He thought he actually might like it. He took a bigger bite. It did taste good. He found himself wolfing down more and more, till all that was left in his hands was a bloody stain.

He shouldn't have done that. It was wrong, really wrong. Everyone deserved to live. But it was fun. He had enjoyed it. That must be the wrongest thing about it. But wasn't fun supposed to mean something was good. He enjoyed swimming and climbing, and throwing stones at armadillos, and they were all good. So, by logic, was this good too? It tasted good. It had felt good. It had felt wrong, but good. It didn't make sense.

So Vince decided to trust Jahooli, and joined him I plunging his face into the warm carcass.

They had managed to eat the whole gazelle. Jahooli had eaten most of her, but Vince still had a lingering sensation of guilt. He decided not to bring it up with Jahooli, though. Jahooli wouldn't understand. But he definitely wouldn't tell Bryan about it when he got back. He had a feeling Bryan would be angry.

Vince felt tired. He needed a little sleepy. So, apparently, did Jahooli. They climbed a tree together, not bothering to go past the lower branches, and Vince closed his eyes, soothed by the regular rising of Jahooli's belly.

"Oh, you should never sleep," said a smooth, whispering voice.

Vince opened his eyes to see Kalooni, the devious, wily snake Bryan had often warned him about. One of the few things where the warning had been so full of hatred, Vince really hadn't wanted to find him anyway.

"Why, Kalooni, what are you on about?" Vince asked, groggily yet still warily.

"Because the monkey-folk want to steal your face," answered Kalooni, flicking his tongue. Vince thought he might have smiled, but he wasn't sure.

"What do you mean?" Vince asked, his hands protectively touching face.

Kalooni slithered closer, resting himself on Vince's calves. "I've heard the leader of the monkey-folk talking of you," he explained. "He thinks you're a very pretty boy." Vince didn't like the way the cobra was looking at him. "He needs a man's face to be a proper king. He likes Columbo's, but he failed in his attempt to take it. It's attached too tightly to the rest of him. So he wants yours instead."

"What are you saying?" Vince demanded.

"I'm saying be careful!" hissed the cobra venomously. "Don't fall asleep, or they will come for you when you're at your most vulnerable. Be alert."

With that, the snake slithered off up the tree.

The monkeys were coming? The monkeys never came. They hated Bryan and all his friends. Kalooni must be making it up. That's what Kalooni did. But maybe he should listen to him, just in case. Because if Kalooni was trying to hurt Vince, why would he be telling him to be alert?

But the sun was so bright, he was so full, his eyes were so heavy…

Vince awoke to a violent lurching. He could feel the meat turning in his stomach. His arms and legs hurt. They were being pulled. He was being carried.

Monkeys. Kalooni had been right. The monkeys had come for him.

They hurled him through the forest, past strange things he'd never seen before, ignoring his screams.

They threw him down on the floor of some old temple, the existence of which Vince hadn't been aware of.

"Don't leave him there; tie him down!" ordered a raspy, commanding voice.

Vince was yanked to his feet, where he just caught a glimpse of a monkey in a crown before he was dragged away.

One of the monkeys brought out rough ropes, and four of them, one on each limb, tied him to some weird piece of architecture, so that his arms and legs were all splayed out.

The monkey in the crown stood over him and leered.

"Prepare the knives."

Bryan cancelled a fair amount of his tour immediately after Sakawa the albino eagle had contacted him. He had been instructed to return to the forest as quickly as possible and meet Jahooli and Kalooni on the edge of his part of the forest. Vince was in danger.

He was there within the day, Kalooni looking furious, and Jahooli looking guilty, a look Bryan had never seen on him before.

"The monkeys have him, Bryan," explained Kalooni. "I warned the child, but he fell asleep."

Bryan said nothing. They set off in determined silence through the uncharted depths of the forest; the dangerous, renegade monkey territory.

The monkeys had made their home in on of the forest's last dwellings of men. It was a ruined temple, long since abandoned by anyone else. It seemed oddly empty.

Vince was guarded, tied to a sacrificial altar with several monkey guards around him. Kalooni slithered his way in, silently creeping up on two of them and launching deadly, silent bites on them both, before knocking them aside with his body. They lay still. Jahooli took another with his strange laser device. The monkey's companion ran for him, crudely made steak knife in hand. But the laser got him before he had gone two metres. A fifth and final monkey was near the exit. He turned and ran for his life. Jahooli let him go, until he reached the exit, when Jahooli shot him in the back.

"Was all this necessary?" Bryan asked, crossing to where Vince was tied up.

"Of course it was," replied Jahooli with self-assured ease.

"I felt it so," said Kalooni, climbing the wall and coiling himself around the branch of a nearby tree. "But you can call me an amoral backstabber if you like."

A moment later he was gone.

Jahooli cut the bonds holding Vince to the altar. The boy ran forwards and wrapped his arms around Bryan. Bryan returned the embrace, then picked Vince up and held him over his shoulder.

In silence, the three came home. Bryan opened the door to his house. "Goodbye Jahooli," was all he said before he closed it.

Bryan sat Vince down on his bed.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

Vince nodded.

"I've heard you've had quite a time while I was away."

Vince nodded again.

"How were the rapids?"

Vince began to blush. "They were… alright," he answered.

"And the rabbits?"

"I didn't get that one."

"Good," said Bryan, smiling in relief. Then his face set. "The gazelle?"

Vince gasped. "I… I…"

"You do realise that you will never be seeing that leopard again."

"I… I'm sorry," the boy said, his voice starting to crack.

Bryan looked at him. "I know you are. Jahooli said you looked it. I just want you to think how Edith's family will be taking this."

"I don't need this right now." Vince's face was set and angry.

"I think you do," countered Bryan. "No one is beyond basic compassion."

"You sound like you are," argued Vince. "I could do with some of that compassion right now."

"You could do with something else as well," warned Bryan.

"Can I go to bed now?" asked Vince, already turned towards it.

"I only want you to consider them-"

"For God's sake…"

Vince's comment hung in the air.

"Come here," ordered Bryan.

Vince spun round. "What? No," he protested.

"Come here now, young man," Bryan repeated.

Vince turned away. Bryan grabbed him by the arm and pulled him towards his own bed. Vince struggled and broke away, moving wherever Bryan wasn't. Bryan pursued him, over random objects and around corners until he finally caught the boy, and had him bent over under his arm.

He only hit him a few times, but when he let the boy go he was crying.

Vince stalked away and threw himself into bed, wincing as he shifted position.

Bryan followed and fell onto his own bed. In silence they fell asleep.

Vince woke up in the black of night. His bum was still sore. He had never known Bryan be so unreasonable. It wasn't that he wasn't sorry; he was just tired. He had had every intention of apologising in the morning, with a gift and everything, and offering his services in whatever he could do in apology. He wasn't so sure now. He had never seen Bryan act like he didn't like him. Like he didn't want him. He'd thought Bryan would be glad to have him back safely.

What of Bryan didn't want him? What if he'd disappointed him so much that he didn't want him any more? He knew he wasn't perfect, but surely that couldn't be true.

It made sense.

Maybe he should give Bryan what he wanted. Maybe he should leave.

Wiping a tear from his eye, he got up and went to the front door. This felt strange. Definitive. He wouldn't be coming home.

"Vince?"

Bryan stood behind him, a stern look on his face.

"Where are you going?"

"I, er…"

"Were you leaving?"

"No…"

"Don't lie!" Bryan had never snapped at Vince like that before. Now Vince was scared. "Do you honestly think you could survive out there on your own? Look at what happened today. Get back into bed right now."

acting purely on impulse, Vince reached for the door.

Before he knew what was going on, Bryan's hand was on his shoulder and he was being steered back into the bedroom. With a painful jab he was bent over his bed, and he looked over to see Bryan leaning out of the window pulling a stick off a tree.

Oh shit.

Bryan held Vince down, stick in the air. Once again, Vince's heartbeat pounded in his ears.

Boom, boom, boom, boom.

He became aware of Bryan's hand moving over his chest. It came to rest over his heart, as Bryan felt the erratic pulse.

"Consider that your warning," he said, turning away and throwing the stick out of the window.

Bryan fell back into bed. Vince nervously did likewise.

Heart still thumping, he fell into a restless sleep.

When he woke up again, the dawn light was just about appearing. The nocturnal animals would be going to bed, and the others wouldn't be up yet. No one would know if he slipped away, unless Bryan was awake.

But Vince would be careful this time. He hummed a few notes. Bryan didn't move. He hummed louder. Still nothing. He added words, whatever came into his head. Bryan was dead to the world.

As quiet as he could, though, it didn't seem to matter, Vince left the house made of bus tickets, and passed silently through the forest to his new home.

It was a place Bryan feared and mistrusted, but to Vince that meant it might be fun.

"Civilisation."