Chapter 5 Encountering a Snake

Later that night after it was decided Mowgli and Clarissa would have to leave the jungle and head for the man village, the two kids were riding on Bagheera's back while in the dark jungle before the two kids became tired.

"Bagheera, I'm getting a little sleepy," Mowgli yawned before Clarissa did the same.

"Yeah, me too," she said while stretching out her arms.

"Shouldn't we head back home now?" Mowgli asked, unaware of what the plans were since nobody had told him yet.

"Mowgli, this time we're not going back. I'm taking you and Clarissa to the man village." Bagheera told him, making Mowgli surprised and shocked.

"You are? But why?" He asked, puzzled.

"Because Shere Khan has returned to this part of the jungle and he had sworn to kill you and Clarissa," Bagheera explained, making Mowgli even more shocked.

"Kill us? But why would anyone wanna do that?"

"Because he hates men, and Shere Khan is not going to allow you to grow up to become a man, just another hunter with a gun," Bagheera explained to him, making Clarissa a bit confused.

"But I won't grow up to become a man, I'll be a woman instead,"

"Yes, that is true, but Shere Khan hates every human, and you do know Shere Khan had already had encounterment with you before, right?" Bagheera asked Clarissa as the girl shook her head.

"No, Rama and Raksha never told me anything like that."

"Me neither," Mowgli said, making Bagheera realize Rama and Raksha had never told the story of what happened to Clarissa's parents.

"Well, if I've had experience with Shere Khan before, then I'll just fight him with my own strength," Clarissa said as she got out one of her arms, in which she showed off her muscles to Mowgli.

"Oh, we'll just explain to him that we'd never do a thing like that," Mowgli assured, believing he could just talk to the deadliest tiger in all of the jungle and reason with him.

"Nonesene! No one explains to Shere Khan," Bagheera told them as the two kids got off his back.

"Well, maybe so, but I'm not afraid," Mowgli told him.

"Me neither," Clarissa agreed.

"And beside, I…"

"Now that's enough!" Bagheera interrupted Mowgli while getting in his face. "We'll spend the night here, things will look better in the morning,"

Clarissa noticed Mowgli wasn't paying attention to him. "Mowgli! Mowgli, come on!" Clarissa urged her brother before Mowgli turned around and caught up.

"Now come on, up this tree, it's safer up there," Bagheera assured while Mowgli sadly walked over, upset over the fact he had to leave the jungle to go to the man village.

"Mowgli, what's wrong?" Clarissa asked with concern.

"Uh, I don't wanna go back to the man village," Mowgli said with weariness.

"Neither do I, but at least we'll be safe there, and I'm still with you, remember?" Clarissa asked as Mowgli smiled at her, but was still upset that he and his sister would have to leave the only place they knew as their home.

"Go on, up you go," Bagheera urged Mowgli as he and Clarissa noticed he meant the highest branch, which was pretty high for the two of them, especially since they couldn't climb very well.

"That limb way up there?" Mowgli asked while looking way high up.

"That's right," Bagheera responded, making Clarissa annoyed.

"But, Bagheera, you know me and Mowgli can't climb!" Clarissa said with her hands on her hips.

"Yes, well then, looks like you two can't stay in the jungle then," Bagheera said as Clarissa became annoyed and crossed her arms.

Mowgli then tried to climb the tree trunk, but fell after realizing he couldn't due to not having any claws!

"Is that all the better you can climb?" Bagheera chuckled as Mowgli slipped off a little.

"It's too…it's too big around! And besides, I don't have any claws," Mowgli responded before sliding down, but Bagheera stopped him from falling to his decent and tried to climb up while trying to push him up, only for Mowgli to slip up and grab Bagheera's back before he could fall, causing the panther to snarl in reaction!

"Uh, maybe you should be a little careful the rest of the way up," Clarissa suggested before Mowgli climbed up the tree, but not without using Bagheera's bottom jaw as leverage, thankfully without bite marks or scratches for the matter, to get up the branch.

Clarissa then got on Bagheera's back and climbed up towards the same branch before she got off and sat down next to her brother.

"Now, get some sleep," Bagheera suggested while walking over to the edge of the branch to lay down. "We've got a long journey ahead of us."

"But I wanna stay in the jungle," Mowgli whined with Clarissa nodding her head in agreement.

"Same, I wanna go back to mother and father, and stay in our nice den," Clarissa said with Mowgli nodding as well.

"Huh? Heh, you wouldn't last one day" Bagheera chuckled while yawning and falling asleep, making Mowgli and Clarissa annoyed he wouldn't let them go back to their home in the jungle.

"I'm sure we could survive in the jungle, I am Mowgli's big sister after all." Clarissa said while leaning her head back against the tree.

"Same, I'm not afraid, I can look out for myself." Mowgli said while grabbing a small stick from off the tree.

But just before his and Clarissa's eyes, an Indian python appeared from limbs above the branch, making Clarissa take notice but not Mowgli, who was still too fixated on the idea of leaving the jungle and going to the man village.

"Uh, Mowgli, maybe now's not the time to look out for yourself, look," Clarissa pointed to the python, in which Mowgli finally looked over to see.

"Ss-say now, what have we here?" The python asked as Mowgli turned away from it and Clarissa stuck her tongue out at it while crossing her arms.

"It's a man-cub and two of them to be exact," The python said while slithering closer to Clarissa, making the girl gasp a little as she tried to move away.

"Oh, no, don't be scared little girl-cub, I'm not gonna hurt you," The python assured as Clarissa put her hands over her face to look away from the snake.

"Please just leave us alone, I don't want any trouble," she said while trying to push the python away.

"Oh, there's no trouble, I assure you," The snake said as it got even closer to Clarissa's face.

"Oh, go away and leave us alone!" Mowgli said with aggression as he pushed the python away a bit.

"Oh, that's just what I should do, but I'm not, now please just go to sleep man-cubs," Bagheera said to himself, believing Mowgli was talking to him, but was unknowingly talking to a dangerous python!

"Sleep?" Clarissa asked herself before coming up with an idea. "That's it!"

"What is it, Clarissa?" Mowgli asked.

"I might just have an idea on how to get this snake out of here" she whispered to her brother before turning back to the python.

"Yes-ss man-cubs, please go to sleep," The snake hissed while giving off strange colorful eyes.

The colors were so memorizing and due to the snake wanting to hypnotize the two kids, the plan was working well since Mowgli had already stared into the python's eyes, and they gave off the same colorful effect.

"Mowgli?" Clarissa asked with concern for her brother.

"Go to sleep man-cub and you too little girl-cub," The python said to Mowgli before turning back to Clarissa, where he gave off the same hypnosis eyes to the girl, making her give off the same colors in her eyes as well.

"Yesss, yesss, that's it," The snake said while slithering over to the two kids, where they continued to stare into the snake's colorful eyes and be hypnotized by it.

"The colors, they're…they're so pretty," Clarissa said as she continued to look into the snake's eyes.

"Yes, of coursssse, stay with me and look at the colors as long as you wisssssh," The snake said while slithering over to Clarissa, where he began to wrap his coils around the girl!

"Yes, this feels good, I…I've never felt this wonderful," Clarissa said while being wrapped around the python's body.

"Yes-ss little girl-cub, you are doing a great job, you need that resssst and please go to sleeeep," The python chuckled as Clarissa closed her eyes.

"Now you do the same man-cub," The python said before slithering over to Mowgli, where he began to wrap his body around the boy as well!

"Sssleep my boy, resssst in peace," The phyton said as he wrapped his coils around the boy's body.

"Uh, Bagheera," Mowgli tried to say before he was nearly choked by the snakes' coils.

"Oh, no, look, there's no use arguing anymore. Now, no more talk till morning," Bagheera said to Mowgli, who he still believed he was talking to and had no idea the boy and his sister were being hypnotized by the snake.

"They won't be there in the morning," The snake chuckled to himself before turning back to Mowgli and Clarissa, who were both trapped in the snake's coils with their eyes closed.

"Huh? Oh, yes, you will…" Bagheera tried to say before opening his eyes and seeing the python opening his mouth to eat the kids! "KAA! HOLD IT KAA!"

Bagheera smacked the python in the mouth, causing the snake to hit the branch above him.

The impact of the snake, who was known as Kaa, caused him to drop both Mowgli and Clarissa on the branch below and the two moaned a bit while holding their heads.

"Oh, my sssinusss!" Kaa moaned before angrily turning to his attacker. "You just made a serious misstake my friend!" he said while turning in on Bagheera, who backed away from the snake with fear. "A very sstupid…"

"Now, now, Kaa!" Bagheera interrupted while backing away from the snake. "These man-cubs are off limits, you have no right to take my friends, Kaa! No right!"

"Issss that ssssso?" Kaa asked, fully focused on the panther.

Both Mowgli and Clarissa got out of the snakes' coils and started to notice Kaa using his spirals to hypnotize Bagheera.

"Why don't you look at me in the eyes while we discuss thisssss?" Kaa asked as Bagheera tried to close his eyes, but got caught up in Kaa's eyes.

"Please, Kaa," Bagheera begged while trying to resist Kaa's hypnotic spirals.

"Both eyes if you pleassssse!" Kaa hissed insistently as his eyes pulsed even more intently at Bagheera.

Mowgli and Clarissa then tried to pick up the snake's coils off the branch, but they were too heavy for them and it was making Clarissa really annoyed.

"You have jussst sssealed your doom," Kaa said before getting ready to strike Bagheera.

But Mowgli and Clarissa then got on their backs and started to shove Kaa's coils off the branch with their feet.

As Kaa lunged towards Bagheera, he felt a strange falling sensation in his lower body. Just as he realized what was going on, the weight of the rest of his body pulled him back from Bagheera, unwinding his body from the many branches, hitting his head and chin several times, uncoiling more branches around before landing back on the jungle floor.

Kaa moaned with pain as he got out of his pile of coils and Clarissa and Mowgli laughed at the snake from above.

"Serves you right, you mean old worm!" Clarissa laughed while pointing at the snake, causing him to give her a glare in response.

Mowgli then ran over to Bagheera, who was still under Kaa's hypnosis.

"Bagheera! Bagheera!" Mowgli said while running over to his friend. "Wake up, Bagheera!"

He slapped his face with his hands, snapping him out of Kaa's hypnotic trance. Bagheera's eyes then went back to normal and looked around with confusion as Kaa began to slither away while giving an angry look up at Mowgli, Clarissa, and Bagheera.

"Jusssst you wait till I get you two in my coilssss!" Kaa shouted to the two man-cubs, but he was suddenly stopped in his tracks. He then turned around and saw that he wasn't moving because his tail had a huge knot in it between two bamboo trees, causing Mowgli and Clarissa to laugh again.

"Look you guys, he's got a knot in his tail!" Mowgli laughed while pointing at Kaa's tail, making the snake annoyed.

"He's got a knot in his tail!" Kaa angrily mocked back to the man-cub.

"You won't be laughing when you're ssssling down my gullet," The snake threatened while trying to free his tail.

As he pulled onto his tail, he finally set it free, but the tail suddenly springed forward into himself and it caused Mowgli and Clarissa to laugh even harder as they pointed at the angry snake.

"You sure about that worm? Looks to me you're not gonna be getting a piece of me or my brother anytime soon!" Clarissa laughed while pointing at Kaa along with Mowgli, who couldn't stop laughing as the snake began to slither out of the jungle with anger.

"Oooh, thisss isss going to ssslow my sssslithering," Kaa said while slithering off and dragging the tangled up coils on the back of his tail.

"Good, cause we never wanna see you ever again!" Clarissa yelled as the snake miserably disappeared in the jungle.

Clarissa and Mowgli then continued to laugh before turning back to Bagheera's surious glare, who was disappointed in the two kids for not being able to look out for themselves in the jungle.

"So, you can look out for yourselves, can you? So, you want to stay in the jungle, do you?" Bagheera asked as Mowgli nodded his head.

"Yes, I wanna stay in the jungle." He responded with Clarissa in agreement.

"Same, I was gonna take care of that mean old snake before he hypnotized me and Mowgli,"

"Oh, is that so?" Bagheera asked, lying back down. "Well, then, Clarissa, when Shere Khan shows up to kill you and Mowgli, I hope you're ready to fight back."

"Oh, I will, I'll be ready for it, right Mowgli?" Clarissa asked her brother.

"Yeah, we'll show him what we've got,"

"Yeah, but still, with Shere Khan around, we shouldn't be taking a whole lot of chances." Clarissa said while giving a good point.

"Your sister has a point, Mowgli, now for the last time, go to sleep!" Bagheera urged as Mowgli lied back annoyed and with his arms crossed.

"And that means you too, Clarissa!" Bagheera said as the girl did the same thing and lied back annoyed.

The two then started to slowly fall asleep as Bagheera did the same.

"Man-cubs, huh…man-cubs, ahhh…" Bagheera muttered before finally falling asleep with the two man-cubs, as tomorrow would be another wild and long day for them.

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