I'm back, so on with the next part of the story. Oh, and about what Misty says about Kaa's voice...there's a fanfiction I flicked through yesterday that suggests that he has lust for Shanti, and I'd had that thought before anyway. Keep in mind that Kaa is presumably an adult and that Mowgli and Misty are thirteen in this fic.
Thanks for your review, Whiteling (and I agree).
The two kids wandered aimlessly for a long time.
"Mowgli, I'm tired of walking." Misty complained. "Can't we sit down? There's a tree right over there."
"OK, OK." Mowgli said. They both went to sit under a shady tree. Neither of them talked for a moment. Then Misty gave a little shriek as something wrapped around her waist and then Mowgli's. They were drawn up into the tree, and Misty touched the thing. To her shock, it felt like some kind of scaly plastic.
Finally, they were set safely on a branch. But inches away, a very evil-looking snake smirked at her, and Misty realized that he was the one to bring them up here.
Misty didn't take her eyes off the snake, backing away a little bit.
"Kaa!" Mowgli exclaimed. "It's you!"
The name rang a bell with Misty... "I asked him about dangerous animals...he mentioned Kaa...what did he say? Swirly...oh no!" Misty tore her eyes away from Kaa's face, remembering that he used hypnosis.
"...ssso nice to ssssee you again, man-cub." Kaa was saying to Mowgli. Then he moved further over to Misty, who was standing further away. "And who'sss thissss? A girl-cub?" He hissed every time he used the letter S.
Misty refused to look at him. "Misty." she corrected, in the fluent jungle language, since she had someone else to use it on. "If you have to call me anything, let it be my name. 'Girl-cub' is just a jungle term. We all have names that we'd like to be preferred by and mine is Misty." She was going off on a tangent, saying everything except that she knew that he was a hypnotist and that she had no intentions of falling for his tricks.
"Go away. Leave us alone." Mowgli snapped.
"Let me look at you." Kaa continued, trying to come face to face with the two teens. Mowgli put his hands over his eyes. Misty shut hers. "You don't want me to look at you?" Kaa said. "Then you look at me." His tone was non-threatening and casual, but it was obvious that he wasn't going to let them leave anytime soon. The minute Mowgli or Misty pulled one of his coils off their, another one would wrap around their ankle or something. In fact, Mowgli usually helped Misty pull one off herself, due to her weakness, so he was having an even harder time freeing himself. But whatever happened, Kaa was quick with another coil that wouldn't let them get far away.
"No." Mowgli said. "I know what you're trying to do, Kaa-"
"You do? And have you told your little girlfri-" Kaa caught himself and changed his tune. "I mean, you don't trust me?"
Misty scowled and spoke up. "I'm sorry? You were saying, has he told me? No, it's like my mom always says, never trust a snake."
"Then there'sss nothing I can do to help?" Kaa persisted.
"Ugh, his voice is so creepy!" Misty thought. "What is he, a snake or a pedo?"
But Mowgli was sidetracked. "You want to help me?"
"Sss-certainly." Kaa said smoothly. "I can ssee to it that neither of you ever have to leave this jungle."
"How could you do that?" Misty asked, saying exactly what Mowgli was about to say. She opened her eyes in shock.
"Oh, I have my own sssubtle little waysss." Kaa answered. "But firssst, you both mussst trussst me."
Misty kept herself focused, as Mowgli said that he didn't trust anyone.
"I'm not like thosssse sssso-called fairweather friendsss of yoursss." Kaa insisted, wrapping a muscular coil over Mowgli's eyes. "You can trussst me."
Mowgli pushed the coils off his eyes, and Misty hadn't remembered to keep them shut. Bad move. Kaa's eyes went straight to work, and the two teens were oblivious to anything that happened...
Mowgli came back to the real world with a start. He realized what Kaa had done, and got out of his coils quickly. He could hear Kaa's voice below him, so they were safe for the moment. He quickly shook Misty, who woke up more slowly.
"Aw, what the heck." Mowgli muttered. With an effort, he picked Misty up and set her onto the branch.
"Wow, you're strong." she muttered, rubbing her eyes.
"Nah, you're not that heavy." Mowgli said with false modesty, showing off. But then he scowled, remembering the betrayal. "Watch this." he said, carefully pushing Kaa's coils off the branch completely. Then he slid down a vine (which Misty copied) and said crossly into the mass of coils "You told me a lie, Kaa. You said I could trust you!"
"It'ssss like you sssaid!" Kaa hissed. "You can't trussst anyone, not even your little girlfriend!"
"She's not my girlfriend!" Mowgli snapped, a blush showing up faintly. Misty's blush was more noticeable, since her skin was fairer and she wasn't from India.
"Why couldn't he trust me?" she challenged, making sure she looked everywhere but Kaa's eyes, this time.
"Oh, I don't know." said Kaa, with a little smirk. "Are you sure you're not leading the man-cub to the man village he doessssn't want to go to?"
"What?" Misty gasped. How had he thought of that? She turned to look at Mowgli. "He's lying again."
Mowgli shrugged. "Whatever. Come on, let's get out of here." Misty followed him, but she was saddened. How could that have happened. Kaa only had to plant one doubt, and she'd lost some of Mowgli's trust. No matter how many times she told him, Mowgli's answer was always the same: "Whatever."
"Mowgli, please talk to me!" Misty begged. "Do you believe me, or Kaa?"
Mowgli wouldn't say much. "The only reason I'm not leaving you alone is because you won't survive out there without me. Kaa might be lying, but he might not."
"He lied before!" Misty pointed out. "Are you that impressionable? And by the way, it didn't look like you were ready to protect me when he went all creeper on us."
Mowgli glared at her. "Well, if that's the way you feel, I'll go away and leave you alone. If that's what you want." An unfathomable look crossed his face. "But if I'm never going to see you again, I might as well do what I've had the urge to do since I first looked at you." he said in a language only wolves knew (he'd grown up knowing most of the jungle languages, but the wolf language was the one he knew best).
Misty looked hopelessly confused. "Wha-" she began, but before she could finish, Mowgli had pressed his lips to hers. Quick as a flash, he'd broken away and run off, and Misty was on her own, too surprised to run after him. She sat down on the ground. "He'd wanted to kiss me?" she thought. "So does that mean...he only protected me because he liked the way I looked? Was it lust, or was it something more?" She couldn't deny it, she'd thought Mowgli was hot on first glance. But she'd started to like him for more than that. His stubbornness, his smarts (what there were), his smile, even the way she felt when he held her hand. But now he'd kissed her, just because he seemed to want the chance before he left her alone.
She knew that Mowgli wasn't really that competent at protecting her. She tried to convince herself that she didn't even want to see him again.
"But then," she thought miserably, "How can my lips burn with the want for him to kiss me again?"
I figured that Mowgli would have lust for Misty as well as like her in that way, so when he got mad, he kissed her first, simply because he wanted to (I mean, he's feral). Please review and tell me what you think! I have the intention to do the sequel (yeah, yeah, I know most people don't like it but I'll try to improve it.) Please, please, PLEASE review!
