Chapter 21
Walking along the path, Kitty was walking behind Tabaqui while getting a cold shivering down her spine. They were finally got there, there was a huge open entrance which leads inside to the underground floor level of the dark temple. There were some rusty rocks in the entrance and overgrown plants had cover the walls and the columns.
"Are you sure he's in there?" Kitty asked suspiciously.
"Would have you gone someone where you would be alone?" Tabaqui asked.
"I suppose" Kitty answer, she could only see through the entrance the dark shadows.
Kitty took a breath and decided, "Alright, I'll go in" she walk closer to the entrance, she stop and tur to Tabaqui, "Are you not coming?"
"I think you use be alone with him" Tabaqui which Kitty quite understood, she continued walking as she entered inside and turned to the right to search for Mowgli.
Tabaqui laughed quietly to himself, "Well, at least you won't be alone."
Uknowing to Kitty from what was hiding in the green bushes, Shere Khan secretly crawled out and walked with a creepy smile on his face.
"You were right and di well jackal" Shere Khan walked over to the entrance.
"So, um, do I get any of this meal?" Tabaqui asked while licked his teeth and lips.
"I think about it" Shere Khan answered.
"But!" Tabaqui said but stopped as the tiger turned to him and made a creepy, straight face.
"There's still enough time for you to think about it" Tabaqui quickly finished to save his life. Shere Khan continued walking inside the temple while behind Tabaqui growled quickly with disappointment.
Mowgli had a plan for Shere Khan and the red dholes, in instructed his friends to collect things for his plan. Baloo took down some small, strong veins, and Bagheera was breaking down and picking some tall sticks. Rikki was picking off spicy, red peppers while trying to get Baloo to stop eating them, and the vultures were grabbing some piles of big leaves with small leaves in them. Mowgli and Grey rushed down to the silent village, they snuck in the wooden shield. They placed in some pots of powder in a big bag and small one, they carefully place them on their backs. Before they left, Mowgli spotted the blade on a small, brown wooden table in Sanjay's house. Mowgli thought of in case of emergencies, he quickly stole the blade and bring it on their journey.
"Where's the men?" Grey asked as he looked around the area.
"Maybe they've gone on a hunt or something" Mowgli answered but to be honest they didn't know either. They began to run back to their meeting spot near the desert.
They all got back in time with the items that Mowgli needs for his plan, he grabbed a stick and draw the surface of the dark temple.
"Right, first we'll have to put the powders in the leaves first and tie them up and then…"
"What are powders?" Baloo as he scanned a pot.
"They're like dust and ashes but really colourful" Mowgli answered.
Baloo lifted the lid off a bit and sniffed the green powder when he was suddenly breathing in and sneezed out loudly and blow a little bit of the green powder at the ground and at Mowgli's face.
"Bless you" Flaps said.
"Sorry kid" Baloo said, "But you do look nice as green."
"Green from the powder or from you?" Bagheera asked sarcastically which them giggled, even Mowgli.
"After that, filled the bags with the peppers then we go and cover the large pit with the small leaves" Mowgli pointed to the spots by his stick.
"Baloo and Bagheera will wait by the river and push them into the fast current" Mowgli instructed, "The vultures will be at the top, while Rikki, Grey and I will start the distraction."
"Everyone go that?" Mowgli asked everyone and they all nodded as their answer.
"Right, let's go" Mowgli finished.
They sprayed out the big leaves, next Mowgli placed a small amount of different colour powders on them, and finally Rikki used the small veins to tie them up as bags. The vultures picked them up them carefully with their claws and they flew away up in the sky to the top of the dark temple. Baloo and Bagheera run down to the river, and Mowgli, Grey and Rikki run up to the dark temple.
Mowgli and Grey ran u around the other of the dark temple to up on the roof tops, with Rikki hanging on Mowgli's shoulder. They were nearly there on a path to the roof tops till they heard voices of an annoyed creature passing by slowly, they stopped and bended down behind some big rocks.
"Oh, you're so big and mighty, are you?!" Tabaqui shouted about Shere Khan, "Well, who told you that the girl-cub was in the jungle?!"
This caught the boy's ears and they looked at each other and whispered, "Kitty!"
Unware for Tabaqui the boys quickly jumped off and jumped on the jackal, holding the animal by Grey's paws with his shape claws, and Mowgli took out his blade out and hang it underneath Tabaqui's head.
"Go on jacal, where's Kitty?!" Mowgli shouted.
"I have no idea what you're talking about" Tabaqui answer while trying to catch his breath.
"Don't try to hide yourself now, we heard you from above" Grey said.
"And if I don't" Tabaqui sasked.
"Then who wants an early dinner meal" Rikki threated Tabaqui, giving the jackal the death stare, while Mowgli was pulling the blade towards Tabaqui's neck chocking the jackal.
"Okay, okay! I'll talk! She's inside the temple!"
"Is she alone?" Mowgli asked.
"Oh, do I have to talk more?" Tabaqui tiredly asked which made Mowgli pulled his blade a bit deeper.
"Okay, okay! Shere Khan!" Tabaqui shouted.
"We need to go" Mowgli instructed.
"Wait!" Rikki shouted, "What about this poor creature?"
Mowgli and Grey looked at each other and smiled, they looked at Tabaqui and in a minute, they tied the jackal up with veins and hang him from a tree branch. They run to the same entrance where Kitty entered, but they were two paths to the left and right.
"Which way?" Grey asked.
"We'll slip up, I'll take the right you take the left" Mowgli instructed.
"Got it" Grey answered.
"What do I do?" Rikki asked.
"You wait here, if something turns up, let us know" Mowgli answered.
"Yeah,but… Ah well, I needed a break anyway."
Deep inside the temple, Kitty was scanning around looking at every corner, but she could only see darkness through shadows, though there's light coming through the holes in the roof. Kitty felt something small hanging in the back pockets of her shorts, she pulled it off.
"A torch" she was blissed, "I forgot you were there."
Kitty turned on the light, so it was now better for her to find Mowgli, she continued searching around. Suddenly, she heard a sound of a stone moved across the floor, Kitty turned around quickly and looked around wherever her torch can light up.
"Mowgli?" Kitty asked.
"Looking for someone girl-cub?" an eerie voice appeared as a dark figure came up on a fallen column.
Kitty move her torch to where the voice came from, the light shown the figure of a tiger with a scar mark on his left eye. Kitty moved back from fear, the light still shows the tiger's face and his creepy smile.
"Where's Mowgli?!" Kitty bravely shouted.
"Probably in the depths of a creature's stomach" Shere Khan answered eerily, "But you're here."
The tiger jumped off the column and started to walk slowly towards Kitty as she walks back, Kitty quickly thought of something that could get her of this.
"Mowgli!" Kitty shouted and waved behind Shere Khan.
"What?! But I thought…" Shere Khan turned around to look behind however there was nothing, he looked back at Kitty, but she wasn't there, he roared "Hiding won't save your skin!"
Kitty ran around the corners as fast as she, Kitty doesn't where she was going but she knows two things; where to get out and away from the tiger. She was losing her breath, so she decided to hide, slithered underneath a giant gong, breathing in and out fast quietly.
Kitty then caught a wolf just around the corner, she whispered, "Grey?"
Grey then spotted Kitty, he said, "Kitty!"
Then he spotted another creature coming out from the dark shadows in another corner, he realised at that moment that it was Shere Khan, the tiger.
"Come out, wherever you are" Shere Khan said while circling around, and jumped on the gong.
Grey had to think of something fast before the tiger might find Kitty, he soon realises that he was hiding behind a gong, standing up in front of him. He walked up behind in the middle and banged it with his legs, making the big noises alerted to Shere Khan, Kitty, and Mowgli who was around the corner spotted Grey behind the gong. Shere Khan walked over to the gong, Grey can hear the tiger's footsteps coming closer to him, he couldn't show his identity otherwise Shere Khan will who he is. Mowgli then spotted Kitty underneath the fallen gong, using Grey's idea Mowgli picked up two sticks and banged them against the gong he was nearer to. Shere Khan heard the banging and run up to that one, Grey banged his again making Shere Khan run back to the first one. Mowgli did again and Grey again, and soon they were banging at the same time, Shere Khan stopped in the middle looking at the tow banging gongs. Kitty noticed that Mowgli was behind one of the gongs as he noticed her, Mowgli secretly moved his hand meaning Kitty can move out and run to him. Shere Khan roared out loudly and within that moment Mowgli's and Grey's gong suddenly fall out the chain and fell down infront, revealing his spot, and Kitty quickly slithered out and stopped from the fallen gongs.
"Oh no" Mowgli, Kitty and Grey said.
Shere Khan looked around noticed them, but mostly his dreadful eyes were focus on Mowgli, he made an eerie smile, "Man-cub."
Unware to the tiger, Grey jumped in and took a bite on his tail, giving him a painful roar. Mowgli shouted, "Run, Kitty! Run!"
Kitty ran up to Mowgli, while Shere Khan tried to catch the wolf cub, but Grey was too fast for the mighty tiger and jumped on his head and jumped off to catch up with Mowgli. The three dashed off as fast as they could, there was a small window on the side above a pile of hard, rusty rocks. They started to climb up on them to reach to the top, Grey climb through the window first, but the tiger was catching up to them. Kitty quickly uses her torch to blind Shere Khan's sight and he started to tremble down back to the bottom. Then Kitty climbed through the window, but Mowgli didn't as he saw the tiger down at the bottom.
"You won't get away this Khan!" Mowgli shouted.
"Maybe, but your family won't away this time, alive" Shere Khan said
Mowgli paused then replied, "And if they won't they would come back straight away, instead of running away like you! A cowardly pussy-cat!"
Shere Khan dashed up in range towards the man-cub, but Mowgli quickly jumped through the window and only the tiger's paws can come through with his claws out like they were slicing the air. The three ran on a path which leads them to the roof tops, Shere Khan stopped and walked back to the other entrance only thinking that the man-cub will fall in his trap.
They reached to the tops and they smiled at each other feeling happy that they escape, excepted one, Kitty stared at Mowgli straight and with her arms across. Mowgli knew what she was upset about.
"I am really, really sorry, for putting you into this situation, I should have…"
"I'm not angry that I'm was in danger, that was my choice, I'm angry because you ran away."
"You ran away!" Grey was shocked, "Actually, never mind, I shouldn't have but in."
"No Grey, you're right, you're absolutely right" Kitty pointed out, "Why? Why did you?"
Mowgli paused for second, but Kitty continue, "Mowgli, I won't never understand how you are feeling right now, but I know that running away isn't going to help you. My dad leaves me for a long time, I'm not used to see him mush, so I'm always by myself alone like I have no one to talk to, but you and other people out there to talk to and that helps. So please, talk to us."
Mowgli finally answer slowly, "I still don't know exactly who I am, or where I belong. I don't know where to go to call home, or whether or not I hurt those who are around me."
"Not to me" Grey said, Mowgli and Kitty turn to face to him, "I nearly killed you when we were young."
"Yeah, but those were games Grey, there were just accidents, there weren't your faults."
"Neither were yours, even in the village and those times years ago" Grey replied, Mowgli was quiet, the Grey continued, "You maybe a son of man, but you're my brother, and I love you."
Mowgli kneed down then he and Grey torched their heads together as they smiled. Kitty realised a little tear from her eye as she kneed down, used one hand to rub on Grey's head and the other to pat on Mowgli's back.
"Thank you" Mowgli said to both to them, then he talked about his plan and what they are going to do.
Shere Khan got out and walked in the centre of the temple, the red dholes were there laying on the floor.
"Get up!" Shere Khan roared, all the red dholes got up straight away, "We company. You half go down and search around the temple, the rest stay here."
They did as they were told, they rushed down out the temple and run around it, searching around the area one of them stopped a shape of a man-cub close to the bushes.
"Hey!" the red dhole whispered to the other and they followed him to where he could the man-cub. As they crawl slowly towards the man-cub, the red dhole at the front was ready and punched on the creature, then all the other red dholes jumped in and starting t rib him apart. The red dhole rib went in deeper but there was nothing only some red fruits.
"What is this?!" he shouted as they moved back and found out it wasn't the man-cub, but like two rocks that can be cut open.
They looked inside, and the red fruits were not so familiar to them and what they had ate, but whatever it was it was really spicy.
"Ah! Get it out! Get it out!" they all shouted as jumping around, feeling the burn like the red flower in their mouths.
They all quickly rushed down to the river and put their heads in the water and allowing the water to flow into their mouths. When they got their heads, their eyes were wet from the burning feeling in their mouths, and the water from the river. Unaware to them that a panther and a bear were coming down at knocked them down the fats current in the river, Bagheera hit them over with his paw, and Baloo just roll over them and pushed them over. Once they all of those red dholes fell in the river, Bagheera and Baloo run back to the temple.
Shere Khan waited for the other red dholes to come, but now he walked to a pit where he would look down upon the wolves, he looked straight down at Raksha.
"Enjoyed your rabbits?" Shere Khan asked but there was no answer form them.
"You knew something like this would happen sooner or later, Raksha" Shere Khan said.
"I didn't what would happen" Raksha answered but didn't look at him.
"So, you knew what I, Shere Khan will kill this frog from the monastery he will create!
"And I, Raksha the demon, who raised this frog and won't let it get taken away by big, fat, cowardly pussy cat!" Everyone raised their heads up and watched how Raksha speaks to Shere Khan. "He shall not be killed but run with the pack, hunt with the pack, fight with the pack, and so we do the same for him! But in the end, your end for he will hunt you, for the predator will become the prey!"
The wolves smiled at their leader standing with proud and honour, the red dholes had a nervous look on their faces while gazing at the tiger's face as it was surprised.
Shere Khan was about to leave when Raksha contined which stopped him, and he listen, "You speak the description of man-kind, how they hunt for food, but for sports, for the fun of it? Where you hunt for power, for vengeance! And for that I shall say Khan, that you are more man-like than my son will ever be!"
Shere Khan was shocked and disgusted from what Raksha just finished with from her speech, he turned around quickly and walked off, while his face was hard.
"She's right!" Akru shouted at the tiger from the side.
Shere Khan looked at the side and saw where Sura, Luri and Akru were sitting down with bruises and cuts all over their bodies, surrounded by three, tough red dholes.
"When you choose vengeance to kill your victim, then vengeance will choose you to kill as a victim" Luri ribbed the way they think of what the tiger is going.
Shere Khan walked over to Luri and first stared, the he grew an eerie smile and lifted one of his claws up underneath her chin, "But I do choose my prey very wisely, wolf cub."
"At least we're bad hunters to catch our prey" Sura said as he didn't want Shere Khan's claw to go any deeper.
"Like father and son" the tiger looked at Sura while fiddling with his claws on his right paw, "You know what to say, just don't know when to say it!"
The tiger hit Sura right at his face and flew him off to, laying down on the ground while trying to get up but the pain was too much that he couldn't hold it, Luri and Akru tried to get to Sura but the red dholes blocked their way.
Shere Khan walked over to Sura and laid his paw on his neck, "Now what would say before you would die?"
"We are all in one blood, thee and I. we live, we fight, and we die for family, nothing you would understand."
"Fair enough" Shere Khan whispered.
"Khan! Look what I got!" Tabaqui walked in and carried Rikki's tail by his mouth and threw him out on the floor.
Rikki tried to stand and looked up at Shere Khan, "Ow, you are one nasty tiger."
"What are you?" Shere Khan ask.
"I am known as Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, the mongoose, and I…" Rikki paused while staring at Shere Khan's face, "You look familiar, have we met before?"
"No, no memory of that face" Shere Khan shock his head.
"Shere Khan, I don't if you had the girl-cub, but you might have had two more companies in there" Tabaqui added.
"I did in fact, I decided to hold my stomach for those brats, or else" the tiger stared at Tabaqui which made the jackal gulped.
"Lun…" Rikki whispered
"What are you doing?" Sura asked next to him.
"I'm trying to remember his name."
"His Shere Khan, that's all."
"No, he had a crippled leg" Rikki finally found out the name "Lungri! That's your name!"
"I have no idea what you are talking about" Shere Khan lied.
"Your name is Lungri, and you had crippled leg when you were a cub. Men did try to help you, but you keep scratching them and then ran off."
"How did you?" Shere Khan wondered.
"Wait a minute, wait a minute" Akru said, "You actually name is Lungri? Like the lame?"
"Yes, it was my nickname given by my ami, alright!"
"And you want us to you king of the jungle?" one of the red dholes asked.
"No, the king of the jungle!" Shere Khan clearly shouted.
"Then how did you survive from the crippled?" one of the wolves asked from the pit, "You wouldn't be able to hunt."
Shere Khan walk over to them but roared out his answer to everyone, "After man nearly kill me, I grew to become strong and powerful, at the time I decided to get rid of this distancer! I bang it hard against a rock to put it in it's rightful position."
There was huge laugher coming from behind the tiger, Rikki was laughing hard while rolling on the floor.
"The lame one?" Rikki couldn't stop laughing, "I think your ami then must have predicted the future to know that you got beaten up by a man, twice!"
Shere Khan was getting fed up of that nonene, "You know Tabaqui, I think you desert a liitle snack."
"Thanks" Tabaqui walked over to Rikki.
"No, no, no! Please!" Rikki begged, "I've still got enough jokes! No, hold it!"
Suddenly before Tabaqui could lay his claws on the little mongoose, there was some big rocks falling down from the roof tops, everyone was up and prepared for whatever was going down on them.
"Shere Khan!" a loud, eerie, mysterious voice appeared from nowhere, "You disgusted me!"
"Who are you?!" Shere Khan shouted.
"I am Shiva, the shirt of the jungle, the destroyer of all things great and small!" the voice was coming from Mowgli on the roof, Grey was growling to make it sound as an animal, and Kitty pushed the rocks directly to red dholes.
"Hey Mowgli" Grey whispered, "What's a Shiva?"
"The villagers say that he's a go" Mowgli whisper his answer, while his face tells that Grey that he didn't know what a god is, "His job is to destroy everything, so they can be recreation into something better than before."
Grey did kind of get it, then Mowgli continued voicing, "You have broken the security laws of the jungle!"
Shere Khan whispered to a few of the red dholes, "Look around" they nodded up and down as they secretly crawl around the other to look for the creation who owned that voice.
The red dholes walked around it and they caught a scent of man and wolf leading up to a path up to the roof. They were about to leave when two other creatures, a bear and a panther were near the trees which veins next to them.
"Hello dholes" Baloo said.
"You guys fantasy an earlier meal?" the front one asked the ones behind him and they all nodded up and down as their answer, "Get the big, pussy cat first so the fat one will be easy to take down."
"Oh, you going to get a deep fall after this" Baloo threaten.
"Fall?" the red dhole asked.
At that very second, Baloo and Bagheera grab the vein with their mouths and they pulled it. Unaware to the red dholes that they were standing on what was actually the floor, then the floor just quickly disappeared and to them it looked deeper. The red dholes soon realised that they were on a trap, they all fell into the pit, it so deep that they couldn't even climb out of it.
"Have fun in the pit, guys!" Baloo laughed as he and Bagheera leaved.
"Why are you here?!" Shere Khan shouted out.
"You hunt those who innocent, and for that, you shall punish!" the voice was louder and louder as there was growling from it.
"Your skin will become ashes!" the voice continued, "Your flesh will become dust!"
Tabaqui then spotted a little creature around the roof tops, he decided to walk up there quietly to see what it was.
"The red flower will see to it, that the last thing that will see is the burning flames!" the voice was scaring the red dholes and making them move back.
"Why don't you come down and fight, oh destroyer?" Shere Khan curiously asked.
"I will Khan, I will give you the fear that you gave to others, the destruction that you have created" unaware to Mowgli that Tabaqui was behind him and began to punch on him.
Kitty turned around spotted the jackal, "Mowgli! Look out!"
Mowgli looked behind and Tabaqui jumped on him, but Grey jumped at the jackal and the spot they were on had cracks made it unstabled. The roof floor was cracking even more and Mowgli, Grey, and Tabaqui fell down to the ground floor.
"Well this is a surprise" Shere Khan said with an eerie grin.
"Not as a surprise like this, old strips!" another voice was heard from behind.
Shere Khan looked around and there Baloo, Bagheera, and the wolves, from Baloo and Bagheera placed a large log for the wolves to climb out of the pit.
"Mowgli, what now?" Grey whispered.
"We'll first finished the plan, Grey, then we'll fight till they give up their last breath" Mowgli answered, with his hand ready to take his blade, while his eyes meet the dreadful eyes of the tiger.
What's up guys? I really hope you like this chapter because the next chapter will be about the fight between the red dholes and the wolves, then Mowgli against Shere Khan.
I did want to add some of the parts from the sequel from the 2003, the gongs, Shere Khan tried to kill Kitty, and now the final fight will start agin in the dark temple.
I thought added Shiva to this because I wanted to show that there will be a close death to come. Like they say, "When there's an ending, there's always a new beginning" that's like Shiva's job for the world and it's for everyone because we all sometimes have to turn over a new left when we need to. Mowgli is in that position because he has turned a new left for acting a bit more as a man.
I added those great quotes from Raksha to show more of her strength to act as a strong leader. The way she stands up to Shere Khan like she did in the first movie and the original book. Also from the book, I wanted to write something about Shere Khan's backstory; that he had a nickname, Lungri which means the lame one as from he had a crippled leg. The original movie and the 2016 one shown that Shere Khan didn't a crippled, so I tried to describe how he had and how he lose it.
That next chapter will come soon.