Chapter 8
Kaa slithered ahead of Baloo and Bagheera through the jungle floor, his spine shaking even more than usual. He had tried his hardest to avoid his mother after all the horrors, so he definitely didn't want anything to do with her. But as usual, he was bullied into spilling information. The python lead the two to a large cave entry point in the side of an extinct volcano, his birth place. Even compared to the dark night sky, the cave seemed to be even darker. It's pull was like a black hole for the unsuspecting. The squeals of his siblings pleads were coming back to him, making him cover his head with his coils.
" Well, looks like little britches is in there, Baggy. Let's go." Baloo said, marching into cave boldly.
" Anything we should know, Kaa?" Bagheera asked, looking down at the withering python. He took the shaky silence as a no. Together, the two animals bounded in search of their man cub. They raced through the warm wide tunnels, desperately looking for their man cub. Both spied the bare bones and foul smell of her previous victims, but pushed on through. Eventually, the two skidded to a halt in horror as Mowgli was halfway through the snake's massive mouth, her eyes shining with greedy glee.
" Don't eat him! You don't know where's he's been!" Baloo called out as he began pulling at the massive snake's tail end. Bagheera scaled up the coils of the massive snake and clawed away, desperately to free Mowgli. But Caa easily overpowered Baloo and Bagheera, spitting Mowgli up to wrap the two animals in her cold, slippery coils.
" Oh, come now boys. You know it's rude to interrupt a lady's dinner. Still, perhaps you gave me a new opportunity." The snake slithered her massive jaws in between the Baloo and Bagheera, switching her gaze almost instantaneously. "Now, where should I start? I've heard that panther tastes as silky and smooth like their pelts. Than again, I could start with the bear and feast for a week."
It was that moment Mowgli broke out of his trance and realized the situation at hand. He grabbed and nearby rocks and began to crush a pile of Caa's coils to loosen her grip on his two friends. " You leave my friends alone, you overgrown earthworm!"
The snake winced a shrill hiss, spinning her venomous eyes to the man cub. Caa extended her head to snap up Mowgli with her backward needle teeth. But this wasn't the Mowgli that fell into danger, but the Mowgli who had finally absorbed his lessons taught to him on survival. He easily dodged Caa, falling into a dirty low pit. He digged through the cold earth and began to rub the muck over his body, remembering what Bagheera had told about snake's heat pits. This lesson worked to full effect, with Caa unable to spy the boy. She scanned around, her siern effect no longer present.
" Come on out, man cub. Now isn't the time to play tricks."
" You got that right!" the boy shouted as he landed on the massive python's head and began to poke at her emerald blue eyes. The snake wrangled about, slamming her head on the cave's pillars to break Mowgli's hold. Eventually it worked, but not before going blind in an eye.
She looked down at the tired man cub and opened up to finally consume her prey. But as she was just an inch away, she felt a sharp pain in her back neck, revealing itself to be her son Kaa.
" Get going, man cub! This is a family matter." Kaa called as he began to size up his mother to a fight. He may not be particularly fond of the man cub, but he now found the needed strength to face his past demons and stop them from hurting anyone else. Mowgli's confusion would have to be settled for later, and he seized the chance to run and free Baloo and Bagheera. Mowgli had to smack them around for a fair few seconds, but eventually they got freed just in time to see the the two pythons struggling in a fight.
" Oh, my poor son. First you end up as the runt and now what? Are you trying to play the hero now?"
Even though Kaa didn't really care what his mother said, the words still a particular sore spot for him.
" Do you know what happens to heros? They DIE!" Caa hissed as she slammed her girth into a weak but critical pillar for the cave. It wasn't too long till the whole place began to quake and collapse, with massive limestone and granite deposits falling on the group.
" Come on, we need to get out of here!" the panther called out as he bounded between boulders.
" Kaa, come on!" Baloo shouted over his shoulder.
" No, go now while you still can! I'll hold her off.¨
Mowgli began to object, but it was then Kaa gave him a fleeting, soulful glimpse at the boy. Not the hypnotic kind, but the genuine type. ¨ Trust in me, man cub.¨
That somber final tying was what the boy needed to resume his escape along with the rest of his friends. Immediately as the group exited, the mammoth entrance to the cave enclosed itself inward. For a few tense seconds, Mowgli waited for something to slither out but nothing came.
Baloo scratched his muzzle agap ¨ Man, who knew Kaa had it in him to be so-¨
¨ Selfless? Well, I suppose he was right about what we thought about reptiles.¨ Bagheera concluded for him. Mowgli then slid onto Bagheera's back like he used to do when he was younger and with his friends made his way back to the man village, silently trying to conceal the tears welling up in his eyes the whole way.