As night fell, two wolf sentries stood guard over the cage, in case Bahan tried to escape. The group watched from a distance, Mowgli saying "how do we get past those guards?"
"Leave it to me, little britches." Baloo smiled. The wolves sat waiting, one of them saying "so, how long till sunrise?"
"I'd say about six more hours."
"Oh great. Just when it had to be our turn for sentry duty. Why do we have to stay up when even the prisoner's asleep?"
"If you keep shouting, no one will be!"
"I guess you're right. But we really gotta switch up the next rota, I'll tell you right now."
"Hey, excuse me!"
"What is it? Who goes there?" the second wolf said as Baloo arrived and sat near them. "I'm someone who wants to help you out. So, I hear you don't like night work."
"It's not the best." the first wolf said.
"Well, I'll tell you this, my friends. You hate night work because you hate your job!" Baloo said as he grabbed the second wolf. "I can tell you've always wanted to be a fishing wolf."
"I hate fish."
"Oh, okay... well, maybe my job-finding skills aren't as good as they used to be."
As Baloo spoke to the wolves, Bagheera, Mowgli and the small animals crept past them silently. Bagheera said "remember your roles?"
"Yep." Ikki whispered. "You two go that way. We'll stay here!"
As Ikki, the pygmy hog, the squirrel and the pangolin got to their positions, Bagheera and Mowgli went over to the cage.
Meanwhile, Baloo continued talking with the sentries, the first one saying "well, I've never liked doing sentry duty at all. Especially not when you're guarding a tiger."
"Why? Would you prefer a Gigantopithecus?" Baloo said, before the wolf answered "well, not really. It's just kind of too soon... I mean, after what happened with Akela and all. Plus, Raksha seemed pretty upset about it."
"And we wouldn't dare upset that one." the second wolf said. Baloo then said "you've got a point, I guess."
Bagheera and Mowgli crept over the rock, trying not to wake up the sleeping wolves. Mowgli stepped on a small pebble that landed in a nearby puddle.
As the impact was made, the two tensed, before realizing that none of the wolves heard the noise. Mowgli sighed in relief, this unknowingly waking up Grey.
Bahan slept silently in the cage, when a voice said "Bahan.", waking the cub up to see Bagheera and Mowgli.
She said "Baag-ee!" loudly, before Bagheera said "ssshhhh. Be very quiet. We're breaking you out. We're taking you away from here." as he pressed his paw to the cage. Bahan grabbed his paw with her own and nestled her face against it as Bagheera smiled.
Mowgli grabbed two rocks and cracked them together until he made a sharp fragment. He used the small piece to cut the ropes on the cage, saying "I'm sorry Bahan. Now let's get you outta here."
Bahan crawled out of the cage and into Mowgli's hands, before a voice said "Mowgli!"
The three turned around to face the whole wolf pack, with Raksha and Grey at the front of the group. "What are you doing?"
"I'm sorry... but I can't let you keep Bahan like this."
"But Mowgli, she's a tiger." Grey said nervously. "That doesn't mean she's bad, Grey." Mowgli said, before a voice said "of course not. Attacking a cub is what makes her bad." as Hatya and the other dholes arrived at the scene. Bahan hissed at Hatya, before Bagheera pushed Bahan behind him to protect her.
Hatya walked to Raksha's side, and said "you know, mancub, if you had simply let this be, then you'd still be a part of your mother's pack. But now, I'm afraid you and Bagheera may have interfered a little too much, don't you think?"
"Mowgli, please." Raksha said. "I'm sorry about what I said... I didn't mean a word of it... please, just put the tiger back and everything can go back to normal."
"I'm sorry, mother." Mowgli said. "You know I wouldn't have done this if I had any other choice. But Bahan is innocent, and I can't let you hurt her for something she's never done."
"Then that makes you a criminal as well." Hatya said as she unsheathed her claws. Raksha said "Hatya, what are you doing?"
"Hasn't enough suffering been caused already, old friend? It's time to take action! And if none of you will, I'll just have to take care of this problem myself."
Mowgli held Bahan close and stepped back, before Bagheera stood before them and said "over my dead body, you will!"
"If that's what you want!" Hatya snarled. But before the two could come to blows, a small spiky ball rolled down to the front, as Ikki said "rolling quills!" as he shot out his quills in all directions.
The three fugitives jumped down from the rock to a lower platform, and ran to the exit. Hatya saw this, and said "after them!" as the wolves and the dholes gave chase.
Bagheera said "hurry, this way!" as they crossed the exit. The wolves and dholes followed, before several stones came between them. Raksha looked to where the rocks had come from, seeing the squirrel and pangolin, the former saying "that oughta rock their world, huh?"
Once the wolves climbed over the rocks and carried on the chase, they came across a small shadow. It was the pygmy hog, who said "stop, you dogs!", only for the wolves and dholes to run past him without noticing.
Bagheera, Mowgli and Bahan passed Baloo and the sentries, but the bear didn't notice and continued his casual conversation.
"Look buddy, if you like the girl, you should come clean." Baloo said to the second wolf, who answered "yeah. You're right. If it doesn't work out, then that's just life."
"Exactly."
"Baloo, come on!" Mowgli shouted, before the smaller animals jumped on Baloo's back as the bear said "well, sorry fellas but I gotta go. We'll talk again sometime."
"Okay, see ya round." the first wolf said as the group ran. After the wolves and the dholes passed the two sentries, the second wolf said "wonder where there off to in such a hurry."