In the following days which came and passed, Bagheera had furthered on with Elsa's hunting lessons. Through recent events her survival became so dependent upon them, more then they had ever before. She had encounter one of the jungle most known and greatest of dangers, Zira and her followers. One encounter where both Elsa and Nala came to face certain death at her fangs. She was not prepared in facing against the fierce and sleek lioness and must have had such a great deal of luck on their side to have survived such an encounter. But luck doesn't always prove to be a saving grace for everyone, not forever.
It expecially would prove to be of little help if she was to ever cross paths the rouge lioness again, a time that may yet prove to be sooner then expected. Zira had claimed the girl-cub to be hers and vowed that she would kill Elsa whenever her day would come. If Elsa ever faced Zira again the way she is, she would stand no chance of escaping from her like how she did before. There couldn't stand to be any better time of having to learn the lessons Bagheera was teaching to her then at this very moment of time.
It was sometime in the afternoon, Bagheera and Elsa were perched high in the branches of a tree somewhere in the eastern part of the jungle.
"Keep low to the ground." Bagheera lectured to the girl.
"Always remain silent whenever you hunt. When the time is to strike, you must be swift with your claw. Any game will always have a chance of escape, that what shall stand between you and claiming your prey.
"Okay, be swift." The girl said, nodding her head.
"I got it."
Elsa took one step closer, raising her spear above her.
"Take it slow." Bagheera whispered to her.
"Keep your eye straight on the fruit, don't look away for even a moment."
Obliging by her teachers words, Elsa stared up to the light orange mangos that hung right above. She squinted her eyes as she held herself in the position she was in, ready to strike when Bagheera was to give her signal. To follow was a moment of complete silence between the two, only the sound of the warm jungle winds that swirled by could be heard. Begheera continued staring forward without a single word to escape from his mouth, giving his young student the feeling of what the hunts in her near would be.
It was then in a sudden a moment that Bagheera spoke up.
"Now!" He blurted out so suddenly.
Right when she felt his voice touch her young ears, it was the that the girl tossed her spear out like an Olympian throwing a javelin. Her spear flew up into the air, piercing right through the fruit and with it's force snapped the stems from the branches before it finally stabbed into the trunk of the tree.
By the sight of her success, Elsa smiled and cheered.
"I got it!" Elsa cheered out, turning to Bagheera.
The panther in turn stood up and nodded his head to her, pleased by her results.
"Well done, Elsa." He complemented for her efforts.
The panther walked across the branch and leaped over to the next. He then jumped up to the branch right above to his left, where walked toward the trunk, where Elsa's spear was embedded.
As Elsa watched Bagheera retrieve the spear, she was unaware that she was being spied upon from above. In the branches which sprouted much higher then the one where Bagheera and Elsa stood upon, several monkeys were gathered above the wild girl. All the while, they starred down at her with eyes both curious and anticipating.
Bagheera grabbed the spear within his jaws and pulled it out from the tree. After he had retrieved the spear, he then turned and went back to Elsa was waiting for him. He lowered his head to the girl cub, offering her spear back to her.
"Thanks, Bagheera." She said, taking her hunting staff from the panther.
She held up the very tip of the spear and slid off one of the light yellow fruit that hung from that end. She the proceeded to bit into one of it's spots that hadn't been pierced by the sharp end of her hunting staff. After she swallowed the piece that she chewed, she looked back up to the black leopard.
"You are coming along very nicely, Elsa." Bagheera said.
"Your throw has greatly improved since last time. With more practice, you will be able to preform more admirably on a hunk like you did today."
"I hope so." Elsa said.
"I want to hunt just as good as mama and everyone else."
"Even the most skilled and experienced hunter is not always successful at times." Bagheera explained.
"Enjoy your moment while it lasts. You will end up failing more times then you will at succeeding in claiming your prey. That has been so for even the greatest hunters in the jungle. You must keep trying if you are to cease your chance."
It was right then that Bagheera caught a whiff of a strange scent nearby. The panther breath in the scent, trying to gain a recognition of what it was. Just as his nostrils came to bear it, he then gazed upward to the branches above them. He was met with the sight of the branches shaking along with the leaves, no sign to whoever was the cause behind it. Although the panther may yet know exactly who was to be behind this suspicious moment of time.
He looked down back at Elsa.
"Come." he said.
"We should move on."
Elsa came beside Bagheera and climbed up on his back. Once she became settled, the panther turned leaped off the branch and landed upon the jungle floor below.
For a time, Bagheera and Elsa walked from the eastern part of the jungle. In the lasting while of their trek, Bagheera kept his sharp and thorough sights upon all that surrounded them. Since their departure after finishing with Elsa's lesson, the panther had become weary of the possibility they were being followed. With what happened with Zira, Elsa's safety was far too venerable to any other peril which would come. Diata trusted him with her daughter and he wasn't about to let the smallest hint of doubt bring about harm to the girl-cub.
As Elsa sat upon the panthers back, she looked up to the tree tops just ahead of them. She came to spot two monkeys sitting in a branch right above them, who in turn was looking back at her. Smiling so friendly to the primates, she waved up to them. They in turn did the same.
Elsa chuckled.
"Bagheera, look!" She said, looking up at the monkeys.
Bagheera gazed up to the tree tops above, only to have disappeared into the cover of the tree's countless green leaves. The sight of which made the panther growl before he turned and looked forward.
"Aw, they just ran away." Elsa said, frowning.
"It's for the best." Bagheera insisted.
"You don't need to be around those scatter brained fools."
Elsa looked down to Bagheera, curiously. His comment came across as sounding very mean to the girl to say the least, but also quite strange to say the least. She was friends with most of the primates in their part of the jungle, Rafiki, Kala and a few of the young ones of Kerchek's tribe. Why were those monkeys any different?
"That's not nice." Elsa said.
"What?" Bagheera asked, gazing back to the girl-cub.
"I have fiends who are monkeys." She insisted
"I'm around Rafiki all the time."
"That is different." Bagheera insisted, turning back to the girl.
"How is it different?" Elsa asked, curiously.
"Because those are the monkeys of Tumbili Valley." Bagheera explained.
"Tumbili Valley?" She asked.
"It is a evil place, Elsa." Bagheera explained.
"Those monkeys are called the Mabaya Tumbilis. They are the same as Zira or Shere Khan, the law of the jungle means nothing to them and they cause trouble for everyone else. You must stay away from them."
In the many lessons Elsa had with both Rafiki and Bagheera, such a place and such people of the jungle had never once been brought up. She had always grasped onto the reality that all the primates aside from Kerchek were fun loving characters in of themselves, always wanting to play and enjoy the jungles many benefits. She never did see them in a way that demotes them to being the same level as someone like Zira or Shere Khan. Needless to say it was quite unsettling to how Elsa had looked upon her jungle home.
Yet she had little time to ponder over it any further then how much she had already did. For right then the two stumbled into the clearing, where Kercheks tribe had settled down in sometime before they had come.
"Come." The panther suggested.
"We'll rest here for a while before we return to the pride."
Elsa turned herself around to Bagheera's right side and slid off his back. The panther them walked into a small spot which separated two trees and laid down. Elsa came up to him, setting down her spear and sat down side Bagheera's. She leaned upon the soft black fur of the panther's pelt, immediately embraced in such a comfortable state of being.
This had often been a common thing they often did whenever they rested after finishing with a lesson. After so long of practicing the skills of hunting, they would often take time to rest and relax. Elsa would always snuggle beside the panther the same way she did with her mother, for his pelt was so soft and warm it was so comfy she could let herself drift away. She groaned, turning onto her side as she slowly fell into a deep slumber. All the while, Bagheera stared down at her smiling. The panther then looked away, placing his head upon her two front paws.
In the tree branches above the two friends, a groups of primates gathered over Elsa and Bagheera. Some of which climbed and leaped down to lower heights of the tree, trying gain a better look of Elsa. As they gazed down to the girl-cub, the noticed the spear laying right beside her. Some of which smiled and repeatedly leaped up and down.
"Look, look!" one said, pointing to Elsa's staff.
"She has human claw!"
"Human claw, human claw!" The others said.
"Must bring to king!" Another behind him said.
"She may know great power of man!"
Elsa's slumber state came to be interrupted, for it was them that he spear was slipping out from beside. It was at the sound of a young gorilla that came to wake the wild girl. She looked downward and saw one a baby ape pulling her spear away.
"Hey!" Elsa said, as she stood up.
"That's mine."
Elsa came up and took her spear back from the young gorilla. All the while, a few of the other younger apes emerged from the nesting ground and approached the wild girl, naturally curious of the strange wooden stick she was holding. One of them in particular, much older then the rest being the most curious out of all.
"Hey, Elsa!" He said, coming up to Elsa.
"Hi, Akut." She said back.
While there was little interaction between Elsa and Kercheks tribe, there were several of the apes her age that she was well aquainted with. One of them in particular was Akut. He was one of the few eldest among the family, about the same age as Elsa, Simba, Nala and Zarya. He had first met Elsa back at Hakuna Matata falls, where she saved him from Makuu and his Crocodile float. The two had been friends ever since and would spend time together swinging through the tree's or venturing out into the jungle.
Noticing her sharp stick she was holding, he gaze in awe at the sight.
"Wow, what is that?!" he said, before pointing at her staff.
"It's my claw." Elsa explained.
"Bagheera's teaching me to hunt with it."
"Well that's the strangest claw I've ever seen." He commented, never to have seen a claw such as that.
"Plus it's really too big to be a claw."
"It's a human claw, Akut." Elsa explained.
"Ours don't come from our hands, we make ours."
"How does it work?" The young ape asked, curiously.
"Well..." Elsa said, turning over to the tree to her right.
"Here, let me show you."
Kerchek walked along through the nesting ground, passing by a few of his fellow tribe members who were socializing with one another. All the while, he looked about over the area he had chosen for his family to settle down until the next time they were to move on. Looking left and right, he kept a sharp eye out for any sign of danger.
As he turned and looked straight ahead, he saw Akut and the other smaller members of the tribe gathered around Elsa. Seeing her holding up her spear, the silverback stopped dead in his tracks and his eyes gaped wide open.
Bagheera woke up to the sound of chattering between between the children nearby. He lifted his head from his front paws and turned to Elsa, who was holding up her spear in demonstration for the young apes that were watching her.
"You hold it up like this," Elsa explained, holding the spear above her head.
"And then you throw it."
Elsa looked up to the banana tree straight ahead of her and grinned.
"Watch this!" She said, looking to Akut and the other young apes.
She then threw her spear forward, souring as swiftly as an eagle diving down to the water to snatch a fish. It then plunged right through the stem of a couple of bananas, causing them to plummet right to the ground below.
"Wow." Akut said, gazing wide eyed as his mouth hung open.
Elsa went up to the banana tree, where she stood up on the very tops of her toes as she reached high to grab her spear. At the moment her hand wrapped around its thin wooden staff, she then pulled it out from the tree.
"Elsa." Bagheera called out to her, as he got up and walked over to her.
The wild girl looked back to the panther, as he walked up to her and Akut.
"I think it would be wise not to use you claw around the gorillas. Many of them can be easily startled, especially by the tools man uses."
"I was just showing them how it works." Elsa said.
"That isn't something to be used so recklessly, Elsa." Bagheera stated.
"If you are to wield such a tool, you have to be responsible with it."
Yet it was the next moment that as to follow, the conversation between the two was to be intervened.
"You, man-cub!" A very familiar and authoritarian voice called out.
The three of them along with the younger apes turned and saw Kerchek approaching. The sight of the alpha's stern expression came to be enough to make Elsa tremble, immobilizing her on the spot where she stood. As the large silverback came and stood right before her, he stared down at the girl-cub with the same unrelenting, glaring eyes he always looked at her with.
"What are you holding?!" Kerchek growled to the girl.
Elsa shivered at the tone of his voice, finding it hard to speak up.
"Give me that!" He demanded, grabbing the spear from the girls hands.
"Kerchek." Bagheera said, stepping forward.
The girl gasped and stepped back from the dominant silverback. Kerchek held up the spear to his glaring eyes, looking upon the girls staffed claw. The weopan came to enlighten further anger in himself, seeing the outcome he feared the most had finally come to florishen. Bagheera's way of teaching the girl cub to hunt had come to lead to giving the her the weopans which only men use, ones that she would use against everyone in the jungle.
He then grunted and groaned before turning Akut.
"Akut, take the young ones back to the tribe." he said.
Akut first turned to Elsa, frowning before he turned and lead the younger apes back to where the adults were nesting. It was then that Kerchek turned and looked to Bagheera.
"What are you doing, Bagheera?" He said promptly.
"What needs to be done." The panther stated, stepping forward to the silver back.
"For her sake."
"Has it not occurred to you of the dangers you will unleash upon us?!" Kerchek roared.
"You know just as well as anyone else in the jungle of what she is. Now you are giving her a weapon she will use against all of us in time!"
"I wouldn't do that!" Elsa insisted.
Kerchek turned and then lashed out at the girl.
"Look at yourself!" The silver back exclaimed.
"We all know what you are, we know your kind and what you will become!"
Elsa frowned and shook her head, denying everything which he was claiming her to be and what she would do.
"Elsa is learning the laws of the jungle and the Circle of life." Bagheera insisted.
"And thus far she respects them just as much as we do."
"She can't learn." Kerchek stated bluntly.
"She can never learn to be one of us, not even with everything you are teaching her to do. You are just as much to blame for the things she will do as much as she will herself!"
"I'm merely teaching her how to hunt." Bagheera defended.
"That's no excuse!" The silver back exclaimed.
"You nor Diata or even the pride can keep defending her. She is what she is and in time she'll use everything you taught her to hurt any single one of us!"
Elsa could no longer stand to hear any more of what Kerchek was saying about her. She then turned and ran off into the jungle, leaving both Bagheera and Kerchek to watch her leave.
"Elsa!" Bagheera called to the girl.
The panther grabbed the spear in his mouth before he turned and chased after her.
Elsa plowed through the lush vegatation that grew from the jungle soil, her eyes sealed away tightly as tears began to seep from them. Her young mind continued to have Kercheks words run wildly throughout it, torturing her from the inside. She continued to tell herself that it wasn't true, that all the things he was accusing her were not true and that she would never hurt anybody. But even that was not enough to dull the pain inside.
However as she ran, Bagheera was not far behind her.
"Elsa!" he called out to her again.
"Elsa stop!"
It was for a time that Elsa continued on. Though with much patients and now being so far from Kercheks tribe, she began slowing down before stopping all together. By then the panther came to slow down himself, coming around to the girls side. He glanced down at the girl, who was bowing her head frowning as tears continued to run down her cheeks. He placed the spear he was carrying in his jaws down before turning back to the girl cub.
"It's alright, Elsa." The panther claimed, knowing all that Kerchek had claimed about her was untruthful.
"I know Kerchek may seem so close minded toward you, but you shouldn't take what he said to heart. He does not yet understand you like everyone else does."
Elsa said nothing back to the panther. She merely kept facing forward, her eyes narrowly open with her head bowing down. All the while remaining complete silent and without a single word to utter.
"I'm sorry if all that was hard to hear." The panther then said.
"Man is not looked upon with the kindness eyes, not by all. You understand."
The girl cub turned her head to the side, still without anything to say. From the very appearance of her, it appeared that she didn't wish to talk about it anymore. The panther sighed and turned his head away for only a brief moment.
"Come now, Elsa." he said, nudging the girl's shoulder.
"Why don't we get back to the pride."
It was then that Elsa snapped.
"Stop it!" she cried, moving away from the panther.
Bagheera gazed wide eyed to her sudden outbreak of emotions.
"Leave me alone!"
"Elsa, calm down." The panther said.
"No!" she cried out.
"You told me these lessons would help me!"
"They are, Elsa." Bagheera insisted.
"No there not!" She argued back.
"You haven't been showing me how to be a good hunter, you've just been showing me how to be what Kerchek said!"
Bagheera stared sternly to Elsa.
"Elsa, you know that is all nonsense." The panther claimed.
"Do you really think that is what I'm trying to teach you to be? You can't learn to hunt like how anyone else can."
Hearing those words come from Bagheera, Elsa felt stung. It sounded just like something that Kerchek would say to her, in fact it was exactly how the dominant silver back would put it. That there wasn't anyway to for her to be just like her animals family and was instead subjected to the cruel ways of her own kind.
"You sound just like Kerchek!" Elsa claimed.
"I'm merely pointing out the truth!" Bagheera said.
Elsa stood cold for a moment, staring up at Bagheera wide eyed and on the verge of tears. She turned away from Bagheera and ran over to a tree which stood behind her. The panther in turned only stood and watched as she climbed up to high canopy, where she sat with her knees against her chest. He sighed and bowed his head before turning away.
Elsa sat atop the tree branch, sobbing as she leaned her head into her crossed arms atop her knees. Never did she wish to ever see Bagheera again. She couldn't believe nor fathom what he had said to her,or of what he was doing all this time. Everything he was teaching her was all meaningless and was only turning her into her own Kind, all because he didn't think she could hunt like how all predators in the jungle could. Something she presumed to be a false outlook from anyone to have.
She didn't care what he thought, she could do it just as well as her mother and everyone else in the pride. She didn't need that stupid human claw or tooth.
As she sat pondering, there was suddenly the ruffling of leaved high above her. Elsa gazed up to the branches above, where she notice both the countless leaves and branch shake for only an instant. Though it settled down in a moments time. The girl in turned lowered her eyes and set her head back down without giving it a second thought. Though it was right as she lowered her guard, she sudden felt a pair of hands grab underneath her shoulders and pulled her up into the branches above.
(I hope you enjoyed this chapter, sorry for the wait.)