Chapter 14 Epstroping
After Mowgli and Clarissa ran away from Baloo, who was only trying to take the two kids to the man village under Bagheera's orders, Baloo and Bagheera had split up to look for the two kids and hoped to find the two before a certain tiger finds and takes them for himself.
However, that certain tiger, who was known as Shere Khan to all the animals who knew of him, was in another part of the jungle hiding in between the tall rows of grass while eyeing a deer ahead of him.
He was so steady and quiet that the deer was unaware of him and the tiger knew he was going to have a piece of that deer in a matter of seconds.
But just as Shere Khan was about to jump on the deer, marching could be heard in the distance and it ended up scaring the deer away!
Hup, two, three, four,
Keep it up two three four,
Keep it up, two, three, four,
Hup, two three four,
Keep it up, two, three four,
The marching was coming from the Dawn Patrol and the elephants soon marched close by where Shere Khan was hiding, who became annoyed and groaned with disdain at the sight.
"Just wasted my lunch, confounded that ridiculous Colonel Hathi," The tiger said to himself with annoyance.
"Company…sound off!" Colonel Hathi ordered before the elephants began to march and sing:
Oh we march from here to there,
And it doesn't matter where,
You can hear us push,
Through the deepest bush,
Hup, two, three, four,
Hathi: With a military air!
Elephants: With a military air!
The elephants continued to march through the jungle, where Shere Khan was unknowingly watching them.
As the elephants continued to march by while trumpeting their trunks, Bagheera noticed them from on a branch above and knew he could ask them for help to find Mowgli and Clarissa. "The jungle patrol," Bagheera said before jumping off the branch and running after the Dawn Patrol.
We're a crackerjack brigade,
On a pachyderm parade,
But we'd rather scroll through the waterhole,
The elephants marched through the river, where Hathi Jr held onto the last elephant's tail while sliding through the river.
Hathi Jr: Hup, two, three, four!
The baby elephant let go of the elephant's tale and marched back through the water.
Elephants: For a furlough in the shade!
As the elephants finished singing, Bagheera jumped onto a branch that was above them. "Stop! Wait a minute! HALT!" Bagheera shouted at the elephants to stop them, which caused all of them to collide and crash into Colonel Hathi's rear, making him annoyed since he didn't tell them to halt. "
Who said halt? I give the commands around here! Now speak up, who was it?" Hathi asked while looking around for whoever told them to halt, which was Bagheera, who ran over and jumped onto a branch above the elephant leader.
"It was me, Colonel," Bagheera admitted while the elephant leader turned to the panther.
"What do you mean? That comes on highly irregular you know," Colonel Hathi started before Bagheera interrupted him.
"Oh, oh, Colonel, I'm sorry. But I need your help," Bagheera assured the elephant leader while trying not to make him upset.
But it was unknown to the panther or any of the elephants that Shere Khan was hiding in the distance and watched the group while trying to overhear what Bagheera wanted from the elephants. It was unknown to them Shere Khan was listening to them and could hear very well what Bagheera was telling the elephants. "How interesting," Shere Khan said to himself while epstroping the group's conversation.
"The ones I was taking to the man village," Bagheera continued to the colonel.
"Good, that's where they belong," Hathi said with satisfaction, as he didn't like the two man-cubs being in "his" jungle. "And now, if you don't mind, we'd like to get on with the march." Hathi didn't really care about the man-cubs safety and would rather do his job.
"No, no, no. You don't understand. They're lost. They ran away," Bagheera explained to Hathi, trying to make the elephant understand how serious the situation was.
"Delightful," Shere Khan comented to himself while overhearing the conversation in the distance.
"Serves those young whippersnappers right, especially that female one," Hathi said, believing Mowgli and Clarissa deserved to be lost in the jungle.
"But Shere Khan the tiger…." Bagheera began as the tiger himself overheard his own name, making the conversation even more interesting for him.
"Yeah, not so small kids, Shere Khan…" Hathi began while Shere Khan gave a devious smile to himself in the distance. "Oh, sorry. Bigger fortunes of war, all that sort of thing you know? Alrigh." Hathi didn't want to help the two kids and would rather get on with his job.
However, just as he was talking to Bagheera, Winifred, his wife, and son Hathi Jr started to walk towards the front of the line, as both were annoyed that Hathi wouldn't do anything about the man-cubs being lost in the jungle and therefore had to speak up to him about it.
"Now just a minute you pompous old windbag!" Winifred said while standing up to her husband.
"Winifred! What are you doing out of ranks?" Hathi asked with annoyance.
"Never mind. How would you like it if our boy was lost alone in the jungle?" Winifred asked, wondering how Hathi would feel if his son was lost alone in the jungle just like Mowgli and Clarissa were.
"Our son? But Winifred, old girl, that's an entirely different matter." Hathi protested after looking over to his son, who gave a worried expression while standing in between the feet of elephants.
"Oh, different?" Winifred asked, trying to reason with Hathi.
"Entirely, that's what." Hathi protested while defending his idea.
"Those kids are no different than our own son. Now, you help find them or I'm taking over commands." Winifred said, making Hathi shocked and disgusted.
"What?! A female leading my herd? Utterly preposterous!" Hathi said with disgust, not wanting a female elephant like Winifred taking over his commands.
"Pop, the man-cubs and I are friends, they'll get hurt if we don't find them. Please, pop, sir, please?" Hathi Jr begged while trying to defend his human friends, making Hathi calm down a bit.
"Oh, don't you worry son. Your old father had a plan in mind all this time," Hathi assured his son before walking away and back over to the other elephants.
"Yeah, sure you did," Winifred teased her husband with a smirk, causing Hathi to turn back around and give her a glare.
He then walked back over to his army of elephants and ordered them all to get back in position. "Company…left face!" Colonel Hathi ordered as all the elephants did what was told. "Volunteers for a special mission will step one base forward." Hathi waited for volunteers to step to the front.
But all the elephants stepped to the back except for the one chewing grass, who immediately stepped back after seeing the others do so, as none of them wanted to volunteer!
Hathi then turned around to see the elephants all standing back together and smiled with satisfaction since he believed they all wanted to volunteer. "Ah, that's what I like to see, devotion to duty."
The elephants' expressions all turned to stern looks, as none of them were ready for whatever Hathi had planned for him.
"Now, you volunteers will find the lost man-cubs," Hathi said to his elephants.
Bagheera was relieved the elephants were finally going to help him. "Thank you, Colonel. Now there's no time to lose," Bagheera said before jumping off the branch and running into another direction to find the two lost man-cubs.
"Your welcome. When the man cub is sighted, you will sound your trumpet three times," Hathi said to one of his elephants, who was ready to blow his trunk.
"Yes, sir!" The elephant said before trying to blow his trunk like a trumpet.
But Hathi stopped him by pulling on his trunk. "Shh! Not now, soldier!" Hathi said while pulling on the elephant's trunk to shush him.
"Sorry, sir," the elephant said in a high voice due to his trunk being held by Hathi, in which he let go of to turn to the next elephant.
"Lieutenant, your strategy, shall be the element of surprise. You will take what squad…" Hathi began before whispering the rest into the elephant's ear, in which Shere Khan was still able to hear what they were saying in the distance.
"Yes, sir," The elephant said in response before Hathi turned to the next elephants, where he continued to whisper something into all their ears.
Shere Khan still continued to listen to what the leader was saying despite him whispering and after he was done, Hathi went back to talking normally.
"Well, COMPANY!" Hathi shouted so loud that it caused the elephants to shake with startlement along with Shere Khan, who could even hear how loud the colonel was.
"Forward…march!" Hathi shouted before he and the rest of the elephants began to march forward and into another part of the jungle, where they all knocked down trees while being in the process of looking for Mowgli and Clarissa.
But they weren't going to be the only ones looking for them, as Shere Khan had overheard everything they said!
"Element of surprise?" The tiger said before giving a devious laugh to himself. "And now for my rendezvous with the lost man-cubs."
Shere Khan left his part of the jungle to look for the two lost man-cubs before anybody else could.
I dunno how good this chapter is, so please review or give me feedback so I can continue this story.