Bagheerette Chapter 3: Introduction (Patreon)

Life is hard in the jungle for anybody. Panther, bear, snake, and monkeys alike have to struggle to get by every day in the wild, dangerous underbrush. When a certain man-cub gets thrown into the mix, however, life becomes even harder for many of those creatures.

“I just don’t get why you always want us to sleep in trees, Baghi.” Mowgli complained as he once again was pushed up a large trunk by his feline protector. He grabbed onto the first branch he could reach, his muscular back flexing as he pulled himself up onto it and sat against the bark and looked down to the panther girl. “It’s not like it’s ever stopped Kaa from getting to us.” He crossed his toned arms over his chest and sighed.

“Kaa isn’t the only thing in the jungle we have to worry about, and some of them can’t climb trees.” Baghi replied shortly as she gracefully scaled the tree on her own. Clawed fingers dug into the hard bark while bare toes gripped the sides of the trunk for safety, her long black tail moving back and forth in fluid swishes with every step upwards. “So,” she continued as she climbed past the human boy to the upper canopy, her dark clothing making her nearly invisible in the shade between the leaves. “do you want to take your chances with the whole jungle, or just the ones who can climb?” 

Baghi was tired of the conversation already, but that was nothing new. Though she felt responsible for Mowgli and his wellbeing, that didn’t mean that she would take kindly to any whining about how she looked after him. She dropped down from the canopy to right in front of the jungle boy, landing in a perched position with her hood down over her eyes. She pulled it up to reveal her amber eyes and silver-gray hair which shone in the moonlight above her sarcastic smile.

“If it makes you feel better, though, I just checked the canopy for monsters. Does that help?” she teased, turning around and laying on her stomach further down the branch from Mowgli. Baghi was not entirely joking. Ever since a few choice encounters with a lamia named Kaa, the panther girl had made a habit of searching the trees she planned to sleep in before actually shutting her eyes.

“I just think there must be a better place to avoid danger than up on a high tree branch where anyone who looks up can see us.” Mowgli rolled his eyes, knowing that it was a waste of time to argue.

“Speaking of which, I think part of why she does this is because bears don’t like sleeping in trees!” called a voice from below. Mowgli’s eyes lit up as he looked down to see Baloo, the bear girl who had saved both him and the supposedly-self-sufficient Bagheerette the last time they had run into Kaa. Baghi’s eyes did not light up the way Mowgli’s did, however. In fact, they shut as her fingers went to the bridge of her nose and she sighed in frustration, her ears twitching on top of her hood.

“It doesn’t matter where bears like to sleep when they aren’t invited.” Baghi called down. “Now, we’re trying to sleep, Baloo, so please leave us alone.”

“Ah, what do you need more sleep for? You take like a dozen naps a day, don’t you?” Baloo leaned back against the tree, crossing one leg over the other and swinging her bag back and forth beside her with one arm. Mowgli laughed a bit to himself, earning a frustrated glare from Baghi.

“Well when you aren’t lazy, you find yourself needing some more energy now and again.”

“Come on, Baghi, you know I’m not lazy. When I want to play rough, I play rough.” Baloo let her bag drop to the ground, and two red boxing gloves fell out of it as she did so. “But when I want to sleep, I want to sleep, not climb or jump around at all.”

“She’s got a point.” Mowgli chided. Baghi didn’t even turn to look at him this time. Her tail sprung up towards his face, paused, then did a lip-zip motion across his mouth before falling back down off the side of the branch where it had been lazily hanging before.

“We’re going to sleep now, Baloo. Up here. That means we’re done talking now.” Baghi laid her head down on her crossed arms, shutting her eyes and hoping that she would finally have some quiet. Of course, Baloo wasn’t interested just yet.

“Okay, fine, Baghi. I’ll be waiting right down here in the morning so I can show the man-cub some fun for a change.” Baloo delivered the last word, then gave a thumbs up to Mowgli. Mowgli returned the gesture, then Baloo slowly slid down to the ground so that her mostly exposed legs were resting on the dirt, her athletic shorts getting slightly dirty as she sat on the jungle floor. She crossed her legs at the ankles, her running shoes resting against each other on her feet as she shut her eyes.

With that, the trio finally fell silent. Within minutes, Bagheerette was softly snoring as she laid on the branch. Baloo followed soon after, her snores much louder even from all the way down on the jungle floor. Mowgli closed his eyes and tried to doze off, but he’d already done so much resting to accommodate Baghi’s napping throughout the day that he just couldn’t do it. Eventually, he opened his eyes and looked out at the moon for a few minutes out of boredom. As he watched it creep ever so slowly across the sky, he heard a faint rustling in the leaves above him.

“Hello?” he said quietly, not sure if he was hearing things. There was no response, but there was more rustling. “Uh…Baghi?” he looked to his panther protector, who was sound asleep still and did not seem to hear his call. More rustling came from above. “Hello?” Mowgli called again, a little louder this time.

“Hi!” a female voice whispered suddenly from beside Mowgli. He turned, startled, just in time for her hand to cover his mouth as he was suddenly lifted off of the branch and into the canopy.