Mowgli

Upon getting to the ruins, Mowgli couldn't sleep. The stone was cold underneath his back, and even though Baloo acted as a nice pillow, it wasn't enough. He shivered as the cool night air swirled through the tower. Strange; he was far more comfortable in the open air compared to the cooped-up house that he was trapped in for the past year. But there was something about the tower, with its moss and scattered stone, that seemed… uninviting.

Baloo was already asleep, but that was pretty expected of him. He did spend a lot of energy today getting him away from the man-village, after all.

But something was bothering him.

As he laid there, something crossed his mind about earlier. When Baloo had first started to run, who was it that shouted that there was a wild animal in the village? The voice seemed so familiar, but he couldn't connect it. He didn't even see who it was that said it; was it Shanti, or someone else that happened to be walking by? Everyone should have been asleep, so who was it?

Sitting upright, freeing himself of Baloo's soft pelt, Mowgli stared out towards the stars. He curled up his legs to his chest, and sighed.

As much as he hated the man-village, he couldn't bear to think of Shanti being alone in the morning. Or Ranjan. He tried to dismiss her to Baloo multiple times, who kept pressing on the issue as they walked, but it still bothered him. Sure she had been a bit on the commanding side, making sure that he tried to stay in line, but she also stood up for him when everyone else would turn away.

Maybe, at the very least, he should go back and tell her goodbye.

While he sat there, reminiscing on the past year, a clatter of stone caught his attention.

He froze. He recalled when Baloo tried to climb up the tower, he ended up knocking over a couple stones that were wobbly with age. Suddenly his heart was pumping faster. There's no way that Shere Khan could have possibly considered that they would be sleeping here.

Silently, he crawled on all fours towards the window. The tower itself was quite tall, overlooking what had been an old gathering place of man. It was difficult to get up here, and Baloo barely got up here.

Stretching his neck up to look down, he gulped.

Shere Khan was down there.

The tiger didn't seem to think much about the tower, prowling each and every corner of the courtyard. Mowgli could see his eyes reflect what little moonlight cascaded through the ruins, constantly looking up and down. He could also hear the purring, which Shere Khan only provided during hunts. Something he knew from personal experience a year back.

Thankfully, there weren't any loose stones or anything of the sort up here. Mowgli had made sure of that beforehand. It was weird; when he was in the jungle a year ago, he wouldn't have considered that kind of option. But being in the man-village gave him some insights on things to check to make sure that he could be stealthy.

One time, he was found on the roof of the house, trying to look out at the jungle to see if he could find his wolf pack from there. Startled, he moved, only for part of the house to collapse when a couple bricks fell off.

That was also the time when he realized that bricks hitting his head hurt a lot.

He returned back to Baloo. He couldn't wake him up; he would make a scene and blow their position. No, Mowgli would simply lay back down and go to sleep.

The purring kept him up for the rest of the night.