A/N: I don't own Grimm Fairy Tales Presents: The Jungle Book.

Chapter 6

While Baloo, Bagheera, Grey Brother and Akili search for Mowglii and Tobaqui, who are finding their way out of the cave tunnels, an unknown dweller in the caves follows the two, lurking in the shadows. Meanwhile, a secret from the Tavi Tribe is about to be revealed.

Swimming underwater and holding his breath, Baloo looked down at the riverbed, desperately looking for any sign of both the naked wolf-girl and the teenage silver fox. Still, there was nothing, only for corpses of tigers pinned down by the huge elephant masses. As he felt that he was losing air, Baloo swam upwards to the surface.

"Nothing?" Akili asked desperately as soon as Baloo emerged from the water. She was sitting on a rock, not calming down.

"Nothing but a grisly reminder of the battle that just bled out." Baloo answered as he continued to float in the water. Akili whimpered as tears fell down the naked girl's face. Meanwhile, Bagheera and Grey Brother were scanning the riverbank, searching for clues that could lead to Mowglii.

"What new predicament has she tumbled into this time?" Bagheera asked with a mixture of concern and annoyance.

"Let us hope she still lives to tell us the tale." Grey Brother responds.

"We should follow the river," the bear told them as he was heading towards the riverbank. "The current would take her that way."

"And Tobaqui. Do not forget Tobaqui." Akili added as Baloo shrugged the water of himself.

"Let us hope winding Kipling River did not deposit them into the ocean." Grey Brother expressed his concerns.

"Do not even speak such things," the panther told the wolf. "That fool cub is too stubborn to die."

The four of them, Baloo the sloth bear, Bagheera the panther, Grey Brother the wolf and Akili the naked teenage girl, set out for the search down the river. Akili then heard a noise and turned around to see Hathi the young elephant.

"Ho, trunkling! Stealthy you are most definitely not!" Akili exclaimed as she jumped on the elephant's back. "May I ask why one of the proud Payari lower themselves to spend time following our search party?"

"You helped in my time of need, Akili." Hathi told the naked dirty-blonde girl. "It is the least I could do to help during yours."

"How very un-Payari of you." Akili said, still surprised from the elephant's character, unusual for an elephant of the Kipling Island.

"Every hero needs a sidekick." Hathi simply told her. Hearing this, the naked dirty-blonde suddenly jumped off the elephant's back.

"I have a sidekick and I aim to find him." Akili told him. "I have to find him."

"Then I will be your sidekick until you do." Hathi proposed. He was then concerned when he saw the naked girl looking at him with the looks of sadness, concern and affection, tears coming out of her eyes.

"My thanks… Hathi… But I warn you," Akili stammered. "Do not let Tobaqui hear you call yourself my sidekick."

"Why?" Hathi asked.

"Because he is the closest person to me, and I don't want to lose him."

The light from the torch illuminated the tunnels as both Mowglii and Tobaqui continued their what seemed like an eternal journey inside the cave. While trying to keep an eye on the way, from time-to-time Mowglii looked at the teenage silver fox. Since she and Akili became close friends, the naked teenage girl saw that Tobaqui did not like at all, as if he was jealous of their relationship. She tried to understand, and already had a theory. The way Tobaqui looked at Akili was the same way Grey Brother and Won Tolla looked at each other.

"What?" the teenage silver fox asked in annoyance as he saw the naked girl looked at him once again.

"Nothing." Mowglii simply answered. After a few minutes, Mowglii lost her patience and decided to unresolve the tensions. Sighing deeply, she finally revealed the truth.

"You love her."

"What are you talking about now?!" the teenage silver fox yelled at the naked teenage girl.

"Akili. You love her." Mowglii continued. "It is okay if you love Akili.

"Akili… what? No." Tobaqui immediately rebuffed.

"She is wonderful, brave and proud fighter. I do not know her well. But she has always been nice to me." Mowglii continued.

"Stop saying that! I do not…"

"She is a part of your tribe. One of your own. It is natural to love one's tribe." Mowglii continued explaining.

"Will you stop?!" Tobaqui demanded, obviously embarrassed. "It is not like that!"

"Then what is it like?" the naked girl asked. "If you love Akili, you should tell her. I know if I had a moment, just one moment to tell my mother that I loved her. Just one last time. I would want more than the world itself to tell her that."

As Tobaqui lowered his head in silence, Mowglii was about to turn around when she heard the silver fox's voice.

"You're right," he said with hesitance. "I do love her, more than a friend. I always dreamed of us being soulmates. I love that she wants to help everyone, and that she is wonderful, brave, selfless and kind. But I am constantly in Akili's shadow, she doesn't notice my affections towards her and thinks that we are just friends."

"Maybe if you confess your feelings towards her, maybe she will finally see the truth." Mowglii suggested. Tobaqui followed the naked girl and soon entered a tunnel with torches. Inserting theirs at the wall, the two continued down the lighted corridor.

"Are you sure following the lightning flowers is a good idea?" Mowglii asked after some time of walking down the tunnel.

"Someone had to put them here. This will most likely lead to their maker." Tobaqui answered. "Surely the killer of Khan is not scared."

"I am cold, that is all." Mowglii told him before angrily adding. "And don't call me that! I am not a killer! I took revenge on the killer of my mother!"

"Killing, revenge, alligator, crocodile. All end with someone dead." Tobaqui simply stated.

"There is not a day that goes by that I do not think of the death of that evil tiger! I saw the fear in his eyes in his last moments as he plunged to his death!" Mowglii continued. "I thought of that tiger-boy Bomani. Without a parent, just like me! I felt this stupid war claim another life and hated myself for being a part of it all! Call me killer. Call me names. It is nothing compared to what I call myself when I cannot sleep at night!"

"Mowglii… I-I am…" the teenage silver fox was about to apologize when the tunnels were filled with a roar. Looking at the end of the tunnel where the torches were no more, they saw multiple glowing eyes and jaws of beasts. Instinctively, the two ran back to where they came from.

"That is clearly not the way out of this maze!" Mowglii yelled.

"Agreed." Tobaqui told the naked girl as she followed him. "I told you following the path of the lightning flower was a bad idea."

"But you… AGH! Never mind."

"We can hide… No!" Tobaqui yelled when they saw the yellow eyes in the dark that followed them all the time. They were even more shocked when the creature finally revealed itself, for it was a slightly injured, but very much alive, white-furred leader of the tiger streak.

"SHERE KHAN!" both yelled in union as the tiger roared at them.

When Tobaqui met Akili

Both the wolf pack leader, Shere Khan and Bagheera watched as the meerkats of the Tribe Tavi led the naked dirty-blonde toddler into the jungle under the stormy night. After being shunned by the Pyari elephants, Tribe Tavi accepted Akili as one of their own. She was a giant to all who called the Tavi their tribe, even as she was a bit bigger than a new-born. Akili giggled as the meerkats brought her to the den of the Tribe Tavi, filled with holes in both ground and trees, with the mammals surrounding her as they greeted the naked toddler girl. There were squirrels, meerkats, foxes, mice, moles, beavers, warthogs and many more.

"The Great Battle is done!" a warthog exclaimed, with the other animals cheering. It was already morning, and the storm had ended, being replaced by a warm sun in the sky. The cheering stopped once the Tavi animals realized they didn't know what to do with the girl.

"So, what we does with it?" one of the meerkats asked as the girl looked around in curiosity and confusion. As they muttered about what to do with her, Akili suddenly stood up, causing the animals to squeal and yelp in fear due to the size of the girl.

"It's a giant! It will crush us!" they yelled as Akili unknowingly was about to crush a mouse and its child, only for a silver fox pup leap at her, knocking down the naked dirty-blonde toddler.

"Fear not, Tavi. I will make short work of this giant villain!" Tobaqui proudly exclaimed as Akili looked at him in fear.

"Stop, Tobaqui the Tall!" a jackal yelled. "The creature was crucial in ending the Great Battle. It is meant to be an omen of peace on Kipling. You will harm her.

"Bah! Omens!" the pup scoffed. "It is a giant beast. The size of it petrifies and brings fear to the tribe. It is big and threatening."

"The same, dear Tobaqui, could be said of you." The jackal argued. "All are big and threatening."

Tobaqui turned back to the girl, only to discover that she was gone, her scent led him to the deep woods of the jungle, where the sun rarely passed through the massive trees.

Running was the only thing that was on the mind of the naked dirty-blonde girl as she ran deep into the woods. She became disturbed from the lack of sunlight as it got darker. The girl gasped in fear when suddenly an owl hooted. She began walking backwards until she heard a hiss. Turning around, she screamed in fear as she saw two vipers hissing at her, displaying their fangs. She creamed even louder when she saw a large spider. In the end, the scared naked girl retreated to the base of a tree, crying as she wanted to get away from this horrible place, but she was lost. That was until she heard him.

"You are louder than a cave of Bandar." Tobaqui stated as she opened her eyes. The pup looked at her once again, though this time, with a different point of view, as something melted inside him when he saw the alone and frightened naked girl. He saw her not as a beast larger than him or as a threat to his tribe, but as someone who was small in a big and frightening place."

"You're… you're just a kid, just like me." Tobaqui spoke as he approached the frightened girl. "The jungle is a fearsome place. My mother told me that a little fear is a good thing when you are small. Courage is not always a roar. Sometimes courage is that little voice that guides us away, so we can live as long as the tomorrows go. Though the Tavi are small, they are the most courageous on this island. They adopted me when I lost all. They seem to want the same for you."

Seeing that she was still scared of him, Tobaqui thought licking her bare feet. She then giggled as he licked the tears away from her face.

"I will introduce you to them. But watch your step, ok?" Tobaqui told her as he helped the naked girl to get back on her feet. "Let's go home."

After leading the girl out of the dark woods, the silver fox pup led the girl back to the Tavi, with Akili holding him, fearing to lose him.

"She returns! She is a giantess! Tobaqui has brought back the giant! Run!" the Tavi yelled, only for Tobaqui to interrupt.

"Fear not, Tavi! I have returned with the peace bringer!" he exclaimed. "I can assure you all though big to us all, she is a Tavi through and through. She knows what it is like to be small in the jungle, even if she is a big one."

"Stick with me. I will make sure you are safe." Tobaqui proudly told the naked Akili. The Tavi animals began cheering again, welcoming Akili to their tribe. Soon, they would name her that and from that day on, Tobaqui was always by her side.

Together they stood for all the things small in the dangerous jungle, as partners, as heroes, as protectors. Though as time went by, in the eyes of Tobaqui, they were just more than that. As they lived together and became closer, the grown teenage fox began to understand that the feelings he had for the naked dirty-blonde girl were romantic. He loved her. She was beautiful, clever, selfless and brave. Though he wasn't brave enough to confess it to anyone, especially her. Unknown to Tobaqui, he wasn't the only one as Akili knew why Tobaqui was jealous, and the naked girl knew that she loved the teenage silver fox too. When he and Mowglii fell into the river, she feared for his life, wanting to find him, not only because to make sure he was safe and sound, but to tell him that she loved him.