Outcasts [COMPLETE]

New Life

Time past and Mowgli and Zaria grew used to the humans; they ate with them, played games with others their age, even Zaria found herself returning to the hunter every evening. They never did anything, he talked and she listened whilst sitting in his lap, she couldn't bring herself to ask for what she had been craving for so long.

One day, there was a festival and despite their deal, Mowgli spent most of it clinging to Zaria's side and later hanging off her back. He didn't understand love, outside of the family, but somehow he knew what Zaria thought of the hunter and felt pity for Shere-Khan.

"You can Khan are close, why do you deny him?" He asked later when the festivities died down. Zaria forced out a laugh that made the man-cub jump.

"Me denying him?! Ha! That's a laugh!" Her fingers stole to the pearl necklace, wrapping it around one finger before she sighed, running her fingers through her glossy, combed hair. Like Mowgli, she looked something close to civilized. (They made a vow not to call themselves one of them.)

"Well, he must care a little, from what I've heard you're the only one that can be within five feet of him and not be eaten." "Besides that hyena friend of his." "You don't like him?" "Our relationship is...strained, to say the least." Even though he knew what violence was, Zaria felt compelled to shield the gory truth.

Like a mother. She smashed the idea where it stood.

"Do you hate him? Shere-Khan?"

Zaria stopped short; did she hate him? No, not really, but he wasn't just a friend anymore either. So...what was he to her? Could it be possible he was-?

"Mowgli." They both looked up to see a wolf's face peek out from a bush nearby. A smile lit up Mowgli's face as he ran over, Zaria followed, secretly relieved for the distraction.

The wolf, as I turned out, was Mowgli's older brother, he said Shere-Khan arrived several days ago in the wolf lands and was doing...nothing.

"He never goes out to eat, and Tabuqui is nowhere to be found, all he does is sit at the edge of our lands, taunting us but doing nothing. If I didn't know any better I'd say he was acting out of remorse."

Mowgli looked to Zaria; she had frozen stiff, this wasn't a distraction, it was a wake-up call, a reminder she couldn't run from the past and someone was waiting for her. She turned away, biting back tears.

"He'll leave, he always does." But even after she said it all three of them knew it wasn't true, it couldn't have been further from it.