Chapter 12

Soon, night's darkness enveloped the village and all the people had fallen asleep. All except Mowgli and Kitty, as he was insistent on giving Kitty her wish. The two had settled themselves atop Shanti's hut roof, with her and a sleepy Ranjan accompanying them.

" Can we go to bed yet, Mowgli?" Ranjan yawned as he rubbed sleep from his eyes.

" Yes, I don't want to be distributive." Kitty chimed.

" Wait, now here it comes!" Mowgli insited.

" Yeah, you got that right!" a voice called from behind in a loud whisper. The grouped turned to see a head peeking from the other side of the roof.

" Toomai?" Shanti questioned. " What are you doing here?"

The boy skidded to the other side of the rooftop. " Kala Nag and I always hang around troops as some entrainment. Plus, Kala Nag's an honorary war vet in the ranks. Just look."

As Toomai pointed, the group fell silent to the oncoming ensemble. Two oxens plopped down in the dust, chewing their cud with their yoke still on. A lean, strong tan stallion silently trotted in, with a smaller briskly donkey behind him. And finally, a camel lended his head from the hut's wall and lazily wandered into the makeshift circle.

" Man, its been ages since we've taken a break." the donkey brayed " If I to carry another one of Will's bags, I'ma buck him straight in the jaw."

The stallion stamped his right hoof repeatedly " Try it, you ass. See how far you'll get."

The oxen briefly stopped chewing to throw their own two cents. " Can we joined in on that bet? We're just as fed up with this march."

" Of come now, you're all talking fearfully. We've got nothing to worry about."

Suddenly, a deep new voice entered the conversation in a silent scolding tone. " If that were true, none of this will be the way it is."

It was Kala Nag, lumbering in with silent massive feet. He towered over the other animals and even the hut Mowgli was upon. The rest of the animals bowed their heads respectively, as to show no disrespect to the old bull elephant.

" Sorry about that comment." the stallion said in a sincere tone. " Guess the boldness of the Aussies got to me when I served down there."

" If anything, experience teaches us more about fear." the elephant responded.

" That's the case, then the Afghan War must have made you from an elephant to an owl." the camel dropped out from his lazy lips.

The donkey strained his face at the camel, clearing his throat and swaying his tall ears subtle to get a message to tell him to shut up. But Kala Nag just calmly waved his trunk, taking no offense to the joke.

" You all know fear in one way or another and it's effects." The old bull elephant looked to each animal individually to apply it each of them

" It makes you submit, labor under hard work, carry your burdens and tactful. But we all know how fear came to be. From the Tiger's rage in his mistake of judgement for man. That mistake cost us the peace once held in the beginning of the jungle."

The camel raised his back leg to scratch behind his head as he countered the old bull elephant's words " Why is that man seems to be the reason we're all in this mess? Just making us laboring away while they do jack."

" Yes, yes I know the balance is not fair. But we can do nothing to Man whilst he hold the Red Flower or the gun. Such items grant them corrupting power, power to corrupt their character and actions with greed and zealousy. We may labor away in this world, but we will strive above in another."

The horse seemed uneasy, pawing at the ground below him with his hoof, kicking up a small cloud of dust. " But what about my man? I've seen him save the lives of fellow men with his gun. And his fire helped keep me warm when I split my hoof last winter."

Now during all this, Mowgli had been translating quietly to Kitty as to what the animals were saying, as she hadn't learned the tongue of the beasts like he had when he was little. Toomai and Shanti had learned a little prior to tonight, but nowhere near as well as Mowgli. Kitty, despite all her book knowledge on animals, was enthralled by every detail, Never could she have imagined the natural world to be as structured like our own. Mowgli had tried to keep quiet, as to try to keep the group incognito, but that veil was broken when Kala Nag looked directly at him as the horse finished his counter.

" Men have their ways, ways that are above our own and ones we are forced to understand. But there are some, a few that take the time to understand our ways. Those few, I can truly say should not be classed among their fellow men, but as one with the jungle. So take solace in those few to know there is still hope in this world."

Mowgli felt humbled by the elephant's words, even if none else knew what he was saying or who to.

" What did he he just say?" Kitty asked in a hushed tone.

" I think I just complimented." Mowgli answered back.

" Yeah, I can back that up." Toomai added with mutual respect. " It took me forever to get him to get a compliment from Kala Nag, so he must really like you."

Mowgli looked back to see the elephant giving him a wink aside and dispersed the congregation of animals for the night.

" Well, I guess that's it for tonight. Sorry you couldn't get more, Kitty." Mowgli said.

" Oh, that's quite alright. You've shown me a lot more about animals than reading ever would just reading! I still can't thank you enough for tonight. Now, I probably should go right now for you children to get sleep."

And with that, the young woman, crawled her way carefully down the slide of roof and shimmied her way down, leaving the group to rest atop there for the night.

"See, I told you Mowgli would be fine." a voice said from behind a branch atop a tall tree as it peered down into the village. It was Baloo, who was struggling to keep balance beside the much more centered panther Bagheera. Whether it was Baloo or Bagheera that was more worried about the man cub's welfare none could say, but they both agreed to go down near the village to keep an eye on him, just for tonight at least.

" Oh, and coming from the bear who didn't want him to leave at all in the village?" Bagheera challenged.

" Hey, that's cause I thought they'd make a man outta him if he went. Now I know he'll be just fine."

" He's changed though, for the better." the panther added simply.

" Yeah, little britches is growing up alright. Safe and sound."

And yet, unbeknownst to anyone else, William had seen the whole events for the nights from afar in another lowly hut. He didn't like the idea of his fiance mingle with the common peasants of this third world country that made up the populace, let alone wolf boys from the jungle. But what he did like was a little bit of fame and fortune, a big reason as to his campaign in India. And when you find one of the most prominent, famous people this side of of the Queen's Palace, well, it's a chance you wouldn't want to pass up. He turned around to the other man in the building with him, the smoke from his pipe masking his already dark face as he played with a rhino's horn in his hands.

" What do you think, sahib? Do you want to take up the job and be a part of this deal?"

The man rose up, removing his thick bear skin coat and shook William's hand with a cold and quiet manner. " I don't see why not?"

" And you're sure you're up to the skills needed. This won't be like catching a pig in the bush or a deer in a meadow."

" You might not care to learn India's ways, but one you should know is to never underestimate Buldeo the Hunter."

Author's Note: This chapter was largely inspired by one of the short stories in the original Jungle Book, Her Majesty's Servants, where it had someone listen in on the conversation of camp animals at night. Kala Nag also briefly mentions how fear came to be because of the Tiger, which was further told by Hathi in the original book as well. Again, review and til next time, later!