Chapter 1: Introductions During the monsoons, a human child was taken from his parents by the tiger Shere Khan when he was just a tiny baby.Chapter 1: Introductions During the monsoons, a human child was taken from his parents by the tiger Shere Khan when he was just a tiny baby. The wolves, lead by their pack leader, Akela, saved the man-cub and brought him to the pack. Akela asked the jungle animals who would come forth and offer a payment of homage to spare the life of the young man-cub. Bagheera, the panther and Baloo the bear spoke for the man-cub and offered kills and free passage for his life. The pack leader accepted these gifts and took the man-cub into the pack as one of their own and gave him the name "Mowgli". Mowgli was raised as one of the wolves and the new cubs came to think of him as just another wolf, albeit an odd looking one, and his scent was added to the scent of wolves of the pack. Mowgli, not recalling anything of his human parents, accepted the wolves as his brethren and tried his best to live up to the needs of the pack. Since he was not a wolf, he couldn't run as fast, leap as far or bite as hard as his wolf-brothers, but he ran hard and didn't tire easily. He could do things they could not: he could climb trees, pick things up in his paws and change them in subtle ways. He could build things and he seemed much more clever when it came to finding or seeing things hidden. As he grew older, the pack came to rely on him for solutions to complex problems which were above the rest of them and most knew than in time, Mowgli would become the pack leader. He had developed a special bond with Lala, a beautiful red furred wolf. Her father had been beaten in the competition for pack leader when Akela had taken the position. She had blamed Akela for her father's departure from the pack and passed that blame to Mowgli when he became the favourite of Akela. She had made his life miserable until one day when he had saved her from Shere Khan using a throwing stick he'd invented. Lala was surprised because she'd been certain that he hated her. They spent the night walking through the jungle, talking, and she realised that he had never held any ill feelings against her. They became close friends and travelled together all the time. When the pack slept, she would always lie touching Mowgli. Mowgli's closest friend was Alexander, a large gray and black male wolf who was the son of Akela. |